How to be ORIGINAL ~ Brian McDonald

[OokamiKasumi]

Actually one could look at Frankenstein as being a Pygmalion gone bad? So even that wasn't wholly original. However, the Execution and where the author took that story WAS original!

Lol, true, true. I was trying to think of something that didn't have much of a known precursor, but I guess that's about as possible as trying to write an "original" work XD

I have a head full of myths and fairy tales from all over the world. (Semi-photographic memory. I remember almost every story I read -- or watch.) There's no story out there I can't find a root tale for.

... I think it's a matter of personal style and what works best for you... I'm fine with agreeing to disagree here on what's "best," since...well, I guess I don't think there IS a "best" way, as long as it works for the writer.

On that we definitely agree. No two writers come up with stories the same way, or put them on paper the same way because no two Minds think or dream alike.

It might also be of note, for context, that one of the reasons I believe so strongly in this is because I'm very accustomed to doing writing for Dungeons and Dragons, where the plot MUST bow to the will of the players, otherwise it becomes...not fun.

Oh... That actually explains quite a lot! I never could get comfortable playing D&D, though I love the idea of it because I just couldn't handle letting someone else write my story. I'm something of a control freak, I guess. I don't like it at all when my characters suddenly spin out of my control. However, they tend to only do that in my fan-fiction.

I won't say the characters-first style is without flaws. I always have trouble writing climaxes and endings, since the story is written in a way that allows it to never really end. But that might also be because my stories are so long and detailed in the first place, I don't have half as much practice ENDING them as beginning and developing them. (As if you can't tell by my wall 'o text posts...my apologies... *bow, bow*)

Ah... I don't have problems with endings at all, usually because I know where I want to end it before I begin typing. However, my climax scenes can and do suddenly change on me. Normally because I come up with one better.

The best published examples of the character-first style for those interested, I think, are Baccano and Durararara...and any other works by those same creators, really. It's kind of their thing. I'm sure there are books that follow the same lines, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Jim Butcher, Stephen King, and Laurell K Hamilton are character-first authors -- which is why Ms Hamilton is having so many problems tying up the loose ends in her "Anita Blake" series. Mr. Butcher plots a bit more heavily, but he does talk about how his characters will take off on him when he's not looking. Mr. King makes no bones about the fact that he writes almost strictly character-based stories, and that he sometimes has problems finding ends for his tales because of it.

Edgar Allen Poe, however, is a plot-first writer, and a die-hard one at that. He's my personal role-model.

[Carassaurat]

I've always written characters first. I think it's a matter of personal style and what works best for you, though I'll defend characters-first style to the death

It might be interesting for you to participate in the Adversity Comp, to see if your style would in the end be notably different from OokamiKasumi's, and to see how and why they differ when jumping off the same starting point. Just thinking out loud here.

[athenastar17]

I've always written characters first. I think it's a matter of personal style and what works best for you, though I'll defend characters-first style to the death

It might be interesting for you to participate in the Adversity Comp, to see if your style would in the end be notably different from OokamiKasumi's, and to see how and why they differ when jumping off the same starting point. Just thinking out loud here.

Phew, finish a story before the end of September? XD That would be more of a challenge than the writing itself. I would definitely be up for attempting it if it wasn't so late in the game already.... Do they do something like this every month? Doesn't look like it, but the title implies that it may repeat itself.... EDIT: Also, I'm just now seeing this, and it looks like OokamiKasumi has already started... ^^;;; n-not that I'd be in it for the competition.... besidesthatI'dsooooolose,thispersonisaproIRL....

I'll probably end up downloading it and taking a look at it anyway XD I'm way too busy for this kind of thing, but that doesn't mean I can't be open to masochism.

@OokamiKasumi: 666th post up there, eh. XD Coincidence? I THINK NOT. *dramatic face*

Second EDIT: Interesting to see there's only one character sprite. Now I kind of want to do this and see what I can do with a characters-first model...when I only have two "visible" characters to work with (you and the spirit). That's not exactly fair XD but it's interesting for me to think of ways I'd work around it.... Characters-first doesn't work that well without three or more conflicting forces, because with only two, it becomes a versus-story, and I don't find those particularly interesting.... But I bet I could squeeze more "characters" out of the resource limitation if I really think outside the box....

[dramspringfeald]

for "Originality" I fallow a time old statement.

Copied from one writer or another - "It's not what you have it's what you do with it."
and from Scripture (I try not to quote them but it fits)

Ecclesiastes 1:9 -
"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun."

[OokamiKasumi]

It might be interesting for you to participate in the Adversity Comp...

