Don't know if this has already been discussed, but if so, I thought I might bring it up again. (If it has been discussed, then let me know what page please )

 

How do you come up with a titles for your story? For me, I'm never really happy with the titles of my stories (save for a few of them) and I always end up changing them multiple times while working on them. I try to look to some of the EU novels for inspiration, but those are all incredibly varied. Some like the X-Wing series seem kind of blatant and obvious, and others, like the New Jedi series come as a real head scratcher (at least to me).

 

So I'm just curious as to where people get their titles from.

Coming up with titles is something I've had a problem with for the longest time. I remember any paper/report/story I had to write for school would always go untitled until the day before it was due. Long ago when I started writing my first stories, before the game had been released and before the forum wipe, there were posts discussing how to get people to read your story, and I sort of latched on to one of the ideas I saw: Have a title that draws them in, and have a first post that doesn't send them running away.

Generally, I like descriptive titles. Simplistic, one word titles can work, but without author recognition, I feel like they'd only be read for the sake of having something new to read. I want people to have some idea of what they're getting into before the even click on the topic. But would something like "The Academy: Acolyte Ascension" be received any differently if I had just titled it "Ascension"? I don't know.

When deciding on a title, I choose something that encompasses the entirety of what the reader will find within. Something that ties in directly with the characters, style, or theme. Then I decide the scope of what I'm writing. The full titles of my first two and longest works here are "The Academy: Acolyte Ascension" and "Imperial Special Projects: The Seven". I noticed that the shorthand names commenters used was always the part after the colon, before I would ever refer to them as such. This coincidentally fell in line with my original intent with the titles, in that what came after the colon was the 'story', and what came before it was something more broad, an idea that could be expanded upon or shared. In fact, I wanted to create a world or sub-setting that others could take part in, where others could write their own "The Academy: X" or "Imperial Special Projects: X".

The next batches of stories had simpler titles. "Tools of the Trade", "Guiding Lights", "Exponent". Although all five of these stories are connected and part f the same 'legacy', the last three I considered much more concise in scope. These were stories concerning characters and their place in the galaxy first and foremost, and all other elements were secondary. And of course, looking at all five, there isn't a set pattern. One makes a promise, one tells a name, one gives an expression, one states a purpose, and one offers a rather vague descriptor.

My most recent story, "Amongst Stars: The Dawn Eclipse" falls back to the earlier style of suggested a part of some greater whole. It happens to be only one of four, maybe five, planned stories centering around pilots, pirates, and privateers.

So I guess if I have one bit of advice to offer, it's that when it comes to thinking of a title, the first thing to figure out is its purpose. What do you want people to think the moment they see it? Do you want it to be a concise descriptor or an artistic expression? Do you want it to be isolated or part of something greater? What elements should the title refer to? Ideas, themes, characters, something completely different? Answers some of those and bit and pieces might start falling into place.

Have you ever been writing something where you think that the event is important to your character because of their history and how you want them to progress as a person and how the event might affect their relationship with their SO and it just starts out ****** and continues to be ****** and you just want to burn everything because you couldn't write your way out a wet paper bag?

Well, I got **** all over myself writing this:

...and I have no idea if I can salvage it or even if I should try. Because gosh darn that just feels like the worst pile of crap I've ever tried to string together into a sentence, let alone a scene. I mean, oh my god, how could it have ended up this awful?

Edit: Yeah, I could use some help here.

Tatile, I think it sets up the scene very well. The wording puts the reader inside, makes me feel as if I looked up as saw the good lieutenant as he entered with his tea and dataslide. Describing how the rest of the crew is reacting to the Sith in their presence and how regular life is aboard ship sets up the next action. Don't burn it, just see where it goes

My two credits, anyway.

Tatile, try eliminating redundancy, condensing, and reducing some of the passivity. At the risk of being a jerk editor and making your style sound like mine, I would edit the passage as follows:

The second sentence is unnecessary, Windthorpe is already engrossed so he’s ignoring everything else. I cut the following sentence:

He put his dataslide and mug down and the table and... stopped.

but it needs to be replaced. If Windthorpe is going to check out the music, I recommend having him go there directly rather than to the officer’s table first. In that case, have a transitional sentence, something like ‘pondering the proper course of action, he heard strange music' and then something about him going over there instead. It gets to the interesting part quicker.

