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[Sagacious Rage]

Elysium-Fic wrote...


Usually if I hit a writers block, it's because a character is sulking over the fact that I want them to do something they know they shouldn't be doing, or aren't ready to do yet.  Getting past the writers block seems to involve some form of compromise.

Oh man do I have a story about this. See, my original plan was to have Maebh kill Loghain at the Landsmeet. She was going to stand there holding his head up all Oren Ishii style and screaming at the banns "NOW'S THE FRAKKING TIME" and it was going to be so badass and awesome.

So I write this whole big fic and I FINALLY GET THERE OMG and it's like she was just staring at me going "You want me to do WHAT?! NO."

And I was all "Oh, come on. Please? It will be so cool!"

And Alistair's all in the back going "WTF ARE YOU DOING KILL HIM KILL HIM"

So I said, "Fine, fine you don't have to kill him. But then you have to take him with you and Alistair will dump you and you'll have to deal with his grumpy butt in the sequel."

It has been more fun writing them all trying to get along in the sequel. Especially since I married Alistair to Anora. LOL worst father-in-law ever. 

And yes, it happens with the NPCs as much as the PCs/OCs.

I had PLANNED that Teagan was going to be this super cool dude. Like the older kid of your parents' friends that you always had a crush on but now that you're ~grown up~ it's not creepy anymore and hey maybe let's get together sometime...

Apparently I am incapable of writing this. Instead he turned into your parents' creepy friend who always drinks a little too much and then starts making inappropriate comments about the girls around. I kinda feel bad about that, tbh. I actually like Teagan a lot. 

[jackkel dragon]

Thanks for responding, everyone.

The really awkward setup I have is that Leliana's introduction really exgagerrates the whole "I have visions." aka "What are you tripping on?" thing. I needed Leliana to join the party later, so I had to give reason for her to not join right away...

Thing is, she *was* intended to be the voice of reason at some point later in the story. Yeah, I'm listening to the person who must have been snorting lyrium.

I guess I'll just have to see what's going on in the new lyrium-addled Leliana's head...

Edit: Speak of the devil, the chapter is ready and has been uploaded!

Modifié par jackkel dragon, 05 décembre 2010 - 08:44 .

[DreGregoire]

haha I'm going to try to take a break from Assassins Creed Brotherhood everyday to do a little dragon age playing and fanfiction. We'll see though. heh. I hope everybody is well. *hugz*

[Maria13]

Hi Dre hope you are keeping well...

[inquartata02]

that said, I think that it still works better when authors look up actual symptoms of drug withdrawl/abuse/mental illness and try to copy them

For anyone who might want a peek into the mind/thought processes of someone with a mental illness, a great book/memoir is An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, who has Bipolar Disorder Type I.

When writing, it's good to have a grasp not just of the symptoms, but thoughts and feelings and experiences true to someone who is suffering through said symptoms. I mean, you guys probably know that anyway. I was just saying is all. The subject of mental illness is a personal one for me, as I used to work in the field as a social worker, and actually have Bipolar Disorder Type II. My illness is currently on maintenance treatment (meaning, I'm stabilized, and unless I or someone who knows told you, you wouldn't know I have a mental illness) with medication. But I did go through a few years where the doctors and I struggled to find the right medications to stabilize me, and my mental states in those couple of years was, well, insane a lot of the time. If anyone has any specific questions about thought processes or emotions or seeing/hearing stuff, I'd be okay answering them.


Anyway...

does anyone else plan for a character to be one way but write them in a way they didn't originally intend?

Why, yes. All the time. I have one misbehaving (well, going in a direction I wouldn't think she'd go) in my current WIP fanfic. And, to boot, I'm still not sure where she'll end up. o_O

now several chapters later he is with the group in the Deep Roads, got his own background story and is best friend with both of the Wardens.

Yes, I've been curious about said character!

[LupusYondergirl]

Sagacious Rage wrote...
I had PLANNED that Teagan was going to be this super cool dude. Like the older kid of your parents' friends that you always had a crush on but now that you're ~grown up~ it's not creepy anymore and hey maybe let's get together sometime...

Apparently I am incapable of writing this. Instead he turned into your parents' creepy friend who always drinks a little too much and then starts making inappropriate comments about the girls around. I kinda feel bad about that, tbh. I actually like Teagan a lot. 

I like Teagan... but he does mack on the Warden who is about half his age.  Stepping back from the situiation... well, that's kind of crazy.

And, keeping on topic... AOA was supposed to end somewhere around chapter 38ish. 
The characters were not pleased about this.  Or, I just couldn't come up with a new story to start once it was done.  In either case, it went from being a short story of Wardens versus the Chantry ending with things being somewhat stable to being "the life of Warden Commander Maggie Amell." I just posted chapter 87.

I do know where it'll end now, though.  (for real this time!)

[Mahkara]

 I like Teagan... but he does mack on the Warden who is about half his age.  Stepping back from the situiation... well, that's kind of crazy.

