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How do you create your books?

The text in blue below 0.36111111111111 36.1% [ 13 ]
The text in brown below 0 0.0% [ 0 ]
In the middle leaning towards blue text 0.16666666666667 16.7% [ 6 ]
In the middle leaning towards brown text 0.083333333333333 8.3% [ 3 ]
Completely in the middle 0.16666666666667 16.7% [ 6 ]
Other 0.22222222222222 22.2% [ 8 ]
Total Votes:[ 36 ]
1

When you write a story, is it based on characters you've had in your head for a long time? Ones you've imagined over and over again, taking part in scenarios, each time slightly different until you get it right?

Have you thought of them so much that you know the characters like you know yourself?
Are these characters are part of you?
Are you emotionally attached to them, empathetic and aware of their entire lives and past experiences?
Do you understand why they are they way they are because you have imagined their whole lives in your head?
At night, do you think these stories as you fall asleep?
Does certain music set it off, your love for your other world, your love for your characters and their lives?



Or:
Do you just think, "Hey, X would be a good idea for a story!" and then write a plot line on paper with a list of events, and a list of characters with different qualities of them?

Quotable Lunatic

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Honestly, somewhere in the middle. Oftentimes I'll have a character or a scenario bouncing around in my head for a while, and then all of a sudden I'll think of a way to make it work within a story.

Dedcadent Pants

It somewhat depends on the work. My current long running work has characters who I imagine in scenes, I know fairly well, and kind of just let things happen.

My shorts, or my other stories, are often amalgamations of dreams, conversations, and characters that don't fit in a shared universe very well.

I'd explain more, but I need to scram for a surprise meeting.
I usually rough sketch those scenes on to a paper. I tend to forget what they are and its hard to express it using words so an image or a picture would suffice as long as the idea is there.

I believe that the characters that writers make are always a part of them. There must be a part of you that could relate to them and make you write how they are. I wouldn't say I'd imagine their whole lives. Often its just bits and pieces that would make them stand out as an individual character.

Music wise, I think listening to classical music or instrumentals gets my vibe up for some fantasy writing. It all depends on what mood you what to achieve.

Dangerous Lover

It really depends on what I'm writing. My two major projects are both based on ideas and characters who've been in my mind stewing for a while, with all the plotting, rewrites, and sketching that entails for me. But the one I'm doing for Camp Nano next month just popped in to say hello, then ended up staying for a month, and personally I find that frustrating enough when it's fanfic, it needs to go away until I'm done with the big one.

Questionable Prophet

Yes, to all of it.
I find that this becomes a problem, because I just feel like I can never truly relay how vivid my characters are in my head onto paper.

Often times when I finally get around to using these characters I really have to rip them away from my original imagined story line for them, just because that story line is kind of crap.

Fashionable Powerhouse

I start off in the brown and then it becomes the blue.

I can't write a story unless I know the people I'm dealing with.

Who are my characters?
How would they all interact with one another in different situations?
How do they speak?
Do they have funny quirks about them that you'd only notice when you weren't paying attention?
What traits do they have that they'd deny having?
What will it take to break them?
How do they respond to questions they don't have the answer to?
What happens when they're in danger?
Who handles their grudges the best?
Why are they who they are?

Then I need to know where they're going, their setting, and the whole world surrounding them. Histories if necessary, where they are geographically, what the area is LIKE geographically, wildlife, common living situations, basic economy, and all kinds of other things.

I have to be enveloped in the world, I have to EXIST in the world with the characters.

Astral Phantom

Kinda weird but somewhere in the middle. Funny thing the fic I'm writing is with old character info from ideas of an old fic except that fic had no actual plot. So the beasts and superpowers I have in my current fic is very similar to my old idea! I had to rethink the characters again since I couldn't use my old ones for this plot ): My delema here is that I spent a ton of time thinking of characters the way I wanted them to be and no actual story telling. I think characters are just built based on the plot. We sorta shape them. Well my fic is fantasy so it fits for this theory.
I do have favorites and fav names I even copy some attitudes and personalityfrom tv shows *cough* ...Damon. Or animes/ mangas charcters so yeah also throw in random characters in a plot for example I'm watching a show and I think "hey he/she perfect to be a villan"
Recently as well ive had lots of insperational moments with these two songs: its on again Alicia keys from Spider man 2( lyrics are just beautiful) and Noel and the whales "give a little love".

Illuminated Vampire

gaia_angelleft Usually I get inspired by a dream, or a snippet of a song/conversation/tv show/movie. Once that inspiration hits, it's a 50/50 chance of whether I'll try to start writing it instantly or if I'll mull it over for some time. Usually, however, I'm not a planner. I don't go into the world much; I discover it as I write. Though, once in a while, I will have an idea that's based on the world rather than the characters, in which case I'll do a bit more planning and start writing world details while I hope for an actual plot to pop into my head. So generally I don't over think it, which is more the blue, nor do I have a vague idea that I write outlines for, which is more the brown. I just sit and write. gaia_angelright

Savvy Cub

The length of your work is irrelevant. One should seek to convey their story regardless of the length. I've read far too much literature in which a page length was required and some or all of the following happened:

-A good setting is not established for proper conflict and resolution to take place
-The work becomes more on us knowing the protagonist (where is the story?)
-Easily guessing how the story unfolds, I lose interest
-Despite good work in setting the plot, the work drags on way past understanding what needs to be known


Think of poems and ballads: Short compared to a book but they still are capable of imagining a whole word with its own story. In contrast, Lord of the Rings... more detail than we need. Meanwhile, Rowling imagines a whole word complete with currency and laws without straying from the plot too far.

Sweet Egg

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    For me, the original inspiration is random. But once the characters are created, developing them, giving them vices and characteristics, is almost more important to me than the plot. I don't think of it as "what's going to happen to my characters" as much as it is "what are the characters going to do or contend with".



    LongLiveUs
    Some ideas simmer for years waiting. Some moments. Some forever.

    Some ideas stand on their own. Some need the support of others to shine and come forth.

    Eternal Sex Symbol

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    Honestly, somewhere in the middle. Oftentimes I'll have a character or a scenario bouncing around in my head for a while, and then all of a sudden I'll think of a way to make it work within a story.


    Same here. It's also common for me to use characters and ideas from old, scrapped stories and make new stuff.

    Cat

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    I start off in the brown and then it becomes the blue.

    I can't write a story unless I know the people I'm dealing with.

    Who are my characters?
    How would they all interact with one another in different situations?
    How do they speak?
    Do they have funny quirks about them that you'd only notice when you weren't paying attention?
    What traits do they have that they'd deny having?
    What will it take to break them?
    How do they respond to questions they don't have the answer to?
    What happens when they're in danger?
    Who handles their grudges the best?
    Why are they who they are?

    Then I need to know where they're going, their setting, and the whole world surrounding them. Histories if necessary, where they are geographically, what the area is LIKE geographically, wildlife, common living situations, basic economy, and all kinds of other things.

    I have to be enveloped in the world, I have to EXIST in the world with the characters.


    First of all, I love and totally agree with this list, so hats off to you.

    Back to the original question- if it's a short story I just sit down and go, but if I'm writing a longer story, such as a novel (or fantasy), I plan out the characters with questions like those above. The plot isn't always clear, but the characters are always established.

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