^^ Same here. I hate it when I'm typing on the computer, and look up, and every word is misspelled! (Because I look at my keyboard while typing. I never learned how to type the official way. I only know how to poke with a couple fingers at a time. )

~Riella

Welcome to Writer’s World Katana and FoodForThought!

@FencerforJesus: Thank You! As always I really appreciate and respect your advice.
I think I am on the right track with my main character.
His flaw is the whole reason for the quest and it’s resolve is the conclusion of the quest, so I think so far it will work.

@FoodForThought: Thank you very much!
That was very helpful. I guess I am doing something right so far because my character is far from perfect.

Each of my seven (well more like six because one is a creature ) character’s mistakes vary from lying, revenge, disobedience, bitterness.
From the mistakes of my eleven year old character, to the mistakes of my oldest thirty-seven year old character.
No matter what degree the mistakes are that they have made, they are all in need of forgiveness. Each of their mistakes have brought them to where they are in my story and where they are all going.
They all come from different backgrounds and places but are forced to make the journey in my story together.

Wahahaha! I am not able to keep up with this forum!!! Whew!
Thanks 7chronicles and Fencer. I'm really inspired by what you've both said about your works! Praise God, He works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform!
I agree, Fencer, about God calling so many, and so few answering. It is such a shame. And completely agreed with your perspective of Christians being right in the middle of Spiritual Warfare! My whole family has been serving the Lord for over 20 years now, in whatever way He calls. We work with ophanages, prisons, problem teenagers, etc.--wherever He leads.
I would love to read your book...but I'm afraid I live on the other side of the world, and shipping is a bit too expensive. Oh, well, God knows, maybe I'll be able to get it someday.
About characters being faulty and still likeable...yes, that's a challenge. It's something I'm learning to do in my story. My main character is a 15-year-old girl. I tried to make her as realistic as possible, and it was hard! She is full of faith and vision and zest to follow the Warrior Lord (Christ), but she is very shy and introverted, and compares a lot with those around her. It took weeks to shape her character. First she was just waaay to perfect, but then I decided to take some of my own faults and place them in her, and that made the perfect balance.
I think the secret to making a character faulty and yet likeable is to pattern them after a real person, at least partially. Real people always have faults, but we like them anyway--because we know we're got faults too. Making a character likeable is making him/her relatable...(at least, the way I see it)

FoodForThought

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

I love reading people's "ramblings". You have a lot of interesting things to say, and lots of advice.

Ithilwen

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.

Very true. It's the mix of characters--characters like us and characters oppostie us--that catches out attention in books.

Lucy of Narnia Lol on the Frodian-Freudian your book sounds very fascinating. I'd love to get to see it once it's finished.

7chronicles

No matter what degree the mistakes are that they have made, they are all in need of forgiveness. Each of their mistakes have brought them to where they are in my story and where they are all going.
They all come from different backgrounds and places but are forced to make the journey in my story together

I love the sound of your book! I started writing a book where the main theme was forgiveness too, but decided to stop so I could work on this one. I still intend to continue it, though. Yours sounds amazing! God bless you!

Oh, and welcome Katana and FoodForThought! So nice to have you.

^ That'd be neat! Maybe I will get it published then you can read it! I dream.

Oh my! It seems I have some catching up to do here! *takes deep breath*

Valiant, on finding a good solution: the ending to my story came to me with the rest of its plot. I didn't know right away that I'd be ending on a cliffhanger of sorts, but it turned out to be the best ending I could have hoped for. Basically, it involves my MC facing a very difficult decision, and he ends up giving up many comforts in order to attempt to rescue a friend - which is where book two will come in. The hardest part for me will probably be getting that last page or two right, so that the story doesn't end too sharply but also doesn't babble on and on.

So here is a question to go with this: when you figure out the story, what is it that you start with? Is it a theme? A beginning scene? An ending scene? Or something in the middle?

It's been several years since the earliest roots of my story began to develop, but I'm fairly sure it started with my MC. From there, it just took off. I'm an artist, so I spent a great deal of time drawing the creatures in my world (I've found doodles of them that are four years old). I also drew a map. Which reminds me, I'm probably going to have to redesign my continent so my poor characters don't have to travel so far to get from one place to another.

Hey, Narnian_Archer! Great to see you back! Your story sounds great! That's neat how it started from a single image like that. Being an artist, I think in terms of paintings, movies, etc. That picture you described, of the Warrior Lord and his horn, sounds like it would make a pretty awesome painting! Just throwing that out there.

