9962 réponses à ce sujet

[lillitheris]

It is…I was actually thinking about delaying publishing for that reason. Though it’ll of course be there when people get back anyway.

[Drussius]

^ You are churning out Chapters with impressive speed. I've been so busy trying to get the next Chapter of my story done that I haven't even gotten to your last one yet! I'm falling behind across the board!

Edit: I'd love to know where my habit of capitalizing the word Chapter came from...

Modifié par Drussius, 26 juillet 2012 - 10:12 .

[MacNasty]

Icyflare wrote...

Slow week for stories. I'll assume it's the summer vacations.

I don't know about anyone else... But putting a video game on my laptop didn't help with my writing...

On a side note, I'm near the halfway point of my prologue at least. I'm not sure how it well it will work, it doesn't speak about or involve the main character, at least not until chapter's later, but it involves the villain... I'm thinking it should work fine, but the jump from some random person to the main person might seem a bit odd I think.

Modifié par MacNasty, 26 juillet 2012 - 10:14 .

[lillitheris]

Drussius wrote...

^ You are churning out Chapters with impressive speed. I've been so busy trying to get the next Chapter of my story done that I haven't even gotten to your last one yet! I'm falling behind across the board!

Edit: I'd love to know where my habit of capitalizing the word Chapter came from...

I capitalize it when I use it as a proper name, as in “you should read Chapter 28”

[Drussius]

As you've probably noticed, I tend to capitalize it as default. I need to start breaking myself of that habit. Because it's bad!

[Seracen]

hot_heart wrote...
It's just a bit funny describing what attracts her to Shepard when you usually play as him.

I'd say you should set up the scene during the start of the conversation, having Miranda's eyes wavering to Shepard's anatomy at times.  She could berate her hormones, when she should be focusing on her sister's predicament.  Then finally, Shep makes the comment, having been frustrated and finally happy just to share a quiet moment with her...then suddenly Miranda figures "why the heck not?"

I think the best excercise I ever had for getting over my hangups with writing romance: my friend challenged me to write a lemon fic (for those who don't know...pure sex).  She gave me a whole lot of factors, and I went nuts. Probably took me a week to write those four chapters.

Still, ever since going through THAT mess, I can't say I shy away from such scenes anymore.

Incidentally, if you want to read that decadent and self-indulgence piece of fiction...beware the young writer's sappy writing (one of my first projects).  Also, the good stuff doesn't happen until chapter 4, as it's action of a more combat oriented nature prior to that.

[Seracen]

Looking back at my alternate account (darn you ff.net for not letting me access it!!!)...

It's funny reading some of the stuff I haven't looked at in years. I mean, some of it's embarrassing, some of it instills me with pride. More often than not, however, I am left wondering who in the heck wrote the darn stories.

Do any of you look back on your own works and wonder? I suppose I'm self-deprecating, but I'm always surprised when I read my own stuff and see a plot, story arcs, and characterization. It's almost like I expect my own work to be gibberish.

Like my ME3 fic...that was such a whirlwind project, I barely remember writing the thing. It was just a blur of typing, and the next thing I know, I'm editing and uploading. It rarely flows that quickly, however.

[Icyflare]

Seracen wrote...

hot_heart wrote...
It's just a bit funny describing what attracts her to Shepard when you usually play as him.

I'd say you should set up the scene during the start of the conversation, having Miranda's eyes wavering to Shepard's anatomy at times.  She could berate her hormones, when she should be focusing on her sister's predicament.  Then finally, Shep makes the comment, having been frustrated and finally happy just to share a quiet moment with her...then suddenly Miranda figures "why the heck not?"

"Shepard's anatomy". That could refer to quite a few parts there.

I would suggest only blaming hormones if it's a mainly a physical attraction. If it's more emotional-based, you probably have to describe her feelings towards Shepard and how they conflict/coincide with her mission to save her sister.

Do any of you look back on your own works and wonder? I suppose I'm
self-deprecating, but I'm always surprised when I read my own stuff and
see a plot, story arcs, and characterization. It's almost like I expect
my own work to be gibberish.

I think humility in a writer, or in a person in general, is a great trait to have, but when it crosses into belittling your abilities needlessly, well...it's not quite so appreciable.

I keep writing journals so I can track my thought processes when I'm creating a story. After I finish a story, I'm filled with a quiet happiness that it's completed. When I read my journal, there are long, frustrated entries, depicting why I'm stuck and problems that have come up in writing that could be resolved a different way later. They also help me clarify my thoughts and see the areas where I can improve upon.

