Pulling this tag posted by Amanda, because it’s important to ask yourself questions as a writer and give honest answers. You never know how much about yourself you can learn just by trying to figure out how answer someone’s question! So here’s ten of them.
Q: What do you eat or drink while writing?
A: Whatever I can get my hands on, honestly, provided I manage to remember that it’s there. I have this nasty habit of falling into tunnel vision, writing or not writing, and forgetting that the rest of the world is a thing that actually exists, so I won’t do those silly little optional* things like eating, or drinking, or sleeping.
Q: What do you listen to while writing?
A: Break-up or love songs, or something with heavy drums to get my heart beating. I can write almost anything to a love song (I cannot drive to a love song) and heavy drum beats in rapid succession get the heart moving, providing cells with oxygen and therefor the body with energy.
Q: What is your biggest distraction while you’re writing?
A: Other people. Cats. Food, when I remember it exists. Reading.
Q: What is the worst thing that has happened to you while writing?
A: In November 2015, I lost about… two thousand words when my laptop randomly decided it needed to not function. I hadn’t saved them up yet, since I was in the middle of writing them when it happened, and it was an absolute tragedy. I spent the following day getting my computer to function again. The aut0-save feature managed to salvage about two hundred of them, but it still had me out of sorts and paranoid for the following week.
Q: What is the best thing that has ever happened to you while writing?
A: In my first official NaNo back in 2011, I walloped out my a very own (and very bad) novel that may never see the light of day ever. It wasn’t all bad, but I didn’t have enough content to make a solid book out of it, or enough of a plot. But I loved it, and I loved the characters. I’ve since decided to rip it apart and deconstruct it, rebirth the people and the plot-line in another vein, but I had so much fun while working on it, it’s not even funny.
And that’s the best part. I realized how much fun I have while writing. More-over, and perhaps more important, I realized I’m writing for me.
Q: Who do you communicate with while you’re writing?
A: I am very bad at multitasking writing and communication, especially verbally. I’ll be mid-sentence in my work and finish it up while talking with someone, and I’ll look down and find I’ve written every word I have spoken since I started. Oops?
But beyond that, I have a very select group of friends who can prod me while I’m writing that get a valid response, provided it comes in written format so I can stare at it and try to puzzle out what we’re talking about. I do not shift gears easily, alas.
Q: What is your secret to success and your biggest writing flaw?
A: My secret to success is probably that I’m doing what I love, and I’m loving what I do. I like to write, and I write what catches my interest. My biggest flaw is that I’m all over the place. I have at least a dozen books in progress, which does not even go to mention how many fanfictions I’ve got running at any given moment.
Q: What is your inspiration? What makes you productive?
A: Other writers. It took me a long time to figure out other writers were people, but when I did, boy did that ever help. I realized if they could do it, as long as I applied myself– as anyone applies themselves– then I could make something out of all the stories in my head.
Q: What is one thing that you do or that other writers do that is super annoying?
A: I am very, very flighty, and easily distracted. I don’t know why. It frustrates me. As to other people, I’m not sure. Writers are, by their nature, some of the least social and most secretive people on the planet, zealously guarding their work. Some of it’s so secret I imagine that you’d have an easier time getting your hands on the NASA launch protocols than you would figuring out bad writing quirks.
Q: Are you willing to share something you’ve written?
A: I write a ton of things, and I’ve been more or less consistent posting them all on my Ao3— but if you want something I haven’t yet let the rest of the world see, I can absolutely share a small snippit of a WIP.
<Snippit from my Modern Assassin’s Creed AU>
“That’s a nasty bruise.. You’re Mentor William’s son, aren’t you?”
“His name’s Desmond,” Sasson offered from the other side of the room, but Fadila was sitting up, like she meant to get up despite Sasson’s protests.
“Bruise? Does he need ice?”
Altair hummed. “No.. well, it can’t hurt. This looks really fresh. It’s not even done darkening yet.”
“It wasn’t there when he got here,” Altair put in at last, prompting the novices to look over at him. He was twelve, and he wouldn’t shrink from their attentions.
“Are you sure, Altair?” He nodded, which only made the other look even more troubled. “Sasson–?”
“I’ll go get the ice.” Sasson was already heading back for the door when Altair looked over at him, trying to figure out what the teenagers were doing. It was just a bruise, they bruised all the time. But somehow Altair was sure it was not just a bruise after all, or he felt it wasn’t. If it was just a training bruise, he wouldn’t have opened his mouth. The novices wouldn’t have sounded concerned about it if it were just a training mark. “Fadila–?”
“I’ll stay here, go on. Altair can look after me while you’re gone.” Sasson frowned at her, but he opened the door and vanished beyond it anyway.
And there we are. Ten more answers about me. Some of which you knew already from previous questions, and some of which are possibly new. At least one of which contains a ficlet! What joy is this?
–Natasha
*Eating, drinking and sleeping are not actually optional.
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Author Natasha York 