I think it's so neat that so many people here are writing for God! What a wonderful gift to give Him! My story is not strictly what you'd call "Christian fantasy" - it's more along the lines of Tolkien's Middle Earth, where no blatant references are made to religion of any sort. But it does contain good characters and messages that I'd like to pass along to my readers (God willing, I'll have some someday ). The idea is, that way my work could be read by people who might not do so otherwise, and it can impact them in a positive way.

Hello Kat! Welcome to Writer's World! I hope you find our discussions useful. Feel free to jump in with any questions you might have.

Hello to you too, FoodForThought! I think your username suits you quite well! I certainly enjoyed reading your post about flawed characters. It's interesting how I've never really thought about it from that perspective before, but it makes sense. The problem I have is creating those human/ordinary characters in a fantasy world. I try to make my MC as human as I can...but it's hard, see, because so many bad things have happened to him. At the beginning of my story, he's an orphan working as a servant for a rather disagreeable master. Already, he seems a bit hard to relate to. Is there anything I might do to make him seem more ordinary?

Oh, please do continue with your "rambles", if you so choose.

Lu, I know what it feels like to be uninspired for a while...I've found that sometimes it's best to just give your brain a rest and then come back to your project. I'm sure that "flame" will return to you...don't give up! Just keep at it!

Okay, I think I'm all caught up now. Happy writing, all!

^ Thanks for the encouragement, Silver the Wanderer ! I need to get back to my poetry and writing, and I'm excited now!

So what does everyone think of big, epic books in general? I want to make a LotR inspired book- not a copy, of course, but an echo of the courage, bravery, loyalty and overall epic-ness. Yeah. That's a word: epic-ness. I say so.

I'm in a weird mood...

Lu

Hey, if epic-ness isn't a word, I say it is now.

As for big, epic books, I'll say this, bigger does not mean better. I've read shorter books that are far more epic and better than some longer ones. But that being said, some epic stories simply can't be done in short style. LOTR is one example. That kind of story required that length book and it indeed was epic. But a shorter epic story IMO was Peretti's This Present Darkness. Still a full-length novel, but it was only the size of FOTR, TT, or ROTK. I'm a fan of long stories, but just make sure everything in there helps develop the characters or story or enrich the culture usefully. But those tasks are very long. Tolkien took 12 years to write LOTR. Put's things in perspective.

*gasp* I will need to get started then, lol. And you're right, bigger's not better. But I do want me story to be long and complicated...I think. Sounds hard, and easy-to-mess-it-up-ish. *sigh* I'd better get started. Maybe if I start now I'll finish when I'm eighty...

Lu

Hello to you too, FoodForThought! I think your username suits you quite well! I certainly enjoyed reading your post about flawed characters. It's interesting how I've never really thought about it from that perspective before, but it makes sense. The problem I have is creating those human/ordinary characters in a fantasy world. I try to make my MC as human as I can...but it's hard, see, because so many bad things have happened to him. At the beginning of my story, he's an orphan working as a servant for a rather disagreeable master. Already, he seems a bit hard to relate to. Is there anything I might do to make him seem more ordinary?

Oh, please do continue with your "rambles", if you so choose.

Hello there, Silver the Wanderer!

First off, thanks for the response to my post! As for your main character... I think a problem with some authors is that they think about it too much. Not to say that a great author plops down a character idea on a piece of paper and it becomes one of the most memorable characters in literature, that is not what I am meaning to imply at all! I just mean to say that some authors need to... go with it.

So, what do I mean by that? I just think that Tolkien did not sculpt Samwise Gamgee into a perfect mold when he was creating his character, and I do not think that Homer had any concrete preconceptions of the characteristics of Telemachos. Again, I am not trying to say that the planning of a character is a bad thing, I just think that many amateur authors try to pinpoint a character all the way down to its bits and pieces (not that this is an inherently bad thing, and I certainly don't mean to be condescending).

Back in the day, I used to be into that whole role-playing thing. If I was reading the description of a character, a long and over-arching explanation of them would soon bore me. Why? Because then their actions will all meet that vision that the player of that character has for them. Whether the controller of the character recognizes it or not, a character's actions soon become much too predictable and seem to lose their value.

