The Author's Corner

[Riel]

I decided to get rid of the old 'author's corner' or whatever it was called thread. Why? Because posts there were incredibly old and far between, and I didn't feel as if it was a fun thread anymore. Now, when you guys see this at the top of the page, you'll be like OH MY GOD, A NEW THREAD! I SHOULD POST!

I'll let you all bask in my genius.

Anyway, I might as well say what the point of this thread is: to discuss writing. Be it poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction, it should be discussed here. But even more than that, I want to discuss something of even more importance; I want there to be discussions on style, on inspiration. I want to hear your stories ABOUT your stories, about your writing.

I guess that I can/should kick this off, so...

I would have to say that my main inspiration would have to be my mood, and (I can say this as one because they're very closely related) the music that I am listening to. If I write something, it's usually clear that I was in a particular mindset at the time, and whatever I wrote is a clear by-product of the circumstances of my life.

That being said, I get some inspirations from weird places. Be My Valentine (a suspended novel) was originally inspired by big, red, lollipops that my (now ex) girlfriend and her friend had. The deepness of the red, my emotions for her, my general attitude and cynicism; each of those coalesced into the story that I wrote.

Now, it's your turn, Creative Writing posters/lurkers. Don't let me down; I've got money going that more people will love this section that love Digital Media (it sucks in there anyway, right?).

Go.

[Nevermore]

ZOMG! NEW THREAD! MUST POST!

Honestly, at least when it comes to prose, I have no idea where my inspiration comes from most of the time. For example, the story that I'm devoting most of my creative energy into now (Asylum Orphanage), just sorta popped into my head as I was doing something online. I think it's just a collective of the things that I've seen, read, etc, that just randomly click. In retrospect, I'm fairly certain that the Orphanage part was inspired by Whammy's House (Death Note); though, I'm still not sure where the "psychics" part came from.

From that initial spark, I just let my mind brainstorm. It's like throwing a bunch of Velcro balls at a Velcro wall and I use the ones that "stick". Then the balls get refined into a more suitable shape for the story and you have the basic idea. Constant revision and improvement happens after that step. I've even had major ideas/characters come to me as I was writing some of my stories, lol.

[Riel]

Yeah, I personally dislike it when I get new ideas or new characters while I am working on a story. For some reason, they tend to take up the majority of my mind or creativity, and then I feel as if I'm not accomplishing anything with the main story. That's why so few of my 'series' take off; I will think of a new character or idea, and then I will get distracted by something else, so no work ever gets done.

As for the constant revision... I think that I've only ever revised two different pieces; 'when we were younger and better' and 'maybe she will'. Other than that, I'm usually content with the first draft, or I'm not told what could be better about it anyway. In that aspect, I think that I am behind many of the other writers on this site; because I don't have to do it often, I'm not good at revising, which means that if I don't produce something that is particularly stellar on the first go-around, I'm pretty much screwed.

[The Lionheart]

ho dang.

I honestly don't know where I get my inspiration from. For most of the writing I do here, my obvious source of inspiration is old disney movies and Kingdom Hearts (herpderp). Just watching old disney movies can get me off on a good ole' inspirational journey.

Besides that, I would say the environment affects me quite a bit. If it's raining outside, I write a hell of a lot better than when it's sunny. I'll just sit under my porch, watch the rain, and right. I don't really know what it is, but that downpour of rain just gets me goin'.

But many of my ideas come from past stories I've read. My writing style reflects that as well, I think. Reading is really where I get inspired. I don't know if it's what happens in books, or if it's just reading, but I can really get some writing done after reading a good amount of chapters in a decent book.

And I definitely understand about thinking of new ideas and new characters as the story goes along. It's hard for me to write fluent tales because my writing style is constantly evolving, and ideas I once thought golden now just seem dull, boring, or overdone. It's really hard to get a complete piece done for me, I've only completed one comprehensive "novel" in my time, and that's only because I haven't looked at it in over a year :].

