1) I write best friends who are named Angie. I don't know why, but I seem to have written a lot of them. At least three, perhaps four, without even realizing. Why? *headdesk*
2) I like to write about en plein air marketplaces. This one I know why I like: it's because the depth of description in a marketplace is beautiful. There are smells, sights, different things to touch and do, different kinds of people to see, different tastes that linger in the air. It makes it lovely to write.
3) I have a thing for dragons, but I suppose I already knew that. >_<
4) Writing a children's novel has forced me to learn clarity and, I suppose, intention in writing. I have to constantly be aware of what I'm portraying, what it means that I'm portraying it, and how it's portrayed. I need to make things recognizable. I need to not promote stereotypes, and yet still try not to do the exact opposite of a stereotype just because the stereotype exists. I need to work with legends and make them recognizable without making them stereotypical. And it's hard, but I love it. And I've realized that it's leeched into all of my writing. I'm so much more aware nowadays of what I'm saying when I'm writing something.
5) I like to write scenes with food in them. The most memorable scenes of Redwall are the banquets. One of the reasons I love Poppy Z. Brite is for her use of taste as a sense in her writing. It's fun to make someone's mouth water about what you're writing.
6) The day I don't include a full cast of characters, of every race, gender, sexuality, religion, and ethnicity is the day I die. It's been that way since I first started writing seriously at ten, and it's the one thing I think my ten-year-old self got seriously right. Go, ten-year-old me!
7) I generally write modern-day fantasy. Also known as contemporary fantasy. Urban fantasy, if you can get past the paranormal romance connotation the phrase has gotten lately. And that enables one thing I like to do, perhaps too much: invent the pop culture. Bands, video games, movies, books, slang. It's really fun. I just don't know whether I should watch it or whether it's a good thing.
8) Trickster characters are probably something I should try to do without, because even though I love them, not every single thing I've written needs one. Really. I think. (But I love them so....)
9) Twins. Why do I write so many of them? I don't know. Is it the angst that one can create by making one favored over the other? Is it the twinny bond? Is it the sense that it's two-for-the-price-of-one? Is it the weird fascination I have for making one blonde and one brunette? Is it the fact that legends say they're cursed/powerful/awesome/evil? I've been doing better, but still. I suspect that I will write twins yet again sometime soon, and I will enjoy doing it.
10) Witty dialogue, I think I overuse you. But there's nothing more satisfying than when characters spar verbally. There's nothing more satisfying than a snide comment. This might be why I adore Snape, come to think of it. But when I edit, I always have to cut some of the witty dialogue. Dear characters: I know you're brilliant, but sometimes things are more important than you getting a hit in on your rival. Thanks. Me.
