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[ramble] Curiousity
(If this posts twice, I apologize -- LJ is being dumb. RAWRGH. >____>)
So, yesterday, spent a lot of time poking around the different journal servers out there -- LJ, natch, and then a bit of DeadJournal, a little of GreatestJournal, JournalFen, and so forth. I mean, one of the things I do miss about being home for the summer is that I live out in the suburb-ish area, out away from the busiest parts of the city; it's not quite so easy to just wander out to some small place and people-watch.
I mean hell, in my particular dorm building, if I want to observe people, all I have to do is leave my door open and watch the comings and goings in the lounge, or go downstairs to the cafeteria. In any city enviroment, there's no shortage of people, just from my experiences. [grins]
But you know, in a way, it's the same for journals online, too -- in many ways, you're getting a much more personal view of the people you're looking at. I mean, using myself as an example -- you can look at me and see I'm fidgety, that I constantly play with my hair, and have a tendency to either dawdle or walk too fast. That you can get by noticing me when you're doing people-watching in a crowd; what you don't know is that I always crush eggshells before I throw them away (a habit born from childhood superstition), that I like cherry coke, or that I write. Conversely, you can get those from me, but not the physical characteristics, by reading my various blogs.
It's interesting -- I've always heard that advice of "write what you know," which I think is good to an extent; at the same time, dude. If people only wrote what they knew, what they'd had firsthand experience with, we wouldn't have huge chunks of the sci-fi and fantasy genres, which would be tremendously sad for me, both as a writer and a reader. XD But when it comes to creating characters -- yes, I think it's important to draw traits from real people, even those you don't necessarily know. You see a child in the park with a certain brilliant smile, you take it, and then you try to describe it when you write a character. They say you always put a piece of yourself into characters you write, but I think it's better if you put shades and echoes of others you know.
That gets into tricky territory, though -- what if you're basing a character on someone, and that person reads the story and takes offense? If someone wrote about my tendency to spazz and go tenaciously stupid, and I could recognize myself in that -- well, yeah, I'd be hurt, but at the same time ... well, all right, maybe it's me, but I really find it fascinating to see someone through multiple viewpoints. I think that's still why I write and read a lot of fanfic -- because the whole multiple viewpoint thing interests me. I see Character A as a sick and twisted character; my friend sees him as just a guy who's made some really horrible mistakes, but isn't terrible under it all, even though we're watching the same series and events.
Given that half the time, I think of life as just some gigantic story -- "all the world's a stage," and all -- I think it would be interesting to see someone take traits from me and write them into a character. I know one of my Dragon's Pen friends has mentioned he could easily imagine taking elements of all of our group and writing them as characters in his novels, and me, I think it'd be cool to see. But I can understand why someone wouldn't like that, especially if the portrayal is less than flattering, so ...
I think the key is to take parts of that personality you see, and doctor it. Give the character slightly different motives for acting that way than (your impression of) those the actual person has. Maybe the spazz grew up in a loud household (not mine) and is loud because that's the best way, in their experience, to be heard.
-- and I'm sorta getting off-track. XD; This was originally meant to be more of a journal thing. There are certain trends I've noticed throughout for posting on these journal servers, that have always vaguely confused me. It goes back to the whole "why do people do what they do?" sort of thing, motives and all. I'm horrible, I'm sorry. XD
On journal servers with 'friends,' why bother friending yourself? It's one thing if, like several of my friends, you've got separate fic/art journals and a personal one, but what's the point of friending yourself on a server? I honestly don't get it. o_o
Lyricposts, too. Why do some people feel the need to just post lyrics in lieu of entries? I mean, a journal is, for all intents and purposes that I've always known, to be a forum where the owner can relate thoughts/experiences/creations, in his/her own words. I rarely, if ever, have seen much interest in lyricposts, but they still pop up. Why? Is it just for the gratuitous "here's what I'm listening to!" because the little 'Current Music' entry field most of these journal servers provide isn't enough? I'm honestly curious; I've had times where I fling lyrics at friends or had it done to me vice-versa over AIM, usually along the lines of a character/story songcall. I don't see so much of that in LJ (and DJ, and Jfen, and so forth), just -- "look! lyrics! yay?"
Also, more generally -- how often do people post, or check their flist? Is there anoyne else, who goes back every two-three hours (and sometimes every half-hour, when I'm especially bored XD;;) to refresh and see if anything new's been posted? What prompts people to make entries about anything? Additionally, when are you usually moved to comment? Not necessarily on fics, but anything --is it the "haofdjpaejr;afa STUBBED MY TOE!" post that gets the "omg u poor thing!" reply x 20, the "I'm sick, blarrrrgh!" entry gets a few well-wishers, and so on. What drives you to post, and to comment? Personal interest? Boredom? Because you need to get in touch with the person and know thatlike me they are sad and easily bored and will likely check e-mail before an flist it's easier to get in touch with them via LJ/e-mailed comments?
I'm just nosily curious, and wondering. XD Anyone?
So, yesterday, spent a lot of time poking around the different journal servers out there -- LJ, natch, and then a bit of DeadJournal, a little of GreatestJournal, JournalFen, and so forth. I mean, one of the things I do miss about being home for the summer is that I live out in the suburb-ish area, out away from the busiest parts of the city; it's not quite so easy to just wander out to some small place and people-watch.