/spiel

[Riel]

Besides that, I would say the environment affects me quite a bit. If it's raining outside, I write a hell of a lot better than when it's sunny. I'll just sit under my porch, watch the rain, and right. I don't really know what it is, but that downpour of rain just gets me goin'.

I'm like that as well. Gloomy or rainy, for some reason, just works better than the sunlight. If I had to assign a scientific reason, I would have to say that it has to deal with the hormones that regulate whether or not someone is tired, and thus releasing their creative potential. I'm not going to dig for them right now, but studies have been conducted that show both facts (the sun affecting hormones and tiredness, people being more able to lock in to their creative side when they are tired) to be true, at least for a part of the population.

Anothing thing that I realized, at least for my short stories, is that they quite often represent a portion of my personality. While I accept this, on some levels it makes me question exactly how creative I am; creating more diverse characters, that aren't cheesy or cliche, would be enjoyable.

How about you guys? Do you have any favorite characters that you've created?

[Nevermore]

Originally Posted by Riel

How about you guys? Do you have any favorite characters that you've created?

Again, I have to point to Asylum Orphanage. Of all my ideas, these characters feel the most Three-Dimensional. I'm not saying I'm an expert at creating characters or anything, but they definitely feel like my best work in that regards.

[Lycanthrope]

Nice idea restarting this thread, Nate.

I've been lazy the past year or so in posting my writing on forums, generally because I get my critique from my English teacher. But I felt inspired to start a new writing project yesterday while I was on my run. I spent a good amount of last night trying to develop plot and the main character, as I plan to write out a legitimate story instead of short stories. Where my problem always lies seems to be character development. I never seem to be able to develop a character that actually is not cliche. According to my teacher, I have been getting better at character development, but we'll see once I get this project in motion.

[Riel]

I find myself with the intentions of starting a lot of series, with little follow through. That makes short stories ideal for me, because I can use the character and situation once, and simply leave it at that. Hopefully your english teacher helps you out of that rut, and I'm wondering if you could be coerced into posting some stuff?

[The Streetie]

It seems whenever i post creative stuff on these forums ... nobody ever looks :( ...

[Izayoi]

hi i'd like to join conversation :D

That is because people are just biased that way. If I'm looking for a new story to read, unless I just feel like taking a chance with something new, which I often don't, I'll either look for a writer that's popular and known to be good, or a story that is in near full swing, with people already liking it. Albeit I won't usually start reading something too far into it's story unless something prior changes that, but you know what I mean. Honestly, that's why only friends of mine read my own fanfic; but at least some of them are pretty well-known~

[Lycanthrope]

Originally Posted by Riel

I find myself with the intentions of starting a lot of series, with little follow through. That makes short stories ideal for me, because I can use the character and situation once, and simply leave it at that. Hopefully your english teacher helps you out of that rut, and I'm wondering if you could be coerced into posting some stuff?

I was planning on posting the new project I'm working on, mainly because my past work always is lacking something important to the writing. My teacher has also helped me with DIDLS (Diction Image Details Language Sentence Structure) and tone, which hopefully I'll come to use appropriately to add different dimensions.

[Guernsey]

I am attempting to create a fic where I can deconstruct a genre of anime specifically the mahou shoujo/magical girl genre. I had read Sailor Nothing and watched Mai Hime however I still feel as though I can use more research on the topic of magical girl or deconstruction. I am not trying to create another Watchmen or Evangelion, I am not really all too sure that I create something at that level but I seem to want to subvert, avert and and possibly invert quite a few tropes in the genre. How much research do I need on magical girls, deconstruction or just about any on storytelling? What would be a good idea for magical girl story that takes something and twists it? And do I need all that mind boggling symbolism that I find prevalent in such literature?

[Hidden]

Why bother writing creatively?

[Audo]

Why bother doing anything?

[Nevermore]

Originally Posted by Hidden

Why bother writing creatively?

Why not?