FAKKU Writers' Lounge

As I've said before, when I'm reading and there are details that are missing, I put that in the back of my head and move on. I don't forget about them. I just accept that they're going to be revealed later and that maybe, they aren't pertinent to the story right now.



That is indeed where I got that impression. I think I can understand that if things aren't where we expect them to be, it can be off-putting.



The reason why I don't put all that at the forefront is really because that's what the authors I'm trying to emulate do. I think the reason they do it is because they don't want to overload readers with too many of the details at once. Maybe I'm not doing the best job emulating them. I freely admit that just maybe, that's a possibility.



Me too! Bust mostly because that means it's not a problem on my end.



Consider your excitement expressed. I hope I don't disappoint.

Quick question to anyone really: have you ever gotten so attached to a character you created that you can't stop writing about him/her?

I'm afraid I am a victim of this.

Like d, I write in that style because most fiction authors do. Good creative writers bury the key details within the story because they aren't trying to tell you a story, they're trying to help you experience it yourself through describing what your senses would pick up on if you were in that situation.

Someone said to me once, do not tell your reader 'it was snowing and cold outside,' but act through description, such as 'he shivered as his feet plowed through the calf-high sheets of white dust.'

One is factual, the other is sensual.

I think this is where your difficulty stems, because you do prefer non-fiction and that is where you are particularly talented. You enjoy writing monologues and rants while some of us prefer writing an experience. I think if you prefer one style so much, it does make sense that you would understand it much faster, but I always find myself frustrated that I can't help you out in that endeavor. I wish I could, but I think the way we write has become so natural through experience.

I think it will help if you begin reading and tell yourself 'A lot of the things that will be described or written about are solely for the purpose of painting the scenery.' Perhaps in that way, important things may pop out harder?




Yes. If that is the case, please submit your stories to the Writing and Fanfiction section.


high, that post was interesting, to say the least, but I think you forgot our protagonist's name is Jack and not Jake, haha. Ignoring all the blatant sexual interactions, it wound up being good plot development. Let's hope the next person can carry it further.

^
well I actually kinda want to change the name a bit, like giving a nick as not to confuse jack with jacqueline hahaha. but yeah, got your point :D

yeah, hope it goes well. I think I'm starting to get a hang of writing in this genre :)

Never.

well about that question, I'm not really attached to the characters so much as to write about it always. though there's some occasion when I want to write it in-depth, though what's more important to me probably is the relationship between characters established :D

though most of time I didn't really pay much attention to characters, making them is such a hassle. I'd mostly prefer it to be mostly monologues with nameless people doing random things.

Not for me though. I find the exposition of a strange and unknown world very exciting to me which is why I loved the prologue to the Lord of the Rings which are effectively essays on the history of hobbits. I might mind it if it is clumsily tied in to the story like a schoolteacher or some other character spelling it for us.

If it were up to me, I would write the exposition in 3rd person.

I would like to review the first few chapters of Age of Anarchy someday and call it a Summer Event entry. Would that be alright with you? I hope that through this entry I can convey to you what I felt while reading it.



I am not against writers going into description of what a character is seeing and his or her surroundings are. I am fine with 'he shivered as his feet plowed through the calf-high sheets of white dust.' However, I would like to know why he is out in the cold in the first place. Is he going to visit someone? Is he lost? Is he heading for work? Is he in a fantasy setting where the entire world is plunged into a perennial winter because of man-made global cooling? Is he a masochist who wants to suffer in the cold?

If the writer continues to describe how the person felt and the scenery without telling me why he is in that situation in the place, I would be turned off because I have no idea why I should care for him. It is exactly why I disliked Edgar Allan Poe.

I have suggested that d can write at least one paragraph introducing the
setting of the story or exposition for this reader to understand what is happening. Yet, I remember d saying that he hated exposition (while I loved it) for the reasons he stated just now that it would ruin the mood of the story.

To answer that particular question:

It happens. I'll admit that it happened to me about... 4-5 years ago? I think a lot of people goes through this phase, and eventually gets over it till they can find inspiration and make their own characters.

It isn't something seriously bad, but it does show one's lack of creativity at one point of time. It also feels very strange -- and some things feels out-of-place too from my experience -- when you try to follow this certain pattern of habits and personality that you'd possibly take up from the original character you 'copy' from -- after getting attached to it... which you may or may not have shown signs of while RP'ing, Ezlare.

Getting over it means you're a more creative person than before. Which is a good thing.

that's a good point :D

I guess for me the exposition came first and the rest of the details is a surplus bonus to keep everyone entertained. though I can somehow interpret the story freely even if it's not all that clear.

I don't know if it's the same as what the author intended though.

for writing things on the scratch, I somehow need a general direction as clearly as possible or alas I'd be lost without knowing how to proceed and eventually will just drop it off.

the main reason I was greatly stalled on my previous stories was, because I was stuck on developing a clear exposition for myself. in the end, none of them had a really clear conclusion and even less about how it progresses, which I am hoping to fix in the future by writing shorter expositions first.

though as for it, I'm not sure if others understand my story even if I somehow understood what I was writing lol

Who is that character?

high, why wouldn't we want to confuse him with Jacqueline? Maybe he's Jacqueline the whole time! Wooooo, spooky plot twists!

