Writers: a small quiz on inspiration and aspirations, etc.?

Question

I will answer my own questions below...

1. Who are your top three musical inspirations? (Any genre of music, just who you like to listen to, perhaps who you get ideas from...)

2. Who are your top three favourite writers?

3. Do you wish to be a famous author, do you write because you love it, or both?

4. What do you consider your "writing style" to be? (Detailed...easy-to-follow...)

5. What genre do you like to write?

6. What genre do you like to read?

7. What do you do to break writers' block?

8. Do you reward yourself once you complete a piece of writing?

9. Have you ever been published?

10. Do you like to think in as many perspectives as possible?

Here are my answers (because I'm that awesome):

1. My top musical inspirations are: Green Day (all-time-favourite lol), Sick Puppies, and Marianas Trench. (Oh, what about my old inspiration: Toby Keith. xD)

2. My top three writers are: Roald Dahl, Stephen King, and Jerry Spinelli.

3. I write because I love it, but I keep in mind the readers, because the readers are what counts...because someday, I may publish it. :D

4. I would say that my writing style is very personal. I like to write in first person so I get all those thoughts in there. It adds depth...and it allows me to develop my main character a lot easier. I try to write so that it's easy to follow, but not skipping to events unnaturally. I go into detail on important things.

5. I write in the teen and young adult genre...oh, I don't know, it's a weird genre. Read Stargirl or Eggs or Flush or something, and that's pretty much what I love to write. (And fantasy! No sparkly vampires though >=])

6. I like to read fantasy and teen and young adult and romance, and, oh, HORROR! (Humor is fun, too.)

7. To break writers' block, I like to make myself stop writing and stare out the window or at the ceiling or just think of my characters and their goals...I let something come to me. I try not to make it come.

8. When I finish writing, I like to get up and let my mind rest. Sometimes I'll head on over to the cupboards and let myself snack on something while I dive into a book or watch a movie...

9. I've never been published, but I've won two or three awards. "The Royal Canadian Legion's Remembrance Day Literary Contest" for a poem I wrote on war last year, and once, in the third grade, with a poem about nature...

10. (I ask this questions because of a personal reason)...But I'll answer it. I like to think in many perspectives, because that makes my characters take into consideration the feelings of others, and makes them seem more *human*...We don't just jump off cliffs because we hate that our friend just stopped talking to us. Perhaps we would because something was going on that hurt you, and your friends won't talk to you about it...

Answer whichever ones you wish. Answer them all, even. Oh, and if you want, you can stick in some of your favourite lyrics (because I'm a music-obsessed person):

When you're at the end of the road,
And you lost all sense of control,
And your thoughts have taken their toll,
When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul...

21 Guns - Green Day

I have a secret meaning to those words! <3

Answer 1

1. I don't really have any specific musical inspirations. No musician ever influences what I write. I listen to mostly hardstyle music. I listen to it a lot and sometimes I get thinking about stuff that I want to write when I listen to it. It doesn't influence me, but it kind of speeds up my thoughts/ideas. My top three are Brennan Heart, Noisecontrollers and Headhunterz.



2. It's hard to say because I read sooooo many books. The top three writers that I admire are Kurt Vonnegut, Neil Strauss, and anyone who can write good history text books.



3. I write because I get a good feeling when I do. It's also a really good way for me to understand myself better. My writing is a reflection of myself, no matter what it is. I will definitely keep writing until I don't feel like doing it anymore. If I can make a living off of it then that's even better. I would rather be a good writer than a famous writer. Anyone can have a famous book (like Stephenie Meyer), but only a few deserve it.



4. I like writing in first-person only. I write fiction and non-fiction, but I really like non-fiction a lot more. I like to write humor mostly as well. Overall, my tone is very sarcastic and real.



5. I like writing non-fiction mostly.



6. I read a little bit of everything, but my favorite genre is history-related books (if that's even a genre).



7. I don't really do anything. I read until I feel like writing something.



8. Not really. I just let other people comment on it and that's a reward to me even if it's negative.



9. Yes, my essay was published in a collaborative book with other essays.



10. I don't really think in many perspectives. I'm not judgemental, so in everything I write I try to be as un-biased as possible.



I don't have any lyrics for you, but I do have a quote!



"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be".

-Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

Answer 2

1. The Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, Keane. However, different stories require different songs and different artists and it may require people not shown here.



2. Micheal Crichton, Dahl, and Barbra Ehrienrich.



3. I write because I enjoy and because I need an outlet from my imagination.



4. People have told me I am a straight forward writer. I tell the reader like it is and I don't make the reader try to find deeper meaning in the story.



5. I write science fiction and some fiction.



6. I only read Micheal Crichton for fiction and then I read alot of non-fiction books mostly about politics, social science, or history.



7. I shelve the story and do something else. One thing I love is take a long car trip out into the middle of nowhere. That is how I get inspired again.



