❛ the lazy writers ❜ V2

[Aliria]

What is your favorite aspect of worldbuilding?
Drawing maps. I love drawing maps. I draw simple maps of fantasy worlds I have no intention to use for anything just because it's fun. Also naming places is pretty cool.

What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters?
Books I've read, or occasionally TV/movies I watch. A lot of my stories are based on cool aspects of other people's stories or stupid aspects I feel like I could do better.

Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterization more? Why?
Plot. Plot plot plot plot plot plot. My characters appear in my brain as fully formed humans and sure, they usually don't like me very much, but they certainly exist. Plots are pretty much just "here's a setting. here's one scene. make it happen."

How do you pick names for your characters?
Go the the random name generator on Behind the Name, add a few filters, and just wait for something nice to come up.

Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels?
Not really. Once in a while I'll make some of my characters in doll maker games, but that's more of a thing to do when I'm bored than an actual useful process.

What are some tactics you use to develop your characters?
I don't really have any; my characters don't tend to need much development. I like to throw them into random real-life scenarios and imagine how they'd react sometimes, or run a hunger games simulator with them and see if it's in character at all.

[sparrow;]

What is your favorite aspect of worldbuilding?
Creating societies in general, specifically things like their beliefs, taboos, any religion, things like that.

What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters?
I don't know, random things. I get inspired by... anything. Literally anything. Often I'll start with a phrase or a sentence I like, and then I'll build everything around that. I wonder if anyone else does that.

Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterization more? Why?
Characters are really difficult for me. I can create a character, but making them complex is really hard for me and writing with a consistent personality is basically impossible. I don't really understand... people.

How do you pick names for your characters?
Sometimes I just have a name I instantly like, but often I'll use the site Nameberry. It's really useful!

Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels?
Nope. Maybe I'll draw a character or map or something, but that rarely happens. I'm not very good at art and I prefer to write rather than draw.

What are some tactics you use to develop your characters?
I don't know. I should really try and work on this... but I'm too lazy to bother with that whole "improving" thing.

How do you challenge yourself with your writing?
Usually by trying to write in a different style. Sometimes I fail miserably, and sometimes I really love what I create. Once I wrote a 1920s newspaper article in the writing style of someone else and it was really, really fun. It was for a creative writing school project, but my teacher told me off for being too creative. I don't understand how school works sometimes...

I have a question!

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[b]Have you ever created a story, world or character based off a random sentence or phrase you thought of? If so, any examples?[/b]

I do this a lot, I'm not sure if you guys do as well c:

[ticked tabby]

@cosmic-quark - Your books sounds really cool and I agree that you could try to mix a more plot based story with lots of character development too. I'm not sure if you could have the 'alien trying to blend in with the humans' part in the second Book 2 idea, but I really think that'd be an interesting subplot.
(Oh, and thanks for your reply on the Pricing Artwork thread!)

[danheng]

@cosmic, aah I love your ideas! personally I'd go for number two but I think they're both lovely and whichever you choose depends on what you want to centralize your story on. but it is true, I think you can totally have a mix of character development and action- it's been done and is really great if done well!

What is your favorite aspect of worldbuilding?
I love culture. beliefs and customs, common ways to address other people, how people react to things, social norms, languages, the prominence of said languages or different ideas and cultures : D
What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters?
pppinterest...
Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterization more? Why?
plot. It's tough for me to place a developed character into a good situation.
How do you pick names for your characters?
what suits them? for example- alexandre got his because alexander is a common boy's name, sounds strong, and has a small quirk that makes him just a bit different. that's kinda the vibe I wanted to get off of him- good and strong and bold but with a compassionate quirk. even got his because it's plain and simple and that's the kind of person he is and I wanted to take attention off of him to make room for lena- who got hers because I felt lenore felt strong and whole. lola got hers because she's petit and impulsive and generally makes a lot of mistakes- lola sounds cute to me. I don't want readers to take her too seriously. matías was mostly because I wanted a cool accent.
Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels?
doesn't. I can't draw. I do, like as a habit like on the side of math sheets and whatnot, but it's not a hobby or something I'm pursuing.
What are some tactics you use to develop your characters?
I write little prompt scenes with them!
How do you challenge yourself with your writing?
with the alpha files- I'm challenging myself with a word goal every week. this week, it's 5,000. I'm 2 fifths of the way there!