Otherwise the scene is set up well. Windthorpe is caught in an etiquette problem, something takes his mind off it. If you want, have him be torn between wanting to be close to Naught (whom he finds attractive) and wanting to check out the music because it’s also interesting. The proper emphasis might be easier to figure out once more of the story is written, so you know what to play up here in this early scene.

This from the person who took two weeks to do character summaries when the stories were already written for the most part. Take my advice at your own risk.

Hello, a little about myself, I love to write, I have a passion for it and started writing since I was 8, from pen and paper to typewriter to a laptop. Reading is one thing that just brings infinite amount of knowledge and information that gives me the strength to write on and push away writers blocks, hell, sometimes jogging helps too. I do write but I am not that good enough like the authors who sell millions of copies, yet I strive to continue on, any who here is a good reason why I am posting. And I do accept critiques and some pointers, so here is an idea I have for me to present to you as an idea to write a fan fiction. The timeline can be set between KOTOR 2 and TOR.

In Tattooine there was a young boy and a young girl who was playing out in the desert. They then went to a cave, but something was calling out to the boy from deep within. Deeper and deeper he went, he found a small Holocron, a data with immense knowledge. Exposed by its secrets, the young boy was then knocked out, reducing the Holocron to explode after it's use. The young boy, with immense wealth of knowledge in the force, and a map that could signal a red flag of a new war. The Jedi and Sith will be looking for him, and the drums of war will thunder all across the galaxy.

I was doing some research on Holocrons, wonder if they do corrupt a non force sensitive individual at a early age, and also wonder if a non sensitive force user begins to use the force after such exposure. I was also thinking make the brother and the sister (the young boy and girl) separated, one in Sith and one in Jedi after that event, something of a epic galactic war to break out after the discovery of the Sith. I am open to all suggestions and also critiques are more than welcome about this idea.

An inter-galactic seems a bit much (but that's more my "don't try to muss with what's there" stance), but certainly a Darth and a Jedi Master would fight over it (and the child). If we ignore the idea of midichlorians (I personally do, and I'm no Star Wars purist), then a Force Blind becoming Force Sensitive - or having the sensitivity unlocked - via holocron could be possible. Sith holocrons have a tendency to corrupt the user because it's Sith, that's what they do, so a particularly ambitious Sith could have designed ones to create Force Sensitives - perhaps because s/he was a human purist or this was part of an extended experiment on lesser species.

It's certainly a workable idea, it just depends on what angle you approach it from.

Non-force sensitives gaining force sensitivity is definitely a possibility, see the Scepter of Ragnos and The Valley of the Jedi. Both are from the Jedi Knight series of games, but play important parts in the games' events as the villains use them to bestow force sensitivity to their minions to fight Kyle Katarn and Jaden Korr.

So I would say yes, if you want a character to go from No force powers, to force powers, it is possible.

In Tattooine there was a young boy and a young girl who was playing out in the desert. They then went to a cave, but something was calling out to the boy from deep within. Deeper and deeper he went, he found a small Holocron, a data with immense knowledge. Exposed by its secrets, the young boy was then knocked out, reducing the Holocron to explode after it's use. The young boy, with immense wealth of knowledge in the force, and a map that could signal a red flag of a new war. The Jedi and Sith will be looking for him, and the drums of war will thunder all across the galaxy.

 

I was doing some research on Holocrons, wonder if they do corrupt a non force sensitive individual at a early age, and also wonder if a non sensitive force user begins to use the force after such exposure. I was also thinking make the brother and the sister (the young boy and girl) separated, one in Sith and one in Jedi after that event, something of a epic galactic war to break out after the discovery of the Sith. I am open to all suggestions and also critiques are more than welcome about this idea.

