Brandon Skyblade
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He hid himself while he tried to repair himself. ^_^[Mo0:0]
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Post by Brandon Skyblade on Jan 6, 2011 19:57:32 GMT -8
Absolutely anything about the stuff you write that just...bugs you for whatever reason. Whether it's about plot points you make or details about your characters, go ahead and discuss anything to those varying degrees of...I dunno, peeve-ness? Not sure if there's a word for it.
I'll start with a detail I'm not afraid to admit. Trying to work on Twili feels very awkward. For way more than one reason at that...but, for now, I'll keep it to the first and foremost bit that bugs me.
I've already established how this character came across in several short bios with my trio, but I'll restate it here. On my part, she's a...well, a half-OC. An adaptation of an OC from a Zelda fanfic I found a while back that I just CANNOT FREAKING FIND anymore for the past few years. I swear, I had wanted to contact that author, but by the time I got around to actually writing stories, said author (along with said character) was gone without a trace.
I swear I did not make that OC's previous existence up, I remember certain key scenes with the character (i.e.-her older sister becoming a fairy, her, for whatever reason, bursting out into We Will Rock You in the middle of a dungeon), so I know I had to remake this character from utter scratch (save for the older sister detail, which was all I could remember). Not to mention, since I don't remember the author's name, I'm practically on a blind wild goose chase to find any damn author with the name Twili or Jordan at this point, and if I actually find said author, they're getting immediate full credit for the idea of Twili in the first place.
Point is, because I have to start from scratch with a character I'd much rather base off of what she used to be like, it's just plain awkward to get Twili going sometimes and why is much easier for the twins (though they're not actually twins, but you get the point).
Anyone got other peeves about their characters, stories or anything else? For some reason, getting the awkward train rolling seems to be a bit enjoyable already. XD
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Tim Willard
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Got pen, paper, booze, and ink, it's time to write.[Mo0:3]
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Post by Tim Willard on Jan 6, 2011 21:11:47 GMT -8
My peeve about my own work is a habit that I have of having everyone make logical conclusions based on their perceptions, even when under high pressure.
This is based on myself and my peers when I was younger.
I forget that sometimes people panic and don't do the intelligent thing, or when they panic it doesn't invoke a combat response but rather a flight response, and that most people don't go cold and fast.
I've had to rebuild so many scenes because the person who should have been one prone to "normal" reactions to things had the reactions of women I knew back when I was a street machine.
Another pet peeve about my own work, is it never feels finished. It never feels polished enough. It never feels like it's my best work, no matter how much editing it goes through.
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Post by readerwritergirl on Jan 6, 2011 22:02:50 GMT -8
- I can never figure out the personalities of my characters. I get a basic idea, but can't figure out details or anything deeper (yet). - I'm so obsessed with making sure everything makes sense, I don't get work done.
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Tim Willard
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Got pen, paper, booze, and ink, it's time to write.[Mo0:3]
Posts: 349
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Post by Tim Willard on Jan 7, 2011 19:13:34 GMT -8
- I can never figure out the personalities of my characters. I get a basic idea, but can't figure out details or anything deeper (yet).
Write a character synopsis.
- The usual: Height, Weight, eye color, hair color, scars, how they prefer to dress, what their job is, stuff like that.
- Likes, dislikes, where the likes and dislikes came from.
- First girl/boyfriend and how the relationship worked out
- Most important/remembered/treasured relationship
- First job, current job, best job, dream job
- What kind of schools they went to and at least 3 important experiences in school
- Biggest person tragedy/failure/loss
- Favorite/hated food, what they eat habitually without thinking about it really
- Do they drink? Is there a reason behind drinking/not drinkig
- Last time they were in a fight. First time. Did they win or lose and how/why?
- First car/motorcycle, etc. What happened to it? Favorite one.
- Do they believe in God? Why not? Why so? Do they care if others have faith or do they judge them/outright belittle them?
Start answering questions like that, and then move on to the next thing.
Put the character in a variety of situations, some extraordinary, others perfectly mundane, detail deeply and purple-ly what their reactions, thoughts, action, and etc is with them.
THEN write a couple of small 5-10,000 word stories with them.
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Quickster
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.[Mo0:1][mu:http://tinyurl.com/4kau5zt]
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Post by Quickster on Jan 8, 2011 4:04:45 GMT -8
I rarely ever use simile or metaphor, so I always feel as if it's lacking in the description department. That is my biggest self-directed pet-peeve.
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Demeter
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You know what you are in the dark...[Mo0:8]
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Post by Demeter on Jan 9, 2011 14:25:07 GMT -8
I'm worried about how the main character will find out about all of the supernatural forces around her without another character info-dumping. How can she learn about the finer aspects of werewolves or the Queens and their minions? How will she learn about the different Queens around the world?
(I also need a different name for the Queens. They rule the demons that aren't in Hell, but Demon Queen sounds stupid. I could use Winter and Summer Queens, but they aren't related to fey at all.)
