Never Have I Ever Tag//Writer's Edition

I came across a tag recently that has been remaking its rounds through the blogosphere, and I thought it would be the perfect one for right after NaNoWriMo, so that all of my weird writing habits are fresh in my mind! Thus, today I shall be playing Never Have I Ever with writing things. :)

Praecepta:
Link and thank the blogger who tagged you. (Thanks Chelsea for telling me I could steal it!)
Include the graphic somewhere in the post (or make your own!)
Answer the questions truthfully and honestly.
Tag 3 bloggers.

Never Have I Ever...

...started a novel that I didn't finish. ✔
Ha. Ahahaha. Yeah, I have definitely started a novel I haven't finished. It does happen a lot less often than I would have expected...not counting false starts in middle school (i.e. less than a chapter written, generally), I can count on one hand the first drafts I haven't finished. But those abandoned drafts do certainly exist. One of the more recent ones was a very promising idea that I killed by outlining it. I certainly learned my lesson--pantsing with light bullet points from here on out!

...written a story completely by hand. ✔
Would you believe that yes, I have? I wrote what came out to be at least a 40k manuscript completely by hand over a period of oh, probably a year? Maybe a little bit less. It spanned three notebooks, I believe. It was quite the thing to transcribe, when I wanted to have a digital document. (That was when I was a freshman in high school, I think? I don't remember precisely.) 

...changed tenses midway through a story. ✖
I don't know that I have, now that it comes down to it. I know that I've changed what person I was writing from (1st to 3rd, or vice versa, I can't remember which) but I don't think I've changed tense. I could be wrong, but I don't remember an occasion on which I've changed tense for more than a sentence or so, which I corrected immediately after. 

...not researched anything before starting a story. ✔
I have done that. It did not turn out well. That was one of the first drafts that I did not finish. XD (It was a story set in the 19th century, and it was going to be magical realism/urban fantasy/paranormal fiction, but I didn't start research before I started writing, and I got bogged down in the tiny details I needed to know, and it was BAD. 

...changed my protagonist's name halfway through a draft. ✖
I have definitely not done this! I think I've changed other characters' names (maybe), but never the protagonist. Names are too important to me--I need to know the protagonist's name, and not change them! (I have, however, gotten through an entire first draft without giving the protagonist a name. Or learning the protagonist's name, whichever. That was a whole thing.)

...written a story in a month or less. ✖
Sadly, no, unless you count one of my Quirks, which are flash fiction and usually only take me a couple of hours. I am a lengthy writer, of first drafts at least, meaning that even if I do (and win) NaNoWriMo, I'm still not done with the draft, and I find it hard to motivate myself to finish a whole first draft in a month if I don't know how many words that is, for better or worse.

...fallen asleep while writing. ✖
No, I haven't! I find it ridiculously difficult to fall asleep anywhere but my bed, and if I haven't fallen asleep on a transatlantic flight while I was dead tired, I will probably never fall asleep while writing.

...correct someone's grammar IRL/online. ✔
Yep, I have definitely done this! Usually, the person I'm correcting is related to me, but that's not a universal. I have an ear for grammar, and it irritates me in the extreme when it's not used properly (come on, y'all, how hard is their/there/they're or it's/its? Not that hard). My aunt has the title within our family of "Regina Grammaria" (queen of grammar), so I learned from the best. 

...yelled in all caps at myself in the middle of my novel. ✔
Guilty as charged. I actually do this on a fairly regular basis (i.e. at least once per novel, I do believe), because if I'm frustrated, it's kind of fun. And I know I'll think it's funny when I come across it again. I tried to find an example in my current draft to show you (because I'm 98% sure there is one), but it evaded me this time.

...used "I'm writing" as an excuse. ✔?
Maybe? I've probably turned down outings/getting food/going outside with people, whether at college or at home, because I was writing. I don't remember a specific occasion, but I'm pretty sure it's happened. We'll call that a yes.

...killed a character that was based on someone I know in real life. ✔
Would you believe me if I told you that I've done this twice? (Probably more times if you count characters that were just inspired by someone I know in real life.) It's quite painful (I've only killed characters based on people I care about in real life) but I think that honestly, killing people based on people I know makes it easier for me to write the MC's reaction to that death, because I can put myself in the MC's shoes more easily. 

