The Writers' Pad II: One Thread to Rule Them All

Or that.

Random question: Does anyone listen to music while they write? What do you listen to, and do you think it helps you at all? (I have an answer, but I'd like yours first.)

Depends on the genre I'm writing. If I'm doing sci-fi, I like electronic or techno (Armin Van Buren, Daft Punk, Skrillex, etc) playing softly in the background; helps the mood. Plus, something fast-paced is great whilst doing action scenes.

If I'm writing fantasy or, say, Zelda fan fiction, I generally have on either the official soundtrack or symphonic metal (Within Temptation, Nightwish, etc). Two Steps From Hell is a great source of inspiration, though their pieces are generally short (they write music for movie and game trailers; awesome stuff).

For poetry...anything goes. Whatever the mood I'm after, I find music to fit.

Originally Posted by Holden

Or that.

Random question: Does anyone listen to music while they write? What do you listen to, and do you think it helps you at all? (I have an answer, but I'd like yours first.)

sometimes. I think what it does is I'll sort of write along to the beat of whatever i'm listening to, or re-write the lyrics in my own way.

with poetry, anyway. I need concentration for short stories or my book

A lot of the times I listen to the radio in my room, just on NPR station for the news.

But sometimes I'll jam to some Metal versions of Zelda songs, or some fantasy-esque music. I also like to write to some Billy Joel, or Queen.

Really anything that's just awesome gets me in the mood for writing, musically.

Anybody here have any particular habits of researching when writing sci-fi and stuff?

I tend to research mainly for realistic fiction, but I do it a lot with everything, from finding translations to other languages, finding what cultures named things, building worlds, etc...

I tend to do most of it in world building for fantasy, to avoid any major cliches, though. I love looking at folk lore and basing things off that though!

My God, America, you and me are long lost twins. Sometimes I find myself link-jumping more in the Wikipedia than actually writing -- curse this need for quasi-accurate science and Norse-related plot lines! I've also done Google searches for ideas of mine, just to make sure they're original.

Originally Posted by Gamzee

sometimes. I think what it does is I'll sort of write along to the beat of whatever i'm listening to, or re-write the lyrics in my own way.

with poetry, anyway. I need concentration for short stories or my book

I'm actually kind of the opposite in that regard. I try not to listen to music while writing poetry. I'm not against working in a line in some of form or another that I like, but I feel like songs are a distraction in that case. They affect the mood of my writing too much, I guess.

I listen to music while I write, often. There isn't something specific I'll listen to (though there are some songs I associate with certain stories), but I try to choose things that work into the background nicely and aren't overly distracting or anything.

Recently, I've tried writing without listening to music. And I almost feel like it helps absorb me more into it? Like it's just me and some words. Haven't quite decided on it yet.

---------- Post added at 09:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:44 PM ----------

Originally Posted by America

Anybody here have any particular habits of researching when writing sci-fi and stuff?

I tend to research mainly for realistic fiction, but I do it a lot with everything, from finding translations to other languages, finding what cultures named things, building worlds, etc...

I tend to do most of it in world building for fantasy, to avoid any major cliches, though. I love looking at folk lore and basing things off that though!

I don't really research at all for my realistic fiction. It's all very based in my feelings or experiences. Sometimes I'll look at maps or something, if anything.

Haven't really bothered to research for my sci-fi. I do it so rarely, and when I do, there's really nothing I need to worry about being spot on or accurate about.

With fantasy, I spend some time "researching", I guess. It's mostly world-building on my part. I'll write drabbles or throw away shorts that I won't share with anyone to get a feel for my characters or world.

Originally Posted by Doran_Bladefist

My God, America, you and me are long lost twins. Sometimes I find myself link-jumping more in the Wikipedia than actually writing -- curse this need for quasi-accurate science and Norse-related plot lines! I've also done Google searches for ideas of mine, just to make sure they're original.

Dude me too! xD I once set out to write for ten hours in one day, and ended up spending like, seven hours link-jumping on Wiki-pages about nuclear bombs, so I could make them at least somewhat accurate for the yield and size of the bombs xD

I do this a lot for history, mainly alt. history. Love world building

And yeah, I can see that, Holden. Makes sense.

