On writing.
Jan. 20th, 2006 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
Re: the latest meme going around about 10 ways how you tell it's a fic by [insert author name here], I only have one for me.
1. It says "by Sarea Okelani" on it.
There. :D Now no one should have any trouble identifying my stories.
I've been thinking about my writing lately, and wondering why I haven't made any headway with any of the stories that I'm currently working on. It's slowly but surely dawned on me that my lack of creativity is due in large part to the fact that it's winter here, and it's been a really freaking cold one. I had never really noticed it before, but looking at my story list and their posting dates, the vast majority of stories were posted between March and October. Which got me to thinking about other ways in which I'm picky about writing, the act of writing, and how I need very specific things in order to get in the writing zone. I think most writers probably have requirements in that sense; whenever I talk to another writer I'm always fascinated by how different our processes are.
1. I need to be warm -- very warm, comfortable, with no hint of cold whatsoever. I hate being cold in general; I'm so preoccupied by how uncomfortable I am that all my thoughts seem to get sucked out into the cold air and disperse. Typing is a chore; my fingers are stiff, and require me to try and get them warm/nimble every few sentences (like now). This really, really explains why I always feel like writing when I'm in the shower or in the car or in bed about to fall asleep. I always thought it was my own fucked up way of avoiding writing without having to blame myself; now I realize that it might just be a comfort/temperature level issue! (Lack of discomfort in other ways is obviously required also; can't be hungry or sleepy or on my period. :p)
2. Silence. Some people can write and get into the zone even with a din around them. Some people enjoy having music on. I like utter and complete silence, most of the time. Very occasionally I might have something on while writing, but if I'm actually writing I'll tune it out, so what's the point? Certainly, however, I prefer music to the sound of "people noise."
3. No other distractions. Both![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
romanticalgirl and mynuet say that they write more productively when they're IM'ing with someone -- this is the total opposite for me. I can't talk to someone and write at the same time. It gets me out of the story, my concentration breaks, the words don't come. I can't even be signed in with the possibility of someone talking to me, because then it's always in the back of my mind and I can't focus.
4. The words come much more easily in the afternoon/evening than they do in the morning. I've never been a morning person. :p
5. A natural keyboard. I've long gotten used to them, and those old-school straight-key keyboards feel restrictive to me now. Occasionally I can type on a laptop, but that feels different somehow. And anyway I can't actually write on a laptop for long periods of time.
Am I weird for needing such a specific set of circumstances to be true in order to be creative? Or maybe this is all just a way to rationalize my recent writer's block. :-S
After taking Tabithe through SM last night (she needs to hurry up and get to her 50s, so we can pwn BRD!), Jade and I played some AB with Taur's group. Jedipolar got invited to the group, which I thought was unusual because he usually has his own group going. The first game, which we won 3-node, he didn't say anything. I was actually starting to be rather impressed by his ability to be a follower when he was required to be a follower, when the second game came along. It was against a pretty good team, and we switched leads several times. Midway through the game, Jedi started issuing orders, sometimes in contradiction to Taur's orders. Now -- Taur is a decent leader. His biggest fault is that he is not constantly giving orders as to where people should be, and it takes him a little while to adapt to situations sometimes. But he's a great player and a good leader, and most importantly, he's nice and cool, so you want to play with him. However, his leadership style grates against people like Jedi, who are really hardcore and all business. So that game was really confusing for us, because we were being told to do so many different things by different people. We managed to eke out a win, 2000-1910. Afterward, Jedi and Taur and Insidmal started arguing about who almost cost us the game, who was right, who was wrong, etc. Jedi said he had to take "emergency leadership" because Taur wasn't getting the job done, and Taur said that his interference was what got everyone all confused and nearly made us lose. It got pretty antagonistic. I mean, they weren't totally cursing or screaming at each other, but there was a lot of back and forth. Taur didn't kick Jedi from the raid, though, and Jedi didn't leave. The strain continued to our next game, where Jedi was just being an ass, and there was some bickering going on all throughout the game. To top it all off, we lost someone from the game, so we were playing with one player short. The amazing thing is that we 4-noded that team, even being short one player and with internal strife. O.o (The other night we 5-noded a team, and it was soooo sweet. The game ends super fast that way.)
Played a few games of WSG after that -- one win, two losses, because it was just the Alliance A-team that was playing. :p At least we farmed some pretty decent honor. The other night my brother and Jade were in an AV game, and they said to hurry in because they were at SP gy. I got in, and even though there was no one talking in raid, we all pushed past the bridge like we were supposed to, and I somehow got to the top of the south bunker and got the flag. For some reason I thought we had already gotten the north bunker, and couldn't understand why no one was in there but me. There were Alliance coming up to save it, and I didn't think it could hold, but then reinforcements came and we destroyed it. We also made quick work of the north bunker. I noticed that there were at least two raids going on, and even though no one was talking in ours, we were moving with fairly single-minded purpose. We didn't even finish capping the aid station before going after the general, and somehow we managed to kill him, even though 3/4 of our raid didn't even know it was happening when it started. Truly, a freakish win. And a record for me -- probably took about 1/2 an hour! :D
Jade and I have decided that we're going to make Itsey and Bitsey fire and frost mages. I'd normally never consider being a specialized mage like that w/ a normal char I was lvling (sacrificing a lot of good stuff on the arcane tree), but since these ones are totally supposed to be fun, why not experiment with them. We're D/G mages! (Fire and Ice, get it???) Mwahahahaa.
