Writing
Personally, I feel the most important things to start off with when making a story is to create the setting, which, unless accompanied by a deux ex machina or two, or seven, ultimately forms the very skeletal structure of the story. And not just that, but the cartilage as well. For that reason I enjoyed reading Dune. It was incredibly long winded, but the cultures, political systems, and ecology were so well explained, that the very things I just mentioned in this sentance were are a good enough reason to read it.
Next in importance is the characters. I just feel that when you want to see how different people would react in certain situations, it's clear that they become as important as the aventure itself. For that reason they are the soul of the work.
And then comes in the adventure--the very flesh of the story. Plug the characters in and you've got a story.
And yet I always go the opposite way. Still, I hold this as my writing philosophy. I just don't talk about it since it's so hypocritical.
I feel sorry for anyone who even skimmed that offal.
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So today at the July forth party a guy tried to convert me. At least he was a little more original by supplying me with the philosophical aspects of Christianity. This all started, because as we sat there talking, he asked me what my favorite book was. I replied, Watership Down. This is where I made my mistake, since I said it was one of those allegorical stories like Animal Farm. Suddenly I'm all into philosophy. And granted, I like philosophy, but I care more for the story itself. Hence the reason I like Watership Down. There's a bunch of lessons to learn, but I care more for the adventures, diverse characters, and most importantly: rabbits. I told him that once or twice, but mentioning Nietzchie and Ayn Rand casually in the discussion prob'ly didn't help. I've lost interest.
__________________________________________
Anyway, I'm trying to kind of do the writing philosophy that I hypocritically favor. I've got the layout of the settings and religions vaguely covered, while a few basic stock characters will be inserted into a bland adventure. It's only a short-story though, so I don't plan on making it that fancy. As for the characters, I hope to expand one of them in a few other stories. He's boring now, but it's his antiheroic downfall from royalty that will soon lead him away from the pompous and superficial man he is, and on towards, a battle hardened and unique vagabond. So to an extent, a lot like Elric.
At the same time, I'm making a story from another world completely. It's based on that poem with the king and his 13 children. It centers around not the king, and I'm not entirely sure if one of the "monsters" will even be related to him. I'll just leave the reader* to guess. It instead centers around one of two great warriors in the series--Guntas Darmschnitt. This is before he dies...and I know he'll die. With a name like that, he has to die*. But he will live a legacy. A stoic character by birth, he is nontheless a naturally muscular man. A part time soldier and full time brawler, he nonetheless enjoys thinking things through first, and then fighting later. He'll avoid the fray, but he loves it just as much as he averts it. This man later finds himself lost in a cave after looking for his friend. He soon finds himself lost, and spends what seems like ages in darkness. He manages to escape somehow, only to tell his story in the harsh landscape of an Alaska-like country over the course of a week of only more darkness.
1. and I
2. most likely in an anticlimactic manner
Next in importance is the characters. I just feel that when you want to see how different people would react in certain situations, it's clear that they become as important as the aventure itself. For that reason they are the soul of the work.
And then comes in the adventure--the very flesh of the story. Plug the characters in and you've got a story.
And yet I always go the opposite way. Still, I hold this as my writing philosophy. I just don't talk about it since it's so hypocritical.
I feel sorry for anyone who even skimmed that offal.
___________________________________________
So today at the July forth party a guy tried to convert me. At least he was a little more original by supplying me with the philosophical aspects of Christianity. This all started, because as we sat there talking, he asked me what my favorite book was. I replied, Watership Down. This is where I made my mistake, since I said it was one of those allegorical stories like Animal Farm. Suddenly I'm all into philosophy. And granted, I like philosophy, but I care more for the story itself. Hence the reason I like Watership Down. There's a bunch of lessons to learn, but I care more for the adventures, diverse characters, and most importantly: rabbits. I told him that once or twice, but mentioning Nietzchie and Ayn Rand casually in the discussion prob'ly didn't help. I've lost interest.
__________________________________________
Anyway, I'm trying to kind of do the writing philosophy that I hypocritically favor. I've got the layout of the settings and religions vaguely covered, while a few basic stock characters will be inserted into a bland adventure. It's only a short-story though, so I don't plan on making it that fancy. As for the characters, I hope to expand one of them in a few other stories. He's boring now, but it's his antiheroic downfall from royalty that will soon lead him away from the pompous and superficial man he is, and on towards, a battle hardened and unique vagabond. So to an extent, a lot like Elric.
At the same time, I'm making a story from another world completely. It's based on that poem with the king and his 13 children. It centers around not the king, and I'm not entirely sure if one of the "monsters" will even be related to him. I'll just leave the reader* to guess. It instead centers around one of two great warriors in the series--Guntas Darmschnitt. This is before he dies...and I know he'll die. With a name like that, he has to die*. But he will live a legacy. A stoic character by birth, he is nontheless a naturally muscular man. A part time soldier and full time brawler, he nonetheless enjoys thinking things through first, and then fighting later. He'll avoid the fray, but he loves it just as much as he averts it. This man later finds himself lost in a cave after looking for his friend. He soon finds himself lost, and spends what seems like ages in darkness. He manages to escape somehow, only to tell his story in the harsh landscape of an Alaska-like country over the course of a week of only more darkness.
1. and I
2. most likely in an anticlimactic manner