Phew, finish a story before the end of September? XD That would be more of a challenge than the writing itself. I would definitely be up for attempting it if it wasn't so late in the game already...

EDIT: Also, I'm just now seeing this, and it looks like OokamiKasumi has already started... ^^;;; n-not that I'd be in it for the competition.... besidesthatI'dsooooolose,thispersonisaproIRL...

Actually, I finished and submitted mine the first week.
-- In other words: it was a Rush-Job, so don't think you don't stand a chance against me, YOU DO -- especially if you stay focused on how you plan to END it, and work those assets for everything they're worth.

@OokamiKasumi: 666th post up there, eh. XD Coincidence? I THINK NOT. *dramatic face*

I don't believe in Coincidences either. There is only hitsuzen...err, Consequences of one's actions.

Interesting to see there's only one character sprite. Now I kind of want to do this and see what I can do with a characters-first model...

I'd be quite interested in your results myself.
-- I learn from every writer I read -- pro or not. Case in point: I learned how to write Comedy and Emotions (angst) from fan-fiction authors. They even wrote me tutorials!

...when I only have two "visible" characters to work with (you and the spirit). That's not exactly fair XD but it's interesting for me to think of ways I'd work around it...

Which is exactly why I entered the contest; to experiment with working Within predefined limits.

...I bet I could squeeze more "characters" out of the resource limitation if I really think outside the box....

Here's the key: Regular books tell stories with hundreds of characters just fine without any pictures at all.

[athenastar17]

-- In other words: it was a Rush-Job, so don't think you don't stand a chance against me, YOU DO -- especially if you stay focused on how you plan to END it, and work those assets for everything they're worth.

Baha...that's the thing, isn't it? XD The ending....

Here's the key: Regular books tell stories with hundreds of characters just fine without any pictures at all.

Hehehe...but I don't WRITE books. ^-^ Well...that's not true. I used to write fanfiction all the time, until I found another source for my creative fix (turned out being D&D, actually).
Actually, I guess my issue with it is really...it seems strange to have one person pictured, and no one else. That's ordinarily not the case in a book unless there's a single person on the cover.... But I guess she's the most important to show, because she's the one who looks strangest.... It might help ease my mind to use NVL mode in scenes where there's more than just her, I guess.

Thank you for your encouragement This is why I love these forums.... Everyone is so nice. I'm right in the middle of cranking up a Kingdom Hearts themed Dungeons and Dragons campaign, so my story-crafting gears are going in all kinds of directions (luckily I already have the next few sessions written as far as numeric details and encounters are concerned, but the plot can't be written until I know what the players will do of course <3).... Finishing this in ten days is going to be difficult...but I'm going to try. ...It will probably be horrible...but maybe only by my standards. We'll see.


PS, I also have a very internal locus of control, so hitsuzen is definitely most important. But I think there are also such things as "uninformed decisions," which is how I trick my players into making poor decisions all the time

[OokamiKasumi]

... stay focused on how you plan to END it, and work those assets for everything they're worth.

Baha...that's the thing, isn't it? XD The ending...

Since you're pressed for time, knowing your end is more important than ever, so come up with an ending (or 2 or 3,) FIRST. Then all you have to do is use the story/environment to push the characters There.

Here's the key: Regular books tell stories with hundreds of characters just fine without any pictures at all.

Hehehe...but I don't WRITE books. ^-^ Well...that's not true. I used to write fanfiction all the time...

Fan-fiction or not, you have the general idea. Where you don't have pictures, use WORDS to describe what can't be shown.

Actually, I guess my issue with it is really...it seems strange to have one person pictured, and no one else.

That's why this contest is called: Adversity. You are handicapped right out of the box. How you handle this handicap is very likely a major point in how your game will be judged.

... I guess she's the most important to show, because she's the one who looks strangest...

I disagree. I think our hostess gave us the Worst possible sprite to make a story from, (I mean, seriously, a mobile over its head?!) deliberately to make it difficult. She openly admitted that she Commissioned its creation specifically for this contest.

In my opinion, you should look at this as an Iron Chef Writer contest with that sprite as the Secret Ingredient.

It might help ease my mind to use NVL mode in scenes where there's more than just her, I guess.

Nvl Mode is an excellent choice for when there's nothing to look at but Words.

Thank you for your encouragement This is why I love these forums.... Everyone is so nice.

My pleasure. I like encouraging writers.

Finishing this in ten days is going to be difficult...but I'm going to try. ...It will probably be horrible...but maybe only by my standards. We'll see.

I made mine in 4, and I have little to no skill in coding. If I can do it, so can You.

