What's the difference between a trip and a journey?

Recently someone sent me a review talking about my switching tenses, so I thought that I would do a little chatting about my writing style. This is not an excuse for something you don't like in my writing, it's just an explanation of why I was doing it.

Tenses: I think one of the reasons I switch tenses accidentally is that each sentence has a certain feel for me. I write in present and past tense. I tried to write in future once to complete a trio of oneshots, the first two of which were in past and present. It really didn't work. It just got very confusing. However, I really love writing in present tense. I think that started with Kristi's fic Toxic Past. It's written entirely in present tense and I just love how it sounds. It's very hard to describe, but there's a feeling when I read and write in the present. It feels a little like connection and magic and romance...it's a little strange.

Inspiration: I get inspired by anything. I'm serious; I must come up with thirty to fifty different story ideas, both independent fiction and fanfiction, every day. It's been like that since I was little. For example, I was in a hotel the other day. I walked down to the lobby and came up with:

a. A story about being the night clerk in a hotel
b. A scene where a girl has to walk through the crowded lobby wearing only her bathing suit. (The girl was obviously me :D)
c. Something about a girl born with a miniature twin attached to her who died. (Weird, I know. The TV in the lobby was having a news special about the condition)

The first thing that pops into my head for independent stories is the idea, a basic plotline. For fanfic it's a specific line of dialogue or description. Examples:

a. From my fic Thoughts of the Grave- “She had somehow managed to be everything to him and yet leave nothing behind.”
b. Unwritten Buffy/Angel fic- “'Angel,' she said and she was screaming. In his dreams she was always screaming.”
c. Another unwritten Buffy/Angel fic- “'Why can you always hurt me but I can never hurt you?!'”

These lines are usually surrounded by a story, which is sometimes inspired by a song or moment in an episode and sometimes just fills itself in.

The way I write: I recently got into using verbs and adjectives that you wouldn't expect to be matched to the action or noun. When it's done well, the word really describes new nuances to what's going on. Markus Zusuk (great author) did that a lot and very well in his book I Am the Messenger (great book). Some examples are:

a. The guilt of this holds her down momentarily.
b. The sky is nervous.
c. My heart applauds inside my ears, first like a roaring crowd, then slows and slows till it’s a solitary person , clapping with unbridled sarcasm.” 

Here are some from various other sources:

a. “My hands will adore you”- Jewel, Absence of Fear
b. “His hands flirted with her zipper”- Kristi (bashipforever), Toxic Past
c. “The smile scrolled across his face”- Unknown

Do you how that works? In example a, the hands have a kind of worship about them and even though we're not told what they're doing, you can imagine them running over the other person. In example b, Kristi could have “his hands flitted up to her zipper” but she chose “flirted with” because it describes a specific indecisiveness and uncertainty but desire at the same time. And do you see how the smile in c curves out across the face? This could use a description of speed (quickly, slowly) but it all comes down to that visual imagery that works well when you're not using the same types of words.

Writing process: Stories live in my head for a long time. I have stuff in there from three or four years ago that I haven't ever put down on paper or told anyone about. A story stays in my head until it's fleshed out enough that I actually like it. Then I'll do some typing or write it longhand. Unfortunately, a lot of my stories just end in fragments. I have tons of documents that are rudimentary first or random scenes. I have pieces of loose leaf lying around my room with the beginnings of stories on them. There are a lot of causes for my abandoning a story: sometimes the inspiration leaves; I can get distracted by RL and then just find myself unable to get back in the zone; sometimes I become disinterested in the topic; there have been occasions where I find myself with a new story in my mind that absolutely must be written down and in the shuffle of the new story I just forget about the old one; it could even be that I lost the paper where I sketched out a quick dialogue, piece of description, synopsis or story outline. I have a master list of fics and stories that I haven't finished but am still interested in. It's very unlikely that they will all ever get finished, but I will keep trying.

Some authors who I've talked to or seen interviews/commentaries with say that the story is revealed to them as they write, like they're just the channel for something that's already prepared. That's not how it is with me. The story is roughly laid out before I start to write. What usually changes during the writing process is the dialouge, but it'll still get the characters to the same place.

While I write: I listen to a lot of music. I've noticed that authors have begun to thank the artists that they usually write to. Here's what's on my yay list: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog soundtrack, LA Song by Christian Kane, Once More With Feeling soundtrack, Bones: Music from the Series (I especially love Bring on the Wonder), Broken by Seether and Amy Lee, Billy Joel, the Eagles, School of Rock soundtrack, Jackson Browne, A Place Called Home by Kim Richey, Foreigner, Rent soundtrack, Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Taylor Swift, Blue Fringe and the Yeshiva Boys Choir. I also thank God for my iPod, iTunes free downloads (which are not as bad as you might think) and Magic 106.7.

Thanks for coming to chill and read. Peace.