Inspirations

[Atzar]

Continuing in the vein of Your RP Foundation, I'm curious to hear your writing inspirations.

What prompted you to start writing?
Who are your favorite authors? (This can be professional authors as well as writers here on Althanas or other RP sites!)
Who or what influenced your writing style and themes as it evolved into what it is now? (Events, other hobbies/interests, friends, etc.)
When you sit down to write, is there anything that consistently gets your creative juices flowing? (I expect music to be a common answer here... if so, what bands or what kind of music?)

This is a fairly broad topic, and don't feel like you have to answer every individual question. Just share what comes to mind!

[Atzar]

My origin story isn't all that interesting - I stumbled on a play-by-post RP site, it intrigued me enough to dip a toe in and I ended up enjoying it. That was the beginning of it all for me - I didn't really write before that.

My favorite professional author is easily David Eddings - specifically, the Belgariad and Malloreon series. Something about that cast of characters just really worked for me. I could go back and read them right now and I'd still enjoy them as much as I did the first time.

Several writers have come through Althanas who I really enjoyed. Storm Veritas was probably my favorite. Some other good ones include, but are not limited to: INDK, Sagequeen, Letho, and Sheex.

As far as my writing style and the themes that I frequently explore: David Eddings and possibly Brian Jacques are responsible for my interest in fantasy. C.S. Lewis was another who got me into the genre. I also take a huge interest in certain areas of history, particularly ancient mesoamerican culture (Aztecs, Maya, etc.) and Greco-Roman history. I've kind of considered writing something based stylistically on ancient historians like Thucydides, but I feel like that's probably dry, plodding stuff that would appeal to a select few.

I also like exploring certain brands of magic. Before Roc, every one of my major characters since I started - Gizmorc, then Ether, now Atzar - were heavily based on magic. I think the omnipotence is probably the main draw. If I need to accomplish something IC, then with creativity and magic I can normally find a way to make it happen.

As much as I like music, I actually don't write well to it. I end up just listening to the music and eventually I realize that I haven't actually written anything. So I do better with something low-key like jazz or just silence. Other random inspirations include movies, games and random song lyrics, though these are far from predictable.


How about you?

[Luned]

I can't remember ever not wanting to write. I think my first finished book we have stored away somewhere is from the first grade, I wrote and illustrated a story about a cat named Cupcake and my teacher bound it for me.

I don't really have favorites, and most of what gets me going are actually comic books rather than prose. On my "inspiration shelf" next to my desk I have 1001 Nights of Snowfall (from the Fables series), The Dream Hunters (Sandman spinoff, art by that Final Fantasy dude), and Becky Cloonan's three self-published comics (Wolves, The Mire, and Demeter, I highly recommend all of them –– great gritty Althanasy setting). The contents of that shelf changes over time.

I do have favorites around Althanas, for sure, and I think my greatest current influences are whomever I'm writing with at the time. Goodness knows the thread I recently cranked out in a day with Duffy is the purplest I've written in a long time, I totally got into the Duffzone. I've caught myself picking up Warpath's habit of certain sentence structure before, and I know little stuff like that happens with pretty much everyone.

And actually, as much as I love music, I get waaay to involved with it. I get unhealthily absorbed into good lyrics, and even good instrumentals distract me. I usually write in silence because I'm apparently super boring.

I try not to wait for creative juices to flow, I just force myself to sit down and make myself write. I guess I got in the habit because I write a bit for work and you can't really sit around waiting for inspiration to strike, you just have to make it work with the time you have.

[Witchblade]

I can't remember a time in my life where I didn't come up with stories in my head and where I didn't want to write them down. Believe it or not, when I was in grade 2 and 3 I was put in a special english class because I was behind all the other kids. Reading and writing, grammar and spelling, they were really hard for me. I could come up with all these stories in my brain, but writing them down was practically an impossibility. So they shoved me in there to learn to read english better. It didn't really help me out too much, I still sucked at reading, until along came a lovely device called a Playstation some years later and these amazing things known at RPG's with great storyline that you were forced to READ. So thus, I became good at reading. (rant about my younger years, done)

Some of my favourite authors would be Kelley Armstrong, who reminds me that you don't need to write en entire paragraph detailing how pretty the sky is in order to tell a great story and really capture a person's attention. Guy Gavriel Kay who writes epic fantasy in a way that's not boring, doesn't drag along and really makes you wish you were one of those characters on the Page. If you haven't read him, I recommend the Fionavar Tapestry. It's the best thing I've ever read by him. Not that his other stuff is crap, that one I just love the most. I have other authors, but I probably shouldn't write you guys my own book detailing them all. XD

My writing style is constantly changing I find. The core aspects of it stay the same, but it develops depending on little things that I pick up from whomever I'm reading at the moment or whoever I'm writing with. When I first came to Althanas, I wrote with Lorenor a lot and developed his habit of writing long-winded paragraphs with flowing detail you could really get lost in. He wrote similarly to Letho back then. Dissinger also influences my writing style a lot since I work with him so frequently, and Letho too has had a large impact on my one character, Iriah. I find I have a different style for each character and that style is effected by the other people I write with.

As for inspiration, music is usually playing in the background when I write, though not always. I don't need it. I find the best inspiration is the other people I'm writing with at the time. If the story we're working on strikes a cord with me and their own writing style pumps me up, then I post rather quickly in those threads. Takes me longer to write in things I'm not particularly inspired to write in.



P.S. Atzar, I reread our battle. Wanna do another one?

[Ashla]

I don't know how it happened, but I always would write stories and stuff. Even before I knew how to write I was drawing stories (my crappy stick figures) and showing them to people. Most of my stories back then were based off dreams I had- and I had some pretty weird dreams back then... I always loved it when in schools we would be given creative writing assignments and similar, I hated the non-fiction stuff though :P. One day, about a year ago, my cousins showed me this website and I joined it.

For favorite authors, I do really love the famed C.S. Lewis and Tolkien. I also love the works of the group of writers who gave themselves the single pen name "Erin Hunter"! For comics, I always loved the Calvin and Hobbes series by Bill Waterson- and still do!

I do listen to music a lot when I write! The type of music varies; if I'm writing a post where there is some action going on and Ashla is being awesome and winning, I'll be listening to music about being awesome and nothing keeping you back and stuff (Fireflight!). Or if a characters is dealing with an internal conflict and the conflict is getting the best of them, some heavy "I'm losing! Save me!" (Flyleaf, RED...) type music or a simple ballad (Plumb) goes well. Or I may choose a song that just goes well with the character I'm writing with at the time. Though, I also get carried away in the awesomeness of the music I'm listening to sometimes, so...
In "Welcome to the Masquerade", I started to write my parts (I run the accounts of both characters in that thread) in a notebook ahead of time then write a second draft on Althanas whenever I get to do that. It's actually a pretty good method...

Okay, end of yet another post by BlueGhostofSeaside that barely makes any sense anyways...