PS, I also have a very internal locus of control, so hitsuzen is definitely most important. But I think there are also such things as "uninformed decisions," which is how I trick my players into making poor decisions all the time

There's also simply fooling the reader into thinking the most obvious choice is the right one, when in fact it leads directly to a bad end.

[athenastar17]

Since you're pressed for time, knowing your end is more important than ever, so come up with an ending (or 2 or 3,) FIRST. Then all you have to do is use the story/environment to push the characters There.

Isn't the point for me to do as I normally would, and let the characters move towards and ending by themselves? XD Through thinking of what the main might possibly do, I've come up with a few different reactions from the other characters and the outcomes that may result...but I'm probably just going to make it way too long and complicated, as usual.

That's why this contest is called: Adversity. You are handicapped right out of the box. How you handle this handicap is very likely a major point in how your game will be judged.

Point. XD

... I guess she's the most important to show, because she's the one who looks strangest...

I disagree. I think our hostess gave us the Worst possible sprite to make a story from, (I mean, seriously, a mobile over its head?!) deliberately to make it difficult. She openly admitted that she Commissioned its creation specifically for this contest.

Lol, the mobile is a little odd, I'll admit, but it did make me wonder how I might be able to incorporate it, thus giving me more creative fuel. Sometimes having a little restriction or an unexpected throw-in (like in iron chef I guess?) leads to interesting ends. Besides, the mobile is actually very easy to crop out.

I don't disagree that she's a little odd-looking, and her cutesy appearance doesn't at all match the dramatic music or realistic backgrounds, making it even worse...but I mostly meant that of everyone in the "world" we were given, based on the backdrops in the project, her appearance would probably be the least generic, and therefore most important amongst the other characters to actually show rather than describing with words. From the perspective of graphics alone, if I had to choose whether to picture someone who looked like your average high schooler with brown hair and brown eyes and a uniform...or this girl who looks like nothing you've ever seen in real life before...I would display her. Even if she does look ridiculous...the reader should know how ridiculous she looks. XD

Finishing this in ten days is going to be difficult...but I'm going to try. ...It will probably be horrible...but maybe only by my standards. We'll see.

I made mine in 4, and I have little to no skill in coding. If I can do it, so can You.

Haha, you must have been really inspired! Or really well-practiced. I'm sure I can write that much without worrying about code.... I'm really whipping myself to use as little code as possible (otherwise I'd end up rewriting DSE and not being able to finish, hehe). It really should be much quicker to do if I act like I'm not a programmer. Besides, the actual difficult part isn't writing that much in ten days...it's FINISHING with under 10,000 words in about ten hours over the course of that, with limited time in-between to even think on it. I have 3 hours of "free" time per day what with work, commute, etc., and all three of those are booked with other projects and...you know...basic daily needs....

I'm already 4k words in (instead of sleeping)...really bad at this "short" story thing...really bad.... It's still fun anyway, so I don't really care. I can always chop things for the contest and stick the actual director's cut version up somewhere else.

[OokamiKasumi]

Since you're pressed for time, knowing your end is more important than ever...

Isn't the point for me to do as I normally would, and let the characters move towards and ending by themselves? XD ...

My point is to get you to Finish and Submit. We can't compare our chosen styles of story craft if you don't even cross the Starting line.

...I think our hostess gave us the Worst possible sprite to make a story from, (I mean, seriously, a mobile over its head?!) deliberately to make it difficult.

Lol, the mobile is a little odd, I'll admit, but it did make me wonder how I might be able to incorporate it, thus giving me more creative fuel. Sometimes having a little restriction or an unexpected throw-in (like in iron chef I guess?) leads to interesting ends. Besides, the mobile is actually very easy to crop out.

I cropped it out.

...From the perspective of graphics alone, if I had to choose whether to picture someone who looked like your average high schooler with brown hair and brown eyes and a uniform...or this girl who looks like nothing you've ever seen in real life before...I would display her. Even if she does look ridiculous...the reader should know how ridiculous she looks. XD

See, if I'd had a choice, I would have totally gone the other way and chosen the other character. My theme was heavy and dark. That ridiculous sprite was completely wrong for it. Even so, I found a way to use that silliness to add an element that actually strengthened the weight of my theme.

I made mine in 4, and I have little to no skill in coding. If I can do it, so can You.

Haha, you must have been really inspired! Or really well-practiced.

I suspect that it was a little of both.

...It really should be much quicker to do if I act like I'm not a programmer. Besides, the actual difficult part isn't writing that much in ten days...it's FINISHING with under 10,000 words in about ten hours over the course of that, with limited time in-between to even think on it.

Okay, time is where I have a distinct advantage over you. I quit the day-job in 2006. Time for writing is something I have plenty of. (However, I spent almost my entire life getting to this point.)

