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Okay, so. I've been writing for like... 8 or so years. I'm not the most veteran writer out there, but I sure know my way around the circuit. Well, my mentor and most favourite person ever, looking at you @The Mood is Write , told me once that I'm the guy she turns to if she wants to have things run naturally in our RPs. So, I figured, "Lurk. Buddy, Palio. Amigo. Take your head off the overwhelming anxiety and existential dread you have, and start contributing to this site! You owe your writing infancy to it!"
So, I decided to do an impromptu lesson about it. I'm gonna try and keep things simple, but there's no accounting for me going on a tangent.
Two of the most powerful aspects of organic writing doesn't involve the writer themselves, directly. In fact, the entire goal of the Organic Writer isn't to instigate events, but instead, just be the force that writes out that would happen. It's a tad confusing, but let me put it like this: The Inorganic Writer sees an event, like say, crossing the bridge without the character having a car. There's a million ways to go about this, but the Inorganic writer has events that feel unnatural occur. Like, say, for no reason ever given, the character gets a ride in some rich limo. That limo will never be seen again, and only appeared in that one instance because the story needed to go forward.
The Organic Writer tries a different way. he pools the personality of the character, the world of the bridge itself, and wonders "What would the character do?"
Ten to one, he'd get a fucking cab. Thus, a less glamourous, but believable way to cross the bridge occurred. It may not be a good example, my point gets across
So, I decided to do an impromptu lesson about it. I'm gonna try and keep things simple, but there's no accounting for me going on a tangent.
So. Something I've started to realise is, writing is like a suit. What I mean by this, is there's no perfect suit. There are only perfectly tailored suits. Everyone has their own style for writing, but my style, emphasising a world and organic story, is a style I like. I made it, after all. What I say in this guide won't account for all forms of style. Something I suffer with immensely as a writer is short stories. My style emphasizes taking the time and dedication to add in things that aren't exactly needed for the story, but enriches the world at large. For a short story, this is a bad fucking idea. I recently entered a short story competition, and I lost. It crushed that little bit of joy I had in my soul, since I actually looked up if I was in the long list just now. However, I spent weeks struggling with it. Months on end of me just not being capable of keeping shit under a word limit of 2,000 words. It's just not something I'm good at. I also refused to publish a story that didn't organically end within the 2,000 word limit as it's, again, my strongest quality.
What I mean with this little bit of rant, is that my style won't necessarily be your style. And that's okay. I'm not trying to make carbon copies of me while doing this. I can go out of my way to look up lessons as to how to write short stories, keeping things concise and well written. I didn't, because I was a proud, stupid nugget, but that's on me, and I should work on that. You, my dear readers, whoever you may be, should not let pride overcome you. You don't have to be a someone copying me, but take the best bits of what I"m saying and incorporate it into what your style is. Writing is an art form, and no way in hell anyone's going to say Picasso and Van Gogh are identical in styles, yet they're still extremely famous in their own rights.
What I mean with this little bit of rant, is that my style won't necessarily be your style. And that's okay. I'm not trying to make carbon copies of me while doing this. I can go out of my way to look up lessons as to how to write short stories, keeping things concise and well written. I didn't, because I was a proud, stupid nugget, but that's on me, and I should work on that. You, my dear readers, whoever you may be, should not let pride overcome you. You don't have to be a someone copying me, but take the best bits of what I"m saying and incorporate it into what your style is. Writing is an art form, and no way in hell anyone's going to say Picasso and Van Gogh are identical in styles, yet they're still extremely famous in their own rights.
The Meat and Potatoes
Two of the most powerful aspects of organic writing doesn't involve the writer themselves, directly. In fact, the entire goal of the Organic Writer isn't to instigate events, but instead, just be the force that writes out that would happen. It's a tad confusing, but let me put it like this: The Inorganic Writer sees an event, like say, crossing the bridge without the character having a car. There's a million ways to go about this, but the Inorganic writer has events that feel unnatural occur. Like, say, for no reason ever given, the character gets a ride in some rich limo. That limo will never be seen again, and only appeared in that one instance because the story needed to go forward.
The Organic Writer tries a different way. he pools the personality of the character, the world of the bridge itself, and wonders "What would the character do?"
