#story creation

[enchantingepics]

Story Prompt 68

The room was plunged into darkness, interrupted only by the dim glow of the moon sneaking through the curtains. A sudden jolt shattered the silence as a piercing scream echoed, shattering the stillness of the night.

"What's happening?" a voice, filled with panic, sliced through the air.

A figure rushed to the source of the commotion, stumbling in the darkness. "Mom, what's wrong?" the figure's voice trembled, fear lacing every syllable.

A flicker of light revealed a scene that froze the blood in their veins. A hand, drenched in crimson, clutched desperately at the bedsheet, fingers curling and uncurling in agony. A woman knelt beside the figure, her eyes wide with terror, her hand clamped over a mouth to stifle the cries.

"It's going to be okay, just hold on!" she urged, her voice shaky, trying to comfort both herself and the figure writhing in pain.

"What happened? Why is there so much blood?" The figure's voice wavered, a mixture of confusion and terror.

"I don't know, but we need to stop the bleeding," the woman replied, her voice strained with urgency.

With trembling hands, they reached for anything within reach, makeshift bandages, towels, anything to staunch the flow of blood. Panic gripped them as they fumbled in the darkness, the fear of losing what they held most dear propelling them into action.

"It's not stopping," the figure whimpered, their voice barely above a whisper, their strength waning with every passing moment.

"We need to get help, now!" the woman exclaimed, her voice filled with desperation.

With a sense of urgency, they dialed for help, their trembling fingers struggling to input the numbers. Each passing second felt like an eternity as they waited for a response, praying for a miracle in the darkness.

[l0velycupid]

As an avid character & story creator I wanted to hop on and give some ideas for expanding upon your ocs! Really these are just fun little things to do to indulge in your characters a little farther.

- Create playlists!! Please, create playlists! They are so helpful to listen to while writing, to find ideas for their voice or something within their story, etc!

- Make Pinterest boards! I personally have an entire board dedicated to each story with sections for the habitat, general energy, clothing and hair, and things related to the world. Then I add the characters and what they look like to a section in my OC board. You can organize and sort these boards however you'd like, but it's always helpful to be able to visualize and pull new ideas from Pinterest!

- Make Google Slides for your stories and characters! A friend of mine told me they'd been doing this for forever and it's helped me store all of the information I need on my characters. I made a slideshow for each story and gave each character their own slide, sometimes two. I had a story with friends where I only had one character, so I made an entire slideshow about her. All of this has been super helpful for me!

- Tie your characters to existing characters in media! I personally make a sort of kin list (?) for my characters when I make a slide for my characters and place it in the corner. As an example, one of my ocs has Rarity (MLP), Rosetta (Tinker Bell), and Maria (The Books of Life) in her little list. If I can't think of a facial expression or different mannerisms for her, I look up these characters. If I need some dialogue I can look up some lines these characters have said for inspiration! You can pull so many ideas from external sources, it's always extremely helpful to have a list of similar characters to observe!

- Think of details about your character that don't always impact the plot! Things like middle and last names, completed family trees, timeline of appearance throughout the years, lasting scars, tattoos, or piercings, even things like birthdays, zodiac signs, 16personalities type, moral alignment type, or favorite colors. These things are not always mentioned directly, but getting to know your character like this lets you indulge in and understand your character a little bit more!

- Make a connections board! It's like a family tree, but instead with other characters in the plot at the forefront. You map out the characters and connect them with connections such as lovers, close friends, enemies, partners, etc. I personally make one for the beginning of the story and one for the end since a lot can change throughout a story's timeline.

Happy creating!

[louulouubugg]

Hey people, going to set you all a little challenge just for some fun and entertainment... 😜 I want you all to come up with a character each, just one character. Then by random selection I will pick 2 characters to write a story about.

You create everything from their personality to their job to their looks and so on...I put a story together to match...

Lets see what we can come up with together 😄

[filmcourage]

Immersive Storytelling For Real And Imagined Worlds - Margaret Kerrison [FULL INTERVIEW]

[danniswrites]

My writing turned totally around in Jan 2022. I was editing my latest NaNoWriMo project, and decided to check out a resource I found on nanowrimo.org to help me. Basically, I wanted help to write a dynamite blurb, or tagline. When I create a new story, I use a LibreOffice template I created to put my title page, copyright page with a sentence describing what the story's about, TOC, and a dummy first paragraph with my first dummy paragraph heading.