I'm already 4k words in (instead of sleeping)...really bad at this "short" story thing...really bad...

I have a really hard time writing short too. (Um, novelist?)

It's still fun anyway, so I don't really care. I can always chop things for the contest and stick the actual director's cut version up somewhere else.

Good! It's supposed to be fun, and it should stretch your creativity in interesting directions.

[CheeryMoya]

I want to hug this post so much. Too many people get carried away with trying to be "original." Sometimes I want to scream at the sky

I see you there panda ಠ_ಠ

Maintaining some form of originality is important to me, or at least a degree of I'm-not-doing-exactly-the-same-thing-as-everyone-else. When I see a whole shelf of the same product, what am I going to go with? When it comes to games (which we're all making here), I don't like copycat games that spawned off the popularity of a big hit because they're usually of lower quality, lack something, etc. I keep saying that if we continue to regurgitate the same things over again things are going to get stale and stagnant fast.

Yeah, I've heard the saying a million times over: originality is gone or it never existed in the first place. But when you start thinking like that all the time you start losing interest in the stuff you liked before. What I see is a bunch of themes, motifs, styles, and raw creative material that still has unexplored combinations. You can fit the pieces together to either make a masterpiece or a monster, but it all depends on the execution. For example, let's take the high school story. We got plenty of those! Good execution will result in something nice; bad execution and I won't even blink at it. Personally I like taking the raw elements and combining them into novel things, or premises that are uncommon at best.

[OokamiKasumi]

Maintaining some form of originality is important to me, or at least a degree of I'm-not-doing-exactly-the-same-thing-as-everyone-else. ...if we continue to regurgitate the same things over again things are going to get stale and stagnant fast.

Yeah, I've heard the saying a million times over: originality is gone or it never existed in the first place. But when you start thinking like that all the time you start losing interest in the stuff you liked before.

Or, you get really, really pissed about it and make a game that uses those so-called "over-used" themes, and you do it Properly to show them how to do it right.

I'm firmly of the opinion that it's not themes or even the content, we're tiring of, but simply that the Way they're Using Them is either Incomplete or just plain Wrong.

What I see is a bunch of themes, motifs, styles, and raw creative material that still has unexplored combinations. You can fit the pieces together to either make a masterpiece or a monster, but it all depends on the execution. For example, let's take the high school story. We got plenty of those! Good execution will result in something nice; bad execution and I won't even blink at it.

I agree: it's not what you're using, but what you Do with it that counts.

Personally I like taking the raw elements and combining them into novel things, or premises that are uncommon at best.

Oh ho! Great Explorer is among us!

[athenastar17]

I want to hug this post so much. Too many people get carried away with trying to be "original." Sometimes I want to scream at the sky

I see you there panda ಠ_ಠ

Maintaining some form of originality is important to me, or at least a degree of I'm-not-doing-exactly-the-same-thing-as-everyone-else. When I see a whole shelf of the same product, what am I going to go with? When it comes to games (which we're all making here), I don't like copycat games that spawned off the popularity of a big hit because they're usually of lower quality, lack something, etc. I keep saying that if we continue to regurgitate the same things over again things are going to get stale and stagnant fast.

Yeah, I've heard the saying a million times over: originality is gone or it never existed in the first place. But when you start thinking like that all the time you start losing interest in the stuff you liked before. What I see is a bunch of themes, motifs, styles, and raw creative material that still has unexplored combinations. You can fit the pieces together to either make a masterpiece or a monster, but it all depends on the execution. For example, let's take the high school story. We got plenty of those! Good execution will result in something nice; bad execution and I won't even blink at it. Personally I like taking the raw elements and combining them into novel things, or premises that are uncommon at best.

Whew, got off-topic talking about the contest.... Back to originality!

I know exactly what you mean. The biggest examples lately have been 1) Vampire Romance (ever since Twilight), and 2) Disney vs. Dreamworks vs. other studios. Seriously, one makes a penguin movie, the other makes a penguin movie. One makes a celtic-viking-like movie about child-parent turmoil, the other does too. One makes a movie about zoo animals in the actual wild, so does the other. What the hell? Sure, this happens with other stories (a lot of magical school stories followed Harry Potter, but not quite this egregiously), but those are really, really bad about riding on the coat-tails of other works (or spontaneously "coming up with a similar idea at coincidentally the same time")! That is, I think, where you SHOULD worry about your originality - are you just inspired by something someone else did recently (unintentional coattail riding), or are you in it to ride on that craze (intentional), or something similar?

Normally, though, people tend to worry about it for the wrong reasons - they want to be so different, they become too afraid to write anything.