edit: AH FUCK. That's supposed to read "Tales from the Scrypt". My bad, EE. Here is a link to her original questionnaire.

Hope you're all having a great Sunday! I know that people usually answer questionnaires via audio, but I'm a writer, so I thought it was appropriate to write my answers.

An archive of my scripts can be found here.

1. What made you start writing scripts? Did you do any other sorts of writing in the past?
My job consists of a lot of sitting at a computer and waiting for other people to do things or me just procrastinating. I thought writing scripts would be a good way to kill that time while also pushing myself creatively. Also, GWA is just a great community that I wanted to be a part of.

I do all kinds of other writing. I'm most passionate about poetry, but I also really like writing fiction, and I write non-creative stuff for work. I'm constantly working on something.

2. Where do you get your ideas? (I KNOW SUCH A BROAD QUESTION SORRY)
Usually, it's a sentence or phrase that I really like the sounds of. I'll hear a couple of words in my head with vowels that go together nicely or a solid cadence, and then it's a matter of building a scene around that. However, some of my recent scripts, in particular “Sex Education” and “Distillation” have been more deliberate attempts at constructing big ideas and composing a script with them after I have a structure.

3. Do you read erotic fiction? Any favorites?
Not really. When I wrote my succubus scripts—“School of Hard Cocks” and “A Human Anatomy Lesson”—I downloaded a bunch of those free first chapters from the Google Play bookstore to get a feel for how succubi 'worked,' and I've done that with a few other scripts.

Oh, I do read the comic Sunstone, which I'm fairly certain counts. It's a comic about a lesbian couple in a BDSM relationship that is very much based in reality—lots of good and bad relationship-y feelings, awkwardly struggling with being tied up and having an itch, and other things that don't often appear in sexy fiction.

4. Who is your favorite Real Life author (any genre)? Go ahead, pick a few. I hate picking one favorite. Poetry: Robert Hass, TS Eliot, Emily Dickinson, CK Williams, Li-Young Lee

Fiction: Amy Hempel, Raymond Carver, Jhumpa Lahiri

5. Can you think of a particular sex or romantic scene from literature (or maybe a movie or other medium) that you really enjoyed? What made it so damn hot? Maybe it's not even a sex scene, maybe it's just a scene with lots of wonderful tension that you really wish turned into a sex scene…
“The Storm” by Kate Chopin completely changed the way I look at language and what I thought language can do. It's just so charged with eroticism without being out and out smut—not that there's anything wrong with smut, mind you; but the way it was able to build tension through structured language and imagery blew my mind.

My username comes from the short story “Offertory” by Amy Hempel—which is itself an allusion to Dickinson's “I dwell in possibility”. Hempel is really a master at combining art and craft in such an inseparable way. The protagonist is sexy but also a completely normal person. She embellishes in order to touch the carnal truths that we so often shy away from. “His stance was not unlike the one I had proposed to him in my letter, that we observe the Wild West practice: We put our cards on the table. We moved into what he called 'the precincts of possibility,' of anything-goes, of nothing undisclosed.” I love how she gets at this primordial feeling of sexiness through the very rhetorical construct of language; and she does so by telling a fictional story where the character is telling semi-fictional stories. It shows that sexy is a feeling, an urge, a desire. Even if the stories are made up, sexy is always a truth.

6. Do you have a writing ritual? (When/where do you write, do you drink something while writing, listen to music etc)
Particularly for poetry, I like to read poetry for an hour or two so I can really get those kinds of cadences in my head before I start writing my own. It's really not that different from warming up with scales before you play music or various warmup drills for athletes.

That being said, for the majority of my writing, it's just sit down and write. For work, I'll get assignments that I only have a couple hours to write, so I'm used to writing even when I'm not in the headspace for it.

7. How long does it generally take you to write a script?
Generally, it's probably about 3-6 hours for a script in the 1,000 word range, I think. That's usually spread out over a couple of nights, but then I've been pretty busy lately, so my time for writing scripts has been really spread out.

8. Do you work on multiple scripts at the same time, or do you have to finish one before you can start another?
Once I start writing a script, I try to finish it before I start writing something else, but that doesn't always work out. Sometimes I get a spark for another script when I'm already working on one. When that happens, I'll write a couple hundred words of the second script, enough to establish the scene and the 'feel' so I can remember it later, and then I'll go back to the first script. But I do have some notes for a bunch of potential scripts in a Word document dedicated to brainstorming, if that counts.

