^^ Usually what sparks my stories is a simple image of a scene or a trait of a character. Then I build the story around it. Most of the time, the orginal image ends up being a very minor part, or sometimes even gets taken out altogether. But it served it's purpose in bringing about a story.

I usually get it while I'm talking to someone, and something they say strikes me. Or (and this is the most common one) when I'm listening to music and the song paints a picture in my head.

~Riella

All of my stories started with a picture in my head.
Then that picture turned into another, and then another, and before I knew it, there was a living, breathing world, filled with characters and creatures that seemed to just write themselves.
Looking back it’s hard to believe how far my story has come from that one picture, I pray (God Willing) one day I can share the story with others.

Or (and this is the most common one) when I'm listening to music and the song paints a picture in my head.

I do that to!
A lot of the scenes from my book I actually thought of while listening to music.

Mine start with an idea, and then a few characters. Then the world gets built up from there. I get an idea like 'what if this guy gets exiled for fifteen years and comes back to find his people gone?' (the plot of my first book) and take it from there.

Hello, Fellow Writers!
It's been Ages since I've gone on the forum (power cuts, training, and now school to blame for that), but it's so nice to be back!!! Wow, so much has happened since I've last been here...now all I need is time to go back and read through all the amazing posts I missed!
Congrats, Fencer! So happy for you!!
Lady Haleth wow, that's very interesting. I'd like to try that sometime
7chronicles same with me--at least, with most of them
Ithilwen Ha! I've had that happen so many times! I always feel kind of bad that something so "cool" has to be minimized or taken out, but as you said, it served it's purpose.
Now...to get into the topic!
When I first started making up stories, they were usually inspired by either a picture, or a song, or sometimes a movie. (My well-beugn-but-still-a-long-way-to-go-novella "Betrayal" was inspired by the film "First Knight")
The story I am working on now did not have any one inspiration, but has a long, long history. I had always wanted to write a story set in the mountains, but I was never able to realize my ideas. I thought of a million plots (princesses being captured, servants stolden from masters, unknown mysterious strangers, rebels attacking, etc.), and always got a good start, but was always stuck in the middle, or was dissatisfied with the ending, and dumped it.
Later, when I had decided I wanted to devote the rest of my life to Christ (I've been raised a Christian, but only made this decision several months ago), I had a burning desire to write something that would inspire fellow teenagers like myself to hold on to their faith and keep going for God. I had a lot of friends who were going through tough times in their life, and I wanted to encourage them. The desire, my natural love for history and nature, and my dreams of setting a tale in the mountains all morphed into my story. The "spark" that ignited the "explosion" was an picture I saw of a Warrior Lord on a mountain blowing a horn and calling his soldiers together. I compared the Lord to Christ calling Christians to serve Him...and it just took off from there!
I've finished the second chapter by now, and it's going great! I've said this before, but thanks to everyone who answered my questions on this thread. Your advice has helped me tremendously! God bless you all!

I saw of a Warrior Lord on a mountain blowing a horn and calling his soldiers together. I compared the Lord to Christ calling Christians to serve Him...and it just took off from there!
I've finished the second chapter by now, and it's going great!

That’s Awesome Narnian_Archer!

I always felt in my heart that this was a story God gave me to write.
My three books all focus on Forgiveness (God’s Forgiveness).
God has brought me through many storms in the past and I wanted to write a story that would show others the Grace and Forgivness of God and how he brings you out of the storm.
I pray I can give Him glory through my writing!

By the way, how much can you flaw your main character and still have people like him?
My main character has made some terrible mistakes and as the story progresses you find out more and more about the mistakes of his past and what he is running from and what he is looking for.
But I want people to want him to succeed in his quest. Does anyone have any tips on how to make a flawed character likeable?

That is indeed cool Narnian_Archer. In my experience with missions, I do see God often standing on a mountain top calling for his people to come and take action. And unfortunately, not many people answer the call. You'd really like my novel as it deals with spiritual warfare to the everyday believer. I don't see spiritual warfare as a mere angels and demons thing that takes place in the heavens in regards to us. I see us thrust right into the thick of the battle, so while the above is true, we play active and vital roles in the battle.

It's also interesting that your books, 7chronicles, deals with forgiveness. That ends up playing a big theme in my sequel. But what I do is show both effects of forgiveness, the positive results of doing it, and the negative results of not doing it. God has personally taught me a lot about forgiveness since this summer. Not that I really needed to learn it for me personally (because I usually don't have a problem with holding grudges and becoming bitter), but it was for teaching purposes. I did a fencing presentation at a girl's refuge/rehab center and demonstrated three actions, giving a practical lesson with each one. My final one was on forgiveness and it has a huge impact on my audience. It's good stuff.

