For a long while, I've been trying to write, whether its my own story or a fan fiction, I can only create a few scenes and then I'm stuck. I don't know how to blend them, I don't know how to make more. Sometimes I feel I have too many characters, so how do I whittle away to a core few, how do I determine importance? Is there really such a thing as too many?

AmaniIshtar: I feel there is such a thing as 'too many' characters. Especially if you give them all names. It's confusing, to both reader and writer eventually, so best to refer to them from some characteristic that sets them apart from the others at that particular instant, especially if they are non-important characters who just fade out after one or two scenes. That way you keep focus on named characters, and that way, hint at who, if they leave for some scenes, will return as a steady character while others will fade away. You will know who is important, based on what knowledge they hold or what they contribute to the story itself, or how useful they will be later.

The best thing I can say about the scene-related thing is just be patient. Go over the scenes in your head, and try to figure out what interesting things might happen while leading up to it, or maybe start a story relating to why it happened or what might happen after that particular scene. But keep it interesting, hint at hidden information or bring in supporting characters that are especially fascinating to outside views. Best way for that is to have friends or others around read it and take their feedback. And let it flow, no need to have chunks of the plot seem to belong to some other genera or world, while others belong elsewhere.

Also, sorry about pinging you. I know the Lit forum is slow, so I thought I would let you know I replied.

Ah, heh. Its ok. And yeah I'd worried about it because I'd first started the ideas for a story while I was in high school, so was some of the "core" a select few I really knew I wanted, then outside friends, the the adversaries, rivals, then bad guys...But i became lost to the characters and couldn't keep track of what wanted from the story...And when i was no longer in high school, I got to wondering why put her through high school? how much of the classes do I write about? Should I build a school at all?

Well I suppose that depends on the amount of story that takes place in the school itself. I doubt you would want to go into much detail about the lessons themselves, but if the thing takes place half in school and half out, best to either use a school that is in the place you are writing about, if you are writing about a particular place in general, or just make a school building and keep it as vague as necessary, or don't go outside her line of concentration or thought. If they especially dislike or appreciate a certain subject, best to put a bit more focus on that so you can give a little insight on how they think and work. Best to give a name to rivals and bad guys, and close friends and enemies, to keep them separate and give them more substance as a living, thinking person with an identity of their own.

I guess. I'll have to certainly go back to working it...I do remember showing the idea to friend and she questioned whether I even had a plot or not. But, I'm not so sure I want to create a plot too far in advance. I happen to like just writing first then iron it all out.

I tend to do the same thing. A lot, really. Actually, your first post had me thinking, and I'm actually working on a writing now that I just... saw, in my mind. A random scene I felt would make an interesting storyline, and I'm trying to fit it together with a good beginning. It's actually rather difficult because I've never had one set in a tomb before, or in.... this world. That is, keeping an eye to detail of the places already littering this world's surface.

Heh. I think that was something I'd been wondering about...Since I was writing a fantasy, though modern it may be, should it be in normal everyday life with the same streets and landmarks as teh real world, or should I come up with something original? A rift that separates one section of life from another.

But, I have such problems making up the beginnings, because I'll get like half a dozen different ideas on what I could do for the opening...Its tough to pick just one above the rest...

Well if you intend to use the same name and general area of a place, best to go with what is already there, or just make up names for streets if it's in the future. But if you want to be painstakingly accurate, use Google Maps street view to take a look at the location in which you are writing and go with the names already given to those streets and general areas. That is, if the thing is taken place in the real world for half, or a good amount of the storyline.

I've done a lot with different beginnings. Usually I disregard them all and just start writing, while other times I combine a number of random beginnings to incorporate a lot of what I like to form the start of a story. It's hard to do when you have five different starts in mind, but usually one particular idea starts to shine through and I just go with that, while also including a number of different aspects from the other starts I had in mind.

So far I've only really had one or two different starts...So thats been good so far...

Ah, I gotta jet for some Zzz'z I'll be back after I get some sleep. ^_^

Sounds a lot less complicated.

See you then! Maybe we can help each other figure out a few resolutions to these conflicts and questions later on!

Heya! (I'd say good morning, but I don't know your time zone and its currently 12:53pm for me) Dexter Morgan: How was your night/day?

Anywho, I just had a sudden thought. When I was first developing the story idea, the Twilight series was just gaining hype, considering the new overusage of vampires (seriously, why sparkling vampires?), should I bother with vampires or even werewolves, and "create" my own types of vampires, and with the werewolves, include more types of 'were'-gene to include other predators, or even what would be considered prey animals...(I had a running joke with a friend that I'd turn her into a were-rabbit...>.>)

I'm back, AmaniIshtar: I was on for a while this morning, about nine in the morning when you posted your message, possibly just minutes before I got here. So my day was a busy one, rife with calls and jobs, and a few massive dogs to clean. And your own?

