-
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
Oh yeah, and...
Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
fine. would you not like my help? I'm probably a better speller than most of you, regardless, lol.
I'll post part three, tomorrow, if you all still want it to be there.
What does one tiny spelling error that wasn't even part of the guide have to do with anything, really?Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
Don't forget about bacon and maple syrup, eh?
Actually I like your Prime Minister better than my President. Can we trade?
Anyway, good thinking Shinder. I think this is the beginninng of a solid, helpful thread.Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
First off, I'd love to hear what you have to say. If I recall correctly, I was the one that helped encourage you to do it(I may not have been the only one, though).
I just have noticed you use bare in multiple threads and thought I should finally enlighten you for your personal profit.
Lastly, don't say that you're a better speller/have more proper grammar than me. I'm a grammar whore, and any of my friends can attest to the fact that I always use incredibly complex sentences while conversing(while unnecessary, I find it rather amusing, and it helps me distinguish myself from everyone else).
But please, continue. I want more actual advice, not stuff about bears.Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
Nywriter, thanks for pointing out one of my more consistent flaws.
Also, you may THINK you know grammar at your age, but just wait until you take the SAT's. Get a private tutor to teach you grammar, and you'll soon be in for an excruciating world of hurt.
There's so much pointless crap that you've got to know for grammar...things that most people don't know of, ever (take no note, please, that that previous sentence was constructed horribly
)
Anyways, part 3 will be up today.Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
Alright, so, now that I've gotten a few basic principles out of the way, I'm going to delve into some magical stuff, folks. Beware: this shouldn't be attempted at lightly. Just kidding, of course. If it was dangerous, I wouldn't be doing it, because frankly, I'm probably the biggest “wussy” on these forums. No, really.
Anyways, we're about to partake in a journey. A journey that can take us to as many places we want to. Want to take yourself to your dreams, without the illegal substances? Try:
STORYTELLING!!!
Storytelling, at least in my opinion, consists of two major parts:
The creation (cue crowd “Oohs” and “Aahs”)
and...
The Delivery
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “This guy's completely nuts, and I should put him out of his misery before he embarasses himself any further with his shameful approach at storytelling.”
Not so fast, big shot. I may be crazy, but now you can see my nuts.
Wait a second.....Uh, can we cut that?
Um, regardless, let's start up with the first part:Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
THE CREATION:
“And so it was that the snake said to Eve, if you don't bite into this delicious, juicy apple, I'll bite your freaking head off, you got that?”
“And Moses peered unto the land, and he saw that all was good, and he looked up, and said unto the Lord, “**** YEAH!” And the Lord replieth “**** YEAH!” And so on and so forth until the burning bush they shared together became devoid of it's flame, and Moses said, “Why am I naked in a chicken's coop?”
Oh, what?? Not that creation?!?! Sorry!
But, as you can see, I got pretty creative with it, didn't I?
That's exactly what creativity is: CREATIONISM!!!
Regardless of your religion, or your beliefs, the fact is that when you think of a character, a place, an animal...ANYTHING that pertains to your story, and I mean ANYTHING, you are CREATING it, using your own POWER. Therefore, when you write an entirely new story, YOU ARE THE GOD OF THE STORY.
See the advantages, now?
If I wanted to, I could write about lying wives, who leave me with three kids and no job, to run off to Hawaii with some ****er named Bob, and use CREATIONISM, or CREATIVITY, to CREATE (I know, it's getting old. I promise, I'll stop.) a story where cheating wives and their CREATED partners (Sorry!) get boiled and skinned alive...especially that ******* Bob. Ahh, love stings.
The point is that, you have to be careful when writing a story. Just remember that ultimately, you are God in your story. You can pull the curtain any time. If you want to give your main character an incredibly bad case of hemorrhages, go right ahead!!
It's your story, and you can cry if you want to.
With this newfound power comes great responsibility. One of the most important aspects of THE CREATION is creating characters. They will be the peanut butter and jelly of your sandwich-of-a-story, while their world that you've created around them will be the bread.
Looking for inspiration for a new character, whether he/she be your main character, or simply a character for a few short updates, can be very difficult. Trust me, I know from experience.
The first thing I do is examine my own interest. For instance, I have quite a passion for Finnish Melodic Death Metal. However, I am in no way a “dark” or “mentally upset” person. Therefore, I attempted to recreate both my passion for bands like Kalmah, Ensiferum, Wintersun, and Eternal Tears of Sorrow, as well as my passion for ice hockey, and even a hint of comedy, into my first “real” character on OS: Mikko Lehtinen.