How to make a flawed character likable? That can be tricky. Your heroes don't need to be Superman with only one weakness. They can have multiple weaknesses but it might be a good idea to have them related. Don't have to do it that way, but it is one way to do it. But remember that a flaw you give a character needs to be resolved in someway, shape, or form. Otherwise the reader will feel it's incomplete. Remember that your characters don't necessarily have to replicate that way we interact exactly. They usually model an aspect we want to address. One character may be absolutely fearless, but his flaw is lack of maturity and his propensity of making rash decisions. He has other flaws, but they don't need to be revealed unless they play an important role in his character development. So here is my advice, if you are trying to add a flaw just to make him appear more human, don't. If that flaw will play a role in his development and why we care for that character, use it.

Hello Everyone Im new to Writers World but I hope to get more involved in the future. It has been decided by the higher powers (lol) that I was a writer in the second grade when we had to write a story about scarecrows and the teacher liked mine so much she made me walk around the shool and read to all the faculty, I was pretty embarassed. I carry a steno notebook around with me so I can write down idea's, names, plots etc. whenever they pop into my head, all my friends are used to seeing me with it. My favourite genre's to write are Fantasy, Poetry, short stories and historical fiction. I do like being a writer but more then being a writer I consider myself a storyteller as from when I was little until now I like to make up stories in my head and tell them to people. Most people say I have a very interesting voice though I am not overly good at singing.
So there you have it, the newest writers world member

How to make a flawed character likable? That can be tricky. Your heroes don't need to be Superman with only one weakness. They can have multiple weaknesses but it might be a good idea to have them related. Don't have to do it that way, but it is one way to do it. But remember that a flaw you give a character needs to be resolved in someway, shape, or form. Otherwise the reader will feel it's incomplete. Remember that your characters don't necessarily have to replicate that way we interact exactly. They usually model an aspect we want to address. One character may be absolutely fearless, but his flaw is lack of maturity and his propensity of making rash decisions. He has other flaws, but they don't need to be revealed unless they play an important role in his character development. So here is my advice, if you are trying to add a flaw just to make him appear more human, don't. If that flaw will play a role in his development and why we care for that character, use it.

Hello there, FencerForJesus!

I dropped in just now and saw this post, so I hope you don't mind that I jump in on the discussion.

In Orthodoxy, Chesterton briefly goes over the topic of modern day novels. He mentions how most modern authors seem to place what we would consider heroes into an equally fantastical setting. Something even more boring, Chesterton says, is placing heroes in a typical world, such as modern day society. Funny enough, Tolkien comes around not too much later after Chesterton dies and seems to heed Chesterton's warnings. He places an ordinary hobbit in a fantastical world full of evil and great men, far beyond the hobbit's wildest dreams that he had in the humble village of Hobbiton.

Frodo was like most of us are. We all have our flaws, misconceptions, and strong points. We can relate to Frodo because he seems to be such a minor character in such a large, eventful world.

Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.

- Tolkien

Even though Frodo may have strong-points such as his courage, even his courage seems to fade in the depths of Moria.

C.S. Lewis seems to follow in Tolkien's foot steps in Out of the Silent Planet. He takes a mere philologist and turns him into the savior of Mars! In my opinion, Dr. Elwin Ransom is one of the most like-able characters in literature, and one of the easiest to relate to. His reactions seem completely natural and often corresponding with mine. He does not always know what to do or say, and oftentimes he makes questionable decisions.

It seems that our literature today seems to be the thing that Chesterton was warning about. Placing fantastical characters in an equally fantastical world, or placing fantastical characters in a normal world. It always seems that the main character will always have an unnaturally strong characteristic of goodness, justice, courage, humility, pride, cowardice, lovingness, etc., that simply cannot be breached. Another thing that seems curious is that a character's good characteristics just never seem to be their downfall, in modern literature.

I'll take another example from C.S. Lewis, this time from Perelandra. Pity and love are generally considered healthy attributes, but it soon leads to Ransom's downfall, as the Tempter is able to fool Ransom on multiple occasions because of his pity for Weston. In a lot of books that I've read from recent days, that just never seems to happen. It always seems to be a character's weaknesses that lead him to his lowest point, and then his strengths that bring him back up, giving us the satisfaction of a redeemed character.

