Not sure if we can ask multiple ones? If not, just pick one :) I'm just too curious to be able to limit it to one. So how about 10, 14, and 38?
Multiples aren’t a problem! If I answered them before, i;ll just link to my answer :) But I don’t think I’ve answered any of these!
10. Do you brainstorm things alone or with others?
Both! Though I mostly brainstorm things alone while on the way to work or at the gym. I’ve got one of those brains that’s always thinking about magic or fiction, so I have a lot of ideas! I take the best of those, make fuller outlines of them and then trap my sister and best friends in person/on the phone and make them listen to them!
I’m extraordinarily lucky that I have such a creative/supportive group of people around me who get just as pumped as I do when talking about fiction!
14. Do you have a favorite writing related quote?
I have a few! But the one that really rocked my world was from The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov! In it, Woland tells the master that he can’t have burned his manuscript because “Manuscripts don’t burn.”
The meaning is that once something is written/shared/conceived, you can’t destroy the idea. That had a strong impact me in high school because I often felt that my writing didn’t mean anything. It was just silly stories that I made up and scribbled in my math notes. But the quote made me feel that writing meant something and that the contents could impact the world.
A little high and mighty, lol, but I’m probably going to get it tattooed somewhere on my person, I love that quote.
38. What’s one piece of writing advice you try -- but fail -- to follow?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA ALL OF IT. Just....all of it. There are exceptions to every bit of advice and I exploit them ruthlessly and, perhaps, excessively.
People give me advice about commas all the time! “Use less of them” or “Are you sure you know what a comma is?” or “you understand that you don’t need a comma here.” I like my sentences to read a certain way so I comma it up. Even when I try to pull back it’s, like, endless commas.
My next biggest problem is probably adverbs. Not as much anymore because I’m training it out of my writing style, but words like “suddenly” aren’t really necessary. If the door is thrown open and a character jumps at the sound, the reader generally knows that the door is suddenly thrown open. It’s a nit-picky thing that my writing groups love to point out. I should be grateful to them though, it makes me a better writer!
