Blake Has a New Story - Comments

@ PoeticMess.
I'm going to bombard your FB with messages begging you to now

@ Michael Westen
That sounds really similar to what I had! Except the father was trying to hide a little boy and they all lived out on a coast somewhere. I'm pretty sure my kids didn't have golden eyes though. Maybe there's one out there that's similar to mine? Who knows. I really loved it.

IWILLNOTREPOSTTHATSTORY IWILLNOTREPOSTTHATSTORY IWILLNOTREPOSTTHATSTORY IWILLNOTREPOSTTHATSTORY

Yo, I am excited for this story.

1. How do you go about brainstorming for new stories?
I'm typically assaulted with vague plot bunnies almost on a daily basis. If I get one I really wanna run with I just kind of obsess over possible events/plot twists I can use until something vaguely resembling an actual story comes to life.

2. Do you ever feel like you're not doing your story justice? How do you get over that?
ALL THE TIME I either take a breather from the story for a while, or else go back over it and edit what I feel isn't up to snuff.

3. If you plan your stories how do you go about doing that?
I'm a terrible story planner. I tend to just jump in and see where a story ends up going. The only time I tend to do more in depth planning is if I'm doing a co-write. And then we just volley ideas back and forth until something emerges.

4. How do you even go about adding diversity to your characters? (That's something I want to do, but I feel 100% incapable.)
If I'm being totally honest I feel pretty incapable of doing this too. I've lately started tentatively adding more diversity to my characters but I feel like no matter how I write it I'm going to somehow do it "wrong" and offend/upset someone with what I write.

5. Do you have a special way you organize your stories?
I try but organization is not my strong suit when it comes to stories.

@ PoeticMess.
I may or may not remember that, I don't know.
I actually have been trying to remember a story that sounds similar to that, but I can't really remember much about it. I remember there were these kids that were special and had like golden eyes and then there was this island or somewhere where the rest of the race hid or something. I don't know. I have to keep trying to remember. I do remember that the father was trying to hide the girl and whatnot... Ugh.

Sometimes I just feel like it's easier to keep track of things if they're in a physical form.

@ Michael Westen
Dude, I know entirely too much about genes. I have a story (that I had up but took down, can't remember if you saw it), that focuses on a race of people with a genetic mutation that're trying to keep their race alive. So that was a lot of research.

Yeah, maybe a notebook would help! Sometimes it's just easier to write on paper.

@ PoeticMess.
So what is the science behind gene splicing?
Thanks for answering the questions, I know we talk a good amount about how we write and whatnot, but never really so directly. That's cool about the calendar thing!
I'm really thinking about finding an old notebook and using that to write down more ideas in and whatnot, but we'll see.

And thank you, that really means a lot coming from you

1. How do you go about brainstorming for new stories?
I literally just get lost in research. I think you've seen by now that I get off into the weirdest threads. I'll look up something for a story and end up 2 centuries deep into Romanov culture or trying to learn the science behind gene splicing and genetic mutations. I always want to know everything about everything, so researching topics related to my story are fun for me!

2. Do you ever feel like you're not doing your story justice? How do you get over that?
I think everyone has been there at one point. There's always that feeling, vibe, or tone that you're trying to achieve and when it doesn't happen, it can really put you off the story. For me, I just write and rewrite. Like with LC, I took the whole thing down and made enough changes to where I felt confident in it again.

3. If you plan your stories how do you go about doing that?
I tend to write all my ideas down, even the smallest ones that I might not use. And as I go along, I mentally plot out about where each idea should happen in the story. In my journal, I have story pages that are just lists of ideas that I need to write into my stories.

4. How do you even go about adding diversity to your characters? (That's something I want to do, but I feel 100% incapable.)
This is something that I really fail at. I really only know one culture and within that, a few subcultures, so it's hard for me to accurately portray tray people of other cultures and experiences. I just write what I'm comfortable with and what I know.

5. Do you have a special way you organize your stories?
Like I said, in my journal I write my ideas. I also make calendars and mark all the major events at the day they'll happen (about) in the story. A lot of times I'll make a timeline of events. And you've already seen the website.

____

By the way, you're a better writer than you think you are, and if you ever feel unsure about anything, feel free to come to me! I'm not the best writer either, but I'm here if you want my input! I'm super excited for this!

@ Michael Westen
Aha I do. I have a love affair with Google Docs And anytime

@ lungsmoke
Thanks! Glad you like the layout! I'm actually quite happy with how it turned out.

And your answers were absolutely fabulous. I actually was leaning towards race when I asked that question, because I don't want it to just be completely white, that's not realistic at all, and even though I'm writing a fantasy story, I want it to be a real as I can make it.

Thanks again for the answers! I'm totally have a good day!

