Dreamwidth Fandom Snowflake Challenge - Day 11

[teddy_radiator]

Day 11

In your own space, post a rec for fannish and/or creative resources.

For fanfiction, I think one of my favourite resources is my paperback of Steve Vander Ark's The Lexicon. It's essentially the Harry Potter Lexicon in book form, but it is never farther away than I can stretch out my arm while I'm writing fanfiction. I also have all the books at arm's distance at all times. When possible, I like to stay close to canon's events, unless I'm doing something seriously AU. When I was writing Lay Me Low, I wanted it to weave both canon and au moments together (note to self: don't ever do that again!), so I even purchased an extra copy of Half-Blood Prince so I could take it with me when I was brainstorming.

When I'm writing original fiction I like to collect a number of visual images to help me. I have scads of photos of everything from clothing choices to which kind of alcohol my characters prefer to the floorplans of their house.

But by far, the most helpful thing I ever did was make all my major characters fill in a 'meme'. I got the idea from JR Ward in her book The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide. It was an exercise she did with all the Brothers, and I found it the perfect way to get inside my characters' heads. This could be used for fanfic characters as well, of course.

Here is the actual meme. I had each character fill it in, and made them be as candid and honest as each were capable. I was amazed at what I discovered about my own characters this way.

Name:
Parents:
Siblings:
DOB:
Place of birth:
Age:
Height:
Weight:
Hair Colour:
Eye Colour:
Identifying physical marks:
Characteristic Habits:
Food of Choice:
Drink of choice:
Favourite Music:
Note: (Something you as a writer said about them)
Description: (Something you as the writer wrote to describe them, either physically, mentally, emotionally)
Married To:
Last Movie Watched:
Last Book Read:
Favourite TV Show:
Last TV Show Watched:
Last Game Played:
Greatest Fear:
Greatest Love:
Favourite Quote:
Boxers or Briefs:
Watch:
Handbag or wallet:
Car:
What Time is it while you’re filling this out:
Where are you:
What are you wearing:
What’s in your closet:
What’s the last thing you ate:
Describe your last dream:
Coke or Pepsi:
Bond - Connery or Craig:
Kirk or Picard:
Football or baseball:
Sexiest part of a male/female (depending on preference):
What do you like most about your other half:
First words he/she spoke to you were:
Your response was:
Last gift you gave to him/her:
The most romantic thing you ever did for him/her:
The most romantic thing he’s/she's ever done for you:
Anything you’d change about him/her:
Best friend:
Last time you cried:
Last time you laughed:

Comments

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

Your meme - thank you!! I've tried interviewing them, but this looks way more efficient.

Thanks for doing Snowflake *g*.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I found it amazingly insightful - and I was astonished at some of the things they were trying to tell me.

I have loved doing Snowflake. It's been a real treat, and something I've looked forward to every day.

[spikedluv]

That meme idea is awesome!

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Thank you - it was amazingly helpful, and really gave me pause as to how much I had subconsciously invested in my characters.

[analise010.livejournal.com]

THIS IS EXCELLENT! JR Ward is one of my favorite authors, so I'm not surprised that she came up with this.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

I'm a great fan of hers as well, and when I read each of the brothers' meme's, I was completely enthralled, especially when she wrote about 'interviewing' them all. That was one of the most fascinating things about writing I've ever read.

[alisanne.livejournal.com]

What a fabulous idea! *steals*
Also, I adore The Black Dagger Brotherhood books. Nice to have another fan on my Flist. :)

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Cool!!

Yes, I love the boys! I also love the audio books as well.

For what it's worth, I'm also a raving fan of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, even though I'm not a huge fan of his work in general (I like him, but I just don't read that genre all that much). But I would love to get to fangeek out with others about the Dark Tower, and I can hardly find anyone to nerd out with me on it! :(

[alisanne.livejournal.com]

So my problem with the Dark Tower is that it spans so many books. I need a primer or something that tells me what to read in what order.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

If you need a primer, I'm your girl!

I'm not quite at the obsessed geek stage on The Dark Tower series, but I'm close enough to government work.

The amazing thing about these books is that he wrote the first one, The Gunslinger, when he was about 19. He wrote the rest of them over the next thirty or so years. And some of it is amazingly self-indulgent, but if you stick with it, you may well fall into it. It's dangerously addictive, and for the life of me I don't know why.

The order is as follows:

1. The Gunslinger
2. The Drawing of the Three
3. The Wastelands
4. Wizard and Glass
5. Wolves of the Calla
6. Song for Susannah
7. The Dark Tower

There was a HUGE gap in time between his writing 3 and 4, even though they take place chronologically together, and he really hits his stride in book 4. It and 5 are my personal favourites. You won't like Roland, the main character, until about halfway through Book 3 - The Wastelands, and you will HATE Stephen King about halfway through Book 7.

I don't know why I love this series so much - but reading it made me 1) want to be a better writer and 2) give up writing altogether, then change my mind and made me want to work harder to become a better writer.

[arsenicjade.livejournal.com]

This is a really awesome idea. Thanks!

[gelsey.livejournal.com]

Good resources, thanks! *marks them down* I use the online lexicon still, and the wiki.

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting meme. I like the idea of pinning down specifics, but then I hit a wall with the last 20 or so questions. My original works, such as they are, are set in fantasy worlds, and in neither of them would you find watches, cars, Coke or Pepsi, movie trivia, and so forth, and in neither story does the protagonist marry, or even come close. For my purposes, I'd cut out the pop culture questions and ask things like, "Do you know how to use a weapon, and if so, which one? What economic class do you belong to, and how do you behave with those above and below you? Do you worship a deity, in private or in public? Who would you die for/who would die for you? Do you possess an abnormal or extraordinary gift of any kind, and how do you feel about it?" Stuff like that.

Okay, now I think you've inspired me to sit down and write out an interview meme that focuses a little more closely on the kinds of alternate universes I tend to write. Thank you for posting this - it's excellent food for thought. :)

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

That's the lovely thing about a meme like this - it's a real springboard more than anything else. JR Ward was writing for a family of hip, trendy modern pop-culture vampires, so the references make sense in her universe, and to a greater extent, my original characters live in the twenty-first century and this worked fine with them, but finding other questions to ask characters who live in different realms, worlds and times is also a great exercise in and of itself.

[perverse-idyll.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly! I had to go look up the Black Dagger Brotherhood because for some reason I'd got it into my head that the world was based on ours but was somehow more Victorian and steampunkish, without real-world references. The meme clued me in to my mistake, but then it got me thinking about how the exercise can be revised with personal parameters in mind (although watch me turn it into yet another source of procrastination).

Is your original story fantastical in some way, or does it draw upon some other genre?

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

It's a modern day story about a government agent, actually. It has erotic elements and a strong D/s backstory. I guess it would be considered an erotic romance mystery thriller. Yikes. I'm not even sure what category it falls into. I guess I'd better start pinpointing it!