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4. Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the fandom, what I'm writing, and how interested I am in it. I'll be honest, sometimes I've signed up for a challenge, gotten maybe two paragraphs in, and the interest or the idea has disappeared. I push through anyway because I think it can be a good habit to get into, especially if you're someone who has to write anything for work. You can't take say 'oh, I don't feel like it, I'll come back to it later' when you're writing a document that has a deadline.
Because I write, at least initially, stream-of-consciousness I'll sometimes get the one - or more! - of the characters acting or giving feedback in a way that changes the structure of the story, or even questions the plot! Last year's NaNo was like that: 5,000 words in I realized that the debate the protagonists were having was actually pointing out the problems with the overarching plot. That's good, in that I figured out the problems in advance, but bad because it meant I wasn't able to finish. And good again because it made me more likely to lay out a structure before beginning anything ambitious.
Most memorably, I was having a problem in something original I was writing, and decided to write out a scene between some incidental characters to help me sort it out. Character A pretty much walked in, looked at Character B, and went "yes, I want them, please". They wound up being a couple, with their own set of adventures already crystallizing, while I was sitting there going "wait, what?"
I can't really say why one character will become a muse over another, or not at all. It does seem to be the characters that have the more complete presences that do so, though not always (see above). They're not always central but they are very strong.
And I'm still annoyed with one for getting songs stuck in my head.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on the fandom, what I'm writing, and how interested I am in it. I'll be honest, sometimes I've signed up for a challenge, gotten maybe two paragraphs in, and the interest or the idea has disappeared. I push through anyway because I think it can be a good habit to get into, especially if you're someone who has to write anything for work. You can't take say 'oh, I don't feel like it, I'll come back to it later' when you're writing a document that has a deadline.
Because I write, at least initially, stream-of-consciousness I'll sometimes get the one - or more! - of the characters acting or giving feedback in a way that changes the structure of the story, or even questions the plot! Last year's NaNo was like that: 5,000 words in I realized that the debate the protagonists were having was actually pointing out the problems with the overarching plot. That's good, in that I figured out the problems in advance, but bad because it meant I wasn't able to finish. And good again because it made me more likely to lay out a structure before beginning anything ambitious.
Most memorably, I was having a problem in something original I was writing, and decided to write out a scene between some incidental characters to help me sort it out. Character A pretty much walked in, looked at Character B, and went "yes, I want them, please". They wound up being a couple, with their own set of adventures already crystallizing, while I was sitting there going "wait, what?"
I can't really say why one character will become a muse over another, or not at all. It does seem to be the characters that have the more complete presences that do so, though not always (see above). They're not always central but they are very strong.
And I'm still annoyed with one for getting songs stuck in my head.
