Woo Hoo! Another installment of our "Ask Us Anything" series where Zyra solicited questions from our awesome readers and we continue to answer them.
Today, our first question is from nataliees: Would you ever write a story in the wrong order? As in, would you write the last half of the story first? For both of you.
AND, from MajorTrouble: What's your life like outside of all the Star Wars reading and writing and movie-watching? Do you ever post pictures of just Leia?
And here are our answers:
We'll start with me (Push): Would you ever write a story in the wrong order? As in, would you write the last half of the story first? When I first started writing Han/Leia, I found that I started at the beginning (with the ending in mind) and worked my way through a story.
Lately, however, I find that a scene or two will come to me and I find myself then trying to build a story around it. For some reason, I have always been intrigued with the idea of starting a story somewhere near the end and having flashbacks that would take the reader to the beginning. I have never quite pulled that idea off, though. There were several times that I tried to start it that way and then just gave up and went for the straight narrative. I guess the closest I came was the flashbacks I had during 'Restoration'.
For my post-ROTJ story stuff, where Han and Leia get married and everything. I actually had one scene that I really, really liked where Leia begins to come to terms on whether or not she wants to have children and then I tried to fill in the blanks leading up to that scene. Unfortunately, that 'filling in the blanks' has gotten to be so overwhelming that I have since abandoned the entire story arc including the one scene that started the whole thing. Eh.
Looking back, I can say that I always have a vague inkling of what the ending is going to be in my stories, but it can/does change as I write my way to it. Since ending my stories seems to be a tremendous pitfall of mine, you would think that it would be easier to have the ending done first. But, as in the case I stated above, that wasn't fool proof, either. Oh, well.
What's your life like outside of all the Star Wars reading and writing and movie-watching? I'm a married, working mother of two boys. I am committed to very few TV shows, but I am totally addicted to The Closer with Kyra Sedwick and I am bummed that the series is ending this winter. I'm also a huge (late comer) 30 Rock fan.
I've already admitted to rereading books, which I do all of the time and I also like to rewatch movies and I am often years behind the new release discussions. (I have still not seen Cowboys and Aliens).
We are a big football household. My husband is an LSU fanatic and I am a gigantic Saints fan. We like to entertain at our house and have frequent crawfish and crab boils and I like to drink lots of beer and drunk e-mail Zyra. My boys aren't into a bunch of organized sports and mostly we like to just hang out together. We swim and play video games and we have enough legos in my house to cover the entire state of Texas. I guess that's it.
Do you ever post pictures of just Leia? I had not been. But since you posted this question, I have been. Have you noticed? :-)
And now for Zyra: Would you ever write a story in the wrong order? As in, would you write the last half of the story first? I actually don’t think I’ve written any of my stories out of order. Even though often times the entire reason I want to write the story at all is because of a scene I thought of that would come later on. But I always fear that if I write the middle first I’ll get too annoyed and frustrated to bother going back to the beginning to fill all of that in, so I force myself to get through it in order, and it's like my reward for getting through the real work to finally write what I'd been looking forward to. I know a few times I might be having trouble with a certain scene, while knowing exactly what I want to do with the next one. And Push might advise me to write what I want to write first and then go back, but I don’t know why, I just can’t do it. Or maybe won’t really rather than can’t. Force of habit, maybe.
What's your life like outside of all the Star Wars reading and writing and movie-watching? There is more to life than Star Wars? Wait, I guess there is. Oh, the rest of my life is all champagne, limos, extravagant parties, men throwing themselves at me…. Or not. I’m a grown adult (at least according to my driver’s license) and I am able to work from home on a flexible schedule so I work here and there in between e-mailing with Push and reading and writing. Aside from that I’m actually really an athlete at heart. I like to spend a good amount of time outside doing almost anything active, played sports all through school and all of that. I was the one who was so adamant that Push watch 30 Rock so at times we quote Liz Lemmon almost as much as Star Wars. And actually a lot of things about Liz Lemmon are scarily like me! I'm not married, and Push keeps assuring me that Han Solo-esque men do not really exist, so that may take some time there. But I have a very close-knit family and get to play Star Wars with my nephew sometimes without the added hassle of having to pay to feed and clothe him ;)
Do you ever post pictures of just Leia? Push is usually in charge of changing the background pictures, and I believe almost right after this question was posed she put up a just Leia pic, or one in one of her posts. Of course, eventually we have to run out of Han and Leia pics, right? So although those are preferred, I’m sure there will be a few single shots of one or the other. And then we will go back to the old favorites :)
Today, our first question is from nataliees: Would you ever write a story in the wrong order? As in, would you write the last half of the story first? For both of you.
AND, from MajorTrouble: What's your life like outside of all the Star Wars reading and writing and movie-watching? Do you ever post pictures of just Leia?
And here are our answers:
We'll start with me (Push): Would you ever write a story in the wrong order? As in, would you write the last half of the story first? When I first started writing Han/Leia, I found that I started at the beginning (with the ending in mind) and worked my way through a story.
