General Writing Discussion Thread | Current Topic: NaNoWriMo

bbninjas said:
And I'm back with another writing question! I have created a character and a personality that I would like to implement in a writing piece. The problem is that I cannot think of a plot. Effectively know who I want to write about, although I'm entirely stuck on what exactly I want to write about. As part of character development, I do I have a good idea where I would like the writing beginning to take place. So, my main question is how should I design a [unique] plot?
Click to expand...
That's how I start my writing tests-think of characters and then of a plot. However, it's not always easy; it can take me up to 2 hours to think of something good/interesting in some way (hint hint, @Convicted readers) but I usually look at the traits or the things I'd want my character(s) to accomplish, then find a scenario based on that.
When it's all clear, only then I think of actual plot. Things that could happen, things that couldn't, etc; events from irl could be helpful here.
 
Questions for Readers and Writers​

Question 24
Favourite Characters Chat​

While a good plot and setting can help make a world feel real, characters are the true lifeblood of any story, whether you're reading fan-fiction or original works. A good character can make you feel what they're feeling, see what they're seeing, and really transport you directly into the plot. As a writer, how do you go about creating characters that give your story life? Do you tend to write characters first or come up with a plot first and make characters to fit into it later? What is your favourite character that you've created, and how do you feel they worked out in your story? Is there a character of yours that you've ever drawn?

As a reader, what is your favourite character that you've ever read in a piece of original fiction or fanfiction? Why do you think you liked them so much? What kind of traits do you generally find the most interesting or exciting in a character?
 
I've held off on answering this for a while, but I feel deeply enough seated in my own fanfiction to give an adequate response now.

When I began to write the Elemental Spectrum, I started with the prologue, which shows Team Flare, ten years after the 'Geosenge disaster' and their supposed disbandment. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, however, they've continued to operate in secret, waiting for the day when they may exact revenge on those who wronged their leader in the past.
Because I started writing with Team Flare, I think, their characters are the ones I feel most connected to. There's the mysterious leader, caught up in his own thoughts and completely obsessed with revenge. There's the bumbling Bertram, and slightly more competent Jarret, making a sort of Jessie/James parallel. And then there's Alma and Eldan. Eldan is definitely one of my favorite characters at the moment. He's just so much fun to write about! He epitomizes the "stylish" aspect of the Team Flare Grunts in XY, finding a way to work style into everything he does. It's a bit of a challenge for me as well, I think, to get "stylish" into every sentence without making the entire thing incoherent.
I wrote the prologue before anything else, even the basic plot line, so I had no idea where I wanted it to go from there, or who I wanted to include. I sketched out a general idea of a dystopian future where no one knows what a Pokémon is. Then I got a vague plan for an 'Elemental Spectrum', a joining of all eighteen types, which could defeat any opponent. I still have fleshed-out characters for only a third or so of the Spectrum; the rest are barely more than names at this point. I'm worried about introducing them too quickly; I want people to be able to keep track of them all. I'm still trying to work out that problem, but I otherwise feel fairly confident in the rest of the characters.
 
Extremely late reply is extremely late, but whatever :v

In A New Day, since it's confined to the bounds of the real world [mostly] I tried to make my characters seem like you could turn the corner and meet them, so they're mostly tame, "real", characters.

in One Last Battle, since the world is more of a parallel to ours, I can go pretty crazy with characters. While there's still every chance you can meet said characters in real life, the chances are very slim. I knew from the start I didn't want a coherent cast of characters, but rather characters with inflated personalities and quirks so that they specifically aren't meant to get along, but have to learn to cope with that for whatever situation they're in and develop because of it. That doesn't mean that the characters can't mesh and get along, though, but rather that they aren't a coherent group at the start. Will they eventually become a coherent group? Maybe.

Last thing I'd like to touch on is Mandy from OLB. My goodness, I never thought I could love reading my own characters' dialogue so much. Essentially, she's a play on the "Hippie" trope/Stereotype, so her dialogue is designed to reflect that, using "groovy", "Totally", "Like", and "Man" in just about every sentence. Outside of her own dialogue being hilarious [a bit of bias, but Jabber's reactions over Skype have confirmed it :p], she's also designed in a way to make her seem irritating to other characters, which is also priceless. She's not afraid to get in other people's business [as we'll see in upcoming chapters], and outside of said characters being annoyed by that, they're usually annoyed by the prospects of what she's saying as well or that she's just going to butt into everything and have her own idea of what should be done, how something should be done, or anything. Writing a character to irritate the other characters is actually a good idea sometimes.
 
