Tag Archive | crafty of writing

Chewing on Character Motivations, Follow-Up

Aug14

I posted last week about character motivations and asked for character prompts, so that I could think about & discuss their driving forces.

So far I’ve posted:
* Rozen
* Maureen, Lady Foxglove
* Rin
* Caitrin
* Morrigan

And am certainly open to more.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/775254.html. You can comment here or there.

Chewing on Character Motivations

Aug8

[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith was talking about character motivations, and it occurs to me that I could use some work on that topic.

Err, my writing that is, although I couldn’t exactly tell you what my motivations are, either…<.<

This is placeholder post until I get some more time to think about this.

So! Either:

* Name a character of mine, any character of mine, and I will come up with a piece of their motivation.

* Say “random,” and I will use a random date generator to pick a day & a piece from that day, and tell you something about /their/ motivation.

* Tell ME something about a character’s motivation (mine or someone else’s), and we can discuss.

Posted:
* Rozen
* Maureen, Lady Foxglove
* Rin
* Caitrin
*Morrigan

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/766913.html. You can comment here or there.

How my “Pick a random Number” Process on Twitter mostly works

Jun23

On my [twitter.com profile] Thornewrites, I often ask for a random number between 1 and… well, that depends.

[personal profile] anke asked me today how the numbers work:

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And the List

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/740411.html. You can comment here or there.

Seems to be the season for it – writing and brain chemistry issues

Apr25

  So, completely ignoring for the moment the argument that you should "write every day, write no matter what," because I find that advice  to be good only if your goal is simply to put words on paper…

What happens when your brain chemistry won’t let you write?

(The writer in my attic just posted a blog about this too; it’s going around.)

I have, over the past years – I think since 2008 is a good marker – gotten relatively good at having an "off" day and moving on the next day.  It’s part of why I don’t believe/follow the "write every day" advice, because sometimes it’s just not a writing day. 

Sometimes you want to go out and play outside, for instance.  

And some days the brainweasels are just too much and you stare at the screen, totally unmotivated, and, if you’re me, end up curling up and watching TV mindlessly until you sleep. 

Normally, if I have a bad month, I have a bad month, and I pick up again the next month.  Writing is still a part-time thing for me, after all; it’s not the thing paying the bills yet. So I can afford to slack off. 

This month….  This month I’m doing Camp Nano, and so I have an external accountability I don’t normally have (At least not since I stopped writing Addergoole episodes the day before I posted them).  And I don’t have the oomph.  Or, rather, there have been a lot of days of not having the oomph.

I’m not sure, yet, what to do about it.  Write when I can, I suppose, and write as well and as much as I can when it’s there. 

Do you have tricks for getting yourself around the bad-brain-chemistry times?  

 Or tricks for getting yourself back on the horse, as it were?

 

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/707299.html. You can comment here or there.

Character Buildinator! (Hattip @inventrix)

Mar11

http://www.springhole.net/writing_roleplaying_randomators/character-build.htm

Gives you results like:

Coroner/Gardener/Velociraptor
Gemologist/Songwriter/Dragon/Sculptor

(why don’t I have a tag for “generators?”)

There’s also a character interests generator – Your character’s interests include candle-making, owls, web design, and old castles.

A skills generator – Your character’s skills include martial arts, horseback riding, and playing the guitar.

And check this out, a personality generator:

Courteous: Typically
Risk-Taking: Often
Ambitious: Sometimes
Curious: Often
Self-Controlled: Sometimes
Nurturing: Generally
Trusting: Never
Honest: Sometimes
Loyal: Usually
Affectionate: Never
Romantic: Never
Flirty: Never
Sympathetic: Generally
Altruistic: Sometimes
Optimistic: Usually
Observant: Usually
Logical: Sometimes
Social: Fairly outgoing
Emotions: Fairly controlled

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/690344.html. You can comment here or there.

February is World Building Month. Day Twenty-Eight: Meta

Mar10

[personal profile] piratekitten has declared February world-building month.

I’m finishing this up in March!

The question post is here, please feel free to add more questions!

The twenty-eighth question comes from [personal profile] rix_scaedu and is a meta-question

Do any of your universes have a “big bad” or a “he who must not be named”?)

No.

Next question?

😀

Okay, that’s not entirely fair.

Unicorn/Factory has the unknown, un-met Governors, who seem to have some control over everything and motives that are questionable at best.

Faerie Apocalypse has the Departed Gods (who Return), a group of powerful fae who have been trapped in another world.

One could possibly argue that Regine in Addergoole is a big bad, although she is not nearly as Big nor as Bad as most end bosses.

But in Tír na Cali, the main antagonist is the setting. Dragons Next Door, human ignorance is the main bad guy. Reiassan and Stranded both have bad guys for the individual story.

I’m not a big fan of bad guys, I suppose, despite the recent Bad Guy Giraffe Call. I prefer settings where the world itself makes the antagonist, or writing small villains who are either misunderstood (they weren’t actually bad in the grand scheme of things) or that can be redeemed.

That being said, writing a Xanatos Gambit style Big Bad From The Shadows might be an entertaining project at some point.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/689603.html. You can comment here or there.