The Writing Column Q & A

Started by Captain Maltese, May 30, 2016, 11:22:15 AM

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Captain Maltese

I need to be careful with music in one respect. Even though I rely on choosing the right music for capturing the mood I want, there is the occasional danger that I get more from the song than I wanted. Normally this is not a problem; the music is recorded in some sort of staged setting or in a studio and the song is simply performed; the words may be real but they belong to the person who wrote the song. But once in a blue moon the song is more than a performance. It becomes a true vessel for the real emotions of the singer or player even if they do not excel as singers. You don't hear it often since music is an art of much practice and performing, besides in national anthems and rallying songs, and a few other emotional instances. But when I hear it, it makes my neck hairs stand out and if I sit down to write right then, the words will not be mine. It is scary and it is magic. But I digress.

We, that is everybody on E, write partnered fiction stories. But many do more than that. How do you diversify your writing beyond that?

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RedRose

#76
That's a great question. I write, a lot. Lite stuff like my beauty blog, heavy stuff like a Holocaust program for a high school, articles superficial to scientific, I'm forever working on some dictionary. I write in several languages (ok, mostly 2). Maybe one day I'll author or co-author a book. A couple people are hounding me ;) I can't be bothered for now...
edited to add I used to write poetry. Alexandrines, or more modern, but always classics with rhymes and meaning.

Passing it on because I'm always looking for inspiration.
O/O and ideas - write if you'd be a good Aaron Warner (Juliette) [Shatter me], Tarkin (Leia), Wilkins (Faith) [Buffy the VS]
[what she reading: 50 TALES A YEAR]



Trilby

I write poetry.  No blank verse; something with a form and a rhyme pattern.  Anything from limericks to sonnets.  I think that the discipline of writing with a required cadence and rhyming words helps my prose writing.
 
Passing it on.

Captain Maltese

I have written different types of things in the past; plays, poetry, short stories. These days I seem to do best with writing articles about things that interest me; movie reviews, survivalism, whatever comes to mind. No one are asking for them, I do not seek publishing beyond Elliquiy and I do not expect feedback, but I will admit I delight in seeing the thread counters grow. I believe part of the fun is that these articles requires mostly analytical thinking, so my creativity and emotions can be saved for the story writing.

New question: Would you be interested in, or are you already participating in writing and posting very short (single paragraph) stories on E?

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Lady Shadow

I would be interested. I am not currently in the middle of any stories with anyone right now. I became a member back in January, and just never came back. I find it hard to write and be creative when a lot of the story is left on my shoulders to create. Most of the time, most of the roleplayers just write off the new material I add in and don't give me any new material of theirs to work with. I find this very difficult in constructing a story because all they are really contributing is "filler" and I just might as well be writing the story myself.

New question: What is your inspiration for writing? (Where did your love of writing come from)
Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.
Ambition is like a V8 engine.
~Elvis Presley~

Captain Maltese

Good one. I grew up in a rural industrial place where kids played a number of sports or played instruments or just hung out or learned to play tractors and cars as soon as they could reach the levers. No one, and I mean no one, read books. Except me. I was the only kid in the library at any given time, I was the only kid with a lending card who used it and I was the only kid that would be bringing home a bag of books. Mature books. I knew Jules Verne and 1001 Night before I was 12. Eventually that colored over into my school work, the language classes in particular. I might have issues with analysis and grammar but I still kept getting As and similar on my fiction and nonfiction. Not because I wanted them but because I loved writing. Because in writing, as in reading, my mind could escape and go to happier places.

That is a long time ago. Now I write because it gives me a feeling of accomplishing a little something, and because it is my only remaining, and main social channel. I feel like my voice is heard. I feel like I can perhaps still put a smile on someone's face. So I write my nonfiction stuff for my mind's health, and my fiction for my heart's health.

I pass the question on.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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RedRose

Great question!

Short answer: it's my thing. I've even worked as a lit teacher.

