Writing Meme

This is gonna be a post where I stop trying not to punctuate things with smileys. X3 Somewhat NSFW due to me being candid. Tagged by Kura! List by Camille!

1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.

TCAST, because it got finished. XD

2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?

I don't think I've ever been able to live without people in my head. XD;; I prefer people who violate the gender-binary. ;3

3. How do you come up with names for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?

I want to be intentional about making great character names, but usually I don't care to make great ones before I care to get down and dirty and writing, so usually the names are chosen in a hurry. XD;; I tell myself I'll get better ones later but I usually don't. Autumn, Elly, and Jude had the advantage of being long thought of before they were ever written down, the rest of the cast got their names chosen quickly. Nadiya was chosen  because I was listening to the French singer at the moment. XD

4. Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

Don't remember ;-; Probably don't want to remember. XD;;

5. By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest? How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?

My characters tend to be 17-25. My "older" characters tend to be in their upper-twenties. My youngest is probably Elly, not sure who my oldest would be.

The TCAST cast is unique in that I created it in 2007, put it away, and then brought it back in 2010. Probably the characters that have had a consistent life about that long would be my characters Cody and Joaquin.

I was inspired to create Cody after watching and reading Kaze to Ki no Uta, which is a great classic yaoi anime and manga, possibly the first yaoi manga. Anyway, Kaze to Ki no Uta takes place in an old-time French boys boarding school and it revolves around the UST between the slutty blond boy and the good-kid half-gypsy boy. They made a beautiful little couple in their interracial classic-yaoi shota glory, and I liked the idea of two people on opposite ends of the "sexual moral" spectrum meeting somewhere in the middle. 

I wanted to recreate that in a modern American setting with less shota, so I created Cody. Cody is a black nerd who falls in love with a white blond slutty bad boy. The problem was THIS STORY WAS AWFUL. It was ridiculously over dramatic, and at the time I was too uptight to give the story the sexiness it needed to work without coming out like Twilight-esque chastity porn. Anyway, I started to hate the blond and fell in love with Cody's group of friends, and then the stock comedy guy, Joaquin, got a crush on Cody, which started out unrequited and then suddenly the story was about Cody getting over the blond and getting into Joaquin. The story was still awful, however.

And then I came up with an idea for a superpowered school universe. The story lacked a cast, and then I was like "Hey, what about my dumb soap opera story that died? I liked those kids..." So Cody and Joaquin and their friends live on as superpowered teenagers. (The blond got left behind.) The story is still a soap opera, but a soap opera set in a superpowered school makes me very happy for some reason. And I luffles them. ;-;

6. Where are you most comfortable writing? At what time of day? Computer or good ol' pen and paper?

Naked Lounge. Most adorable hipster cafe ever. Computer is good. I've been trying to write more longhand lately, partly because of my dying laptop battery. XD;;

7. Do you listen to music while you write? What kind? Are there any songs you like to relate/apply to your characters?

I need to listen to something that won't distract me, and BT usually does the trick. His stuff is gorgeous and atmospheric and sountrack-esque.

8. What's your favorite genre to write? To read?

I like writing about teenagers... ;-; I don't care what they're doing, I just like teenagers. I don't mean to, but when I look back I'm like, "Hermm... everybody's seventeen years old..." Though lately I've been writing about college students. Yay!

I mostly read Young Adult fiction, but I wouldn't say it's my favorite. XD;; I don't care about genre as long as it's good.

9. How do you get ideas for your characters? Describe the process of creating them.

Other characters. Like other developed characters, like in books or TV, but just as often it's vaguer things, like people I see and wonder about, or a photo, or an painting of someone, or an avatar in a video game. Sometimes I come up with the plot first and think "What kind of person would do this?" and create the character backwards. 

10. What are some really weird situations your characters have been in? Everything from serious canon scenes to meme questions counts!

Recently one of my characters was asked during a drunken Truth or Dare game to tell the story of how they lost their virginity. They have indeed lost their virginity, but they don't like that story. So they made up a story about how they had a threesome with a model and a bartender. Maybe that's not a ridiculous situation, but it's a ridiculous story. XD;; By the way, no one buys it. 

11. Who is your favorite character to write? Least favorite?

SKYLAR. You don't get to know anything about em.

...

Ok, yes, this is the one who made up the story about losing eir virginity in a threesome. And the one who was created based on a video game avatar. 

Least favorite is Autumn. XD;; I'm so paranoid that she's going all Mary Sue on me!

12. In what story did you feel you did the best job of world building? Any side-notes on it you'd like to share?

My favorite world is a parallel-universe America in which gender does not exist. It has it's fair share of problems, not so much with the world logic, but I keep forgetting to make stories in that universe because I want so badly for it to be a normal place.

13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?

My genderless universe!

14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us?

No! I wish! I love maps... I've always wanted to make maps of places...

15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!

JOHN GREEN. NEIL GAIMAN. Steven Moffat. XD Christine Love. Camille. Kura.

16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing?

Yes. However I do it, I like to do it very queerly. XD;; I don't like pretending sex doesn't exist, but I'm not confident in my ability to write sex scenes, much less porn.

17. Favorite protagonist and why!

Skylar. Because yes.

18. Favorite antagonist and why!

I love antagonists in other people's stuff but I usually don't write with them. The good-bad dichotomy seems fake to me... I've never met an evil person, mostly just stupid people. 

19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!

Joaquin, as detailed above. XD

20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?

In Skylar's story, there's a character named Charlie, who's a classic tsundere, and their interactions just flow so naturally it's beautiful. They just pick at each other to death to hide their true emotions, and it's fun stuff.

21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?

No, children bore me, so people who have them also bore me. XD;; My worldview on this is evolving (namely because I have a nephew on the way) so we'll see.

22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.

I wrote a short story about a teenager trying to masturbate to a sex tape featuring some girl he knew XD;; Except it wasn't working. Like, the masturbating, not the story, though that wasn't working either. Yeah. It was actually strangely philosophical.

23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?

Usually? XD Never.

24. How willing are you to kill your characters if the plot so demands it? What's the most interesting way you've killed someone?

Ha. XD Yes. 

25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.

No, actually... o.o Wow, that's weird...

Some of my characters have farm animals... XD;;

26. Let's talk art! Do you draw your characters? Do others draw them? Pick one of your OCs and post your favorite picture of him!

Oh yes, I draw, but I'm not good, and it's usually just to doodle, so I like to keep this stuff off the internet. XD;;

27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.

Yes, I guess so. Picking a character's race is usually a big part of the process. 

28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there's nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.

NO. I have a character with cerebral palsy in my head right now, but I don't know if he'll make it into the story. This depends on which incarnation of the protagonist I pick. There DEFINITELY need to be more disabled characters in the media, so I'm kind of sad at myself right now. ;-;

I have written on characters who have had mental disorders, though I wouldn't say disabilities. I've had a couple of characters with PTSD, I've had at least three stories with a character with Dissociative Identity Disorder. The fantastic BBC show Sherlock has spiked my interest in sociopaths and Asberger's, so maybe I'll have a character with one of those sooner or later.

29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?

Every night. I don't write that often though... ^-^;; Whatever I'm obsessed with at the minute, I see it everywhere. XD;;

30. Final question! Tag someone! And tell us what you like about that person as a writer and/or about one of his/her characters!

I tag Morhighan! And you, beautiful reader. ;3

Btw, as far as what I'm doing right now, I'm basically lazing between "Love and Keggars" and me and Kura's as-yet unnamed NaNoRenO-except-we're-way-too-late-for-NaNoRenO. XD;; Yeah. I need to get my ass in gear, I know, I know.

I blame this man: