User:Krayfish/Writing styles

Designing my main character
Originally, the king of the Vaikan known as Rustiagon Karrel was going to be my hero that did everything on the wiki. In late 2009, I had written a backstory for him and everything. He had the typical backstory which from my view today, he followed too many pet peeve cliches to be redeemable. Overall, as I felt he turned into a Mary Sue, I wrote him out of the story by (spoiler) killing him off in Attack of Asylum. (end spoiler)

My next attempt was Ahrganot Skizgo. He lived through the overhaul of the Vaikan's appearance and he stuck around for a while. I would later reduce the Vaikan lifespan so that I didn't have to use one character for everything, and that I could experiment with plenty of other types of characters such as Salanna Zenklah.

After the overhaul was over, I wrote a backstory for Skizgo now known as Making of a Warrior. Although the story, in my opinion, was good, it didn't really capture Ahrganot's cold personality that I intended. Instead, he turned out to be an innocent character with angst. While there's nothing wrong with that character type, it wasn't what I was aiming for. I wanted to give more grey area to his backstory, and that the majority of the problems he faces today would be his fault rather than someone else's. By doing this, I was hoping to design someone who was more relatable.

So I redid his backstory once again into Twin of Loneliness. I didn't want to get rid of the old story, so I changed the main character of Making of a Warrior to a Vaikan named Veoru Karik handing him over to User:Goku259. Veoru Karik is pretty much everything about Ahrganot Skizgo that I retconned out, but I did not want to entirely get rid of.

Writing style
When it comes to narratives, I tend to stick to the perspective known as third person limited. I give enough exposition so that the audience knows as much as the character, but rarely do I set it up so that the audience knows more. I attempt to put the audience in the character's shoes so that they can see the constructed universe through the character's eyes rather than from real life, while at the same time allowing myself to use terms the audience can relate to.

To be able to immerse the audience in the constructed universe, I rely heavily on descriptions. My method often relies on using a broad vocabulary, and sometimes incorporating metaphors and similes. I take advantage of this when the characters stop for a moment to examine their surroundings, though I make sure to carefully balance it out with pace.

As for dialogue, I only use it if it can convey a character's thoughts and feelings better. This is done with word choice, which can set apart character personalities from the honorable sympathetic to the sly insensitive. I tend to avoid long winded speeches or spoken explanations as the narrator can usually give enough description. Therefore, most of my dialogue passages consist of only short, quick exchanges.

Lastly, I'm conscious about the typical writing conventions and plotpoints that I make use of. If I have to resort to a reality break or artistic license, I make an effort to justify it, or if I can't, I'll acknowledge it via lampshading. This acknowledgment may be humorous depending on the tone of the story.