Hmm... I feel as if my character Jesse Black is probably my favorite character. He's part of a story I've been making secretly called Network Connect. I created all 9 main characters for the story in different ways and Jesse's creation process was the most interesting for me. Instead of the typical "he's like this because the story is like that" or "the story is like this because he is like this", I went with a process that first takes several random personality and history traits taken from real people I know and mix them together. After that, I had thought about how his own environment would be and how it would affect him. Long story short, I created him like how someone's personality and interests and such are formed as they age. He's the only character I did this with, at least on this scale of making events for every year of his life. Oh, I forgot to mention that his side of the story and plot was created simultaneously as i "raised" him with the plot and his life only being relevant to one another twice. Once when he was a kid when he met someone, and later on as a teen when he became involved...if that makes sense.

Honestly, I feel as if he was the best character for the entire story since he felt the least like a typical story character to me. He didn't feel like the typical "I love girls and i think im a badass" type or the "i dont like to talk much but im the super sexy cool badass hero" type either. He was just the typical teen, no stereotypical interests or character tropes. Just a good old fashioned teen with no real life goal and many varying interests and likes. Funnily enough, he ended up becoming the most intriguing character in the story, long before he became the center of the group to support them all as he fell or was killed by the first science fiction anything in the story.

Uhh... Sorry if this was oddly worded. Last thing I have to say is, ironically, I've never once drawn Jesse. I do mostly drawing and yet I've never once drawn him. I even drew the rest of the cast, even some minor characters, but never him.
 
I was planning to answer this question a while back, but I never got around to it since I didn't feel comfortable enough at the time. So here's my thoughts!
I actually have two favourite characters, one from each of the series I'm doing. Both can be found in my signature if you're interested, but it isn't the right time for advertising. The two characters contrast strongly from each other (and one even appears in the other as a supporting character--not as a cameo, but as an actual important character), even going as far as one having dislike towards the other, but without further ado, let's get started with this rant of mine.

The first character I'll be talking about is a character that I've had since July/August 2014, one of the three main characters in the Interspectaculars series: Amber Tzaziki. The character in its earliest form was an alter-ego of myself for comics (which an old drawing from Summer 2014 confirms), who was then put into a story based off a really strange dream I had (of which the basis later became O Summon Thee, a story that prequels the JotI and RotI but isn't near finished at all). She was basically me at that time and had no interesting character development until I decided to make her a bunch of code--a human-like program with highly advanced AI equal to that of a human and the ability to "enter" technology and explore it--giving her a bunch more to work with. From there, more and more continued to build up, changing her to be very blunt and not afraid to beat someone up yet always trying her best to do good for those who support her and having her look after Mr. Game as a sort of parent. Heck, she even–
She ends up falling in love with Ness and vice-versa, and the two become a couple.
I find that Amber takes a lot from my real-life personality (except I know when to keep shut and I definitely know better than to beat people up), even thinking the same way I would at times. The amount of stress and hardship she endures is incredible, and she just pulls through it like nothing had ever happened to her once-carefree life.

The other character I'll be talking about is a character who has existed since August 2015, but has only recently taken on their canon form through the Al Catraz series: Benjamin Cloviet. The character first came to be while I was drawing at an SSB4 weekly tournament, with about three different versions of his original backstory, all of these having Benjamin as a 13-year old in the RotI continuity. One involved his stuffed husky Pedro being no more than just his imagination and "living" inside Benjamin, one involved Benjamin simply being a take on the Killager (a popular SSB4 meme) by having Benjamin have an axe and often make empty threats with it to scare people after having watched his parents die when he was seven, and one where all of that was the same, but Benjamin x Sakura was a thing (which looking at canon now, I ask myself why I decided to do that). It was only about maybe September 2015 when I finally decided on his current RotI continuity (which Turnabout Timber takes heavy inspiration from), and February 2016 when I decided on his current continuity. Benjamin has a lot of quicks that make him an innocent but cute character, and he's just such a unique character that is easily my favourite of the Al Catraz series. (I still really like Al, Sakura, and Lucian, though, even though I wasn't the one who actually made Lucian Umbra.)

That does it there. Reading the stories is probably the best way to get more insight into the characters, as there's only so much my explaining can do. If you do end up reading them, don't be afraid to talk to me about them in the thread!

...I really need to stop advertising.
 
Writing an origin story for one of my characters (Eric Damon).

He will be raised by a pride of Litleo and Pyroar, and the story will take more than a bit of inspiration from The Jungle Book and Tarzan: Lord of the Apes. I just need to figure out which Pokemon to be the equivalent to Shere Khan before I write the first chapter.
 
Apologies for double-posting, but I'm also debating on writing an epic crossover between Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts. Not sure which trio of Starters I should use for the main characters' first Pokemon, but I've narrowed it down to Johto, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos. It's gonna be HUGE either way!
 
Terra Force said:
Writing an origin story for one of my characters (Eric Damon).

