Shut up Already!

So Liz asked about characters and if they talk to you and how you get them to shut up. Well, I don't really have the problem of my characters not shutting up. I have the problem of them disappearing on me. Well, more like they take extended vacations and don't tell me. I have had a few times where my characters "talk" to me. Not many though. The way it happens is that I tend to get ideas for a scene. For example: my characters in my KWIF story were "talking" to me trying to get me to write the scene where they met. Now I was literally getting dialogue and everything from them! It was great. The only problem was that I couldn't seem to sit down and write it. They didn’t but me about it all the time, but there was this "pressure" (it's the only way I can describe it) to sit down and write the scene. Now that I've written it though, the pair has stopped talking. I was hoping that after I wrote it they would give me more to go on, but they didn't.

As for getting those annoying ones to quit talking, well, I tend to banish them to closets. Well, not really. Sometimes, I'll just drop them in a hole. I've only had this problem a few times and I've found that if I ignore them long enough, they'll eventually stop bugging me. Sadly, I think my characters don't like me ignoring them because then they don't want to say anything for months, sometimes years! Anybody got any ideas to get the ones who've quit talking to start again?

Cross-Posted to: krazikrys writes!

Same Time, Same Place

Well, Keri wants to know about books dealing with the same universe different story (SUDS - that she coined). I've only tried to write one of these types of stories once and it didn't work out too well. I've read a couple of book "series" that take place like that. I don't know if I would call them a series, but still.

Sometimes these "series" work well. It kind of gives you insights into the other characters that the other books are about. It also allows you to see the characters through different eyes.

I guess in someway, I'm doing this with "She's a Dream." This story is done in parts, each part is "kinda" a stand alone, at least I feel that way. But there are more parts that are written in first person as the FMC than there are in third person. But there are third person parts in there too. But I think that's the closest I have right now.

Sorry for the short entry, but I really don't know what to say right now. I'm still exhausted from the past weekend.

Cross-posted to: krazikrys writes!

Plotting? What Plotting?

Seriously, I don't plot much. But when I do, I tend to write lists. I don't bullet like Keri. Instead, I just open up a document (or OneNote...more on that in a moment), and list things. I've got a list (using Chaotic Shiny) of names for my Apocalypse Fiction. I've also got weapons and spaceships. I do tend to label this list because sometimes I can get confused. Like for my Apocalypse Fiction, if I didn't label the lists, the names could be confused for weapons or spaceships, and vice versa. I've even got a list of quotes! Well, that one is for my DS9 fanfic, but still. It's a list!

I have outlined, like literally with Roman Numerals and everything. And even then, snippets of conversations end up in the plotting.

Something else I have done is research. I know some people don't need to research their stories and I usually don't either. The only time I've ever had to research is when I am writing a fandom I know NOTHING about, or very little. For example: last year, during the LWS competition, I wrote a Harry Potter fanfic. I had to do some research at some of the Harry Potter sites out there to make sure I got stuff correct. And now, with my DS9 fanfic, I've been on a couple of Star Trek Wikis to help with some of the finer points of the race that I'm exploring. I guess the research comes in when I want to stay within canon of a certain fandom.

The other plotting thing I do is that I talk to myself. Yeah, I do that, mainly in my car when I'm driving to or from work. Sadly, I have nothing to record my ramblings so sometimes stuff doesn't come out the way I plot in my head.

Now, about OneNote. When I got my new computer, I had OneNote on it. Now I've heard everyone go on about LSB and various other writing programs. Well, for me, I like OneNote. In it, you can have several notebooks going on at once and each notebook can have sections with pages in it! I've got about 5 notebooks right now. One of them was for a training I did and the other one is for an event I'm helping plan, but the rest of them are all WriYe related. I've got one for General WriYe stuff. It's got tabs for Points, WiPs, WiMs, Goals, etc. I've also got a whole notebook for my WiMs. And when you copy and past from somewhere, it automatically puts the link in! (This is great for when I research stuff!) It also has tags. Now these are similar to tags on the various blogging sites, except they are more specific. I like the "To Do" tag. It puts a little checkbox next to whatever it is and when you do it, you click the box and it checks it for you! There's also a highlight feature. I've used this for a couple different things in my event book, but not so much in my WriYe ones yet. The other thing I love about OneNote, is that you can click ANYWHERE on the page and start typing. And then once you click somewhere else, you can move that text box that you auto-created anywhere else you'd like. The only downfall to it that I've found is that it doesn't count words. So it's not really great for keeping track of words written or anything, but otherwise, I am loving OneNote!