The value that makes your stomach tingle when a character makes a heart-warming or brave decision after a rousing speech. Those are the moments in literature that I remember. When a character who is of otherwise normal characteristics steps out of the ordinary, instead of just fitting within its carefully constructed mold set forth by the author. As a reader, I do not like to see a character be pinned down to a certain stereotype. Sure, I like a classic hero, but classic heroes have faults as well.

As for your main character being an orphan? I think that circumstances are of no object. If a reader has any sort of imagination, they are able to think of themselves in place of the character in question. Creating an interesting plot and surrounding the character in challenging circumstances just adds to the excitement and curiosity of placing yourself in that character's shoes. I have in no way been in the situation of Telemachos, but I can surely understand his actions towards the suitors that hassle him on a daily basis!

"It's the actions that count", is what all this jibber-jabber could be made out to be. Don't be afraid to make your character go out of his or her character, or out of the ordinary in general, but make it believable. Give good reason!

This may just be a regurgitation of my previous post in disguise, but, hopefully it helps you out a little.

^^ but just because an author tries to pinpoint a character, or lay out all the aspects of their personality, that doesn't mean the character will be a stereotype. I have seen many characters that had a lot of thought put into them beforehand, and were very original. The intense planning only paid off in making a more developed, creatively-designed character...

Or did you mean something else by this?

~Riella

I'm an artist, so I spent a great deal of time drawing the creatures in my world (I've found doodles of them that are four years old). I also drew a map. Which reminds me, I'm probably going to have to redesign my continent so my poor characters don't have to travel so far to get from one place to another.

I’m working on my world’s map too right now!
It's my third time drawing my map because I keep changing certain landmarks and names.
It is so much fun to draw what you picture in your head. Actually I tend to draw more of my book then actual writing

I am currently sorting through all of my picture references for my story and getting everything in order before I start to write again. I keep everything for my writing in memory cards so nothing will be erased on my computer.
I can’t wait to actually start writing again, I got so busy for the past three months I wasn’t able to write a single word.
So it will be nice to start making some progress on my story.

Has anyone ever made any embarassing mistakes in writing?
Recently, when I was writing this scene where two characters' canoe tipped over, I realized that I was making the river flow in the wrong direction. Weird.

^^ but just because an author tries to pinpoint a character, or lay out all the aspects of their personality, that doesn't mean the character will be a stereotype. I have seen many characters that had a lot of thought put into them beforehand, and were very original. The intense planning only paid off in making a more developed, creatively-designed character...

Or did you mean something else by this?

~Riella

Ah, I just meant that it usually has more likelihood to do so, not that it always will. Like I said, trying to nail a character down isn't necessarily an inherently bad thing, but I just find that whenever any of my friends or myself is having a problem with developing a character, they and I just seem to be trying too hard to develop the character! I know it seems crazy, or perhaps it doesn't, but I've found it's the best thing to do when you're in a rut like that.

And of course, I'm not discouraging putting great thought into a character, just not too much thought. The problem is, sometimes some people can't make out the difference.

I find that characterization is easiest when I just slap the character down onto my paper and begin to write them, whatever their situation is. The more I write, the more the personality of the character is defined. In the second draft, I look over my first draft and try to see the arc of the character; who they are at first, how the develop, why they develop, and how their emotions progress-- even scene by scene.

I think it's a lengthy process. It's not going to be perfect the first time, in my opinion, and though I have more trouble keeping my characters consistent than giving them changes and reactions to new things, I think that a look at how your character will act throughout the story (after you've discovered who they are from writing about them) helps you to realize who they are. Writing about a character helps me to learn much more about them than sitting down and giving them a list of character traits, anyways.

Well, I am thinking that the main plot for Lucy of Narnia's Lengthy Work of Epic-ness ( ) should be some evil guy that lives hidden behind the hills, secretly getting people on his side and influencing those of the quiet, pastoral towns and villages. Of course, there's a quest to find him, but it moves rather slowly and many die or drop out along the way do to enemy encounters, illness and starvation. Through it all, one person holds together, giving selflessly to help others and working endlessly to figure out who the evil guy is and finish the quest. I have no clue what else happens, but there will be some (appropriate) romance (no smoochies in my book! lol), some family life...it will be a book of regular, real life in irregular, surreal surroundings. And there will be many heroes...

Whatcha think??

Lu

*edit* I just generated this name...Ken Daichi Josiala. Don't know who it's for yet, but I think it's a good one for a historical, mysterious, cultural feel. I think I'll use the names to tell others something about the characters...

*runs off to generate!*

P.S. Plot notes later.