I'm also worried about plot-holes concerning the magic the main character gets. I've done a list, but I'm not sure if I have everything.
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MeghanJH
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Post by MeghanJH on Jan 9, 2011 18:24:19 GMT -8
I suck at describing clothes, and when I do describe clothes I try to keep the description of the clothes to a minimum.
The fact that I can't even finish a page of one of my stories unless I have written character sheets.
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tldr
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Resident alcoholic[Mo0:0]
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Post by tldr on Jan 9, 2011 21:10:10 GMT -8
-I tend to recycle character personalities and themes in a lot of my works -My grammar sucks. -I'm not good at describing locations or objects. -The tone I use in my poetry is kind of kind of static. -I have trouble writing happy poems.
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Post by Lord Lovrina on Jan 10, 2011 0:50:32 GMT -8
I rarely ever use simile or metaphor, so I always feel as if it's lacking in the description department. That is my biggest self-directed pet-peeve. Mine too. My personal pet peeve currently is that I start short stories, but I never finish them at all. I think I've finished like one or two short stories, but the sad thing is that I've started over 30 stories.
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Quickster
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.[Mo0:1][mu:http://tinyurl.com/4kau5zt]
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Post by Quickster on Jan 10, 2011 2:24:35 GMT -8
Whenever I try and write a short story, I can rarely ever leave it as that. What is now the first book in my series originated as a prologue... it's now the longest of everything I've written. >.<
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J.Day
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It's not a date but rather a pie slash coffee summit. You know, fix the economy, settle world peace.
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Post by J.Day on Jan 10, 2011 14:35:49 GMT -8
I'm annoyed with my protagonist. She can be downright insufferable and insulting without realizing how bitchy she's being. I've tried to avoid making her sound like a female Holden Caulfield, but she just ends up sounding a lot like him. I'm trying to rework her language so that she doesn't come off so Holden-ish, but she sounds even more like a self-righteous whiner.
I'm looking forward to the day when she'll finally grow a spine, quit complaining, and DO something. Of course, characters don't write themselves, so I'll have to figure out what other conflicts I can give her in order to further develop her.
Also, I hate that when I get an idea about another character's back-story, I can't seem to make the pieces fit nicely to the main/current conflict. If takes me as long as TEN years to plan out and write ONE book, then I guess I'll just have to be patient.
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Truth is Harsher
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I am content with what I am.[mu:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAP9AF6DCu4&feature=feedf][Mo0:0]
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Post by Truth is Harsher on Jan 12, 2011 2:30:36 GMT -8
My characters sexualities...it's bugging me how very little straight characters I have. Nothing's wrong with the ones that aren't it just bugs me a little I guess.
I'm terrible with description unless I really focus but it comes off as confusing or scary. DX I hate it when it does that.
I'm trying to improve a lot but the only things getting better for me is my dialouge and emotions. Everything else is going slowly and I don't know why that is! DX
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2011 20:35:45 GMT -8
Really stupid editing errors. Like I decide to remove the description of a gun in the living room and then three pages later I have a character picking up the gun.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2011 15:40:00 GMT -8
Most my stories have main characters be girls.
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reynard
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[Mo0:0]
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Post by reynard on Jan 15, 2011 16:07:32 GMT -8
Most my stories have main characters for girls. Same here. Most of the more serious things I thought of writing have ended up having a girl for the lead character and sometimes it seems odd to me.
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Post by neoeevee on Jan 17, 2011 11:26:29 GMT -8
Venting and some teal deer ahead.
I'm working on two fanfics at the moment; one is a Kingdom Hearts Slice of Life fic featuring Organization XIII (Xion included), and the other is a Fullmetal Alchemist/Digimon crossover that's been in the works for well over a year now. And every which way, I'm hitting walls.
The KH fic, titled Unseen Days, is supposed to be the Organization, throughout the 358/2 Days storyline, stuck into hilarious situations and reacting with as close to their canon personalities as possible. Right there, however, is where I get stuck, simply because we see so little of their canon selves, and most of what KH fans (myself included) get exposed to in regards to their personalities is whacky fanon. While it's hilarious, when you get around to trying to write canon-y stuff, it's hard to deprogram yourself and remember what they actually act like. :/
Alchemists and Anarchy has very similar problems. Mainly in that the FMA cast is very... complex. I've gone over the series loads of times, but every time I find I don't understand them any better. And since the addage goes "write what you know", this creates problems when I try to keep them in character. Another problem I have when writing this story is that I'm using my own mythlogy for the Digital World and the creatures in it, necessitating a good deal of exposition. :/ Every time I have to stop and explain something, it feels like its bogging the story down, and no matter how many times I tell myself "Other stories do the same thing, you're establishing a world here, it'll be fine," it never helps! D:
A final, seemingly universal problem is the fact that I have great ideas, but have trouble translating them into story form. Emotions, problems, events... It's like my brain knows what it wants to say, but can't find the words to use.
