No, I guess I use the same words over again a lot, although I use a
thesaurus, I notice I have particular words and phrasing that I'm just
enamored with. (Oops, dangling participle - sorry...) Plus, there's my
obvious tendency to ignore a lot of formal writing rules, including not
mixing POV, bizarre sentence structure, things like that...oh, and I like
starting sentences with the word "and". I seem to like ellipses too much
as well. I lurk religiously at the Enterprise Writing Brigade site, trying
to absorb the lessons discussed there in order to correct my legion of
weaknesses. I fear I'm not a very good student though...
What writing strength do you think you have? How did it come about?
I can turn out a well phrased paragraph on occasion. The only two things
that I really don't doubt about my ability are: I can do a mean action
sequence and I'm pretty darn good at the angst factor. I see the action in
my head and the angst is just a natural gift, bestowed upon me lovingly by
my family, um... the one I was born into, not the one I have now...
Pet peeves when it comes to writing/reading?
Writing - inability to get to a computer when the fickle muse hits. Between
work and family, my window of opportunity is small and I can't jot things
down in a notebook. I can't write that way. And family comes first.
Reading - Great concept, poorly written. Such a shame. I can ignore a lot
of things, everyone misspells words or constructs an awkward sentence. But
consistently, then it reduces the pleasure of reading. I hate when profic
writers have their own agenda and use the characters as cardboard cut outs
to move around in the framework of their story. Oh, and humiliating the
characters ("Phlox handed Jon his dose of Viagra and his newly bleached
false teeth -- whiten with Tpol -- the smoker's toothpaste -- before Jon
left for shore leave..." - ew.)
Which do you think is your best/fav work in terms of Hoshi fic?
Best: I guess Redemption so far. I really enjoyed writing that one and
Hoshi's gone so far in her development. I see her as everywoman. How would
you react in these situations? She's not strictly Starfleet and trained for
it...I like seeing how she copes. Fav: Lament, something about that first
born, warts and all, conceived in innocence and naivete, you know?
How do you take your feedback?
Usually with a diet pepsi and music blaring...no, wait. Actually, I've
gotten nothing but kind comments. It gives me the confidence I need to keep
writing. Plus, I take things to heart, if the suggestion is good, and it
usually is. That's why I post unbeta'd at MHE for a group beta – not only
are they nice, but they're extremely helpful, from suggesting just a word
change to pointing out big time errors. And LD gets the benefit from the
insights of a talented group of people.
Pick a fav Hoshi fic and tell us why it worked for you. Was it something particular the author did? Was it the subject matter?
This is just a difficult question, considering the caliber of authors here
and the number of superb stories. And there's so many different styles that
I love. PJ's Rain was the first ENT story I ever read. Made me want to
read more and inspired me to write my own. JustVisiting's Discoveries was
the first story I read at LD. Beautifully written, original concept, quiet
and intense. Paradox's Movie Night made me laugh so hard, her humor was so
right on, and her Dark Angel series was a concept that could have been sheer
dreck, but turned out to be fascinating and felt authentic. Smurf,
nostalgia, Taryn Eve, DINY - all those angsty writers hit the spot for me.
Of course there's the goddess of lyricism and beautifully consistent
excellence - Xenutia. And LD has introduced many fine newbie posters...
when you see a first time writer post something that is just so good, it
blows you away. Yeah, you're one of them, Ozchick.
Other advice for fellow writers?
Um...practice? Keep writing, it'll get better.