Currently viewing the tag: "Characters"
Question: Do you think that so-called “fan fiction” (stories written by fans using the characters and settings of a tele
Answer:
Answer by acct10132002
The writers should submit these to TV shows. Mail a copy to oneself in case you want to date the time you wrote it. Might be accepted. Why not devise your own characters and stories?
That way, not plagerizing in any fashion. Modifications to characters and settings can make it mostly “original”. Anybody can get inspired by a work be it painting or writing but getting too close is plagerism and a crime.
Question: Atheists: why do you consider gods as characters?
I’ve been posing very fundamental questions to my atheist kindred on Yahoo! Answers, because I seriously want to know how their mental processes work. I think I have learned something /very/ telling from the responses: the dominant sort of atheist on Yahoo! Answers considers God a character, as from a story. So, for example, my question about theology¹ was met with the following responses: First, the overwhelming majority of you confused theology with Bible study for some reason. But also, I was told that it would be like “demanding a debate about Zeus, or Odin”, that “theology IS mythology”, and that God is about “the business of their communities rather than the meaning of life or the universe.” [As before, I was also told surprising things, this time about myself: apparently I'm "certainly" an agnostic. Also, as an atheist, I apparently think that theology is bullshit. Also, apparently I haven't read any theology, or else I have very simply seen why it is a joke.]
Now, if there’s one thing stressed by every Catholic priest that I’ve ever talked to, every Muslim I’ve ever had a frank conversation with, it’s that their God is not really that anthropomorphic sort of character, of any kind. God is a supernatural and transcendent entity. I mean, with the Muslims it is especially present: that everything is caused by Allah, who sustains every sort of natural process. A Christian might say “I see God in everything — every sunset, the wind against my face, the song of birds, everything.” This isn’t the sort of thing you’d say of a mythological character of any kind. I mean, to take Hopkins as an example, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; it gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil crushed,” and, “for Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his, to the Father through the features of men’s faces.”
I mean, you wouldn’t say this sort of thing about your brother, your penpal, your potential secret admirer who you’ve not yet met, or Harry Potter. None of the traditional characters who engage your mental life has the sort of characteristics which would allow these sweeping transcendent statements to make any sort of sense. They only make sense if Christ and God, far from being the Mormon “humanoid who lives somewhere amongst the stars,” transcends the entire mortal sphere of space, time, matter, and us. God, the theologians tell us, cannot be familiar to or even contained within human language, the way that characters so eloquently are.
It is somewhat as if a physicist like me was making sweeping statements to the effect of “Nature chooses the trajectory with the least action,” and your response was, “Bah! I don’t believe in nature! That’s all just mythology.” In the most literal sense, that response does make a salient point, but it misunderstands the way that the original statement was being used, because Nature is not some sort of character in some sort of fable, even though I have strictly speaking used her that way in this question.
With all that said as context, here is my question. Why are the gods you reject all (apparently) characters? What do you do with the many gods who many cultures insist cannot be characterized? Why is it that when I ask you guys about /theology/, you reply by talking about “the study of fairy stories,” or “how many beans Jack traded his cow for,” or “mythology,” or “literature… treated as non-fiction”…? In short, why is your rejection of gods limited to bearded men in the sky, and can this limitation be justified with a rational argument?
(As before, those aren’t rhetorical questions: I sincerely would love to see a bright take which would reason out such a conclusion. I like to be surprised.)
¹ My last question: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100727102727AAfQHst
Answer:
Answer by Happy Jesus
Foolish mortal, walls of text do nothing. Repent, and all will be forgiven.
I am the Son of God, kneel down before your master.
should your write the conversation , of coursein quotations, but also in italics?
Tools of fiction writing are very important when you want to make your piece be of good quality. As you can see, fiction writing is not that easy as you might think of it. It deals with a lot of elements that you have to work on with in order to make it a successful one.
Since you have to express your ideas in a natural but creative way, you should at least make it more appealing to your readers. If you are having some hard times on how you are going to start writing fiction articles, then there are some important reminders that you ought to know as a writer. One of which is your capacity to speak and write with the correct use of such grammars including the proper way of using punctuations and spellings. It will facilitate better understanding of the content and so that your readers will visualize your concept well.
