I was reading a blog the other day that had some really cool questions for authors/writers, and it gave me this thread idea.

Here you can ask and answer other authors questions - they can be sensible or absolutely crazy!

So here's my first question:

Do any of you guys have strange writing habits? (Like writing in the middle of the night/at certain times; waking up from a dream and just having to write the whole memory down, as it gave you an awesome plot idea and so on)

My second question is:

Is there a specific author who inspired you to begin writing, and why did they in particular speak to you?

Strange writing habits? Me? Now why would you think such a thing? Well, I collect names and randomly exclaim "That word would be a perfect name!" I also exclaim about random sounds that describe an action better than a real word does... Hmm... Nope, that's about it. Seriously, I'm a normaaaal person.

An author that inspired me? I can't think of one right off. Writing came kind of natural to me from a very young age (although spelling certainly did not!). It just seemed like a normal thing for me to write stories. JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis did inspire much of my interest in Fantasy, though. My first 'big' novels were built around long journeys and quests. *Chuckles*

Strange writing habits? * thinks * I leave words lying around... I wrote poetry on a handful of tracts I had in my bag because I'd forgotten my notebook once, and when I'm testing a pen in a store to see how well it writes on one of the pads they have sitting there for you, I write things instead of scribbling – scraps of scripture, flotsam and jetsam from my thoughts at the moment, random couplets. Things like that.

Author that inspired me... I think I'll leave that question. * grins * There are too many.

What's your favorite color to use in your books? Or your current book, if it's different for different ones? Does anyone even have that, or anything like that?

Strange writing habits? Sorry couldn't help myself. XD One is I write exactly for six hours, usually all the way to midnight.

The author that 'pushed' me to write is Christopher Paolini. Strange to say, but I loved Lewis and Tolkien, and always thought nothing could be compared to their stories. Once I wrote a synopsis of what happened (a very badly written one I'm afraid) in Inheritance, I began my story. And it leads me to a question.

Was there anything (a phrase, a quote, a picture, etc.) that inspired you to write [aside from an author]? I'll answer mine after a few posts...

What type of colors do you mean Rwebhu? The letters?

Well, I would have to say that my strangest writing habits come in the form of the experimental writing I like to do. For example, I once sent the same fictional FB message as a fictional character to a bunch of my friends who I knew liked to write and asked them to reply as another fictional character. Now I have a bunch of the "letters" back and forth that in a round about way created these very interesting and very different worlds, genres, and stories. It eventually got out of hand, but it was so much fun.

Another strange experiment I have yet to complete was a hand written journal I started. I wrote it as if I were being held captive in an alien zoo. I would half talk about what was going on in my exhibit and half recall the story that got me there. I still really want to finish it because it was so spontaneous and there was no way I could go back to change any detail since it was hand written. Very interesting exercise.


I love to describe colors in my stories through similes. So I often want to attribute a color to a specific feeling. However, when I'm writing screenplays, I can't really do that. So I find myself just stating the color for what it is. I don't usually have any particular colors I use more than others except maybe silver since I love that color for mythical swords and the like.
If you don't have color themes for your books, then you need to think about adding some in. There are a bunch of articles on color theory that can help you decide what sort of themes to have for certain characters and the like. It is another great layer you can add to your story.


Actually, I was first inspired to write after I was inspired by the map of Middle Earth. I didn't even read the books before I started drawing my own maps and imagining what sort of fantastical things might inhabit these worlds. That was really how I got started writing for fun in middle school.

Now for my question...
What Point of View do you find yourself writing from most often? Do you take an omniscient POV or something more intimate?
(I'm not talking about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person; that is a wholly different question).
I struggle with the omniscient POV because I feel like I can't get the same since of mystery as when I follow one particular character. In other words, the reader only knows as much as one of the character they are following. However, I find I get sick of following one character for very long and find it hard to switch to another character's frame of reference.

...No. Actually, I never draw source material from my dreams, because half the time I don't remember them, and the other half there's never anything good to use.



No.



I'm confused. What do you mean? Do you mean the color you reference/use most in the story?



A lot of the time, I think I use omniscient POV, but then I find myself info-dumping for some reason. That's weird. But anyway...

Question. Question. Oh, I got one:

Does anyone else have trouble coming up with questions to ask for this thread?

*fist bump*

I meant something like color themes, if that makes any sense. I think it's more common in short stories. But like, a strong color theme in the book I'm writing at the moment is a yellow-gold-copper that is attached to 'outside-ness' as opposed to the restricted setting that the MC is in most of the time. Scenes where he is interacting with the 'outside' often have some of that color in it, people associated with the outside often have some of that color associated with them, and even when people are thinking or talking about the 'outside' the color sometimes comes up in some way. And the MC has a bit of a pale pink theme, that comes up when he's not afraid, when he's a bit happy or some such thing. Those are the two colors that I would say are 'my colors for this novel'. There are other colors in the story too, of course, and maybe other common ones too (dark blue comes up fairly often), but those are significant ones. Did that make any sense?

