[ SECRET POST #2763 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2763 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 060 secrets from Secret Submission Post #394.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[(Anonymous)]

Ah. I think part of the reason I might have more basic divergence is because I don't usually have an actual physical concept of my characters until fairly late in the game? It's their roles they're defined as primarily, while things like names, gender, race and occasionally species are filled in later down the line. Personalities actually usually stick harder than other attributes, although they take on different facades and contexts once the other details come in.

I actually tend to retroactively fill in massive world-building details based on what the world would need to do to allow a character of a late-decided race/gender/species to fill the role I've had them in from the beginning. In one case, that completely opened up an entire plot, because a law change in the backstory to delineate a chosen heir rather than a patrilineal blood heir (to allow a female warlord to take her father's lordship instead of her less powerful/sane brothers) allowed me to grant a kingship to an adopted rather than blood heir as well, which gave me a lot more openings during the succession crisis and meant I could have one completely separate (male) character openly take the regency rather than having to try and work behind the scenes. None of this was even remotely in my head when I put the law switch in the backstory, that was all purely so I could establish a precedent for several of the borderlords, and also establish that particular lordship as having an alarming amount of influence over the crown.

As another interesting effect, it also rendered one pair of characters' tragic backstory as a completely military/political issue rather than an issue of heredity, which did cause some interesting changes in their personalities and the longterm nature of their goals.

As I said, this is probably the main reason things shift so wildly in my stories. Single changes tend to snowball, sometimes massively, and mostly because I don't generally physically imagine my characters until relatively late in the game.

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[sarillia]

That's interesting. We seem to be exact opposites. I do discover some of the world-building along the way but I also tend to work on that in the beginning along with the things like gender and race that you said tend to come later for you. I like to figure out in the beginning how patriarchal the society is (if at all) and how isolated or multicultural it is and things like that because it will influence the character differently depending on the other choices I've made about their background.

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[(Anonymous)]

I do tend to draw up some broadstrokes worldbuilding first. For example, in the story I mentioned, while gender was a late gamechanger, species was fixed almost immediately because it defined a massive section of the overall political situation, which was what was driving the intial starter plot. I don't think any character in it changed species (there are two dominant ones, with political subdivisions within them) anywhere along the line. The starter plot and its requirements tend to drive most character considerations, although once I've started defining characters more, the plot itself also starts shifting.

It ends up that I usually don't start the actual writing phase until I've gone through about four or five divergent iterations of the story, and in some cases the story diverged enough that I've gotten two completely different stories out of the same starter plot as a result of throwing different characters into it.

I sometimes wonder if any two writers ever write the same way, or if it's all just a myth and everyone muddles along at their own pace/in their own style regardless.

Re: Creator's Attitudes Toward Their Creations

[sarillia]

I tend to think we're all different and that's a wonderful thing. I'm always fascinated by accounts of how other writers do it.

Personally I tend to dive right in to the writing part once I have the basics down and figure things out as I go rather than doing the different iterations before writing that you do. I do this though: and in some cases the story diverged enough that I've gotten two completely different stories out of the same starter plot as a result of throwing different characters into it. That's always fun.