Writing Tag

1. What was your first-ever piece of writing? My first ever story was a plagiarism of the story of Rapunzel. I think it was called "The Princess in the Tower" or something. I still have it...somewhere...
2. How old were you when you first began writing? 9, I think, is my first documentable attempt. I didn't enjoy writing until I was 11 or so.
3. Name two writing goals. One short term & one long term. Short term is to finish this Omnibus paper. Hehe. Long term--work on revising some of my short stories and possibly write a novel (I doubt the latter will ever be accomplished). 
4. Do you write fiction or non-fiction? the work I'm proudest of is non-fiction blended with enough fiction to keep it from being offensive to the main characters. Delicate work, that.
5. Bouncing off of question 4, what's your favorite genre to write in? I love writing fantasy--I blame that on too many Percy Jackson-esque books--but to to quote Mr. Knightley, "I'm not good at it." Reading LotR kind of discourages that...there's no way I can even develop a tiny bit of the detail Tolkien puts in his world in my so-so scribblings. Did I mention that I'm somewhat of a perfectionist? On the other hand, I love short stories--I don't have to work as much on plot development and can concentrate on the characters. Plus I hate writing endings and conclusions, and in a short story often I can put a weird twist at the ending in a way I couldn't in a novel. As I'm writing this I can't help but think of Jane Austen's play "The Mystery"  for some reason.
6. One writing lesson you've learned since 2013 began. Don't ever password protect your files without writing down the password. It's not fun to stare at that little blue box with the blinking cursor wondering what on earth the password is--after trying the title, all the main characters' names, places, themes, and random words. I shouldn't have to hack my own computer!
7.  Favorite author, off the top of your head! Jane Austen, because...well, she's Jane Austen--lighthearted, clever and very, very funny.
8. Three current favorite books.  Let's change this to "some enjoyable things I've read recently." Some of the stories I've read from the  Decameron, The Girl on the Boat, Only a Novel 
9. Biggest influence on your writing {person}: A person?  Hmm. Probably Dad and Mom. I have some fond memories of novel sending and editing with some of my friends quite a while ago. 
10. What's your go-to writing music? For schoolwork/studying I always listen to Orla Fallon's "Distant Shore." I have the Braveheart soundtrack and FotR and RotK complete recordings that I listen to when I want to feel epic.  For other writing, Celtic Woman's Believe and A New Journey is nice. And the TSP musical if I need to be distracted.
11. List three to five writing quirks of yours! Little habits, must-haves as you write, etc. Um. For one, I pull a Bilbo and never allow people to read things until they're somewhat finished ("Finished for what?" "Reading!"). I only use fountain and G2 Pilot pens if I can possibly manage it. I can't ever bring myself to work on something a little bit for a long time--I hole up with a notebook and don't emerge for several days or so.
12. What, in three sentences or less, does your writing mean to you? It's amusing and makes me think. When I start writing just what I think others will enjoy I'm usually not happy with the results.

Linking to Every Good Word