Holocrons are weird. The simplest ones can be used as simple repositories of knowledge, but those of grand design are limited only by their creator. Also, sometimes a holocron isn't just a holocron. It might serve a dual, sometimes hidden, purpose. One thing to note is that Sith Holocrons were born from Rakatan design, and the Force-technologies utilized by the Rakata often seem unlimited in purpose and scope. So if designed to, a holocron infused with the Dark-side could have any number of effects on its user or even someone who spends a great deal of time around it.

Holocrons are often depicted in games as imparting not only knowledge, but power and skills to individuals. In TOR, we have ancient datacrons which infuse a tangible increase in skill in any individual who activates them, regardless of Force-sensitivity. But this could all be for the convenience of game mechanics and progression. In actual storytelling, holocrons are generally reserved for housing ancient knowledge or teachings intended for Force-users. But an artifact's an artifact, and if it involves the Force there's probably nothing saying it can't do something. I mean... Rakghoul plague, the Force. Zombies, the Force. Immortality, the Force.

On the topic of imparting Force-sensitivity upon the non-Force-sensitive, there's always the chance of something activating or awakening 'latent' Force sensitivity in someone who would otherwise go their entire life unaware of their connection to the Force. And if you want to start from someone who's full on Forceblind, well, you infuse enough Force energies into something and who knows what'll happen.

I'm back! But yeah, I have a problem. I was writing my fanifction (see sig) but I suddenly got writer's block. Now normally, it takes me a few days to get through a good writer's block, but this has lasted months. I am just wondering if there are any tips to get though it, and how I should begin posting again. To me, it would be a little odd to stop posting for a few months and then suddenly post again. Maybe that's just me. Any thoughts?

P.S. I wrote another chapter after I stopped for a while, but it I haven't posted yet. I am also the type of guy to write and post at the same time, so a story is never done when I begin posting. I also don't really do the outlining thing. It just hasn't appealed to me. I normally just let the story go, but it seems that this is also a source of my writer's block. Any tips for this as well?

I'm back! But yeah, I have a problem. I was writing my fanifction (see sig) but I suddenly got writer's block. Now normally, it takes me a few days to get through a good writer's block, but this has lasted months. I am just wondering if there are any tips to get though it, and how I should begin posting again. To me, it would be a little odd to stop posting for a few months and then suddenly post again. Maybe that's just me. Any thoughts?

 

P.S. I wrote another chapter after I stopped for a while, but it I haven't posted yet. I am also the type of guy to write and post at the same time, so a story is never done when I begin posting. I also don't really do the outlining thing. It just hasn't appealed to me. I normally just let the story go, but it seems that this is also a source of my writer's block. Any tips for this as well?

I write in much the same way as you do. Start something, and keep writing it as long as the ideas readily flow from my mind. Only when nearing the ending of one of my stories have I actually planned ahead, jotting notes of what will happen in each upcoming chapter (which I've technically already deviated from), Times would come when I knew where I wanted things to go, but the actual process of writing seemed to escape me.

What works for me, is that whenever you find yourself unable or unwilling to proceed, just stop and take a step back from your piece. Trying to force something forward will rarely yield results, and whatever those results are, they often prove unsatisfying. Oddly enough, my trick for when I cannot write... it to write. Something different though. I have six unfinished stories posted on these boards. I started with one, then wanted to try something different. Then during the course of that, found a new appreciation for the previous piece. I don't know how far back I'd be on 'Acolyte Ascension' if I hadn't taken a break to work on 'The Dawn Eclipse'. Hopping from piece to piece has yielded much more content than what I would have produced had I focused on a single one.

Sometimes you don't even need to put forth a great deal of effort starting something new. Just the thought process behind thinking about new characters and stories can jog something in your mind. Take a break, find out what inspires you, and utilize that. I want to write after I see a new movie, play a new game, think about tabletop RPGs. Creativity begets creativity. What are you writing about? What made you want to write about that in the first place? What makes you want to continue writing about it? Something made you want to begin. Something will make you want to continue. Find out what stimulates you, even if it is something far removed from writing.

Everyone's mind works differently. We're unique in our responses, our organization tendencies, and how we operate most efficiently. I know for me, once I've planned absolutely everything out, that story is dead to me. How structured your approach to writing is, is entirely up to you, as only you can adequately judge the results.

