Author Topic: Koakuma's Writer's Parlour ~ Have some tea and discuss fiction and writing here!  (Read 223957 times)

Dead Princess Sakana

  • *
  • E is for Elodie, who swims with the fishes.
Welcome to the resting place of our library, dear visitor.


So you are one of the many writers that have made our library such a wonderful place?
Or are you a new visitor that has yet to write their first work?

No matter who you are, you must be tired from your hard work, I can imagine.

Here, let me serve you a tea.

Are you searching for inspiration?
Are you yearning to learn more about the working habits of your fellow writers?
Do you want to discuss the noble deed that the creation of literary works is?


Then this is the place you have been searching for.




By request from Tengukami, this thread is supposed to be a general discussion thread for Patchouli's Scarlet Library.

You have an idea for something but want the opinions of other people before starting your work?
You want to know how your fellow writer's work?
You need inspiration?
You want to discuss writing fiction in general?
You want to write something for the first time and don't know how to start?
You are looking for someone to proofread a story you're writing?

Here is the place for all of this and much more.


Important News:
Additionally, as of August 23rd, we now have an IRC channel as well, where you can relax, get to know your fellow writers, discuss fiction and writing and much more~

The channel is  #scarlet-library on irc.ppirc.net

For those that have no IRC-experience, you can easily connect via TSO's handy webchat feature. Just enter a name and hit 'connect'.
See you around~
« Last Edit: August 24, 2010, 08:50:45 AM by Ruroko Nakajima »

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
FIRST

Kidding.

To kick this off, I've lately been rediscovering the ancient tools that our ancestors refered to as "pencil and paper". Work leaves me with long stretches without much to do, but no computer. So I write in a spiral notepad, using a pencil, which is neater than a pen when it comes to edits. Then when I come home, I type up my progress.

Even though this process started out of necessity, I've found it can really help me flesh out ideas. After an initial outline, writing it in pencil gets down a rough draft. As I type, I polish, and it really starts to come together. Or rather, huge chunks of the story get cut out.

How about you guys? What's your process?

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

FinnKaenbyou

  • Formerly Roukanken
  • *
  • blub blub nya
Personally I'm a case of 'Get idea, open Wordpad, let stuff flow'. I pretty much go for everything in one draft, though I go back and make minor edits where I see necessary.

Hideki

  • ~La, la, la~
  • Texas Chensaw Massacre
Whoo, I've always wanted one of these threads.  Thanks for the idea Tengu.

What's my process?  It's kind of a weird one.  Whenever I'm in the shower, I bounce characters off each other as I throw them into a situation to see how they react.  My stories are more character based than plot based.  I first see how the characters react to a situation, and if I can see it being interesting, I try to see how they can get into that situation by staying in character.  For some reason, I can only come up with new content if I thought it up in the shower or right before bed.  You know that one scene in Lucky Star with Hiyori as she forgets her great ideas when she waits in the bath, or in bed?  I feel that all the time. :V

I tend to have certain characteristics for each character and as I have them interact, I sometimes discover new aspects of that character.  For example, to me, Reimu seems to be kind of a lazy tsukkomi who can take a joke.  She's nice to friends and is neutral to strangers, kinda introverted.  Meanwhile Marisa is more outgoing, and boisterous.  She frequently is amused by jokes that target Reimu, and although she doesn't really pull pranks, she's more than willing to be amused.

By the way Sakana, you misspelled the second "library" in your post.

Badass bookworms

Dead Princess Sakana

  • *
  • E is for Elodie, who swims with the fishes.
I did write things by hand before, but I prefer getting to work on the PC immediately.
That is because I'm so lazy that I tend to let the hand-written notes lie around without typing them into the PC...

By the way Sakana, you misspelled the second "library" in your post.
Ffff.... thanks for poiting that out, will be fixed immediately.

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
For some reason, I can only come up with new content if I thought it up in the shower or right before bed.  You know that one scene in Lucky Star with Hiyori as she forgets her great ideas when she waits in the bath, or in bed?  I feel that all the time. :V

Haruki Murakami has said that he gets some of his best ideas while ironing shirts, so you sound pretty normai by comparison.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

IcedFairy

I used to use a lot of handwritten notes, but I find myself near a computer almost all the time now, so if I have enough time to write something down it usually goes down in digital format.  Which is a good thing because one of my projects has to be online now.

As for how I write?  My usual pattern is a flash of brilliance that I jot down, followed by me laboriously figuring out how to get to that point, or how to finish the story after it.  I've found having people to bounce ideas off of helps a lot in that part.

Where my ideas come from?  Sometimes I have something I want to do.  My first fic came because I wanted to write a Cirno - Letty piece that sorta followed canon. 

Other times I just have something cross my mind, like "what would the rest of Gensoukyo have to say about free access to Makai."  Things sorta snowballed from there....

