This is long by the standards of this blog. Blame Sally
What's the last thing you wrote?
Apart from blog entries, a short piece (officially a story, but more of an episode) in response to flash prompts –on Writers’ Dock.
Was it any good?
It began ok, but I wasn’t impressed with the ending.
What's the first thing you ever wrote that you still have?
A poem I wrote when I was 10, which went in the school mag. (I peaked early.) But when I say, I have it, I remembered the first verse, and wrote a second one later.
Write poetry?
I’ve written a lot in the past three years or so, not so much very recently.
Angsty poetry?
Not usually. Yes, when I was younger, but now I tend to be more detached.
Favourite genre of writing?
Poetry, or short pieces – I really enjoyed filling in the details in real stories from my family history, fictionalising them.
Most fun character you ever wrote?
Most annoying character you ever wrote?
Best plot you ever wrote?
I started one which I loved, but couldn’t work out how to tie the ends together. Still lying fallow.
Coolest plot twist you ever wrote?
I wish – plots are my weakness.
How often do you get Writers block?
I call it bone-idleness, does that count?
Write fan fiction?
No.
Do you type or write by hand?
I tend to type because it gives me a bit of distance from whatever I’m writing.
Do you save everything you write?
Pretty well, but can I always find it?
Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
Yes, if I’ve been looking through old notes.
What's your favourite thing that you've written?
Either the unfinished story I’ve mentioned, or some of the family stuff.
What's everyone else's favourite thing that you've written?
No idea.
Do you even show people your work?
Quite a lot goes on the WD website.
Did you ever write a novel?
No, though I did do 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo 2006, but it wasn’t a proper novel with a plot and so on.
Ever written romance or teen angsty drama?
No.
How many writing projects are you working on right now?
I have several unfinished projects.
Do you want to write for a living?
Dream on..
Have you ever won an award for your writing?
No
Ever written something in script or play format?
No
Do you ever write based on yourself?
I constantly include bits of myself.
What character that you've written most resembles yourself?
Er..
Where do you get ideas for your other characters?
People I meet, or read about, or hear about.
Do you ever write based on your dreams?
Not often – my dreams, when I remember them, don’t have a strong narrative.
Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
That depends on what grows from the story.
Have you ever written based on an artwork you've seen?
No.
Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?
I don’t find it a big problem. I’ll pick things up on a read-through.
Ever write something entirely in chatspeak? (How r u?)
only the odd txt wiv dificulti.
Entirely in L337?
What?
Was that question completely appalling and un-writer like?
Is anything?
Does music help you write?
I rarely listen to music except when driving. I’ve written a few poems based on the tunes of songs, and the rhythms.
Quote something you've written. The first thing to pop into your mind.
Well, I don’t think anything ‘popped into my mind’, but I found this one from 2005. We stopped for a picnic lunch at Dartmeet in Devon, and there was a man playing Border pipes. Just practising, for himself. It’s much more other-worldly than most stuff I write.
Twenty-first Century Minstrel
The river runs through beds of ancient boulders
dark brown and clear, down to its deepest pool.
The sunlight streams green-leaved and sylvan cool,
reveals a bridge of stone from days as old as
Celtic myth, when fairy music cold as
ice-bound water, charmed some mortal fool.
Entrancing sounds defying every rule
seduced all care, then life from weary shoulders.
But now I hear an air from times long past
insistent, calm, commanding, come my way.
A minstrel by the water's edge today
with English border pipes begins to play
melodic notes, entwined to weave a vast
enchanted canopy. His spell is cast.
6 comments:
Ali, that poem is beautiful! I could see the scene as you described it.
Thanks for doing the meme! I know they're a pain sometimes but they are great for finding out more about someone. I think I might have missed some questions out of mine, having re-read Cally's yesterday, but at least it cut it down a little bit ;-)
Thanks for reading - if you'd missed some questions off, so much the better...
I must go and have a look at the answers other people gave. Anyway it made me think a little. :-)
Hi Alison, thank you for the lovely comment on my blog!
Have really enjoyed reading your answers to this.
" ... filling in the details in real stories from my family history ..." What a fab idea! I struggle with the inspiration and imagination needed to write fiction, but my Mum has traced the family back quite far, I bet there are bits missing, and maybe they will inspire me! (So hope you won't mind if I pinch your idea? More blogging etiquette!)
I loved your answer to "Was that questions completely appalling and un-writer like?"
And 'Twenty-first Century Minstrel' is beautiful!
Your blog is great, I look forward to reading more. Keep writing, keep loving it! :o)
Thanks for your comments, moondreamer.
As for pinching the idea - I'm sure your family's stories will be different from mine, and even if they weren't, each version would be individual. We each tell our own story, and I've realised the people I talk about are not exactly the same as those other people talk about, though they might share the same body.
That sounds a bit pretentious/weird/almost sci-fi(Delete as appropriate).
What I mean is - yes, do it.
Thank you, I will do!
(Am looking forward to it!)
I have been reading Robert Winston's book, The Human Mind, for a couple of days, and he talks about the differences in the brain causing differences in character, and he quotes from Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters:
My drama lies entirely in this one thing. In my being conscious that each of us believes himself to be a single person. But each of us is many, many people - according to all the possibilities of being that are within us. For with some people we are one person, and with others we are somebody entirely different. But we always have the illusion of being one and the same person with everyone we meet. But it's not true. It's not true.
It made me think of what you said about people!
:o)
I shall have to educate myself and read Robert Winston.
Now that Pirandello quote is scary, but surely the one thread that holds us together is memory. Without that we do fall apart.
It's also true that we change so much as we grow up and older that we may be unrecognisable to ourselves and others.
I found that I set parts of myself completely on one side while my children and work were central to my everyday life. After retiring I feel I have connected to some extent with the person I used to be.
And maybe the 'multiple personalities' theory could be a wonderful way of forgiving ourselves for past mistakes.
You've made me think. Thank you.
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