I pace around my room and talk aloud when plotting or brainstorming--pretending that one of my writer friends is there and listening attentively to the whole thing. XD

I brainstorm in the shower. (Who doesn't?)

I almost always sit cross-legged on my bed with my laptop when writing.

When I have a problem I scribble indecipherable shorthand on sticky notes and paste them all over my room until I figure it out or scrap the idea.




Well, two of my first novel ideas (and my first finished novel aside from NaNos) were basically fanfictions of Patrick Carman's Land of Elyon books, so I guess he inspired me in that regard. Of course Lewis--I hadn't read Tolkien yet. Brian Jacques. And, back when I first started writing and all my interests and ideas were different, I wrote a lot of animal/horse stories. So Walter Farley was a big thing.

Yeah, I think I understand, and no, I haven't done that.

I've seen some novels written like this actually. The first that come to mind are "Legend", by Marie Lu (a pretty good sci-fi) which uses a slate silver color for one character and alternates with yellow/gold for the second main character. And then anything by Wayne Thomas Batson. XD



Ooh, ooh! Question! ^ Along the same lines: Do any of you use different fonts/colors/highlighting for editing? I don't, at least not currently, but a friend told me she changes it to blue whenever she edits something, so she can always tell what's been edited--and also keeps her from re-editing before she's edited the whole thing. I love this idea and am curious about any thoughts you have on it or things like it.

I use the "track changes" function in Microsoft Word. That will change the colors of the things you edit. I've found it to be very helpful. I find that it is important to save a new draft before I do any edits though. This helps me see what is changing from draft to draft. Something like:
"Draft one"
"Draft one w/ edits"
Accepting the edits gives me "Draft two"
And so on

I use a standard version-control system (originally RCS, then briefly Subversion, now Mercurial) to keep track of my changes. I have enough of neither patience nor (until recently) disk space to spare to use a full-blown "word processor" to manage my drafts, when a text editor, text files, and a dedicated VCS will do just fine.

Yeah, I've been having separate files for drafts, but it just gets so messy. (I have on story that has a folder for all the drafts because I have different chapters all in different files, trying to work them out. Then again, that entire story is just a mess..) XD I'll have to try the 'track changes' option, sounds like it could be helpful.

Yes, definitely. All of my stories began as dreams at one point. Most of them then combined dreams and grew until they don't resemble the dream anymore, but a few are still close to the dreams. Several of my poems were written right after waking up from a dream-actually, after waking up from a nightmare; and one poem I actually wrote in my sleep and was-thankfully-able to remember it when I woke up. Actually, in reference to the dreams, I keep a notebook by my bed; and, whenever I wake up, I write down whatever dreams I remember. Some make asolutely no sense anymore (I woke up and made pancakes for everyone and we ate them) and some have inspired some of my favorite characters and scenes.

Warning for htis idea though: don't let your family(brothers/siblings/parents/anyone who will make fun of you) read it. It's kind of like a diary. Or I've found it is...

I also tend to collect words and names from anywhere and anything for my stories as I'm rubbish at thinking of them on my own. For descriiptions, I often find pictures of places/people/clothes online and use them to describe things.

I usually listen to music while writing-although, not songs with words. Those distract me.

A lot of my stories are also often based in legends and myths. I always loved the subject.

Specific times? I get up at four in the morning and write until seven, when I eat breakfest and start school and my (official) day.




C.S. Lewis. Definitely. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was the first book I read of my own free will at age seven, and I fell in love with reading then and there. Shortly after watching the movie, I tried my hand at writing a story that (disturbingly, but not that surprisingly) was about four children who go into a closet into a world that's always winter...etc. And it wasn't even an intentional copy!!!

I stopped writing for a few years, until I tried my hand at poetry and won first place in a nationwide magazine. Reading Lewis and Tolkien, I saw that one can use legends and myths, and write stories that are wholesome-and thus my muse was born.

So, yeah. Lewis for just writing in general, and Tolkien for my favored genre.



Dark. Often wine red and blue, but I also use silver and white. But I use a lot of dark colors. Rich colors.



Third person. Always. I find first person too limitating and second person too weird.

I did write a story in second person once (it's over in the Historical Forum in the short stories under the name 'The Thief comes'), but that was from a very vivid dream/nightmare.

I've got a question. Does anyone else find themselves reusing a character's personalitly over and over again because you like it? Even though you find that redundant and keep trying to stop...

And does anyone else mangle languages on Google Translate to create names?