|
One bit of advice re action scenes that I haven’t seen posted yet: keep them shorter than you think they need to be. I’ve done slush reading for a few places and freelance editing for a bunch of novels, and one of the big stumbling blocks a lot of people seem to have with action scenes is writing fights that go on forever. Action loses its sense of momentum and immediacy when it drags on too long, even if your prose isn’t bad. I had to read a cowboy book once in which a barfight occurred that was over two pages long. But over the course of those two pages, there wasn’t much escalation or changes in stakes/characters/momentum. It was just two pages of dudes punching each other and throwing the occasional chair. The prose on a sentence level was perfectly competent, but after about four paragraphs my eyes were glazing over because all the extra punches and thrown elbows added nothing to the scene that wouldn’t have been solved by “the brawl continued, bodies flying every which way, until Sheriff Parker fired a shot in the air.” If you can see it in your mind’s eye and you have an active, action-packed imagination, the temptation to show your readers everything you imagine is real. But think back to movies and TV shows that you’ve actually watched–even in visual mediums, action scenes don’t tend to last for minutes at a time unless you’re watching a genre specifically designed to show off fight choreography. Obviously this isn’t a hard and fast rule for all kinds of action and conflict. Chase sequences and war sequences, big epic stuff, climactic battles, etc can all certainly run longer. But they’ll feel less epic and make less of an impact if your build-up throughout the rest of the book includes six other two-page fight scenes.
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 00:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 23:26 |
|
|
oot posted:This is more peripheral to writing than the writing itself, but I've got an issue with character ownership. I really like the idea of another person's character and was going to use an expy of them in my story with no major changes except the name. But I haven't asked them, and I'm not sure if they should be credited in some way. Ask them, they'll probably be flattered.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 00:23
|
|
|
oot posted:This is more peripheral to writing than the writing itself, but I've got an issue with character ownership. I really like the idea of another person's character and was going to use an expy of them in my story with no major changes except the name. But I haven't asked them, and I'm not sure if they should be credited in some way. Don’t do it. Write your own character and accept your influences as your influences. No one’s asking you to write the most original character in the history of literature, every character is going to have some similarities with another.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 01:22
|
|
|
Do it, don't ask him, and also make that character's penis really small, a la Michael Crichton
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 02:35
|
|
|
Djeser posted:Do it, don't ask him, and also make that character's penis really small, a la Michael Crichton Michael Crichton has a really small penis?
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 02:40
|
|
|
Pham Nuwen posted:Michael Crichton has a really small penis? Considering how desiccated he must be right now, yeah probably.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 02:44
|
|
|
oot posted:This is more peripheral to writing than the writing itself, but I've got an issue with character ownership. I really like the idea of another person's character and was going to use an expy of them in my story with no major changes except the name. But I haven't asked them, and I'm not sure if they should be credited in some way. To make that other character "the same", you'd need to keep referring back to the other work and changing your work whenever it differed. If you asked the author of the other work, even if they said yes, they'd read your work and they'd probably see a lot of places and think "that's not what I would have that character say," or "they wouldn't react like that". By all means, feel free to make a character inspired by a character you like. A lot of writing is just taking elements from something you've watched or read, then putting your own spin on them. Feel free to do that without asking permission. But the key phrase is "putting your OWN spin on them". You can do better than just copying and pasting a character and changing their name. Make a new character and make it your own, using the elements of that character which work for you, and changing things which you can change without it affecting the story.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 03:08
|
|
|
Pham Nuwen posted:Michael Crichton has a really small penis? quote:Michael Crowley alleged that after he wrote an unflattering review of Crichton's novel State of Fear, Crichton included a character named "Mick Crowley" in the novel Next. The character is a child rapist, described as being a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and Yale graduate with a small penis.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 03:16
|
|
|
Does this qualify as the most passive aggressive thing ever?