Mikko, as all of my readers know, was Finnish. Thus both his and my lust for some of that good ol' fashioned Melodeath. And although the story became darker and darker over time, the best part of the story, at least for me, was towards the beginning, when he was bright, cheerful, and blissfully ignorant to the corporate, terrible world that is fame in America. Alright, who says I can't be dark and liberal once in a while???
But maybe you don't want the main character to be part of you. For me, the more and more I got into Mikko, the harder it was to write with him. It was very difficult for me to say “would I do that in such a scenario?” every time I wrote something important. I often found myself deleting entire pages of very good work because I did not feel it was something that reflected myself.
If that be your case, I highly suggest watching some TV, or reading some simple books. Don't be alarmed if your main character is eerily similar to Jerry Seinfeld or Oprah Winfrey. The truth is that NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, is “original” these days, at least not in the world of literature and other forms of creative writing.
So, don't be afraid to base your character's personality off of a TV or book character. However, I highly suggest you choose somebody versatile, or a character that you feel you know well enough to understand what he/she would do in certain scenarios, because if you choose a character personality from a show you hardly watch anymore, it would be much harder for you to write realistically.
I'm assuming most of you who are reading this guide are interested in writing Sports stories on the OS boards, which is why this will mainly be dedicated to sports writing. Science Fiction nerds, please meet me behind the Great Church of Julianos in Skingrad at midnight.
SO, with that obvious statement out of the way, I'd recommend reading Matt Christopher books, especially if you're looking for the “Golden Boy” archetype.
Not worried about a golden boy, but looking for a deviant man?
Try reading something a little more advanced, a la Anne Rice. Her Vampire series is phenomenal, and Lestat may just be the most badass good-guy I've ever imagined.
Didn't think you'd want to read through a tiny paperback novel over 450 pages long filled to the brim about vampires, rock stars, magic, and the occasional sexual endeavor. Or maybe you do.....
Did I mention there are four to the series??
Either way, creating a darker main character, at least in my opinion, can be very, very difficult, unless you're “dark” yourself. I, personally, had a very hard time writing my short-lived Alexei Madden BAP, the story of a psychologically deranged and disturbed Hockey Goalie. Don't ask. I was desperate for attention, I'm guessing. Or incredibly stupid. Or both.
Well, I think I've spoken enough on Main Characters.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:
Wait, that quickly? I didn't even have time to introduce the next to—oh we're rolling? Right...
Supporting characters can either make your story, or break it. They can also add a huge boost to your story if they're done right.
Take, for example, my aforementioned NHL 09 BAP, Mikko Lehtinen. His girlfriend, and eventual wife, Aina Kokko, was also Finnish. And she was downright lovable. She had, at least in my opinion, this tiny wit about her, and it made her seem more alive to me than Mikko ever was. She had a kind heart, was cool, funny, and was portrayed by me, the desperate nerd, as incredibly beautiful.
When she died, however, in childbirth, I knew right then and there that my BAP would never be the same again.
I still say that killing Aina off was the biggest mistake I ever did with that thing. And now I've got nothing to live for :sobs angrily and retreats to the corner with a pack of tissues:.
But enough about my past mistakes. Let's talk about you, eh? Please, take your shoes off before stepping off the mat, I just cleaned this CREATED (please stop me, before I hurt someone) house of learning.
Supporting Characters that are friendly to your main character, at least in my opinion, ought to balance your character.
At least one must have a good sense of humor. A man/woman who always sees the brightest part of things, no matter how black and awful they get.
“Oh, your grandmother died? I'm so sorry to hear that. Did she leave around any of her famous home-baked apple pie?”
OK, maybe not that bright and cheery.
In Mikko, I had two supporting characters to keep his spirits up, each one depending on the location of his job.
When he was with the Chicago Wolves, Brent Sterling was this “pick-me-up” man. I don't know what it was about him, but I immediately decided that he of all other people on the Chicago Wolves had to be Mikko's crutch of laughter.
You can choose anyone you'd like to be your crutch of laughter. It doesn't matter. Pick at random, pick based on the in-game facial portrait (tis what I did with Brett) or pick based on reports you have heard of real life players.
The latter is what I did for Mikko when he spent his time playing for the Chicago Blackhawks.
I had always heard that Patrick Kane had been a jokester (although do NOT tell him that one about the taxi cab driver!!!), and I ultimately decided that I simply could not imagine Patrick Kane being serious in the least bit.