Rise, I think they were talking about original characters. Like, do you fall in love with a character you created to the point where you continuously write about them. I didn't really extrapolate. Yes, and it led to the longest series I've written to date. It was in around 8 or 9 parts and was a fanfiction about a video game world with my original characters as the protagonists. So, it's something I will always treasure, but also have left behind. I do plan to write about them again someday, but in their own original world.



Yes, I share that frustration and sense of wishing to know more about the pointless unknown, because really, it is pointless, isn't it? Funny that we want to know it so badly before we are able to attach in any form. I would question, why does it matter why he's outside? That he was on his way to see his lover, or that his old lady kicked him out of her basement, or that he saw a bit of currency fly away, or he was hunting for dinner, or he just likes cold, or he hates cold so he wants to leave it, or he wants to die, or he wants to live, the reader does not know, cannot know without more information, so wondering is pointless until more information is learned. All one can do in that situation is...continue to read while breathing in the experience this man is having. All you need to know at that point is that he is walking through really high snow, and that is likely not a good thing, because I wouldn't like to do that, but maybe I will read why he is doing it later. That's the best I can explain it, but allow me to argue for your point.

I once read a piece by a friend who is a pretty talented writer. He wrote about a girl in her room on a cold night waiting a long time for a text. However, throughout the whole short, it's never explained why she's waiting, what she's waiting for, how long she would wait, if this is romance or horror; the entire piece was simply about her waiting. I didn't like that concept very much at all. I, like you, wanted to know more. I thought that was the point of a story, that it would progress and we would learn more about their situation and perhaps learn something trivial for it, a moral or lesson. However, he told me there was nothing else, that it didn't matter. He wrote about the small experience of a sad girl simply waiting frustratingly for a text. However, I have to acknowledge that he did know something about writing, because he got a national award for English writing in his home country, which is an impressive feat. I still wonder about it to this day, and I suppose I try to learn from it.

I actually specialize in creative writing, so I need to learn these things, and you love writing non-fictional monologues, so those are different genres with a vast many differences I could never compile a list for. I think it's nice that we can come together and write something, however nonsensical it may end up being. That is why I am always encouraging your works, and also your participation in the communal stories.

that will left the reader with 'what the fuck is this I don't even' feel. which is good in some ways, but I'm not sure how it will develop in order to reach that conclusion. probably I'll try going it in a more normal way first.

maybe the next author will try to disclose the idea in their own ways about the incident and the museum to get a background about the culprit first.

asking some questions to various people and gathering various evidences too, just like in Phoenix Wright games.

still, they might also write in a way that surprises us all :D

I have to say though that the Pit and the Pendulum (Edgar Allan Poe's work) and Age of Anarchy are not stories without purpose. There is a plot. xninebreaker's winter contest entry treads this line between pure description and a story.

Even in the story that you described, I am sure that there is some introduction concerning girl like who she is if we were to be concerned about her waiting.

I am afraid that I am a utilitarian when it comes to written words. Writing was invented to facilitate communication and I heard that the first stories were fables with dark and grim endings but easily understood and told to warn and educate. I am very uncomfortable with the idea of writing for writing's sake.

Yeah, but I know that some of those characters are actually formed from anime/manga he really loves/delved into.

I know this dude. I'm quite certain I can tell why he asked that.

Haha, that would be the best, I think. Pheonix Wright is a good comparison, I'd say. Maybe it will turn out just like that in a courtroom. Someone needs to continue, though.



Ah, I see.



Not even a name. Not even a physical description. It was perplexing.

or maybe something mixed up with sherlock holmes about the confrontation between culprit and detective or etc.

that aside, we'll just wait for someone else to give their own insights on the next posts :D

Huh, I guess I never thought of that. Though, it's not that everything is copied from 'you know who', I wanted to make an edgy character whose name is hard to utter without getting cut and I came up with her. Her past is thought up by myself, she just has some aspects of her personality based off 'his'.

While it does feel strange I will admit, I feel like a Shonen author-- just stuck writing the same series of stories based off the same single character and I fear I may end up like in the near future. Just thinking about it is jarring.

Mind you, I can make a new character on the fly though it'll take me time to work out the kinks and junk-- which is also something you've seen me do whilst RP'ing...



She's this character I made for an RP a while back and as I said above-- I wanted to make her edgy.

https://www.fakku.net/forums/writing-and-fanfiction/tale-of-spirits-the-cursed-kingrp

--This was the result evidently. Scroll down to my profile and try to guess what character she's based off. >.>

That's exactly what I thought you asked about though, lel.

You can never copy perfectly. There is just no way. Either a certain amount of it is compensated for by making up the past or a portion of the personality, or you just try to copy fully and succeed/fail to an extent. At the end of the day, copying is still copying, I guess. That's a fact.

reading shino's prompt made me realize I can somehow pass it through just by writing my usual monologues! :D

I've never read Lord of the Rings, so I can't say much about its prologue.

Whereas you like exposition because of reading nonfiction articles, I am fine with books that take 100 pages or more before any semblance of plot is revealed because I'm used to reading 800 page door stoppers.



Absolutely. Go ahead. I'd say I'm honored, but I don't really know what you plan on saying. Eh, what the hell. I'm honored.

About Ezlare's question, if you can continue to come up with interesting situations for the character and/or there's still room for them to grow, I don't see what could possible be bad about that. I personally haven't had the issue, but I haven't been writing for that long.