Ah, I've not gone off the path of the vampire, even with that despicable monstrosity of Twilight being so sought after, but I'm careful not to overdo the obvious signs and concept of the vampire itself. For example, a good number of mine are generally human in appearance, save for the pale skin, cold touch, and the color and tone of their eyes and their teeth. Of course, since the main objective of a series of mine has a population of one-fifth vampire and one-sixth werewolf, I have to take it easy not to make readers bored of the races. My wolves are slightly different as well. If they are in-tune with their wolf side, they can maintain general control over their wolf form while under the influence of the full moon, while otherwise being able to take on their wolf form any other time, given the right amount of concentration. But the 'were-genes' can be transferred to other animals as well, not just dogs or wolves.

Awh. Least yours was busy. Since it was sunday though, my gramma and my uncle have been home all day...Been trying out some of the demo games I downloaded earlier...

But yes, Twilight really has ruined a lot of things about the vampire/lycanthrope genre. Had friends asking why I didn't care for it. My response- Its a friggin overused plotline from Romeo and Juliet, except with friggin SPARKLY vampires. -.- And I hated Romeo and Juliet. I much rather preferred Hamlet or Othello...

But I only planned on maybe one or two people actually being vampires in my story. My current issue is how to make the main not seem all-powerful. I planned her to be descended from a necromancer and an elementalist(able to use and manipulate the four core elements- air, earth, fire, water). Some may see that as being all powerful since she could control the dead and do just about anything...

The weekends are usually very busy for our house. Cleaning the entire place, which normally takes both Saturday and Sunday, starting from five-thirty in the morning and lasting to midnight, at least. Today was not one of those days, thankfully.

Indeed. I read the first book before it became popular. Believe me, I lost about a hundred brain cells reading that. Romeo and Juliet was one of the leser-liked Shakespeare writings in my opinion, but I especially like Hamlet. I've read it a couple times, but cannot recall much of it, since it was a while back. Still, I felt a part of me die when I read about sparkling vampires. An insult to vampires everywhere!

Hm, yes, being able to do just about anything would be a bit of overkill. Maybe, instead of being able to control all the four core elements, your character can instead focus on a main element, such as light or dark. Dark would be more relative to the necromancer idea, though. I've actually got a character that cannot die. He is my favored character, a main one for the series I'm working on. His soul was taken from him when he was twenty-five, when he was deathly ill, the year being around 1605 or so. His soul was taken to save his life, but it left him unable to die or to be killed in any way, and unable to age in appearance. So he's gone through all his life never aging, getting killed by criminals, only to be out of commission for a while, so his body returns to normal.

Ah, yes well its not so difficult for my weekends not to be busy...I live with my gramma and my uncle right now, and we live in a hotel atm...Which sucks but no money yet for another place to live. But I'm not really good at cleaning myself >.<

The newly sad thing...I was in my local public library and found out that someone took some of Shakespeare's works and turned them in mangas...I was looking for Hamlet but they didn't have one yet to my knowledge, they did have Othello...Except I haven't read it yet...

Maybe. But I had imagined her to be more balanced instead of just solely "dark". Making her a contradiction of the cliches, and maybe showcasing her annoyance about such cliches. Like how most people would see creepy old guy covered in blood who cares not for other people and easily sacrifices babies to raise his undead army, she's really just a petite, well dressed teen/adult who prefers using chickens or other such suitable farm animals as the blood sacrifices and happens to be rather empathetic towards others. And that sounds interesting.

Ah, I see. I've never lived at a hotel before, but a cave... Yes, I've lived in a cave for a while, better than home when I was younger. Nice place, that, since it made most people leave me alone.

Are you serious? Hm, I've never... Time to go to Amazon and see if any are there! I've just bought two Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas based books in graphic novel manga-type form, only more American for being read from left to right. I have two, and just found a third on Amazon.

Ahh, yes. Well it could be a mix of both light and dark elementals, but having little control over the core four elements. The offspring of a necromancer and elementalist, I doubt the character would have inherited every power both parents held, and if it were possible, it would be a long shot. But it's your idea, you can make that long shot hit home if you like! But it would be a bit more realistic, I think. And less cliche, after all.

Yea. Well I've never lived in a cave. Totally serious too. It shocked me to see it. Huh...Not really read Dean Koontz...

That would kind of make sense...One of the most recent ideas I had toyed with was that she had her gifts "awakened" at, say, 13. The first to pop up would be earth and Air since those are more easily seen, felt, and what not. Fire and water would have to come later from certain things, like say being caught in a building that was on fire, or nearly drowning. Just like the necromancy would more awaken after having seen a death occur...and power reached itself out to "revive" the recently dead...I'm not sure though. The light/darkness control with the death power sounds better.

Well yes. It's not too shocking to me, though. I figured that would happen or have happened. I've seen a lot of his stories turned into Mangas, and it actually looks like a series known as Manga Shakespeare.

Ah, I see. Yes, yes... I'm actually seeing the necromancy power come to a character after witnessing a cat or small dog being run over by a car, the car vanishing down the road, and their power awakening when they go over to it, managing to make the animal awaken. Unless it's to be derived from the death of someone, like a friend or family member who they were very close with or particularly liked.

By the way, before I go any farther in this plot I'm working on, do you believe the immortality concept is too often used? If so I could find ways to make it much more interesting to readers.

