Firstly, I am not an author... and I would probably object to being called a competent writer too. (#0)
Most of this is just random ramblings, the most important advice question is at the end, just before the #post scripts (which are mostly weird anecdotes that are not really necessary, and would just clutter and disrupt the flow if they were in the main body)
The last things I wrote just for the sake of writing rather than as an educational requirement before my recent attempts was a decade ago for the exceedingly dada-ish sixth form “newspaper” (#1)
Other than that particular bout of weirdness, my usual creative outlets tend towards artsy-ish things, usually randomly drawing/scrawling on things. I create lots and lots and lots of stories in my head, but actually getting my brain to do anything with them is... tricky
My muse is an exceptionally frivolous entity; I can’t work out any consistent triggers to excite it in any meaningful way, and it seems to delight in giving me lots of material to work on, but leaving me hanging on actually typing them out and putting them into a structured form.
Does anyone have any tricks to help a scatter brained pseudo- writer corral their muse?
Next, Plot Bunnies, my brain produces so many them I don’t know what to do with them all, if I don’t get them out, even just writing the basic concept down, they keep bouncing back up, and even then I still want to do something with them. I have tried smushing them all into a single story idea in my head to contain them (#2), but that’s not always helpful. How do other people deal with them in a reasonable way?
On other advice:
Morcar’s (in One Knight Awating Us) accent/dialect/language; it is manageable to read or does it go too far? I have tried writing him without it, but he doesn’t feel right without it (and not just cause that, to a degree, is the language I think in)
Subtlety, I like being subtle and giving out information and clues in unclear or scattered ways, but I am worried that I’m being too subtle to the extent that its only understandable to me because I know why I phrase things the way I have. I do plan to explain most things over the course of the stories, but is leaving things as implications and innuendos something I can get away with?
For those who have their characters as voices inside their heads that either act the plot or talk to you, what do you do when the main character of a story directly insults you and then shuts up for a significant length of time? (#3)
How busy is too busy in a story, how many different characters interweaving personal stories can a written story take and still be manageable?
What’s the best way to ask for constructive criticism of your work?
The MOST important advice request, the arrangement of the title card for a Solo story (based on a “magi-teck” concept I came up with when I was 6 or 7 years old), given that ‘Bullies’ is meant to be the second term in the title, does:
The compact http://i.imgur.com/SW3O0Qa.png
Or
The open http://i.imgur.com/4XvfODE.png
version get the idea across better?
#0: I am adequate in some areas, but I know I have crippling weaknesses in fairly essential areas... also I failed my English GCSE... twice (on the Language one, eventually passed it on short/half course, easy mode but enough for the C min requirements everywhere, never bothered re-sitting Literature after the first failure)
#1: my contributions to it were:
Peculiar metaphysical ramblings written at 3-4 in the morning (published, under sarcastically self-deprecatingly insulting bylines)
and speech only comedy bickerings between a secret agent and the agency’s in house tailor (unpublished, because the paper was a tangential social casualty of some kinda drama I maybe sort of caused)
#2: I did this with the story idea that became ‘One Knight Awaiting Us’, to the extent that the original story idea is so far on the edge of the plot that it is going to make more sense to write it as a separate (but still connected by shared characters) story, ended up pulling a bunch of them out as it was too convoluted even for my tastes (and one of them might have been offensive)
#3: This is why Soulmate or Soldier stopped, whilst planning out one of the “boss fights”, as the forces available for it are pretty much locked in in the next few chapers (maybe, I am terrible at guestimating how chapters will break down), Alice complained about the fight in a way that was both perfect for her to say at that point and also directly calling me out on bits of the story... then nothing from her from 2 days after I posted chapter 10 until.. um.. today
Comments
Number of Characters
I hate books that have so many characters I need a chart to keep them in order.
However, many Russian novelists will say, the more the merrier.
I like to have four to five main characters and about as many minor characters with some supporting cast.
To have tension between your characters your readers have to know enough about each character to care. Stories thrive on tension.
Game of Thrones has broken all the "rules" and been a huge phenomena. Harry Potter basically had about five or six main characters and a huge supporting cast with an assume use of unique settings.
Just make sure each character has a distinct story and name. Try to stay away from main characters having names starting with the same letter. Stick to one name for each character (as much as possible). In TG fiction it's fine to have a F name and M name.
Most readers are plot driven, unless most readers are plot driven. The argument goes on. It cannot be argued that without strong character development even the best plot will fail to hold interest. And vibrant characters dwelling in a flawed plot are doomed to be caricatures.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
The easiest one: the second
The easiest one: the second image is more comprehensible than the first, and (I believe) gets the meaning across: "Fly-Tipping Bullies" as opposed to "Fly-Tipping an Ancient Evil -- Bullies and a Magic Sunbed?" Of course, I might have completely misunderstood.
Hmm... As for no main characters sharing the same first letter: I didn't attempt to avoid such in "A Bikini Beach Summer", but apparently, I managed it just by accident, and also in the sequel, where I've added (or promoted supporting characters to) main characters. I've found a couple supporting characters with the same first letter as main characters. Interesting: I used "Brandon" and "Bruce"/"Becky" in the first one. In the sequel, I have Lucy exploiting the pop-cultural (actors) connection between "Brandon" and "Bruce", even though it never occurred to me when I used the names.
Your muse throws ideas at you right and left (and up and down, and to and fro)? But won't let you actually get them down and structured? Try abandoning the structure, and instead freewrite. (Avoid the temptation to go back and correct typos as well.) It starts out rather difficult, but practice, and it gets easier.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)