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Writers Help Thread!
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Writers Help Thread!
Writers Help Thread!
I saw one of these on a different forum. Sadly, that forum no longer exists. :'( But that is why I am creating this!
This thread is for questions and advice. You can ask for help making your writing better, or how to reword things. You can post samples that you think need work (but no longer than two paragraphs.) You can not just ask for help and then not help anyone. Go!
I will start. What word do you use when there is only one person infiltrating something? My dad told me infiltrate was the wrong word. I can't think of a better one, though.
submitted by Emily L., age 16, WA
(May 11, 2012 - 11:21 pm)
(May 11, 2012 - 11:21 pm)
I read too much.
(May 21, 2012 - 3:30 pm)
Cool! It's nice not too feel so alone......
(May 21, 2012 - 5:30 pm)
I know, right? If you write, you have to read or you never have any ideas. My dad, when he was a kid tried to write a science fiction novel. This is as far as he got: "Mars and Venus were at war." Talk about writer's block!
(May 22, 2012 - 7:01 pm)
Hey, I am just going to say, Sciene Fiction is awesome, but so many ideas have been taken-- sometimes it's hard not to write fan fiction! And writer's block is no fun. I don't like it.
(June 6, 2012 - 7:04 pm)
Sometimes, when I write, my characters get really bad. This is happening less frequently. If anybody has this problem, my dad says that the bad character should go down a hole and never return. He's crazy.
(May 15, 2012 - 1:10 pm)
What, exactly, do you mean by bad? Inconsistent characterization-bad, morality-bad, or Mary Sue-bad?
I tend to have the inconsistent characterization problem if I don't watch myself (because personal empathy problems ugh), but I find that two (related) things help: keeping detailed character charts, and thinking of the character from Actor!mode instead of Writer!mode.
Character charts are easy enough—mine generally consist of a general outline of the character's personal history, personality, applicable tropes (because TV Tropes Ruined My Vocabulary), relationships, spine, et cetera. BUT because of the aforementioned empathy problems, I have trouble writing characters who aren't *me* using just notes of this nature.
Which is where Actor!mode comes in quite handy. Basically: When you create a character, you first go through the text to find what you want and how far you will go to get it.* Then you break down each scene into beats, each of which correlates to one objective. Most generally, your objective is ALWAYS to win—to change the other characters (and, if it's a soliloquy, to change the audience). Then you ask yourself "If I wanted what the character wanted and was in the situation the character was in, what would I do?" (Stanislavski called it the Magic If) And you let the answer to that question inform the way you do the scene. The goal is not so much to *be the character* as it is to *create a me that is the character*. Even if that character is so far away from you that you are literally polar opposites, if you can learn what they want and let yourself want what they want and then put yourself into the scene, you can create another *you* to be that character.** ANYWAY this was a horribly abbreviated and nigh-incoherent explanation, but trust me that it is REALLY REALLY HELPFUL when you are writing characters, especially if you have lots of characters with conflicting goals—if you can Magic If-yourself into their circumstances, you can keep their characterization much more consistent. Yes, even the nasty ones.
*Piece of advice on the off-chance that you're interested in acting: The only correct answer to the question of "How far am I willing to go?" is "as far as it takes!" This is acting. We live in extremes.
**Welcome to the world of actor-speak, by the way. >:}
As to the morality-bad, well, all I can say to that is NASTY CHARACTERS ARE FUN :D
And Mary Sues SHOULD be cast into the depths of a bottomless pit, never to return. The risks otherwise are too great.
In other news, IT WOULD SEEM I CANNOT POST ON THIS THREAD WITHOUT TL;DR-ing.
(May 15, 2012 - 5:00 pm)
*blinks* Huh.
All I can say is, that is definitely not how I do it. I don't do character charts either. I don't know how I write characters. It just sort of happens.
Not that I haven't written bad characters. But I've gotten waaay better since I learned to diagnose a Mary-sue.
I draw them. I also include copious amounts of Write Who You Know.
(May 15, 2012 - 6:52 pm)
The creating-characters-from-an-acting-perspective thing, you mean? Yeah. Most people I know don't do it that way—I only do because the method is really, really helpful if I want to write a character who doesn't have severely ASPD-like tendencies combined with a massive dislike of interpersonal contact (because, while such characters are interesting every once in a while, a whole bookful of them would be boring) and, since I'm majoring in Theatre with my long-distance sights set on NYC, I can also write it off as good practice and feel awesome and productive and stuff. :D
I should point out at this point that part of the reason I resort to using the method to write characters is because I have a horrible time relating to other people—a mixture of an underdeveloped Theory of Mind and a tendency to, frankly, just not like them very much if they're not simply blocks of text—and therefore a horrible time trying to Write Who I Know, because most of the people I do know are either in the very limited context of the Internet (in which people almost never act like themselves—I'm certainly much nicer when I write than when I interact face-to-face) or else almost universally boring and therefore not fun to write about. On the occasion that I have reason to Write Someone I Know who meets neither of those points, I can do it without much trouble, however, since there are a grand total of two people like that, not including myself, the method becomes necessary.
WOW that was pompous. It's probably a side-effect of my Philosophy class... D:
(May 15, 2012 - 8:25 pm)
Oh dear. Maybe your True Form is a block of text. =D
I try to act like my real self on the internet. The only difference I can think of is that on the internet I have a far bigger vocabulary (because I have time to think about what I'm saying) and sound far more intellegent than normal (for the same reason.)
Also I say lol when I'm not really laughing. -.- but everyone does that.
(May 17, 2012 - 7:57 pm)
Inconsistent charictarization bad. Either that, or my characters do not fit in with their environment. Sometimes, I copy characters exactly. All of these I want to throw down a bottomless pit. Sometimes Mary-Sue characters aren't that bad to use, if used sparingly and ALWAYS your characters enemy. Evil characters are definetly fun, both to act and to write about.
(May 21, 2012 - 3:35 pm)
I'll think about that! Sometimes I do have that problem, so I just try to bring my character back to sanity. Doesn't always work.
(June 6, 2012 - 7:09 pm)
(Uh, what's a Mary-sue???)
A goody-goody female character who always does everything right. The male version is called a Gary-Stu.
Admin
(May 15, 2012 - 8:43 pm)
AND who every character adores, and any character who doesn't adore them is automatically OMG SO NASTY EVIL BAD NO-GOOD HORRIBLE THEY KICK PUPPIES!!!!111!!1 for no reason at all. Also, they ostensibly have no flaws whatsoever (although this is usually Told instead of Shown). That's important, too, because there are supercompetent, nice characters who aren't Sues (Hermione Granger, anyone?).
(May 15, 2012 - 9:51 pm)
I have the problem, not of creating Mary Sues, but of making my writing sound cheesy. Which is why I usually give up on everything I write. It sounds like I'm trying too hard. For example, one assignment I had for sixth-grade English was to create a narrative of the painting Boys Climbing a Tree. Following is an excerpt from my narrative:
"' Just--do it!' snapped Cristofer. Tomas was startled. He had never heard Cristofer being so bossy. Maybe it's from lack of sleep, or food, he thought as he gingerly stepped on Nicolas' back. After all, he did give me his lunch. Pangs of guilt coursed through him."
See what I mean? ^__^ And then later on:
"Tomas' mouth watered, but he couldn't enjoy a treat with Nicolas and Cristofer standing down there so expectantly. Besides, he had a job to do."
And then later,
"Senor* de Goya started laughing, rich and hearty. Cristofer, annoyed, changed the subject."
*Yes, I know, I left out the tilde (I don't actually know how to spell it) and other accent marks and such.
(May 18, 2012 - 6:09 pm)
That doesn't seem cheesy at all! :D
*checks watch* Scrivener freezes too much. It is very annoying.
(May 21, 2012 - 7:44 pm)