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 03:26
|
|
|
Its more for movies, but this is still extremely good advice on how to set up good, and fun action scenes. I recommend giving it a watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrwdBw4Gnuk
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 06:14
|
|
|
Saucy_Rodent posted:Don’t do it. Write your own character and accept your influences as your influences. No one’s asking you to write the most original character in the history of literature, every character is going to have some similarities with another. Stabbey_the_Clown posted:To make that other character "the same", you'd need to keep referring back to the other work and changing your work whenever it differed. If you asked the author of the other work, even if they said yes, they'd read your work and they'd probably see a lot of places and think "that's not what I would have that character say," or "they wouldn't react like that". Well I've already started writing, and my version of the character has a different nature, in terms of what exactly he is, to fit into this universe. But the way he looks and acts is exactly the same, and a lot of his plot and themes and motifs are extrapolations or expansions of the original. The problem is that the original character is perfect and I don't want to change anything except the name and the parts I have to to make the story work. In fact, I wouldn't even be writing this story if I hadn't read about the character. So should I just ask and, if the owner says yes, put in a credit like "based on a character by ____________"
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 06:41
|
|
|
Put it in the back with all the stuff about thanking your dog for vomiting on the carpet. Taking a character type and using it again has been a thing at least since someone heard about this guy Odysseus in the Illiad and thought "what if he had a really bad cruise"
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 07:13
|
|
|
E wrong thread
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 07:17
|
|
|
REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS posted:Does this qualify as the most passive aggressive thing ever? This doesn't even mention the most passive-aggressive part: that the dude's penis is established as being so small that he didn't seriously injure the baby/toddler he was raping with it Anyway, to give actual fiction advice! oot, I would strongly advise adapting the character you like and not just lifting them whole cloth. It's reasonable to lift an archetype, but an important part of developing your craft is learning to develop your own characters and also to be flexible with them as your story changes. This other person's character might be perfect for the plot as it exists now, but what if you change it? You'll need to be capable of adapting the character to fit the work.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 09:55
|
|
|
If you write it it will be different. Change the name and go for it, art is theft
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 10:00
|
|
|
Enter the Thunderdome this week and write about a character called Rosa Flores, paranormal investigator. Everyone is doing it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 10:48
|
|
|
oot posted:Well I've already started writing, and my version of the character has a different nature, in terms of what exactly he is, to fit into this universe. But the way he looks and acts is exactly the same, and a lot of his plot and themes and motifs are extrapolations or expansions of the original. The problem is that the original character is perfect and I don't want to change anything except the name and the parts I have to to make the story work. In fact, I wouldn't even be writing this story if I hadn't read about the character. How many villains have been just Darth Vader? How many heroes have just been Luke? No one’s going to sue you.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 13:59
|
|
|
oot posted:Well I've already started writing, and my version of the character has a different nature, in terms of what exactly he is, to fit into this universe. But the way he looks and acts is exactly the same, and a lot of his plot and themes and motifs are extrapolations or expansions of the original. The problem is that the original character is perfect and I don't want to change anything except the name and the parts I have to to make the story work. In fact, I wouldn't even be writing this story if I hadn't read about the character. The fact that you've already started writing isn't a problem unless you don't plan on doing any editing or revision. Presumably you're not chiselling the words into stone tablets. I've "started writing" and do you know how many times I've changed just the first section alone? (This is just a bunch of introductions without conflict, I don't want the intro to the MC's mother to start off with the reader disliking her, my MC is only present for the scene, not making any choices in it, this secondary character should act as a foil to the scene's antagonist, and so on.) I'm going to think of more changes before I'm done with it, too. Why is it necessary that your character looks exactly like the other character? Is it important that they have brown hair and not black, or brown eyes and not hazel, or a goatee but not a van dyke? If you ask the other author and they say no, would you still be comfortable writing the piece? Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Jul 11, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 14:18
|
|
|
oot posted:This is more peripheral to writing than the writing itself, but I've got an issue with character ownership. I really like the idea of another person's character and was going to use an expy of them in my story with no major changes except the name. But I haven't asked them, and I'm not sure if they should be credited in some way. Be very careful about lifting things from other pieces of work, even if it is for fun or a quick eye wink. People may take it the wrong way, and something that was full of good intentions may wind up getting you raked over the coals. *Slowly turns to AntiVehicular* Or it may be appreciated. In short, it's all about execution, revision and your target audience. If you are lifting whole cloth, and people can make the comparison rather easily ("Hey look its Hiro Antagonist"), then asking the authors permission may help.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 14:48
