It was Petra Jacobs who posed these questions to her fellow bloggers in her blog, Inkbiotic. I decided to ponder over….
Do your dreams ever give you inspiration for stories? If so can you describe one that has?
More often than I’d like to admit. Many pieces of my poetry are based in dreams/nightmares. I guess my subconscious is a better writer than my active brain. My vivid dreams of various breathtaking locales and very realistic nightmares create the base for a lot of my poetry.
One of my frequent dream destinations is an ancient temple on a mountain. Not sure what deity or what religion…but it calls to me. It is dark, mysterious and beyond time. I only get to see it from a distance though. Every time, I spend all my time trying to reach it–walking up the mountain road, sometimes trying to persuade my companions that it is worth it but failing, sometimes stuck in the small colorful market that falls in the way wasting precious hours, and sometimes climbing up and down a maze of overpopulated stairs.
I only reached it once. It was just as dark inside, so still don’t know if it has any deity, and it had a lift that took me to the underworld, where ‘life’ was…as usual. Just a little darker due to lack of the Sun.
Do you feel comfortable writing characters of other races/ genders or with extreme experiences you’ve never had? What are your no go areas for characters?
I mostly write stories that are unlike me and have experiences that I haven’t gone through. My characters do not belong to any particular race. I actively avoid describing my characters, so their stories are universal, since my readers come from 40 countries across 5 continents. (I think penguins don’t read WordPress yet).
I have written both from the point of view of Satan and God. So I don’t see any no-go area in Characters.
Have you ever written anything that you wouldn’t write now? What was it and what’s changed?
I never publish anything I cannot stand up for in the future. So nothing yet.
Do you ever work on a style? Or do you simply write and a style happens?
I simply write. I have no particular style in mind except keeping it simple.
How about a genre? Do you always stick to the same one? Is there a genre you’d like to work in, but don’t know how?
Earlier I always stuck to realism. I tried to make my stories as close to the present reality as possible. But later I tried my hand at horror, nature stories, science fiction and mythology. I loved them all. So I’m expanding my horizon. I would like to try classic poetry, but somehow it seems beyond me.
If you’ve written a novel, what was your method? did you plan it all out beforehand with flow charts and lists? Or did you have a vague idea of what would happen and just start writing?
I cannot stick to a story for more than two days in a row. Novel writing is for people with a stronger resolve than mine.
Thank you Petra, for giving me a chance to babble. Yet again.
Short Stories | Fish-eye Perspective 
Great answers to Petra’s questions Shaily. Have a nice day.
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Thank you, Darnell! How have you been?
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I’m well thanks. Currently working on another Yum Yum short story I hope will be published before year end.🙂
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Best of Luck! How is your country coping with the current situation? Mine is breaking down to pieces. 😕
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Mixed blessings here. Some areas are much better, others are getting worse. My area is stable, no new outbreaks. I’m thankful and still working.
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That’s great, Darnell! I hope the rest of the world recovers quickly as well.
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Great answers, it doesn’t surprise me that you put so much thought into your writing. You definitely know what you’re doing more than me.
And the dream about the temple is sinister, but profound too – all that searching, but when you get there you still don’t understand any more than before. T
hank for writing and sharing these. I’m going to reblog! I hope that’s ok.
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Thank you, Petra! The thinking process has been drilled into me because of my job where the trainings I design and write are required to be inclusive of all genders and races. So, my stories follow suit. That dream is a constant quest that keeps me busy while my body sleeps…and helpd me lose weight with all that walking 😁😁☺
Thank you for reblogging! ☺
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🙂
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it is always good to ‘expand one’s horizons’ ; realism is good in its place but like you I enjoy exploring its dark side: horror, sci fi, the wild realms of surrealism 🙂
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😁
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Do you sometimes draw inspiration to your characters from real life people whom you know? And if yes, do you have this conflict in your mind that whenever your character does something which that real life person would never do or whenever your character comes out as the complete opposite of how the real person is, you start feeling a bit uneasy, although you don’t want to feel that way, because you are not writing about that person, you only want to draw certain traits of him?
It happens with me a lot. I feel like an idiot, when it happens, but nevertheless, it does happen!
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My stories are rather too short for that. But once it happened. I used a name that belonged to a fellow-blogger and friend. The character I built became rather nasty over the two months pf building the story and in the end, I had a strong urge to change the name because I didn’t want her to feel hurt. But, she took it in a good spirit.
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Haha 🙂
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