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Have you ever created a story, world or character based off a random sentence or phrase you thought of? If so, any examples?
Yeah. It's called earth affinity, the story's about a girl who escapes a post-nuclear earth and travels to a distant planet where the days last years and she has to find enough supplies to last the night while it constantly grows darker, but it all came from Earth Affinity and a youtube show I was watching XD.

[Yubel Fated]

What is your favorite aspect of worldbuilding?

I haven't really built a world yet. But I like creating weird forms of Government... Or at least for Restructure I liked building the Government who is lead by Scientists and the population of experiments that mixed in with humanity.

What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters?

Friends, family, other anime characters, myself. Are just a few things that inspire me for characters. Dreams are the foundation of my plot for some odd reason.

Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterization more? Why?

I tend to struggle more with plot. I can't seem to stick with one direction to go. I know where they're going, I just struggle with how to get there.

How do you pick names for your characters?

Usually I take names from characters I like as well as babyname websites. A great example is Arianna Hyuuga.

Ari came from a Maximum Ride Character and Hyuuga is from Naruto. Just with one more U than they use. Neji Hyuga.

Meanwhile his father comes from Hetalia with the name Lukas and his mother comes from babynames with Autumn.

As for the characters of restructure I took names from baby names and mashed them with favorite characters they have. However unrelevant they are now xD

Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels?

-laughing- I cant draw xD

What are some tactics you use to develop your characters?

Roleplay

How do you challenge yourself with your writing?

I dont think I do? I give myself prompts but thats about it. I really need to though.

Have you ever created a story, world or character based off a random sentence or phrase you thought of? If so, any examples?

I created a short story based off of two people not wanting to have a soulmate. So theres that :T


@SongoftheStars

That sounds really cool!

[Ranger of the North]

Guys, great news! I drew I picture that I'm happy with! The MC of my latest story

I need anyone's help that is willing!

Soo, I finished a story yesterday, a tryout form for this 'lil guy, I just love them so much<33 Anyways,, I'd LOVE some constructive crit on the story ! And please, if you happen to find any mistakes or anything, I'd be a great help to tell me!
I realize the story is close to seven thousand words so if you don't have to time to read it all, I would still love to hear about your chapter 1 impressions or anything like that! c:

Click here!
Don't hesitate to post there too.

I'll check it out as soon as I'm able! Good luck! c:

@Ranger of the North I initially thought a name starting with "a" or a similar vowel would really work for her. I also wanted something less feminine, though not necessarily completely gender-neutral (since I already had that with Charlie). I tried out Astrid for a while, but the cosmic connotation of the name seemed a bit blatant imo. Alexis seemed like a good compromise. It's been a while since I tried it out for her, though, and it's just not sticking.

I'll mull it over, see if I can come up with something c: I'll edit some in soon! I just want to get this posted in case baby sister makes me lose everything Eden? Ashley? Avery? Addison? Emmerson? Ashton? Ellis? Arden? Oh, or what about plain Alex? It could be short for Alexis or Alexandra or anything. c:
I hope something helps!


What is your favourite aspect of world-building?
Creating different cultures


What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters?
Eurm. Imagination?


Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterisation more? Why?
It often depends; but moreso plot, I think. I often have a vague idea of what's going to happen, but it's ridiculously hard trying to fill all those in-between spaces


How do you pick names for your characters?
Sometimes they're just there in my head, sometimes I look words up that are similar to something I'd like, sometimes I look for meanings, and sometimes nothing fits, so I give them a fake name instead.


Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels?
No, I don't think so?


