Part of this is in reaction to the sort of people who say that, for example, since action X never happened in canon, the story is a terrible waste of time and effort and horribly written. I've seen claims about that running from everything from events (the author didn't predict the path of canon) or shipping (the author wanted to see Jane and Suzy not Jane and Edward.) I've also seen milder complaints that someone is too fond of fanon characterizations for characters or things along that line. Even more milder complaints could be simply that someone's using canon that only appears in an obscure website (or ignoring it) or that someone only uses canon from a movie instead of a book.

( Canon definitions )

( Instead, I'm more interested in the plot - )

( Here's some examples of how I use canon - )

Let's say you've got a character that you don't want to necessarily know their every plan and motive. Or, it's just a character that you can't (or don't need) to get deeply immersed into their life. If you tend to write people with a very close viewpoint, this can be hard. So, what can you do?

( Read more... )

I'm prejudiced about utopias mostly because I've seen some really bad ones. Let me define my terms first. A utopia, in my mind, is a place that's supposed to be absolutely perfect. No flaws, no imperfections, and, if it's a very strict utopia, no flaws in the characters. A more limited utopia would have more flaws. A dsytopia is basically the opposite. You may have an utterly flawed world, but decent people, or a world where everything is as messed up as possible. Frankly, from a world building standpoint, they're not that different. What matters is how perfect or imperfect your world is, and what you want from the story.

So, for all that I hate them, what's good about a utopia / dystopia? ( Read more... )

"Yes, my dear, but what will you do with it?"

This, from what I've seen, is both the best and worst thing you can ask about a story. ( Let me explain - )

Let's talk about patterns, frameworks, or a mixture of them both. These things pop up in the structure of worlds. They can be references to 'real world' events or ideas or they could be references to fictional structures in your stories.

One thing that drives me nuts are stories based off of the tarot. You see a lot of them used as fortune telling tools. Or compared to situations. Or, for example, in X1999, the characters are shown as various tarot cards.

There's two factors at play here. One is that a tarot system gives both you and your readers a framework. People can guess that John's the World or argue who's the Wheel or the meaning of the Tower. It also means you know that you may, for example, have a falling tower or some situation that evokes it. These are, in my opinion, pluses since that helps you make a story that either converges or diverges with exisiting mythos and you can create foreshadowing and suspense via imagery and calling on these mythos. Also, you know that, for example, you have a set of icons which you can apply to various situations or people and you can use that for brainstorming ideas. In plain English, using tarot cards gives you a dictionary to subvert or use in your writing.

The other factor is more negative. ( By using - )

Sample questions. A lot of these are self explanatory. Feel free to ask why I find some of these interesting.

( More general questions. )

( 10 questions for places and people )

I'm going to try to do this semi-regularly. No promises.

Premise: Writing characters / worlds / situations often works better if you have someone to bounce ideas off of. Questions, comments, and even reading other work can often kick start something.

Now, if you want to publish something, you of course don't want it to be public. Feel free to leave a comment pointing back to a locked entry if so desired.

( Characters and Places )

Tomorrow, I'll post some sample questions, if I have time, and the reasoning behind them.