Long answer: I think I can thank my family and education for that. My parents read a ton. My grandparents always did, even through terrible times. I grew up with stories of my great grandmother reading a book a day. I used to read a book or two a week, and then internet happened ;)

I guess this can naturally lead to writing. Writing what you would like to read, or what you would like people to read, or simply what you want to write... I started filling notebooks even before I could spell right, and I learned early because my first grade teacher believed in rulers on the fingers  ;D Then I had penpals. I would actually RP with some of them without even knowing it had a name. I hid it from my parents because I felt they wouldn't be ok with it even though I don't think it quite reached PG-13 levels!

I never published anything but a thesis (university work). There's still time though, my mother just sent her first work to publishers... I was her first reader, before even my father and my grandparents. Her style is fantastic (granted she writes in her first language). She often asks if I still write, but these days it is mostly RP and there is no way my family could be ok with "writing with strangers". My mom is the type who censors her own books; my O/O would probably traumatize her and make her think she raised me all wrong ;)

Passing it on.
O/O and ideas - write if you'd be a good Aaron Warner (Juliette) [Shatter me], Tarkin (Leia), Wilkins (Faith) [Buffy the VS]
[what she reading: 50 TALES A YEAR]



Lady Shadow

Well my question comes back full circle!

My inspiration for writing comes from my love of books. I got really interested in reading at a young age and read all the Nancy Drew and Sweet Valley High books before Junior High School. I loved everything Sci-Fi and that branched out in me writing a few Science Fiction short stories of my own.

Truth be told, I think my love of reading really came from my Mom. She was really influential in making sure I always had plenty of books to read.

Okay new question:

Is there a certain writing style you have adopted? Like do you feel yourself in your character, or are all things made up?
Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.
Ambition is like a V8 engine.
~Elvis Presley~

Trilby

I don't know whether you can call it a style, but I have to be able to see an action happening, and at the very least, observe what's going on with MC.  For instance -- I've never been afraid that I was going to be killed, or imprisoned, and that, to me, is too complex and too extreme to actually feel in myself without having been in that position.  (Rant: Personally, I also think it's disrespectful of anyone who HAS had to look down the barrel of a gun, to say that you "know it must feel".  /rant)  But I can see it in MC.  I can feel her heart racing, I can feel her body tense.  If I'm writing anything with difficult emotions, or complex movements (say, a fight), I have to be able to at least understand the physical effects it has on MC, if not the emotional impact.
 
I call it "Seeing through her eyes."
 
Great questipn!  Passing it on....

Captain Maltese

#84
"Is there a certain writing style you have adopted? Like do you feel yourself in your character, or are all things made up?"

Frankly that's two separate questions. I'll answer both, the second one first. When I sit down to write and open the appropriate doors in my mind, I can feel four people present. Me. My cowriter. My character. And my cowriter's character. The cowriter's character takes the stage first. How is he/she currently feeling? Is there attraction, anger, surprise, fear, boredom? Then my own character steps up and notices all of those things, and reacts emotionally then sets about to deal with it. Except I am now consulting the interests of my cowriter, either by way of experience with that person or by checking up the OO's or even by sending a pm. This is E and what their character may love the writer may loathe, or the other way around. By now I probably know where things are logically or probably going in the current scene. At this point I check with myself what *I* really want to do. Is it full steam ahead or are things going way too slow or fast? Am I comfortable with the event, or do I need to find a way out? All of this is more or less intuitive, but that does not make it EASY. I am no big socialite who can skate through any situation. If I get stuck with this stuff I might not be writing another word of fiction for the next month. Conversely I feel rather proud every time I can hit the Post button.

Have I adopted a certain style? The above is a method. My writing style as I understand the concept is influenced by four different schools. The first is Norwegian, of course. Linguists will know that our current written language has maybe 10% of the word count of English. It is strongly influenced by Danish in grammar and style, after all they ruled this country from about 1650 to 1814 when we were handed over to the Swedes as war booty, and Danish is also a fairly terse language. So writing fictions in Norwegian tends to be fairly straight-forward. We are big on verbs, not so big on adjectives, and generally as flowery as a lawn mower user guide book. However! Norwegians get introduced to English at school at the age of 8 or so which obviously opens a new world for the word lover. Some of us also get German, French, Spanish as options eventually but unless we go for linguistic main studies we don't really get much fiction reading there. So, once I could read books in English I became aware that there are three big style schools: French fiction, English fiction and American fiction. Jules Verne, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Albert Camus - incredible French story writers, telling fantastic adventures in the most ornate sentences with wild people doing daring things. I was in love with French words even before I knew what they met. Then I stumbled across the channel and met J.R.R. Tolkien, Jerome K. Jerome, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and I learned a different way of writing - the English Understatement. Where the French characters had shouted and waved their arms at each other, this English breed communicated with terse words and measured nods and more love for describing items and faces than emotions. I was fascinate again. It was an odd thing to walk into American literature and find yet another way to do things. A lot more physical action, and interactions with a more overt erotic play than I was used to from anywhere else. Other emotions were less played out. Other motives changed too; money and personal success became far more important.

All those styles have affected me. The French style makes my English writing far more colorful than my Norwegian, which is an irony not lost on me. The British style helps me make better plots, crisper dialogue and makes my characters often more noble or polished than I would ever attempt in my mother language. And the passion I muster in my writing is much easier to find words for if I think of a scene from some American book or movie. 

New question. Mention three books that were important to you at an EARLY age. And why.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Mirrah

Quote from: Captain Maltese on September 17, 2017, 09:28:00 AM
New question. Mention three books that were important to you at an EARLY age. And why.

1. Frog and Toad - Taught me the value of friendship, of working through sometimes rocky relationships and interactions with others.
2. Amelia Bedelia - Taught me that it is okay to be different and imperfect.
3. The Dark Is Rising - And others of its series dragged me into a (now) long-standing affair with the Fantasy genre.

Passing this question on.
"Dream... not of what you are... but of what you want to be." - Margulis
Status: Closed. Semi Hiatus. | Have you taken care of yourself today?

Trilby

Quote from: Mirrah on November 26, 2017, 11:18:26 PM
1. Frog and Toad - Taught me the value of friendship, of working through sometimes rocky relationships and interactions with others.
2. Amelia Bedelia - Taught me that it is okay to be different and imperfect.
3. The Dark Is Rising - And others of its series dragged me into a (now) long-standing affair with the Fantasy genre.

Passing this question on.

Captain, thanks for the great question; and Mirrah, thanks for passing it on!
 
1.) Winnie the Pooh -- It was the earliest book I can remember that was about love, deep and rich and abiding; loving people for who they are, loving people because of their flaws, not in spite of them; and the importance of taking care of each other.  I don't know that I ever realized this before I thought about answering this question, but I learned about unconditional love from Pooh.

2.) The Wizard of Oz -- From Dorothy, I learned that even the small and meek can be brave and heroic, and that they can do brave and heroic things; and maybe more important, that courage doesn't mean the absence of fear. The series was my first exposure to a completely alternate world, with its own geography, cultures, and rules.

3.) The Hobbit -- Through Tolkien and Bilbo, the things I learned in The Wizard of Oz were reinforced and elaborated on, and I vicariously experienced real danger and serious consequences for I think the first time.  Some words and phrases were added to my vocabulary, too.  To this day, I'm prone to say "Thag you very buch" when I have a cold.
   
GREAT question, passing it on!


Captain Maltese

Three of my early books. And I mean really early.

1) "Seraphin" Children's illustrated book by Phillipe Fix. Seraphin was a highly creative outsider who could build anything. The story ended with him and his friend building a stair while chased by police and firemen, then removing the lowest stair steps to put on the top of the stairs, and so they escaped into the sky. The little tale affected me deeply, and taught me the price of being different - and the reasons why one should be different anyway.

2) "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl (I have never seen the movie). This one hit on different strings. I was struck hard by the descriptions of poverty, which was a rare thing in a children's book. Greed was another unusual topic. But I loved the wonders within the factory; the river of chocolate; the machines - and Granddad, who impressed me more than even Willy Wonka. The various nasty kids taught me nothing new.