This is the most recent question. So I am now caught up!

Cross-Posted to: krazikrys writes!

Kick the Sidekicks to the Curb!

Okay, not really. But I don't tend to do a whole lot of sidekicks. Well, I do, but not as much as some other people. I do have a couple of sidekicks in my original stories that I'm currently working on. For example, in my NaNo from this past November, I have Rhys. He's essentially Damian's sidekick. He's got a backstory and everything. He also came into the story fairly early. There's a couple more "sidekicks" that get introduced into their circle, but they're more secondary characters, just there to complete things. Rhys on the other hand, well, he's a good sidekick. He does what Damian asks of him, but has his own mind too. He's not against telling him "No" or doing his own thing. He also knows when Damian is pissed at him and when to stay away. I think that's what makes him a good sidekick. Also, he doesn't go around telling everyone how great Damian is. Damian's not perfect, but he's trying to be a good leader. And every good leader needs a second.

In my fan fiction, there tends to be sidekicks from time to time. Sometimes they're only there to serve a certain purpose. For example in my one fanfic "She's a Dream," Jen is Becca's sidekick. Jen is the whole reason Becca gets introduced to Brian in the first place. Then she has the incredibly difficult task of helping her find out who she's dating/married to. (Becca is just incredibly naïve and has pretty much been a recluse for several years!) Yet, even though Jen is married to Brian's friend, Alex, and Becca has absolutely NO CLUE that she's dating a celebrity, she doesn't ridicule Becca for it. Even after she finds out the truth. She never puts Becca down. I think that's another sign of a good sidekick: sticking up for the main character and not putting them down. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't last a sidekick for very long. At least in my opinion.

Cross-Posted to: krazikrys writes!

Good Guys V. Bad Guys

I'm behind on my WriYe Blogging, so here is the first of 3 tonight.

Let's start with the bad guys. As a fan fiction author, my bad guys tend to already be created for me, or I get to create them myself! Usually I go the creating them myself route. Sadly, most of my bad guys aren't really people at all. They tend to be those abstract things like faith or trust or something like that. But in one of my stories, I do have a really awesome bad guy, at least in my mind. He is just trying to win this other guy over that he has had a crush on since he was little. (Yes, he's gay.) Only, he's going about it in the TOTALLY wrong way. Now, here's the backstory on the two of them: Ryan has a crush on Brian. (Yeah, bug me about names later!) Brian goes along with his friends and teases Ryan when they are kids. Both boys grow up and Brian becomes mega-super-star. Ryan still has a crush on Brian, but it is obvious by what his printed about Brian now that he doesn't swing that way. So when Brian starts dating Becca, Ryan decides that now is the time to get his man. He starts stalking Becca, hoping Becca will leave Brian. She doesn't. So Ryan goes after her and attacks her. All he's trying to do is get Becca to leave and Brian to like him. Like I said, he's going about it in the TOTALLY wrong way!

Okay, good guys now. I think the biggest thing about good guys is that they aren't perfect. (Unless, of course you are writing a story about Jesus, then He IS perfect, but you get my point.) And the other thing about not being perfect is that good guys shouldn't DWELL on their not being perfect. I mean, it shouldn't come up like every chapter, page or paragraph. Sure it should come up from time to time, but not ALL THE TIME. Heck, I'm not perfect, I make mistakes all the time, but I don't DWELL on them either. This can sometimes be difficult in the world of fan fiction. Since I write RPF (Real Person Fic), sometimes I have to make up the imperfections of my characters. Other times, they do it for me. For example: AJ of the Backstreet Boys. I don't have to make anything up for him not being perfect: going into rehab and relapsing a few times because he's an alcoholic did that for me! But other times, well, it's hard to break out of the fantasy world and make these characters NOT perfect or how we WOULD LIKE them to be.

Cross-Posted to: krazikrys writes!