OOC: Singing “Beauty and the Beast” for Emily. I think the song’s just a tad lower than I’m used to singing so it’s not my greatest ever.
biancalovescheese replied to your post: biancalovescheese replied to your post:…
Anders from dragon age, ftahah. Mage healer and all that, I don’t want to write this big thing just a one-shot. But you raise some good questions
Lol that’s what I do. Unfortunately I’m not familiar with this character, but start with what you know with the character and work backwards from there.
biancalovescheese replied to your post: biancalovescheese replied to your post: How on…
Wellll sculptor chick gets face badly burned, healer is a man, Florence nightingale effect, since speaking is hard she writes down “hey can I touch yo face I wanna know what you look like” then she does so and I ran out of characters there’s moretoit
Well the first thing I would suggest if you wanted to seriously write this is to develop the characters. Even if the information you come up with won’t be revealed in the story, it’s important. Who is this girl? What is she like? How did she get burned? How are others in her life taking it? How is she coping? What is the healer like? How much sympathy does he have? How does he heal? Magic or by mundane methods? Things like that. When you have those things figured out, then interaction between the two might be a little clearer.
biancalovescheese replied to your post: How on EARTH do you write a love scene without it becoming an ooey gooey mess?
I had a dram I wanted to write down but it just seems woooo cheesy :x
Well I would write it down before it goes away and then you can go back and edit it. What about it strikes you as cheesy?
biancalovescheese answered your question: Any general advice?
Keeping a character IN character, especially if that character is not your own
Definitely a good idea! I’ll make a post about it even if I don’t post tonight.
biancalovescheese asked: How on EARTH do you write a love scene without it becoming an ooey gooey mess?
Well I would say to write about what you know. If you DON’T personally have experiences to draw from, try to imagine a natural progression. Things won’t get hot and heavy in the first five minutes, things don’t work like that. Now it also depends on how far in the relationship the couple is and where their limits are. If you’re even more stuck, I would look at other works to see how they do it. But take them with a grain of salt, a lot of fiction over does it. So have the question in the back of your mind how you would make this believable. Don’t copy scenes straight from the text however. Take note of the types of interaction and the comfort level of the characters. I wish I could be more help.
sonicseeker asked: So I'm assuming you're an aspiring writer? If so, me too!! =D I like your tips on research!
Well I use wikipedia as a starting point. But I always check their sources. I never use Wiki exclusively. That way I can cross check information. If I can, then I find scholarly articles that I can hopefully understand and use those as my best sources. For example, when I was doing a mythological role play, I had to research the stories. With the nature of those being what they are, they vary a LOT depending on translation and source of the original since it’s very regional. But in cases like those, I pick and choose, but I always keep in mind that there’s always another way to look at those particular stories.
Research
Now to talk about a subject that is near and dear to my heart: research. Whether you are writing about a character who already exists in someone else’s work or coming up with your own, research is THE best way to build up your arsenal to develop your character.
Let’s start easy. So you have a character that already exists. To make things easier, he shall be named Murphy to make pronouns in this article easier for me. First place to go to is the source material itself. But you already knew that. I mean who doesn’t consult the original work first? Well you’d be surprised. Be sure to pay attention not only to what Murphy says and does, but also to other characters that he interacts with. What kind of people does Murphy interact with? How does he feel about each one? Does he hate them? Are the best friends? Undecided? How do they feel about Murphy?
Now look at what isn’t explicitly said. Now you’re going to have to use that brain of yours and make some inferences. WHY might Murphy not like so-and-so? Why does Murphy say or do X instead of Y? This is where things get interesting because it gives you an idea about how he might interact in a situation that may not be exactly how things happen in the source material. How might Murphy have reacted if things didn’t happen that way? Through these inferences and what is already known outright, you begin to develop the character. His past and his present as well as his future. Now that you’re done with the characters, now you have to research the world they all live in. Why is this important? Well if it was normal to fly around in this universe, that might be handy to know right? But I have a whole schpiel for that so I shall save it for later.
”But Queenie,” You may hypothetically ask. “What good does this do me if I’m writing an original story?” Well that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook bucko. There’s still research to be done. First you must decide when and where it takes place. If it takes place in a time or place that existed on our planet, there’s stuff to go research. How did people live then and in that place? Context is very important when it comes to character development. You can’t place modern ideas on feminism into the Middle Ages of Europe without being looked at weird. If that’s what you’re going for, great! But you have to know how people will react. Because your character reacts to society reacting to them. Confusing to say I know, but it makes sense. Again, I’m not going to say much more about context here, because I can go on forever about it.
What I’m getting at is that you need to be able to know so much random things about your character that you can answer just about any question that could possibly come up about them. For a canon character, you only get to make up what isn’t said or implied somewhere. For your own character, you have more freedom in that regard, but at the same time it’s your responsibility to remain consistent and to make sense where and when they are supposed to be.
axel-the-assassin-viii asked: OOC; Hiya. Sometimes I have a rough time gathering my thoughts together to get my muse going. Any tips on what I can do to kick start them?
I find that music is always a good way to subtly set the tone. It’s not distracting enough to take over the mind, but enough to put it in the right place. If you’re talking about characters from a particular work with a soundtrack, listen to that. If you want to certain mood going for a scene you’re writing, try to find music to fit that.
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