Random Questions from the Benedictine

Random Questions For Writers from the Benedictine. Click on my title for the link to the original post.

Just for a little fun, a series of “writer personality” questions. Copy, paste, and answer these questions to introduce us to the type of writer you are. :)

-Do you have a pen/pencil collection? How many of those are chewed? We have many pens and pencils around our house, but between homeschooling, writing in every room, taking them with us in the car, and even outside on walks, sometimes they are hard to find. Sometimes they are chewed, but after having a pen break while I was chewing on the end, I've been mainly broken of that habit.

-Do you prefer handwriting or typing furiously? Hmm. Depends. Love typing, and love handwriting out stories. It depends on where I am, and what I have available. Typing is faster.

-How often do you get inspiration? All the time, and everywhere. If I feel uninspired it's usually because I'm tired.

-Are you blogging this on a computer or laptop? Laptop! Love being able to go anywhere with one.

-Do you get inspiration more in the early morning or late at night? Usually it hits me in random spurt throughout the day. Sometimes I wake up in the am with ideas ready to write, and sometimes they hit me about mid-morning, mid-afternoon, or just before I need to cook dinner.

-Do certain movies/books/music inspire you? Sometimes I don't think they have, but then I find myself writing on a certain theme or idea, and realize that I picked it up in a book, movie, poem, commercial or newspaper article.

-How do you incorporate God into your stories? God is always present, but not always as noticeable as He should be in my writing. I try to represent certain struggles and characteristics of a Christian life in my writing, whether it is poetry, fantasy, romance, or scifi.

-Do you kill off your villains or make them repent? Hmm. I kill some off, and make some repent. I love stories where repentance and redemption are done in a believable manner, and I hope to be able to write stories like that. I have a certain villian I worked with a few years ago in a novel that hasn't fully come to fruition yet, and I meant to kill him off, and then. . . I liked him too much and tried to redeem him.

-What genre of writing are you most comfortable in? Fantasy, SciFi, adventure, now dabbling in romance - fiction, and poetry, and a few devotionals.

-Do you work better alone or with someone else? Usually alone. I get really annoyed when my writing is interrupted, and I have to be careful if I'm writing in a public place. However, I like sharing my work with others, and hearing their feedback. My daughters have helped me make at least three of my stories much stronger and more exciting with their input, and I've had other writers help me out with that too.

-Do your stories make sense, or do they ramble wildly? In the end, they make sense, I think, however in the middle of writing a rough draft sometimes I take a wild side trip with a character that later doesn't make the cut.

-Are your characters mostly Renegades, Peacekeepers or a mish-mash? Renegades, peacekeepers, and "Bilbo" type characters who drag their feet at the start of the story, and then jump in with enthusiasm later. I seem to find myself writing stories where the heroine is often stuck in circumstances out of her control, and then she finds a way to make the adventure her own.

-Are you a sucker for good grammar? I don't think so, however I did have that one class in college and some of my bad grammar bugs me. Usually I shrug it off and move on until later.

-How is your handwriting? Hmm. Once upon a time I had the best handwriting in my sixth grade class. Thankfully I started out life ambidextrious, and only became left-handed to spite one of my teachers. After two arm injuries, and three arm surgeries, I can write with either hand and my handwriting is unreadable to anyone but me. I like to think of it as my own secret code.

-How evil are your villains? Hmm. Usually mildly villianous. I can think up the extremely evil types, but I generally don't want to write about them.

-Are you long-winded or succinct? Very long-winded.

-Do you have typical writer traits such as ink stains on your fingers or a pencil behind your ear? Ink traces, and glazed looks while thinking of story ideas. My kids might have to ask me the same question three times or more while I'm thinking of a story instead of paying enough attention to their home school lessons.

-Would someone walking past you on the street consider you normal? Most of the time these days, yes. However, there are occassions when I'm walking my dogs, and I sing or talk my thoughts out loud without meaning to . . . I think that's more of an only child habit and not a "writer" habit.

-Do you write mostly poetry, stories, novels or a mixture? Poetry, fiction, and devotions.

-Do your characters vary in accents, appearance and attitude or are they mostly the same? In appearance, they very wildly. In attitude and accents I hope they vary enough - sometimes I think I get stuck on character types.

-Do real people and/or places inspire your writing? Yes. Landcapes and pictures of people from the newspaper often inspire my writing. There are a few cut-outs that I keep to remind me of a certain look in a person's eyes, or a certain crowd scene. I also have a character that is very loosely based on a certain cooking show host - see my answer below.

-What is your favorite character? I don't know that I have a favorite, but I do love my tempermental characters, and there is is one character that showed up in a book unexpectedly. I keep thinking he needs his own story, since he is a chef, a spy, an assassin, and the leader of a rebellion. I like my shy characters too, who wait to grow into more assertive types by the end of their tales.

-Do you talk to your characters? Do they talk back? Not really. I've tried some writing exercises like that, but never enjoyed them.

-Are you more comfortable with girl or boy main characters? I’m comfortable with both.

-Do you follow basic overused plot lines with new twists thrown in or do you depart from the norm all the time? Hmm. I think I'm a plot line with new twists kind of person. I hope they aren't overused. Sometimes, I hear "don't do this with your plot" advice and decide to try it anyway.

-Do you feel God has called you to be a writer/poet? Will you grasp the power of the pen? Yes, and I'm so thankful that I'm not doing this on my own power.