kriadydragon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kriadydragon) wrote2012-03-06 08:35 pm
kriadydragon) wrote2012-03-06 08:35 pm
Entry tags:
A Writerly Discussion
I've been plagued by ideas of things I've been wanting to talk about but not being able to get my thoughts in a straight line to talk about them and I'm pretty sure a few of them might have ended up being controversial so...
Another writing discussion! Because I've recently come to realize - even after having been asked this question so many times and being unable to answer it - that when I get an idea for a story, it's the characters I develop first. I don't know why I've never noticed this before and dithered so much on deciding if I came up with the plot first or the characters. But it is, indeed, the characters that come first, followed by world building since much of my plots depend strongly on the world in which they take place (it can't just be a matter of bad guy seeking revenge on the world, it has to be he/she is seeking revenge because something about the world provoked them in negative ways).
I also used to think it was world building I would spend forever on. But, no. Again, it's the characters, because the plot and the world aren't interesting unless the characters are interesting, and I adore coming up with the characters' personality, back story and why they are the way they are. Whether I actually accomplish translating all that interesting onto the page is another matter, but they're certainly interesting in my head, and even if neither plot nor world come together the character always will (and then it leaves me sad when the plot or world won't work, because then I'm left with this awesome character drifting in a sea of fragmented plots, perhaps never to be used).
So which comes first for you? Character, plot, world?
Another writing discussion! Because I've recently come to realize - even after having been asked this question so many times and being unable to answer it - that when I get an idea for a story, it's the characters I develop first. I don't know why I've never noticed this before and dithered so much on deciding if I came up with the plot first or the characters. But it is, indeed, the characters that come first, followed by world building since much of my plots depend strongly on the world in which they take place (it can't just be a matter of bad guy seeking revenge on the world, it has to be he/she is seeking revenge because something about the world provoked them in negative ways).
I also used to think it was world building I would spend forever on. But, no. Again, it's the characters, because the plot and the world aren't interesting unless the characters are interesting, and I adore coming up with the characters' personality, back story and why they are the way they are. Whether I actually accomplish translating all that interesting onto the page is another matter, but they're certainly interesting in my head, and even if neither plot nor world come together the character always will (and then it leaves me sad when the plot or world won't work, because then I'm left with this awesome character drifting in a sea of fragmented plots, perhaps never to be used).
So which comes first for you? Character, plot, world?
no subject
"Another writing discussion!"
I love it when you pull these out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"....the plot and the world aren't interesting unless the characters are interesting..."
((((((NODS)))))))).........the character IS central to a story that builds around them.
To do anything else would be like creating a world and then dropping characters into it.
I cannot imagine that at all nor would it even work.
no subject
I'm very much a character over plot reader, and one of my biggest pet peeves are stories set in these crazy, kooky, wonderful worlds but with characters flatter than a piece of cardboard that I don't give a fig about.
Now, whether or not I've accomplished making my own characters as interesting as the world they are in is something I worry over constantly. Because as much as I talk about making a character interesting, it sure as heck isn't easy. It's the little things that always trip me up, the things that help to sum up a character in few words as possible but cements the character in the reader's mind. So when the reader reads, the image, actions, inflections of the character pop almost naturally into the reader's head. Because I've also read books where you know the author tried so hard to make their characters interesting and... just weren't able to, and I worry about being that kind of author - trying, but mostly failing (which, of course, remains to be seen since not many - as in, more than one person - have read my recent original stories).
no subject
No worries on that count.
I have lasting impressions of many of your characters, e.g. Maj and Ris....Morticia and others.
>;-)