Then, you have to format your piece well and organize how your topic flows accordingly. If you are done with those matters, planning, writing, proofreading or editing and rewriting, then I bet these will no longer a problem in your piece. Now, you should take note on adding up some elements that can boost your fiction writing manageable and effectively. You have to deal with tools of fiction writing.
Apart from storytelling and abstraction, there are two other fiction elements that seem to regularly creep their way into feature writing. Like the two we discussed before them, they add tremendous value to your reader’s experience (just like a good copy editing software does, but in a different way), turning an erstwhile drab blob of text into an engaging piece.
Tension. In writing, you can define tension as the stretching of human emotions to their limits. When you read a nonfiction piece that riles you into great emotion, throws you into a cliffhanger or sucks you in with a twist, then that work is dripping with this effective instrument.
Many of the best feature pieces revolve their story around the tension experienced by the main characters on their pages. Done well, they lead the reader to imagining a multitude of possible endings, effectively adding an element of surprise. Thrilling stories makes your readers crave for more details as to what follows next.
Characters. If your feature involves particular groups or individuals, you can treat them as characters the same way they are used in fiction pieces. Unlike novels and short stories, though, you’ll have to stick to the facts, so don’t let your imagination run too wild.
In nonfiction, you develop characters through descriptions and quotations. How your interviewee acts during your conversation, the type of gestures they employ and other such details can be effectively used to build their picture in the mind of the reader.
Now you’re good to go. Apply these elements in fiction writing and you’ll see how your piece will run successfully which really catches your reader’s interest and how they will act upon the topic you had created.
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If your readers don’t care about your characters, you’re sunk. Readers don’t necessarily have to like all of your characters, but they have to care about what happens to your main character, or there’s no reason for them to keep reading.
Which means you have to care about your characters, and you have to know them, maybe even better than you know yourself. To create characters that live and breathe on the page, you must first create characters that live in breathe in your psyche. This is why you need to know much more about them than you’ll ever have to include in your completed story.
One way to achieve this authentic character history is to put your main character(s) in as many real-life situations as possible. And because thinking is only the first stage and can only get you so far, write these situations out, considering all sorts of details.
When you can imagine your character in different places and with different people, beyond people and places your story requires, you make your fictional people exponentially more realistic within the confines of your own story.
Start by deciding on the basics: your main character’s date of birth and favorite things (such as food, color, activity, place, song, movie, book, friend, family member, possession, game, animal/pet, amusement park ride, season). Remember: these are details you’ll want to work out, even though they may never need to be discussed in your story.
The basics is great place to start, but to create the most vivid, memorable characters, you’ll need to stretch your imagination and go beyond the basics.
The following exercises will get you started in developing rich, believable, interesting characters. Choose the exercises you’re most drawn to, and really let yourself go—don’t worry about polished sentences or grammar or mechanics. (You can’t plumb the depths of your imagination when you’re worried about comma placement.)
STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES: List emotional, intellectual, and physical strengths and weaknesses for your character. Include any special talents or aptitudes. Get your hands on an IQ test and take it from your character’s perspective, not yours. (Tricky, but fun and worthwhile.)
DINNER AT OUR HOUSE: Imagine a family meal at your main character’s dinner table. Write a short descriptive scene revealing the average evening meal at your main character’s house.
Now revisit that meal scene and add tension. (After all, tension makes fiction go ’round.) Perhaps the school principal called Mom that afternoon and therefore Mom has some serious lecturing to do (or some serious disappointment to relate). Or maybe Dad lost his job that day and — over meatloaf and green beans — tells the family that they’ll have to be uprooted (again). Perhaps the teen daughter brings home a dinner date who only Mom (an undercover detective) recognizes as a convicted felon.
The point is: think of an emotionally-charged piece of information that will make this meal very different from the one above. Write this scene, paying attention to specifics.
