How do you write?

[AzureBlaze]

If you write fanfics or other stories (for pso or not) how do you do them?

I wrote a PSO story a while back, and was contemplating posting it up on here. But it caused me to think about how other people write.

When you're doing a story, how do you come up with it? Does something inspire you and you say "Oh I could do a good story about this event but with these other dudes..." or maybe you see a certain character in a game/cinema/show etc and think up something new for them to do?

With pso though, it seems to be centered around people's PC (player chars) like Shiro Ryu writes about his guy, and Hunewearl Meira has written a Hunewearl Meira story as one example.

Mine features completely original characters that no one plays and contains no NPCs. I'm sure someone's done it that way before, but I was wondering why it was less common. Maybe you know your own guys best?

And when you're writing, is it written as you think of it, chapter by chapter? Do you need outlines or stuff like that?

What happened for me was, I thought up the whole thing at once, sat down and wrote it all. Most things posted to PSOW seem to be published as they're thought of, and not all in one go. Does this mean they're not pre-planned (thinking it up is instantaneous, writing it down is not!)

Is it unusual to think of an entire plot and have it come to you all in 1 shot even if it's really long?

All I have an experience of is my other story (which never publishes) which literally never ends and goes on for billions of pages. This one gets inspiration in chunks, but naturally not the whole thing because of its unending stature. So you can't really compare it.

Anyway I'm just curious. Don't know if I'll post it because I want it to be all pencil illustrated and that's not done at all yet. Plus who knows if anyone would like it or read it. Anyway just a thing to think about if you fic.

[CupOfCoffee]

Unfortunately for me, I have a really bad writing habit. I just kind of start and feel out the story as I go along. Only a few times have I actually figured out the entire plot or even thought up the full cast of characters before I sit down to write. Usually I'm at least a few chapters ahead of what I'm currently writing in my mind, and I'll usually know how the story ends, but there's always a big chunk or two in the middle that I just make up as I go. I've only written ten or so stories ever, though, and finished maybe three of those, so I think that problem should fade away a little as I write more. It also depends on how much I actually like the story I'm trying to write. There are a couple I've just come to absolutely despise about halfway through, so they stop getting worked on (and concequently posted, if it's one I'm posting). A few have been a joy to write and play around with, though, and I tend to plan further and more clearly ahead with those ones. And understandably so, I'd imagine.

I also tend to get more inspiration from film than any other medium (even written, strangely enough), but I do love to read what I love to read, if that makes sense.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

When I decided to write The Recollection of Meira, I was thinking that, first of all, I wanted to try my hand at writing some Phantasy Star fan fiction, but I didn't want to screw around with any of the established characters of the original series, as I just didn't feel right about doing so. The second thought I had, was that it occured to me that writing in a first-person format provided an interesting outlet to express personal thoughts in a humorous manner. When I realized that I could combine these two ideas with my own characters from PSO, The Recollection of Meira was born.

To start with, I typed up some notes concerning the general direction in which I wanted the plot to go. Originally, it was supposed to be a one-shot story, but by the time I finished it, I decided that I wanted to do one story from each class's perspective. That influenced how the story ended.

From there, I started taking notes on what I wanted to happen in each of the other stories, how they would interconnect and such, but by the time I got to the fourth, The Recollection of Paladin, I came to the conclusion that the level of compexity I'd woven between one story and the next required me to plan ahead in greater detail, so I started doing outlines, thus figuring out ahead of time how many chapters would be in whatever fic I'm starting, and what was meant to happen in each.

Coming into the 6th book now, The Recollection of Mota Storm, I'm not only doing outlines for each fic, but I've also started making timeline charts for myself, so I can figure out what's going on in other fics during any given chapter, and thereby keep everything in tune with eachother. I can't imagine what I'll have to do to keep track of things by the time I'm done. Needless to say, when the GameCube version was released and I realized that I now had to write twelve books instead of the original nine, well, while I was happy to see the new classes, I was also annoyed that I would have to write another 150,000 words. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

The short stories are a different matter, though. They're short enough that I generally don't worry about planning too much detail, and just figure out where it's going, and start writing.

[DezoPenguin]

It really depends. I had kind of the opposite view that Meira did with PSO, in that I didn't want to write about "my" player character because the audience -- PSO players -- would experience the events of PSO through their own character's eyes and writing about my character would be pointless. The reader's own experiences playing the game would be more real and more interesting than anything I could write about.

(You'll notice, by the way, that I still do this. Whenever Elenor appears in a fic -- "Favor for a Friend," "A Friend in Need" -- the hunter she's made friends with is never identified by name or gender. Likewise, in the Sejanus fics, it's made clear that Sejanus and his assorted friends aren't the heroes of the game, since reference is made to other, nameless, hunters accomplishing various in-game quests).

