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[Heliman]

If you're not into writing books avert your eyesssss!

I've been really engaged this week with how other writers write, so I decided to make a questionnaire for all the writers/burgeoning writers our forum is POSITIVELY CRAMMED WITH, out of curiosity.

Spoiler: The Questions (click to show/hide)

1.What Genre do you like to write about?
2. How do you express your characters when they're yelling?
3. Do you keep having ONE WORD that keeps coming up when you write? If so, what is that word and why?
4.What is the best quote you've written so far?
5. What's your favorite concept of an area/character/whathaveyou you've devised so far in your stories/story?
6. What's the theme for the most recent story you're writing?
7. What's the coolest use of symbolism you've used in your writings?
8.In what parts of your stories does writing get difficult for you?

[AntiAntiMatter]

1.Fantasy
2.ALL CAPS
3.No
4.Describe them like actions.
5.My jungle with flying rivers of blazing hydrogen.
6.Light is not always good, and good does not always win.
7.No idea.
8.Describing insanely complicated scenes.


Might I ask what you'd answer with, Heliman?

[Heliman]

1:Fantasy

2: It  Uses  Capitalized  Letters  With  Double  Spaces  To  Make  It  Sound  Like  I'm  Declaring  Something!

3: "Figure," the word keeps killing my soul!

4:Italics.

5: Destiny being broken in all aspects, causing pandemonium.

6: Luck benefits no one.

7: Everytime something happens by pure chance, the *Ting* of a coin being flipped is heard. It begins with accidental things, like a bowl hitting the floor or a tree tapping a window, but it get's more bold as the story progresses, and begins to sound from disembodied sources.

9:Tragedy. I keep hitting an off note when I hit that note, which is a problem since I have scenes where bad shit happens, like a pregnant mother dieing during child birth.

[Euld]

1. "Magical realism," essentially, literary fiction with supernatural elements without being fantasy
2. Exclamation points and forceful words in their dialogue.
3. That and which.
4. Italics, treat as narration/prose, attach a "so and so thought."
5. Modern utopian society where 99% of society has neural implants for wireless anywhere access to all media, government uses implants to alter memories to ensure peace and compliance, populace is unaware of government tampering because their memories are altered constantly.
6. Family, forgiveness, maturity (can't pick just one theme, lol)
7. I rarely use symbolism at all, consciously anyway.  I like to be direct and plain with my readers.
8. Everything is difficult.  Getting started, continuing what I've started, finishing what I started, so on.

[Benevolence]

I tend to be more of an RPer than a normal writer most of the time, so my answers might not be entirely the same as if I had more prose work to reference for this. Might have to post here again in a while if I can actually get myself to do solo-writing with any reliability instead of the normal collaborative works RPing produces.

Not sure if you're looking for this kind of writing too, but it's here either way.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. Primarily fantasy, with leanings both High and Low, I think. Magic is present in most of the worlds I have in my head. However, most of my own settings don't have the whole "save the world" thing going on since they tend to be a bit more limited in scope per story. So, not sure which way it really leans.

2. It used to be all-caps, but it's been so long since any of them actually yelled that I don't even know how I would handle it at this point because I haven't actually figured out a way that I actually like. So yeah, I don't know. ¯\(°_o)/¯
Maybe actually reading more would prove helpful.

3. Not a clue.

4. "Mental thoughts" seems a touch redundant. Just saying. As for expressing them, it's typically just written as part of the rest of the narrative without going much out of the way at all. Whether this is just part of my writing as an RPer, when I normally only have to deal with only one or two characters and can continuously dwell in their viewpoints, or whether it's part of my writing style in general remains to be seen.

Mental communication, on the other hand, normally gets italics. And I get to use all sorts of fun stuff with other special forms of communication.

5. I'm going to have to think on this and get back to you at some point. A couple come to mind, but picking a single favorite is a bit more difficult.

6. It's an RP plotline that's not developed enough to say just yet. I haven't even gotten that much done with the world itself, so.

7. ¯\(°_o)/¯
I will have to get back to you on that.

8. Getting started and continuing. And dialogue that actually sounds natural to me.

[Sowelu]

If anyone has a resource that's kind of like Scott McCloud's /Understanding Comics/ for books, I would love you forever and a half.  I've discovered that while I'm not too bad at script-writing, I'm woefully inexperienced at directing, if that makes any sense-I know what direction the plot should go, what people should do and say, but I don't know how to effectively tie paragraphs together in narration on a page-by-page level.