What are some tactics you use to develop your characters?
Make them contradictory; real humans are confusing to themselves and others, so why shouldn't pretend people? Don't overdo it, though, or you'll sound ridiculous XD


How do you challenge yourself with your writing?
Sit down and do it; it's really hard c':


Have you ever created a story, world or character based off a random sentence or phrase you thought of? If so, any examples?
Not yet, but I want to! Here are some of my inspiring sentences:

1

xxxxx“I hate you,” he'd whisper tenderly, hugging me close. “I hate you so, so much.”
xxxxx“I hate you too, Papa,” I'd murmur into his shoulder. And that was okay. Because back then, hate was love. And love was hate.

I feel all, twisted inside, guys c':

2

xxxxxI saw his face. Moments before I hit him.

Welcome to my dark world, where car-crashes reign supreme. Glorious~

3/4

xxxxx“What would you say if I called you a murderer?”
xxxxx“I'd say you're a genius.”

or

xxxxx“What would you say if I called you a backstabbing criminal?”
xxxxx“I'd say you're a genius.”

[BucketORandomness]

What is your favorite aspect of worldbuilding?
Probably the fact that I don't have to make things like gravity work the way it does here. Also, alternate realities that aren't, like, this one are pretty fun, and I love to just create worlds and imagine what kind of people might be in it or who might do what in it or maybe even types of culture and whatnot. Most of the time, I do a lot with a little space rather than a little with the entire world. I might branch out once I finish the one area, but it mainly sticks with that, and I personally enjoy it.

What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters?
Dreams, random comments, quotes out of context, and your regular assortment of what-if. That's mainly the germ that starts the plague. I'll think "What if there was this girl trapped in a metal ball, and she was scared of the world, but then someone gets her out of it?" and that turns into a mass project of "EVERY Element Has A Character For This Story! They're all government experiments! They all have powers! Some of the people don't have powers! There are draw-backs to the original generations of experiments! The world is like this! This person's like that! Flurries are these! This person controls those! These elements are linked this way! She survives in her bubble that way!" and thus, PTEN was born. I tend to obsess over a single idea for a while, find something else to obsess over, and in between go back to something that really gripped me.

Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterization more? Why?
Plot. I don't plan it out. The world develops and gains color, and I find people living in it, but I have no idea what they're doing or when until I actually write it, and then most of the time I can only get through the introduction, rising action, and have a ridiculous time finding the climax and where to fall from there. The characters, though, I think about while obsessing over their current world, so they get developed in my brain pretty fully. I'll know their backstory, general appearance, general personality, and the starting mindset for them all before I start writing, and then they grow from there.

How do you pick names for your characters?
Depends on the type of thing I'm going for. If it's going to be more of a fantasy world, I'll use my Google Translate method ((Which I can explain if anyone wants)) and make up random things that sound like they'd go with the environment. I have done projects where I used key factors to describe them ((Odd, Matt, Shine)) Or I'll do variations on a theme ((Copper=Copper, Nickel=Nikki)) Sometimes I go on generators to get started ((Magus)) Others, I'll just go through a baby names book online ((Sirius)) It really depends on what kind of mood I'm in and how much work I'm willing to do. It's mainly GT or generators, though.

Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels?
In the only planning I've done, art helps me to keep my characters separate, though I'm currently experimenting with using it for other things like setting. If I can picture in my head where, who, or what's doing the thing, it's easier to write it, but often enough there's nothing online that seems to work with the image I first start out with in my head. Of course, now that I started a pinterest for this sort of note taking, I can gather photos of things that remind me of my mental image and come back to them later. I think it'll be useful, but I'm not entirely sure as of yet.

What are some tactics you use to develop your characters?
Z is in a situation. Z has this specific character feature. Is Z a girl or boy? Why is Z in this situation? What led Z here? What caused that? Where did Z start? In this world I've made, what kind of things could have shaped Z? Could Z have wanted this situation, or was Z forced into it against their will/judgement? How does that relate to Z's specific character feature? What other character features might Z have based on this general history? Do they all make sense with Z's new personality and current situation? What does Z want in this situation? How might Z go about getting that?
Basically my thought process. Yours might go a little differently.