My first couple of fics ("In Pursuit of Truth," "Favor for a Friend") were done essentially as "backstory" to the Guild quests Journalistic Pursuit and Secret Delivery. I had more fun with the latter, 'cause it's always a joy to write Montague. There's a Matha Grave fic that works the same way.

"A Friend in Need" was inspired by an illustration in PSO's "The Book of Hunters. " It's got Elenor with two mags and carrying a giant rifle-type weapon with a Gatling-gun barrel. The entirety of that story was built to explain where that came from. Since I'd already introduced the character of Dr. Barton from "A Friend in Need," I thought he'd be a good choice as villain, and for Black Paper bad guys I used Mujo and Doronbo from "Black Paper" since after that quest they're arrested and disappear from the game, so having them escape jail and getting killed off wasn't much of a stretch.

"Silence of the Heart" -- the first Sejanus fic -- was all my wife's fault. Lynne was trying her hand at a PSO fic, a fairly epic one, and she'd gone and created an analogue of me to be the love interest for her heroine (who was her own PC...wasn't that sweet of her to have her character fall in love with me? http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif ). Anyway, she was bouncing around some background ideas, and after a while I got sufficiently interested in the character to want to do something with him, so I wrote a story. The fact that Sejanus is working for WORKS is Lynne's creation, as is the Hatless Dezorian bar (kind of an homage to JWL, there). Ironically, Lynne never finished her story, but I liked Sejanus so much that I went and wrote two more stories about him. He didn't turn out all that much like me, though. I pull him out whenever I want to write about serious conspiracy stuff. If I ever played BB I'm sure I'd have written an Ep. 4 story with him by now.

"Jade Dancer" was inspired by the anime "Jubei-chan," which not only has kick-ass swordfights but had me routinely falling off the couch laughing. (that's why my HUnewearl Jubei has the eyepatch face...). So I naturally was thinking about a HUnewearl with an eyepatch who likes to wield katanas, and Jade's creation spiraled off from that. She's also the first main character I've ever written about in my 100+ fics that actually likes to dress and act in a "sexy" fashion, which is kind of an odd point (not only do I not like "objectifying" female leads, but there's also the point that in a prose medium there's not all that much point http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif ) -- in her case, it's a lack of self-esteem, 'cause every time her body makes some guy's head whip around as she walks by it kind of helps her forget that without the eye patch her face is doing the Phantom of the Opera thing. Malcolm Tane has been bouncing around various draft fics in various genres for about five years, so it was nice to get to use him at last.

Lastly, my most recent PSO fic, "Making a Point," was born out of some vague musings about how Photon armor works, and the difference between "frames" and "armor." I built an assassination-conspiracy story set on old Coral out of it, using the Weinstine Co. name out of Seat of the Heart, but really it's a "theory" fanfic about Photon frames!

[Shiro_Ryuu]

My HUmar is the central character in my story, although I do have my three other characters, one guy who's a replacement of one of my characters(because the replaced guy is just a tribute to an existing anime character), someone else's character, one that I might create, and others who I haven't created, nor are they NCPs, some aren't even createable(such as a HUnewm, a blind guy, or a guy with one arm for example). My inspirations come from anime, especially Fist fo the North Star(if you seen this anime before, the resemblance might be obvious) and Seven Samurai(both the old 1954 film and the anime adaption called Samurai 7), Record of Lodoss War.

For Shiro Ryuu, I thought that I tried to make him an albino, I thought that it would go perfect with his name, Shiro Ryuu which means "White Dragon". I also have his personality from one of the characters from Seven Samurai named Kyuzo who was very quiet, serious, wants to be a better fighter, wants challenging fights, and prefers to be alone. The scenery is similar to Fist of the North Star because in the story, Ragol is in a state of anarchism, although for a different reason, which is that the government became too weak and unable to do anything. Shiro Ryuu's fighting style, in which he is very good at Twin Swords is inspired by a real life samurai named Musashi Miyamoto.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Shiroryuu on 2006-08-21 10:52 ]</font>

[Sharkyland]

For me its...

1) It starts with love of the character... (also answering the question, what makes this person so unique and so special that he/she deserves to become the main character of your comic)

2) Undergo some brainstorming for days -> weeks -> months -> years... (like what do you want to see this character do and how should this character behave and such)

3) Create a general plotline (good vs evil type thing)...

4) Fill in the most important events (battles, character meetings, etc)... for example, a) start with the hero's past, b) introduce the main villian, c) hero and villian meet for the first time... i) hero and villian do battle

5) Review of those events over and over again (and see if you can brainstorm better ideas)...

6) With the best events done, figure out how to build some exposition and how to deal with the 'slow' areas of your story (explanation of terminology, long long conversation with no action, plot twists, morales, quests to get stronger, etc...)

7) Decide if you want 1st or 3rd person point of view...

... -I decide my vocabulary sucks and its easily compared to a 4th grade-... so I draw...