9. Do you have a script you really want to write, but are having trouble finishing or even starting?
The script I'm working on now—hence why I'm not working on it right now—is causing me fits. It's going to end up being my longest script by far. There are quite a few scenes, and they all have the same premise, so I keep writing shit and then going back and deleting the last 500 words I wrote because I feel like things are getting too monotonous.

10. What's the hardest part of script writing for you?
This happens to me when writing fiction as well—sometimes after that initial sort of 'push' I find that my quality of writing drops off. My process is less inspiration-based and more nose-to-grindstone these days, so in a way, I end up taking ideas for granted, which is never a good thing. When I'm really feeling it, I'm jumping from beat to beat or image to image, the ideas flow, and the writing feels tight; but I'm just so concerned with output anymore that I continue writing even after I've burned myself out for the day, and then it becomes a matter of getting a few hundred more words down just for the sake of getting a few hundred more words down. That's not good for the final product.

11. How do you deal with writer's block?
I literally can't afford to have writer's block anymore. I make very little money; if I succumb to writer's block, I don't make rent.

That being said, I do make conscious efforts to stave it off. I think of creativity as a faucet. It's not about one brilliant moment of inspiration; it's about keeping the faucet constantly flowing. That's one of the reasons I decided to start writing scripts—just so I know that I constantly have something to work on. You just have to keep getting words down. Even if they're shitty, that's what editing is for.

Jay Smooth refers to creative blocks as the “Little Hater”—that is, when you're blocked, it's because there's a little voice in your head saying your idea isn't good enough, or you don't have enough skill, or no one cares about what you have to say. The best way to deal with a bully is to ignore them, and I've found that true for the Little Hater. Write all the time. Carry a pocket-sized notebook with you, and write down all the ideas, no matter how shitty—especially the shitty ones. Once that Little Hater realizes that he can't stop you even when he's right and the idea is shitty, he'll stop trying to bother you at all.

12. What's your editing process like? Do you find it hard to tell when a script is "done"?
I probably shouldn't admit this, but I don't edit much. I'll give my scripts a once-over, and that's usually about it. One of the reasons I'm on GWA is because it's a break from the super serious process of writing poetry and fiction. I have 16 line poems that I've been working on for years that have gone through 50 different drafts. It's nice having GWA as an outlet where I can write a thing and post it pretty immediately.

13. Do you prefer writing for a male or female voice? For a dom or a sub voice? Do you find any of these more difficult to write than the others? Why?
As far as genders go, I don't think I prefer one over the other. They're different experiences to write because I have a penis and do not have a vagina, so as far as sensations and the type of play to create those sensations, I have a reference point for some junk but not other junk. But in the end, I don't think I prefer either.

As far as dom vs. sub, I prefer to write the dom voice because it's easier to dictate the action of the scene that way. The sub role is, I think, inherently reactive, and it's less natural to explain what's going on while being on the receiving end rather than the giving end.

I haven't written any M4F Mdom scripts yet as I'm still trying to figure out my role and responsibilities as a smut creator when regarding gender roles, norms, and my own personal desire to disrupt narratives. Mdom in real life, as long as it's consensual between all parties, let's get it; but I think certain responsibilities pop up once the experience turns from visceral to representational. For me, porn, muckraking journalism, anything with shock value should be used to stick it to The Man rather than reinforcing his ideas.

14. Have you ever written a script and then decided not to post it? If so, why? You should probably just post it, man.
I have a few pieces that I never finished and therefore never posted, but I don't think I have anything that's done and not posted. For the half-finished ones, it's usually that I lost inspiration after the initial spark and got bored with writing them. I do have a few that I actually want to finish but can't figure out how to proceed.

15. Tell us about a script (or even just a line) on GWA that you heard or read and went,"damn, I wish I'd written that!"
Oh god, there are so many that I'm struggling to think of off the top of my head.

/u/errinerung's “Bolero” lifted the top of my head off. /u/schmaneurysm's “The Reluctant Succubus” is possibly my favorite script for the way it portrays the ambivalence of desire. /u/cry--baby's “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” is amazingly dynamic and creepy. /u/kleineshexe's “That Girl Needs Therapy” creates two irresistible characters and does such a great job at escalating the situation. I don't know if /u/-shhhh-'s rambles count, but I thoroughly enjoy them.

