{ ＩＮＫＬＩＮＧＳ v.4 } A Thread For Writers

[Silverhart]

For movie adaptions of books, do you read the book first or see the movie first?

I used to always try and read the books before watching movie, but not so much anymore. Mostly because I watch classic films, a large majority of which are based on really good books. I love these films, but I don't have the time to read every book they're based on. If I really enjoy a film, especially if it's a classic like 'The Picture of Dorian Grey', or 'The Talisman', I'll go out to try and find the book to read.

Occasionally, if I hear about a big movie coming out that was based on a book, and I find the subject interesting enough I'll try to read the book first. But there's just so many movies based on so many books, it's nearly impossible to read and watch them all. And I'd really be selling myself short if I didn't watch 'Gone with the Wind' or 'To Kill A Mockingbird' or 'Frankenstein', just because I haven't read the books yet. Those movies are brilliant, and who knows when I might find the time to actually read the books. Occasionally, the movies actually do a better job at telling the story. Case in point - 'Tarzan' is an awful book, that I would never recommend to anyone. Every screen adaptation of 'Tarzan' I've seen to date is miles ahead of it. Forget the books, and go watch the movies. They're far more entertaining and satisfying - a much better investment of time in my opinion.

Anyway, while books and movies both tie into writing, I feel like we may be getting a little off subject, so here's a writing question:

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[b]Who is your least favorite character you've created, and why?[/b]

Perhaps it's an old character of yours that you look back on and cringe - c'mon, we all have at least one. I know I have a few Mary Sues buried out in the backyard that I don't like to talk about. X3 Although it doesn't have to be a Mary Sue character, perhaps it's just a boring or inactive character, or one you never fully developed, or one that was just an absolute pain to write for whatever reason.

Bonus Question:

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[b]What would you do to fix them?[/b]

[aurora.]

Who is your least favorite character you've created, and why?

when i was ten and had just read the hunger games, i was obsessed.
i wanted to write about a character just like katniss, strong and all that junk,
but i was so caught up in how great she was i didn't take any notice of
her many obvious flaws. she's insecure, often rude, sometimes even inconsiderate,
and i wrote [ a very unskillful ] two page story with no plot and no conclusion about this crazy weapon
lady who basically lived like a hermit and had like six boyfriends...
[ i can't even ]. after re-reading a few of my early pre-teen writings
yesterday, i discovered most of it was some pretty funky junk, and
i'd like to forget about them.

but hey, every good writer has stacks of awful writings, but each one
is better than the last. so even if you feel like you're getting no where
in your work, just keep it up, and looking back on it, you'll see that throughout
all of the struggle, you've progressed so much it's crazy to imagine.

[ my philosophy is roughly based on an c. s. lewis quote i discovered
a few moons ago. ]

[Megaguirus]

@~nan~ I agree with what you are saying, but I also disagree. Yes, you do have to find real life actors to play these characters, so of course it's going to be a little different, but it doesn't have to be drastic. The character changes in the Percy Jackson movie, for example, could've been done way differently. Not only in age and appearance, but also in personality. Like, for example, in Disney's "The Jungle Book" they made Baloo the playful one and Baghera (SP?) the strict one. When in fact, in the original book, it was the other way around. It was Baghera who told Mowgli what tears were, and Baloo actually hit Mowgli once in the book. This personality change is uncalled for, in my opinion. They probably did the change because "everybody loves bears!". (Sorry if I sound angry, I LOVED the original Jungle Book, even though I read it after seeing the Disney movie, and hate what Disney did with it.)
Yes, while a book is a book and a movie is a movie, I believe one must still look at how well adapted it was. I suggest a series of videos on YouTube called "Lost in Adaptation" by The Dom, if you are really curious in what was left out and left in and what else was completely ignored.

For movie adaptions of books, do you read the book first or see the movie first?

Depends on the book and movie. For Lord of the Rings, I was much too young to have read the book before seeing the movie. But now that I know how the movie ends, I fear I won't be as into the book. So I've never picked it up. For some movies, the trailer is what introduces me to the book, like with Percy Jackson and Guardians of Gahoole. That is when I read the book first before seeing the movie. So yeah, while I do try to read the book before the movie, sometimes it doesn't always end up that way.

Who is your least favorite character you've created, and why?

Oh goodness, this is a hard question. I've made so many characters, and some have been awful Mary Sues. Actually, I can't think of any at the moment. Maybe it's because my least favorite characters have been forgotten for so long, that I don't even remember them. I do know, however, Nightshade started out as a Mary Sue, at least according to the owner of this roleplay I joined (one of my firsts, actually). This was before she became the beautiful villainess she is now.

Ooh wait, I just thought of someone. Even before I was able to write, I often created stories with my plastic toys. Most of my villains were evil for the sake of being evil, or just to make the hero look like a hero. For example, I had this crocodile toy who was the long standing foe of Frogger (based around the Frogger in the 3D Hasbro remake of the classic arcade game). His foe, whom I called Swampy, was always getting into fights with Frogger for no apparent reason other than I thought there needed to be conflict. I know later on I tried to give him some depth, but sadly, I don't remember much of the changes. (I actually still have Frogger and Swampy, Frogger's on display and Swampy is in a bin.)

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

AS LONG AS WE'RE RANTING ABOUT MOVIE ADAPTATIONS
CAN WE TALK ABOUT GUARDIANS OF GA'HOOLE
AND HOW MUCH I WANT TO KILL THE MOVIE
IT WAS GORGEOUS
I WAS SO EXCITED
AND THEY JUST SLAUGHTERED IT
(ﾉ °益°)ﾉ 彡 ┻━┻
I hated what they did with Inkheart, Percy Jackson, Series of Unfortunate Events, and Twilight [though tbh the Twilight books weren't so great either]

The ONLY adaptations I liked
were the last couple HP movies [because lets face it, some were totally wrong but Deathly Hallows was on point]
HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE Dumbledore asked calmly
And Maze Runner did amazing, honestly
Not with being the same but with making it better
Hunger Games was alright but to be honest I read all the books waaaaay before the movies and forgot some things
and I love the way they did LOTR and the Hobbit
[and I know Tauriel wasn't in the books but think about it this way:
the book was from Bilbo's perspective
and they never even saw each other in the movies]
also, I actually think they did alright with Ender's Game. I mean they didn't add anything that didn't happen, they just skipped some things.

and I stay far FAR AWAY from:
Divergent, the Mortal Instruments, anything John Green, you know mainstream stuff that people generally rage over

For movie adaptions of books, do you read the book first or see the movie first?

Well... Heh the thing is I usually get to the books before the films are even an idea. I must have read Hunger Games a good few years before the movies were a thing. Same with Inkheart and Guardians of Ga'hoole and Series of Unfortunate Events and Twilight and Ender's Game.
Other times, I try to get my hands on the books the second I hear about a movie coming out, which is what I did with Maze Runner and Percy Jackson.
Admittedly I started reading HP and LOTR after the movies but. you know. I was like. seven and ten when they came out. so.

Who is your least favorite character you've created, and why?

... uh... Alistair MacDuncan...
NOT because he's a bad character but because he wasn't SUPPOSED to be a bad guy!
They were actually supposed to team up with him and it was gonna be fun because he'd hit on Scarlet and she'd get pissed and it was gonna be great.
But the second I made him twitch man, it was gone.
Only evil comes with twitches.

[Nightfury_Rider]

Who is your least favorite character you've created, and why?
I created a girl with the power of winter once I really hated her. She was beautiful, she had wings and she had a lovely personality, but I just hated her so much. I just didn't find her chapters fun to write. The funniest thing is that I usually fall in love with my main characters, but, this time, I hated them. She was such a boring person and I don't know why. I loved writing the evil character's chapters but I hated writing the main's chapters, and I think it was because she was exactly like all my other characters- blue eyes, long, light hair, shy, beautiful- and I just got bored of writing it, and she was particularly boring because of her crappy backstory that I had to explain. Her parents died in a car crash into the sea and she swallowed a magic snowflake that gave her the powers she now had. In the end I gave up because I was fed up of writing about her.

What would you do to fix them? Make her totally different to anyone else I've ever written about. Maybe she could have black hair with green eyes and only wear black jeans and hoodies. And black converse with white laces, and a power to kill people with snowstorms rather than making people better with the pure beauty of snow and stuff.

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

@Nightfury_Rider I hope you don't mind a comment, but it sounds like she could be "boring" to you because perhaps she's a bit generic? I can see the perfect and beautiful getting old fast- flaws make a character interesting! Instead of trying to change up her looks and powers, try adding things to her design and personality.
For example, scars or beauty marks or maybe her hair turns white when she's using snow powers or making her whole body get's really cold when she's angry or maybe her eyes change color or her hair and eyelashes and things get frost on them.
And develop the crap out of her personality- like what is she afraid of, what is she good at, what are some traumas/good memories in her past and how do they affect her, who does she have relationships with and why, does she have any mental disorders, or moments that she has kept her whole life, or maybe she's obsessively interested in biology or environmental science or astronomy [... and apparently science is all I can think of but] and maybe she has a weak spot for dogs or for some reason is really good at walking on stilts or collects anything shiny she finds that fits in her pocket or hates rain because it freezes when it touches her or- I don't know, I just threw out all the ideas that came to mind lol but it's the little things that make a character interesting! They build and build to create a big thing- a person complex enough to seem real. And getting into anyone's real mind is interesting.

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

OK SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POST BUT I JUST GOT AN EPIC IDEA
How would you guys feel about a community free-for-all story?
Like you don't have to talk through the plot or anything or ask before you post, you just continue the story
However you want
the plot twists could be fantastic
and I have a kind of steampunk idea for it
like digital things are taking over and some people are like BUT. COGS.
or maybe the digital things are some kind of evil ooo :oo
idk
but like a story thing where anyone at all can continue it whenever and however they feel like it
... is that a good idea or

[elf_of_the_hollow]

YES. YES CAPTAIN YES. PLEASE.
But seriously, that sounds like a really cool idea although it definitely has room to get a little hectic
I'm not even sure how that would work, but it sounds amazing.

[ʞ ɔ ǝ ɹ ʍ d ı ʞ s]

I have ideas on how it could work
I think I'll actually develop SOME characters and the world and SOME plot just so things stay straight
also I think I'm going to have people reserve the next post [only one at a time though] so two people don't end up posting something different for the same chapter. Just to keep a bit of order.
But still >:D
Oh stop me now I'm thinking about it and getting carried away with a steampunk world

[Dylan Klebold]

OK SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POST BUT I JUST GOT AN EPIC IDEA
How would you guys feel about a community free-for-all story?
Like you don't have to talk through the plot or anything or ask before you post, you just continue the story
However you want
the plot twists could be fantastic
and I have a kind of steampunk idea for it
like digital things are taking over and some people are like BUT. COGS.
or maybe the digital things are some kind of evil ooo :oo
idk
but like a story thing where anyone at all can continue it whenever and however they feel like it
... is that a good idea or

i'm for it

... and now I want to write a steampunky story >>