Posted in Posted by J. M. Barrie

    Okay, I'd just like to say some stuff about how I write and what I do and things like that, because my processes and such have changed since I first joined. Oh, and one thing I'd like to say before I start, please read my story, I feel like no one remembers the poor widdle ting. My genres I like to write are:

• Fantasy
• Historical Fiction
• Romance
• Weirdness-who-knows what

    Making characters: I don't make characters, I run into them and copy them onto paper. I can come up with made-up names right off the bat, but real names are trickier. It took me 3 days to find the name Albany Gordona McLeod, and then at least a year later it took me the whole afternoon to find the name Helen. It took at least a week to come up with Judith.

    Fantasy: I have had a really bad experience with fantasy, all dark and bad. I know how important swordfighting is in fantasy, but girls cannot fight, it's wrong, they aren't meant to do that, so they can't. Girls get attitudes like: "Oh, I'm just so cool with my sabre" or "I can fight better than any man" when they fight, so that's why the shouldn't and can't. Men do not get those thoughts when they fight, because they are protectors.

    Romance: Okay, people, I must at once define my meaning of romance. Modern romance has gotten the meaning of kissing and another thing which I should not say on here, because there are some people who do not know about it, but if you do, you know that it is all in modern romance, and why I should not mention it. I'm done rambling. But my romance means drama. It's all dramatic, and yes it is a love story, but no, no one kisses until they're married. Romantic means with feeling and emotion and drama. It does not mean it cannot be God honoring. Got it? Okay.

    How important is outlining? Very. I used to not outline, because I thought it was only English-lessons:

    I. Stuff

        A. Something

            1. blahblahblah

               a. boring stuff

               b. more boring stuff

                c. even more boring stuff

    And so on. But outlining can simply be a paragraph summarizing the story, or something more like this:

    Chapter 1

• This important event happens and causes John Doe to do this
• And the other important thing that happened was this.

    And onto the next chapter. I didn't outline Aniquia, and that is why I have to dump the story now, because I don't even know what happens in it! Ack! Now, Sonata Pathetique is so deliciously complex that while the plot was weaving itself out in my mind, I was so afraid I'd forget an important part, and one day I just broke down, grabbed a pen, and poured out every word in my mind into a paragraph summarizing the whole story, and the outline itself is a page and a half!

    Accents: I have made up at least 10 different accents, and I hear them, but I must tell authors something very important. Do not type accents unless it adds to their character or gives the reader a feel for something. Do not type accents all throughout the dialogue, ESPECIALLY if they are the main character. Take this for example:

    Wrong: "Tha' duzzen change ennathin', Amy, i's still wrong, an' ah don' know whah y' keep doin' i'!"

    Right: "That doesn't change anything, Amy, it's still wrong, and I don't know why you keep doing it!"

    Or if you want to type the accent, do it like this:

    "That duzzen change anything, Amy, it's still wrong, and I dunno why you keep doin' it!"

    See, it's a lot less overwhelming that way, and still you can hear their voice. And if an accent doesn't quite do it for you, you can use certain phrases or sayings over and over to give a character a voice.

    Getting past writer's block: Write, that's how. Read, that's how. Write portraits, write landscapes, write conversations, as long as they don't belong in one of your stories.

    That is all I have to say for now. I must take my leave. Good day. *tips hat* *bows* *strides out the door*

    ~Sir James Matthew Barrie