What's Your Style?

[Ink.Knight]

Just a little place where we can talk about the various styles of writing.

I personally write down as much of an idea as comes to me and then leave it to stew in the back of my mind for a while. The characters really develop for me when I do that, as I subconciously and conciously run through scenarios in my head. I write in third person and vary between fanfics and original stories, though the fanfics are certainly more prolific.

[nita13579]

Writing

Hmm... I usually have an odd way of writing. I'm in the process of writing my own book now, and if it's good, I may turn it into a series. The first thing I ever wrote down was the general idea, then I did something I call "Character Bio's" And they are just random facts about the characters, and most importantly what I would like to happen with them. Some idea's I had really grew into a whole new plot, but others seem to have the opposite effect. But the problem with my writing is that to me it seems as if it's moving to fast. Also, my main heroine character seems to have a mind of her own. I started writing with the knowledge of what was going to happen to her, but then I end up writing something else, and I think,"Why did I write this?", and then I realized what I wanted to happen in the first place wouldn't have worked out. In a way, the characters want something else to happen. Sometimes I get an idea and randomly start to write like crazy. The looks I get are priceless.

[Uniasus]

*hi fives Ink.Knight* I'm a fanfic writer too. I've got nigh 30 of them >.<

Original wise, I do short stories. I usually center things on an idea and then set the characters free. I like playing with norms and doing something novel. I've got a short one I'm thinking about sending out to magazines about a lady telling her knight that she doesn't want him to do a brave heroic act to prove he loves her.

I have several novel ideas floating in my head, but they're really just ideas again. I tend to start with world building, and then working on characters, before a plot even develops. I have one that's actually decently planned in my head, all developed by the character's interaction with society, but it's not coherent and straight through. Once (and not if!) I get down to writing it I'll most likely use the snowflake method to write it.

I don't do that with my fanfics though. I usually have a good grip on the characters already and go straight to outlining the plot and writing through it from page one to page what ever. My longest one so far is 60 pages, and that's maybe 1/3 of the way through my plot points. I find as I write that way however, I'm adding little details here or there to flesh out and personalize the world/characters. So kinda the opposite of how I do original work.

But in either case, I ask a lot of questions of my characters and places. Especially 'why' when figuring worlds and backgrounds and 'how' when figuring out reactions. But sometimes questions get skipped over entirely; I get in the head of a character and they go and do something so crazy I can't help but stop and go 'wait, you did what?!'. I had a character turn suicidal on me once, and I really couldn't argue with him so it stayed. You spend so much time crafting characters its hard for them to not come alive and constructively contribute to the story.

[Emi]

This thread is a little old but I feel like responding anyway.

My writing technique is kind of weird since I mainly write screenplays. I tend to Outline what I want first, and then write my character backgrounds/ bio and then start writing. My first drafts are typically what I outlined and then after editing, my later drafts plot starts to change a little.

My style is warping time. I have a lot of flashforwards, flashbacks, along with the present. When I'm writing in story form it's in past tense, always, because I can't for some reason remember how to write in present, even though I don't have a hard time in the scripts. I'm just a confusing chaotic writer... I guess that's my style of writing.