The BSN writers club

Oh, page one. Thankyou, I was just about to ask. 

Ok how do you guys come up with your character designs from? How do you go about planning them? I have my own system but am curious to see the opinions of others.

^

i actually agree which is why i tend to do them last...or second to last. The way i develop my.over all projects are setting (characters have to have somewhere to live) the beginning and end of the plot (have to know where the Characters go) main characters, and then dwvelop side characters and rest of the plot simultaneously.

I have done it again. I've had thoughts, provoked no doubt by what others have posted here.

I'm thinking like maybe you shouldn't write the magnum opus novel? Nor the wonder novel.
The reason being I suspect the wonder novel is your fear?
The fear that stops you from writing?
See, I believe it's not page one that is your fear, but your 'The Catcher in the Rye'?

Set out to write 'crap' instead. It won't always be a disaster, because you have something internally in you that recognizes trash and you will continually modify your craft and rewrite.



As to the methodology of writing, I've already hinted that I myself am doing it the all wrong way. Alas, I don't intend to reform.

Ideally, one should work out everything in advance. Spend a lot of time forming the story, inventing and placing all the plot details. Devising a set of scenes by which the story is told. Spend as much time as it takes. Then, as you have it completed as a stack of notes for all the scenes, you just write it.
I believe this method was particularly useful in the old age of typewriters, but it totally makes sense in any way.

...Except for creativity and productivity. What follows is not an advice. Just a description of how I do it. I don't think you can use it as an excuse to do the same.
It's hard to put the finger on exactly what was wrong - though I'm sure it's something personal - but I never got much anywhere with the well planned story. I suspect it could have something to do with that I'm writing for my recreation. Also, the most and best ideas that spring into my mind comes only as I'm storytelling. My head is pretty much an empty desert when I'm storyplanning.
Anyway, the way I get going, and get somewhere, is by only having a loose line to follow. Then, as I write, I'm also telling myself the story. It becomes a journey and I mostly follow it where it takes me. Though, at times, I reconsider and feel I'm on the wrong track and deviates too much from what I had in mind. Then I rewrite or even delete. But as I said, it mostly forms as I write it. And that includes that things pop up which changes the story.
And I rewrite. I work over old sections again and again. The text swells by inserted sentences. Some sections, like 10%, others maybe tenfold. I tell myself the story in a linear fashion, starting at the beginning. But I also work over the story again and expand.
I also keep a separate data sheet for reference, where I note all characters, places, things and important details and relations. That is actually pretty essential, IMO.

So on the question of creating characters. Well, I simply meet them underway. They define themselves, by how they act and speak. I don't know why I think I can do that, but possibly it's because of all the role-playing? Regardless, it just turns up inside my head. Though it has happened that I had to go back and rewrite an initial meeting with a char, because that char eventually developed into something no longer consistent.
...And as I said, this was not an advice. Just how I have to do it.

Still haven't started any fanfic yet.

TBH, Sometimes I wish I never got into writing poetry

One of my favorite websites dedicated to offering writing tips and insight is "Helping Writers Become Authors." It's helped me so much over the years.

Here's a useful recent article:

www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/first-act-in-your-sequel/

How do you folks go about doing research? Say you have a character that's into guns or you have to describe the condition of a corpse and you're not too sure a flag won't go up on so.e FBI computer when you suddenly start Googling disturbing and specific questions. Do you turn to a local college or just fire up a proxy server or what?

I just Google it and don't really worry about it.

I've also found Quora to be a pretty cool resource. You might need to create/log-in with a Google account to really get in-depth with it, but it's like a general bizarre question and answer thing, where answers are upvoted for accuracy/relevance. So, a little like a Reddit for writers but easier to read and without the douchewagons. 

I'm an editor and unless it's a small typo, I don't like making significant changes to someone else's work without permission. And a lot of the time, I don't even know how exactly it should be changed.

Because of these issues, I find the use of the Google Docs comments system to be a very convenient way to edit. I can leave the text of the draft alone while still marking up the page all I want with comments (up to and including rewriting lines), and then the writer goes over my comments and discusses with me what changes should be made.