Jesus Christ, I feel like I wrote a frickin' essay here Why couldn't I write like this for my English teacher's one thing where she wanted a paragraph (5 sentences) for each...thing. I don't remember what it was, but damn I could've used all this writingness in that crap! Anyway, I'm bored so you don't gotta read this if you don't wanna...

1. Are you a "pantser" or a "plotter?"

I’m assuming that "pantser" means whipping out stories as you write and "plotter" means having the story already in mind. For long stories (novels) I’ll have the plot already planned out and ready to be written. As for short stories (by short stories I generally mean oneshots) I usually come up with ideas as I go along. There’s usually just one thing that I know for sure – the thing that gave me the inspiration for the story. That one part is usually just a small scene in the story itself. On rare occasions it’ll map out the whole story for me, but that’s only happened once or twice. You know the saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words?” Well I take that saying literally in a lot of my writing.

2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as a I write”?

Oh Jesus, that depends on what I’m writing, too. Same concept as before, it depends whether the story is going to be turned into a novel or if it’s going to stay a short story. Short stories: the character is revealed to me as I’m writing. Longer stories: the character is typically completely revealed to me not too far along into the story (a few chapters in usually). Such as my Chaos Queen story, even the minor characters have full bios in my mind—some even written out. I felt the need to in order to understand my story better, and it really helps me understand my main character(s). As for shorter ones such as Servants in Death (previously But She Can’t See!), the character develops as I’m writing and once I’m finished and start editing the character is completely exposed to me and I can almost always tell you their whole life story.

3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing?

Generally that only happens for my longer stories. This is the reason that I usually can’t finish my novel concepts because I have the whole story planned out in my head, which doesn’t give me the motivation to write out the whole story. This is exactly why I have many short stories. I don’t have the spare time to figure out what’s going to happen when I take a break from writing, so I have the drive to finish it to the very end. With novels I have to constantly take breaks in my writing because I either get a headache, or I just need a break. During that break I frequently think of future things to use and then I end up playing out a whole chapter in my head. That’s quite a problem for me.

4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful?

I’ve never heard of them until now; therefore, I’ve never read any. I don’t plan to now that I have though. I believe that a writer shouldn’t have to grow upon someone else’s process. Just like with drawing, you’re only better once you develop your own style that you can proudly call your own. Until then you’re learning how to develop it through practice and experimentation. Sure, it’s nice to look at others’ work and help yourself develop while using them as models. It’s always better to have your own style, and that’s what makes you a great writer (or artist).

5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work?

When I really have an idea I absolutely have to write it out. Otherwise that’s all I can focus on. But if I over-think the story then, as I mentioned before, I’ll lose the drive to write because I, myself, already know where the story is going exactly. Sadly that caused about five stories to cut short before I even had the chance to start the first chapter (generally I do a short summary/intro/prologue to the story before writing).

6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time?

Both. Sometimes I’ll see a picture and suddenly have a brilliant story start to play out in my mind and once it’s all written out it’s done and over with. The bad thing about doing that is the fact that once I’m done writing it out the ideas that flow for the story come to a halt. Sometimes they’ll come back a while later, but typically they don’t. Writing in short bursts happens much more often than actually sitting down and writing for hours because my sources of inspiration are limited to how long I can write—I use pictures a lot as sources of stimulation.

7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer?

Ha, definitely afternoon. I’m barely awake in the morning, let alone ready to write. At night I’m starting to wind down from the days activities, so I’m usually not writing then either. But I’m more likely to write in the afternoon/evening than anything because I’m awake and ready to write. Although I guess if inspiration hits in the morning and really makes me start thinking I could spit out a good story then and there. But that hasn’t happened just yet, so I’m not counting on it to happen now either.

8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?

Usually I have music playing to help set the mood of the story. Sometimes I won’t, though. If I don’t I’ll have the TV going in the background. I can’t write in silence. I can’t stand being in the quiet unless I’m trying to go to sleep. Even then, I still like to occasionally have the soft sounds of the house settling down to comfort me. Being in the silence makes me lonely, and I tend to get depressed quickly.

9. Computer or longhand? (or typewriter?)

My mind spills out sentences way to fast for me to write. Therefore I’m forced into using the keyboard as my pen/pencil. Because of that the font drop-down list and I are the best of friends. If every story I had was in the same boring font than I’d hate writing. There are some things I do end up writing out. I don’t know, I feel more emotionally attached to something if I take the time to write it. That’s why when I tried an online diary (don’t ask, please) it didn’t work out. But as soon as I found a little notebook and started writing in it I felt more compelled to write in it than I did typing things on the computer. It gives me an emotional release that typing doesn’t. And as for the typewriter? I make way too many mistakes to have that work out—it was my Microsoft Word when I was a kid, and white out and I were best pals. Actually, I even had one in my room because I used it so much.

10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One?

For the most part, yes. I’ll know the beginning, and I’ll know the end, but then I can’t figure out how to get from one to the other with the middle. It’s sad, because I could have many good novels if I didn’t have that nasty little thing stopping me.

11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write?

Only what I write, and only slightly. I’ll read the popular genre at the time and get my own idea that fits into that genre. Like the vampire craze that’s going on right now. I liked them to begin with, and I’d already read so many stories about them, so I was able to start and finish a long novel on that kind of topic alone. But a lot of my stories are affected by something else that someone made. I’ll be surfing dA and see a picture that gives me an amazing idea, or I’ll stumble upon a quote that fishes out a whole story from my mind. As for how I write, it doesn’t. I like to believe that I’m not a shit writer like Stephanie Meyer—who should have stopped after the first sentence she wrote—and she’s the big thing right now. I unfortunately read her whole series, because once I start something I have to read the whole series. Otherwise it bugs the hell out of me.

12. Editing – love it or hate it?

It’s definitely not my favorite part about the writing process, but it’s something that needs to be done. And I know if I don’t edit, something won’t make sense or there’s going to be a bunch of tiny little typos. And because I’m the kind of person who hates it when people chose to ignore those typos, I have to fix them myself to avoid being a damned hypocrite (a.k.a. a bitch). Even then I don’t tend to catch them all, but at least I can say that I tried. Plus, I like reading over what I’ve written, and it helps me decide if I want to keep and upload the story or if I should keep it to myself and stick it into my ‘Crappy Junk’ folder -- yes I do have one of those by the way, for I’m a very organized person when it comes to my writing. And since this is the last question I might as well say this: I edited this whole thing twice now, just to make sure there weren’t any typos.

...Fuck my fingers hurt now.