How about 6 & 10 for the writing meme? And happy new year to you!!
hehehe thank you for asking friend!
6. What’s your favourite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?
Oh that’s hard. Hmmm. I think it would have to be between two–one from tree of life and the other from living pains. I normally love writing dialogue, but the dialogue in the tree of life was pretty difficult to balance. I felt like I was very clumsy with words throughout the writing process. But I really like the dialogue in the tree of life, chapter 10, between Cheung Fun and Lu Guang on the fishing boat.
The river spun the fishing boat along its wild currents. Lu Guang clung to the edge, hugging the wood desperately to stay upright.
So, Lu Guang, said Cheung Fun. Jump out from this boat.
“What?” Lu Guang choked.
He looked up at Cheung Fun with terror. The waters around him lashed out at him, dark and deep with the unknown.
Now, said Cheung Fun. And then you will be safe.
“But–”
Keep your hand stretched out from the surface, Cheung Fun said. You will know when to get out of the river.
Lu Guang couldn’t help it. He whimpered. He had thought by now he had lost the fear of death–somewhere in between losing his life to the war against time, and losing his friend. And yet life flailed inside of his heart, rich and flush with the hunger for more of it. He was alive, and he was afraid. He had been afraid for so long.
Cheung Fun pressed his snout against the top of Lu Guang’s head.
“Will I drown?” Lu Guang cried out.
I am a dragon, said Cheung Fun. The king in the river. I could dry this riverbed in a breath, split it into a thousand streams like hair. If I tell you to get in the water, it can do nothing against you.
Lu Guang could feel his limbs shake uncontrollably. Cheung Fun’s hot breath rustled his hair.
I could make it stop in its tracks until it is as still as glass, said Cheung Fun. But if you knew what I knew, you would not ask it of me.
It’s a conversation that I think when I heard it in my head really struck me like a bullet. It’s very much reflective of my own emotional wrestlings with faith and fear and trying to trust the Lord, and I channeled those emotions here–that sitting through torrential and terrifying storms of life is sometimes the only way to get me to where I absolutely need to be, but in the moment before I know where it’ll take me it’s so scary. Lu Guang sees a terrifying force of nature, one that had given him a fright back in chapter 3 and is understandably afraid of it, and if he had it his way, probably would rather the river be completely still and safe before he jumps out. But if that were the case, he would never have gotten to the bridge. It’s a piece of dialogue that I often go back to for my own emotional need for comfort, to remind myself that being afraid is so real and okay but to keep reaching my hand out, so to speak.
I also like this one from living pains lol:
“Lu Guang,” [Cheng Xiaoshi] said. “I just had a thought.”
“Oh?” Lu Guang said. “Shall we make a toast?”
10. What, if anything, are you going to try to do differently in your writing in the new year?
Oh, so much. I want to try writing an experimental fic, which is giving me a run for my money. I want to try writing more original fiction, or at least toy with the idea and not be so scared of it. I also would really love to write a QL centric fic if that will ever come to me, since stars was CXS centric in a way and the peaches fic was LG centric. We shall see…
fic ask meme!