That said:
1. Urban fantasy.
2. Description of actions and exclamation points.
3. Not really..
4. First-person narration with 'he thought'.
5. Fanboys/fangirls of the werewolves who mostly really, really prefer that nobody knows they exist.
6. Trust is the most important thing in the world.
7. Changing seasons are good for all kinds of stuff.
8. Finishing my outline, then realizing I hate most of it and I should just start writing instead of planning.

[ein]

1. Romantic Science Fantasy? Hell if I know what it is.
2. Actions, obscenities, and exclamations.
3. I haven't one.
4. I don't.
5. Afterlife. It's kinda like Las Vegas. City of hedonism that the gods live in, most everyone else is trapped in the surrounding desert, unless they know where they're going.
6. Romance, sciencey bits, 'Society of Outcasts.' Think Boogie Nights, a bunch of people with seemingly different interests and motivations brought together by a single unifying factor.
7. An entire character represents the main character's fleeting search for himself. He finds it when he stops chasing after said character.
8. Connecting all the little vignettes together into a cohesive mass.

[Heliman]

City of hedonism that the gods live in, most everyone else is trapped in the surrounding desert, unless they know where they're going.

Sounds interesting, I remember that Terry Pratchett doing something like with the Omnian's afterlife, only instead of a paradise on the other side of the desert there was only Judgment.

EDIT: Oh Gog I forgot to add a good one, OUT with old question 4 IN with new question 4!

[Makrond]

If you're not into writing books avert your eyesssss!

I've been really engaged this week with how other writers write, so I decided to make a questionnaire for all the writers/burgeoning writers our forum is POSITIVELY CRAMMED WITH, out of curiosity.

Spoiler: The Questions (click to show/hide)

1.What Genre do you like to write about?
2. How do you express your characters when they're yelling?
3. Do you keep having ONE WORD that keeps coming up when you write? If so, what is that word and why?
4.How do you express your characters mental thoughts?
5. What's your favorite concept of an area/character/whathaveyou you've devised so far in your stories/story?
6. What's the theme for the most recent story you're writing?
7. What's the coolest use of symbolism you've used in your writings?
8.In what parts of your stories does writing get difficult for you?

Some of these questions seem a little... shallow. But okay let's give it a shot.


1. Sci-fi is fun to write because it gives you a lot of artistic license to take the world either in the direction you think it will go or the direction you'd like to see it go, and there's some chances to have some complex politics going on with the advent of technologies, space travel, interplanetary governments and extraterrestrial contact. Of course I always keep a copy of the first three Dune books around just to make sure I'm not getting as wordy and boring as those get at their worst.
I'm probably a little more comfortable with fantasy in general though, mostly through exposure. It's a little easier to keep the story on track and details can be omitted and left to be filled in by the reader's experience of fantasy, but at the same time you can do some incredible worldbuilding with the right imagery.


2. Usually just exclamation points and keeping the descriptions in front of or in the middle of the speech rather than at the end. All-caps are for a level above yelling and really shouldn't be overused - it's mostly for short, incredibly loud exclamations at dramatic moments. Some stories can go their entirety without needing them at all.


3. 'Because.' Just because.


4. Either italics or descriptions. If the story is focused on a specific character and how they see things the former is generally better as there tends to be a lot of internal monologues, while if the story is more focused on character's interactions, the latter is preferred since it shouldn't be coming up too often.

4b. I'm not in the habit of using quotes if I can help it, though I've probably used a few unintentionally.


5. I had a soldier who wanted to retire and become a monk, then as a monk he wished to be back out on the battlefield. Then I found out he was basically Aramis from the Three Musketeers and ended up abandoning the idea. Still my favourite character though; he was really easy and fun to write, mostly because he had a really good strong character with a distinct 'voice'.


6. How the right person in the right place can bring low the best-laid plans, with a dash of the mortality of mankind.


7. You'd have to ask someone else, most of my symbolism is unintentional.


8. The parts where I need to trim out excessive detail or dialogue because I just let things run on way too long and even I'm getting bored as I read back through it. By extension, not letting that happen in the first place. Finding efficient ways to describe scenes - especially complex or particularly action-oriented ones - is difficult, but in the end it makes for a much more pleasant reading experience.