I feel the same way.   I adore some of the older characters in the game (Teagan, Loghain, Duncan, etc.), but OMG!  I would not set them up with the Warden as that feels so creepy.  I really prefer the fics that let Teagan hit on Alfstanna or Cauthrien or someone who's theoretically about his own age, as there isn't that "Why is this 40 year old guy hitting on my 18 year old Warden?" vibe.  (And, OMG, I suppose that means that I'll have to set Loghain up with Eleanore or something if I want him to get any action...no, not spoiling things at all...)

[Sagacious Rage]

Well that depends on how old you think your Warden is. For plot purposes I bent time and space to make mine 25 at the beginning of the Blight. To me, Teagan seems around mid-thirties. He's old enough that he really ought to be married at this point but young enough that it's not a HUGE EFFING DEAL yet.



Anyway, so it was cute when five-year-old Maebh told fifteen-year-old Teagan that she wanted to marry him when she grew up, because that's the sort of weird thing a kid will say sometimes. But now she's like 27 and he's like 37 and her dad is all "So, when are you going to settle down anyway" and it could be like all UST but instead the way I've written Teagan it's just gross.



Stupid Teagan, being a lech and ruining all my sexy plans.

[Maria13]

I sense there's a difference here, though. A qualitative difference between a character developing a different personality than that originally envisaged by the writer for him, and a character simply insisting on doing something different or additional than what his writer intended for him (ie the bunny trail). I haven't had the first but I've had the second Ali is spending far more time in Orzammar than this writer planned.



Naughty Ali!

[Mahkara]

 Well that depends on how old you think your Warden is. For plot purposes I bent time and space to make mine 25 at the beginning of the Blight. 

It does.  Just most of the origins seem to point to a warden in the late teens to me.  (With the exception of possibly the dwarf noble, which seems older as Bhelyn doesn't seem that young to me.)

I mean, you figure...

Cousland = left alone with the castle for the first time (it's hard for me to see a middle aged Cousland, unless he/she is so childish that the Couslands are like "sweetie, you can stay home all by yourself" to a 40 year old, which is kind of ridiculous.  I love playing that origin with an ancient looking PC as it cracks me up.)
Dwarf commoner = honestly feels like a teenaged street gang, so again, hard for me to see as older than 20
Dwarf noble = Still having to be escorted about for fear he/she might have to deal with the undesirables (then again, about to take over the army, so maybe 30s?)
Mage = about to go through graduation their Harrowing (so, um, 18?)
City elf = about to get married (assuming fairly young in a Medieval type society.  Maybe around 20?)
Dalish elf = still playing in the woods with their BFF

So, yeah, I mean, you can imagine that the characters are older (which I can see doing), but it would seem as though the game wants most of them (other than maybe DN) to be teenagers.  Which really does make it hard for me to set the Warden up with anyone other than, say, the actual love interests (who don't seem that old) or possibly the other young characters.  As otherwise there's just this vague feeling of "ick".  (Although I secretly love Loghain/Warden fic, so I sort of lie here...)

[Sagacious Rage]

IDK I think it depends on how well it's constructed. May/December romances are a pretty common, trope after all.

[LupusYondergirl]

I made my mage 22 at the start of the blight, but I just didn't want to write teenagers, to be honest.

I think, if you go by his age given in the first book, he' 39 or 40 at the start of the game. Which could just be may/december... but then if you pay that girl in the Chantry for her family's sword he can end up marrying her... and she's young enough to be talking about ending up in an orphanage now that her parents are dead.

I kind of wonder if the writers wanted him to be something of a dirty old man...

[Sarah1281]

Dwarf commoner = honestly feels like a teenaged street gang, so again, hard for me to see as older than 20

The DC is the younger sibling to someone whose job is to try to get pregnant so they can't be THAT old. I tend to go by toolset ages when it's reasonable so since the ages for Trian and Bhelen are 25 and 21 respectively, that puts the DN at 22-24 for me which I think works out nicely. This is your first command by yourself, after all, and you're hardly being put in charge of the whole army. In fact, you're not supposed to do much fighting at all, just find a shield.

[nos_astra]

LupusYondergirl wrote...
I kind of wonder if the writers wanted him to be something of a dirty old man...

The toolset notes certainly make him look less like perfect gentleman he is often painted in fanfiction.

A pot-bellied noble, not too interested in politics, always charming the ladies but can't settle for marriage, only steps up to the plate at the Landsmeet because he feels he must. I like that version much better, but I have an aversion against the bestest-boyfriend-in-all-of-Thedas syndrome that turns even Sten and Loghain into passionate lovers.

Edit: Oh, my Cousland is 24 in Origins and almost 26 in Awakening. My Amell is around 18, and so is my Tabris.

Modifié par klarabella, 06 décembre 2010 - 08:41 .

[Sagacious Rage]

My mage was held back, ok. There's no shame in it, just because she graduated at 25.



My hand-waving explanation is she go to the Tower late and then was really obnoxious and not motivated to learn at all so she never caught up, despite the fact that she is really quite bright.

[Addai]

klarabella wrote...

LupusYondergirl wrote...
I kind of wonder if the writers wanted him to be something of a dirty old man...

The toolset notes certainly make him look less like perfect gentleman he is often painted in fanfiction.

