If I don't know the answer off the top of my head, I'm sure someone (somewhere, sometime) understands what's happening.
2. Invent, and define a new word for the dictionary of the future?
I have "wibble" (verb, to jiggle messily) somewhere in the archives, but it's not exactly original. I'm not really a word inventor--rather, I'm a word pusher.
3. Was the media coverage of the war bias? Did you watch the coverage? Why, or why not?
The media is biased in pretty much everything no matter how much they crow about objectiveness. I do not watch the coverage because it's depressing and I have other things to do.
* * *
Muttering About World Building And So Forth
Different people go about preparing for writing differently. There is no correct way of going about it. As for myself, I write as I do everything else--quickly, in spurts, sometimes at the last minute, cutting near self-imposed deadlines.
I've tried world building before, but it has always turned out to be a failure. I never manage to get past the cursory maps that look like the scribblings of a two-year-old and the lists of new terms, timelines, and made-up history that I may be needing. World building is hard work and probably better suited to role-playing.
Akin to world building is the character sketch. However, I have a strong suspicion that my idea of a character sketch (see the peculiar types) is not what other writers have in mind. Perhaps their type of character sketch goes on like a biography. "Character A was born on this year at Somewhere Town. His parents were so-and-so. He's five and a half feet tall with brown eyes..." And so on and so forth. I know some people who spend their entire time making character sketches and not doing any actual writing. They feel that they're not ready, that they haven't fleshed the character out yet. But isn't that what the story is for? If I wanted to write someone's biography, I'd find a real person and do some serious research.
Of course, I'm not so adventurous as to jump into a project without any preparation. I jot down some plot notes. Like some writers who need a title before they start (I don't), my characters must have names before I start. I never haphazardly name characters, be the name common or obscure. I prefer obscure names, but most of the time, that never works out. You probably shouldn't name a character Zorkon if you're writing realistic fiction about teenagers living in the middle of Iowa.
Half the fun is actually the writing process itself, especially if it's not forced. The other half is finding out where the story is going to end.