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Post by nchaos on Jan 17, 2011 14:21:58 GMT -8
-I always get stuck at the half-way point. I think I've got a knack for coming up with great endings, but somewhere in the midway area I get completely fucking suck. I can NOT write the inbetweens.
-I feel like I overuse certain words a lot. It's fine if it's part of someone's personality, but when it's in the narration, I go back and re-read it thinking "Fuck, I should just affix a thesaurus permanently to my hip or something".
-I've got a horrible, horrible habit of interjecting my opinions at irrelevant times.
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Demeter
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You know what you are in the dark...[Mo0:8]
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Post by Demeter on Jan 17, 2011 14:43:40 GMT -8
^ Arg, getting from point A to point B can be a bitch.
I can't start or get a good beginning. I know what's going to happen, but I can't make it sound right.
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Post by neoeevee on Jan 17, 2011 15:37:20 GMT -8
^ Arg, getting from point A to point B can be a bitch. THIS THIS THIS THIS THIIIIIIS.
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Demeter
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You know what you are in the dark...[Mo0:8]
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Post by Demeter on Jan 17, 2011 18:55:07 GMT -8
^ Arg, getting from point A to point B can be a bitch. THIS THIS THIS THIS THIIIIIIS. I guess it would be easy if you were doing a murder mystery or something (realize someone's dead -> find evidence -> find murderer -> confront murderer/tell police), but what about anything else?
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Post by Lord Lovrina on Jan 17, 2011 21:02:43 GMT -8
-I always get stuck at the half-way point. I think I've got a knack for coming up with great endings, but somewhere in the midway area I get completely fucking suck. I can NOT write the inbetweens. -I feel like I overuse certain words a lot. It's fine if it's part of someone's personality, but when it's in the narration, I go back and re-read it thinking "Fuck, I should just affix a thesaurus permanently to my hip or something". -I've got a horrible, horrible habit of interjecting my opinions at irrelevant times. All of these. Sometimes I inject a little bit too much Southern slang into the story. It comes across as dumb once in a while.
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Post by nchaos on Jan 18, 2011 21:58:17 GMT -8
Sometimes I inject a little bit too much Southern slang into the story. It comes across as dumb once in a while. I could see that getting overbearing if it was constant, but especially if you're writing Southern characters, it would add a hell of a lot to it.
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Post by aquadragon94 on Jan 21, 2011 16:30:07 GMT -8
My own style of writing bugs the hell out of me. I have no idea why, it's just when I re-read stuff I've written, it just, well irks me.
I'm also obsessive about plot holes and making sure EVERYTHING makes sense. I guess that's a good habit to have, but it's also annoying.
I also suck at actually writing a decent opening paragraph, which is probably the most important part of the story. Gah...
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Nebbles is quite whimsical
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It's not just a boulder! It's a rock! A rock! A rock! It's a big, beautiful, old rock!
And ponies and ponies and ponies...[Mo0:1][mu:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4akG7V6kbNU]
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Post by Nebbles is quite whimsical on Jan 21, 2011 16:50:00 GMT -8
- I have such a hard time ending stories. I can usually get a good beginning, but ending them is just a whole other story.
- I also suck at coming up with titles. I usually nag my friends to help me, because I can never wrap up the story with a good title. Argh.
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Post by Lord Lovrina on Jan 23, 2011 23:09:25 GMT -8
- I have such a hard time ending stories. I can usually get a good beginning, but ending them is just a whole other story. - I also suck at coming up with titles. I usually nag my friends to help me, because I can never wrap up the story with a good title. Argh. Definitely this. It's rare that I finish stories due to my insecurities as a writer. It's almost like I stop caring after a certain point in the story.
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Demeter
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You know what you are in the dark...[Mo0:8]
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Post by Demeter on Jan 24, 2011 17:38:03 GMT -8
I get too many ideas. I should be starting on the story that's plagued me for six months, but no... my brain has to think that it'd be a good idea to completely rewrite a story that I completed years ago.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2011 17:42:17 GMT -8
I never seem to get any of my story ideas finished. Once I come close to finishing one, another comes along and then I lose interest in the previous story.
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Post by Lord Lovrina on Jan 25, 2011 14:03:19 GMT -8
I never seem to get any of my story ideas finished. Once I come close to finishing one, another comes along and then I lose interest in the previous story. That's what plagues me sometimes. I'm still shocked that once in a while I actually finish a freaking story because I'm known to lose interest in finishing a current story. Current pet peeve: I can't think of a good pet peeve for publishing my stories. I'm not sure if my super religious family members would take to kindly to me publishing original yaoi and yuri stories.
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Post by aquadragon94 on Jan 25, 2011 17:17:30 GMT -8
I always, always mispell 'the' as 'teh' when I'm typing. Spellcheck always fixes it, but still, it's annoying.
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reynard
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[Mo0:0]
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Post by reynard on Jan 25, 2011 17:34:31 GMT -8
^I type letters backwards a lot too, so I know what you mean.
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