A pot-bellied noble, not too interested in politics, always charming the ladies but can't settle for marriage, only steps up to the plate at the Landsmeet because he feels he must. I like that version much better, but I have an aversion against the bestest-boyfriend-in-all-of-Thedas syndrome that turns even Sten and Loghain into passionate lovers.

I'll take that and thank you. 

Loghain is written as a romantic lead in TST, and as for Teagan, there is enough openness about his character that people can take it in several different directions.  Not sure what toolset notes you're referring to, but I've always read his as putting him to be a pretty good guy.  Dull for my taste, but a bit of courtly flirting with an adult woman who is obviously capable of handling herself and a member of an order of warriors he respects is hardly the worst vice.

As for Sten, the cultural divide is vast, but who knows what DA2 and 3 will bring. 

[jackkel dragon]

I stopped believing toolset ages after it called Alistair 30, when everything else says he's 21-22. So I base the Warden's age off of that most of the time, except for Orlesian Wardens. (Of course.) I do see the possibility for DN to be older, though.



Regarding the CE, I'm still lulzing at the buggy "what the hell?" scene I got from Leliana... (How old is she, anyway? She tells Wynne she looks younger than she is, which could make her almost as old as Morrigan, who is ~30.)



P.S: Those nerds like me who try to use all sources to figure out ages would likely place Loghain at ~50 in Origins, as he was ~20 in TST at 8:99. Just sayin'.

[Sandtigress]

I thought I remembered Teagan's toolset notes calling him the one genuinely honest person in just about the whole game. The uber-charming one toolset wise is supposed to be Riordan - he's supposed to be the man women want and the men want to be. I think Teagan was more the self-effacing younger nobleman who wasn't really charismatic enough to be good at politics and didn't like the political scene anyways, but was for the most part a good guy.

[Sarah1281]

Are we supposed to take Teagan being potbellied literally? The only one who calls him that is Oghren who says he's "that potbellied son-of-a-**** Teagan." Are we supposed to see his parentage in doubt because Oghren used that as an insult, too?

[jackkel dragon]

Sarah1281 wrote...

Are we supposed to take Teagan being potbellied literally? The only one who calls him that is Oghren who says he's "that potbellied son-of-a-**** Teagan." Are we supposed to see his parentage in doubt because Oghren used that as an insult, too?

You will not speak that way to the man who should be king!

[LupusYondergirl]

Sagacious Rage wrote...

My mage was held back, ok. There's no shame in it, just because she graduated at 25.

My hand-waving explanation is she go to the Tower late and then was really obnoxious and not motivated to learn at all so she never caught up, despite the fact that she is really quite bright.

So was mine.  The hand wave was that she spent more time screwing around and getting in trouble than actually working.
And her complete, utter inability to cast anything but the most basic healing spells.

@Jakkel: That's just out of date info they didn't change.  Alistair was originally written as a thirty year old.  DG scrapped the entire character and rewrote him from scratch as a much younger man.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

I never got Teagan hitting on my Warden first playthrough, because she didn't pass the persuade check to talk about himself (no coercion at that point), so for a while, way back, I was wondering why everyone squeed over him so much. XD All he said to *me* was "No time! Defend the village while I nobly hide in the Chantry!"



That said, IIRC he only hits on the Warden if you flutter your lashes at him.

[jackkel dragon]

LupusYondergirl wrote...
@Jakkel: That's just out of date info they didn't change.  Alistair was originally written as a thirty year old.  DG scrapped the entire character and rewrote him from scratch as a much younger man.

That's actually a (hidden) part of my point: The toolset "character" files are a bit outdated.

I'm curious as to some of the alternate Landsmeet lines though, like:

Loghain: I concede. Fortune has favored you, Warden.
Alistair: I'm as surprised as you are.

[Merilsell]

inquartata02 wrote...

now several chapters later he is with the group in the Deep Roads, got his own background story and is best friend with both of the Wardens.

Yes, I've been curious about said character!

Aye, it is all in the later chapters which ought to get beta-d before they get online. I currently even ponder to write a standalone One-shot with him, because Nithius is now prodding me to tell his story in a whole. I'm scared, because this is how it had started with Lenya as well and now 36 chapters later, I haven't even told half of hers. Sigh.

Well I know myself well enough that I'll probably give in to that urge someday soon and write a OS for that elven mage...or two. Argh.

Speaking of which, I planned to deal with the Deep Roads in two- three chapters. So I thought ...but then the characters decided that the DR would be the perfect place to get to know each other better Which is the reason I write one convo after the other and just can't frikkin leave this place and I row one DR chapter at the other.  Sigh.

Right now I write a Alistair/Lenya convo that should have been brief, but evolved into a 1200 words monster, because they suddenly decided to open up to each other and  even flirt a bit. That wasn't planned AT ALL, because I finally wanted to get to the broodmother, dammit *shakes fist at her characters* . <_<

Bunny trail indeed.

[Sarah1281]

All he said to *me* was "No time! Defend the village while I nobly hide in the Chantry!"

As opposed to gloriously fighting on the front lines a la Cailan and risking the only one holding Redcliffe together.