if you could have seen my face when klaus walked on that beach I was fully ready to find blackman and sue him for royalties

Writing Tag Game

I was tagged by @ilovereadingandilovebreathing 

Short Stories, Novels, or Poems? Yes. Lol. I write all three types.   Poems come the easiest to me. I enjoy the rhythm the rhyming and the wording. I’m often creating my own lyrics to songs. Or just using the medium to vent a bit. Definitely a favorite. Short Stories I totally struggle with. :S I find it hard to keep things...short. But that’s what practice is for! Love Novels. ^^;;; Doing multiple chapters. Building up to a climax, creating tension, having a resolution. I love writing them. 

What genre do you prefer reading? Fantasy really. If they have dragons in it, even better. I also enjoy stories revolving around Thieves and/or Slaves What genre do you prefer writing? Ummm Modern Fantasy/Supernatural? Idk if that’s an actual genre, but yah...I enjoy writing real world with a twist. (Surprise! Werewolves. Surprise! Magic. Surprise! Your retail boss is the leader of the mafia.)  Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person? I’d probably have to put myself under the ‘write-as-I-go’ category. I usually have plot points in mind I want to hit while writing the story, but really...I just let the story flow for the most part and figure it out as I go. What music do you listen to while writing? It honestly depends on the story. I have multiple different playlists I choose from. The most popular being a) A playlist of my favorite songs b) a ‘villains’ playlist c) a playlist of soundtracks from movies. Or d) I don’t listen to music and pick a movie to write to instead.  Fave books/movies  My favorite stand alone book is Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones Favorite series are: Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (it influenced me alot) and the Joust series by Mercedes Lackey  Favorite movies are: The Captain America movies, Megamind, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Brother Bear, Rise of the Guardians, and Treasure Planet. Atlantis is my go to movie to write to though. Occasionally Kung Fu Panda 3. Any Current WIPs? Yes. In DCMK there’s at least 20 on my computer In Sanders Sides there’s probably near a Dozen.  If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be? Blue sneakers, black jeans that flare out kinda like bellbottoms, a green or purple short sleeved shirt. And a watch on the left wrist. If it were cold, a green wool coat with a brown scarf and fingerless gloves.

Create a character description for yourself: “You look cold.” I jumped, turning to the girl with the soft spoken voice who stood beside me. I hadn’t even heard her approach. “You startled me.” She grinned, her hazel eyes sparkling with amusement. “I do that. Sorry.” She tilted her head, her curly brown hair catching in the firelight, sparkling with silver highlights. It was odd to see silver streaks with such a young face. She couldn’t have been long out of highschool....yet her whole demeanor hinted that she was older than she looked. There was a seriousness to her gaze as she studied me. One that spoke of a knowledge of pain, but the sparkle in her eyes proved she hadn’t let it get her down. “So. Are you?” She asked. I blinked, drawn back out of my thoughts. “Am I what?” “Cold.” She repeated. “Oh. Um.” I glanced down. “Yah. I’m not used to it here.” “Not a lot of people are.” She agreed. She held out her hands, her fingers long and slender like a piano player’s. “Here, let me see.” “See?” “Your hands. I can warm them up.” “You?” She barely looked like she weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. Mostly skin and bones really. How could she warm me up? I would think she’d be colder than I was, but then I noted...she was in short sleeves, and I was in my thickest coat. She nodded, grinning wider. “I love the cold. Here.” She wiggled her fingers, and I hesitantly placed my hands on hers. I gasped, eyes widening, my hands convulsively tightening around hers. “HOW ARE YOU SO WARM?!” She radiated heat like a furnace. This. This had to be impossible. She was so thin a cold breeze should go right through her. She laughed, a breathless light-hearted sound. “I told you. I like the cold.” 

