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Post by Shade on Jul 8, 2018 14:36:55 GMT -5
Rather than taking over Kieran @ Fractal 's re-introduction thread or creating PM where people may get excluded, Sasha wanting to join the chat made me think about it, a quick thread to post about writing? I'll just copy what I wrote on Cas's thread here? I write a bit of everything? Though now that school is out we'll see if I ever write creative-nonfiction again. I loved it, but it was so much work and I would get board halfway through. Having a word limit didn't help either when I'm sitting there going "You don't understand, I can fill 5,000 max limit on one scene alone not including any research. And you want me to have 10 sources in there too? Can I have more room?" Poetry I generally go for poems that tell a story more than anything. Sometimes I pull from my actual experiences sometimes I just go "okay let's see what happens." Short stories I very from comedy to horror. For longer works I tend to focus more on romance. As a general rule for fiction I go with fantasy. Wereanimals, vampires, fae, ect. are very common in anything I write. What I end up doing more than anything is focusing on character development because I LOVE character development. I love getting behind the scenes building of characters and end up doing that more than anything. I love tumblr prompts for this reason Sasha, I know we've talked about your story a bit but I think it's super interesting and fun so maybe you can summarize it for anyone you haven't talked to about it before?
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Post by smonikkims on Jul 8, 2018 14:55:22 GMT -5
I used to call myself a writer but I haven't written anything original that actually went anywhere. I wrote a 'novel' when I was a lot younger, and looking back at it hurts because it's so bad. I can't bring myself to fully delete it though. I really thought it was good when I was younger. Lol.
I also tried writing another one recently and lost interest in it. Then I realised it's not actually writing that I like, but the stories themselves. I'm not a writer, I'm a storyteller. If I can find another medium through which to tell stories, I'll be all in. But I can't think of anything.
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Post by Shade on Jul 8, 2018 15:02:44 GMT -5
Comics and Role playing smonikkims, Stephen Sejic is an amazing story teller, he tells his stories through comics. I also know people who do a lot of story telling through things like DnD and other table top games or even text based RPs. What was your old story about? Old ideas are sometimes the best. Sometimes we don't execute them well but there are often still gems within them once you dig them out and dust them off. Maybe try just getting it written down? I'm not a huge fan of out lines but I know some people really like them and they help them write.
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Post by Sasha on Jul 8, 2018 15:14:22 GMT -5
Wow thank you so much Shade! I'm really flattered you liked it so much! Of course, I can just put my little summary here that I wrote for you. It's technically a dystopian future story in Europe but the protagonist is not the one who solves the issues. In fact she was overconfident and tried but she ended up in huge trouble as was eventually exiled. From there she managed to get to the USA and is trying build up her life again, that's when the story starts. Meanwhile her brother is on the run and is traveling through Europe trying to get in contact with her again. The reader doesn't know what happened to the protagonist when the story starts but it's revealed slowely as she starts to trust her American friend more. I really like the genre but I wanted to put my own spin on it. I wanted to see it in Europe for a change, instead of the many Dystopian Americas we've seen. I also wanted to change the 'brave teenager fixes everything' trope and instead have her fail and deal with the consequences. Indirectly her actions will lead to change though, because people in the US finding out about it because of her leads to international awareness. Until then they'd managed to keep it under wraps. Of course this is incredibly oversimplified but it's the general idea.
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Post by smonikkims on Jul 8, 2018 15:17:10 GMT -5
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Post by Shade on Jul 8, 2018 15:26:33 GMT -5
Thank you Sasha! I considered copying it but thought it was kind of rude to do that so figured I'd just ask. How did you go about developing your characters? I remember thinking they were interesting when we talked about them before.
smonikkims, I actually think that sheep story would be interesting. It could be a fun comedy or even an odd little children's book. But I completely understand if writing isn't your thing. I know the only consistent writing advice I've seen anywhere about how to write well is "Good writers read. And they read a lot" so if you don't like reading I can really see how that would affect your writing.
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Post by Kieran @ Fractal on Jul 8, 2018 15:30:31 GMT -5
smonikkims That's a really unique idea for a story! I'd love to read it. It seems like it could have a sort of a moral about not killing animals, is that the vibe you're going for?
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Post by Sasha on Jul 8, 2018 15:34:52 GMT -5
Why thank you so much. Well, when I write I really like to have a well rounded idea of what sort of person they are. So, I make up a ton of extra scenarios that aren't from the actual plot. They range from simple having them react to a youtube video to forcing them to make really difficult life changing choices. Another thing that helps is that I have an online friend and roleplay partner who has a world with a similar vibe. We like to pitch our characters against each other, analyze, seek parallels and differences, etc. We also roleplay so our characters get to react to even more scenarios ranging from normal to fandom (Star Trek, Harry Potter) and also each other of course!
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Post by Shade on Jul 8, 2018 15:56:59 GMT -5
Kieran @ Fractal I hadn't even thought about that angle for that story but that would be a great angle. Sasha I do similar things developing characters! So I have a handful of RPs with Tephis that I use to give different situations for my characters. I also get together with my friends and we do "story nights" where we just sit and talk about our stories. What are we doing? How is our character developing? Does this seem right? Stopping each other to ask if that really fits the character's personality. I love Tumblr for character development because I can find strange situations to throw my characters into. Like this prompt - Which I immediately knew I had to use my characters Ty and Waylon. The question was then why would Ty be upset enough that the emotionally challenged Waylon would notice? And where would he get a puppy? Because buying a puppy doesn't fit his character. My biggest issue is keeping track of my responses. I post them all to my tumblr, and then my own website because my tumblr gets busy fast. I also have a special folder for prompt responses in my scrivner.
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Post by Sasha on Jul 8, 2018 16:09:31 GMT -5
Ooh those are some fun ways for character development too! Well, for me everything is mainly in my little OC Discord community so I keep track of it that way. That's a cute prompt, I know exactly which two characters in my story it would be. xD
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Post by smonikkims on Jul 8, 2018 16:11:27 GMT -5
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Post by Kieran @ Fractal on Jul 8, 2018 16:17:11 GMT -5
It does sound like it could be serious, though! I mean, it deals with the concept of mortality. But either way it sounds like a good book.
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Post by Shade on Jul 8, 2018 17:08:19 GMT -5
I'm so bad about remembering to check into Discord...I wonder if there are any writing communities on it. That's my biggest issue with where I live, if you don't write cowboy poetry chances are you've got a very limited selection of people to talk to(Thankfully I have amazing friends).
I could see the sheep story being serious, I just latched onto the idea of comedy but I could see it being serious.
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Post by Kieran @ Fractal on Jul 8, 2018 19:08:26 GMT -5
I've joined a couple writing servers! One for lesbians and bi girls and another one for specifically lesbians. I'm also a moderator on a discord for LGBT creators (writers, artists, and photographers specifically).
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Post by Thor on Jul 9, 2018 11:14:15 GMT -5
I agree with Shade that there are so many different ways to create a story. I suck at writing but I've created stories for D&D and I love the role playing opportunities for character dev (if you have good friends). I'm great at character development and writing dialog, so comics are a great outlet for me. I even was decent at animation and made some short animations and real life films. Scripts are my favorite thing to write. I think D&D/ role playing really helps me develop a particular character a bit more because you have to think about what decisions your character would make on the spot. And often times, I've made out-of-character decisions due to fear and had to regret/ repent. I have an unpublished blog called "100 character ideas" to use for my D&D games. I have about 20 to 30 characters so far. I should just publish the ones I have and keep adding to it, but I'm so lazy and I keep going back and modifying ideas.
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