I've decided to consolidate my short stories into a single thread since all of those that I have published to ZU up to now have been totally separate threads, even "A Future Lost," which is 290 words or so. I will be doing this starting with my Halloween story--third annual!--this year, "The Shadow Loop." I will be posting "The Shadow Loop" as a separate thread and as a part of my compilation thread. It'll be the only one I do that with. Just because it'll be at the end of a heap of "new" posts.

Yay for writing again!

I almost never listen to music when I write; I find it to be distracting. Which is ironic since it actually improves my concentration when working on homework and the like. Maybe my creative juices don't like music.

I forgot to mention before, I love listening to this and writing.

Fellow writers, I need a bit of advice. I find myself using "X said..." too often in my works. When I can, I try to use context based words, like mumbled, requested, demanded, etc. But a lot of times, I can't think of alternatives and I end up with a bunch of "he said, she said". What do you do in this situation?

"He whispered"
"He shouted"

Or you can use actions to interrupt dialogue or initiate.

"He waved his hand dismissively. 'Nah, man, it's not like that.'"

In some cases, I might even try to communicate dialogue completely non-verbally, which can be really interesting.

Originally Posted by Shinobi Popcorn

Fellow writers, I need a bit of advice. I find myself using "X said..." too often in my works. When I can, I try to use context based words, like mumbled, requested, demanded, etc. But a lot of times, I can't think of alternatives and I end up with a bunch of "he said, she said". What do you do in this situation?

When you have people talking back and forth quickly with little to know action between the words, don't use "he said" or "she said" to describe them speaking past the first few transitions. It can be understood after that.

Include something at an important moment, though; if the context of what they're saying, the tone, or something else equally important to the scene happens, add it in and then continue on. It'll get boring to read someone speaking and then something describing his/her voice, just as it will get boring to read blocks of text without description. Mix it up a bit in regards to this.

As to WHAT to say in placement of said, that's hard to say. I'll often just say how they feel; if my character were angry I'd write something similar to this:

"It's time to go," Syn said absently as the rain pelted his face. Cars sped up and down the road as he walked solemnly along the sidewalk. He reiterated the sentence several times in the darkness, the light of the cars blaring in his face as they passed. He thought of the words, the meaning they had to him.

I still wrote "Syn said", but I made it more interesting by adding to the scene and how he spoke the words. A lot of the time writing "said" isn't bad; it's just when it gets too boring that it becomes a problem. In this case, you take the boredom out by adding more to the paragraph/how the character said it.

Anyways, I'm not entirely sure that made any sense. Hope it helps, though.

EDIT: Listen to Holden.

He is wise.

Using "X said" a lot is bad? Huh. Never knew that.

I always just kinda assumed that if it was clear who said it, you didn't use it, and saying "X said" was the norm. I never really looked at what most books I read do.

It's all about fluency, though, I'd imagine. If you can make it flow well even with repetition, it's better than if it doesn't flow at all.

Thanks for all the advice. Despite the fact that I'm a liberal arts major, I haven't taken any creative writing classes in years, so I'm a bit out of it in terms of style.

Originally Posted by America

Using "X said" a lot is bad? Huh. Never knew that.

I've even been criticized for not using "x said". Like, I was using synonyms or more specific terms, and apparently the one reviewer was annoyed by that haha.

I think it's a personal preference thing then, probably not a rule for it other than making it sound good, y'know?

I like to rotate between using 'said' and descriptive actions to label who the dialog belongs to. Seeing the word 'said' all over a page is boring to the brain -- keep things fresh and rotate those words, people!

An English teacher at my school has a list of words he never wants to see more than 20 times in a story, or have it not used at all. One of them is said.

Fortunately, I've never had him as a teacher yet.

A lot of times, I just let the two characters talk back and forth without any marker words, which I consider sloppy. But when I'm in a writing mood, I don't want to be stopped by silly little things. So I'll go back after and add markers.

I'm going to try and rewrite the rules/guidelines thread within the next week or two. It'll basically explain my rules and policies on behavior and content in the board. Things like commenting, etc.

If there's anything you'd like to bring up or discuss, do so now. Let's have a chat.