How do you challenge yourself with your writing?
At the moment, it would be reading through and continuing a story without getting sidetracked by editing or revisions. I have a terrible habit of doing that, and it leads to rarely finishing a project of any size. The trick is to write a thing and revise it later. Revise the completed project so that it's all the same quality, and not just progressively worse. So far, it's not working so well...

Have you ever created a story, world or character based off a random sentence or phrase you thought of? If so, any examples?
Yes. Haven't posted the finished version, but yes. I was bored during Camp NaNo and started posting in the cabin chat "Once upon a time, in a far-off place, in a different time and part of space, the forest grew." The post lengths were tied to a character count, so it turned really lyrical, which I liked. The finished story is a journey type thing, where the Odd one out goes searching for a place to belong. It's very touching *sniff* Other than that, I'm contemplating starting one based off of a quote out of context "The planets are now cats. Please adjust accordingly." Not entirely sure how that would go, but the quote itself is about as fun as it gets.

[winged-backpack]

Aaaaaa that's a lot of questions!

What is your favourite aspect of worldbuilding?
Honestly, I don't do a lot of worldbuilding :-/ I mean 10,000 Doors is set in one place, the facility where the doors are, so not a lof of worldbuilding going on there, and my other story ideas are all set on earth so I'm very limited in my worldbuilding. It's more of a fantasy/sci-fi thing isn't it?

What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters?
Plot:
For 10,000 Doors, the inspiration comes from all the horror films/books that I've watched/read growing up. My mum was very liveral with what she would let me watch and read as I grew up, mainly because she says that of me and my 2 siblings, I was always most understanding of right and wrong, as well as being unphased by the sorts of things I was reading about. The movies and books I was exposed to growing up are huge inspirations for the plots that I come up with now as a writer. Also dreams, a few of the doors I have planned have been inspired by my nightmares, though they're the later, more surreal doors that I've yet to write ^^'
Characters:
Femie's inspiration can be summarised to: Orange is the New Black, John Coffey and Andy Dufresne. Other characters that I've had going on in the background for another project are heavily based off of my own traits, as well as the traits of a few good friends.

Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterization more? Why?
Characterisation, definitely. With plot, you can create anything, and no one will know if it's accurate to the world you've built because of exactly that - it's your world, it's your story. The plot is yours to play with and develop. Characters are so much more difficult to write because you're trying to create a whole person/being through writing alone. You're trying to create a three-dimensional, feeling thing with words (and the occasional illustration) which is such a difficult thing to do.

How do you pick names for your characters?
Honestly, behindthename.com has got serious claim to most of my character names. "Femie" is actually not from that site, it's one I kind of created myself (it's not actually a proper name, it's very rarely used if it is) and it just sort of came to mind while I was flicking through the name generator. I chose it because Femie is kind of an unspecified Hispanic character (aka, I haven't really decided which Spanish-speaking country she's from yet) and I just thought it would be a nice name. It's kind of (obviously) like the word 'feminine' which is kind of because I want her gender to be a talking point and something that I plan to explore later in the book with some of her history, especially some of the things that happened while she was in prison.

Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels?
Occasionally, not that often. Sometimes I'll try to sketch what Femie looks like but I'm not good enough at drawing humans to make it worthwhile at the moment.

What are some tactics you use to develop your characters?
Writing shorter stories about them that won't be a part of the actual book. For example, I have a very short exploration of the story behind the photo I described in chapter 15 which isn't going to be put in the book, but it's there so that I could have a decent description of the photo, but the development behind Femie in the story has better helped me understand her.

How do you challenge yourself with your writing?
By creating characters that aren't the regular straight, white, male protagonists with no development. I got nothing against them! It's just there are so many of them, it's nice to challenge myself to write LGBT characters and characters who are POC. Actually, writing a male character would be a challenge for me, but I guess that's just because I am not biologically male.