|
|
|
Almost all works of classic literature before like 1700 are people riffing on existing characters, you are officially Fine
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 15:38
|
|
|
Nobody will even notice unless it's explicitly Literally Harry Potter. Which I wouldn't normally be concerned about, but I googled "expy" and it's apparently a fanfic term so maybe it bears saying: don't lift Literally Harry Potter, or anyone else who has an extremely unique description.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 15:54
|
|
|
50 Shades of Gray exists. I don’t think the author asked the Mormon author of Twilight if it was okay to use her characters in an S&M smut novel (it was originally a Twilight fanfic). Nobody cares. As long as you don’t literally use the exact same name, background and character traits. Honestly the name is more of a thing than the character itself. I put Gordon Ramsay in my novel, including him roaring ‘it’s raw!’ and calling someone a donkey but the only feedback I got about him was to change the character’s last name (it was Potter, because he’s a potter) since my book would be in the same market as Harry Potter. Seriously. No one cares.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 17:10
|
|
|
I don't know how you can just namechange someone's character into your story, but gently caress it, it's a good way of getting a character in if you're stuck. But like - Professor X can only exist in a character with mutants in the regular world with a school and a team of younger mutants. Locke Lamora can only exist in Lynch's fantasy Venice after spending childhood in a thieves' orphanage run by the Priest of Stealing. Rand al'Thor can only exist in a world where he had been reincarnated many times before and magic exists that drives men crazy. People's worlds shape who they are, people's personalities are built just as much after their experiences in life as they are from the people they meet. I cannot cannot cannot imagine a way in where you can copy-paste someone's character into your book and have it work unless you're writing fanfic, in which case using preexisting characters is the rule.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 18:13
|
|
|
Pham Nuwen posted:Nobody will even notice unless it's explicitly Literally Harry Potter. Which I wouldn't normally be concerned about, but I googled "expy" and it's apparently a fanfic term so maybe it bears saying: don't lift Literally Harry Potter, or anyone else who has an extremely unique description. It's not a well known character and the design is pretty simple and not that unique (aside from the rainbow chakra stuff). Stabbey_the_Clown posted:The fact that you've already started writing isn't a problem unless you don't plan on doing any editing or revision. Presumably you're not chiselling the words into stone tablets. I've "started writing" and do you know how many times I've changed just the first section alone? (This is just a bunch of introductions without conflict, I don't want the intro to the MC's mother to start off with the reader disliking her, my MC is only present for the scene, not making any choices in it, this secondary character should act as a foil to the scene's antagonist, and so on.) I'm going to think of more changes before I'm done with it, too. I've actually thought about whether I could change specific aspects of the character like hair, clothes, diction, and I always just come to the conclusion that no, it's absolutely perfect for what the character represents already. Most of the inspiration for the story came when I saw the character in a creative writing exhibition. I thought "Oh no. I have to write a story about this character in that other setting." If the owner did say no it'd be at least as bad as writing your main villain in a movie for a specific actor and then they die before you can start filming. Edit: Whalley posted:I don't know how you can just namechange someone's character into your story, but gently caress it, it's a good way of getting a character in if you're stuck. But like - Professor X can only exist in a character with mutants in the regular world with a school and a team of younger mutants. Locke Lamora can only exist in Lynch's fantasy Venice after spending childhood in a thieves' orphanage run by the Priest of Stealing. Rand al'Thor can only exist in a world where he had been reincarnated many times before and magic exists that drives men crazy. Well I'm changing/expanding the character's backstory, motivation, and what kind of being he is, so he does fit in the story. But it still results in the same personality and appearance. oot fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jul 11, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 18:38
|
|
|
oot posted:Well I'm changing/expanding the character's backstory, motivation, and what kind of being he is, so he does fit in the story. But it still results in the same personality and appearance. oot posted:If the owner did say no it'd be at least as bad as writing your main villain in a movie for a specific actor and then they die before you can start filming.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 18:52
|
|
|
Oot, you’re asking a lot of specific questions that we can’t really help you with unless we can actually see what you’ve written so far. Please post your writing in a new thread if you really want help with specifics.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 19:10
|
|
|
Saucy_Rodent posted:Oot, you’re asking a lot of specific questions that we can’t really help you with unless we can actually see what you’ve written so far. Please post your writing in a new thread if you really want help with specifics. Alright. I just don't like posting unrevised and incomplete writing. And I felt like all my questions made enough sense when talking about them abstractly.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 19:48
|
|
|