In actual relevance to the question, I'm surprised at which stories flow really well, and which are choppy and uninteresting. It's like I don't write stories, the stories write themselves when they want to =/

Modifié par Icyflare, 27 juillet 2012 - 04:22 .

[Seracen]

Icyflare wrote...

Seracen wrote...

hot_heart wrote...
It's just a bit funny describing what attracts her to Shepard when you usually play as him.

I'd say you should set up the scene during the start of the conversation, having Miranda's eyes wavering to Shepard's anatomy at times.  She could berate her hormones, when she should be focusing on her sister's predicament.  Then finally, Shep makes the comment, having been frustrated and finally happy just to share a quiet moment with her...then suddenly Miranda figures "why the heck not?"

"Shepard's anatomy". That could refer to quite a few parts there.

I would suggest only blaming hormones if it's a mainly a physical attraction. If it's more emotional-based, you probably have to describe her feelings towards Shepard and how they conflict/coincide with her mission to save her sister.

And to be fair, Shepard's own hormones and raging libido probably don't help !  Agree with Icyflare, the emotional angle seems more poignant to me, especially considering how mentally drained the two must be.

@ MacNasty:  I figure it's cool if you break it up into a separate chapter, I do that mess all the time.  As for within the same chapter, I use the tried and true copout of setting followed by ellipses.

eg: On Earth...
(Shep Scene)

On Rannoch
(Quarian Scene)

Modifié par Seracen, 27 juillet 2012 - 04:40 .

[Icyflare]

MacNasty wrote...
I don't know about anyone else... But putting a video game on my laptop didn't help with my writing...

Tell me about it. I swore I would write a chapter today. Ended up playing Borderlands for eight hours with my friends <_<

I keep wanting to write then getting distracted by different things. I even learned to play songs on my guitar in languages I can't speak, just to avoid the frustrating feeling of writer's block.

[Drussius]

Icyflare wrote...

MacNasty wrote...
I don't know about anyone else... But putting a video game on my laptop didn't help with my writing...

Tell me about it. I swore I would write a chapter today. Ended up playing Borderlands for eight hours with my friends <_<

I keep wanting to write then getting distracted by different things. I even learned to play songs on my guitar in languages I can't speak, just to avoid the frustrating feeling of writer's block.

Been there, done that. Although I blame the chair in my workroom. There has never been a more uncomfortable chair... ever. I boot up the laptop, seal myself away in the privacy of my workroom, write for 15 minutes, and my lower back/posterior are killing me. So I have to get up and do something else. I could set up elsewhere, but anyplace with comfortable chairs has children playing kinect, or watching Project Runway, or whatever. So it's uncomfortable chair, or distractions galore.

At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

[Icyflare]

^Couldn't an uncomfortable chair be a distraction in itself? Especially if it's causing lower back pain?

[Drussius]

Indeed. Not quite as distracting as the TV though. And I wouldn't classify my girls as a distraction per se, because that sounds so... negative. But I do tend to gravitate toward whatever they're doing when they're around. I know more about womens' fashion than any man should because of watching Project Runway, 24-hour Catwalk, and the like with my kids...
Maybe there's a touch of ADHD mixed in with my other psychological issues...

[Icyflare]

At least you can give your wife actual fashion advice if she ever asks for it?

Question: How in depth do you get to know your characters before you start writing? I've heard some say that you should know every facet of their backgrounds while other writers have said their characters grow for them as they shape the story. PMC said a while back that she tries to find what's at her character's heart. I think that helps define their essence.

I think knowing what a character fears most is also very defining as well. I think what you're truly afraid of says a lot about you as a person.

Modifié par Icyflare, 27 juillet 2012 - 06:07 .

[Drussius]

Personally, I try to put together a rough profile of each of my characters, delve into their backgrounds, their families, their interests and the like. However, I don't go too overboard because I often find myself changing little bits of their backstory or their personality as I write. So I guess I fall somewhere into the middle on the preparation scale for characters. I like to have an idea of who they are when I start, but I let them grow a bit as I write them too.

[fluffywalrus]

Icyflare wrote...

Question: How in depth do you get to know your characters before you start writing? I've heard some say that you should know every facet of their backgrounds while other writers have said their characters grow for them as they shape the story. PMC said a while back that she tries to find what's at her character's heart. I think that helps define their essence.

I think knowing what a character fears most is also very defining as well. I think what you're truly afraid of says a lot about you as a person.