3) "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne. It it a salty sea tale which was enough in itself to get me hooked. All these wonderful places under the surface of the sea, and knowing that the eerie science fiction from 1870 when the books was published was already both real and outdated. The one factor that have returned me to the book many times since is the main character, Captain Nemo. What made him tick, what motivated him - he remains one of the largest characters I have ever read about.


New question. Do you ever reuse parts of your derelict stories? Use the same character setting or location, even the first posts?

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Mirrah

Quote from: Captain Maltese on November 28, 2017, 10:48:27 AM
New question. Do you ever reuse parts of your derelict stories? Use the same character setting or location, even the first posts?

I am guilty of doing so.

Not so much the exact character or idea, but I have pulled aspects of characters from dead end stories, or characters who have never even seen the light of day... They are never as their original incarnations though. I typically like to create characters that I think would fit a setting or a scene, and that usually means no repeat characters, or pulling an exact replica out to use with someone else. They may share certain similar qualities (because I like those things or am experimenting with ideas at the time). As for settings, it is similar, as long as it fits the story and can add more to it. I have to have loved the locale, or thought that there was more potential to it than was explored the first time I brought a character through. As tourists visit many different places of the world, I don't think that it is wrong for different characters to experience such a thing. Locations, just like people, can change depending on the time that one visits it though, so tends to be reflected in roleplays as well.

Passing this question on, because I find it interesting and often wonder the same, myself.
"Dream... not of what you are... but of what you want to be." - Margulis
Status: Closed. Semi Hiatus. | Have you taken care of yourself today?

Mr Quixotic

#89
Quote from: Captain Maltese on November 28, 2017, 10:48:27 AM

New question. Do you ever reuse parts of your derelict stories? Use the same character setting or location, even the first posts?

Generally, no. I did try once, with a story that one partner had to leave due to real-life, to re-use the same character in the same plot-line with a new partner in an attempt to recapture the same dynamic as the original had. Not a good idea as it was the particular chemistry between our respective characters, and the way we/they naturally worked off each other, which made it as uniquely addictive as it was. I've never been able to get it out of my head, even despite now currently writing another version of that story, except this time with completely new characters and just as addictive, but in a different way.

The only other time I've re-used a character is in a story that I had going with one partner than ended up running out of steam fairly quickly, being a bit one-note. We started another, more complex story, and as it progressed a lightbulb went off in our heads and we thought, "You know, the characters and their story from our first scene, whilst not enough to maintain a long-term roleplay in itself, would be a great fit to act as a 'connector' to weave the strands and relationships of our new one together.  Approaching three years later, coming from a scene that had lasted less than four months originally, they've done just that and remain one of a trio of main pairings. As well as one of my all-time favourites.

In regards to re-using starters,  I have once or twice with abandoned openers that didn't receive a reply or where the was only a couple of posts, but not for a story that had previously lasted any length of time. Not sure if I could, it might feel too much like I'm plaigirising myself, though exactly why I feel there's such a difference between the two, I'm not quite sure.

New Question: Being one who, apart from the broad brush-strokes and what's directly relevant to the plot-line, knows virtually nothing about my character's precise background, history or what their specific personality traits, quirks, foibles, flaws, etc will be before the first words of their story hit the screen and I'm able to start getting to know them in 'real-time',  I'm curious as to how well or how much others need or prefer to know about their own and/or their partners character before they start? A lot of detail or a just a bare-bones outline?
Request Thread And Story Links          O/O's

Current Status - Actively seeking another story or two. If we've noticed each other but, for som reason never connected, or we've written/plotted before and you'd like to again, please shoot me a PM.

'I, myself, am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.'

Mirrah

Quote from: Mr Quixotic on December 06, 2017, 01:09:49 AM
New Question: Being one who, apart from the broad brush-strokes and what's directly relevant to the plot-line, knows virtually nothing about my character's precise background, history or what their specific personality traits, quirks, foibles, flaws, etc will be before the first words of their story hit the screen and I'm able to start getting to know them in 'real-time',  I'm curious as to how well or how much others need or prefer to know about their own and/or their partners character before they start? A lot of detail or a just a bare-bones outline?