[sonerohi]

1.What Genre do you like to write about? Allegory? I do fantasy and science fictiony, but allegory-y.

2. How do you express your characters when they're yelling? I break up their sentence with the actions they perform whilst angry, rather than the usual 'he said while doing'.
3. Do you keep having ONE WORD that keeps coming up when you write? If so, what is that word and why? I do not, besides the typical words.

4.What is the best quote you've written so far? If Nixon and a glowstick mated, that is their baby.

5. What's your favorite concept of an area/character/whathaveyou you've devised so far in your stories/story? I like my magic system a lot. It is not particularly unique, but it works and is fun.

6. What's the theme for the most recent story you're writing? It branches out in loads of places, like those old choose your own adventure books. It sort of explores every single way how the main characters life could have gone, ranging from glorious to tragic. I guess the theme is potential?

7. What's the coolest use of symbolism you've used in your writings? I had all of my planet Earth be someone's heart once. The symbolism fell apart during a pan-dimensional war.

8.In what parts of your stories does writing get difficult for you? Writing cutesie or meandering dialogue. I just have a lot of trouble making myself believe my characters would talk in certain ways, I guess, and so it isn't so much that I can't write in that style, but I can't write for them in that style.

[Heliman]

Some of these questions seem a little... shallow. But okay let's give it a shot.

Sorry if they sound shallow! one or two of them were made because I wanted to see the general consensus on them. (See question 2 and OLD question 4)

[Retro]

Some of these questions seem a little... shallow.

Agreed. Nonetheless--

1. What Genre do you like to write about? Seedy crime pulp stuff or sci-fantasy. The former is usually about the characters, that latter I usually focus on the world.
2. How do you express your characters when they're yelling? The language, not the medium, should dictate this. You don't need caps for a reader to understand the intensity if you're doing it right, though you might use them as an artistic choice. Italics are for special emphasis only.
3. Do you keep having ONE WORD that keeps coming up when you write? If so, what is that word and why? Probably 'however' or 'usually.'
4. What is the best quote you've written so far? Uh... I don't gauge my own stuff that way. Don't think anyone does, really. Generally everyone thinks their own writing is shit, anyhow.
5. What's your favorite concept of an area/character/whathaveyou you've devised so far in your stories/story? I ran a campaign where the dominant continent was bowl-shaped, with the rim of the bowl being just above sea level and the interior of the 'bowl' being dry and inhabited, far below water. The people were afraid of rain. It was gimmicky but pretty interesting, and more importantly a lot of fun to worldbuild for.
6. What's the theme for the most recent story you're writing? Morality and humanity.
7. What's the coolest use of symbolism you've used in your writings? Don't really like symbolism much. It's either too obvious and annoys you or you miss it and it doesn't help your experience of the story. I'll drop it in briefly every now and then but overriding symbolism that goes on I really just don't like.
8.In what parts of your stories does writing get difficult for you? Blending being well-paced with being natural. I could go on forever with the characters doing what's natural and it'd be interesting and all but the story wouldn't actually go anywhere. I also have a tendency to write too much when less is needed, so there's that too.

[Makrond]

Some of these questions seem a little... shallow. But okay let's give it a shot.

Sorry if they sound shallow! one or two of them were made because I wanted to see the general consensus on them. (See question 2 and OLD question 4)

Fair enough, they just sounded a bit like questions I hear from people who are just starting out and are thinking about how to lay everything out rather than furiously fleshing out a cool idea they had or building a story in a setting they thought up. I didn't mean to offend it just seemed like you were fishing for that sort of advice rather than trying to see how other people actually think about their writing.

[Argembarger]

Oh man I thought this thread was about the physical process of actually creating and binding a book.

I am disappoint.

[lordnincompoop]

1.What Genre do you like to write about? Any. Whatever strikes my fancy.
2. How do you express your characters when they're yelling?An exclamation mark, angry tone of voice and action.
3. Do you keep having ONE WORD that keeps coming up when you write? If so, what is that word and why? No idea.
4.How do you express your characters mental thoughts?No quotes, narration.
5. What's your favorite concept of an area/character/whathaveyou you've devised so far in your stories/story? Shh! Secret!
6. What's the theme for the most recent story you're writing? I dunno. Insanity?
7. What's the coolest use of symbolism you've used in your writings? No idea.
8.In what parts of your stories does writing get difficult for you? Plots, characterisation, battles, dialogue.