@ inej ghafa
Good luck with exams!
I totally know what you mean about giving writing advice, I'm always sort of tilting my head to the side trying to think of how to word just what it is I do half the time when it comes to certain questions.

@ Sailor Moon.
That's so cool! Thanks for sharing it Do you use like google docs or something like that?

@ Michael Westen
Just being totally honest!


^ This is how I do mine. This way I know what everything is and where everything goes. I sort of tag (link) each character when they enter in the story. I color code things. Have a separate page for each chapter, and one large document with the whole story. I comment on the side with quotes I think represent the story/chapter/character. I add playlists and photos. Make notes to myself. (I like to be organized...)

It is so much fun getting to be a different character for a while, right?

I'm glad

No problem!!

I'm hoping my graphic shop will be open again soon, but with exams looming I'm not sure

And I'm glad the answers were helpful! I feel like I'm so bad when it comes to giving advice, especially writing advice, because I just kind of do things never know how I get there.

Just gone and subbed The layout's making me excited

BRAINSTORMING — I have heaps of like story fragments floating around in my brain pretty frequently, and sometimes when I want to write a story I'm like "okay, come up with an idea", and I do. Probably not very useful. I also like to make story layouts when I have the story semi-fleshed out, as I feel that helps me set the vibe of the story, and how I'll write it.

JUSTICE — like, okay. I never feel that way explicitly, per se, but the way I deal with it is I take down the story and rewrite it. I guess I don't think "doing my story justice" is the right way to phrase it for me.

PLAN — Character pages, because they usually determine the way the story goes, and all the quirks of their personalities make their decisions for them. I always want to know my characters inside and out, as I feel like their personalities determine the plot, which is kind of secondary for me. And if it's like fantasy or sci-fi or magical realism I basically I write a story bible. I plan the SHIT out of my stories.

DIVERSITY — Okay I just skimmed the previous comments and I totally took it differently and thought it meant race-wise, so I'm going to continue with my thoughts: I used to write white people all the time bc that's what I was reading / seeing everywhere, on Mibba and Quizilla and TV and movies. And then in the recent years, with feminism and racial equality becoming trendier, I realised like — what the fuck am I doing writing white people when I'm not? Asians are pretty under-represented in popular media and entertainment, I feel. I also think it's like, having to not be scared. I feel like the only people I could feel comfortable writing are white (because of all the reading, and also because of the culture I grew up in) and Asian. I'm trying to be more diverse in that way, and because I'm such a story planner I'm going to research the fuck out of growing up in different cultures as a certain race.

ORGANISATION — LOL yeah I have "complete" and "incomplete"

Hope you had / are having a good day too!!

@ Sailor Moon.
Why thank you for the flattery. It means a lot!
I do that too with the whole character pages and minor character page! How exactly do the story outline and chapter outlines work? I've never done that, I just have a word document full of all my notes and it's just a bunch of chaos.

Taking on the persona of a new character is so much fun. I was doing that kind of with PoeticMess the other day.

You totally helped thank you so much

@ inej ghafa
Thank you thank you thank you
Ohhh that reminds me I totally am going to come to you at some point for an aesthetic for the story!
These answers were amazing and so helpful Thank you again! And thanks for the recommendation

Looking good! I just recommended and subscribed to see what you have in store

1. How do you go about brainstorming for new stories?
I... kind of just make the layout, make some aesthetics and just think about it a lot. I mean, I don't really plan the story as such because I'm terrible at planning and kind of jump into things. Which is probably why a lot of stories tend to fall through, but that's alright. I think a good way to brainstorm (at least, this worked for my Nano story) is to make a blog collectively having everything together like plot, characters etc.

2. Do you ever feel like you're not doing your story justice? How do you get over that?
Yes. I have a story called 'Blood Stained Thesis' that I have literally worked on for 2-3 years and I still don't think I am doing it justice. The idea is just bigger than me. But if I don't write it now, I'll never get to where the story needs to be, in terms of giving it justice. You just gotta keep working.

3. If you plan your stories how do you go about doing that?
Shrug, I don't really plan, I just jump straight into it. I have the general vague idea of what I might want to happen or what direction I want the story to go in, but otherwise I just write.

4. How do you even go about adding diversity to your characters? (That's something I want to do, but I feel 100% incapable.)
I'd say just give them different backgrounds and hobbies. Give them different ways of speaking - some might swear where others don't, some might abbreviate their sentences where others don't. Make them react differently to certain situations. Give them different ideologies and mindsets. Just think about how you're different to other people and that's how you make diverse characters.

5. Do you have a special way you organize your stories?
Not really. I'm a disorganised mess.

::dances: I just subbed to it cause it looks totally amaze!
And what?! No, no, no, you are pretty great at writing! I've read some of your works (working on commenting, but I like to read it all and comment as a whole on a story lol) No doubting your epicness!



I hope I helped in some way