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what-a-tweest
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[9988690]
[2009-03-18 08:02:38 +0000 UTC]
"Gasp!"
(Guam)
# Statistics
Favourites: 13; Deviations: 0; Watchers: 1
Watching: 2; Pageviews: 4327; Comments Made: 115; Friends: 2
# Interests
Favorite movies: A Brand on the BrainFavorite bands / musical artists: Emperor
Favorite writers: Claudio Sanchez
Favorite games: DoW II
Favorite gaming platform: PC
Other Interests: Music, writing, science fiction, fantasy
# About me
Favourite genre of music: Black MetalFavourite style of art: Realism
Operating System: Vista
MP3 player of choice: iPood
Shell of choice: Kupa
Skin of choice: Black
Favourite cartoon character: Slade (Deathtoll the Terminator)
Personal Quote: Hey, hey man, hey, fuck you!
# Comments
Comments: 24
Hey tweet, sorry I haven't talked to you for a while, haven't been on DA very much over the past month. Back to school again. Joy....*sigh*. Loads of study seeing that its my last year. Anyways, I meant to ask you since you're probably the most experienced writer that I know, how much do you develop characters before you place them in a story? I've been working on characters over the past few weeks, and I have a good selection done, but for the most, it just went as far as describing their compelling need. I have a book about characterization which has a load of questions about developing most of the charaters exterior and some of their interior life. I suppose the questions that I'm asking are:
Do you use any pictures in the creation of your characters?
How much do you develop your characters before you place them in a story?
What is the general process that you follow when you create your characters?
(By the last question I meant, what method do you use to create characters?)
Do you incorporate things like relationships and favourites into your characters?
This is a big list I know, but I just want to get a little contrast on the methods of certain parts of writing. Characters was always a place I was weak in, while the rest of my writing was pretty good (If I say so myself). I just wanted to hear your method, so then I could maybe alter it to my own preference and methods. Unfortunately I might not be able to submit anything for the foreseeable future, I have LOADS of study and homework to do. Anyway, thanks for the assist. Seriously appreciated.
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S'alright, I understand. I myself haven't been on in my months, over ROTC and football and community service and yadda yadda college preparatory work...
I don't develop characters much before going into a story. Generally, I have a rough idea of what I want a character to be, then I think up a name, and from there I write the story. As the plot and ideas and morals blossom on me (usually I write the story before I figure out what the moral is), the character's motivations, attitudes, outlooks, so on become apparent by what they do, where they go, what they experience and how they deal with these things.
And if you mean a physical picture with which I base my character off, no. Before the story, I usually have little more than a basic idea of what purpose the character is going to play in the plot. Generally I have a plot before I have characters, and after the plot has been created i figure out what I need of what characters ie Who does what and grows how? What's the endgame? That's where the characters come from, except for a few archetypal characters like my villains that I use in most of my stories.
My advice is to spend a lot of time thinking about the plot. What's going to happen, and why does it matter to the character? What is this character going to do because of this? What's the motivation? That will form an attitude / outlook / motivation for your character, which will also help frame what kind of relationships your character will have, and what kind of background they come from. I also use their personalities to create an appearance. Like a really arrogant genius type has aquiline (bird-like) face. A hooked nose and small, always scrutinous eyes, and a bored face. He knows he's better than everyone else.
Relationships are important, I think. I'm not sure what you mean by favorites, but that seems more like a small detail. Relationships between characters will also help to show you who a character really is. If you have two people with varying personalities, look at how they differ, and because of that how they treat each other. That will create a dynamic of how your character deals with other people, and also it will create a dynamic for your dialogue and plot thereon.
Feel free to direct any other questions my way.
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HI, JUZT 2 ZYA TAHT UR PAG IZ GRETA ZO UR ART AND IM WAITIN 4 THE NEZT PART OF TERRA INCOJNITA HOPE 2 ZEEIT ZOOON, ZEE YA
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Wow, umm okay. Yeah, I'm putting it up today. It's good to know I have a reader.
Do you mind telling me what you thing of it?
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Anytime, I particularly like what you did with the ram head, it makes for some very intimidating work.
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Ya, my story is on another profile. I'm too lazy to remember my passwords, so I have an account for the family computer and an account for my personal one. This is the personal one. But my story is named "A Single Decision", and there's only two chapters. I have the lastest updates, up to chapter 9, here: [link]
Not as dark and grim as yours, more of a grey thing. I have plans for some bad things to happen though. Oh, it's a rather large AU.
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Alright then. You should post them all on this account regardless, though, get more exposure for your work.
Yeah, it's kind of hard to beat me on the level of grim-dark in writing. And AU means Alternate Universe? That was just a guess, because I don't have a clue.
