What are you writing?

[Malkavian Grin]

10 minutes ago, Antares90 said:

I was just browsing and came across this, and honestly I haven't seen things from this perspective until now. Writing something that actually happened to you feels less of a cliché 😄

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I had an idea for a novel that's been sitting in my head for a decade now. I've actually tried to write it out but looking back on it all it was was just a bunch of cool ideas I thought I had and compressed them as much as I could. Fell into a writer's block and eventually gave up on it after I discovered TTRPGs, and just thought I should incorporate this idea as a campaign instead. I found that while it's hard to come up with ideas, I'm pretty good at improvising when push comes to shove and I'm forced to come up with something on the spot, no matter how dumb I initially think it is. I tried writing again on and off, but it never worked out.

Recently, after 10 years, I decided to revisit the idea of writing again and try to fully commit to it. So here goes.

Hopefully you've got some stories to share from that decade of experience! :)

When I create characters for games, I tend to put more-or-less of myself into them. They are never mere copies of, say, Jack Sparrow or Captain America. I find a template that speaks to me and breathe a piece of myself into them. They act like I act, so I'm never truly out of character. They think like I think. Some have more or less of my actual life in them, twisted in their own way. That's the key, I find; you have to take a thing that is real to you and then give it a good twist so only you recognize it. Some things requires harder twists 😉

[Antares90]

1 hour ago, Malkavian Grin said:

When I create characters for games, I tend to put more-or-less of myself into them. They are never mere copies of, say, Jack Sparrow or Captain America. I find a template that speaks to me and breathe a piece of myself into them. They act like I act, so I'm never truly out of character. They think like I think.

I'm a little bit of both, if I'm being honest. Various characters from media inspired my characters and some are even composite. One of my more prominent 3.5/Pathfinder NPCs is an artificer inspired by the main protagonist of Girl Genius who fights like Johnny Cage from the MK series.. Then I make up one-shot NPCs like Elbow Racho, a traveling monk who hands out recipes to his finest brew if the PCs beat him in a drinking contest.

My campaigns tend to be a mix of drama and comedy.

[Anthr4xus]

On 5/22/2023 at 6:52 PM, Qstor said:

They need to be edited. I'm bad at self editing. I've "run" them through Grammerly but they need developmental editing. They're all kind of linked with the same characters about 30? And set in the same "universe" they're also not one genre and a bit silly at times. My wife said they'd be better as a comic book.

Or an anthology collectino

[fabulist]

sorry, this was off-topic

Edited June 8, 2023 by fabulist (see edit history)

[Sapphic Reiver]

Somehow I've ended up working on a book, trying to do 500 words a day, got some productive days, some not so productive ones.

 

 

[cailano]

14 hours ago, Sapphic Reiver said:

Somehow I've ended up working on a book, trying to do 500 words a day, got some productive days, some not so productive ones.

 

 

What kind of book?

[Neopopulas]

16 hours ago, Sapphic Reiver said:

Somehow I've ended up working on a book, trying to do 500 words a day, got some productive days, some not so productive ones.

 

 

I'd love to know the genre - and don't forget what Gaiman said!

So if you can't always do 500, remember, Gaiman did it 50 words at a time.

Writing a book - like lots of people here no doubt - has always been something i wanted to do. But in creative writing i spend the majority of my time worldbuilding, gods and nations and magic systems and races and... I don't think its even FOR anything, i just like doing it. I think that, ideally, I would want to be part of a creative team so i can worldbuild for someone else.

[Blue Firebird]

I have completed a novel, but am working on one final revision based on some input from an awesome, real, published author. It's "urban fantasy meets zombie apocalypse," with a heaping helping of other stuff thrown in. Two years ago, some terrible door opened in the darkest corners somewhere and the Plague swept across our world. In the aftermath, people are struggling to survive. Into this story comes the young dhampir protagonist Jesikah, whose abilities help her survive, but she leads a lonely, wandering existence. She comes to a city in the Pacific Northwest where she discovers a group of survivors, and thanks to her unique gifts, helps them improve their situation. Among them, she meets a teacher named Celeste, who may be more than she appears, and the world's funnest werewolf, Maia.

