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General Art The ZD Writing Discussion Thread

One of the things I find the most difficult and what I spend a lot of time on are my characters' names and I was wondering what your process is for naming characters (both first and last names)? Do you have a small pool of names you recycle or do you try to use different names with everything you write?

Basically, how do your characters end up with the names you give them?

Depends, what Selenus said is good advice. However if you are writing a fantasy in a fiction world I say create a constructed language, or at least enough of one to make a naming convention for the places and characters. There are lots of guides, and you can PM Batman he loves that stuff and has a ton of resources.
 

Luke's Wife

peaked in 2015
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wouldn't you like to know, weather boy
One of the things I find the most difficult and what I spend a lot of time on are my characters' names and I was wondering what your process is for naming characters (both first and last names)? Do you have a small pool of names you recycle or do you try to use different names with everything you write?

Basically, how do your characters end up with the names you give them?

I try to keep a really diverse cast of characters in my work, so I often start with where my characters are from and browse names that are common to their countries/cultures. I don't always do this, because of course not everyone has culturally traditional names, but it does help in getting ideas if you're really stuck. Sometimes even random name generators help. Other times, the names just come to me, or I borrow names from other stories that I really enjoy. For example, I have a character who is partially named after my favorite character from Inglorious Basterds. He's nothing like the character from Basterds (ironically the lead Nazi of the film, nicknamed "the Jew Hunter") but the name just suits him well for some reason. I pull a lot of ideas from a lot of areas, basically.
 
Joined
Jun 3, 2011
So, out of curiosity, what is everyone working on right now?

After many months of drowning in college coursework, I finally found the time to work on a new story. It was an interesting process for me, too, as the very first few paragraphs were hard to write at first. Have any of you ever had that experience with a story or poem?
 

The Joker

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I find fleshing out my stories to be more difficult than anything else. Creating characters, writing dialogue, and story building seem to be second nature to me
 

TatlTails

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Throwing out an idea that may never come to fruitition, but if anyone remembers that Press Start roleplay I started once, I was thinking about bringing it back as a fanfic that takes user submissions.

Should I or should I not? Because I'm still wavery on plot, but I think I could do much better characterization than before.
 
Joined
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Throwing out an idea that may never come to fruitition, but if anyone remembers that Press Start roleplay I started once, I was thinking about bringing it back as a fanfic that takes user submissions.

Should I or should I not? Because I'm still wavery on plot, but I think I could do much better characterization than before.

I think you should bring it back as a fanfic, but not anything that takes "user submissions".

Now, I apologize if you like doing sign-up stories, but on a personal note, I find doing stuff like that to be, in a sense, lazy. Instead of taking the time to flesh out your own characters, you are basically asking others to do the work for you. I won't stop you if you go that route, as it's your story and you can do what you want in it. This is not to say that I think you uncreative, as I have never read any of your works and I won't judge someone's works I have never read. I simply find no joy in using non-canon characters that were not created by me, as you also have no control over that character, as that character belongs to someone else.

I realize such stories have been a popular pastime around here, but this is merely my two cents on the practice. This was not meant to offend anybody, just sayin'. :)
 

Luke's Wife

peaked in 2015
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wouldn't you like to know, weather boy
I'm still working away on my novel, I've finally got the different sections of my story in the order I think I want to stick with (really, the way it was structured had a massive impact on the theme) but I'm still not 100% sure on my ending. What do you guys do to figure out weird plot things when you aren't really sure how you want to conclude things in a good way?

Also, because I'm curious, does anyone use lots of heavy themes or motifs in their writing? Personally, I cover a lot of broad topics in my novel, like love, death, and the concept of fate. I guess the over-arching theme of the story is that we are all in charge of our own destinies and we're all capable of doing great things regardless of what anyone (or any deity) says. A huge motif within my novel is space & stars, which really tie my different sections together and symbolize the theme. I think English teachers would appreciate it.
 
Joined
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I'm still working away on my novel, I've finally got the different sections of my story in the order I think I want to stick with (really, the way it was structured had a massive impact on the theme) but I'm still not 100% sure on my ending. What do you guys do to figure out weird plot things when you aren't really sure how you want to conclude things in a good way?

Also, because I'm curious, does anyone use lots of heavy themes or motifs in their writing? Personally, I cover a lot of broad topics in my novel, like love, death, and the concept of fate. I guess the over-arching theme of the story is that we are all in charge of our own destinies and we're all capable of doing great things regardless of what anyone (or any deity) says. A huge motif within my novel is space & stars, which really tie my different sections together and symbolize the theme. I think English teachers would appreciate it.

When it comes to something like endings, here's the thing you want to have to think out- you have to tie up most, if not all, of your loose ends by the end of the story. Now, if you plan on writing a sequel, you can leave a little wiggle room for one, but the main overarching issues of the story need to be resolved. Have you tried doing an outline? Sometimes, I find that process can be really helpful to think things out, especially when I'm hitting a moment of writer's block.

As for themes used, it depends on the story. For something like the The Hero's Essence, I tend to get a bit more symbolic, due to the abstract nature of the story. The cover I created for the story does use the image of a lotus flower, which symbolizes rebirth/reincarnation, rising up from the depths of adversity, purity, and enlightenment. As I have only just started the story (it's posted here in the writing section for anyone interested), I haven't quite gotten far enough to include such symbolism. Themes can be interesting, but overall, I try to be more about narrative and character development than I do themes. If I do explore themes, it's typically on a chapter by chapter basis- one theme I recently explored was memory and distinguishing the self.
 
Joined
Jun 3, 2011
Sometimes I like it when a story doesn't tie up super neatly, because just like real life a story never really ends and nothing is ever 100% resolved in life.
Think of it less as "ending" a story and more like "fulfilling" a story. Things don't always end nicely for everyone involved, and sometimes, endings are messy, and that's okay. As long as the important issues of the story are addressed in some fashion, that's all that matters.
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2015
Well this thread has been dead for more than a year. Oh well. I wanted to see if doing a fanfiction of Breath of the Wild would be cool. I was inspired by the writing competition and I wanted to give a shot. I've never written fanfiction before and I wanted to try Breath of the Wild because the story seems pretty mysterious. Could end up being garbage, but I'm gonna try anyway.
 

Doc

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Well this thread has been dead for more than a year. Oh well. I wanted to see if doing a fanfiction of Breath of the Wild would be cool. I was inspired by the writing competition and I wanted to give a shot. I've never written fanfiction before and I wanted to try Breath of the Wild because the story seems pretty mysterious. Could end up being garbage, but I'm gonna try anyway.

Go for it. Since there is not much information known about this game, I think there is a lot of room for creative freedom.
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2015
I'm almost done writing the first chapter of my Breath of the Wild fanfic. I plan on writing more, but it depends on how happy I am with the first chapter.

When I post it, do I put in a new thread or is there a existing thread? Also, how do I go about posting it? Should I put it into a doc or as a long post?

Hopefully I'll be done within the week. I'd love to hear advise and feedback. I'm not a writer, but this has been a fun little project.
 

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