Lately, however, I find that a scene or two will come to me and I find myself then trying to build a story around it. For some reason, I have always been intrigued with the idea of starting a story somewhere near the end and having flashbacks that would take the reader to the beginning. I have never quite pulled that idea off, though. There were several times that I tried to start it that way and then just gave up and went for the straight narrative. I guess the closest I came was the flashbacks I had during 'Restoration'.
For my post-ROTJ story stuff, where Han and Leia get married and everything. I actually had one scene that I really, really liked where Leia begins to come to terms on whether or not she wants to have children and then I tried to fill in the blanks leading up to that scene. Unfortunately, that 'filling in the blanks' has gotten to be so overwhelming that I have since abandoned the entire story arc including the one scene that started the whole thing. Eh.
Looking back, I can say that I always have a vague inkling of what the ending is going to be in my stories, but it can/does change as I write my way to it. Since ending my stories seems to be a tremendous pitfall of mine, you would think that it would be easier to have the ending done first. But, as in the case I stated above, that wasn't fool proof, either. Oh, well.
What's your life like outside of all the Star Wars reading and writing and movie-watching? I'm a married, working mother of two boys. I am committed to very few TV shows, but I am totally addicted to The Closer with Kyra Sedwick and I am bummed that the series is ending this winter. I'm also a huge (late comer) 30 Rock fan.
I've already admitted to rereading books, which I do all of the time and I also like to rewatch movies and I am often years behind the new release discussions. (I have still not seen Cowboys and Aliens).
We are a big football household. My husband is an LSU fanatic and I am a gigantic Saints fan. We like to entertain at our house and have frequent crawfish and crab boils and I like to drink lots of beer and drunk e-mail Zyra. My boys aren't into a bunch of organized sports and mostly we like to just hang out together. We swim and play video games and we have enough legos in my house to cover the entire state of Texas. I guess that's it.
Do you ever post pictures of just Leia? I had not been. But since you posted this question, I have been. Have you noticed? :-)
And now for Zyra: Would you ever write a story in the wrong order? As in, would you write the last half of the story first? I actually don’t think I’ve written any of my stories out of order. Even though often times the entire reason I want to write the story at all is because of a scene I thought of that would come later on. But I always fear that if I write the middle first I’ll get too annoyed and frustrated to bother going back to the beginning to fill all of that in, so I force myself to get through it in order, and it's like my reward for getting through the real work to finally write what I'd been looking forward to. I know a few times I might be having trouble with a certain scene, while knowing exactly what I want to do with the next one. And Push might advise me to write what I want to write first and then go back, but I don’t know why, I just can’t do it. Or maybe won’t really rather than can’t. Force of habit, maybe.
What's your life like outside of all the Star Wars reading and writing and movie-watching? There is more to life than Star Wars? Wait, I guess there is. Oh, the rest of my life is all champagne, limos, extravagant parties, men throwing themselves at me…. Or not. I’m a grown adult (at least according to my driver’s license) and I am able to work from home on a flexible schedule so I work here and there in between e-mailing with Push and reading and writing. Aside from that I’m actually really an athlete at heart. I like to spend a good amount of time outside doing almost anything active, played sports all through school and all of that. I was the one who was so adamant that Push watch 30 Rock so at times we quote Liz Lemmon almost as much as Star Wars. And actually a lot of things about Liz Lemmon are scarily like me! I'm not married, and Push keeps assuring me that Han Solo-esque men do not really exist, so that may take some time there. But I have a very close-knit family and get to play Star Wars with my nephew sometimes without the added hassle of having to pay to feed and clothe him ;)
Do you ever post pictures of just Leia? Push is usually in charge of changing the background pictures, and I believe almost right after this question was posed she put up a just Leia pic, or one in one of her posts. Of course, eventually we have to run out of Han and Leia pics, right? So although those are preferred, I’m sure there will be a few single shots of one or the other. And then we will go back to the old favorites :)
Alright, so there went another installment of our "Ask Us Anything" series. If you would like a question answered, please visit that post and Ask Us Anything. (We do reserve the right to not answer, if necessary! So, don't get crazy...)
Once again, don't worry if your question didn't get answered (yet), we will continue to post answers as long as you guys continue to ask questions.
Right on, 30 Rock fans!
ReplyDeleteTo Push!
ReplyDeleteWho Dat!!!
True Dat, Jenny2412! Geaux Saints!
ReplyDelete30 Rock is awesome and it saddens me greatly that this season doesn't start until January! Come on, Tina Fey, I don't care if you just had a baby, get back to work!
ReplyDeleteAbandoned, Push? I do remember you sending me that one scene out of the blue but I wouldn't say you've abandoned the whole idea. I'm still really looking forward to you working on that whole thing even though I know you aren't.
And oh, jeez with the Saints talk.