Gosh, who would want to? ~shudders dramatically~ Who knows what evil lurks in the minds of men?Quote:
Originally Posted by theladystouch
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Gosh, who would want to? ~shudders dramatically~ Who knows what evil lurks in the minds of men?Quote:
Originally Posted by theladystouch
Raise your IQ about 30 points to find out.Quote:
Originally Posted by theladystouch
What if we are already past 30?Quote:
Originally Posted by H Dean
<mumbles about being underestimated>
Yes, Nikita, you should be proud of having an IQ in the high 30s. I am proud of you and so are the rest of us.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nikita
:bdsmsmileQuote:
Originally Posted by Nikita
Clearly we don't...and apparently we have no interest in finding out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Euryleia
I think my grade on this assignment is already dead. :faint:
Ya see! Men get so confused the can't keep "raise" and "lower" straight. :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by H Dean
Bad Dean! No biscuit!Quote:
Originally Posted by H Dean
Actually the idea of the gender switch story telling is a good one.
Try a couple things,
1) Listen on the sly to a group of men/women talk among themselves. That helps with character dialog. In addition, it gives an insight into common assumptions within the gender.
2) Use your imagination, figure out how biological differences will affect the big picture, the minor details, and the mindset of men/women.
3) In Biology form determines function, and one gender is much more important to reproduction which makes the other more willing risk takers. Also consider the physical act of copulation and what the ramifications are to the mind set.
4) Use your cultural cues, They exist and are a common background but of course in the story you create you play off them and challenge them. Just remember they need to be in the reader’s gestalt for you to do that.
Really useful post, Mr. Mad. Thank you. I'm going to save it for future reference.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mad Lews
Then no gravy for you!Quote:
Originally Posted by theladystouch
Hi there.
One of greatest personal challenges in my life is writing (OK maybe that's a bit of an exagerration, but it's pretty tough). It isn’t because I find it difficult to get the words out or that I’m too critical of myself; it’s because of my situation. See, I’m still pretty young. I go to school so, as you might imagine, I’m still living at home. Luckily I have no annoying younger siblings to disrupt my flow, but that doesn’t mean I’m free to write. The computer that I write on is located in the kitchen purely for the reason that powers that be dictate that “there are no secrets in this house”. Well, I’m afraid there are. There is usually someone hovering around intent on viewing what I’m up to, so I keep several tabs open for when I want something to vanish with a click and I get somewhat angry when people deliberately attempt to pry. Actually, as I write, something has just occurred to me- why don’t I buy a laptop? I think I will do shortly. It’ll give me a lot more freedom to conduct my scribblings in peace.
But I digress. My story ideas always come to me in one of two places- the shower or in bed those few minutes between getting in and falling to sleep. If I’ve a lot on my mind, sometimes I jot down the ideas I have. Usually, a story just drifts into my head, fully formed so if I do go to write it down, I give a summary of the whole story. It isn’t that I use outlines; it’s just to get the idea down before it disappears. More often though, I just store the stories in my head until the opportunity arrives to do something with them. I find it easy to spill the story from my head onto the page. The trouble is getting the opportunity to do so. I try to snatch an odd quarter of an hour here and there. Some times are easier than others to get working.
Because I live in the absolute middle of nowhere, I can’t very well set my stories locally. I usually set them in places I’d like to visit or that conjure up interesting images- London, New York, Paris (though I have been there), San Francisco, Seattle etc. This is made far easier by a wacky invention I use called the internet. I have an idea of the places I’m looking for and establish exactly where they are using Google Maps or something similar. I find that nothing lends an air of authenticity better than accurate place names and descriptions of the locale. I don’t let missing details ruin my flow. When I’m writing, I’ll usually fill in place names with an XXXXX or a YYYYY, then I’ll go back later and look them up. In fact, by this method, I could almost set a story in any city, filling in the details later. It’s easier though, to set stories in the US because of the TV shows and films that I watch. This gives me a better feel for the dialogue and locations too.
I like my characters to have some unusual quirk or feature. I’m not a great believer in writing about everymen or everywomen. They usually have an interesting occupation or personal trouble and past. I’m not exactly brilliant at dialogue so I try to keep it to a minimum (in real life as well as in my stories).
When I’ve finished writing, I usually leave a couple of days between completion and final edit. I read back over my work and try find better ways of saying things and reducing the verbosity. Generally, I edit as I write, so the final edit doesn’t take long.
Hopefully, it’s something of an insight into my work and methods. I like to understand how other people work- their methods and so on and this is my take on the challenge of writing.
Almost never I can just sit down and write. The act of writing is only the execution of a long story-building process.
It all starts with a motive; an idea or a theme, or just a sentence that sounds cool. My motives can come from books, pictures, newspapers, movies. I can find them at work or in the street. Mostly I don't even have to search for them.
Once one of these little bastards has dug its claws into my mind, I start to construct a rather rough story layout. By and by, more details are added to this frame.( Better make sure you have a notebook at hand during this phase; afflatus doesn't care about time of day. :))
I usually work with lists (mostly actually collections of passages): the upgraded frame becomes the story list. It contains the story's keywords, chapter titles, phrases, short passages and so on, in the order in which they will appear in the final narration.
If needed, a timeline list is created, too. Here, the mentioned elements are arranged in their chronological succession. The timeline , of course, is only used if the story works with flashbacks or similar.
Of immense importance are character cards. All main characters get one. Here are their attributes and peculiarities listed. It begins with aspects like the colour of hair and eyes, their height or what country they come from. Then it goes deeper: likings, fears, abilities - whatever I need to get (and give) a feeling for the characters.
Last but not least, there is my collection of (semi-)synonyms. It is really helpful when writing foreign-language. An example:
female
girl
lass
damsel
vixen
harlot
...
...
...
As you can see, these are not all real synonyms but nuances of the term "female". This collection enables me to narrate variedly and to create the desired atmosphere.
That's it - the rest is brilliancy. :D
Seems like you have an entire process. I usually write my stories at night, in bed and as I go to sleep and then slap them on the page after they have fermented enough to make me drunk with the urge to write.
Good stuff. Look for another assignment very soon but be patient with my critiques. I am now working two jobs and it's gonna be a long fucking year.