8. Nope, I just move onto the next story or I re-write the one was working on.



9. Nope



10. When I write, I think of the characters first and the story last. I will think about characters for years and really get to know them before I put them into any story. I think long and hard about them and who they are and where they came from and what motivates them. I am a firm believer that if you don't know anything about your characters then your story will be terrible because the characters should drive the story. The characters will make or break it and you cannot write something good without a good strong cast of characters. Even the minor ones that have only one line are just as vital to the life or death of a story as any main character.

Answer 3

1. A bit of both. A premise for a story might jump on me when I'm not expecting it, but turning that premise into something I'd feel confident I can write usually requires me to sit down and think about it. 2. I used to obsessive about carrying a notebook around, but these days I'm seldom more than a few minutes from a computer. I don't worry about capturing a brilliant idea in exactly the form it first comes to me. Ideas are good or bad only in the context of the story they're in, and I've written enough now to know that ideas seldom survive unchanged into the finished story. 3. Usually the plot comes first, then I figure out what sort of characters I need to make the plot work. 4. I don't obsess about names. If I spend more than five minutes trying to come up with a name, I just put in a placeholder and carry on writing. 5. Read it aloud. Does it sound like something that character would say in that situation? Listen to how real people speak. Record people speaking and transcribe it. Then take out the "um"s and "err"s, the half-finished sentences, and the repetitions. You should end up with something that sounds real without being real. 6. I made my first attempt at writing a story of my own (rather than because my English teacher had told me to) when I was eight or nine, so that'd be 32 or 33 years. 7. Yes. I don't see how anyone who wants to be taken seriously as a writer could not do that. 8. I'm pretty happy writing the genres I've chosen (fantasy and science fiction). I could imagine a time when I'm fed up with one or the other, but I wouldn't pick another until that point. 9. Readers praise my dialogue and the way I describe magic and its effects. 10. Dear God, no. I'm always annoyed if I can tell that a book was written to put a message across, even if the message is one I agree with. I read fiction to be entertained, not to have my morals improved.

Answer 4

.............. ............sheesh......a very long answer.......

1. Music...

John Coltrane..."Blue Train" - all versions of "Blue Train" on it... tenor sax... no lyrics.

-and-

Boney James..."Pure"...especially "Appreciate"...the sax...some lyrics with his sax.

-and-

The Grateful Dead... I like an interesting version of "Dark Star" - from a process called "plunderphonics"- the CD called "Grayfolded" - an hour of music (no lyrics) blended over the course of twenty-five years of any performance of this piece.



2. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (especially "Cat's Cradle") ...William Gibson ...Lots by Shakespeare but not all ...Christopher Moore ...Some Neil Gaiman work (especially "The Sandman," "The Graveyard Book" and "Neverwhere") ...Gabriel Garcia Marquez ...Dostoevsky ...Robertson Davies ...Margaret Atwood ...Austen ...Anne Tyler ... *Sorry* - I find it impossible to list only "three" favorites at any time.



3. Started writing age nine; I think being a writer is terrific.

Fame was never a goal and still isn't, but good publication is very nice and has been achieved with decent regularity and one huge surprise - a successful play - written for a troupe for them to practice their skills. Ha. Productions brought a lot more money than I'd ever expected then-current (and amateur) plays made.



4. No style was/is left 'unturned' by me.

They include short fiction ('regular,' sci-fi, fantasy, and "interstitial"- a 'no-genre' category), that play, essays, book/art/sport reviews, journalism, terrible poetry (that's the published stuff) and present work on a full-length biography, on hold for research.



5. I like writing all the above and probably more I haven't done yet.



6. I'm a 'cereal-reader' - I'll read a cereal box if it's the only thing there - I like to read anything but tend to only complete pieces (like a series) if I like the writing style.



7. I don't have writer's block - or if I have, I didn't know it.

I think it's because a lot of writing I've done had a deadline.

And to write a good essay, play, factual fiction, news, biography and probably more - research was/is needed. It takes time and effort. There's no time for writer's block.

For any who suffer it, I always suggest one go out and do something else one enjoys - but use observation in many different ways and places to overcome a 'block.'



8. No "rewards," not really.

Everything I write needs edits, if I have time.

I even edit answers here - but only put 'ADD' if an edit is in response someone else. Once a piece is complete, I just look forward to writing another.



9. See above.



10. Definitely it's important to "think in as many perspectives as possible."

Doesn't every writer? It would be great for every adult to - but it seems impossible.



A fave lyrics from yesterday... Robert Hunter wrote/writes great lyrics, usually for the Dead. This is a chorus...



"The wheel is is turning

and you can't slow down

You can't let go

and you can't hold on

You can't go back

and you can't stand still

If the thunder don't get you

then the lightning will."



ADD: I really think (and was taught; did Eng. Lit. at UCLA and post-grad writing courses of many kinds) plot is what drives characters - not the other way around. END

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Answer 6

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