Ten to one, he'd get a fucking cab. Thus, a less glamourous, but believable way to cross the bridge occurred. It may not be a good example, my point gets across
I'm probably not the first one to say this, but characters are everything in the story. The Viewers, the hypothetical readers of your piece of writing work, stands more as a collective entity than individuals. The Viewers are whimsical, they are petty, and above all they are subject to popular opinion. The Viewers want characters they can relate to, and they want them to be more than one personality quirk stapled on to a pretty face.
Well, the Organic Writer relies on proper characters, as well. The style develops the character, then throws them into a story, and the general idea is consists of having the characters do things by their own decision, rather than the will of the plot. The Main Protagonist shouldn't get the girl because the story warrants it. Hell, maybe he doesn't even get the girl. Maybe there's a female lead, and the Writer in question tried to have it end in a romance by the story's overarching ending, as well, but the characters had their own ideas. That's the kind of mentality I want to instill in the people actually reading this lesson. Your characters need to be fleshed out. Not because it's a good thing to do in general (Which it is), but it's downright mandatory if you want things to run organically.
I'm not going to go in great detail about this. Mainly it's due to my horrible mental health, but this thing needs to stay relatively on topic as well, you know? So, you're going to have to refer to someone else for the whole "Creating In-Depth Characters" Schtic, but in my experience, the hardest part about creating complex characters is remembering what their motivations are and not forgetting as you write the book/Quality RP
Well, the Organic Writer relies on proper characters, as well. The style develops the character, then throws them into a story, and the general idea is consists of having the characters do things by their own decision, rather than the will of the plot. The Main Protagonist shouldn't get the girl because the story warrants it. Hell, maybe he doesn't even get the girl. Maybe there's a female lead, and the Writer in question tried to have it end in a romance by the story's overarching ending, as well, but the characters had their own ideas. That's the kind of mentality I want to instill in the people actually reading this lesson. Your characters need to be fleshed out. Not because it's a good thing to do in general (Which it is), but it's downright mandatory if you want things to run organically.
I'm not going to go in great detail about this. Mainly it's due to my horrible mental health, but this thing needs to stay relatively on topic as well, you know? So, you're going to have to refer to someone else for the whole "Creating In-Depth Characters" Schtic, but in my experience, the hardest part about creating complex characters is remembering what their motivations are and not forgetting as you write the book/Quality RP
This is a whole lesson in and of itself, but your characters are very much a product of the world you create around them. Even people who evolved to be above their environment did so because they did not want to be a product of it. It's all very complex and, again, worth a lesson in and of itself, but a prime example is maybe a world where Nazis took over the world. Two characters aren't going to start putting up posters for some weird interracial orgy within a city. They'd get Gestapo on their asses quicker than you can say... You know what there isn't anything good that's Nazi-themed you can say out loud, so just leave that to your imagination.
Just as much as it has an effect on the characters, and sometimes the characters on it, the world around it is very much alive and well, even if it's an empty void in space. You need to keep its characteristics in mind when you're writing. You need to keep the culture in mind of the people, the temperature, the climate, hell even the rainfall of the world you're living in. There's an immeasurable amount of moving parts in the world, and your job as a writer is to signify that, somehow. This gets very complicated very quickly, though. Don't fall down a rabbit hole of creating world and never writing a story. That shit eats you up and next thing you know it's been a year and you haven't written a lick of story
Just as much as it has an effect on the characters, and sometimes the characters on it, the world around it is very much alive and well, even if it's an empty void in space. You need to keep its characteristics in mind when you're writing. You need to keep the culture in mind of the people, the temperature, the climate, hell even the rainfall of the world you're living in. There's an immeasurable amount of moving parts in the world, and your job as a writer is to signify that, somehow. This gets very complicated very quickly, though. Don't fall down a rabbit hole of creating world and never writing a story. That shit eats you up and next thing you know it's been a year and you haven't written a lick of story
Whenever I think about a good way to inspect your world and story and characters to see if they're noteworthy, I look to the nitpicky assholes of the Youtube Reviewers. I'm talking about the people that nitpick and mock every movie they review, even the ones they love. They ask the right questions, you see. When you make a story, you need to channel that, develop a cynnical asshole voice in your head. They need to ask "What the hell is X doing with a pink inflatable flamingo! How is this even Relevant!" And you need to keep them, cherish them, all that shit. You need to rationalize the actions of your characters based on the motivations, skills, and knowledge you gave them. You need to ask if you established this, if this feels cheap, or if it even fits in the story. You need to develop them to be believable. You need to always remember what you have them be capable of because you can't have them magically not do this when the plot needs them incapable of doing it. You need to remember everything and base the decisions of your character's actions off of that. You can manipulate the world to cause events to occur, manipulate characters so they have different personalities, but you can never do that shit on the fly without establishing shit. The moment you break continuity is the moment nitpicky asses like me tear your story apart.