As for posting after a long absence, the nature of the forums allows for little complication. A new post, no matter how far apart will still be right next to its predecessors. If people have forgotten what preceded it, the content will be right there above it. Paired with an author's note, maybe a quick recap of what has happened so far, there shouldn't be any reason to worry about new posts no matter how delayed they are.

The Swampy Middle.

 

So I have a question regarding transition scenes in my story. I know where I am, I know where I want to go, but there's some stuff in the middle that I need to set things up and sometimes it's kind of boring, feels overly long, has too much dialog and not enough description, or whatever.

 

Question for writers: Do you try to make every scene have an impact? Obviously, not every scene can be a climax but if you find a scene drags on or seems to have way too much dialog or feels boring BUT it contains important set up stuff for later scenes. What do you do? rewrite? delete? hope the reader doesn't mind?

 

Question for readers: How do you feel about those set up scenes. I know some people love a lot of detail, a lot of setup, (obviously if it's done well it won't be boring). But some people like action and purpose in nearly every scene or they get bored and quit reading. What kind of reader are you?

Here's my take on "set up scenes".

If I jump straight into the action, as a reader, I expect to be able to figure out what's happening fairly quickly, or at least for the characters I'm reading about to share my confusion. Unless you deliberately are creating mystery or intrigue, there's no reason not to inform the reader what's happening. Often, it's best to set things up before the action starts, because if you have to keep stopping and explaining the action, it kills the pacing.

Detail for the sake of detail is not only unnecessary, it's boring. If something needs to be described, do so. Anything that will be important for visualizing a scene, or will become important for the purposes of plot or action, should be described in enough detail that the reader can picture it. Depending on the object or scene, this can vary a great deal. Sometimes a certain level of description is needed to set a certain mood or tone, and that's also fine. The thing to avoid is pointless description, where the reader finishes reading it and can't figure out why on earth it was being described in the first place.

As a writer, don't feel the need to make every scene climactic or "meaningful". Rather, you should have a reason for showing the reader this scene. In your mind, justify to yourself why you're spending valuable story-telling depicting this event. Once you know why the reader needs to see the scene, you'll have a better conception of when to start and stop, or what details to focus on. Many times, a scene occurs because it advances the plot, or includes important character development.

For example, if Joe gets up in the morning to go to work, I don't need to be shown that scene unless it becomes relevant later. If nothing extraordinary happens, and he gets to work just fine, there's no reason to show the reader. You can just mention that he arrives at work.

However, if you want to show that Joe is lazy and disorganized, he can get up late, rush to find his things, and stumble out the door to barely make it into work that day. Alternatively, perhaps Joe is meticulous and gets up at 0500 to exercise and make a cup of coffee before he leaves for work half an hour early.

With every scene, ask yourself if you've fulfilled one (preferably more) of the following goals:

-Develop a character (or better still, two)

-Advance the plot (through action or dialogue, or both)

-Introduce important places or things (can be setting exposition, or familiarizing characters or the reader with plot-related items/things.)

Everything else is essentially fluff, and a reader can tell when you're stalling for time or just meandering through a scene with no particular purpose. Some people may enjoy reading endless descriptions of various places and things, but the average reader will lose interest very quickly unless you hold their attention with characters and plot motion. A scene needs to be dynamic, things needs to happen. Dialogue can be more interesting than action, as long as it is clear that something is at stake. Nothing is worse than meaningless dialogue, always bear in mind why the characters are talking and what they're trying to say or find out. This will help you to guide the dialogue and know what needs to be included and what doesn't.

Excellent writeup, Ventessel. I'm pinning this to my Big Board o' Editing Advice.

Good to hear, I'd be curious what else is on this Board o' Editing Advice.

Good to hear, I'd be curious what else is on this Board o' Editing Advice.

I can certainly share my favorite scraps of editing advice, in no particular order:

Voice checking: Vesaniae's awesome recommendation – read everything out loud before posting. It'll tell me if anything about the characterization or diction is wrong in my dialogue. In addition it will give me a sense for the flow of the passage – do the phrases run fast where I want them to, slower where I meant them to? Is there some poetry to it and is it the poetry that was intended, or an accidental one that sabotages the desired effect?

