I'm a world builder more than anything else - I can't help myself from world building, but I can go for months without writing anything.

In what part of the world do you live exactly ? And what are your favourite themes to draw upon when you write ?

Who are your favorite authors? And what kind of music do you like?

Oh, another major world builder!

Sounds just like me.

And then there's a convoluted subplot involving a character who has acquired quite a mind of his own...he started out as a friendly, helpful young man that I wasn't even sure I would include, and now he's turned out to be over-ambitious, a little deceptive, involved with some of the most dangerous aspects of local politics, slightly creepy, tremendously devout, and a little crazy. I love him.

Weeeellllllllcome, sheesania! So glad you found us again! I hope you enjoy yourself--because... you can never leave, so...*shrugs* *bestows a frilled lizard wearing a fez*

So it isn't just me who has that happen!! Wooo!!

What do you like to knit?

It's called And Then We Can Finish the Story, and my basic idea with it was to have a story with three accounts of the same events, showing how you could look at one thing in many different ways. The main character (and narrator) is trying to deal with some things in his past, and being a logical, orderly, academic type, he decides to do it by figuring out what really happened based on those accounts.

I recently read a book by G. K. Chesterton, too, that made me want to immediately go and read something else by him...

Oh yay! I joined this forum more for the world-building than the fantasy writing, though I do hope to do more fantasy writing myself. What are your worlds like? Do you have multiple ones or do you mainly stick with one? Or am I supposed to ask such questions in private messages...?

I've checked out your site, a little bit, and.... o.o You need a badge that says 'professional world builder' to pin on you. Yes.

Favorite authors...man. I don't really know. I love Brandon Sanderson as an author but I haven't really read that many of his books - just his rather obscure Alcatraz series, and Steelheart because it was the only Sanderson ebook my library had - so it's probably a bad idea to go around saying he's my favorite author. I also enjoy most of what Andrew Clements writes, and Lemony Snicket is good too. And there's C. S. Lewis, naturally, though I need to hunt down more of his nonfiction. I recently read a book by G. K. Chesterton, too, that made me want to immediately go and read something else by him...and then I also like Charles Dickens. I generally have trouble picking favorites...

I almost never listen to music, actually. I enjoy classical music but I'm not that knowledgeable in it and I don't really listen to it on my own. My sister and I like dancing to the soundtracks of the Super Mario Galaxy games and Super Paper Mario, though... But I really enjoy playing music - I've only been studying music seriously for about a year, and I love it. The only problem is that I can't keep myself from writing music even when I don't have the skills to do it. Three-instrument song in sonata form when I've never studied anything beyond basic chord structure? Sure! But I'm nuts like that.

I second this.

That sounds fascinating. I love stories like that. How far are you on it?

Which one was it? Chesterton is one of my favorite authors, and I snagged practically everything he wrote a little while ago, though I haven't finished reading it all yet.

I need to read Sanderson! Lewis is one of my favorites, and I also enjoy Chesterton.

What instrument do you play?

His Alcatraz series is completely brilliant IF you go for talkative narrators and a large dose of silliness...and you don't mind the fact that the fifth and final book may never be written, which is truly tragic. Steelheart was okay - the writing, plotting, etc. was pretty good, not amazing, but it just wasn't my thing. It will probably improve with later books, though - Alcatraz certainly did. By the way, he has one of his standalone books, Warbreaker, available on his website for free: http://brandonsanderson.com/books/warbreaker/warbreaker/ I haven't read it yet (I'm saving it!) but it got good reviews. In general he's very good at plotting (particularly endings), developing magic systems, and messing with old plot devices. He definitely has down how to write a good story...I just wish sometimes that he'd use his stories more to develop ideas, make points...

I play piano most seriously, but I also play pennywhistle (not really in an Irish style, though) and survival guitar, e.g. just how to play chords so you can lead worship decently. Someday I may want to learn a normal orchestral instrument, though. Do you play an instrument?

You could make me one, though, if you started paying me.

But I need to go back and rethink some stuff before I continue...my narrator is, at the moment, a bit too...angsty. I also need to figure out how exactly I can show instead of telling when it's his journal, and generally in a journal you'd write, "I feel sad," not write a long description of an event that shows you're sad. But I do hope to continue.

It was The Man Who Was Thursday.

I have a copy of Orthodoxy on my Kindle which I'm hoping to read soon...have you read that?

In particular, Chesteron's love of paradox really, really, really appeals to me...throughout my life I've gotten used to seeing very different things, being very different things, and enjoying their difference, so it really resonates with me.

Mhm, I see what you mean... I'm always impressed when someone can be subtle about emotions even in story-aware first-person. I think a lot of it ends up being what they don't say. And the things they do, too. Wislawa's poem 'Identification' is very much... good. Doing that kind of thing.

How much of a word count do you have?

YES. I hoped it was that one. I grew up on Chesterton, kind of, reading his 'Father Brown' stories, but it wasn't until I came across 'The Man Who Was Thursday' that I suddenly realized I needed to dig into his work more. Not that that was the only thing I got from that book. I know exactly what you mean about the twists.. and the universe turning upside down.. and understanding things. Especially the end, and Sunday. It's a wild book.... It's one of my favorite books.

I've been reading his book about what he saw in America, first – it's fascinating seeing what an Englishman – and an Englishman like him – thought about America. I loved his talking about hotels and inns, and about the advertising in New York. Of course, he wrote it a long time ago, so it's not the same now, but... still. 'Orthodoxy' is next on my list.

Yes. Exactly. It's like everything he says is a story twist, almost. Somehow it makes the things he talks about so clear for me.

I play guitar. I like to write songs with it.

Awesome! Writing songs is one of my favorite parts of music. What sorts of songs do you write? Instrumental, or with words? What genres? I've been known to write worship songs, but these days my songs are generally instrumental pieces meant to tell or illustrate stories.

However, I had the idea to redo the story as letters - he's still writing a journal, but he's writing it as letters to somebody. This would give him a reason to be a bit more restrained. The person he's writing to would also be from another country, so I could explain some more things about the world, and she would be an important character in the past events...so as his opinion of the events and her role in them changes, his tone in his letters to her could change interestingly too. Maybe I could even have a neat twist near the end or so where he stops writing to her and is writing to somebody else instead...Actually, I really like that! *looks furiously for writing notebook*

I've been known to write worship songs, but these days my songs are generally instrumental pieces meant to tell or illustrate stories.

Your own stories?

Jonathan, your songwriting sounds neat! It's always nice to be involved with a variety of genres.

Erm, kind of. My variation on stories I've been reading, generally. So after reading A Series of Unfortunate Events I wrote something that I like to think is about losing your innocence and being overwhelmed by the evil in the world. Happy stuff. And then after reading another book in which there's a background conflict between the protagonist's parents, I wrote something that's kind of about a couple fighting when there's something much more sinister than they should be worrying about. So I suppose that's a way I can respond to a book while still creating something entirely new...

I have played the piano as well, but although I passed my grade 5, I haven't kept up with it properly. I always found reading music hard, so reading music takes a lot longer than it used to! I also have a flute that my parents bought me, that I have never played. I would love to one day, but I have no idea when/if ever I will have the time to do so.

Those are pretty, Alison. I especially enjoyed "an experimentation with chords in D."