Writing Meme Day 23

( the questions )

23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?

There's no 'usually' about it. There are sooooo many variables that I really can't put my finger on it. Rust (roughly 150k) effectively took six years, from its conception in early 2003 through to the current version that I posted the final chapter of early last year. Technically it's still not finished--it definitely needs another rewrite, not to mention the other three books of the story. Those ones are going more quickly, though, since there's less world building involved. Planning for Tarnish took about two months, rather than the four-ish years that Rust had before its current incarnation.

And then there's the other end of the scale, where Bouquet (50k) had two days of planning and thirty of writing. Sometimes I get on a roll like that, but not often. I have a lot of works in progress that I WANT to finish but get distracted by shiny things--other WIPs, drawing, short stories, or most commonly Silent Harmony.

Shorts like Dragon Boy (10k) can take anywhere from a week to a year, depending on inspiration and muses and shiny things. I never plan the things, they just happen.

Writing Meme Day 22

Arg I forgot about this entirely yesterday. Blame the footy. The footy was awesome and totally worth skipping this for.

( the questions )

22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.

As soon as I think of a relatively big idea, I either tell Sallie about it, draw it, write it up or keep it secret because it's a spoiler. As such, if I told you, I'd have to kill you <3

I have always wanted to write a fight between Rumal, Raykin's best swordsman, and Kaen, their best blade archer and hence best fighter with daggers. Problem there, of course, is that I have NO idea who would actually win. I'd be barracking for Rumal, though.

Way back on the first draft of SH, Yan was going to come up against some Kazinian sorcerers who tried to kill him with their magic, which at the time involved taking hold of the victim's heart and stopping it. 'Lol,' says Yan, 'It's already stopped, bitches,' and kills them all. Of course, Kazin doesn't even do magic anymore, so that idea's null and void now.

That's all I've got =/ Screw this, spoiler book, that'll have minific ideas in it that I haven't written. If they had more detail to them than what I've got here, they'd have been written already, so this is all you're getting XD

• Damsel Inconvenienced, rather than damsel in distress. Something about Lynnlita having an Issue that she wants Nol to solve.
  
• Lynnlita dealing with Raykin's public baths. No, they wouldn't make special concessions for her and bring a personal bath up to her third-floor room at the palace. If she asked Mithé really nicely, he might close the bath house for her maybe.
  
• Someone vandalising the skull-barrier on the Kazin/Raykin border.
  
• Army training blind-folded to train the ears~
  
• Yamin dying her hair black, and failing because whatever she used sorta turns everything else black, too.
  
• Taking the horses for a swim in the Ra-Lin on a hot day.
  
• From way back in history: at some point, the Own must've all been killed. Mission, assassins, whatever. And then, war. Hooray!
  
• The Own talking around the campfire, asking Nimay what her magic can do.
  
• Learning to fly~
  
• Discussing magic/flying etc with Mithé, Rau, Laeron etc.
  
• Gylepi's kids meeting Nimay. Lania, his daughter, wants to be a swordie because of 'May X3
  
• Boys discussing Haenel's mindset. He's a bit scary =(
  
• Yan possibly the one who suggested to Mithé that he make Nimay his assassin. Maybe. I'm not quite sure where I was going with that one.
  
• Gylepi comes home from a mission with presents for his kiddies. Lania is not happy because her two favourite dollies, who are in love, will be jealous of this new dolly and have a lovers' tiff. Gylepi vows to never buy her another dolly ever again.

Also, Thiras' entire life. Oh yeah, she's got one. I can tell you she was a pirate in her past and she now lives on the mainland, and that's it.