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nicksgal:

--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on January 30, 2021, 05:24:20 PM ---LOL Same with my family!


I'm glad your editing project did not derail PNecklace!  Hopefully you can get back into the writing groove.

--- End quote ---

I think that's all of our families if we can admit that we were ever teenyboppers.

I think it's going to be okay! I've been busy pondering my answers to my own questions instead of writing, but I did that to myself.


--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on January 30, 2021, 05:26:37 PM ---I hate that feeling!  What word did you go with?

--- End quote ---

"Benevolence," but I still kind of hate it because it changed my planned sentence structure from "______ were (adjective 1) and (adjective 2) (noun)s." Because while it fits, it doesn't fit that sentence structure. Maybe I'll like it better when I come back to it.

nicksgal:

--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on January 30, 2021, 05:42:03 PM ---It feels good to get that first line out of the way!  I agree; it is daunting.  I've been imagining the opening scene of this story for a long time, but I hadn't figured out how to actually start it, so now I feel better about things.

It's been a gloomy day here - freezing rain with snow on the way later tonight.  It's a gross, slushy mess outside.  Perfect day to stay in and write (or sleep and catch up on TV LOL).
--- End quote ---

I hate when you have an opening scene, but nothing you type feels like the right way to start it out. I'm glad you found it, because that is a relief!

Gloomy days are the perfect day to write or do nothing. I'm much less likely to clean my house on a gloomy day, for instance.


--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on January 30, 2021, 05:42:03 PM ---I guess it's because my stories are mostly all sad and/or horrifying, so I don't want to have nightmares about them that feel real.  Luckily I rarely remember my dreams anymore, so this has never really been a problem for me.

I have never worked in a restaurant, but I have back-to-school nightmares every August that are probably similar to the "I forgot table 34's ranch" dream.  I'm guessing you probably do too - every teacher I know does.  Mine are usually some version of "It's the first day of school, and I forgot to prepare, and also no one has a sharpened pencil" or "The class is out of control, and I can't get them back."
--- End quote ---

That's true too! The nightmare portions are particularly horrible because then the image just gets stuck in your head. Or at least mine. Sometimes I remember my dreams, but it's never been whole dreams, it's always just been tiny bits.

Oh yes, I hate those "I am unprepared and no one has materials" dreams. One that reoccurs with some regularity is "All the kids ate cake for breakfast and they will crash before rest time (but not sleep during rest time). Meanwhile, it's snowing, so we can't go outside! Oh look, now they're chucking blocks at each other! Someone help!" It's exhausting.


--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on January 30, 2021, 05:42:03 PM ---I guess junior high or high school because I was thinking in terms of them teaching different subjects, too, as opposed to grade levels.  I totally agree with Nick as the fun science teacher.  I was thinking Kevin or Howie would make a good principal too, but I could also see Howie being a math teacher because of his financial smarts.  I would make Brian the P.E. teacher/coach because he's always said he would probably be a P.E. (or music) teacher if he wasn't a Backstreet Boy.  I had the hardest time with AJ, but I agree that he would probably be some kind of arts teacher - I was thinking theater.

--- End quote ---

I thought Howie for math too, but I'd already given it to Brian. I think with his nurturing talents and varied interests/skills, Howie would make a great teacher in whatever subject he wanted.

I totally forgot PE teacher when I was typing and I don't know why. Brian would be great at that. If he was in the coach roll, he could also be a teacher in a different subject. At my high school, not all of the sports coaches were PE teachers. Our football coach was a history teacher and then an assistant principle while I was there. The cheer/dance coach was always the assistant principal while I was there too, but I'm sure she did something else before becoming an assistant principal.

nicksgal:
How do you come up with character names for your stories? (Other than the obvious, "Well, Nick is "Nick.")

As I mentioned, I spend so much of my early story planning in the time suck of "meaningful character names" especially because I like to flesh my characters out first. Take for instance the excessive amount of time I spent coming up with the perfect name for my character "Uriel" (original fiction) who has light-based powers and originally came back from a car accident coma, haha.