I wanted to know how to write better taglines.

So I read the article above and the light bulb went on! Simple. Elegant. Plotting.

I had always been a pantser. Never planned any part of my stories, and I have about 650 of 'em, half not even to the first draft. Dedicated pantser. In my teen years, I hated English literature in 8th grade even though I knew I needed to know how to plot, but all the analysis of the books we read [and I enjoyed reading them] just made me feel like, 'I'm too stupid to learn all this.'

Now, I'm reading these 10 steps and had an epiphany!

So, I broke down Step 1 and made it into my worksheet for coming up with taglines.

Here's how I think about those 15 max words to get it done:

One Sentence Summary: Adj.+Noun+Verb+Obj [Worker] [Action] [Effect] in 15 words or less Character With Most To Lose: What They Want:

So, for Adia, Scientist, here's what I came up with:

Discouraged scientist must discover a new fuel so her colony can escape from war.

I write science fiction and I loved chemistry in college, so, hey, I like formulas. I don't want my writing to sound like it came from a formula, but if you look at a lot of genres, there is one.

If you read enough romances, like my sister did, you figure out there's a pattern you can follow as a writer. I was there when she did. She went on to become famous and actually got an award presented to her in New York from her idol, Barbara Cartland at a writer's conference.

I--uh, I'm the non-famous sister who self-publishes on Amazon. But I enjoy my writing life, and though I do love to put romance in my books, romance writing is not my thing.

However, if you're like me and you want to improve your writing, Snowflake Method does work for a lot of us. And, if you buy one of Randy Ingermanson's very entertaining books, you get a free copy of his Snowflake Pro software, which walks you through each step and lets you see what you wrote in the previous step.

I don't do all 10 steps. Let's face it, I'm a plantser now. I'm not that meticuolous and organized. But, I do most of them, because Steps 1-5 give me a nice head start. And, Steps 3, 5 and 7 concentrate on your characters. Characters make your story. If you don't have a character that grabs your reader from the first chapter, why will they want to read your story? You have to have someone to care about and they have to have something happening that attracts the reader.

Now that I had a loose framework for my stories, I needed to [finally] learn something about plot structure more than the beginning, 3 disasters, and an ending. Randy does an excellent job of simplifying 3 act structure [though there are other methods such as PlotDot or Save The Cat that also work with Snowflake Method].

Another resource I found while exploring resources in the Now What? Revision pages on nanowrimo.org was K. M. Weiland's wonderful site:

This lady puts 3 act structure into terms that I can understand, and she has a vast database of books and movies that she's analyzed for us. If you think 3 act structure is complicated and boring, try reading a little of your favorite on this list:

I love the Marvel movies, so here's how she summarized The Avengers.

And she even mentions how what works in this movie would not, in a book. This is something I read time and time again about science fiction writing. Science fiction movies are not 'true' science fiction, for the most part. Star Wars is fantasy set on other planets. Star Trek has science in it, but again, is science fantasy.

In science fiction, science drives the story more than characters or plot. Though, to make my science fiction more accessible to a wider audience, I choose to concentrate on psychology, particularly interpersonal relationships. I do make sure that my science is feasible and believable, and explain it simply. And, I do my research.

So, when writing a book, it's good to see analyses like this of movies, but remember, it's different for books.

A friend who was also a producer told me, for a two-hour movie, you have to choose about two chapters for your script. The director has to insert some points to connect the dots. That's why many movies 'aren't like the book' they're based upon. It's an art to take a book and condense it like that so it still makes sense and absorbs the viewer.

But, we writers can learn much from movies about character development and how to get our readers involved with them, and with our stories.

[downwiththeficness]

Ficness update, Frustration

Lord.

I have struggled the last few weeks with writing. I know where the story needs to go and I know roughly how I want to get there. But, man are the words not coming.

Yesterday, I deleted almost an entire chapter because it just wasn’t right. And now, I’m sitting here trying to start the chapter again and I just...can’t.

Don’t worry, dear readers, there are plenty of chapters for S&V ready to be posted. I don’t anticipate any kind of gap in my posting schedule.

I’m just feeling frustrated, as authors often do.

