Writer's Block o_O

[LiadansWhisper]

So I'm trying to write the background on the character I want to play.  And it's just not working.

 

I tried the Questionnaire I found in one of the other sections.  I swear to god, she smirked at me.  :lol:

 

I tried just writing it out.  It's in my head.  It won't come out.  She's trolling me.  :angel:

 

Do you ever get this way?  How do you get out of it?  I've tried music.  I've tried just sitting there waiting for the words to come.  I'll write something, then erase it because it isn't right (and I know it isn't right, I just don't know what IS right, as it were).

 

This is driving me nuts.  :frustrated:

[doctorgalactic]

So I'm trying to write the background on the character I want to play.  And it's just not working.

 

I tried the Questionnaire I found in one of the other sections.  I swear to god, she smirked at me.  :lol:

 

I tried just writing it out.  It's in my head.  It won't come out.  She's trolling me.  :angel:

 

Do you ever get this way?  How do you get out of it?  I've tried music.  I've tried just sitting there waiting for the words to come.  I'll write something, then erase it because it isn't right (and I know it isn't right, I just don't know what IS right, as it were).

 

This is driving me nuts.  :frustrated:

 

Try going for a walk with some headphones in playing themed music.  Seems silly, but it forces a different perspective on your environment and may give you some ideas.

[Gideon Aryeh]

Join into one of the forum roleplays on the site and write her out. Trust me it will make it a lot easier once you write her a little.

[Y'hmir]

I've found that whenever I get stuck writing down the actual background story, I try to inspire myself by writing short stories about things that happened in my characters background.

 

Say, if I decided he was a trouble-maker and did nothing but to give his mentors gray hairs, I'll try and write a story about just how and why he does that, before I try to fill out the actual background.

 

Not sure if this makes any sense, but I've found that writing a few short stories can help me assemble a proper background.

[Dravus]

Although it may not be wise to try and force yourself to write something it may be beneficial to offer yourself a small reward as an incentive. You don't need to complete it all at once, either - break your task into small chunks and then gradually piece it all together at a pace that suits you best. You don't need to do it in the right order, either. Sometimes I find it easier to begin writing a character's recent history first rather than their early years and vice-versa.

[Desmond Aryll]

Join into one of the forum roleplays on the site and write her out. Trust me it will make it a lot easier once you write her a little.

 

I agree with this.

 

I had a basic idea of who my character was but participating in Rp's here has made him more three dimensional. Try it out!

[Darien Cadell]

Sometimes rather than a background, I just try to do vignettes, like a series of little tiny things that happened to him, i.e. a dog stole his sandwich, he ran too fast around a corner and knocked someone over, someone mistook him for someone else.

 

That way even though it's not covering his history per se, it's still helping me flesh him out, and I can throw him into whatever crazy situations I can come up with. And if I can't come up with anything crazy... to the internet for random story generators!

[Valtiere]

I am terrible at writing character backgrounds. I just don't find it interesting at all so I usually have to find other ways around it. Questionnaires rarely work for me either; unless I know the inside of my characters head it's really hard to do for some reason.

 

I do find that writing short stories can be useful - just throw the character into a situation and see what happens. Or write a journal from their point of view. Unlike the Questionnaire option it gives me a bit more room to dig around and explore their reactions to certain situations.

 

And the latest thing I tried was writing up the character's profile from the point of view of an observer - like someone was spying on him and writing up a report on his activities and behaviour. That was a lot of fun to do and quite a good way to figure out the details.

[K'nahli]

I simply don't write if I can't or don't feel like it. So basically, I wait until I can think clearly and genuinely feel like writing.

[Quuyn]

Join into one of the forum roleplays on the site and write her out. Trust me it will make it a lot easier once you write her a little.

 

This! I was in a state where I knew every little detail about my character already, but I lacked the inspiration to actually write it down. Namely because I over use detail and get lost in it.

 

But after I actually -RP'd- as him, I was so into it I just wrote it half-mindedly because it was already ingrained into my skull.... So yeah, try RPing with it, might unclog you.

[moody]

Another vote for stories. I very rarely write out a character's backstory except as summaries of 'scenes' or vignettes about the character and things that reflect him/her as a whole. 

 

However, once I have 5 or 6 micro-stories around a character I know things abut them I had never planned and have a grasp on their speech, mannerisms, and background in a way that writing out a 'backstory' has never given me. 

 

As far as writer's block goes, here's something from Maya Angelou: 

"What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I’ll come.'"

 

 

Or to put it the way I prefer: A writer is someone who writes. Writer's block is an oxymoron. If you aren't writing then you aren't blocked. You just aren't a writer that day. Some days that's not a bad thing.

[Rinh Hallani]

Another vote for stories. I very rarely write out a character's backstory except as summaries of 'scenes' or vignettes about the character and things that reflect him/her as a whole.

 

This, and it goes for all my characters, not just the ones in FFXIV. I get a few scenes down and it really helps to develop the character without stressing over a full on background.

[Moondoggie]

Sometimes it helps to write about other things to get started. Maybe come up with some personality traits or quirks that shape what sort of person they are. I find building a character from the back story up kind of hard. I guess the game helps somewhat to create a back story based on the character and race you chose but it's always a bit daunting at first.

 

I think starting with what they are about helps shape a back story for me. Once you have a personality and how they interact with others you can think about why and what made them that way then a back story becomes a bit easier in my opinion.

 

I always think a back story doesn't have to be too complicated for an MMO RP character either. You don't have to produce a novel for you to make a good character. You can allow the game world and experiences to shape the character more than their past. So better to start small than think about the big picture and feel daunted by the task of writing a huge piece.

 

Once you come up with a couple of ideas on other character areas i imagine you will get inspired and the back story will come.

[Aleister]

This tread helps a lot. I also have a big case of Writer's block for my characters story. -nod nod-

[Y'hmir]

This tread helps a lot. I also have a big case of Writer's block for my characters story. -nod nod-

I can help! *creepy grin* I owe you after all!

[Raccoon]

Mine's more stubborn than that. I've got to actually throw it off guard by doing something else, like playing a time-waster game -- Burnout Paradise or something. Next thing I know, I'll be having ideas filtering through the cracks, then it's just a matter of not finishing that one quest or that one race before I jot it down lest I forget what it was. *nod*

[Dubs]

You just need to shut the world out, barbwire your door handle, lock it and insert some soothing relaxing music to stir up the imagery.

Here I help:moogle:

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[LiadansWhisper]

I think part of my problem is probably the giant holes I have in my knowledge of the game's lore.  Actually, now that I think about it, I'm going to go make another thread in the RP Discussion thread and ask questions.  I have so many, and I don't really know where to look.  :-\

[Darien Cadell]

I was reading the official Lore forums from the oldest to the newest, gave me a really good idea of what people were questioning and what was pretty much known, but I only got about halfway through and they've been down since P4 for me. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/forums/491-Lore

 

That and, well, there are huge gaps in the lore as it is.

 

Also, Loremonger, although it's mostly 1.0 stuff, that's kind of what we're looking at. I haven't yet, but I've been planning to go through the newspapers links there.

 

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Guide:Loremonger

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Newspapers

[Asyria]

Music always works for me.

Just have to find the right track for what I want to write.

Sometimes I even get surprised and overwhelmed with new ideas and it's like the characters I'm writing about gets inspired by the music themselves and start doing stuff on their own in my head and I'm like "wait wait slow down I gotta type all of this you know!"

[Roda]

Whenever I can't think of how to put what I see into words, I usually try to put what I see in pictures.

Draw. 

I draw when I can't write.

Maybe it might help you to draw too.

(Or take screenshots, but we can't really do that right now.)

[LiadansWhisper]

Whenever I can't think of how to put what I see into words, I usually try to put what I see in pictures.

Draw. 

I draw when I can't write.

Maybe it might help you to draw too.

(Or take screenshots, but we can't really do that right now.)

 

I can't draw.  D:  I can write (except when I can't), but my drawing is limited to stick figures and smiley faces!

[Doyle]

Don't feel too bad, OP. I'm finding myself in a similar position. It's just days away from launch now and I still have little semblance of a background for my character.

 

There's some really good insights in this thread. In my case though, I don't really consider creative writing my strong point, so I'm hoping to just go with a general character idea and slowly build on that through RP while I learn more of the world and the people in it. Hopefully it works out.

[Averis]

Don't feel too bad, OP. I'm finding myself in a similar position. It's just days away from launch now and I still have little semblance of a background for my character.

 

There's some really good insights in this thread. In my case though, I don't really consider creative writing my strong point, so I'm hoping to just go with a general character idea and slowly build on that through RP while I learn more of the world and the people in it. Hopefully it works out.

 

This is something I've done too and I'm in a similar situation right now. As I was researching lore I discovered that some of my ideas won't work.

 

This close to launch I try to at least narrow down some personality traits and hope that she grow from there on her own. It's not like people need to know her background right away, if ever. Role-players that go around spouting off their character's history to anyone that will listen is usually a turn-off for most role-players. So don't stress about it too much. Sometimes letting it grow organically is better.

 

On the flip side, filling out every detail of a character can also cause you to freeze up in RP. "Did she like green or blue?" I can't remember!"

[AkhutaiAngura]

>.> Normally, I just sit there untill something comes to me. 

 

Even if it's the wrong thing, type it out. Then keep going. Even if it's ALLLL wrong, that's fine. Just let the wrongness flow.

 

then when you feel like you're done, and you look at it, and you go 'EW, that's terrible." You try it again. 

 

The worst critic to ones work, is ones own self. In my opinion, the worst thing you can do is delete something before you're done. Finish it, and see what happened.