Writing from an opposite POV

“Write what you know” is one of the foremost writing tips you find out there. Naturally, its easier to write from your own point of view (POV), creating a character that shares your religion, political beliefs, and even the attitude. However, this can lead to redundancies to your characters. Every story ends up mirroring your personality rather than offering readers a fresh character with fresh stories.

Are you writing the same main character over and over? To shake things up, consider giving your character the opposite set of beliefs. This offers exploration to ‘the other side’, and perhaps even better understand issues. It leads to questioning our own biases, on how we perceive those who do not agree with our view.

A good example is the main character in The Vampire Diaries. I read that as a teen, and couldn’t stand the main character. She reminded me too much of the girls who picked on me in school. Now, as an adult, I find it interesting as to what leads a person to behave in such a way?

What weakness do they work from, to bully others, or feel an inflated ego? Exploring the psychology of school bullies, or nerds, or whatever type character you do not relate to, opens up a world of potential character depth.

Consider the qualities you posses, and pass on to the characters of your stories. Are you able to provide unique personality to him/her? Do side characters become 3-dimensional or do they fall into a stereotype to fill in the blanks, or offset the main character?

I’ve found my own characters that unnerved me, or took a life of their own and took the story in different directions. I played with one story where the main protagonist ended up switching personalities with his nemesis, thereby becoming an ‘a-hole’ as one reviewer put it. It left me exploring more of the antagonist and how he struggles with a new found conscience.

It was tremendously fun to write the changes in characters.

What do you think; do you ‘head-hop’ and shift personalities, or do you find characters end up being shades of your self? Post in comments.

Technorati Tags: novel,character,character development,fiction,fanfiction,psychology,writing

Write like the wind RR Martin

This song, Write Like the Wind, really hit home for me as so many writers simply don’t write fast enough to put fresh novels into my greedy hands.

I remember with fanfiction, often seeing my readers pleading (or gently prodding) for me to add another chapter. Its nice to feel needed, but sometimes I felt it was better to wait for the muse to spark something than write crap.  Now I see the merit of writing anyway, or at last working on the story in some capacity.

- I will rework scenes, paragraphs, and sentences.

- I use grammar and spellcheckers to find weak verbs, dialog tags, and other elements of the story, and work on that through an editing process.

- I write a scene I will add later.

What are your thoughts on this topic-  Do you feel pressure from readers to write faster, or do you, as a reader, wish for authors to write more of their novel series? Post in comments.

Technorati Tags: writer,author,RR martin,game of thrones,fanfiction,frootbat31

Stuck in a Skyrim Beam

I got the video game, Skyrim, for my birthday, and it didn’t come out until November 11th. I’ve been caught in its captivating allure ever since.

I’ve played the other games in the series, Morrowind and Oblivion, which both offer compelling storytelling and gameplay. That’s where I started writing in fanfiction, through those games, and which prompted me to put myself out there.

I was surprised with the amount of feedback, where readers loved the stories, the characters, and even voiced how it changed their gameplay. One review said “Though I haven’t nearly finished this story, I have to comment- wow. This is awesome. This is the way Morrowind should be written, as an epic adventure with a bunch of intricate plot twists, two fascinating characters, and a little romance.” And its those type of reviews that prompted me to continue the story to 150,000 words.

I didn’t know it was that long, or even planned the story to go for so long, but the responses from readers certainly prodded me to write more, and often.

Now that I’m playing Skyrim, I feel as though I’m back in this beautiful world with compelling stories and interesting plot. You can actually read books in the game. You can talk to NPC (non-player-character) and learn about the lore and history of this imaginary world. You can tell the game developers put so much effort into the game.

As I remind myself today, however, I need to put myself on a timer when I play, so it doesn’t take me away from ‘real life’. My son likes to say ‘real life- worst game ever!’. I think its because of all the limitations…and inability to respawn or take chances where if you screw up you can simply reload.

So back to reality…

Technorati Tags: skyrim,video games,fanfiction,fun,writing,authors,blogging,elderscrolls,morrowind,oblivion

Writers Wednesday: George R.R. Martin

 I first read George R.R. Martin in a short story called Sand Kings , published August 1979 issue of Hugo. They made an episode of The Outer Limits based on that story. You may know his writing better by A Game of Thrones, a series on HBO, based on the book series A Game of Thrones

I love Sci-fi and Fantasy, and Martin doesn’t disappoint in his style and delightful fresh ideas in storytelling. Although complex, with many characters, the writing is clear and the characters are defined.