Furienify

  • Yeehaw!
  • Equestrian Fansubber
    • Youtube Channel
I love writing fiction, but I don't plot it out well.

I'll come up with some sort of an event that happens part of the way through the plot, but getting up to there is the hard part. Getting my intro, establishing characters, and then somehow carrying those characters up to that particular plot point without being boring. I stop halfway and go 'ehhhhhh' because it doesn't seem as fun as I would have liked it to be in my head.

Also, I'm not sure if I should write in first or third person. Hm.

Basically everything I write is a quick flash of "hey, what if I wrote this." Occasionally I'll make a little web with a basic plot outline (characters, setting, major events, etc), but most of the time I just sit down and write in MSWord until I'm done. :V

Gpop

The first chapter I did I wrote it down. Well half of it really.

The rest I just type whatever comes out, and do some small research as I think about it if necessary.

Alfred F. Jones

  • Estamos orgullosos del Batall?n Lincoln
  • *
  • y de la lucha que hizo por Madrid
Thanks to Ammy mentioning about how he writes out his stories at work on paper, I decided to try that myself today. I hope to have this fic finished on paper and then typed up by V-Day. Enjoy your sneak preview!

Yes, I leave the "e" off of "the" for some reason. -_-

Gpop

Thanks to Ammy mentioning about how he writes out his stories at work on paper, I decided to try that myself today. I hope to have this fic finished on paper and then typed up by V-Day. Enjoy your sneak preview!

Yes, I leave the "e" off of "the" for some reason. -_-

WOO!!!

I'm now inspired to work on my fic again...

...

...but I don't like writing ;_;

Jana

  • mrgrgr
  • *
Posting here to avoid cluttering the official thread.

Oh great, now you've reminded me of Kenji from School Rumble and his swordfish pen >:|

I loved School Rumble~ If I could write comedy like that, I certainly would.

...And now that I've broached the subject: I've been toying with the idea of putting an Ijiyatsu SanaJana Adventure into words for a while, but I haven't really written anything creative before. What kind of things do you writers do to relax and let ideas flow?

IcedFairy

...And now that I've broached the subject: I've been toying with the idea of putting an Ijiyatsu SanaJana Adventure into words for a while, but I haven't really written anything creative before. What kind of things do you writers do to relax and let ideas flow?
I tend to walk or pace.  Movement helps clear my mind and let it wander.  This can be a problem when I want to write stuff down, but I've got past a lot of writer's blocks that way.

1. Play awesome music
2. Stare at textbook
3. Awesome ideas flow
4. Get no studying done

:coolvee:

My process consists of

1. get inspired for one big long plot
2. write huge swaths at once
3. get bogged down with one part that gives me trouble/distractions
4. write nothing for months
5. repeat!

Esifex

  • Though the sun may set
  • *
  • It shall rise again
Ffff.... thanks for poiting that out, will be fixed immediately.
Quote
thanks for poiting that out
Quote
poiting that out
Quote
poiting

:V Love you

I typically conjure up ideas as I'm listening to music. If I have good, neutral music with no lyrics (lol touhou music) I can use it as a foundation for a scene. I think visually, not literally - I picture things happening as you'd see them happen, not read them described. Most of my works are dialogue based with little descriptions of what the characters do while they're talking. I'm trying to get out of this habit, though - it can quickly kill the flow of a story if its just a bunch of talking.

The music, to me, is like thinking 'what could happen in a scene that used this as background music?' If I need motivation/ideas for something, I track down music appropriate to the feeling I want to convey then run it into the ground (my brother is sick and tired of 'Legend of Green Eyes', which I listened to repeatedly to come up with the Reading Lesson scene in Everlasting Wanderers) until I get an idea and flow in my mind.

Dead Princess Sakana

  • *
  • E is for Elodie, who swims with the fishes.
Quote from: Sakana
poiting
:V Love you
Gaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *loads shotgun and aims at keyboard* Okay, you do exactly what I tell you now, or I'll replace you, understood?


On topic: I can get ideas from pretty much everything (movies, games, books), but there's two things that work especially well:
1) Music. Whenever I listen to music I start to imagine stories or specific scenes that fit it, which can become an idea for writing later.

