Young Writers Society

We love what we write. That's why we write it, after all, yeah?

Whatever it is - a poetic narrative, an epic saga, a thoughtful standalone, short stories, poetry - we love something about everything we create. Whether it's the ability to explore emotions, or the chance to write a certain kind of character or plot, or even our main goal or resolution - it's all unique to how we write it!

So, do you just have the best setting ever that you're excited to explore? Do you enjoy diving headfirst into your characters? Is there a tiny detail you keep including that you adore?

What do you love about your story?

I think my main thing with my novel is the characters I've created. I absolutely love the setting (SPACE) but if I had to, I could write it in another setting or genre, so long as I had my characters and their personalities intact. Wild West!Avery Trent? I'd be down for that. Deep sea exploration? Sure. So long as I've got m'bois.

So I guess that's my answer. I love my characters — even the underdeveloped ones — and I enjoy writing them? I enjoy tossing them into situations and seeing where stuff ends up as they work things out. The interactions, both amongst themselves and with background characters, are always fun. I just love characters. *shrug emoji*

I do also really like the genre I've grown them in, though. Soft sci-fi is my jam. (Though urban fantasy is another jam and I'm now having ideas about my AT characters in an urban fantasy setting, hmmm).

The one thing I love about my story is I'm writing about something I love learning about: crime and mystery. That and the characters I'm writing into said story. This is also my first attempt at writing a novel and that could be another thing I love about it because it is really my attempt of putting both feet in the water and hoping not to drown in all these other ideas I'm having (which isn't a bad thing -- just kind of sucks sometimes lol).

I'm hoping that later on I'll spread my interest into more genres, but I think for now it'll be supernatural/mystery base (which is something I adore greatly, too).

@Hattable - I know I recommended this through Discord but I really do recommend writing serialized short stories of your characters? After The Adventure Zone finished the first season, they ended up doing... sort of serialized versions of TAZ at liveshows? So they'd put their characters in whacky situations and just play. So like, if you want to put Avery and Jason in the wild west, then go for it, dude! You're the author! Anything goes! If you want to dive into the alternate universe stuff, you could just say that there was a universe that Avery and Jason were cowboys...

@shaniac - !!! Mystery and crime are definitely very, very great. What sort of crime and mystery-based stuff are you learning for your project? Or, rather, what's been your favorite thing to research so far? Do you think you've landed on any watch lists yet?

-

Okay, so, uh, I'm really excited to just write about my main characters in a situation that makes sense? Like, I've basically sat on the idea for my LMS novel for a looong time, and it's just really exciting to finally get it out there and push these characters into a world where:
1. Their actions have consequences
2. They're finally allowed to heal (and break, but mostly heal).

I'm also really excited to explore the underworld a bit more. It's always been a bit nebulous? But I really want to develop it and make it into something special.

Also, despite Death being a bad guy, I'm really loving her character and like... the idea of Cora finally confronting her. I know the scene is like a year away, but I still can't wait to get there.

There's a lot of things I love about my story and contrary to what some people on here think, it's not killing all the characters XD. sorry not sorry RIP

But here.

1. My characters. I love them so much. All of them reflect some part of me in some way. Cedric is the silly but still cool part of me, Aria is the fairly normal part, Tristen is the hotheaded and also the introverted part, Adar is my anxious/slightly ocd part, and Marcus is just me when I'm mad and need a character to break things for me.

But also Orrick is awesome, and his trio friendship with Bernon and Drustan is so fun. They're all so different yet they're best bros. Orrick's sensible and slightly lacking a sense of humor, Bernon's sensible in everything but his jokes, and Drustan tends to want to act on emotion rather than sense. Gah Orrick is my perfect knight hero dude <3 <3 <3. the knight in bloodied, battered armor who's fought more fights than you have birthdays. He's gruff but kind in his heart.

Then the bad dude. He probably reflects me the least (because I don't have the guts to be a evil warlock lol) but he's coooooool. Carnae is pretty dern cool too. you don't want to mess with her.

2. The battles. Medieval style battles, quite a few of which are waged with little to no sorcery involved so it's fairly realistic. I love the beauty and terror of a fully-armed cavalry force. A heavy cav charge...the incredibleness. Plus the light cavalry archers are so awesomely cool. I really like the Thealian guards with their dogs for smaller skirmishes. Rough mountain men and their enormous hounds.

Battle is gory and bloody and horrible (reason why I can't watch war movies, it's all to real and it bothers me to see blood and gore then), but in fantasy it doesn't bother me because no matter how realistic it is, it's still fake in the end. And I have a thing about knights charging into a battle on their destriers. Also having that one super heroic knight who fights to the last and is always in the front with his men, no matter what. I don't care if it's cliche (I don't have too much of it in my stories bc there are only a few major battles) but I still love it and nobody's changing my mind.

3. Really I just love all my characters so much. It's because I want them to have a story worth telling that I actually write it all down instead of keeping it in my head.

4. Quite on accident I'm beginning to realize that two of the major themes in my story are courage and...well I guess it's harmony? Also quite on accident I'm realizing those are things i kind of struggle with?

Courage as of late. That comes out in a few of my characters. Isaac, as he wants to be noticed and do something worth noticing (not be super famous though but at least have a little recognition) but he second guesses himself in decisions and is worried he'll screw something up. Then Adar has some legitimate anxiety issues and that's something I kinda struggle with. Both end up managing their fear in the end and being better for it.

