Question me

[louiselux]

I'm in a navel gazing sort of mood and would like to talk about writing. Does anyone have any questions about any of my stories, or would be interested in a fic commentary? Or maybe a question about my writing techniques, such as they are?

Please feel free to ask anything - I'll try and answer as best I can.

Comments

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

*pounces on the opportunity!*

Can I go right back to basics?

I don't know how to write; GCSE English was pretty basic really. And I have all these ideas in my head, backing up like a blocked toilet, and no idea how to do them justice! "Just write" doesn't help, because it feels like being told "just draw" - and results ar so much better when you know the general rules for sketching and composition and detail.

So. How do *you* go about turning an idea into a story? Whatever you do works beautifully well :) What's the framework you use? Do you have an idea of what goes into each part before you start, or just a vague outline in ur hed, makin u cakl?

Or, in a less egocentric frame of mind, what sets the tone of a story? Do you decide ahead of writing that, for example Ne me quitte pas is going to be really, *really* intense and the-good-sort-of-painful, or was that an effect of the subject matter? Does humour insert itself regardless of your plans?

< / nosey > (for now...)

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Your stories include sexual elements quite often, and they're all awesome and unique. How do you go tackle the issue of sex in your fiction, and keep things fresh both for yourself and your readers?

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

I'd be really interested in your thoughts about co-writing with someone. I found Cupidity to be seamless - did you find that your style and emungere's matched easily, or did there have to be a lot of editing?

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to try writing with someone but fear the anal control freak in me won't let that happen (and likely destroy a good friendship in the process). So, my question is....

When you co-write, do you set out some ground rules (like not walking on each others proverbial grass) or do you have a lot of back and forth kind of thing like say in an IM convo?

In addition, do you beta each other's pieces when you co-write or send it all out to someone else for that?

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated by the whole co-writer process as well. You and Emungere have a superb relationship. It's a pleasure to read your work. How do you keep from stumbling over each other?

[chomiji]

Are there any Saiyuki AU scenarios (or crossovers - especially with other media, like conventional SF or fantasy) that you'd really love to write, but they're just such crack that you're afraid no one would really be interested?

[mendax.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I'd love it if you'd talk a bit about Over the Moon!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

What was the inspiration for Bat!Sanzo, and how did you translate it into a story?

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

The inspiration was a fairly random idea, I think, which was how good Hakkai would be as Alfred, the hugely capable and slightly alarming butler, and then the rest if it grew in a very organic way, partly guided by my desire to have Gojyo as catwoman. Catman. Goku would be cute as Sanzo's ward.

I never really intended to write more than the first part, but the story grew on me and I thought Goku and Nat were cute and also interesting together. I spent quite a lot of time thinking of plot after the first part, and how I could drag it from being a pwp to something with more depth. I hope it managed it.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to. I'll probably put it in its own post tomorrow.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

YES. Oh, so many. It's funny you ask this because it's something I fret about on a regular basis, eg, if I write some out and out crack will people just look at me askance and move on? Did you ask because you have the same worry? I'm interested.

Since watching Bionic Woman I have a yen for writing a Saiyuki AU. And there is the Barbarella one too that I would love to write.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Goku finds a remarkable number of ways to be cute.

You did for me!

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I approve of both of these ideas. In case you were wondering.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :D

I showed emungere this question and she puts it down to sparkly magic.

Sparkly magic is actually a good way of thinking about it though. It's hard to say how we keep the joint writing process smooth, but it's a combination of practice, very frequent communication and both of us having similar styles and approaches to writing already. I think if we had vastly different styles it might not work.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Ahaha! EXCELLENT.

[emungere.livejournal.com]

"Will you write me Jenny/Rose" doesn't count as a writing question, does it? Hmmm.

Do you have an editing process, like, a system or something? And if so, what does it involve?

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I think finding a good writing partner depends partly on luck. Before I met emungere I only knew her as someone I distantly fangirled and then we talked, and wrote something short, and kept on writing.

We write a lot of random ideas in IM, passing them back and forth, and that is really a good low pressure way to start writing with someone.

We don't set any ground rules, but that's probably because we talk often on IM, so anything that crops up in the writing is discussed straight away. We plot in IM, but also we feel quite free to introduce new ideas and events. I think the good communication is a big part of the writing working so well.

We've been betaing each others sections, but also getting others to read it too. I think it's probably best to get at least one outside view.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Good questions! I'll answer this tomorrow when I can spend some proper time on it.

[chomiji]

Well, no, not really - I haven't come up with anything like that myself except for same teensy cracky bits of Gojyo encountering Sanada Yukimura from Samurai Deeper Kyo, which I do fear would lose me both sets of fans! I think they're more a way of feeling out what's the same and what's different about two of my very favorite characters. Part of my problem, too, is that a lot of the other things I like are pretty obscure (a friend and I were once talking through a bit of an SDK-C.J. Cherryh crossover, for example).