Do you like incorporating people you actually know in your writing? Ummm. I don’t actively do it? But yes, I do take quirks and situations involving people and adapt them to the scene or characters. But take someone I know and put them into story? No, haven’t done that yet.  Are you kill-happy with characters? Nope. Not at all.  Dream job? Being a Full-Time Author Coffee or tea while writing? Neither. I usually don’t have a drink near me when I write. But I tend to go for Dr. Pepper or Juice if I get thirsty.  Slow or fast writer? Ugh. Slow. So. Slow. I get like maybe a page an hour if I’m lucky. *exhales* But *fingers crossed* that as I write more frequently I’ll get faster! :D Where/who/what do you find inspiration from? Almost anything really. From Dreams most often. But movies, books, tumblr, personal experiences, nature, situations at work, snippets of overheard conversations in public, ‘what if’ scenarios. Anything can spark a story idea really. ^^;; If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be? I’d be a Dragon Rider! :D I’d act as a scout and/or messenger.  Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliché? Favorite -The underdog cliche. The little guy who’s had a hard life, rises to the occasion, becomes the hero. Least Favorite -The pointless death. “Oh look we can’t have you ALL survive this book, so let’s just kill this character off for this stupid reason.” LIKE NO. DON’T DO THAT! (forces self to not go on a long rant about it)  Fave places to write: I love to hang out at Wendy’s (the food place) after work and jot down notes, plots, and concepts. Actual writing I like to do at home. Either on my bed, on my favorite chair, or on one of the couches in the living/family rooms. -I actually find it difficult to write in the same place multiple days in a row, so I’m constantly having to rotate my writing spots. Fave scenes to write? O.o Oh. um...huh….*thinks about it*   The scenes where the characters are struggling or are about to make a difficult decision that involves some sacrifice.  Most productive time of day for writing. Hmmm usually between 6pm-2am. It depends. Sometimes I switch and find writing between 8am-11am good as well. Sooo around sunrise, sunset, or when everyone else is asleep?

Reason for writing: Because I love it. Simply that. :)  Sometimes I do it to just...work out frustrations and such but mostly it’s because I enjoy creating characters/worlds/stories and just...sharing them. I love to give people a reason to smile, give a glimpse into a different perspective, help others escape into another world for a bit.  

Tagging: @fellowshipofteamfreewillassemble​ @theblackhoundsdaughter​ @mostlyeviloverlord​ @sidewritings​ and anyone else who wishes to join in! :D

AMA Transcript: The Art of Losing

Last week, @redphlox, @sojustifiable and @soundofez stopped in to talk about their 2016 Resbang, The Art of Losing! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: What is your fav scene, to write or just based on how it turned out! 

redphlox: I def had fun writing the climax, it was so much drama and I. love. writing. drama. I'm happiest with that. I also really enjoyed writing the middle section, where Soul and Maka are traveling, because i got to build their relationship in small scenes. It was fun to write a scene and realize it could lead to something else. It blossomed.

Q: Amanda and fez, you both did some really cool unique art! What made you wanna work in those mediums and how did you decide what scenes or subjects you wanted to art?

Amanda: Last year my default position was that I wanted to write music because I wasn't as experienced with visual art and I love writing songs based on stories and I definitely decided to stick with that for Julie's because she has a really poetic style that made for good lyric mining. And then for my other piece, marsh had sent me a bunch of cool art supplies and I wanted to try them out so I decided to do some work with pastels.

fez: I had enough Resbangs that I wanted to do something different for each one? And I'd been wanting to animate lately and I knew I could find gifs to trace from Anastasia so that helped. The third gif tho... so the night before post day I felt like I hadn't really done enough with the Fic Itself, all I really did was trace movie gifs and idk, I wanted to actually have scenes from the fic. So I started skimming and looking for things to sketch and then I came across one particular line that inspired my third gif and... that one took over lmao rip.

Q: What made you inspired to write an Anastasia AU?

redphlox: I was watching the movie and I thought "Imagine Soul in Dimitri's outfit" and it snowballed from there! I also love Anya and Dimitri's relationship, they have a lot of sass at first and grow to like each other, and I saw a lot of SoMa in them.

Q: Amanda/fez, do you feel like you grew in ur arting skillz from this Resbang, and how so? Same for you and writing, Julie.

fez: I learned that animating hair is stupidly difficult hahah. But yes, I definitely learned things about animating (namely how it takes a suuuuuper long time) and it made me appreciate animation so much more.

Amanda: Every time I write a song it definitely gets easier and I can rely more on motivation than waiting for raw inspiration.

redphlox: Hmm I felt like I grew in the plotting department. Style-wise, I learned I change styles a lot, and finding my voice for this fic was incredibly hard at first. It took 3 months to iron out the beginning because of these things, but the rest flowed after I found something I could own. I also learned to write faster and to be more disciplined. I committed to doing 1k a day to trudge through the difficult parts, and on days where I felt inspired I did a lot more than that.

Q: What was the hardest scene to write?

redphlox: Lord, the hardest was the beginning, for plotting reasons. I kept writing and deleting and adding characters and deleting them, it was awful. Overall I think the opening scene gave me more hell than it should have because I couldn't decide how I wanted Soul and Maka's relationship to start.

Q: What kinds of things did you do to find the voice and tone for the fic? Are there any writing rituals you have?

redphlox: I have to find a song that puts me in the feel of the scene I'm writing and I listen to it on repeat the whole time, haha. And to get myself pumped up, I read a lot of good writing that I admire.