On harmony- Tristen and Aria are brother and sister, and siblings don't always get along. before this starts sounding cliche, it's mainly because of their personality differences that they tend to misunderstand each other. (It reflects a relationship issue i have with one of my siblings. I'm more like Tristen here). Tristen is a thoughtful introvert who tends to forget to spend some extra time with his sis. The reason isn't because he's downright neglectant, he does spend time with her. The thing is, he doesn't feel the same need for as much attention as Aria does. Since he doesn't feel that way, he doesn't think to make an effort to spend more time with her than he would want people to spend time with him. Aria is a slightly shy introvert. She values spending time with people highly and when Tristen seems to be ignoring her she feels like he's not interested in spending time with her. And if she bothers him about it and he gets irritated about her nagging, she then feels guilty for making him feel obligated.
None of this is done from malice, but Tristen does need to realize that he does have a sister who's just more of a people person than he is and that she needs his support and friendship. I'm kicking myself writing this, I'm very much a Tristen and I feel bad about it.

They eventually sort things out and better their relationship, as well as understand each other better. They also work together in harmony, as family should try to do.

5. the random heroic stuffs. Too bad for my characters that I'm a fan of the dramatic and emotional parts of a story along the lines of "there is no greater love than a man lay down his life for his friend". so um oops. RIP folks. (don't worry I actually don't kill too many people).

*looks back over all this* I wish i could review this long. anyhow.

The story I'm currently focusing on the most at this moment is my novel for lms, The Three Lockets. I can't say too much about what I love because it would be a major spoiler - or several, even - but I can say that I love the bonds between the characters. Though there's some politics and saving the world involved, the ultimate focus of the novel is overcoming fears and making new connections with other people.

There's going to be one character later on in the story who has severe trust issues when it comes to making new friends, and the protagonist, who already struggles with that kind of thing of her own, is going to help them open up and learn to trust people again. I've been through some tough stuff with old friends of mine recently, so that part of the story in particular means a lot to me.

For my WIP, what I love about is my characters and their relationships. I'm writing the first draft and I'm so fascinated by how these relationships and characters start to take on a deeper form. I'm particularly fond of my MC and sister's relationship--it's pretty flawed, not perfect in my opinion, but that's the way with all relationships. The other relationship that fascinates me is a bit of a spoiler so I won't name names. There are two characters who work together, enjoy each other's company, yet if necessary they'll betray each other.

In another first draft of a novel, there's a character I'm ridiculously fond of: a talking doll. She's so fun to write! She's snappy and snarky and easily offended, but inside, she does care about her friends. And the premise is both tricky and fun to write--the main character is transformed into a ghost! So she can't really touch things, sit on things, without passing through. It's hard to write that way--but that's also one thing I really like.

Mixing Magic:
So, since this is my longest-running story, there's a lot of things I love about it. One of those is that its themes center around friendship and family and how they can be more important than you realize. Basically, Ayda, the main character, just wants to get away from her family at the beginning of the story because she takes them for granted and really wants to go do her own thing. But when she suddenly doesn't know if they're dead or alive, she starts to realize how she treated them badly. Of course, she doesn't realize she has the same problem when it comes to her friendship with Madeline until almost too late. This theme has gotten knocked a bit askew with this third draft, but I'm going to figure out how to get it back on track.

Currently, one of the things I *love* about it is Madeline as a character. I just love her. She was just the stereotypical girl pushed into another magical world for a long time, but now her personality has really blossomed. I see a lot of the younger me in her. She really, really loves magic as a study and an art form, similar to my own passions for writing and music. But then she also loves and has a duty to her family, and so she doesn't know if she should stay in the other world or go home. But when it comes down to it, she's willing to sacrifice the opportunity to have it all to make things *right* and to stop evil.

I also just love the world I've created, though it's taken a long time to create it.

Eos:
Eos, I have realized, is the story I've always been trying to write. It asks the question: when is it right to rebel? When is a government a dystopia, particularly when trying to recover from an apocalypse? This is of course inspired from the really-common trope of the rebels overthrowing an evil government. And it's fascinating to explore those questions. I categorize as dystopian fiction, but the question I'm trying to ask is: is it?

There's also, because the story involves duplicate versions of people, the question of what makes a person who they are, and how different aspects of a person come to the forefront when given different experiences. I need to do a better job of exploring that, honestly.

I also love Jade. She's funny and flirty and just an awesome character.

(thanks for listening to this really-long ramble lol)

I am proud of my characters, particularly my main ones, each one stands out in their own unique way. One of my characters, for example, is sarcastic but incredibly loyal. My other character is a jokester and tells jokes at all the wrong times, and he's very extroverted.

I like my characters and worldbuilding.

My strength has always been in writing characters, likely because I find people (their personalities, idiosyncrasies, cultures, beliefs, motivations, religions, and languges) fascinating. I'm a people-watcher and aim to write realistic, relatable, and likable characters and relationships.

I also like my story because the main character is very flawed. What makes her interesting to me is that despite her flaws and initial selfishness, she has a desire to do what is right and grows throughout the story. When the real heroes die, she has to be step up and take their place. I also like her relationships with her friends and family members, and how they help each other grow.

My favorite things to write are probably the emotional and/or exciting parts of the story, especially a specific scene that acts turning point for my MC when she really starts to change as a person. I enjoy developing characters.

Other than that, I'm in love with interesting cultures, traditions, and especially languages. I've always liked books with interesting worldbuilding
and I'd like to incorporate these things into my writing.