I think it's really important to get to know your characters (main ones, at least) inside and out, but that's probably just me. I've had my Shepard, Melody, and a few other characters living in my head for...years. Since the first week I started playing Mass Effect. I've built on them since, but the majority of their details came to me that week. The only trouble is conveying those details, writing about them...

But I can see the merits of letting a character grow over time as you write. Makes it a bit more interesting. I take that approach in general when writing events in my fic...I know the characters incredibly well, but I only know in general what they do to become who they end up as.

A characters fears are indeed very important. It's one of the more important things to know about your character, as it's often interlinked with their personality.

[Seracen]

For the OC characters, I tend to fill out a rough outline of their past, motivations, and defining characteristics. Obviously I've lived with Shep and crew for 5 years, so I don't really bother with them.

On the other hand, I don't like going TOO much into detail with my OC's, as I DO like things to grow naturally from the writing.

Still: likes, dislikes, fears, ambitions, strengths, flaws, and major backplot or storyline beats are a must for me. Some of these I still leave blank, if the character is a simple archetype, or is minor enough that it doesn't matter.

Also, sometimes I just get impatient and want to get to the writing!

[Icyflare]

Seracen wrote...

Also, sometimes I just get impatient and want to get to the writing!

Completely understandable. Sometimes, I rush into writing, then get stuck because I don't know how my characters will react. Listening to what my characters say or would do is like frustrating. I get bits and pieces of what they would say in certain scenarios but nothing that really directs their actions. What would be the issue here in this case? Is it a lack of understanding of character motivations? Of how they think and deal with goals and conflict?

Modifié par Icyflare, 27 juillet 2012 - 08:01 .

[lillitheris]

^ That could be a good thing, too. When you know how characters will react, there will be an unconscious bias to arrange events to coincide with their traits. This could lead to boring/predictable storytelling.

On balance, it’s probably better to have a reasonable skeleton built, but I think there are benefits to organically constructing a character. (The obvious problem is if you tend to always organically grow into a similar direction.)

[hot_heart]

Cheers for the tips, guys! Some good food for thought there. Originally, I think I had the scene mapped out fairly well but I think I want to go 'deeper', which means a lot more effort, obviously. Definitely needs a bit before the two actually meet as well, I think.

I've actually had to edit some of the in-game dialogue because it's slightly off with regards to information the characters already know. Plus, when referring to her confession, Miranda says "I told you it was crazy" when at no point earlier had she said it was - not that I can edit that out though.

[hot_heart]

Seracen wrote...
Do any of you look back on your own works and wonder? I suppose I'm self-deprecating, but I'm always surprised when I read my own stuff and see a plot, story arcs, and characterization. It's almost like I expect my own work to be gibberish.

I have done this quite a lot with some of my old scripts. Sometimes, I'll look back over something and think, "Hey, there's actually some good stuff here. No way did I write this..."

[hot_heart]

Oh, on the subject of English accents, which we touched on a bit yesterday, I was reminded of a discussion I had with an American about Game of Thrones (TV series).

It's probably a deliberate casting decision, but I'm not sure if it's apparent to non-English audiences, that pretty much all of the 'Northern' characters have northern dialects (or Midlands and up), while the 'southron' characters have southern accents. Except for Sansa, who wants to be a southron lady.

Well, Tyrion has an "I don't know what the hell that is supposed to be" accent...

EDIT: Hmm, maybe it was on this board as well. Anyway, thread is dead.

Modifié par hot_heart, 27 juillet 2012 - 02:02 .

[lillitheris]

Ah, accents. There’s nothing quite so frustrating and fun as trying to read heavily accented dialogue in a non-phonetic language, ken?

[hot_heart]

Heh, I think that's a Scottish thing, right? But something in the back of my mind says it may have been used in The Dark Tower as well. My memory's not functioning too well at the moment...

[MacNasty]

hot_heart wrote...

Oh, on the subject of English accents, which we touched on a bit yesterday, I was reminded of a discussion I had with an American about Game of Thrones (TV series).

It's probably a deliberate casting decision, but I'm not sure if it's apparent to non-English audiences, that pretty much all of the 'Northern' characters have northern dialects (or Midlands and up), while the 'southron' characters have southern accents. Except for Sansa, who wants to be a southron lady.

Well, Tyrion has an "I don't know what the hell that is supposed to be" accent...

EDIT: Hmm, maybe it was on this board as well. Anyway, thread is dead.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but for me it was rather evident that was what it was supposed to be before I watched the show (Got that feeling from the books). And Tyrion... Maybe he has a dwarf accent?