Why is this scene even here? Ventessel's freshly added advice, with lots of relevant stuff I won't copy in full here. In short,

"With every scene, ask yourself if you've fulfilled one (preferably more) of the following goals:

-Develop a character (or better still, two)

-Advance the plot (through action or dialogue, or both)

-Introduce important places or things (can be setting exposition, or familiarizing characters or the reader with plot-related items/things.)"

Revision runs: At some point, between dashing off the first draft and publishing, read the draft several times through:

• Once for sanity - whatever the challenge going on in this scene, how would the characters really decide to deal with it? What options would they think up? Why are they choosing the course of action they're choosing? If there is more than one logical solution to the problem, and especially if there's a solution that is far simpler and more elegant than the one I'm demanding for my plot purposes, I must make sure to acknowledge that alternate solution and give a very good reason for it not being done. Or just do it the simpler alternate way and force my plot to catch up.
  
• Once for POV – am I keeping a consistent POV and does all vocabulary and observation, particularly the choice and prioritization of what is observed, get appropriately filtered through that character's POV?
  
• Once for setting and continuity - does the reader have all necessary information about the physical space and does it remain consistent?
  
• Once for dialogue, and here's where the voice check helps. In addition, can the reader tell who is speaking at any given time?
  
• Once for spelling, punctuation, grammar, appropriate syntax, and any stray words that got orphaned during sentence revisions.
  

Paring down: Never delete. Cut any language that needs cutting and store it in a Scraps section or separate file. It is probable that you will never use those particular phrases again. It is possible that some statement that genuinely does not belong in this scene will turn out to be ideal for a scene you write later. Be merciless in reducing a scene to its necessary elements, but set the rejected passages aside rather than deleting them outright.

Further characterization context: For each character, is there something in their past that explains their speech and actions in this scene, and do their speech and actions in this scene support/point to/contrast with how they'll be speaking and acting in the future? The degree to which these connections are or aren't made obvious is a question I leave to the demands of the narrative, but the connections must, on some level, exist.

Then a few quotes: Here's a pep talk on crummy first drafts that includes Sir Terry Pratchett's helpful observation, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” Subsequent drafts are all about removing and shaping material until you can do a good job of telling the reader the story.

Thoreau: "Simplify, simplify, simplify!"

William Strunk, Jr., quoted in the introduction to the Macmillan Paperbacks edition of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

Point 14 from that same volume: "Avoid fancy words. Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able. Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon words. In this, as in so many matters pertaining to style, one's ear must be one's guide: gut is a lustier noun than intestine, but the two words are not interchangeable, because gut is often inappropriate, being too coarse for the context. Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason."

Paring down: Never delete. Cut any language that needs cutting and store it in a Scraps section or separate file. It is probable that you will never use those particular phrases again. It is possible that some statement that genuinely does not belong in this scene will turn out to be ideal for a scene you write later. Be merciless in reducing a scene to its necessary elements, but set the rejected passages aside rather than deleting them outright.

 

 

[...] Sir Terry Pratchett's helpful observation, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” Subsequent drafts are all about removing and shaping material until you can do a good job of telling the reader the story.

 

Thoreau: "Simplify, simplify, simplify!"

 

William Strunk, Jr., quoted in the introduction to the Macmillan Paperbacks edition of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style: "Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

Well, I must say that I'm honored to have my advice included among the likes of Strunk, Thoreau, and Pratchett. Strunk's little volume (or rather, the revised edition that E.B. White helped put together) accompanied me all through high school and college, it is invaluable as a reference for syntax and language use.

Pratchett is a marvelous writer and I'm quite the fan. I would also recommend reading over anything by Orson Scott Card, especially two books he authored on writing. I believe the first is a guide to writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the other is a guide to characterization and POV.

Not the biggest fan of Thoreau, however. I much preferred his mentor, Emerson. That's mostly a matter of taste, however. There's no doubt Thoreau is a great writer, it's his philosophy and style I don't care for. Still, ending up on the same editing board as these fine gentlemen is more than I bargained for.