I've started typing without any particular detail in mind and building as I went, beginning with physical aspects, then adding personality quirks, thoughts, emotions. Drive. Sometimes, it doesn't always work in that order. Other times, I've started with just scarce bones laid out. Then, there are the times where the character is mostly fleshed out before a story begins. I can do either one, but if I have a particular direction I'd like to go in (as well as requests from partners) for a story, I prefer the last. Even having just a few details helps. Then again, the method also affects my preference.  For chat RP, I often did the first and second. For forum RP, I prefer the approach of the third.

Question: What would you say is (or are) your weakest point (or points) as a writer?
"Dream... not of what you are... but of what you want to be." - Margulis
Status: Closed. Semi Hiatus. | Have you taken care of yourself today?

Captain Maltese

My weakest point as a writer is definitely that I have never been able to just sit down and write fiction like a professional. I can look at the most intriguing, most delectable post from cowriters I treasure and adore and know like lovers, and it is like looking at a blank wall - absolutely not one word wells up within me. Then later; hours, days, weeks later and without warning the words, paragraphs and pages starts flowing like summer rain.

Passing that one on.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Nico

My weakest points?

Definitely my fickle, picky muse. ~laughs~ I'm not very good with writing combat, not for post on end, at the very least. It bores me too quickly to write it for too long.

Passing it on.

RedRose

Loooong paragraphs about detailed combat, or detailed high-tech devices. I'm all for action and sci fi but I can't do this.

Passing it on.
O/O and ideas - write if you'd be a good Aaron Warner (Juliette) [Shatter me], Tarkin (Leia), Wilkins (Faith) [Buffy the VS]
[what she reading: 50 TALES A YEAR]



Mirrah

I have many weak points. Dialogue, world building, hard sci-fi tech terminology (or just techno terminology in general), combat (especially when it comes to the established names of maneuvers), being some of the chief ones. Oh, yes, and the capricious muse. I am ever at her mercy.

And, since that was my question...

Question: In your opinion, what are your strengths, when it comes to writing?
"Dream... not of what you are... but of what you want to be." - Margulis
Status: Closed. Semi Hiatus. | Have you taken care of yourself today?

Nico

Oh that's easy. :-)

I am completely at ease with dialogue, adding details, descriptions of settings, emotions, fabrics, smells, sounds... I can 'go with the flow' pretty easily if it's with someone I mesh with well.

Passing it on!

RedRose

Easy indeed!

Making a character real, getting into their head, their feelings and reactions, creating a non manichean setting, dialogues. Also I do NOT lose my muse, unless I'm not given enough to work with or some catastrophe happens. I can keep a RP going for years and have done it more than once!

Passing it on.
O/O and ideas - write if you'd be a good Aaron Warner (Juliette) [Shatter me], Tarkin (Leia), Wilkins (Faith) [Buffy the VS]
[what she reading: 50 TALES A YEAR]



Captain Maltese

Right now, strengths is not what comes first to mind of my writing. But I do put a decent amount of research into my stories. Either into the history of the time and place, or into the type of characters and environments I am working with. I really, really want things to feel RIGHT.

New question: When you ponder a new story, are you looking for a familiar and comfortable setting or do you look for a challenge?

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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Gypsywoman

I have to admit that I look for something familiar, but my newest RP is little different for what I'm use to... and I'm really enjoying it.


Passing the question
Just because the road is rocky doesn't that mean your spirit should be rocky too!

RedRose

I'm a very eclectic writer and will be familiar with very many styles. That said I generally go for one of those familiar styles. I can and will do research, but am not currently opened to something fully different (like dices, or smut world etc).

Passing it on.
O/O and ideas - write if you'd be a good Aaron Warner (Juliette) [Shatter me], Tarkin (Leia), Wilkins (Faith) [Buffy the VS]
[what she reading: 50 TALES A YEAR]