 

All is not well! A death god threatens the city, emerging to reclaim his true power. He molds the Plague to his will, creating abominations and perverting life itself. The three women end up challenging this death god for the fate of the city—and maybe whoever is left alive in this world.

 

The story takes a lot of my favorite things and mashes them up, and I love to write in this setting. It's one of those settings where it's an established rule that the rules can change. Zombies are generally slow and dull, then at night they become faster, their eyes glow sometimes, and they can be heard whispering profane things. Take out one's brain, or whatever is left of it, and down it goes...but everyone has their stories of a zombie that got back up again. Most animals can become zombies (there's a zombie horse early in the story, even!), and no one knows how the Plague really works. Sometimes, people can fight it off. Sometimes...well. You get the idea.

 

In one scene, a character goes into an underground parking garage only to discover a large group of zombies sitting before a corpse impaled against a wall. Sitting there and rocking, and chanting. They don't attack her. They all stop and turn to stare at her in unison. Ghostly transmissions come through the radio sometimes. Freakish, impossible monsters and dark spirits haunt the wastelands of civilization. In some cities, like this one, power inexplicably remains on, though no one knows why—it's another great mystery of the setting.

 

Anyway, I have a lot of fun with it. Post-apocalyptic imagery is very evocative to me, and I love dhampirs and werewolves and other things. There are homages and inspirations here for all the things that shaped a young Claire's imagination. Action, horror, romance, mystery, and other elements are a big part of how I shape the story. And hope! There's always hope. Even in a setting that can get very dark and terrible, I don't do nihilism. This story is a hopeful one, too. The hero is young and unwilling to accept the end of the world so readily.

 

Sorry, this got kinda long!

[Sapphic Reiver]

21 hours ago, cailano said:

What kind of book?

It's a sort of... "turn of the century" cyberpunk/urban fantasy sorta thing. I'm mixing it in with some light Arthurian stuff. drawing from a lot of my experiences with discrimination as a disabled person in the UK. It's slightly CBT too. I dunno, it's likely too niche and weird to sell well... Not that I can sell it anyway because of the impact it'll have on my income.

 

19 hours ago, Neopopulas said:

I'd love to know the genre - and don't forget what Gaiman said!

I know Gaiman wrote Coraline at a rate of 50 words a night, but like... How many words was Coraline, exactly?

[Roughtrade]

On 6/2/2023 at 3:17 PM, Antares90 said:

I've actually tried to write it out but looking back on it all it was was just a bunch of cool ideas I thought I had and compressed them as much as I could.

Sounds like my brother. I am better at characterization and dialogue but it tends to go nowhere. My brother works out big, complicated plots with a dizzying number of pieces in motion. Tried working out some writing together but he doesn't want to edit anything back. It becomes too unwieldy. Still, if you can find someone who can plot you could look at some collaboration.

[Neopopulas]

4 hours ago, Sapphic Reiver said:

It's a sort of... "turn of the century" cyberpunk/urban fantasy sorta thing. I'm mixing it in with some light Arthurian stuff. drawing from a lot of my experiences with discrimination as a disabled person in the UK. It's slightly CBT too. I dunno, it's likely too niche and weird to sell well... Not that I can sell it anyway because of the impact it'll have on my income.

 

I know Gaiman wrote Coraline at a rate of 50 words a night, but like... How many words was Coraline, exactly?

Coraline was about 31,000 words. As a rule of thumb, an 'adult' novel should be about 60. But even with that in mind, i think the point is less about speed and more about consistency and comfort. Forcing yourself to stick to a strict, high word count per day can cause anxiety and writinger block and all sorts of things if you don't meet it. You don't have to only do 50, but i think 'anything is better than nothing' is the suggestion here. I doubt Gaiman actually only wrote 50 words a day for Coraline.

[Bartmanhomer]

I write fan fiction stories mostly Degrassi fan fiction stories. 🙂😈👍🏿💪🏿🥰

[OgreWattage]

My brother has been forcing me to write a chapter a week on the epic fantasy novel we all make promises to ourselves were going to write. So dar ive edited chapter 1 like 12 times.

The joy

[cailano]

Resurrecting this thread. I'm working on a suburban fantasy short story about a guy who tries to clean his basement only to find that goblins and other evil critters have made a dungeon out of it. I'll likely post it on this site's Arts and Hobbies section when I'm done.