Have you ever created a story, world or character based off a random sentence or phrase you thought of? If so, any examples?
Honestly, no. I've created stories based on dreams, and based on other writer's styles, but never just a random phrase.

@Ranger
I love your drawing! Your character looks super cool! I'd do the 'yours' thing, but I don't really use the Oekaki to draw.

@Cosmic
I love space too! I mean, from what I know there are up-quarks and down-quarks, which are what protons are made of, I didn't know there were strange and charmed ones quark kinda sounds like a posh duck though, if you know what I mean...i'm gonna shut up now, this has nothing to do with writing.

Soooo I'm thinking about writing something about these two characters. They're OCs of mine, and their backstroy is they were both cursed by the same male witch for turning down his romantic advances (separately, not together) so he cursed them to be part plant in revenge...and now they're dating. Their dynamic is Cresencia is part cactus so she's terrified of hurting people and tends to push people away and seem really mean as a result, and Flo is part cotton which makes her really fragile, but she's just kind of flaky and forgetful, and Cres loves her because she can't get hurt by her spikes because she's made of cotton and can't be hurt. What do you guys think, would you be interested in a story about these two. Cutesy romance-y stories are not my usual style at all, so if it's something you would be interested in seeing, I might give it a try.

[~Teya~]

What is your favorite aspect of worldbuilding? Everything? o.o Haha, I really just like making my own world to do whatever I please, so I guess, all? Describing how the world works is fun. My worlds are a little jumbled.. but I don't mind too much xD

What are common sources of inspiration for your plot and/or characters? Hmm, inspiration for me is kinda just, starting to write.. but of course I take from others. For example, in the viscet community someone was explaining a story between two viscets in a Star Wars themed world; one was a rebel, the other was a storm trooper or something along those lines, and the story was following them meeting and hating each other, etc. I loved this idea, and something in me just clicked, so I spent the next like, month of two adopting 3 viscets. Arathorn, (to represent the "Rebellion") Murlé, (to represent the "Imperials") and Sunora, because, idk I wanted another character and a somewhat love interest that ISN'T just another damsel in distress. Soo yeah, one post on the viscet fanclub when the internet was out inspired me to write a novel O.o I never told that person, either. ;p

Do you tend to struggle with plot or characterization more? Why? Ehhhhhhhhhh, plot. I love my characters, when I hurt them it is like hurting myself. And plot just.. idk, it's definitely necessary but I basically just vaguely know the ending to my stories and, start writing. I'm trying to break this for future longer stories, though.

How do you pick names for your characters? Ah, this is my favorite! I absolutely love using names from different cultures. PSG for example, uses mostly Spanish names. (strangely enough though, the main 3 do not have Spanish names but literally everyone else does? XD I'm weird.) I also use Japanese names, which is strange because I never watch Anime, but everyone thinks I do because of my Japanese names. XD

Does art play a role in how you plan, write, or edit your novels? Not usually. Although I love drawing my characters, I rarely draw scenes in my stories. I think it is because I wasn't sure my art capabilities could do the scenes in my head right, but I want to draw them more now, since I'm much more confident now ^.^

What are some tactics you use to develop your characters? It's funny you should ask-- because although I love developing my characters more than plot n such, I don't really.. have a plan? I just simply write. That's literally it, I do what I do and sometimes it actually turns out pretty nice XD i'm so bad

How do you challenge yourself with your writing? I'm trying to challenge myself by actually making the layout before hand, which I never do. XD I'm going to be writing a longish story soonish that I've been planning for awhile.. which involves one of my newest viscets that I have wanted for a very long time and recently got cx


Have you ever created a story, world or character based off a random sentence or phrase you thought of? If so, any examples? Yes. But not necessarily a phrase or whatevs. Sometimes I draw something and really want to write about it cx But also, yes to what you said ;p Just it hasn't happened in a long time. A story I made awhile back called "Dark Rose" with a viscet I own named Awai, literally, the character's look and story came to me when I was dosing off XD Lmao that could be a question!

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[b]Have you ever suddenly come up with a character when you were close to dosing off?:[/b]