As I begin work on my fanfiction piece (linked in the sig) I have found a few conventions to be very helpful in sketching out plot.

First, I maintain a "storyboard" of scenes in the upcoming chapters. I give each scene a moniker or two/three word description for reference (this helps me keep a mental picture of what I want to happen in the scene) and then arrange them for what I feel is the best dramatic effect, or to suit the pacing of the story.

Second, I keep a character sheet. This is a document that gets updated regularly as I read and reread my own work, it's less a source for future stories as it is a record of what I have currently going on. Each character gets a quick description and their background, even the parts that haven't made it into the story yet. I describe their motivations and goals, and any other powerful personality traits that might shape their interactions.

Third, I write a list of "hooks" or "twists" that I want to introduce to the plot down the road. These can be as simple as someone getting married to their long-term love interest or as complex as a key character having a change of heart and turning on his allies at a certain moment. They're not all "twists" in the sense of unexpected changes, but some are. For the most part, these are key points I want to highlight in future scenes, usually they expand on the relationships between characters, reveal important details about the plot, or introduce new themes I want to work into the narrative. I think of them as seeds that will grow into future scenes.

When I sit down to write a new chapter, I look over the storyboard first and see if there's anything I want to add in from my "hooks" sheet. Planting new seeds, to carry my earlier metaphor. I may shift a few scenes around, or add in new ones. I generally have the storyboard planned out at least three or more chapters in advance, so I can make small changes ahead of time and not have to engage in extensive rewrites.

Once the scenes are picked out, I look to see if any characters need to be revisited. Some characters are static, but most undergo some kind of dynamic, and the key is to make sure that as the narrative advances, so do the characters. Depending on the scenes I'm writing for that chapter, some characters may need to evolve, or adjust their plans and outlook based on events that have occurred. Then I sit down and crank out a chapter, scene by scene.

I write in much the same way as you do. Start something, and keep writing it as long as the ideas readily flow from my mind. Only when nearing the ending of one of my stories have I actually planned ahead, jotting notes of what will happen in each upcoming chapter (which I've technically already deviated from), Times would come when I knew where I wanted things to go, but the actual process of writing seemed to escape me.

 

What works for me, is that whenever you find yourself unable or unwilling to proceed, just stop and take a step back from your piece. Trying to force something forward will rarely yield results, and whatever those results are, they often prove unsatisfying. Oddly enough, my trick for when I cannot write... it to write. Something different though. I have six unfinished stories posted on these boards. I started with one, then wanted to try something different. Then during the course of that, found a new appreciation for the previous piece. I don't know how far back I'd be on 'Acolyte Ascension' if I hadn't taken a break to work on 'The Dawn Eclipse'. Hopping from piece to piece has yielded much more content than what I would have produced had I focused on a single one.

 

Sometimes you don't even need to put forth a great deal of effort starting something new. Just the thought process behind thinking about new characters and stories can jog something in your mind. Take a break, find out what inspires you, and utilize that. I want to write after I see a new movie, play a new game, think about tabletop RPGs. Creativity begets creativity. What are you writing about? What made you want to write about that in the first place? What makes you want to continue writing about it? Something made you want to begin. Something will make you want to continue. Find out what stimulates you, even if it is something far removed from writing.

 

Everyone's mind works differently. We're unique in our responses, our organization tendencies, and how we operate most efficiently. I know for me, once I've planned absolutely everything out, that story is dead to me. How structured your approach to writing is, is entirely up to you, as only you can adequately judge the results.

 

As for posting after a long absence, the nature of the forums allows for little complication. A new post, no matter how far apart will still be right next to its predecessors. If people have forgotten what preceded it, the content will be right there above it. Paired with an author's note, maybe a quick recap of what has happened so far, there shouldn't be any reason to worry about new posts no matter how delayed they are.

Sorry for not thanking you earlier, my life got expectantly busy. So now- thank you. I been mulling over a new idea for a story, all while thinking of different character traits to my original story to add and change. I've been writing a few scenes and laying out key parts of my original story for use later. I also started using my swimming to inspire me, and I think it works amazingly well. Thanks again!

