For the weird writing questions, #4, 10, 19, 34?
4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?
10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?
“Haunted” would mean that it sticks with me for years afterward. Some things I’ve written have stayed with me, for sure. Here are three other things that have gotten free real estate in my brain, not necessarily first or best but just off the top of my head:
1. “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” by Ursula Le Guin -- reading this in high school really did a number on me (in the good way).
2. the ending of Snowpiercer (movies count if they are good) -- “we go forward,” “how can I lead when I have two good arms?”, and the final shot, I’m always thinking about it.
3. Anatomy, by Kitty Horrorshow -- a big inspiration in wanting to do some writing via indie gaming for the power of an interactive setting.
19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?
I was dictating stories to my mom before I could write, and I was about 8 years old when I started trying to write “professionally.” There have been a lot of bumps -- I started getting sick a lot as a teen, and it got so much worse in college. College was a bad time, lol, and I didn’t do much writing at all, but I started trying to pick it back up towards the later years. And then, of course, I had so much trouble carrying a project through and dealing with adult life without getting overwhelmed, so the past few years have been spent trying to getting in a better place with that.
But I’ve accepted that I need to be nicer to myself about it and to take things slow, and that lots of things “count” towards the creative process, even if I’m not where I’d like to be. Right now, I’m just focused on getting into a groove that helps me to function better.
34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, go:
Necessary. I refuse to stop using it. “She was smiling, bright and airy,” describes the nature of the smile. “She was smiling, bright, and airy,” describes her overall demeanor. There’s a difference, TO ME.