For fanfic, since I know I fall into this trap, I try to be less picky and more general. So I usually have two requirements, followed by a third if it doesn't take too long: 1. Do I like the name? 2. Will I get sick of seeing it however many times it appears on the page? Option 3. Can I stumble on a name I like that also fits into the character or something that happens to them? That's how you get things like "Renee."

I'm sure you're now wondering, if like me, you had a bit of a weeb phase in addition to your BSB love. Yes, I started writing PBox in the height of my weeby Japanophile phase and "Minako" was picked because of my love for the Sailor Moon character, but the meaning also fit nicely: "Holy child" for the seeker and hopeful wielder of a "Holy Box."

On the topic of the Boys, well, Nick just seems like such a "Nick" right?

What are the essential characteristic s of a hero you can root for? Are there certain aspects of the Boys you play up if they're in the hero role?

I said I would quote Julie's answer because I liked it so much, so I will.


--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on January 30, 2021, 05:20:37 PM ---Heroes need to be both likeable and relatable.  They have to have some vulnerability, not be completely superhuman.  I typically write Nick or Brian in the hero role, so I'll answer this for them.  With Nick, I play up his loyalty and love for the other boys, as well as his temper and tendency to get emotional and wear his heart on his sleeve.  With Brian, I play up his faith by having him turn to God and the power of prayer in tough situations (or, in the case of Song for the Undead, have him turn away from God and lose his faith).  I use his strength and athleticism as well.  He's small, but mighty.
--- End quote ---

I think I would add that even though you want your hero to seem heroic, in addition to that relatability and vulnerability, they really need some great flaws that they can learn to overcome, manage, or that can really knock them down.

To me, any Nick is always defined by his loyalty and his "get back up"ness. I also tend to make my Nicks pretty hot-headed and reactive instead of proactive. I think a young Nick is almost too trusting and an older Nick is bit "world weary." Put them all together and... well, there's a reason he's the hero of so many BSB fanfics.

What do you do to get inside your characters' heads?

Like Julie, I also think about how they would react to a situation. If it starts feeling too much like me and not them, I start rewriting.

If you could be a character from one of your stories, who would it be and why?

None of them? While they all have parts of me, I don't think I'd want to be in any of their situations. I need to stop being a sadist. The love interest in Beta Sigma Beta may have been a good choice, but I never got it to the point of knowing how it would end.

What's the trickiest thing about writing characters of the opposite gender?

Just like Julie said, making sure whatever they do or say doesn't seem too girly! I've usually thought specifically to ex-boyfriends and my husband if I'm not sure about something in particular. Though I wish I had a "boy consultant" back in my teeny fanfic days when I was so prone to those "Isn't Gypsydoodle great?" conversation moments.

Does one of your characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?

Y'all know the answer, I could just skip this one. PBox Nick, even though you're annoyingly loud and persistent, you're my buddy forever. Who knew you were an epic waiting to happen when I had a dream about demons with boxes and spent hours in the library researching the Four Gods for fun? I've just always loved how he grows from the small thing he is at the beginning of PBox to this big thing capable of great change for all things at the end of the whole story without compromising what becomes really important to him along the way, even when compromising those things is the easiest for surviving. I also love that he's constantly looking for ways to do something about anything.

Now describe that character in three words.

PBox Nick is a "plucky, gentle knight." Take all the layered connotations you'd like from those three words, they're all meant to be there.

Which of your characters do you relate to the most?

Probably the protagonist of my OF deriving from Ancient Egyptian mythology. She has the most me in her of all my characters and that's probably the reason I have worked and reworked that story for the past almost 20 years.

Do you often put aspects of yourself into your characters?

I agree with Julie, I think all writers do this, it just has to seem right for the characters. PBox Nick, for instance, gets a lot of my "loyalty over sense" added to him.



See? These are fun.

