WIP Challenge Check-in -- Day 31 (Wednesday)

[linaewen]

Today is Wednesday, and the last day of August -- how's it going for you today?

Were you/are you/will you be:

• writing (want to share a word count?)
• planning (brainstorming, researching, outlining)
• editing
• posting
• taking a break
• reading someone else's writing
• dealing with non-writing things on your To Do List

Discussion for the day:  Let's continue talking about our original characters.  Once you figure out their names, what else is involved in coming come up with a good OC?  Do you create a back story for them before they appear on paper?  Does their history get researched after they appear and you realize they are going to be important?  Or do they develop as they please and you hope they will tell you how it's going to go from one chapter to the next?

Comments

[ficwriter1966]

Going pretty well today! I finished up and posted the latest chapter in my WIP (about 2500 words, done yesterday & today). Just a few chapters left to go!

The OCs - they generally tell me who they are and what their backstory is. As a friend once said, "There's a movie playing in our heads, and we just write it down" - so often, I don't know what's going on until the characters tell me. I'll do a little research here and there if need be, but most of the time I give them free rein.

[jagnikjen]

Writing is slow going at the moment. Ran into a bit of stuckness. Been reading fanfic and watching (finally!) season five of Friday Night Lights.

Discussion question...I know how they look, and probably whatever's important for the story at that moment. Backstory and the like comes later if needed.

[trialia]

840 words, which is huge for me! Unfortunately it's on a whole new fic, which is a bit annoying since I want to finish the epic 4k monster (yes, it's epic and monster for ME) about the same pairing on my hard drive that I've been writing, or trying to write, since July first.

[devilc]

I'm taking a sick day so it's unlikely I'll be writing, but ....

I always have some sort of back story or defining detail in the back of my mind before I put them on paper. In fact, most of it doesn't make it on to paper.

As for the one story I wrote where my OC played a major point, I had told myself his story in my head for about 3 months before I started writing it down. Whats more, I had others tell his story (the writer of the source material uses strict POV for each chapter) and only in the epilogue did we finally see the world through his eyes.

not today

[elistaire]

No writing today, just resting.

I'm horrible with OCs. They just develop as they please for the most part, though I will know a few things about them.

[katzenjamming]

Not a lot of writing done so far, but I'm going to set some time aside this evening to push and meet my monthly goals. I'm aiming for a thousand words before midnight; hopefully I can make it!

When I write fics I try me best not to have OCs grab the spotlight. While my current WIP doesn't technically have any OCs, there are some OC stand-ins that are getting a lot of development and screentime. The more I write, the more they grow. I'm sure if I was writing something where the OCs were more central to the plot, I'd set aside more time to work on them, but for now I'm just letting them do their own thing.

[lexicalcrow]

A bit of writing in the evening before bed. I managed to turn my main character into a cat! :D (I think this has a purpose. But I can't be sure. XD) Still, that makes my kinked fic OVER 9000 words now, so that's pretty good. Didn't quite make the 5k minimum I wanted for the month, but I can't complain. 4k's pretty good anyway, all things considered.

As for my OCs, I usually do a brief character bio and let them go from there. I've found if I build them up too much before I write them, they just change too much as I write them. I find letting them evolve with the story works a lot better, listening to what they tell me and researching as I go. I know not everyone works that way, but it works for me.

[linaewen]

I was hoping that by waiting until later in the day, I might have some writing to report -- but dealing with the work-a-day world today was all I could manage. So in the end, August for me produced a smattering of useful research for a challenge, a whole lot of research for a fly-by-night fic idea that I'm not sure I'll ever write, and no actual writing. But tomorrow's a new page in the writing book!

I have some pretty substantial OC's who sort of appear at intervals and some of them end up getting a lot of talking time. They also tend to be recurring characters who appear whenever certain main characters appear. It seems that once I have their name right, their personality kind of happens on its own. I may spend some time thinking about their background if it's important to their current situation or something they might be going to do in the future, but otherwise I don't usually go to great lengths to come up with something. They mostly just happen, and the more "screen time" they get, the more substantial they become.

[bay_alexison]

Able to get around a little over 800 words of my Big Bang today. First I quickly wrote one scene that's going to happen later in the story that's been in my head for a while. I then was taking care a few things before going back and finish up one of the scenes of the chapter I'm in now. Besides the writing I was also transferring some notes and scenes in through Scivener. It's a really great program to organize your writing. ^^

My OCs I tend to have their backstories thought out, but I have them develop as they please during the course of the story and have them tell me what's going to happen next chapter.

[lacygrey]

Today was rather big on the real life front but I planned out a scene in a way I find quite reassuring too

The OCs. Well recently I had one who I changed from a boy to a girl, before posting - not as part of the plot. Given the lack of girls in Hikago canon its quite easy to make her stand out. Also, since she's a geek this immediately got rid of all the boy geek clichés that had been worrying me.