WHAT WOULD S/HE DO? Imagine an ethical dilemma that your character finds himself/herself in. Maybe your character was offered a job promotion or a large bonus based on a task s/he didn’t carry out alone. Does s/he tell the truth and share the credit with the colleague or keep quiet about it and bask in the glory solo? Choose a moral quandary, plunk your character it in, and write a short, thorough, descriptive scene. Be sure to tap into your character’s thoughts, fears, conflicts, and ultimately how s/he arrived at the final decision.
DEAR DIARY: Write three diary/journal entries from your main character’s point of view, fully in his/her voice and in his/her head. Make the entries occur on different days and have them deal with different events and emotions. Try to include a whole range of feelings — joy, sorrow, rage, uncertainty, anxiety, to name a few.
DOCTOR, DOCTOR: Write up your character’s last physical exam report, as it would be written by the family physician. Include all relevant details, along with any physical complaints the character might mention.
Then write up some clinical notes from a psychologist who has been seeing your character in therapy. Perhaps your character has discussed his/her worst fear with the doctor. Reveal as much background to that fear as you can: when and why it began, how it’s manifested, how your character struggles to cope with it.
DEAR AUTHOR: Your character writes you (the author) a letter, instructing you quite specifically in how s/he wants to be portrayed in the book. Make your character’s personality come through loud and clear in this letter. Try to set yourself aside as you write it.
JOB APPLICATION: Get your hands on a job application (or create one of your own), and fill it out from your character’s point of view. Include work history, schooling, references, as well as the character’s statement explaining why s/he would be perfect for the job.
Always remember to have fun with these. The minute you’re not having fun, stop. The looser and more relaxed you are when you try these exercises, the more you’ll get from them. You’ll discover things about your character you never thought you knew, which translates to a more fully realized, believable person alive in your story.
To discover additional ways to make your writing habit more enjoyable, satisfying and productive, visit http://ManuscriptRx.com and sign up for “Write Through It,” the FREE monthly e-newsletter that offers practical writing advice and anecdotal wisdom.
Lucia Zimmitti, a writing coach and independent editor, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Her fiction and poetry have been published in various national literary journals, and she has taught writing at the high school and college levels.
When writing fiction, it is important to be able to have an interesting plot and several well developed characters that your readers (should you get published) will begin to care about. Characters after all, can make or break a story or novel because if you do not manage to make them become believable entities, why should anyone wish to continue to read? Writing fiction is about providing pure escapism and helping the reader to be able to submerge themselves into your story so that they can forget the trials and tribulations of their own existence. If you are a new writer and are considering writing fiction, you need to really think about where your story is going and how you yourself can start to believe in your characters as this is a required element.
When writing fiction and developing characters, you can make life easier for yourself by paying attention to the following steps:
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Know what type of story you are going to write. Make sure that you know exactly what is going to happen from start to finish. Â Â You may find that this changes the general direction you have originally envisaged, however as your characters grow within the story, when it happens, it means that the characters are starting to come to life.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Think about the type of characters who would be required to support the plot. Your characters also need to be multi-faceted. Let them have some faults or annoying habits, but also give them some positive traits-even the villain of the piece is unlikely to be all bad. Writing fiction is a little like playing god, you will know when you have really started to connect with them because you will have reservations about endangering them or writing them out of your story.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Provide a detailed history of their lives before you start writing your story. You do not need to list every aspect of this list to your readers but it does help you as the author to know your character inside out. This way, you can have some element within their past which affects how they react to specific situations. This makes them humanâ?¦.and believable.
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Throw some conflicting situations at your characters. How they cope with these difficult situations will help them to develop and it will also help your readers to connect with them. When writing fiction, you will find new and improved ideas which will keep both your interest and those of your reader becoming stronger and more influential.
Whether writing a short story or novel, some basic planning is essential as this not only helps the writer to continue the plot through to the end sentence but helps the writer to create believable characters that are alive and kicking and this is an important part when writing fiction.
Annette Young Editor of http://www.creative-competitor.co.uk specialising in providing opportunities for those with creative aspirations to earn recognition and money for their endeavours. Annette teaches Meditation,Creative Writing and Journalism and offers courses, one to one coaching and a critique service