Even if you do everything I tell you. Even if you're a better writer than me, and write a story worthy of the Gods themselves, you know what? That story will have holes in it. While this may sound very dubious, one of the most important differences between good stories and bad stories is the size of the holes people find within it. Mistakes happen, even if you try your hardest to find perfection. I myself am a perfectionist, and I'll try my damnest to write a story that's airtight and perfect, but I'll fail, and the worst part about it is I'll fail in such a way that I won't even be able to see it until it's been said and done. All we really can do is try our hardest and hope for the best.
Look. As I'm writing this, my mental health is through the shitter. I have to stop myself from crying when I crawl out of my bed every morning, drained and miserable. A massive reason for this is how much stress I'm feeling writing my own book. This book I'm writing is taking a serious toll on my sanity, but I'm still doing it.
I think, due to the special breed of human most writers are, we lose scope that writing a book, properly writing a book, is a lot of hard work. No matter what you love, no matter what you're doing, hard work is hard work, and it's never fun. All these old people screeching at you that all you need to do is roll up your sleeves and put in the work usually don't have a concept of the mental state you're in when they're saying it. Even so, even if they're inconsiderate asses, sometimes, they're right. Writing is hard fucking work, and you need to push yourself more than you've ever pushed yourself before if you want to be a successful writer. You need to study, sure. Studying's easy when you compare it to writing properly. Writing is like a constant uphill climb where you have to keep juggling all these pieces of important shit all the time and pray to God, or the Gods or Lack of God or whatever that you don't fucking forget about something halfway.
Success is relative. What's everyday for me is incredibly hard for you and vice versa, but sometimes you need to realise that it's not going to be nice no matter how you look at it, no matter how long you wait. I wasted three years of my life because of that, just waiting for better times. Granted I was in no proper place mentally to do anything, but I didn't try. I didn't want to roll up my sleeves, depressed and frazzled as I was, and work at something. You're never going to go anywhere unless you crawl towards it, fingernails bloodied from the pit you had to crawl out of to get there in the first place. It's not nice. It's never going to be nice. All you can do is grit your teeth and keep going, sometimes, and there's no two ways about it
I think, due to the special breed of human most writers are, we lose scope that writing a book, properly writing a book, is a lot of hard work. No matter what you love, no matter what you're doing, hard work is hard work, and it's never fun. All these old people screeching at you that all you need to do is roll up your sleeves and put in the work usually don't have a concept of the mental state you're in when they're saying it. Even so, even if they're inconsiderate asses, sometimes, they're right. Writing is hard fucking work, and you need to push yourself more than you've ever pushed yourself before if you want to be a successful writer. You need to study, sure. Studying's easy when you compare it to writing properly. Writing is like a constant uphill climb where you have to keep juggling all these pieces of important shit all the time and pray to God, or the Gods or Lack of God or whatever that you don't fucking forget about something halfway.
Success is relative. What's everyday for me is incredibly hard for you and vice versa, but sometimes you need to realise that it's not going to be nice no matter how you look at it, no matter how long you wait. I wasted three years of my life because of that, just waiting for better times. Granted I was in no proper place mentally to do anything, but I didn't try. I didn't want to roll up my sleeves, depressed and frazzled as I was, and work at something. You're never going to go anywhere unless you crawl towards it, fingernails bloodied from the pit you had to crawl out of to get there in the first place. It's not nice. It's never going to be nice. All you can do is grit your teeth and keep going, sometimes, and there's no two ways about it