If you've got trouble thinking of funny things for your crutch of laughter to say, think, or do, it's not a biggy. Trust me, I was there. We all were at one point.
Watch South Park (I would say Family Guy, but most of the jokes are centered around the randomness of the show's famous cutscenes, which aren't really one-lined jokes you can use for your story), the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, MADtv, SNL, anything very funny that is sure to have lots of puns, jokes, or one-liners that you can hear and say, “hmm...I can work with that.”
Jon Stewart may have a joke that cracks you up, and chances are, if you like it enough, you can change the joke up a bit to relate more to your story, and voila! U R FUNNIEZ ME FREEND.
SUPPORTING CHARACTER #2: The Affectionate One AKA I LOVE YOU, BUT DON'T YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO FAR?
You see those precious love stories on TV, in movies, and in books, and it makes your heart sing a soft, beautiful melody complete with elegant violins, an angel with a golden harp, and bluebirds chirping merrily from their perches and nests.
And then, the most beautiful women walks across your view, with eyes but nothing for you.
Of course, since it's your story, it could be Christina Aguilera dressed up in the clothes (or lack thereof) she wore in her music video of “Dirrty”.
But hopefully we won't have to go there.
The woman (or women, hehehhe) of your character's dreams.
There are many tactics to applying this:
Well, actually, there's only two I could think of....I just started out with that to look more impressive than I really am.
The first option could be for your character to fall in love with the first supporting female (or male, depending on your character's choice!!!) introduced into the story, giving them a “true love at first sight” kind of thing. They can practically finish each other's sentences, they were made so well for each other.
I employed that with Mikko, and I wish I hadn't. Kzoz21 helped give me the idea that it may be best to have your character divulge in a multitude of relationships, sometimes maybe even swinging back to some ex-companions. After all, isn't that more like real life?
The choice ultimately depends on a few things: One, your dedication as a writer. Are you going to include 3 written updates per in-game week? Or once a month or two? You'll hardly have time to write about what happened to your character in an entire month than to squeeze in “Oh yeah, and I broke up with that girl, Shelley, and started dating Wanda.”
Two, how long are you expecting to stick with this story? It happens all the time, but people get sick of their own stories. I've done it myself. It's harder than most people realize to stick with one story, even more so as is the case with a BAP or an RTTS than compared to a dynasty. I mean, a dynasty doesn't involve creating a character to your liking, and so on and so forth.
If you've got a track record of having difficulty sticking with stories of any kind, you're probably best introducing the bright shining star of your life immediately.
If you're only going to be doing a few written updates at best per month or so, you're probably best doing the same as the other dude.
If you've got the time, patience, and dedication to finish a full-length BAP or RTTS or whatever story you're working on, and know that you can churn out a good and healthy amount of written updates, then yes, by all means, go ahead and make your dude a lover of the lower body. We all want to feed our inner tiger. Rawr.Last edited by shinderhizzle84; 08-11-2009, 02:59 PM.Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
hey Shinder, do you think I need Story-writing-help on my BAP (in my signature).?Meet Billy Joe Killer - The drama and the dream.Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
no, i'm liking it so far. only thing I'd suggest is to listen to your friend gibbey, and give the characters their real names. It's ten times more fun when you give a real life player a personality that you think they might have in real life, or the complete opposite. It brings your characters to life, and it helps the reader relate to your story more, when you use real life characters, and not phony made up ones.
But other than that it's very, very good.Comment
-
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
Shinderhizzle???
Thats an unusual name...
you're not from here are you???
Good English, though...considering.
Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
thanks for the props dude. i actually hadn't thought about bringing back ex's. i might do that now. i'd also like to thank you for the best line ever, which will probably come in year 3 or his second full season in nyc. (that's when the freak is coming).
now IMPO i believe in many different background character's especially gf's/bf's. its way more fun to delve into lots of different characters , including one's that are or aren't compatible with your hero. shinder's method of OMG, LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT YAY is fine too. i may or may not have done that in my own. i'll let you all reread and get my views up to try and find it. mwahaha.Comment
-
Re: Writing and You: The Beginninngs of a Healthy Relationship
yeah. Looking back on Mikko, I like your method a lot more, which is why I figured it was worth mentioning your name in this guide, because it really is a very good idea. It's probably not completely original, no offense, as I'm sure there have been other sports video game stories where that has happened, but at least on the hockey dynasty hq, it was a first....for as long that i've been around.
Comment
Comment