...used pop culture references in a story. ✔
Oh yeah! Usually it's a Lord of the Rings reference, although I've also used Andrew Peterson, Howl's Moving Castle, and The Queen's Thief. (Do those things count as pop culture? I think they do.) This only really works when I'm writing contemporary-ish, though, and the references are fairly obvious--the MC is reading one of the books, or she or he thinks about a line from one of the books, &c. I did put a more subtle one in recently, which made me very happy. :)

...written between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. ✖
Not that I know of. I'm usually asleep between the hours of 1 a.m. and 6 a.m., and if I'm not, I'm in no condition to write, believe me.

...drank an entire pot of coffee while writing. ✖
Perhaps because I've never written between 1 and 6 a.m., I have never done this. In fact, I've never drunk an entire pot of coffee, period. And I haven't drunk coffee while writing in a really long time, if ever. It's just not a writing-esque beverage.

...written down dreams to use in potential novels. ✔
All the time! And even if I don't write them down, my dreams often give me ideas. I often have very vivid dreams (not all the time, but often) and they will often (but again, not always) stick with me, and so I end up using them. 

...published an unedited story on the internet/blog/Wattpad. ✖?
Do my Quirks count? Those are short flash-fiction stories that I post every so often...but even those I generally go over to check for voice, typos, grammar, &c. So, no?

...procrastinated homework because I wanted to write. ✔
Yep! Especially this past month. But I got all the homework done after I wrote, don't worry. I kept it together, although it was a bit of a feat.

...typed so long that my wrists hurt. ✖
Not that I remember. I don't generally do long periods of just writing. I need to take breaks to think. Maybe if I was a plotter, I wouldn't need that, but as a pantser, I need to figure out what happens next in order to continue, and that gives my wrists a break.

...spilled a drink on my laptop while writing. ✔?
Yes, I think, but I didn't get much liquid on the laptop. Just a few drops. (I think that's what happened? My memory of the event is quite vague. It might have been that someone else spilled a drink on my laptop.) 

...forgotten to save my work/draft. ✖
I don't think so! I have OneDrive, which saves my work automatically when I work in Word, so I don't really have to worry about that. (I have, however, forgotten to back up my work (mostly my photos, though, not my writing), which is another story.)

...finished a novel. ✔
Well, what does finishing entail? I've never taken a novel from idea to publication, BUT I have finished first drafts! We're going to count that. In fact, I think I've finished two novel-length first drafts (only one of which I find fit to continue working on) and am working my way towards a third!

...laughed like an evil villain while writing a scene. ✖
I don't think I've done this. I generally am not all that expressive while writing, except that I will try out the MC's expressions on my face, which can get awkward if I'm with other people. But I don't usually exult in causing the necessary pain and suffering in a novel, so thus, no evil chuckles.

...cried while writing a scene. ✔
If you count tearing up (which for me is the equivalent of legit crying, I think), then yes. It's only happened once or twice, but I knew that I was doing a good job with those scenes!

...created maps of my fictional worlds. ✔
I have done this! How good the maps are is another question, but for one of the novel-length first drafts I've finished (the one I'm not planning on doing something with, unless I repurpose the characters & worldbuilding but scrap the plot), I did make a map. And it was great fun, even if it wasn't a great map.

...researched something shady for a novel. ✔
Let's take a look at some of my search history: "Consequences of a broken pelvis", "how long does it take to bleed out from a shoulder wound/thigh wound/being shot in the chest", "what happens when someone is hit by a car", "how to deliver a breech baby", "Catholic baptism by a lay person in extremis", "weird neon signs", "how to kill rabbits". 
That's a big ol' yes. 

Final Tally:
✔: 15
✔?: 2
✖: 9
✖?: 1

And I Tag:
Miss Megan 
Sarah Seele
Rebekkah @ Blue Pail Blogs

What's the weirdest thing you've ever researched for a novel? Do you make the faces your MC makes while you write? Do you like seeing pop culture references in stories?