Go back to that character you said holds a special place in your heart and think about the other characters in their story. They can only use each character once, so which character from their story would they pick to:


a. be trapped in the wilderness with? (can be frigid or tropical wilderness) Why?

Kevin would know the most about which things we can eat and which things could kill us. If I eat something poisonous, he could heal me. But you do know that we could just fly away from wherever? Unless you mean physically trapped by chains... If we're physically trapped by chains, can I change my answer?

b. spend the night in a haunted house with? Why?

A what? Oh, like the demon shells stuck in the castle? Brian could purify them and then they wouldn't be there anymore and it would just be a regular house. And then we'd have fun together.

c. have for a boss? Why?

A what? Oh, like a lord... Howie seems like he could find something for me to do when we finish finding everyone else and are done with the box. I think Howie likes me enough that whatever it is would be fun.

d. pull off a heist with? Why?

A what? I wouldn't steal anything, but I guess AJ can turn into lots of different things that could make it easier to be sneaky.

e. be on the Amazing Race with? Why?

The what? It's a game where you go different places? Minako and I already play lots of games while we all travel. Are we doing this "Amazing Race" thing? She never told me that we were playing this...

I realized after writing these that poor PBox Nick would understand the wilderness question as is and nothing else since he is from what is essentially a warring states feudal era. Poor Nick.



Some of these next ones, I had an answer right away and some of them, I had to weigh my options.

Which Boy would you pick to:

a. be trapped in the wilderness with? (can be frigid or tropical wilderness) Why?

Kevin with all his backwoods, farming Kentuckyness would know how to survive. I believe Kevin can keep me alive.

b. spend the night in a haunted house with? Why?

I had a hard time deciding with this one, so this is kind of my "you're the one left" answer. Ghosts freak me out, so I think Brian would make it light-hearted and fun even when it was scary.

c. have for a boss? Why?

Howie would make a great boss. He cares about other people and I think while he's being a Backstreet Boy, he would trust his employees to get the job done within parameters, but according to their own ideas.

d. pull off a heist with? Why?

AJ would be so down to get into any role he needed to play for the heist to be successful and even multiple character roles. He's not my go-to guy for diffusing a bomb, for instance, but he is my go-to guy if I needed distracting characters.

e. be on the Amazing Race with? Why?

Nick would take it seriously and I want to win. Plus I think he would come up with the most creative, and effective, solutions to challenges. And if it was in the name of winning, I don't think it would be hard to convince him to part with some funding, haha.

nicksgal:
This is only slightly related to writing, but I know you all would appreciate it. So one of my friends has been updating his tinder profile and put "what's the best fruit?" in his bio because of a fruit discourse we've been having for months. The girl answer durians and he decided he needed a new question, because who thinks durians are a better fruit than something like bananas? :crazy: (Back on topic.) He queried all of us for new questions and one of my other friends wrote the following:

You're offered $10million today. Catch is you now have a killer snail out to get you -- if it touches you, you die. It always knows your location, cannot die, and its sole mission in life is to find you and kill you. Do you take the money?

Most of my friends picked the money, but I (as a writer who understands the psychological stress of things wanting to find and murder you) said I would not take the money.

Yesterday, he asked us: Are snails smart? He decided that if snails are dumb, he would take the money. But he recognized that a smart snail could possibly "drag out the murder for years, so you're never quite sure if it's nearby or not." I asked "So you want to know if it's a 28 Days snail or a 28 Days Later snail, basically? I'll bite. I love researching interesting things on the internet." (As you all know.) So I looked up articles on scientific research about the intelligence of snails. (There's mixed results, if you were wondering.) And then he asked me, "You always said you wouldn't take the money. What do you think the snail would be like? If you were the snail, what would you do?" And, oh boy, were my friends not prepared for the answer! Weird research rabbit hole writing me is not the one they are used to!

Before I tell you all what I said, would you take the money or not? And why?

RokofAges75:
I would not take the money.  I don't need the added stress of having to watch out for Terminator snails.  I love that you went down a rabbit hole researching the intelligence of snails though LOL.

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