16. Do you think you have a catchphrase - as in, a line or action you end up using frequently in your scripts?
I know I have certain phrases I repeat. I shouldn't admit this, but I kind of depend on scripts being picked up by different performers and/or being listened to by different people and hope that no one notices. I don't reuse the really good lines though.

17. Titles – how do you come up with them? Teach me, please.
Titles make me want to beat myself with a shovel.

18. Are there any words you dislike? Ditto tags. It doesn't even have to be an idea you dislike – example; I personally detest the word/tag creampie, even though I really like the idea it represents.
Creampie is the worst. Schlick, panties, pantyhose, girdle, vulva, rod, nips. I'm not a big fan of the word 'pussy,' but I feel like when you're referring to the who package, it has to be either pussy or cunt, and I know a lot of people don't like cunt.

I love the words grundle and taint, but they are so very unsexy. Also, pretty much any word referring to the testicles—I usually use balls just because I hate it slightly less than other words.

19. Do you spell it "cum" or "come"?
I spell it cum, but I was talking to a friend about this, and she said that cum is only allowed to be used by 13 year olds who write fanfic, so I may change that in the future.

20. Has a performer ever done something you weren't expecting (in an improv section, or just with tone etc) in one of your scripts? Tell us about that.
All of /u/ListeningAlways's sound effects on “Earth Boys are Easy” came as a hilarious surprise to me. It was a goofy script, and she made it even goofier.

/u/gonewildaudioalt did an amazing rendition of “Tequila Cock In Her”, which I will not spoil, but it's definitely worth a listen.

21. Have you ever been surprised by the reaction to a script or its performance? How so?
Honestly, every time someone records one of my scripts it's like receiving a surprise present. And every time I get a positive comment on my writing from a writer or performer I respect, I do a little fistpump.

As far as reactions to performances of my scripts, /u/errinerung's rendition of “Just a little recording for you” had a ton of very enthusiastic responses—I swear I'm not trying to suck up just because this is your questionnaire. /u/TransformHypnosis did an amazing rendition of “Ring Ring Ring Bananaphone”, and /u/SamuelEnderby recorded a response that was full of fun and delicious desperation. /u/NotInCtrl remixed my “Heads or Tails JOI/SI” script into his “Heads or Tails My Pets”; I would be totally down for more remixes.

22. Do you write with specific voices in mind? Have you ever gotten up the nerve to ask one of those voices to do one of your scripts?
I'll sometimes get inspired by a specific voice, but I not to limit myself to writing specifically for that performer—unless I'm writing specifically for that performer. A lot of performers have a certain style or aesthetic or whatever you want to call it, so hearing that voice in my head can serve as a kind of shorthand for what I want the script to feel like, but then I always end up trying to subvert or change that feel somehow.

23. When you write, do you tend to self-insert as the listener or the speaker? Or neither?
I think for the more BDSM things, I insert as the sub so I can figure out what I want the sub to go through. Sunstone presents the idea that the sub is the one who is actually in charge of a scene—the dom caters to the sub's likes and dislikes, the sub is the one who sets the limits, has responses that the dom adjusts to, etc. So I think inserting myself as the sub allows me to get a clearer view of the action.

For the more vanilla stuff where each party is giving equal input, I insert as the speaker and try to get into that character. In those scripts, it's a bit less about the action and more about creating a character that is desirable to the listener and performer/listener dynamic.

Either way, I'm constantly switching between the speaker and listener regardless of the script, but these are what I default to.

24. You get to actually live out one of your scripts in real life. Which one do you pick? Why?
I'm not sure—which is kind of concerning now that I'm thinking about it. Maybe “Scenes From (a Work Party At) an Italian Restaurant” because thatsmyfetish.gif. Maybe “Begging For a Pegging” because I really like the awkward enthusiasm of the speaker in that one.

25. If the answer to #24 isn't also your favorite script, what is your favorite script? Why? (Pretty please link the answers to both 24 and 25 in your post :) )
Ugh, this one's difficult. My scripts are varied enough that I like lots of them in different ways. I will go with “You Took Something From Me and I Want It Back” because even in the parts where the action slows a bit, the dialogue is unrelenting. I really like “Me and You and the Rest of the World” because it's philosophically heavy without being up its own ass. And I really like “Distillation” because it's weird, and it very much is up its own ass.