To me, my characters are very real. They become real after I pen them down into words, although they will never truly breathe and walk, they are a very concrete part of my life. Sometimes I'll talk to them just to work things through (usually in private though =_= even I stay away from people who mutter to themselves, just in case). I cringe whenever someone calls them my "imaginary friends". They obviously have no real level of creativity whatsoever :O I think I've listened to Distant Worlds' To Zanarkand about 50 times already. Continuously (considering that I only got the CD yesterday). All is well until I go to sleep, because then that darn song is stuck in my head.
I tend to do the same thing as well. Everytime i eat, sleep or whatever it is i hear voices of my character or see them reply to what's happening.
I can write only when my brain thinks that its nighttime. Sometimes I can trick it. I must have music fit for the scene playing in the background. I generally cant write while sitting in a chair. I don't think those are weird habits, but they are essential for me to be productive.
peculiar traits you've noticed as a writer This thread is just out of plain curiosity and for fun. Have anyone of you noticed any specific traits of yourself as writers? I'll explain; I am not very much for giving detailed descriptions of places, weather, surrounding and in particular I'm quite scarse in my descriptions. Only the absolute necessary. But then I catch myself letting a hug between two characters go on for two entire pages! It's like I focus a lot on things that another writer wouldn't concede much space, simply because I like it, and it's one thing that spark the lust to zoom in, to catch the moment, like a photographer. is this weird? or do others do funny (but different) things like this too?
So, basically, you're a pornographer and you want to know if the rest of us are dirty-minded perverts too? Outrageous, Tesoro.
I don't really know. It's strange though. I can very easily recognize my own writing (not just because I remember writing it), but I can't really put my finger on what it is that makes it mine. As for writing traits, I like lots of dialog. I wrote a short story of (almost) only dialog once, and I firmly believe that's one of my best pieces of writing. It was about a man talking about his past to a psychologist.
a story with entirely dialogue sounds pretty interesting, normally the dialogue to me is the most interesting part But for a novel I guess it would be more difficult. still interesting but difficult.
Unfortunately I know exactly what you mean and I'm too embarassed to post some of 'em here. xD :redface: I'm trying to break the habit, and I've semi-made some progress over time. But yeah, my writing does seem to have a lot of recurring traits.
Apparently I have a rather distinctive way of forming sentences... I like describing pretty much anything, though. When I read through things I wrote I will often put in a few more words here and there just to make sure... Aside from that I think I write a lot always looking for punchlines, and lines that lead well into something else later on. I don't like a paragraph that isn't somehow more important than what it's pretending to just be about. Sadly, I think sometimes that it may be a lot of that is stuff only I would recognise and everyone else will think I'm just being weird. Maybe writing like your reader will make eight passes through is a bad idea....
I know a weakness in my writing is I don't talk about the character's feelings or thoughts much. Friends, particularly female friends, always want to know more about what my MCs are thinking and feeling.
I'm the complete opposite; I write even too much of my characters thoughts and feelings, that is something I describe VERY thouroughly.
Hey, I never said it was PERVERTED, in the strictest sense. (Quite the contrary, I try to have my characters promote chastity a lot. ) But I guess some might consider it that way, or...IDK They're weird traits, and I'm trying to break 'em. lol
I know, I'm not saying you are either, it was Art saying it (about me) in the previous page sorry for the misunderstanding.
This is one of the reasons I write longhand first: because when I go to type what I've written it does come out differently. I'm a perfectionist, so when I'm typing, I'm editing all the while: tweeking, adding things, chopping and revising. It's a very different activity to writing longhand, what I call my "scribbling", which allows me freedom from the perfectionism that often stops a project from progressing. Scribbling gives me permission to write, in Ann Lammot's words, "shitty first drafts." Not everyone needs to do this, but perfectionism has crippled me in the past. Hurray for shitty first drafts! My method is a back and forth one. Start with scribbling. After writing a scene or some chunk of story, I transcribe it into type, all the while editing, rethinking, etc. Then I print and read (usually aloud) and edit some more on the printout. Then back to the computer to make these changes. After all of this, I go back to scribbling. Long walks, more scribbling. And repeat. And repeat. Admittedly it's not a terribly tree-friendly method. But I find that writing and reading something on screen is a completely different experience to reading it on paper. I need to do both.
When I'm typing, I have to do it with Times New Roman font. I don't know how but it makes me write better.
I cannot write a story by hand, unless my laptop is MIA and I need to crank out a scene right away. In the rare event that I do write something by hand, I rip up the pages and throw them away as soon as I've typed them up. I don't know why I'm so paranoid, because no one in my house is nosy enough to read my stuff, but I'm absolutely mortified of the thought of somebody reading something I've written by hand. It might have something to do with the fact that I have the handwriting of a 3-fingered 6-year-old. All my planning is done in notebooks, though. It's just faster to get the all ideas out. But they have to be little notebooks, so that people can't read them over my shoulder.
it's like my brain only works in cooler temperatures, it's mostly why i end up writing at night when the heat of the day has cooled off and my house doesnt feel so stuffy also my words and thoughts flow better when written on paper before typing it up, it's safe to say everything ive ever published online, save for a few rpg posts, have a physical copy somewhere in my stack of used notebooks and if im writing, i absolutely detest being disturbed... it throws me off so bad, i cant pick up where i left off