I also have noticed that doing impromptu stories can lead to some variance in power. You don't have a person who starts create black holes and 1 hit kills near the beginning of the story... etc

---

Unpublished fanfiction:
- 'Through the Eyes Of Those Who Cannot See' (Pending title)... it invovles my hardheaded character Kibibyte who gets a little bit of a lesson from an unusual enemy, a blind rappy who can talk...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Sharkyland on 2006-08-21 13:17 ]</font>

[Danger_Girl]

When you're doing a story, how do you come up with it? And when you're writing, is it written as you think of it, chapter by chapter? Do you need outlines or stuff like that?


In the beginning I would characterize it much the same as Sharkyland did. What he called brainstorming I would refer to as daydreaming or fantasizing. The inspiration and ideas would mostly originate from that. In my own experience, with a roughly 50,000 word fanfiction I personally don't need to use an outline, although I wont post anything until I have a completed rough draft of the entire story. Perhaps you could consider that initial rough draft as an outline or skeleton of sorts.



With pso though, it seems to be centered around people's PC (player chars) like Shiro Ryu writes about his guy, and Hunewearl Meira has written a Hunewearl Meira story as one example.

Mine features completely original characters that no one plays and contains no NPCs. I'm sure someone's done it that way before, but I was wondering why it was less common. Maybe you know your own guys best?

This is mostly irrelevent in my mind. None of the NPCs in PSO are fleshed out in any detail, so a person could easily make any of them their own so to speak. For example, someone could write about NOL in such a way as to make her character and personality completely unique to their story. Whether or not a character was used as a player character is largly irrelevent as well, other than perhaps it may have somehow stimulated a creative process.


Most things posted to PSOW seem to be published as they're thought of, and not all in one go. Does this mean they're not pre-planned?

I would agree with you that most things here generally seem to be posted as they're written. In my own case I finished the story first, then began posting one chapter at a time. That way I was free to change things early on in the story that later didn't seem to work, and it also gave me plenty of opportunity to second guess and edit. For example, I originally had my android character resemble a 12 year old girl. Later on I decided to spice things up by making her romantically involved with my main character, but I obviously had to change her appearence because...well...that would have been really wierd and just plain wrong...http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

Also posting one chapter at a time kept it bumped on the first page for awhile, and of course, gave me those added chances to second guess and edit. Also I feel that posting stories on a forum just isn't the most reader friendly format, so attention spans are reduced. Posting a 50,000 word story might turn a lot of people off who would be more inclined to read it posted in shorter chunks.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

P.G. Wodehouse, an author of humor with distinctly clever wording, had an interesting system for working out his final draft.

To quote Douglas Adams in his introduction to P.G. Wodehouse's final book...



A first draft for Wodehouse was a question of getting the essentiral ingredients of a story organized--its plot structure, its characters and their comings and goings, the mountains they climb and the cliffs they fall off. It is the next stage of writing--the relentless revising, refining, and polishing--that turned his works into the marvels of language we know and love. When he was writing a book, he used to pin the pages in undulating waves around the wall of his workroom. Pages he felt were working well would be pinned up high, and those that still needed work would be lower down the wall. His aim was to get the entire manuscript up to the picture rail before he handed it in.


Douglas Adams also had comments to make in respect to how he got his ideas. The Salmon of Doubt claims that this comes from the first introduction to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comic books.



People often ask me where I get my ideas from, sometimes as often as eight-seven times a day. This is a well-known hazard for writers, and the correct response to the question is first to breathe deeply, steady your heartbeat, fill your mind with peaceful, calming images of birdsong and buttercups in spring meadows, and then try to say, "Well, it's very interesting you ask that..." before breaking down and starting to whimper uncontrollably.

The fact is that I don't know where ideas come from, or even where to look for them. Nor does any writer. This is not quite true, in fact. If you were writing a book on the mating habits of pigs, you'd probably pick up a few goodish ideas by hanging around a barnyard in a plastic mac, but if fiction is your line, then the only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn't collapse when you beat your head against it.

I exaggerate, of course. That's my job. There are some specific ideas for which I can remember exactly where they came from. At least, I think I can; I may just be making it up. That also is my job. When I've got a big writing job to do, I will often listen to the same piece of music over and over again. Not while I'm doing the actual writing, of course, you need things to be pretty quiet for that, but while I'm fetching another cup of coffee or making toast or polishing my spectacles or trying to find more toner for the printer or changing my guitar strings or clearing away the coffee cups and toast crumbs from my desk or retiring to the bathroom to sit and think for half an hour-- in other words, most of the day. The result is that a lot of my ideas come from songs. Well, one or two at least. To be absolutely accurate, there is just one idea that came from a song, but I keep the habit up just in case it works again which it won't, but never mind.

So now you know how it's done. Simple, isn't it?


So, there's a bit more insight, based on the experiences of seasoned professionals.