Q: Do you do playlists for each fic?

redphlox: I listen to the same songs when I write, tbh. I listened to "4 page letter" by Aaliyah a LOT for this fic. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2maiIc_LACs). The lyrics don't fit the fic but I love the emotion behind Aaliyah's song, and her voice is beautiful. The longing is real, and that's what I wanted Soul and Maka's relationship to lead up to. I also listened to this song over and over again: https://youtu.be/bs2VL_HYG9Y.

Q: What inspired Maka's parents story for you, if anything? I know that that was an interesting subplot that I was not expecting when I read it!

redphlox: I wanted to stick to canon, but I also wanted to borrow from the movie, haha. So Spirit and his wife not having the best relationship comes from the manga, and everything else was a sprinkle from the movie. I was just trying to make everything plausible and it turned out into this subplot xD. All the little bits of what Maka COULD remember had to make sense in the end so I had to think and think and think.

Q: The jazz scene was one of my faves, and one that didn't really have a movie parallel. Was that a scene that you knew to write from the beginning, or did it pop up on its own?

redphlox: That scene literally popped up on its own. It was one of those that bloomed because of the previous scene. I also wanted to address Soul's love/hate relationship with music and extend the metaphor of Maka being able to see things around her, and that included Soul.

Q: Did you do any research to nail the period? Same question to all.

fez: Julie gave us clothing references ;v; I... really didn't do any research.

redphlox: Oh yeahhhh. I know the movie is set in the 1920s-ish and I wanted my fic to be vague time-period wise so that I didn't have to commit to too many intricate details, but I did look up clothing references for Amanda and fez. And I had to research transporation methods for that time period, because Soul and Maka spent so much time doing that. I wanted to be subtle, but not entirely inaccurate. Idk how many times I googled "1920s women’s fashion" in different words.

Q: What are you most proud of?

redphlox: I'm most proud of how much I wrote in so little time. I lost 3 months agonizing over my writing style and the opening scene. I don't think I got the beginning down until after second author check-ins. So when it just clicked, I cranked out 13k one week, 10k the next, and 5k in one day :0 It was insane. I'm also really proud of chapters 5-8 because everything was piling up for the characters and I introduced Spirit and Wes, and tension were running high between Soul and Maka. I can't tell you how much I love to make them suffer.

Q: I loved the part where Soul is like "WAIT WHAT BOY" when she "remembers" him when they're in the train. Did you pull from anything specific to get those emotions across?

redphlox: Ahhh I pulled from those depression feels of inadequacy LOL. He was just touched that he had an impact on her, bc the time they had together was v little. ;-;

Q: Did you watch the movie a lot? I really love how you managed to capture the feel of it while staying true to the spirit of the SE characters. How did you manage to walk that line so well?

redphlox: Ahh, I watched it the first time when I decided to write it, and then I watched it with fez at her house, and I watched it again when I was at my most frustrated with writing. Anddd I love that movie so much, it's one of my favorites, and I wanted to do it justice. I wanted to capture its feeling, because it's so beautiful and nostalgic. I didn't want to take everything from the movie, because some of it didn't fit the characters. Like, I couldn't see Soul trying to con someone for their money, like Dimitri did in the movie, but I could def see Spirit heartbroken but hopeful of seeing his daughter come back one day, even if it was stupid.

Q: Did you have any beta comments Julie that you particularly liked/thought were funny/encouraged you?

redphlox: All of bendandcurl's comments were super encouraging and insightful, and anytime Proma gave me a thumbs up on something I did feel like a proud student. Because my fic was more of a serious drama than fluff there weren't any funny comments besides the occasional gif during a serious moment in the fic.

Q: Okay but. Anya. Did you consider having her make an appearance?

redphlox: Oh I did! I had originally written Anya coming into the bakery to meet Soul in the very beginning to talk about their thing but leave after he didn't show up. That way later, when the truth was revealed, Maka could've had a lightbulb OH moment. But then I decided against it and left Anya as a background character.

Q: fez, I wanted to ask why you liked the spirit and maka gif so much, what inspired you to pick that scene?

fez: Ahhhh I have a lot of family feels, so when I saw the twirlies I... I wanted it. Maka's pigtails made me suffer but in the end it was worth it.

Q: What was [everyone's] favorite part about collaborating?

Amanda: Oo well first of all I was excited to work with fez and Julie because they are both gr8 and I had no idea Julie was writing it, so it was a really fun surprise, and then also a perfect fic to write a song for because Julie has so many good phrases to pull for lyrics.

fez: I also flipped out when I found out I'd be working with Julie and Amanda ;v; probably I had the most fun throwing my WIPs around ahah;;

redphlox: I was so stunned when I saw that Amanda picked mine, and that multiplied when fez joined. :0 It was a wild ride, and seeing their progress on their art was phenomenal like, they truly brought it to life and I'm so grateful for their hard work. I'm happy with it, it was a good team.