Meme Answers 5
Aug. 31st, 2019 07:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerAnd a few last answers to wrap up the meme!
silverusagi asked: 14. Do you have a go-to AU?
I don’t think I write all that many AUs, actually. I guess sometimes canon-divergent AUs: What if Steve met Winter Soldier!Bucky earlier? and things of that ilk.
But not full AUs where they’re all vampires or they have no superpowers or suddenly they live in ancient Rome.
skygiants asked: 29. 20s AU or 50s AU?
Do you know, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a 50s AU? I’ve seen a few 20s AUs, mostly involving bootleggers & speakeasies, but nothing set in the 50s. Which part of the fifties would it be? Poodle skirts and bobbysoxers? Juvenile delinquents in James Dean black leather jackets? There was a lot of fifties to go around.
But then there was a lot of twenties too, and the AUs always seem irresistibly drawn to bootleggers and speakeasies. I’ve long had the ambition to write something set in the 20s but never seem to be able to get it off the ground, possibly because bootleggers and speakeasies don’t really play to my strengths but it hadn’t occurred to me to try to escape their magnetic pull.
rachelmanija asked: 3. Any guilty pleasures (books/fics)?
I’ve always felt a little guilty about how much I enjoy Torey Hayden’s books about her work with emotionally disturbed children, because (even though names and identifying details are changed and so forth) you just imagine these kids reading this, years later, (because after all Hayden’s name is not changed) and recognizing themselves in a character and going “Oh my God, is that what she really thought of me?”
Mind, even when there’s the occasional student she ultimately couldn’t help, there’s always the attempt to understand and view the difficulties of their relationship from a place of compassion, which is part of why I keep returning to these books despite this vague sense of guilt that they give me: I admire that warmth and even-handedness.
Another reason I return to these books is that they are the books that taught me that you can persuade readers to sympathize with a character who literally murders animals if you’re skillful enough, and this is something that has really influenced my own work - it’s particularly visible in Reciprocity (although Bucky never murdered animals). You don’t have to make a character nice or likable or possessed of many good qualities to make them sympathetic; you just have to bring out the humanity in them.
I guess this means that Hayden’s work is also an answer to the next question, fromevelyn_b, who asked: 2. Which author has influenced you the most?
Although it occurs to me that this could be a more general life question rather than specifically a writing question, which would give it a somewhat different answer. Zilpha Keatley Snyder, for instance, is one of my favorite authors and has influenced me a lot - but I’m not sure that she’s influenced my writing, per se. Although maybe? It’s kind of hard to tell who has influenced you - it feels presumptuous to say, IDK, “Jane Austen influenced me a lot!”
Maybe I should throw this one open to the audience. Which authors do you think have influenced my writing?
silverusagi asked: 14. Do you have a go-to AU?I don’t think I write all that many AUs, actually. I guess sometimes canon-divergent AUs: What if Steve met Winter Soldier!Bucky earlier? and things of that ilk.
But not full AUs where they’re all vampires or they have no superpowers or suddenly they live in ancient Rome.
skygiants asked: 29. 20s AU or 50s AU?Do you know, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a 50s AU? I’ve seen a few 20s AUs, mostly involving bootleggers & speakeasies, but nothing set in the 50s. Which part of the fifties would it be? Poodle skirts and bobbysoxers? Juvenile delinquents in James Dean black leather jackets? There was a lot of fifties to go around.
But then there was a lot of twenties too, and the AUs always seem irresistibly drawn to bootleggers and speakeasies. I’ve long had the ambition to write something set in the 20s but never seem to be able to get it off the ground, possibly because bootleggers and speakeasies don’t really play to my strengths but it hadn’t occurred to me to try to escape their magnetic pull.
rachelmanija asked: 3. Any guilty pleasures (books/fics)? I’ve always felt a little guilty about how much I enjoy Torey Hayden’s books about her work with emotionally disturbed children, because (even though names and identifying details are changed and so forth) you just imagine these kids reading this, years later, (because after all Hayden’s name is not changed) and recognizing themselves in a character and going “Oh my God, is that what she really thought of me?”
Mind, even when there’s the occasional student she ultimately couldn’t help, there’s always the attempt to understand and view the difficulties of their relationship from a place of compassion, which is part of why I keep returning to these books despite this vague sense of guilt that they give me: I admire that warmth and even-handedness.
Another reason I return to these books is that they are the books that taught me that you can persuade readers to sympathize with a character who literally murders animals if you’re skillful enough, and this is something that has really influenced my own work - it’s particularly visible in Reciprocity (although Bucky never murdered animals). You don’t have to make a character nice or likable or possessed of many good qualities to make them sympathetic; you just have to bring out the humanity in them.
I guess this means that Hayden’s work is also an answer to the next question, from
evelyn_b, who asked: 2. Which author has influenced you the most?Although it occurs to me that this could be a more general life question rather than specifically a writing question, which would give it a somewhat different answer. Zilpha Keatley Snyder, for instance, is one of my favorite authors and has influenced me a lot - but I’m not sure that she’s influenced my writing, per se. Although maybe? It’s kind of hard to tell who has influenced you - it feels presumptuous to say, IDK, “Jane Austen influenced me a lot!”
Maybe I should throw this one open to the audience. Which authors do you think have influenced my writing?
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