Question Game

[Slina]

Not yet, though I want to try it sometime.

Do you normally write in first-person or third-person?

 

[will_wait4Him]

Third-person; I just don't feel right writing in first-person. Plus it don't sound right to me either.

Would you invest your talent into a writing career or just keep it as a hobby?

 

[Blessed-one]

writing career if i had a job already. That would provide a steady income and i can go polish my work in spare time.

Do you like the bad characters you create?

 

[Vulgivagus hagiographus]

Oh, very much so.

Do your characters generally turn out as you planned when you write them, or do they change during the actual writing process? (And is it on purpose or accedent?)

 

[will_wait4Him]

They may learn a couple things or two but their actual character never changes.

Have you ever been influenced or changed by anothers writing?

 

[Blessed-one]

yep, Robert Jordan. Really gets me down to writing details.

Are your characters too perfect?

 

[Slina]

Normally not, but I accidentally did it once.

Do you often write prologues and/or epilogues?

 

[Vulgivagus hagiographus]

yep, Robert Jordan. Really gets me down to writing details.

Ack! No! Robert Jordan! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! *faint and die* Sorry, Jordan is my enemy. Sorry about that....

As for the question I'm actually supposed to answer, yes! I feel epilogues are necessary to wrap up the story and give it a feeling of completion. I write prologues just because they don't have to make a lick of sense and can be insanely over dramatic.

How much research do you do before writing a story?

 

[will_wait4Him]

99.9% of the time I write fiction stories. I feel real life holds too many boundaries.

Do you find that you usually use a type of genre more than the others?

 

[Blessed-one]

lol, c.d. I know you hate R.J...

yep, my type is fantasy. Haven't really tried my hand at others.. but there seems to be this resistance built in my bones.

Is the 'no controlling of other characters' in some of the RPGs too restrictive?

 

[Slina]

I think the only time it's really too restrictive is when someone's been gone for a while, and their character needs to do something before the thread can move forward.

Do you make an outline before starting your stories?

 

[will_wait4Him]

I have before but not always.

What do you do to ones character when he/she is gone and you can't contact them? Do you take action and do whatever or do you wait?

 

[Blessed-one]

I'll wait for a few days then if they don't show up, take control of the characters (but that depends on how fast the pace is going too). Unless it's somebody who normally only shows up once a month or something.

Do you tend to write in large quantity?

 

[Buskanaka]

I tend to try and write really big epic stories and then they just never end up getting finished.

What do you think about stories written by more than person, and have you ever done it?

 

[will_wait4Him]

I've done it tons of time and it can be fun when others do their part and go along with the story.

How do you get throught writers blocks?

 

[Blessed-one]

poor Bus. *whisper* same here..

good question, will! here goes!
1. you squeeze every ounce of ideas out of your head, regardless of how useless they are.
2. go and do something to relax. Read a book, watch anime, cooking..
3. Sit and let the mind roam, eventually an idea will come, but this takes time.
4. forget about writing and come back to write tomorrow.

What is your favourite personality for a character?

 

[Buskanaka]

someone who's a lot like me, because then I can pretend it's me and get them to do all the awesome stuff I could never do in real life

I try and always write a different character in rpg's though, just to avoid the easy path so that I'm always learning and improving my writing.

What do you enjoy about writing?

 

[Blessed-one]

oh, just putting down things on paper! yep, seriously. i think for me, it just comes down to the gift that God has given me. If I had no talent in this area, i wouldn't enjoy writing..

as for specifics, explore people's personalities and possibilities in life, and bringing impossible things to happen. I think the message part is particularly appealing. What plot, characters to use in order to bring out the message?
oh yeah, and i absolutely enjoy characters surprising me! (Soiren's not supposed to join cyberwing's dragon thread, Bus, but she insisted to come..)

just to reiterate Buskanaka's great question for the next person..

What do you enjoy about writing?

 

[Slina]

It's just fun coming up with stories, and being able to get across ideas using fiction. I guess I just like to come up with ideas, and being able to describe them so others can enjoy them too.
And it's fun just plain writing emotions. Being able to feel emotions is something I enjoy. I've never been too sure why, but whenever I'm watching a movie for example, and I feel the strong emotions, I just get a thrill out of it. And that happens a lot when I'm writing, so maybe that's part of the reason.
I guess I just like to write for the joy of doing it. One of the things I like most about it is using fiction to reach others who I normally wouldn't be able to reach, giving them hope and telling them about the Lord. I think that's the most important reason that I write.

What do you think about using prologues in fiction?

 

[Vulgivagus hagiographus]

I very much agree with your reason for writing, Slina.

As for the prologue question, I believe I answered a similar question of yours about this on this thread, but I’ll go into more detail. Most of the time prologues are unnecessary to the plot and don’t make any sense to the reader. Still, we stick them on. Why? One reason I see is as an attention getter. I like making my prologues extraordinarily dramatic. One story I was contemplating writing I was going to make the prologue the destruction of the world. Now that’s what I call dramatic!

Even though I said they’re generally pointless, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Another science fiction story I was thinking about writing was going to be written like a dialogue that seemed like a cheesy advertisement for this futuristic society.

I’m currently working on a fan fiction novel (Lord, please help me get through it!) and the prologue I’m using for this piece is actually a scene previous to the story from the perspective of a character that’s only in one scene that wouldn’t have fit into the story as the first chapter. It’s probably not necessary to the plot, but I don’t think prologues really should be. What it does though, is as the story progresses, my characters run into the after effects of that scene. As soon as that happens, the reader is like, “Ah! I know what happened here!” even though my characters don’t.

To use an example that I know Blessed-one will like, in the first Wheel of Time book, the prologue includes this crazy man destroying some palace with weird magic, then this other person comes up to him and starts talking about prophecy and destiny and all sorts of stuff that makes no sense to the reader. When you get into the rest of the story though, you start finding out who this man was, understand the prophecies about him, discover who the person talking to him was, why he’s insane, and all about the weird magic he’s using. Now the prologue wasn’t necessary to understand any of these points, but it gives the reader a little preview of things to come. It perks their curiosity, I suppose.

So there’s my really long winded answer. Robert Jordan fans would be proud. As for my question, do you work on more than one piece at a time (such as a novel), or not, and why? In the spirit of Robert Jordan, don’t be afraid to be long winded.