McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Proper practice???

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Jabberwockey:
Ok, heres the situation.  I have no schooling toward literature other than the basic high school and college english courses.  Several years ago I had a dream that stuck with me long enough that I finally decided it needed to be turned into a novel.  First problem Ive already mentioned in that I have NO idea what Im doing.  I am currently using the Snowflake program which has helped me greatly with the overall concept.  Problem is that Im not exactly sure how to develop my characters.  Ive posted several short stories on Fanfiction.net and have considered using its sister site but its kind of hard to get an actual review of your work.  Dont get me wrong, the kind words and excitement to see my stories continued is exhilerating but its not terribly helpful.  Then there is the issue of it being fan fictioni and many of the characters are established already.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciatted.  For that matter, my ID is the same on that site as this one so if anyone would care to review what I have written either there or e-mail me suggestions it would be helpful.

cenwolfgirl:
i have less thenm that only the english equiverlent of high school litratur lessons
what do you remember from class is a good starting point
i am still in school but what i do is find a starting point
maybe right a short plain
diside who or what the main charictors are going to be and give them persinalities
just let the ideas flow and if you are away from your computer when you get a good one right it on a pad of papper

CWG
good luck if you need any more help with spesifics just ask  ;D

Lanodantheon:
My first piece of advice to you would be to keep at it. Your road through writing might be long and arduous. You might yourself discouraged by doubt or any number of other things. The best thing to do is to keep at it and keep going. Keep writing, keep learning, keep talking to people about writing and use every resource available to you. The Writing resources thread has a lot of resources to look at.


My second piece of advice might sound discouraging.... eventually you will have to stop writing fan fiction and concentrate on finding your own voice. Fan fiction is great for the writer who wants to learn mechanics. No creativity is necessary because the world's been build, the characters already developed and the rest is just fun.


However, fan fiction alone will get you nowhere as a writer at the end of the day. Especially since when writing fan fiction, by trying to emulate the style of the base property in question you are not sounding like yourself if that makes any sense. Example: If I'm writing Star Trek fic, I want it to feel and sound like Trek. However, that narrative voice is Trek's voice and not my own.


There is a caveat though that you can exploit: Public Domain. If you've written mostly Fan Fiction and are used to writing only that, write a fic that only uses elements in the Public Domain. If you want proof this will work, just remember that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. [/size]


Getting to your main question: "How do I develop my characters?" .


The short answer is...just build them up. Like people. It's that simple.


Characters are defined by
1) Their backstory: What happened to them before the story begins
2) Their current state of being: Personality, societal standing, physical appearance, etc.
3) Their role in the story: What they do in the story. What characters they foil off of, what their goal is in the story, what their fatal flaw is.
4) Their arc in the story: How they change over the course of the story. Do they overcome a fatal flaw to succeed at the end? Do they keep making the wrong choices?


How do figure these things out? You ask questions about the characters and come up with answers until you are satisfied.


What do they look like? What's their personality? What's their life story? What's their goal? Are they the hero? Why are they the hero? Where did they come from?


Online you can find character worksheets that can give your characters these necessary directions.


Going back to Fan fiction for a second. Before you start with your original characters, as an exercise ask these many questions about a character you know and like. When you do that you will start to see the building blocks of characters.


If you find yourself wanting to write about established characters, ask yourself why you like these characters. What makes them cool? What do they do that makes you want to write about them? Once you find these things, you'll be at a good place to make your own characters that can do the same things AND maybe more. Maybe your characters will be able to do things that established character wouldn't or couldn't do in a million years and a Michael Bay reboot.


I hope this rambling of mine helps you or at least encourages someone else here to explain things better than me.


Good luck and watch out for those Vorpal Swords!

cenwolfgirl:
Vorpal Swords? (sorry of topick a bit)
i actualy never wrote fan fic i started with my own univers and have now mad diffrent universes
i like the bit of advice about why you like charictors it is realy good and usful
i gess you should just wright what feels natural if you want to start with fan fic thats good but half the fun is inventing charictors if you ask me

Snowleopard:
Vorpal swords are from Lewis Carrol's - The Jabberwocky I believe.

I'm with you CWG - half the fun is inventing characters and giving them
backstories to explain their behavior and natures and looks. ;D

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