Young Writers Society

So today I want to begin an ongoing discussion regarding how familiar you all are with extreme character depth.

The long and short of it is that, in my style of writing and directing, every spare moment in the story, even fluffy, happy ones, is a chance to drop a seed or a clue that later leads into some remarkable characterization.

I want to know how comfortable you all are with learning or adapting to this, and how alert you're willing to be for the moments.

BECAUSE I still maintain that the best storytelling across a grand scheme is best done not on-the-nose; quite the opposite, I approach these things as if I'm a fan of my book/game/show theorycrafting what is going to come of event X while we're still on event L.

I vote for the A L L C O N S U M I N G V O I D.

Re: foreshadowing central, I'm up for it I guess? It does run pretty contrary to my baseline in this sort of thing where I pretty much learn about my character as I go. Shrug emoji.

Personally I tend to plan things a lot, and I do drop like... one line, bit of dialogue or one specific moment that usually hints to a bigger thing or character trait later on - I'm currently doing that and planning for stuff like that in my current LMS story - so I guess that's close enough to what you're talking about?

I mean I wouldn't call it extreme character development (plus I usually do that alone, while being alert with other characters in a storybook do changes the dynamic a bit, methinks), but I'd definitely feel in familiar ground if that's the type of gimmick you want for Aether.

That's a style I could probably adapt to. I'm not blunt, and I hate being blunt, when it comes to indicate my character's personalities and behaviors. The better to drop hints and clues in multitudes of different places and eventually weave together a more complex picture while catching the attention of my audience and leaving them curious to learn more in the process. I imagine extreme character depth might be a little hard to get used to, though I'd be better off shaving unnecessary or unhelpful details, and the better I work on making every word I write count. So that's something I can adapt to.

As for alertness, I can piece together details in a story's narrative fairly well, but I have a tendency to come to the right conclusions right before those become more clear. However, with enough focus, I can pick up relatively subtle hints.

And if I'm wrong in both of those cases, which wouldn't surprise me, I can learn. That's something I can feel confident about.

I certainly wouldn't stress over it. The simple fact is that, if you consider a large project (a novel) as this will end up sizing up to, the characters don't reach critical depth until much later in the story.

I would use Anberlin as an example, but her personal story hits a bit too close to home to talk about socially.

Which begs the question: do you write your characters close to the chest? Do you feel what they feel? And if so, do you write them so that others may understand that feeling as well?

Because at the end of the day, that's what I'm going to ask of you.

In my other main project that I'm writing with @Bloo, there's a character who, in the fourth or fifth chapter, was taken hostage by a Kilgrave-like character who originally served as a mother figure for another protagonist.

Our attempt in telling the kidnapped woman's story is that of being in an extremely toxic and prisonesque relationship where the captor uses your own strongest traits and weaknesses against you to manipulate you.

It's a caricature right now, but in the upcoming chapters, we have strong plans to explore the feelings of that character, Pilen, and how she both feels an admiration for her captor for bringing out her best, but this deep, bone-dwelling hatred of both her captor and herself because she's not sure if she's a prisoner of circumstance, or if she's really doing what she wants--ultimately because she's been manipulated into thinking that way.

/cough

Adult relationships are hard, and those are the types of stories I dig into.

It won't be immediate, and it may develop due to retrospect, but the ultimate request is that you be aware of the feelings and actions of the characters...and readers.

I usually employ foreshadowing and subtlety that very few pick up in my writing, so I've grown used to cutting it out of SBing. However, I have no objections with what you're proposing; on the contrary, it means I get to use body language, verbal tics, and diction to further characterisation, which is delightful! (I think I've cultivated what could be called "Hunter-speak". XD)

As for wearing my heart on my pen - or keyboard, as it were - it depends. I don't immediately become invested in my characters for SBs, since it just leads to disappointment if that SB expires prematurely.

@Lumi ...So basically you're literally offering a silver plater full of data for us to absor and eventually learn from according to the mistakes or awesome feats we'll do as we progress through this with our characters. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnneat.

Weeeeeeell, I'm totally not used to that level of deepness (yay, called it), but I defintely can try and retry until I get it right. We'll see how far we can go! I firmly believe that investment will come and grow as our characters progress, so no biggie. As for the disapointment Astral mentioned - gosh how we all know how THAT feels - that's probably why I always recycle my characters for other stuff even if they vanish. I know I'm not the only one who does this, but y'know. Just sharin'. I hate it when they just disappear.

Twaggy, I'm not gonna hand you anything. ;3

Your characters are your babies, not mine. But considering that this is a Lumibook, everyone must be able to write for every character. That's the whole reason I go to such lengths to ensure you get a cartoonish representation of the person beneath.

Is that what my previous paragraph up there made it sound like? Because I meant like, I don't mind any requirement needed here as long as we get to learn as we write. I kind of assumed the first couple of posts would be a bit harder until we got used to everything, but that it would flow more and more easily as we continued. So... yeah basically this is awesome and thank you for the freedom granted to us all.

Lumi wrote:
Which begs the question: do you write your characters close to the chest? Do you feel what they feel? And if so, do you write them so that others may understand that feeling as well?

Because at the end of the day, that's what I'm going to ask of you.

I fundamentally disagree with your style and method.

Jagged wrote:Re: foreshadowing central, I'm up for it I guess? It does run pretty contrary to my baseline in this sort of thing where I pretty much learn about my character as I go. Shrug emoji.

L I F E I S M E A N I N G L E S S

also yes and more yes. So much yes in this post. Basically sums up my feelings.

Eh, Lou. That's where we've always split hairs.

It's also why Simone is the most underdeveloped character in TBS. ;P

Regardless, at the end of the day you'll put out what you put out. The challenge is there, but tbh (and you know this) I'm really nyeh about things when people just don't give a crap.

Or if the weather is right, I give a crap for that person.

Lumi wrote:Eh, Lou. That's where we've always split hairs.

It's also why Simone is the most underdeveloped character in TBS. ;P

wow, shorts fired bro

no it's actually true

Lumi wrote:Which begs the question: do you write your characters close to the chest? Do you feel what they feel? And if so, do you write them so that others may understand that feeling as well?

That's a tough question. I'm not quite sure if I can answer that, mainly cause I've never really considered the fundamentals of my writing style and how I focus on my characters. I mean, I'd like to imagine that I feel as they feel - that I feel stressed when they do, tired when they do, excited, angry etc. In general, the mood and tone of my writing depends on my thoughts and feelings, and the inverse also applies - the particular tone of what I'm writing influences me. Maybe it's just because I'm usually stressed/anxious/frustrated/indecisive and I like to write characters in stressful scenes. I'm not sure. However, I seem to be good at communicating a particular mood or feeling though my characters and scenes, which has been my intent. So perhaps the way I write and how I incorporate the characters is similar to yours, although I must just not know my own writing all that much. *shrugs*

By the by, if any of your characters have previous knowledge or relationships with anyone, shout it today/tomorrow.

and if ur wolf (cough jaggy cough) has any intention of finding a sweet man to chew on let's hear a woof

While we're on that topic, I think asexuality falls under the categories specified in the challenge (to be honest, I didn't even know that was a thing), and since I've never had an asexual character before, I decided to give it a go. *is still working on profile because TV Topes is too distracting*