He will be raised by a pride of Litleo and Pyroar, and the story will take more than a bit of inspiration from The Jungle Book and Tarzan: Lord of the Apes. I just need to figure out which Pokemon to be the equivalent to Shere Khan before I write the first chapter.
Click to expand...
This sounds like a really cool idea! I'd love to see how it turns out. Due to the wide variety of Pokemon, you've honestly got a lot of options. I would suggest making your selection in mind of the setting where your story will take place (i.e. a savanna). Anyways, he's my Pokemon ideas:

Arcanine - A very similar appearance to Shere Khan, and is a more legendary Pokemon. My idea of Arcanine is more powerful yet puppy-like, though, so I'm not sure how it'd work.
Umbreon - He looks all cuddly and stuff, but I could see it becoming into a vengeful character if his paths of crossed. Imagine the fun you could do with those eerie, glowing rings!
Houndoom - Also an interesting option, but perhaps a bit cliche?
Mightyena - Same with Houndoom.
Shiftry - Maybe? It seems like the vengeful type.
Zangoose - Again, a potential option.
Luxray - Another Pokemon that feels similar to Shere Khan. It has some interesting techniques, like X-Ray Vision, that could put on a Pokemon-like twist.
Toxicroak - Toxicroak seems a lot like a decent option for an antagonist, with his sharp claws and general appearance. I imagine a sharp claw pressed against the protagonist's neck with this option. However, I don't feel like he'd be the primary antagonist, but more an obstacle.
Weavile - See Toxicroak. It's also fast.
Gallade - Perhaps this gallant Pokemon has had a traumatic past? Could also be an interesting protagonist, like a Bagheera. It's strong and wise.
Zebstrika - Like Zangoose and Shiftry.
Excadrill - See above.
Scolipede - Perhaps not a Shere Khan, but could be an interesting choice for a minor antagonist.
Krookodile - Another option like Zangoose and Shiftry.
Zoroark - See above. Feels a bit more unoriginal and cliche, though.
Cobalion, Terrakion or Virizion - This "Mowgli" threatens the forest, right? Any of the Swords of Justice could have an interesting motive to wanting to hunt the protagonist down. However, being legendaries, this may be a bit extravagant.
Pangaro - Another "Zangoose" or "Shiftry".
Tyrantrum - Another "Zangoose" or "Shiftry".

Hopefully there's some ideas you like here.

Terra Force said:
Apologies for double-posting, but I'm also debating on writing an epic crossover between Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts. Not sure which trio of Starters I should use for the main characters' first Pokemon, but I've narrowed it down to Johto, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos. It's gonna be HUGE either way!
Click to expand...
Choose one option, and go with it! =P

I'm not 100% sure about what exactly Kingdom of Hearts is, bit Sinnoh or Unova feel like interesting options. Serperior, Empoleon and Infernape in particular. I think Kingdom Hearts is a more medieval type of thing, so the starters I think would fit best are the Kalos ones. Chesnaught is a knight, Delphox is basically a magician, and Greninja is a -uh- ninja.
 
Kalos starters are perfect for Sora (water), Donald (fire), and Goofy (grass).
 
Questions for Readers and Writers​

Question 25
NaNoWriMo​

November means a lot of things to different people. The middle of autumn, Thanksgiving for the USA, Guy Fawkes days in the UK. Its even the month of my birthday! :D

But for a very special subset of people, November means NaNoWriMo, shorthand for National Novel Writing Month. Started in all the way back in 1999, NaNo is a celebration of writing and an encouragement for all aspiring writers out there to finally get off their butts and seriously write. The goal is write 50k words over the course of the month, a mere 1700 words a day.

Will any PokéBeachers be participating in NaNoWriMo this year? :3

I participated in, and completed, my first NaNo several years ago back when I still lived in the US. It was definitely a wonderful and fulfilling experience! I've meant to do it again, but November sadly tends to be a very busy month for me, and this month is no exception, with my upcoming surgery this weekend.

That said, I may not be aiming for the 50k word goal, but I do plan on using NaNo as my excuse to start actually writing a Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfiction this month that I've had rolling around in my head for a while. If any of you guys are interested, feel free to poke me and I'll post it up here. :p
 
Ahh, NaNo. I've never done it before, but with tES finally completed and a new idea rolling around in my head, I think it's finally time for me to give it a shot. :D

That said, I won't be signing up on the website (as cool a concept as that is), but rather going for an unofficial approach. Still gonna go for that 50k goal, though. Looking forward to seeing what you guys all come up with! ^.^
 
I'll be participating this year! I'm going to be using two OCs I made last week or so, and while I won't be signing up on the NaNoWriMo website either, I plan to post my story on PB when it's either finished or has enough chapters that I can start posting it. In addition, my goal isn't to hit the 50k words (although I do think I can hit it with editing added), but to rather have a finished product that I can feel proud about. After all, I can always go back and edit; I normally do that anyways. Let's see where this goes this year!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top