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So the delima is that I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to approach new projects as I'm writing more short stories lately and nothing over 20 pages.

When it comes to writing, do you first go for:

the who? (i.e. let's make it space marines, or IG, or chaos)

the what? (i.e. let's make a story of some artifact getting stolen, some conspiracy, some death race, some sort of epic duel)

the where? (i.e. well we haven't done ice planet for a while now, let's go to a volcano planet, hive cities, we need more hives!)

the when? (i.e. let's do a story of the old imperium, a retelling of the old story of how Tzeentch lost his staff, a future vision of the eldar)

the why? (i.e. come up a good plot twist idea, like ooo I want to make sure to include at least a role reversal and then something on character wanting retribution for something or other)

the how? (i.e. I want to make sure we get in a scene that looked cool on TV like the matrix slow mo bullet time feel, or something like Sparrrrrrrrrrta)


Just kind of picking folks brains. I'm bored visiting relative and might as well kill time writing fan fictions.

Personally, for the most part I'd start with the who. Stories tend to be about the characters within them. Without the characters, there'd most likely be no story.

The rest of the story would then probably develop from the specific "who"s you have in it. XD How they interact with each other, how that interaction would change depending on where or when they are, what situation they're in, how and why they got where they are, etc.

To me, the who and the what are inextricably linked, and are the most important aspects of any story. The story and characters should have enough strength and character to stand by themselves, regardless of the time or place the story is set.

Kaldor wrote:To me, the who and the what are inextricably linked, and are the most important aspects of any story. The story and characters should have enough strength and character to stand by themselves, regardless of the time or place the story is set.

Same. The 'who' is the most important, but the 'what' is also key. Characterisation is usually seen as the most important part of a novel/play/film, but a piece with just characters and plot will drag. Get those two together and you have a winner!

thanks for the tips =)

I will start to cobble together something. Anyone wanna give me a topic while we're here?

I start with who and what. Who is the story about and what do they want? Who is going to bring them conflict? Then I go into why.

When and where are the least important to me. I consider them the sauce that goes on the steak--who, what and why being the "meat" of the story in my opinion.

I recommend Robert McKee's "Story." It talks mostly about structure and how stories move through scenes. How character decisions steer the story. It sounds like it would apply to the things you're thinking about.

dnanoodle wrote:I start with who and what. Who is the story about and what do they want? Who is going to bring them conflict? Then I go into why.

When and where are the least important to me. I consider them the sauce that goes on the steak--who, what and why being the "meat" of the story in my opinion.

I recommend Robert McKee's "Story." It talks mostly about structure and how stories move through scenes. How character decisions steer the story. It sounds like it would apply to the things you're thinking about.

awesome thanks for the reference, I'll go check it out =D

sudojoe wrote:So the delima is that I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to approach new projects as I'm writing more short stories lately and nothing over 20 pages.

When it comes to writing, do you first go for:

the who? (i.e. let's make it space marines, or IG, or chaos)

the what? (i.e. let's make a story of some artifact getting stolen, some conspiracy, some death race, some sort of epic duel)

the where? (i.e. well we haven't done ice planet for a while now, let's go to a volcano planet, hive cities, we need more hives!)

the when? (i.e. let's do a story of the old imperium, a retelling of the old story of how Tzeentch lost his staff, a future vision of the eldar)

the why? (i.e. come up a good plot twist idea, like ooo I want to make sure to include at least a role reversal and then something on character wanting retribution for something or other)

the how? (i.e. I want to make sure we get in a scene that looked cool on TV like the matrix slow mo bullet time feel, or something like Sparrrrrrrrrrta)


Just kind of picking folks brains. I'm bored visiting relative and might as well kill time writing fan fictions.

Here's my personal opinion for what it's worth.
As for 40k, I usually keep the who the same and often they are one of the last things I worry about.
They're always Imperial Guard and 9 out of 10 times they are part of the Bataviran regiment.
The when and where are usually also worked out, thus I tend to ignore them untill later.
I guess I usually start with the what or how, but I'm not sure.
Often it goes along the lines of: "I liked the plot of this book! Can I combine it with these scenes from this movie? As for the characters, I liked these guys in this comic book here."
Afterwards I press them all in the blender and then a new idea comes out.

As for the 'real' (non-40k) related stories, it tends to change.
For the novel that I worked on I first decided that I want to have people running around upon space ships and fighting against aliens. (where) I didn't care about anything else, just that they fought upon the space ships. After that I figured out how what the rest would have to be.
However when I was writing it, I wanted to write something, just to see how the publishers react to it. Thus I started rapidly with a 'who' (I invented the enemies, before I thought about the setting.) and created it.
Afterwards, I was reading a comic book and immediately felt an urge to write a short story about a certain scene (how), which I promptly did. After that I went on with the novel again.

Right now, I just finished a fantasy short story and I started it soley with the idea: "I want to try fantasy for once." (Where, I guess although it could also be a who.)

As for my current project, I largely relied upon a 'how', namely a scene of a monster sucking a victim empty. (Upon second thought, it could also be a who.)

TLDR mode; Write what you want to write! Whether that is a certain scene or a day out of a character's life, it doesn't matter. Write when you want to write. Ther's no one that can say it's right or wrong.
Good luck and if you need any help with writing, feel free to PM me.

Cheers,
Loner

I think that all of these factors are important, but that the who is the first that needs to be well developed.
The story needs well developed main characters, as without a good character, the story will usually fall flat.