Writing sneezefics & spelling sneezes

[tarotgal]

A while ago... a long while ago... I was asked a question on my LJ about spelling sneezes (for the life of my I can't find the original post to reference here). I promised a prompt but thorough response and never provided. And I've felt badly about that. So then I read this meme on a friend from one of my other LJs "Ask me one question - any one - about my art, then post this in your LJ so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours" As I've proved my art sucks, I thought I'd do the same regarding my stories. And hopefully this doesn't sound all Prima Donna- ick! LOL


SO: Ask me one question - any one - about my writing (sneezefics or non) then, if you like, post this in your LJ so I can satisfy my curiosity about yours.


AND: Okay, so for the most part the answer to how I go about choosing spellings for sneezes is pretty boring and not at all time-consuming. Whenever I get to that portion in a story, I usually just sense it out. Most times I just hear the sneezes in my head and I type them out best I can. I take into account elements like whether it's an allergy sneeze or a cold sneeze. My allergy sneezes are usually shorter and quicker and more desperate. Cold sneezes, on the other hand, tend to be longer, wetter, and more drawn out. I think about the mindset of the character a bit to figure out how wet/free/short/tired/built a sneeze might be. Once in a while, after I do that, I don't like how it looks so I tweak it a tad. But, generally, I just hear them in my head as I write.

Then I look at previous sneezes in a story and try to stay relatively consistent in their sound. I might vary things a bit, but generally I stick with the same sort of sneeze for a character throughout a story.

Now, sometimes I want to come up with something a little more special and I give it more thought based on the character. For example, a character who might be shy would get one sort of sneeze while a character who's up-tight would get something that sounds much different. Same goes for a character I see as someone who's more free with his emotions or a character who is absolutely exhausted. For the most part, all the elements of a scene and a character's personality (and what sort of sneeze I think might fit them) all work together to form a sound in my head. So that when I imagine them sneezing, I can hear it. This usually takes a few minutes.

But some characters I spend considerably more time and thought on. I write Legolas, for example, with sneezes that are much more drawn out for many reasons tied into the fact that he's an elf and in tune with his emotions and conquered by the sensations; so even though I might change the exact spellings, I always like his to be more drawn out. Harry Potter, on the other hand, I nearly always like to write with a pretty normal "Achoo" sort of sneeze which resembles James' which is more of a "Hahchoo". Of course, I also like sick!Harry sneezing in doubles and I think I established in one fic that James either sneezed once or many times but hardly ever twice. Sirius Black's sound a little harsher to me, especially post-Azkaban when his voice is a little rougher and his attitude's a bit darker.

Once in a while, when starting a story with a character I've written before, I go through a few of my favorites and look at how I spelled those sneezes. Then I'll use that type of sneeze throughout. (ehh versus ahhh versus ihhh versus uhhh for example, as the dominant vowel sound or shoo versus shhhh as the typical ending) Hyphens, capitalizations, ellipses, and length of sneezes are all subject to change a lot during a story, but the dominant sounds usually don't. I only like to use t's and apostrophes in very special cases. And my favorite sneezes to read tend to be ones like "K'shttt" but I hardly ever hear those in my head when I write characters, so I don't usually write them. EhhShuhh types are pretty much my usual, I think. Any significany variations are special or ones I've spent considerable time with.

But, for the most part, I don't usually give much thought to the spellings. Usually I just hear them in my head and if they look right when I sound them out and spell them, I go with it. I like to be sure it fits the character and situation and are similar throughout a story (not Hahchoo at one moment and Ngtshh! at another moment, at least not without reason- all stifling/handkerchief-muffled aside)

Also, I thought I'd post a page from my most recent notebook. It's from the FAKE boykissing fic I wrote last year, I believe. Shows a few sneezes I didn't write. Whenever I'm writing sneezefics anywhere where people could see, I never spell them out for fear of being seen. So I use squiggles or (in this case) dashes. I thought you'd all find it amusing to see that as well as how messy my handwriting is. A Page from my Notebook


So, yeah, ask away. Depending on the length of my answers, I'll post answers as replies or separate posts :-)

Comments

[shadowscast.livejournal.com]

Now I have an absolutely adorable picture in my head, of you sitting in a coffee shop scribbling away in your notebook, composing sneezefic with all the sneezes shyly dashed out. Cute like kittens!

[girlwithtulips.livejournal.com]

I'm awed at how much instinctiveness there is to your writing! I kind of hear the sound in my head, too, but I have no idea how to begin translating it into letters which phonetically represent those sounds.

Also, I like your handwriting. It's messy, but it just seems to flow together and belong there. I love seeing other people's handwriting! It's like one more piece I can see of someone's personality :)

[smokeycat-430.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thanks for writing all this out. I don't know what the hell I'm doing half the time so it's interesting to see how others think about such things. It was really helpful to read. Hmmm...Don't have a question for you now...Maybe I'll have to come back to that. By the way, you have way neater handwriting than me. I'm left handed to mine is all smudged and crap not to mention my hand is ink stained. Grrr...

Thanks again, though!

[ladykorana.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I'm the one that originally posed this question, out of sheer curiosity, and I'm wowed by the detail in your response. Obviously, all the thought you put into the spellings pays off, because I'm always impressed by how well the sneezes seem to fit the particular character and situation better than I could have imagined. As one who gotten a great deal of enjoyment from reading your works, you have my thanks for the effort you put into it, and my gratitude for the gift you seem to have for it. *hugs*

Feel free to pose any question you like to me in return (fic-related or not, as I have but one story to my name), but if it's fetish-related, I'd be grateful if we did it in your journal and not mine. My younger brother regularly looks for updates to my LJ. I really need to create a separate journal for fetish conversations...

[iff]

Wow! I've always loved how well you seem to match sneezes to the characters and, like smokeycat_430 said, I'm always kind of fumbling with my boys so it's really cool to see how it comes about for you. It was also neat to see a bit of the notebook. I'd been writing in notebooks and scribbling things out so small and messy that I'm surprised I could read them to type them, but at least I knew no one else could read them if I was having a hard time. Heh.