The fact that you believe you can’t change a single aspect of the character suggests to me a more fundamental issue. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is safe. Kill your darlings. If you still feel twinges of pity when taking a rewrite chainsaw to a character you’re not there yet.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 20:07
|
|
|
It’s hard to determine from what you’ve said but I would be surprised if you really can’t change something as seemingly insignificant as hair color. I’m really not getting why that’s so important unless this is the end book of a trilogy and you’ve said all along the Chosen One has pink hair. But that’s not really my point here. For me, I usually have a vision of a character at the start and then they end up evolving themselves as I go along whether I want it to or not. I might say, “yeah, I really want someone to be like this character because I liked that” and then I start writing them and they start acting quite differently. Unless you are writing licensed fiction or fanfic this really helps with us being able to just steal things wholesale and still seem unique.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 20:12
|
|
|
I understand that the thought of "oh no, I'm stealing this good idea from someone else!" is something a lot of amateur writers go through. Guess what? It's fine. Umberto Eco wrote The Name of the Rose and not only made the main characters Sherlock Holmes and James Watson, but also put in the Library of Babel from Jorge Luis Borges, and then put in actual dactual Jorge Luis Borges as its librarian. Not only have Twilight and Harry Potter fanfics gotten published as books, they have been turned into movie franchises based on those books. Ozymandias, the poem by Percy Shelley, the one my avatar's quoting? It's part of a pair, the other one was written by his friend Horace Smith with the exact same topic and theme. They were part of a group that did a whole "dueling sonnets" thing. I can keep digging up examples if you like. The way you write something is fundamentally different from the way anyone else would write something, because it's fundamentally you. Ideas are cheap. Ideas don't matter. Execution is what matters, and no two writers are going to be similar enough to execute the same idea the same way. Should you tell this person you were inspired by their character? Yeah, it's probably nice to give them a heads up. Do you have to? Are you a terrible writer for getting inspiration from other authors? No. Most writers never master the skill of jizzing perfect, self-created words onto the page ex nihilo like a primordial god of creation. You're fine. Just write.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 20:42
|
|
|
oot posted:Alright. I just don't like posting unrevised and incomplete writing. And I felt like all my questions made enough sense when talking about them abstractly. Everything is incomplete until it’s not. Better get crit before you’ve decided your ideas are set in stone. Edit: just post you coward. Saucy_Rodent fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Jul 11, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 20:51
|
|
|
oot posted:I've actually thought about whether I could change specific aspects of the character like hair, clothes, diction, and I always just come to the conclusion that no, it's absolutely perfect for what the character represents already. Most of the inspiration for the story came when I saw the character in a creative writing exhibition. I thought "Oh no. I have to write a story about this character in that other setting." I understand that character design is symbolic and every piece of design is supposed to say something about the character, but I'm still dubious on the idea that you can't change their appearance even a little. But maybe I'm not one to speak because I only have pretty vague description in mind for most of my characters, and the exception that I have set in stone is largely so that I have specific details to put in so that the protagonist can recognize the heroine immediately despite never having met her before. quote:Well I'm changing/expanding the character's backstory, motivation, and what kind of being he is, so he does fit in the story. But it still results in the same personality and appearance. Then this is fine, and it is not something you need to ask the other author about, because pretty much everyone borrows from their influences. As has been said, give a shout-out to that author in the acknowledgements of your book (if applicable) as inspiration.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 22:43
|
|
|
I love taking ideas from other writers as much as the next person--hell, maybe more--but I genuinely cannot wrap my head around taking a character and not wanting to change a thing. Changing stuff is the best part! You can toss out everything you don't like and add all your own bells and whistles. Appearence, backstory, motivations, relationships: the fun is in changing them so much that they become completly your own. Plus, if you do it right, you can change so much that the inspiration is barely recognizable in your creation. Why wouldn't you want to do that?
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2019 23:38
|
|
|
I'm writing a novel with two main characters. However, I have a bunch of key story elements I need to put in place before the protagonist and deuteragonist meet, and I don't want to go too long without introducing the deuteragonist. I've inserted a chapter which introduces the deuteragonist, but it doesn't seem to have much conflict in it, other than they have to go on a trip for a couple of weeks which they don't really want to. (If you ask "why don't they want to go on the trip", I don't even have a good answer.) This chapter can set up some of the world-building, and give perspective on the other side of an almost "cold war" sort of conflict, so it's not just a matter of "this nation = good, that nation = bad", but I don't seem to have significant personal stakes for the character in that chapter. They will get some hugely important personal stakes in a later chapter before meeting the protagonist, but in my head I see that happening after quite a bit of protagonist-centered story.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 01:16
|
|
|
Something desperately important which is revealed as not mattering at all after they meet?
