Writing Meme (Part One)

[crime_and_ink]

Okay, so I stole this a while ago from vega_ofthe_lyre and never got around to actually posting it (story of my internet life), so here's part one.


1. Tell us about your favorite writing project/universe that you've worked with and why.

The Birchwood Series, which I’m currently working on, has to be the most interesting thing I’ve written so far. I love how alien some of the characters come across, even to the people they meet in their line of work. There are also so many different types of characters and I love the plot. It’s a series of different investigations, but there are always on-going plot elements, such as James’ PTSD, Amber’s struggle with the rules, as well as the underlying plot (which I’m not giving away.) I have the vague outlines of about five books done at the moment. And part of one written (if only writing it was as easy as planning it.)

2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?

I have a lot of characters and, as the list is still growing every day, I can’t give an exact number, but I can say that I have two primary characters (main focus), a large group of secondary characters (a lot of focus), minor characters, and one-off characters. There are a lot of men, and I don’t think that I prefer writing one or the other. I may be a woman, but that doesn’t make it any easier to write one.

3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?

With names, if I hear a first name I like, then I write it down to use for characters if I think it suits them, or just to keep in case I create a character and think I like the name for them. Some of the Delaneys in the books have a theme. Having been raised in a small religious cult before being adopted, they’re named after angels, creating a bit of a joke when a character who sees small flashes of the future (don’t call them visions where he can hear you) introduces himself as Gabriel... There are a few fictional towns mentioned, which are either common names for places or words I thought could sound like towns.