He is opposed to any fan fiction to his work, which is unfortunate. I agree with other authors who believe its an exercise for young writers to spark an interest in storytelling. As complex as his stories are, they are a wellspring of possible fanfics for would-be writers.

Leave comments below on your own authors that inspire you.

Technorati Tags: george rr martin,author,writing,game of thrones,fanfiction,sand kings,writer

Fanfiction Writing Tip # 1- Using the senses

As many times as I get inquiries about fanfiction writing, I decided I’d start adding tips about this genre.  Although most of the writing tips for fanfiction can work for all, there are a few that are specific to this type of writing.

One review I received with my Elderscrolls fanfiction included a comment on how I expanded on the world with taste, smell, and touch. With video games, movies, and similiar media, you lose that aspect of the world. An example is that in the game of Morrowind, you can buy food that you have no idea as to how it compares to the food you really eat. I took liberties and included my version.

Being the story takes place in a place called the Ashlands, I added description of how the place smelled of poison and brimstone. (It was caused by a volcano of Red Mountain). The smell of rot tended to permeate through the story whenever the heroes entered that area. I imagined it being a very hot place, like a desert, with this fine silt encrusting everything you own.

You also encountered undead creatures in the game, so that added a whole new slew of gross description. That was fun.

Don’t let your readers just live vicariously through your story; yank them into your imagination and share the worlds and characters you create. You don’t just see the world, you feel it, taste it, touch it, and hear it. This is how you live it.

Getting fanfics published

Recently I’ve found a number of writers on the web asking how they can publish a story they finished in the fanfiction genre. Fanfiction includes stories based on already established characters, places, and plots from movies, books, comics, and video games. The problem with trying to publish in fanfiction boils down to copyright. In an already established world, elements of the genre are copyrighted by the original creator. This means Star Wars is owned by George Lucus, and Harry Potter belongs to J. K. Rowling.

I myself faced plagerism of a story a few years back. Oddly enough, it was “Challenges”, one of my Morrowind Fanfics. Someone simply cut and paste in a message thread and claimed he wrote the 150,000 word piece, and wanted to submit the story to the creators of Morrowind (Bethesda) to publish. Bethesda already announced some time before they will not publish fanfiction. A moderator on the message board contacted me and asked me if I had give this guy permission to keep the story as his own.

I was, at first, flattered that someone thought the story good enough to steal, but then it settled in my brain that ‘Hey, someone stole my story!”. Reading the threads he posted on, trying to spin off my writing as his, proved infuriating. People were complimenting him, telling him what a great writer he was. All the accolade were meant for my skill, my effort, and even what I created. He was banned from the message boards, and the story pulled from the thread.

From this experience, I gained more regard for those who originally create a world and characters. I gained gratitude to those willing to allow for fanfiction because not all mediums do, and respect for those who ask writers to stick to their own work. J.K. Rowling allows and even encourages fanfiction, while Anne Rice of the Vampire novels will threaten litigation against you if you try.

“But I’ve seen books on Star Wars, Star Trek, and even Dungeon and Dragons! Aren’t they fanfiction?” Yes they are, but the difference being the publisher asked already established writers to write in the medium for them. This means you, as a writer, will need to build your name first before writing in this genre professionally. Also bear in mind that fanfiction is copyrighted already by someone else.

Some might argue that its cheating to write in another creator’s realm. I’ve found a number of authors who actually write better than the original. I also find its a fun genre to write in and can offer a number of challenges to either enhance or otherwise improve the selected fandom. In fact, the very reason why J.K. Rowling supports fanfiction of her work is because it ‘gets kids to write’. I agree. For practice and honing writing skills, why not pick something you can enjoy?

Overall, however, you will need to write something original to publish as your own.

For fanfiction, see:

Fanfiction.net one of the largest fanfiction sites that categorizes by title and fandom.

Fanfiction Directory – somewhat limited in choices, but carries a number of fanfiction you may not find elsewhere.

Dragon Library – Includes a number of Forgotten Realm fanfiction. I highly recommend Spider Bite and Initiation. The author truly captured the world of the Drow and developed a wonderful story based on R.A. Salvatore’s world.

Forgotten Realm Fanfiction includes stories based on the games and RPG game sources.

Harry Potter Fanfiction has thousands of fanfics of the Harry Potter world.

Lord of the Rings Fanfiction delves into the realm of Lord of the Rings.

Star Wars Fanfiction at The Force

Star Trek Fanfiction includes stories broken down by Star Trek TV series

 Short story in the paranormal genre. Only $.99 for Kindle.