How do you write?

What inspires you to write?

What is your 'muse'?

How do you go about writing? Do you have a 'method'? A particular way you set up your computer desktop?

Do you read books often? Listen to music? Watch lots of different movies?

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I've asked these questions because I get told often that I am a decent writer. Now, while I don't always agree with this [I generally feel I am quite an average writer who sometimes has the ability to make decent sentences amongst otherwise rambly crap], I do have a method of my own. Maybe I am just OCD, but I find that when I have some kind of routine and structure, I am able to consistently produce posts - maybe not always fantastic posts, but at least enough to keep my characters active and deserving of the titles they earn. I find that if I deviate from this method, I tend to lose 'muse' and motivation to write.

HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY WRITE?



This is a screenshot of my desktop, literally, as I am writing this. This is how I write every single one of my posts. It's also how I write my university assignments, except instead of a post that I am replying to open on the left side, I usually have scientific journals or my university's website open xP.

I use a program called Microsoft OneNote, I didn’t know it existed until last year, when I got my new computer for uni and experimented with using it for class. I love it to bits. It has virtual folders and note pages you can make, and 'books' you can store things in. I have a 'Personal' book and a 'Uni 2012' book and 'Uni 2013' book. It's pretty obvious what I keep where haha, but really all I use the Personal book for is as a notepad - I don't save copies of my posts or anything, but just having a place with a built in spell-checker is handy.

WHAT INSPIRES YOUR WRITING?

My inspiration comes from many places, but most notably, books. I read almost everything that I possibly can, and my favourite authors are Anne McCaffrey (unfortunately deceased), however her son Todd McCaffrey has picked up her series about the DragonRiders of Pern and created his own awesome world with them. Most of my muse for how companions interact with their bondmates come from these books. Christopher Paolini and his Inheritance Cycle books are also great - I often use his bond with Saphira to help me envision how close I want my characters to be with their companions. I also (unashamedly) read Lauren Kate with her Fallen Angel series, and Richelle Mead with her Vampire Academy and now Bloodlines series. Charlaine Harris and her Sookie Stackhouse books are fabulous too, though I only recommend them to mature audiences, lol. There are dozens more, but those are the main ones that I can see clearly from my bookshelf from where I am sitting right now lol.

Speaking of reading, I always read people's posts! I stalk almost everyone on here, revelling in the way they have described a scene so perfectly I can see it in my own mind, getting carried away with the emotions of their characters, getting inspired to have my character be as wonderful/angry/passionate/active as theirs. There is nothing wrong with digging through the archives to read over a favourite thread you participated in (or not!), especially if it inspires you to keep on writing more.

While I love music, I can write just as 'well' with it playing or without it. I often find that I will get inspiration for a particular post at random while listening to a song during the day, and that inspiration will linger with me until I have opportunity to sit down and write it - most of the time. I do often have movies playing as 'background noise' while I am writing, however I have also been known to be a little hermit, sitting in silence, tapping away at my keyboard, lol.

FILLING IN ALL THE DETAILS

My writing also depends on what I am replying to. How much has the other writer given me to work with? I always try to give people lots of things to work with, though I am guilty of overlooking things that I should have focussed more on, or having a huge rambly post talking about the internal battles of my character while having them not actually do very much for the other to respond to. I have a basic mental checklist that I go through to write, but it is not something strict that I do for every post, mostly just for posts that I might be short on muse for and struggling to get over the word count.

Have I mentioned what the other character is doing?

Have I interacted with this other character before? Can I make a history reference?

Have I mentioned what they look like, any notable features?

Do they have a companion I can include in my description?

How is my character feeling? Are they happy, sad, confused, serious, playful, depressed, angry, violent?

How will my character react to what is going on? Is something going on that reminds me of a point in my character's history?

What is my environment like? Is the weather changing? Is the sun/moon setting or rising? Are there insects around, annoying my character?

What is my character's companion doing?

Is this thread/post/interaction going to affect my character permanently?

I find if I check even just a few of these things off I can easily get to the word count, and often enough, well beyond that. I actually hate writing long posts, I really do - I would rather a concise post that gives the information I need it to give in an articulate way then a long rambly post that takes forever to get to the point. However, it seems I get struck by 'muse' often enough and low and behold, long rambles just happen.

PERSONAL STYLES

We all have our personal style. I don't know how to describe mine, but as I said above it is generally quite rambly, long-winded, sometimes (but not always lol) descriptive of the scene, often lacking flow and riddled with little annoying grammatical errors that I always miss because I don't read over my posts before I post them [then I lose motivation to edit them later lol].

One thing I have learned, however, is that no matter how hard you try, it is impossible to 'copy' someone's style. Be inspired by their writing, sure, but don't use the same terms they use ALL the time, or go so far as to copy what their characters might be doing elsewhere on the site, or otherwise try to change your own style so much that you lose what you have grown comfortable with.

By 'style', I don't mean whether you are writing in 1st, 2nd or 3rd person, or experimenting with different point of views, those are things that no-one has claim to - I strongly encourage everyone to try a different person, a different tense, a different POV, to explore different aspects of your own characters.

Your own style may effect which of these aspects you prefer to write from, however. I find 3rd person easiest of them all, but I love to challenge myself into writing 1st person, and feel accomplished if I manage to churn out a half-decent post that is consistent throughout. I find that by being diverse in my ability to write from multiple angles, my writing in general improves.

CHARACTER DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Another thing I enjoy doing is giving my characters THEMES. Designing them so that they have a central, consistent theme/personality/habit that is constant. For example; Mirage, and her family, have always been associated with shadows, illusions, bad tempers hidden beneath impassive facades. I always describe her as 'little shadow mare', because that is what I used when RPing her mother, she has always been devious, always kept an indifferent expression upon her face no matter the circumstance she finds herself in. Cirrus is my little cloud, her passive magic was something I had wanted to create a character based on for a long time, she was born in my head many years before she made it here. She probably has a voice of her own more than any of my other characters, she is as unpredictable as the weather itself (haha), even to me.

Whilst having a 'theme' is not a necessity by any means, if you can apply something constant to your character, whether it be an unusual design, a constant 'mood' that they are in, a 'mask' that they wear, magic that they rely on, you may just find your character 'easier' to get posts out of, to present to the little world we have created here as a community.

Now, in saying that this theme is good to have, I find that sometimes, in order to development my characters, they also need to experience something that will help initiate a change within them. An example for Mirage would be all the experience she gained in being leader of an outcast group last year, as well as gaining her dragon transformation magic - these things have become fundamental for her character now, when before, she was a solitary, quiet little shadow child. Now she's a fire-breathing golden Queen lol. Cirrus recently experienced the loss of her father, which has given her a deep depression, but may evolve in the future to something more like an unpredictable personality - temperamental outbursts, etc. She is also a healer, which she is slowly accepting as something she might actually enjoy, despite her former want to be a warrior.

CONCLUSION

Anyway, I probably come across as someone who takes this game very seriously lol. I'm not so serious so much as, I like to do things well - creative writing is a hobby for me and if I can improve myself while I participate in it then all the more reason to do it. I also find that I [weirdly] do better in my assignments at university when I am writing at least a few posts a week. I think writing of any kind will bring about improvement elsewhere, even if it's just gaining a better grasp on being able to interpret many different styles and having to respond to them in your own style.

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I hope my (as usual) long rambles have some kind of useful information amongst them for everyone here, and strongly encourage everyone to add more/disagree/discuss whatever they like. C: