Recently I have been working on research of fictions and very curious about how people begin writing their fictions, especially speculative fictions!
Could anyone kindly share some thoughts with me?
Here is the question:
When you are writing a fiction, do you begin with characters or settings???
And how do you research on it?
For example, how do you get the reference for the story world, etc.
Actually it is because personally I think speculative drawings of architectural/urban space might be interesting on this issue, but don't know how other people think about it...?
Thanks in advance!
Most of the time I think of setting itself as a character. With it's hope, dreams, and ideals. To sort of humanize it a bit. And then I write the first draft of the story from this.
Things like - We are the dirt of mother Earth, from which we became ourselves. And go back to it, merging back into it's conciousness. Although in setting your story in a computer system, that sort of humanization becomes trickier. Which is why I'm sort of having to world build a bunch. Cause I'm having to describe setting by it's behaviour, not it's singular word.
Setting before character. Sorry for the ramble.
Something minor just comes to me, like a guy kicking a woman while is on the ground begging him to stop. And I'll write about that. When I do I find out more, like she had it coming and it was over her wasting water. I'll write what started it and find out it is a sci fi setting. And that will give me enough to write some more of the beating, and a little after. I'll work around that a few times, and get random facts about the town, and the area and the world they are in, and it will beg questions so I'll answer them and the little bit I've written kind of grows into an outline. That tells me enough to start filling in the some more info. Which is about how far I've gotten with this book here - http://litreactor.com/workshop/sub/species-war-outline. Then I just sort of fill that in.
Everything starts two ways with me: either a big picture outline, almost like a synopsis you'd look for in a wikipedia article or in a history book- which never yields a good story...
Or, dialogue. I don't know why, I like writing conversations. Call it ripping off Tarantino, I like to reveal things and move the plot forward with either action, or dialogue. Maybe it's because I'm better at it than anything else. Anyway, I think passive narration is boring.
I start either with a character or something like Dwayne described. Setting is pretty much last on my list when developing a story regardless of genre (I hop around a bit).
^
I'm curious- would you say the character dictates the setting, or are they independent of one another?
I guess the setting is incidental to the story. When I start with a character, it's more of a "what if this type of person was in x situation?", when I start with a scene, I just follow it to the character and go from there. Today I actually started mapping out my next spec project and I started with the technology, but that was a bit different from my usual process. I was sitting down and asking myself "If I am going to get a novel length project done next year, I have to start figuring it out right now", but even then it went from the technology to the protagonist, to the premise to the setting/world building. And wouldn't you know, by the time I got there the technology was something else entirely.
One thing I'd like to add. I'd like to start with a setting as character, and I want my setting to grow and change with the character shaped by their setting.
A character who is shaped one way by their setting, adapts a specific value system and desire, that feeds itself back into the living entity if you will. And the setting becomes more toxic an environment, for the characters that exist within it.
oh thanks everyone!
One thing I noticed is that seems many people will "have conversation" with their characters and stories?! For example, to ask question about their characters or where the characters live in?
And what Sarah said is really interesting!
If we take the setting as a character, it feels like not only we (who is writing) have conversation with the setting but also the setting will interact with the characters in the story??
I really like the aspect that the specific value system in setting influences the living entity a lot!
@Thuggish - I think the question is flawed, a man is shaped by his time and shapes his time back.
Sort of like that, yea. Things that go in to it, are fed back to the character.
Personally I like to start a fictional story with a single character. I begin to define him or her through personal actions and internal dialogue. lately I've been stuck on the idea of the anti hero type protagonist. I allow the character to develop him or herself by presenting them with problems and experiences and allowing them to react in ways that are suitable to the environment, if that doesnt make sense I apologize. I guess I believe the setting comes second as a by product of the characters internal setting.