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AU does mean alternate universe. Though it's been four hours since you commented, and it took my brother, slowest reader of them all, 50 minutes to read the whole thing, so no doubt you're done by now.
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Actually I had work to do... I'm guessing you live in America, I live on an island on the other side of the world (still an American territory) where we're anywhere from 13 to 16 hours ahead of you in time.
Long story short I had to get off to the daily grind, and didn't finish it, but will get right back to it now.
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Guam? Is that the island? Anyways, tell me what you think when you're done.
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Yes, Guam is the island I live on.
And I've read up through chapter 8 so far. I think you've got a very interesting idea going, and you execute it well.
You see, I have a view on fan fictions. They are looked down upon a lot, but I think if they are made right they can be very good works of art. I think the purpose of a fan fiction is to take an event in the plot line, change it, and then see where the plot goes from there.
It's like an experiment. It's like asking "what if?"
Though I think to do a fan fiction right it needs to be moderated, there have to be rules, like something can't just change without explanation, like two characters can't just suddenly fall in love when they used to hate each other.
Now your fan fiction is going very well, it's asking a very interesting question. What if Grievous was in charge of the CIS? And then you just have to see where the plot changes from there.
My only quarrels with this are Grievous' mind being restored, which I think is a bit of a writing shortcut. That much is forgivable, though, because if that hadn't happened the story wouldn't have worked out.
The other thing that kind of got me was your general plot. Now, I've never watched Battlestar Galactica, and never plan to, but you seem to be alluding to the fact that your plot is probably very similar. If it works out it works out, you know, but it would just feel like I was ripping off some other writers work if I stole their plot.
I mean, you can use a writer's universe and characters and his whole set up and experiment with different outcomes, but when all that amounts to is applying someone else's plot to it, then I don't think you're doing it right.
Now I'm just saying those things as a forewarning; so far I love where the story has gone, and see it going it very good directions. I'd just say don't be a lazy writer and mooch off of others works. So far it looks good though, and I guess I'll see where it goes as it goes.
But post it on your deviantArt account so I can just watch you here.
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Not sure what happened to my first comment on this, but I'm merely alluding to an event that does happen in BSG. My plot is way different from the show. All it has in common is one upcoming event, that's still beyond the horizon in terms of writing. But that event, and Grievous's restoration are the main reasons why I wrote this. Because I wanted to see what heroic Grievous would do with a whole people who needed a new begining, to start over, rather than mean dark Grievous. But not to fear! There's plenty of darkness coming!
On the topic of Battlestar, I don't use it's plot, but it's music really inspires me. There are certain peices from the soundtracks that just get me thinking, and when I think, I write. I listen to all the violin peices when writing the droid philosophy parts. I listen to the the peices for battle scenes when writing chapter 9. Chapter 9 was really fun to write.
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I think you misunderstood the notes. I'm alluding to my foreshadowings fortelling an event similar to one in Battlestar Galactica. And an event in the Matrix. And an event that happened in 1831 (?) in Virginia. And an event that happened several times in agent Rome. And an event that's happened many times throughout history. I just choose BSG because I'm most familiar with it.
So far, that's the only similarity to that show. And GG's mind being restored? That's one of the main points why I wrote it, because I wanted to see what a noble and heroic Grievous would do with the Confederacy, not angsty and hateful Grievous. But not to worry, there'll be a good show of dark grimness of reality soon. And chapter 9 has a pretty epic fight, in my opinion.
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I guess I did misunderstand, then. I thought you were saying you were going to use the plot of BSG. I think it might have been better if you haven't said that, because I think that's what people will think when they read it.
But if you're just saying you're going to use the old archetype of the slave's rising up against the master whom they outnumber, then that's okay, but the way you said it made me think differently.
And yeah, I got that much. Grievous not being a sociopath was pretty much the focal point of your story. I can understand that, it just seems like the chip being removed was a overtly convenient plot device, though I don't know of any other way you could have written this.
I haven't actually read chapter 9 yet, but will get on it. 'T is a good story, it's kept my going on to see what happens, which is an essential skill for a good storyteller.
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Well, according the the Ep. III visual dictionary, there is a chip that controls his emotions, a chip that controls his memory, and a chip that controls how he learns and fights. I bet there is more too. The droids will rise up, but it's not gonna be a big "Hey! Let's go revolt!" It's gonna be.. I'm not telling you. Anyways, I'm working on Chapter 10 now, just a space battle, no philosophy. Next chapter after that will be slower, more thoughts, Grievous has a little adventure that will.. Again, spoilers. I'll try to upload this to Deviantart, under this account. I have to go edit my other profile to say it's the same person...
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Right, then. Honestly though, while I can appreciate a good fight, I also like introspective writing, so the walls of thought text don't really bother me.
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Sure man, 't is great stuff.
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