Frankly, I've not come across a plot where immortality was used...Unless it was a vampire. And considering yours is anything but a vampire, its interesting. But as for the death thing.... I was figuring more on a person or being...not really an animal. I'm still considering it though....

Anyway, I'd been wondering how and if its really practical to do flashbacks in a story...And how physical abuse, or any kind of abuse, would be recieved by audiences...I wonder since I had thought that, say my char has some issues dealing with people so she kind of comes off as a bitch to others, and part of it came from the fact that her parents had abandoned her to her grandmother, who when she did recieve her gifts after her 13th birthday, the grandmother did a 180 and beat her to try and remove the "abnormality" out of her...And the character ran away at some point, being "rescued" by a vampire...But I don't know if it'd work if the girl is underage and all, even though the story is told when she's about 16-17.

Really? Never? I've seen a lot of immortality bases, but it was only because the person never wanted their character to age through a certain time period. I've got two immortal characters so far, but for different plots, and because of different things that benefit both plotlines they are involved in. Ah, I see though. I suppose an animal would be a bit too small for her necromancer power to reveal itself. It's not that traumatic of an experience.

I'm actually doing flashbacks in one of my immortal-based stories. Flashbacks of several hours, really, or a couple days, but they are flashbacks nonetheless. And in another, I'm combining flashbacks and child abuse, that of my main character, who is a serial killer and who can easily reach for the empathy of the readers despite what he does. But that idea you have is pretty good. I would read that. I mean, sometimes I put flashbacks in a story, some being laden with them while others are few and far between. But then again, I put flashbacks in italics.

Well I had read a book where the author did her flashbacks in separate chapters...which was interesting. And I haven't... strangely. I love reading, especially fiction. So how I missed immortality bases I don't know. And yeah. I mean losing an animal is bad anyway, its not really compelling enough...Not unlike watching someone get killed in front of you, whether you actaully know them or not.

I do got to laugh a little. My boyfriend looks at me funny because I can write or talk about gory things, but I refuse to watch it in horror movies....but I can watch bloody action movies...So he wonders why I can easily write about it, or consider doing torture type things to the characters....

Ah, really? I've not done the separate chapters before. But maybe it would be good to scrap the idea I have and make the prologue a single flashback, rather than introducing the character, what she does, and where she is and what her main objective is. I mean, it's boring. But I've not read any stories that have immortality as a base, oddly enough. Unless you count vampire books, then obviously... Still, I suppose seeing a human killed is far more compelling, I agree. An animal... Well, one cannot feel as connected to an animals, most of the time, not as much as a person. Especially since human life is more valued than animal, sadly.

I love horror movies. They give me new ideas for torture methods, ways not to get caught when on a killing spree. Things like that. But one thing... One thing I cannot watch is someone getting a shot. I mean, I can watch someone getting cut in half, gutted, shot in the head, set on fire, sliced by razor wire... But I cannot watch someone get a shot. What!
Ah, but I get odd looks. I can make a comedy, and at the same time, write the saddest thing in the world. But I'm good at writing about the abused, hurt, raped. I've lived it, and therefore, I can feel the anger, the pain, the fury and initial helplessness the child and young teenager feels when in that situation, then the thought process of their retaliation.

It is pretty sad that animals aren't very valued. I think sometimes introducing a character can work...But it wouldn't be my favorite pick. Ah...When making up characters, say core characters, how do you keep track of the info you have for them? Like would you create a profile for them?

I don't care to watch them, just read about them maybe...I'm a bad wikipedia user when it comes to learning about horror movies. As for the shots, I hate it. I hate getting shots. I've also had to practice giving shots when I was in medical assisting classes. It was also around the time I figured out it wouldn't work for me. And I could easily write about that stuff myself. Which again, my friends find odd, but then again, they lived more niave, privalaged lives. I haven't. Personal experience certainly does help make a story.

I know. Animals seem to be more valued in horror movies, though, since they normally survive while the dim-witted humans fall victim to the likable masked murderer. Ah! I always make character profiles for main characters. I use my own method, which works very well to actually help see the character themselves through the writing of a profile. I can show you a profile I have done now, for one of my more appreciated characters, if you want to get an idea on a good, detailed way to keep a character in mind. Although I might have to put the profile in this thread, since I have not put it online at all.

I hate Wiki. Anyone can go in and change things, add things, take things out. Not reliable at all. I just go around and look for people who watched the movie. It's not that I hate needles, though. I just dislike watching someone get a shot. Indeed, one can pull from their past to include the genuine feelings in the story itself, to make it seem more realistic and help connect with the characters themselves. But a good ability to have is to be able to take on the personality of every character, the full spectrum of emotions, lifestyles, and ideas.

Yea I seem to notice that on the off chance I stumbled on a horror for a few minutes. And sure, I'd like that. Sometimes I do have trouble keeping track of thing for my characters. And that should be cool. And yeah I don't normally go to wiki for hard research, but I've gone on it to just search up titles or names of things, mostly movies or music. Heh yea its always good to be flexible in developing personalities...I guess I tend to practice that when I roleplay with friends. My boyfriend looks down on rp, saying only those who are weak try to pretend to be something they're not. But I disagree since I rp as a form of collaborative story writing.