how do you do words?

[certainthings]

When you write stories, how do you do it?

Do the characters talk to you and tell you what they want to say and what actions they want to engage in and such.

Or.

Do you force them into situations, tell them what to say and how they're going to say it?

Can you feel the story as you're writing or do you feel it after? Do you feel your story at all?

Tell me all things about how you write, please.

Comments

[americangrl69.livejournal.com]

When I'm role playing the characters talk to me and tell me what they want me to do with them. As for actually writing a story, it's kind of the opposite I guess. I just get a plot idea and then figure it all out in my head before I actually write it down.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's interesting. Why do you think the rp characters talk to you but the others don't?

And is it difficult getting it from your head to the paper?

[americangrl69.livejournal.com]

I really don't know. It's just always kind of been that way. Though sometimes they throw fits if I try to do something they dislike. They never get their way though.

Yeah but only because I'm a horrible procrastinator. It's easier with rp though. If something strikes me with an rp character I usually try to run with it as soon as possible. Not so much when I'm just writing a story. I usually have to do that right away or else I don't do it. Procrastination at it's worst.

[lavendergaia]

I find that I write better when the characters talk to me. Forcing characters to do something just comes out as forced writing on my part. But I think there are writers who are scribes, who just write what their characters do, and then there are writers who are puppeteers, who put characters in situations and march them around like sims.

[myteethsharper.livejournal.com]

i cry and become filled with self-loathing.

[gwendolynmstacy.livejournal.com]

First option.

[hamarakissa.livejournal.com]

When I RP - I pretty much become the character and let them speak for me.

As for writing - I haven't written in forever :x And the little things I do wrote for land comms - I sometimes force the character, but I try to keep it true to how the character would feel.

[paperscout.livejournal.com]

This is tagged fan fiction so I'm assuming that's what you're referring to. When I write fan fic, in a way, it's very forced because I'm usually doing it to fulfill something I wanted to see in the show or something. I try to stay true to characterization and all that stuff, which is usually easy cuz if you watch/read a lot of something you know the characters pretty well, but I don't stress about it so much.

With original stuff, I try to know the characters and their backgrounds, fears, motivations, desires really well and then I try to figure how that would shape a chain of events and interactions in the loose confines of an overall plot or idea. If that makes sense.

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the first three but. I feel the story as I'm going. Like, I can't make a plan or an outline really at all otherwise the story never works. I have to just go and let it go where it goes, but I don't like think "oh so-and-so would totally do this" or I'm not thinking in terms of that, I guess. I mean, sometimes I'll write something and be like "dean would never say something like that" and change it after, but I really don't think about it as I'm writing. IDK.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

That's how I do it as well, on the few occasions that I write my 'fictional conversations' and they rarely talk to me for longer than a couple of sentences each. I feel that were I to 'force' them to talk, it'd start coming out as, "And then"

I like the way you describe that there, though about the scribes and puppeteers.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Well, that just sums up my general day to day life, I guess this one of the reasons we get along so well

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Never the second?

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Do you find it difficult forcing the character?

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I don't find it easy to find what characters I already know would or wouldn't say. I mean besides obvious things.

When you create original characters do you forcibly create all of them (fears, motivations and such) or do you just get a basic idea in your head and let a muse tell you the rest of their story?

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

So, you have a pretty good idea of what you want the story to be, and you just go for it and write and then go back and edit it later? Something like that?

[gwendolynmstacy.livejournal.com]

Almost never. I mean I have the idea and know what I want but they work on their own

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

That's cool.

[paperscout.livejournal.com]

It can vary, but generally, I find I have to have at least a fear, a want, and usually also a flaw (which is usually somehow connected to the fear and/or want) in mind for all the active characters in order for them to properly motivate the rest of the story. I find if I don't know those things about them, then I don't know enough about how they'll interact with others, or react to situations they're in, or will make important decisions that set things in motion. And if you don't know that, it's easy to make them do things that don't end up making sense. I always stay open to things changing, and realizing new or different things about the characters as I go on, but it's good to start from somewhere.

[hamarakissa.livejournal.com]

I would have to say when it's someone I can't connect or understand. Like I'm usually always a drama type character because for me that's easier to act out than comedy. Like because my life isn't a comedy - I don't play comedy characters as I would have to force them out of myself. As for land comm writing I just go by what I think spur of the moment and hope it all connects - otherwise it's grating and feels wrong. I'll post a recent thing I wrote if you want. :)

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess. Usually I really just have a line or two or an idea and I just let go and write (or really, fight to get words out) but yeah, I'll have a bunch of segments and jump around and then go back and edit it crazy. Or like, a lot of times I'll just end up with scenes with dialogue only and then I'll go back in and write descriptions later, especially if I'm writing in third person. But if it's in second (as my shit often is) it's pretty much just me painstakingly stream of consciousness-ing it and then going back and adding or removing or changing things to make it sound better.

[gottalovev.livejournal.com]

I generally have a rough outline of what the story will be and where I want it to go (the main idea) But the details come as I write, as if I'm following the characters from there. sometimes they do what I had imagined before starting it, sometimes they take a detour, but normally they end up where I intended them to be.

I don't quite know what you mean about feeling the story? do you mean knowing it it works or not, if it's worth continuing? if it's that, I do generally feel it as I do write, or it's really hard to come back and fix afterwards (unless I scratch it all and start anew)

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

By feel. I mean like can you feel the sadness, or the fast paced-ness, the meandering slowness, the romantic comedy, the spastic joy ... whatever the story is about.

[littlestclouds.livejournal.com]

When I write, I feel like the characters are dictating to me and I'm just recording. I can't really force the characters into doing things that don't "feel" right to them.

[certainthings.livejournal.com]

Do you find that they talk a lot to you or do you have to wait awhile in between talks?

[gottalovev.livejournal.com]

yes, that I do... and I sure hope that others do to, afterwards (because it would be damn embarrassing if I tried to be funny and I was the only one laughing at my jokes ;) )

[littlestclouds.livejournal.com]

It depends. Sometimes they're very talkative, and sometimes they're kind of quiet. Right now, they're pretty quiet.