I just have really enjoyed your AUs and crossovers, even when I didn't know the other half of the scenario well, and was wondering what wondrous things might be bubbling on the back burner ... and hoping that they wouldn't stay there permanently!

[chomiji]

I think I've quite used up my question ... but in case not: Did Hans Christian Anderson's "Snow Queen" play any part in the background of "Cupidity"? Because I kept finding bits of it in your story ... .

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, C.J. Cherryh! Alas, I don't know Samurai Deeper Kyo.

[thewriter0.livejournal.com]

I always wonder of other people who write fanfic: how much editing do you do? How much do you think a fic requires before you're comfortable posting it? Do you always have something beta'd before you put it up?

I don't have a beta reader, and my editing is often disturbingly minimal, so I always wonder if I'm Doing It Wrong by just sort of slapping my fics up as soon as I feel like they're done. o.o

[thewriter0.livejournal.com]

I too approve of these ideas. ♥ There can never be enough Saiyuki AU. >.>

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

I too have crackfic!shame, and feel sure everyone will defriend me if I wrote and posted some of the REALLY odd stuff in my brain . . .

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Heee! Odder even than the Evil Overlord? You can't say that and then not tell us what the really odd stuff is.

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

He is one of the odder inhabitants of my brain (and I do have fic!shame when I post Schwarzkinder drabbles), but still . . . I'm sort of alarmed that not only do I have mpreg-by-pollen but must now also have the result thereof. and that that makes sense, in my mind.

[chomiji]

Shounen swords-and-sorcery manga, with a good dollop of Weird Science (esp. genetics) in the latter half (the "Mibu Arc"). Tied with Saiyuki for first place in my manga affections. I keep thinking that a couple of the villains in the Mibu section ought to meet Ariane Emory I from Cyteen. Interesting things could ensue. See here for a little more about SDK, including some links to samples of the artwork.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

et voila!

http://louiselux.livejournal.com/448299.html

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Hi! Sorry, I seem to have lost track of this thread at some point. I think if you want to do a cross over from something obscure, you should go ahead and do it, because there will always be someone who is thrilled to bits by it. I don't know SDK, but the chance of seeing Gojyo interact in a crossovery way with other characters makes me very very happy.

Things bubbling away on the back burner - just too many things. I'd love to write something about the real Vlad the Impaler. I just sat down last week and wrote 15k words where Hakkai is a hairdresser and Gojyo is a trucker with an enormous beard. I just daren't post it because it is so random. I am pretty much consumed all the time with ideas for stories. And porn.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I might do anyway, because you asked so nice!!

Did I talk to you about my editing process already? Because I'd quite like to write something down about it, in more detail. Would that still be useful?

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting question. At first thought, the answer would be no. But thinking about it, perhaps there is. The Snow Queen was a very important part of my childhood mental landscape, partly because I had a book with beautiful illustrations and partly because the idea of Kay and Gerda's life in the city, the troll mirror, the strange life of the snow queen and the eventual escape appealed to my sense of drama and adventure and romance.

Tell me the bits you've found, please! If you can still remember, that it. :D

I haven't asked Eleanor about this though - maybe it was all me.

[chomiji]

smillaraaq got me thinking about Gojyo and Hakkai interacting with the boys from Poppy Z. Brite's Drawing Blood the other day. And I did a tiny snippet for vom_marlowe on my regular account back a couple of months ago, Gojyo with Yuuko from xxxHolic. (A couple of other people asked for Saiyuki characters on that little outing, but crossed with SDK characters because they know those are my 2 favorite series: Hazel and SDK's tough little girl bounty hunter, Yuya, and Sanzo and my favorite SDK character, bon vivant rebel opposition leader Yukimura.)

I can easily see Gojyo as a trucker, but I dunno about the beard! I can see that a hairdresser would really want to do something about that beard ... . I was tinkering with something where he was originally from a very tacky tourist trap town in Tennesee - Gatlinburg - and was part Cherokee, and ended up with Hakkai when they were both posted to Afghanistan.

[chomiji]

Hrrrm, I think I'll have to re-read Cupidity to give you a real answer (OMG, teh hardship!), but it was mainly just mapping the main characters and the tug-of-war for Robin between Angel and the Queen: Robin = Kay, Angel = Gerda, the Queen = the Snow Queen. I was definitely hoping that Angel would run into Sanzo and Goku as the cruel little Robber Girl and her long-suffering Reindeer ... . Robin's eventual shedding - under Angel's passionate determination - of the cruel indifference that the Queen had forced on him did definitely remind me of Gerda's melting of the shard of the troll mirror in Kay's heart with her tears.

(Have you read Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock, which is on a similar theme, the tug of war between a mortal girl and the Faerie Queen for the heart and soul of a mortal musician? Very rich and full of mythologic correspondences - much stronger as a piece of literature and more adult than just about anything else DWJ has done.)