I mean hell, in my particular dorm building, if I want to observe people, all I have to do is leave my door open and watch the comings and goings in the lounge, or go downstairs to the cafeteria. In any city enviroment, there's no shortage of people, just from my experiences. [grins]
But you know, in a way, it's the same for journals online, too -- in many ways, you're getting a much more personal view of the people you're looking at. I mean, using myself as an example -- you can look at me and see I'm fidgety, that I constantly play with my hair, and have a tendency to either dawdle or walk too fast. That you can get by noticing me when you're doing people-watching in a crowd; what you don't know is that I always crush eggshells before I throw them away (a habit born from childhood superstition), that I like cherry coke, or that I write. Conversely, you can get those from me, but not the physical characteristics, by reading my various blogs.
It's interesting -- I've always heard that advice of "write what you know," which I think is good to an extent; at the same time, dude. If people only wrote what they knew, what they'd had firsthand experience with, we wouldn't have huge chunks of the sci-fi and fantasy genres, which would be tremendously sad for me, both as a writer and a reader. XD But when it comes to creating characters -- yes, I think it's important to draw traits from real people, even those you don't necessarily know. You see a child in the park with a certain brilliant smile, you take it, and then you try to describe it when you write a character. They say you always put a piece of yourself into characters you write, but I think it's better if you put shades and echoes of others you know.
That gets into tricky territory, though -- what if you're basing a character on someone, and that person reads the story and takes offense? If someone wrote about my tendency to spazz and go tenaciously stupid, and I could recognize myself in that -- well, yeah, I'd be hurt, but at the same time ... well, all right, maybe it's me, but I really find it fascinating to see someone through multiple viewpoints. I think that's still why I write and read a lot of fanfic -- because the whole multiple viewpoint thing interests me. I see Character A as a sick and twisted character; my friend sees him as just a guy who's made some really horrible mistakes, but isn't terrible under it all, even though we're watching the same series and events.
Given that half the time, I think of life as just some gigantic story -- "all the world's a stage," and all -- I think it would be interesting to see someone take traits from me and write them into a character. I know one of my Dragon's Pen friends has mentioned he could easily imagine taking elements of all of our group and writing them as characters in his novels, and me, I think it'd be cool to see. But I can understand why someone wouldn't like that, especially if the portrayal is less than flattering, so ...
I think the key is to take parts of that personality you see, and doctor it. Give the character slightly different motives for acting that way than (your impression of) those the actual person has. Maybe the spazz grew up in a loud household (not mine) and is loud because that's the best way, in their experience, to be heard.
-- and I'm sorta getting off-track. XD; This was originally meant to be more of a journal thing. There are certain trends I've noticed throughout for posting on these journal servers, that have always vaguely confused me. It goes back to the whole "why do people do what they do?" sort of thing, motives and all. I'm horrible, I'm sorry. XD
On journal servers with 'friends,' why bother friending yourself? It's one thing if, like several of my friends, you've got separate fic/art journals and a personal one, but what's the point of friending yourself on a server? I honestly don't get it. o_o
Lyricposts, too. Why do some people feel the need to just post lyrics in lieu of entries? I mean, a journal is, for all intents and purposes that I've always known, to be a forum where the owner can relate thoughts/experiences/creations, in his/her own words. I rarely, if ever, have seen much interest in lyricposts, but they still pop up. Why? Is it just for the gratuitous "here's what I'm listening to!" because the little 'Current Music' entry field most of these journal servers provide isn't enough? I'm honestly curious; I've had times where I fling lyrics at friends or had it done to me vice-versa over AIM, usually along the lines of a character/story songcall. I don't see so much of that in LJ (and DJ, and Jfen, and so forth), just -- "look! lyrics! yay?"
Also, more generally -- how often do people post, or check their flist? Is there anoyne else, who goes back every two-three hours (and sometimes every half-hour, when I'm especially bored XD;;) to refresh and see if anything new's been posted? What prompts people to make entries about anything? Additionally, when are you usually moved to comment? Not necessarily on fics, but anything --is it the "haofdjpaejr;afa STUBBED MY TOE!" post that gets the "omg u poor thing!" reply x 20, the "I'm sick, blarrrrgh!" entry gets a few well-wishers, and so on. What drives you to post, and to comment? Personal interest? Boredom? Because you need to get in touch with the person and know that
I'm just nosily curious, and wondering. XD Anyone?
no subject
Hrrrrm. I still don't quite get lyricposts, I think. I've never done it myself, but I suspect that if I were, I'd do some kind of "songfic" formatted entry, where I'd have lyrics, write something, lyrics, write something. And it would probably be hideously disjointed and stream-of-consciousness, because I don't make sense to myself when I'm especially tired/unhappy. XD;;;
See, the thing with original characters for me is that I have to believe in them as real people; I've got to be able to say yes, this could be a real personality, even if the character is some kind of demon, or alien, or some otherwise not-quite-human character. The easiest way for me to do that is to lift traits/quirks from myself and my friends -- I have an original character with a particular speech tic that I used to use a lot during middle school, and I know my friend Sharky has at least two characters quasi-based on me, in the sense that they're cheerful, loud, and spazzy -- that's not really all of me, but she can still take some cues in how I react to figure out how the character might react, and then let them develop.
And, see, I work in a different method than you do -- when it comes to original fiction, I tend to imagine the characters first; I doodle someone idly in classnotes that I like the look of, and expand upon him/her, start sketching out people who're related to this character somehow, and then, eventually, an idea coalsces out of what I'm doing. The novel I'm working on right now started with me going back over the old folkstories about foxes I read as a kid, vague dissatisfaction with the youko/kitsune craze some anime fans have, and this one sketch I have of a lady with really bizarre tattoos on her back. XD So really, I develop the characters and let the plot come to me, which may explain why I do the trait-lifting thing more easily. ^^