[haunteddragonssun]

once again, mourning the fact that I didn't make session recordings of my current dnd campaign and thus can never actually share the full emotional impact and journey of these characters with other people

[the-doll-dragon]

Shrines and Hatcheries

In the Spokelse Isles, the beings all hatch from eggs that are planted in a hatchery. These hatcheries are rows of eggs instead of crops. The eggs seem to be “blooming” from multicolored giant flowers. Every hatcher is on the grounds of a shrine. These religious areas are dedicated to a god or goddess. However, they can also be dedicated as a religious epa-center with multiple gods and goddesses represented. Each shrine has a priest and/or priestess. They work alongside others to care for the shrine and hatchery.

Every shrine has Shrine Guards. These beings act as warriors and protectors of the shrine. Every shrine also houses Shrine Caretakers. They are responsible for overseeing the care of the shrines and hatcheries. These duties include basic upkeep, guest care, and minor construction. Every shrine can have Shrine Maidens and Shrine Apostles.

Their duties include caring for statues and altars. They are also responsible for overseeing offerings. They may lead minor rituals or aid the Priest/Priestess with their rituals. Many shrines and hatcheries were lost during the war between Seth and Horus. Their disappearance is often the last act of their Priest or Priestess, in order to protect them from being ransacked, looted, or destroyed. After the war some were uncovered but not all.

**Please do not use my concepts/ideas without first asking for my permission. These are all created with my imagination and lots of research. **

** map made using Inkarnate **

[lgbtlunaverse]

There's a version of the "don't go grocery shopping while hungry" rule specifically for writers where you should never under any circumstances be allowed to touch your draft within 3 hours of reading a really good story. Because sometimes when you read something great your head goes "fuck this is so much better than my stuff I should make that more like THIS instead!" Look at me. That's the devil talking and you should close the document NOW.

[enchantingepics]

Story Prompt 63

They collided like two stars in a chaotic dance, drawn together by some unseen force. From the outside, it seemed like they were meant to be, but as they drew closer, the cracks began to show.

"I just don't understand why it's so hard," she said, frustration evident in her voice.

"Maybe it's because we're just not meant to be," he replied, his tone resigned.

They both knew it deep down, but admitting it was another thing entirely. They had fought against the inevitable for so long, clinging to the hope that love would conquer all. But reality had a way of intruding, and they found themselves facing the truth.

"We're just not compatible," she whispered, the words heavy with sadness.

"I know," he said softly, reaching out to touch her hand. "But that doesn't mean we can't still care about each other."

And so they made the difficult decision to part ways romantically, but to remain in each other's lives as friends. It wasn't easy, navigating the transition from lovers to friends, but they were determined to make it work.

"We might be soulmates in another life," she mused, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Maybe," he agreed, returning her smile. "But for now, I'm just grateful to have you in my life, even if it's just as a friend."

[l0velycupid]

I absolutely cannot decide which of the character relationships to focus on the most in my story since I love all of their dynamics! I would love to hear which dynamics other people would choose! <3

[mobius-m-mobius]

#the Nowhere Man who waits and the God of Stories who watches

[hagansportfolio]

[creation-spirit]

Im a biginerr writer and I have a few questions I need answering for, it would be really helpful if you answer even one question thank you.

1. My characters are a mess, they are ideas in my head not forming into clear visions of how to write them.

They start to have many facits, that I cant work toghether.

Can explain why or if you have the time sit with me on them to descass how should we fix them.

2. My stories have simular ideas to mamy other stories, how do I know if I copy too much and how to make sure to get inspiered and not just steal ideas.

3. I build in my mind big ideas and small ideas.

The big ideas are filled with complex things and stuff Ill need a long time to figure out, while the small ideas can be build in way less time but will make a less good project.

I want to write a lot for practice, but I want to save the big projects for later.

But the small projects don't have the level of skill that my big projects have so I won't be able to practice that skill level.

if I write my small projects, but then Ill never get to my big projects. What should I do?

4. How do I get more answers to writing questions like this or find other peoples questions?

5.how do I analyze a work of media? How to go on it? What to do?

Do I just sit and watch it or should i notice something? How do you find all those little details?

6. How to write with less rules on relationships and characters. Like how do I describe and build in my mind a relationship that has a little bit of snurcky comments a little bit of brotherly help and a little bit of rivalry tenntion. How do I find a way for all these consepts to exist toghether in my mind.

How do I find a way to understand how to write a character who is silly at times, but usually the straight man, but has their soft moments. Their strong believers in their ideas, but recognise the stupidity of them. How do I ecompess the parts of their personality that are oppisets to each other.

[pen-of-roses]

Do y'all ever think about how cool it is that art inspires other art inspires other art inspires other art in an endless cycle