Here's a great general resource, from Orson Scott Card's website, called "Uncle Orson's Writing Class".

It's a series of articles, workshops if you will, on writing advice. It's all top notch, and very down to earth. Mr. Card is succinct and to the point, conveying things he's learned over his successful writing career.

Personally, I write 1 Chapter... if it receives zero comeback I cancel that story out and start fresh. I write after people comment on what I have written, otherwise I just see it as a waste of Chapters

Hmmm, see I generally operate on a different method, post nothing until the work is complete. Since most of my works go unfinished, this is why I rarely post up stories. I'd rather get their opinion on the whole story, rather than just one chapter. It's hard to get interested in something off of just one chapter.

Currently, since I never get anything posted, I'm toying with posting some of my more "in progress" works, and seeing if that will give me the motivation to continue. Of course, I'd actually have to start posting said "in progress" works before I can decide on whether or not I like the process.

Old habits are hard to kick unfortunately.

Personally, I write 1 Chapter... if it receives zero comeback I cancel that story out and start fresh. I write after people comment on what I have written, otherwise I just see it as a waste of Chapters

Hmmm, see I generally operate on a different method, post nothing until the work is complete. Since most of my works go unfinished, this is why I rarely post up stories. I'd rather get their opinion on the whole story, rather than just one chapter. It's hard to get interested in something off of just one chapter.

 

Currently, since I never get anything posted, I'm toying with posting some of my more "in progress" works, and seeing if that will give me the motivation to continue. Of course, I'd actually have to start posting said "in progress" works before I can decide on whether or not I like the process.

I spent several years writing things, resolving not to post until it was finished and polished, and consequently never posting things. Since then I've gone (perhaps overboard) in the other direction: I post as soon as any given chapter is finished and let feedback catch up as it may. In my first fic I posted three chapters in three days and was starting to consider abandoning the project before I first received feedback; at first I was too busy focusing on the story to worry about the reception.

Is there any sort of consensus about characterization?

Kind of talking about every sort of character here, from OCs to the hero/ine to supporting characters from the game story, but I'm mostly interested in that last one. Should an author spend time on an ekphrasis of a character - or on plot elements designed to do more or less the same thing - even if the character's personality, motivations, etc. are at least broadly similar to those seen in the game?

Yeah, I know, "don't 'should' me, 'cause I'll 'should' you right back", but still.

Is there any sort of consensus about characterization?

 

Kind of talking about every sort of character here, from OCs to the hero/ine to supporting characters from the game story, but I'm mostly interested in that last one. Should an author spend time on an ekphrasis of a character - or on plot elements designed to do more or less the same thing - even if the character's personality, motivations, etc. are at least broadly similar to those seen in the game?

 

Yeah, I know, "don't 'should' me, 'cause I'll 'should' you right back", but still.

That depends entirely on what kind of story you're trying to tell.

If the purpose is to create an intriguing or new plot, and you're using characters from the game, then focus on the plot and its developments.

If you plan on exploring the characters themselves, then start from the baselines established in the game and work in your own direction, whether you're expanding on characters or looking at different aspects of familiar ones.

Hey everyone, you may remember back on post #36, I had the idea of an in-character prose piece that would shine light on a particular subject in the Star Wars/Old Republic canon, expanding on things that might be useful for a fan fiction writer. It was the recording of an assassin, kindly offering his expertise on how to defeat the 'undefeatable' Force-user. Well, it wasn't the only one I did, and with the formal announcement of the Cathar's upcoming release, I thought it time to post another I've been sitting on.

Back when the Cathar were announced as a playable species, one of the first things brought up were concerns about how could they work within the Sith Empire. While events have shown the Empire capable of evolving, it wouldn't explain the character's inclusion in the years prior to events in-game. Plus, you have things like the Bounty Hunter dealing with Mandalorians, who the Cathar aren't too fond of. So I wrote a piece providing insight into the mind of a Cathar at the time of the Treaty of Coruscant, espousing the relevance of the 'individual' in a galaxy of collectives.

The Self Realized Cathar