1. It says "by Sarea Okelani" on it.
There. :D Now no one should have any trouble identifying my stories.
I've been thinking about my writing lately, and wondering why I haven't made any headway with any of the stories that I'm currently working on. It's slowly but surely dawned on me that my lack of creativity is due in large part to the fact that it's winter here, and it's been a really freaking cold one. I had never really noticed it before, but looking at my story list and their posting dates, the vast majority of stories were posted between March and October. Which got me to thinking about other ways in which I'm picky about writing, the act of writing, and how I need very specific things in order to get in the writing zone. I think most writers probably have requirements in that sense; whenever I talk to another writer I'm always fascinated by how different our processes are.
1. I need to be warm -- very warm, comfortable, with no hint of cold whatsoever. I hate being cold in general; I'm so preoccupied by how uncomfortable I am that all my thoughts seem to get sucked out into the cold air and disperse. Typing is a chore; my fingers are stiff, and require me to try and get them warm/nimble every few sentences (like now). This really, really explains why I always feel like writing when I'm in the shower or in the car or in bed about to fall asleep. I always thought it was my own fucked up way of avoiding writing without having to blame myself; now I realize that it might just be a comfort/temperature level issue! (Lack of discomfort in other ways is obviously required also; can't be hungry or sleepy or on my period. :p)
2. Silence. Some people can write and get into the zone even with a din around them. Some people enjoy having music on. I like utter and complete silence, most of the time. Very occasionally I might have something on while writing, but if I'm actually writing I'll tune it out, so what's the point? Certainly, however, I prefer music to the sound of "people noise."
3. No other distractions. Both
romanticalgirl and mynuet say that they write more productively when they're IM'ing with someone -- this is the total opposite for me. I can't talk to someone and write at the same time. It gets me out of the story, my concentration breaks, the words don't come. I can't even be signed in with the possibility of someone talking to me, because then it's always in the back of my mind and I can't focus.4. The words come much more easily in the afternoon/evening than they do in the morning. I've never been a morning person. :p
5. A natural keyboard. I've long gotten used to them, and those old-school straight-key keyboards feel restrictive to me now. Occasionally I can type on a laptop, but that feels different somehow. And anyway I can't actually write on a laptop for long periods of time.
Am I weird for needing such a specific set of circumstances to be true in order to be creative? Or maybe this is all just a way to rationalize my recent writer's block. :-S
After taking Tabithe through SM last night (she needs to hurry up and get to her 50s, so we can pwn BRD!), Jade and I played some AB with Taur's group. Jedipolar got invited to the group, which I thought was unusual because he usually has his own group going. The first game, which we won 3-node, he didn't say anything. I was actually starting to be rather impressed by his ability to be a follower when he was required to be a follower, when the second game came along. It was against a pretty good team, and we switched leads several times. Midway through the game, Jedi started issuing orders, sometimes in contradiction to Taur's orders. Now -- Taur is a decent leader. His biggest fault is that he is not constantly giving orders as to where people should be, and it takes him a little while to adapt to situations sometimes. But he's a great player and a good leader, and most importantly, he's nice and cool, so you want to play with him. However, his leadership style grates against people like Jedi, who are really hardcore and all business. So that game was really confusing for us, because we were being told to do so many different things by different people. We managed to eke out a win, 2000-1910. Afterward, Jedi and Taur and Insidmal started arguing about who almost cost us the game, who was right, who was wrong, etc. Jedi said he had to take "emergency leadership" because Taur wasn't getting the job done, and Taur said that his interference was what got everyone all confused and nearly made us lose. It got pretty antagonistic. I mean, they weren't totally cursing or screaming at each other, but there was a lot of back and forth. Taur didn't kick Jedi from the raid, though, and Jedi didn't leave. The strain continued to our next game, where Jedi was just being an ass, and there was some bickering going on all throughout the game. To top it all off, we lost someone from the game, so we were playing with one player short. The amazing thing is that we 4-noded that team, even being short one player and with internal strife. O.o (The other night we 5-noded a team, and it was soooo sweet. The game ends super fast that way.)
Played a few games of WSG after that -- one win, two losses, because it was just the Alliance A-team that was playing. :p At least we farmed some pretty decent honor. The other night my brother and Jade were in an AV game, and they said to hurry in because they were at SP gy. I got in, and even though there was no one talking in raid, we all pushed past the bridge like we were supposed to, and I somehow got to the top of the south bunker and got the flag. For some reason I thought we had already gotten the north bunker, and couldn't understand why no one was in there but me. There were Alliance coming up to save it, and I didn't think it could hold, but then reinforcements came and we destroyed it. We also made quick work of the north bunker. I noticed that there were at least two raids going on, and even though no one was talking in ours, we were moving with fairly single-minded purpose. We didn't even finish capping the aid station before going after the general, and somehow we managed to kill him, even though 3/4 of our raid didn't even know it was happening when it started. Truly, a freakish win. And a record for me -- probably took about 1/2 an hour! :D
Jade and I have decided that we're going to make Itsey and Bitsey fire and frost mages. I'd normally never consider being a specialized mage like that w/ a normal char I was lvling (sacrificing a lot of good stuff on the arcane tree), but since these ones are totally supposed to be fun, why not experiment with them. We're D/G mages! (Fire and Ice, get it???) Mwahahahaa.