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 01:33
|
|
|
Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I’m writing a novel with two main characters. However, I have a bunch of key story elements I need to put in place before the protagonist and deuteragonist meet, and I don’t want to go too long without introducing the deuteragonist. I’ve inserted a chapter which introduces the deuteragonist, but it doesn’t seem to have much conflict in it, other than they have to go on a trip for a couple of weeks which they don’t really want to. (If you ask “why don’t they want to go on the trip”, I don’t even have a good answer.) This is one of those things where it’s really hard to give specific advice without knowing specifics, since you appear to have a lot of setup (good!) but you describe it vaguely enough that I can’t offer any concrete help (less good). Why do the deuteragonist’s personal stakes only appear later? What would be so bad about establishing them earlier? Some ideas, though I don’t know how applicable they are since I don’t know many details of your story: 1. What if something minor goes wrong on the trip and gives us a glimpse into how the character deals with crises or changes in plans. It could be a good way to show whether they’re a cool cucumber under pressure or a hilarious overreacter or whether they panic. 2. You need to have a reason why this person doesn’t want to go on the trip. Even if it’s something as simple as “will take me away from stuff that matters at home.” This is important because you can’t write engaging characters without understanding their motivations. What matters to your character? Do they just not like the disruption of travel? Do they dislike the destination? Are they travelling with people they dislike? Pick a reason like this and use it to develop a chapter-level conflict from there. 3. Think about each chapter as having a beginning and an end point. At the end of this chapter, where does your character need to be? What do we need to have learned about them? What elements of the plot need to be moved forward? If you know where the chapter needs to end in order to set up the rest of the story, you can work backward from there and help fill in the gaps.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 02:50
|
|
|
sebmojo posted:Something desperately important which is revealed as not mattering at all after they meet? I'll assume that's a suggestion. That's basically what I need, since the "hugely important personal stakes" event will make most of the previous concerns irrelevant (and after that there's a five-year time skip. I guess I'll just have to brainstorm what that is. I might as well think out loud. Okay, so L is a citizen of the nation of "S.V.", and she is going with her mother, a Cardinal, to visit the capital city of a nation ("N.V.") which is trying to limit the influence of the Church (this religion is not the same as Christianity). L's mother is going to try and negotiate with the N.V. government. The plot reason L's there is to cross paths with my protagonist's father who is doing research on an Much Later Plot Thing. I don't have much of an in-story reason for her to be there. What else... Unknown to L, she has some special abilities which are rare and very much in demand by certain agencies. Her mother has those same abilities, and knows about them, but has kept quiet about them, and suspects that her daughter may also have inherited them. These abilities will surface in the "hugely important personal stakes" event, which changes L's life forever. Anomalous Blowout posted:This is one of those things where it’s really hard to give specific advice without knowing specifics, since you appear to have a lot of setup (good!) but you describe it vaguely enough that I can’t offer any concrete help (less good). I hope the specifics I posted above might help a little. Maybe "personal stakes" is the wrong way to put it. I really mean "huge life changing event". This is early on in the book, and the majority of it happens after a five-year time skip. Part of my problem is that the absolutely key parts I need for the main story are almost entirely on the protagonist's side, and those need to be shown happening to connect the reader to the protagonist. There's too much information to show in flashback. quote:Some ideas, though I don’t know how applicable they are since I don’t know many details of your story: Interesting idea. Nothing comes to mind at the moment, though. I'm also not sure I want to bulk up the early section with minor things, since there's a time-skip coming after the early section. quote:2. You need to have a reason why this person doesn’t want to go on the trip. Even if it’s something as simple as “will take me away from stuff that matters at home.” This is important because you can’t write engaging characters without understanding their motivations. What matters to your character? Do they just not like the disruption of travel? Do they dislike the destination? Are they travelling with people they dislike? Pick a reason like this and use it to develop a chapter-level conflict from there. Agreed, this is largely where I'm stuck. One thing I will convey is that L doesn't like the destination, because the destination is moving to clamp down on the religion which her mother is a Cardinal of (and she is also devout). She is traveling with another Cardinal who she doesn't particularly like (he is a political rival to her mother). quote:3. Think about each chapter as having a beginning and an end point. At the end of this chapter, where does your character need to be? What do we need to have learned about them? What elements of the plot need to be moved forward? If you know where the chapter needs to end in order to set up the rest of the story, you can work backward from there and help fill in the gaps. Good advice. I've heard that before, but a reminder is welcome. I'll try and think of that. The chapter I'm having problems on I just added not because it's absolutely critical, but because I think it might be jarring to the reader to be following one character and one character only for the first 15-25% of the book* and then suddenly there's a second main character you don't know anything about sharing the stage. Of course the obvious response is "If it's not absolutely critical, cut the whole thing out". I might indeed do that if I can't justify its existence. * (I'm not sure what percentage of the book will be the early section, but probably at least 6 chapters.) Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jul 13, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 02:54
|
|
|
Stabbey_the_Clown posted:What else... Unknown to L, she has some special abilities which are rare and very much in demand by certain agencies. Her mother has those same abilities, and knows about them, but has kept quiet about them, and suspects that her daughter may also have inherited them. These abilities will surface in the "hugely important personal stakes" event, which changes L's life forever. Maybe Cardinal "X" suspects L's mother has special abilities and after meeting L and seeing how she resembles her mother, X wants to know if L has the abilities as well. Maybe L's mother insists she come so that she can keep an eye on her, only now Cardinal X has changed his plans and is also going on the trip. And L suspects she might be a piece in a game, but doesn't know what the rules are. ...That's a good start, I think.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 04:00
|
|
|
Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Maybe Cardinal "X" suspects L's mother has special abilities and after meeting L and seeing how she resembles her mother, X wants to know if L has the abilities as well. Maybe L's mother insists she come so that she can keep an eye on her, only now Cardinal X has changed his plans and is also going on the trip. And L suspects she might be a piece in a game, but doesn't know what the rules are. Seems reasonable given what you’ve stated. I like that you are working on logical motivations as driven by the characters and not just plot reasons. I was going to suggest that you might not have your characters settled in your mind if you don’t have really good reasons why the character would be on the trip other than “I need to introduce her early” or why she wouldn’t want to go. But you seem to be working into it. You should know your characters well enough to know how they will react given any situation. (Note that THEY might not know, but you should). If you don’t, then you need to think about them more.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 11:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 26, 2024 23:26 |
|
|
Doctor Zero posted:Seems reasonable given what you’ve stated. I like that you are working on logical motivations as driven by the characters and not just plot reasons. I was going to suggest that you might not have your characters settled in your mind if you don’t have really good reasons why the character would be on the trip other than “I need to introduce her early” or why she wouldn’t want to go. But you seem to be working into it. You should know your characters well enough to know how they will react given any situation. (Note that THEY might not know, but you should). If you don’t, then you need to think about them more. You're right, I know the plot very well, but I really should know my characters more. That will solve itself hopefully, because I think I discover who my characters are by just writing the story. For instance, I knew that L was taller than an average woman (a side effect of the special abilities), but just today I had a character comment on that, and then I suddenly discovered that in her childhood, she was teased that she was too tall to be a girl, which stopped when she proved that she didn't hit like one. (I might rephrase that or later drop it, but you get the idea.) EDIT: Also, another reason she might not want to go is that she was hoping to graduate at the top of her class, and a forced two-week break from classes so close to exams could hurt her chances. That's a example of mild stakes which are important to her, but won't be that critical later. I am aware that my protagonists in this draft seem blander than I want, I am trying to be conscious about showing their character. I stopped typing a sentence which went "L closed the book, frustrated she couldn't concentrate on studying" and instead wrote "L snapped the book shut and tossed it onto the bed so hard that it bounced off." I'm trying to remember to look for places to do that all the time. EDIT 3: I can be such a ninny sometimes. I have it taped to my wall at eye level beside my monitor, for heaven's sake. Proactive Scene: Goal, Conflict, Setback (or rarely, Victory) In every scene, the protagonist should want something, and something should interfere with them getting it, and usually, at the end of the scene, something has gone wrong for the protagonist. It's not enough for there just to be something interfering with the protagonist's goals, but the protagonist has to be actively pursuing the goals anyway. So if L's goal is to not go on the trip, she has to try and do something to avoid going on the trip, and that should probably be something more than just grumbling that she doesn't want to go. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Jul 15, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2019 21:49
|
|