I'm not quite sure where I was going with this, I might just be rambling at this point, but, I hope it's useful for someone, or at the very least inspires some good discussion.

Sorry for the length of the post, but, I'm sure someone likes to read ramblings, too!

You ought to check out some of my earlier posts on this thread and the Christianity thread. Those are long posts compared to yours. But anyway, welcome to the Writer's World thread. And you, Katana. I am (hopefully not the only one) a resident published novelist as you can see in my siggy. So I do get a lot of people here seeking my advise and 'wisdom'. I really can only share from my experience which has been such an awesome trip and it's really helped those here.

Now, FoodForThought, you make an excellent point. I wrote my comment off the top of my head and didn't even think about this angle. That is why we have these forums. One person doesn't have all the answers and I'm really looking forward to seeing what other people have to say about it too.

That's an excellent viewpoint, FoodforThought, and I absolutely love that you used examples. So it's the normal people in extraordinary situations (more often thrust into them) that interest us? That we seem to measure their reactions with ours, if we were in that situation, and what should happen and how they should act?

You ought to check out some of my earlier posts on this thread and the Christianity thread. Those are long posts compared to yours. But anyway, welcome to the Writer's World thread. And you, Katana. I am (hopefully not the only one) a resident published novelist as you can see in my siggy. So I do get a lot of people here seeking my advise and 'wisdom'. I really can only share from my experience which has been such an awesome trip and it's really helped those here.

Now, FoodForThought, you make an excellent point. I wrote my comment off the top of my head and didn't even think about this angle. That is why we have these forums. One person doesn't have all the answers and I'm really looking forward to seeing what other people have to say about it too.

Indeed! And thank you, FencerforJesus.

I've seen some series of posts on here that might as well have been a chapter in a book. Everyone here really is interesting, and have a lot to say, which I find absolutely delightful! I like forums for the same reason as you do. It's a melting pot of ideas, and you can really take a lot from the whole thing.

That's an excellent viewpoint, FoodforThought, and I absolutely love that you used examples. So it's the normal people in extraordinary situations (more often thrust into them) that interest us? That we seem to measure their reactions with ours, if we were in that situation, and what should happen and how they should act?

Hello there, sweet! (I hope you don't mind that I call you that. )

Absolutely, especially more often being thrust into those situations, which is a great point you make. With Frodo and the Ring, he is given full responsibility by Gandalf. It's hard to say no to a Maiar who is your good friend and expects great things from you! And so we are thrust into the story, like you said.

I feel like so many stories these days are centered around only showing you the adventures of the hero, instead of taking you with the hero on his adventure. That is where the true excitement of literature lies, when you can relate to the hero because of the author's tact in making you feel such a sense of connection.

One last thing! I think this can connect to the Bible, as well. If David was a glorious king with no flaws and was the epitome of what we all should be, we could not connect to The Bible as we do now. One could say that David could be used as a better example of what to be if his flaws were not displayed, but I do not think this is so. David gives is the perfect example because that he has flaws, and because he is a fallen human being.

We learn how to seek redemption and how to be seen as righteous in the sight of God because of David's imperfections which are displayed. So why should normal literature be any different? It's the imperfections that make a story perfect. Quite a paradox, isn't it!

^^ Reversely, characters who are opposite from us also interest us, because something inside us always wants to know what it's like to be someone else. And books can fulfill that.

~Riella

I think I have to get back to my poetry and writing, and it shall come easy. I just have to take that step...

Oh, I think I'll try to figure out how to make a Fro- never mind, it'd be hopelessly Frodian, and everyone would know it. Oh well, I can dream, can't I? Or write fan-fics (not on this sight, of course )

On a pleasant note, I have a great idea that can get me started on my book The Esparilian again, I'm horrible at writing about war maneuvers (never did it, lol) but I have an old trick of the hidden-door-leading-out-of-the-city-and-into-escape plot up my sleeve. Thank you, sister, for reading Henty!! lol, now I don't have to...well, at least for that idea; my Mum will make me anyway!

Lu

^^ LOL Frodian! Like Freudian... I love the wordplay.

That book sounds interesting. Did you start writing it awhile back, and then stop? I notice you said "again"...

~Riella

Yeah, I had grandioso plans then lost the flame for writing it. I...must...finish it!!

Oh, forgot about Freudian! lol Sometimes I do make Freudian slips, like say I name my Frodo character "James", then I'd probably slip up and write "Frodo"...I did that w/ a "Susan-ish" character once, lol.

Lu