2) Nonsense-talking with friends. Whenever me and my friends turn off reason and let our crazy ideas flow, hilarity ensues. I could write a ton of crazy fanfiction about the games 'Mount&Blade' and 'Dynasty Warriors 6' simply from the stupid ideas we had while playing those games. We even kind of created our own personal memes from that...  :V

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
Yeah, bouncing ideas around with friends is good for that. The first Touhou fanfic I wrote - Down On the Corner - was born from a bunch of us in IRC making jokes about a pic someone found on Danbooru of Cirno 'enjoying' a table corner.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

An Odd Sea Slug

  • Not here, but not really there.
  • Only the best.
    • You can save the world by clicking this link!
My ideas pretty much come from out of nowhere; I'm a pretty spur of the moment guy you can say. I do like to plan those ideas out a bit though. Even Stupid Random Crap was planned out in places, though most of it was made up on the fly. Flying Rainbows wasn't well planned at all, not to mention missing the one thing that made separates the cream from the crap: passion. In addition to inspiration and planning, one must have passion, or the other two are irrelevant.

Speaking of planning, my next big projects (my next long fic, along with an original character story, possibly a VN) are getting detailed written on the fly plot synopsis before I begin the final products. Hopefully this will lead to less mistakes and more cohesive plots (large chunks of FoTUF got HUEG revisions as a result of bad planning/not liking how it felt anymore/etc, and I'm hoping to avoid this, next go around).

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
Outlining definitely saves you time, and frees up brainpower to focus on details, as you have the bones of your work on paper.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

Jana

  • mrgrgr
  • *
I guess I'll try an outlining approach. I'm not really much at the creative arts.

Thanks for the tips~


Dead Princess Sakana

  • *
  • E is for Elodie, who swims with the fishes.
I guess I'll try an outlining approach. I'm not really much at the creative arts.
Good luck~

I'd love to see some Ijiyatsu JanaSana someday soon  :D

in before Sakana
I'm being stalked...  :'(

JanaSana Sakana, Banana-fana-bo-bana, fee fi fo fana, um ...

[K]KoaMeow

  • Pudding!
  • kyaaaaaaaaa~
    • M3 BM Fan Translation
I've been keeping this as a practice, since I draw a lot of sketches, think of something amusing about it.

If I got a spark of an idea, I'll open Office, write a lot of things that I have in the head atm and then leave it for a while. After I got another, I'll expand it, copy and pasting wherever suitable. This have been the base of Technical School Stories and Touhou Kuroneko onwards.

And my ideassss~

Spoiler:
I've seen a lot of Outside World bounded to Gensokyo... So how about we do things the OPPOSITE way.

I've thought that Yukari had been fooling around, and her victim is none other than Alice and her dolls (including the Goliath doll, whom she was working on after the Hisoutensoku events), who were gapped to the Outside World.

I wonder how tall Goliath Doll was, two storeys high? The image of her standing next to the Petronas Twin Towers / Suria KLCC makes me laugh.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2010, 08:20:34 PM by [K] Merlin Prismriver »

Benny1

  • Die The Death! Sentence to death! Great equalizer is The Death!
  • Dlanor of the Ten Wedges
I'm really quite bad at coming up with ideas, so very often I ask on IRC actually if people have ideas for a short they'd like to see written, and I work from there.

When I do get an idea for myself though, typically it turns into a longer fanfic, something like "A Certain Mystical Square" or "You Are the Fairies!"

That sort of stuff is rough though, because I don't have any idea for what any of the jokes are going to be.  So everything is made up on the spot.  It... works out fairly well, but I think that's because I go for "stupid" funny.

My writing technique is bad though.  I go into the forums, hit the reply button, and type out the entire story there.  So like, my UD and Ruukoto/Parsee stories were both written in one go, no editing, on the reply function.  Pretty bad way to do it lol.

Gpop

Well I usually work on my fic at school because I'm normally distracted by anything else. I'm a huge procrastinator >.>

Which is why I haven't been able to do much on my fic atm. Before my period 2 spare had none of my friends, so I just go in the library and work on it to kill time.

Now that spare doesn't exist. It's just my lunch period where most of my friends are, so I'm usually distracted by them.

Esifex

  • Though the sun may set
  • *
  • It shall rise again
My writing technique is bad though.  I go into the forums, hit the reply button, and type out the entire story there.  So like, my UD and Ruukoto/Parsee stories were both written in one go, no editing, on the reply function.  Pretty bad way to do it lol.

That's how I usually add excerpts to my stories - by typing them directly into the post. I go back and proofread before hitting submit, then I go and read it again to see if I missed anything.

If I'm going on a roadtrip or something and know my brother will be driving, I'll bring my other laptop and write on the trip (I'm immune to motion-sickness induced by reading/writing while in motion) and when everything is all done up, I just copy it straight to the forums here. Yes, I write in BBCode in my word documents when I'm writing to submit here.

Only exception is the 'short' that I'm working on, which I'm not gonna post until I finish it and it passes my own standard of approval.

Tengukami

  • Breaking news. Any season.
  • *
  • I said, with a posed look.
You guys writing directly into the Reply field are pretty brave. I have to write it on a doc, and read it over at least once before posting it on my blog. And even then I won't link to it until I've read it at least one more time after that.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."