#I'm here once again with the format of “main question + extra questions to expand on the topic”

[mistfallengw2]

Hey, a sylvari ask game!🌱

1. Are they a Dreamer or Soundless? What's their relationship with the Pale Mother and Ventari's teachings? If the first, have they ever thought about leaving the Dream behind? If the latter, why did they make that choice?

2. How much do they remember from the Dream? Did they have any particular experience in it before awakening?

3. Do they have a Wyld Hunt? Did they complete it?

4. How was their awakening? Did something particular happen? What's their first memory?

5. Are they from the first batch of Secondborn or did they awaken at some later point? What's their opinion on the Firstborn?

6. What did they do after leaving the Grove? Did they feel a particular call or did they just roam and explore Tyria? Would they still feel at home if they went back?

7. What was their first experience with other races? How did it impact them?

8. Do they fit well into sylvari society or are they more at home with other races? How do they feel about fellow sylvari? Do they have any particular sympathy or antipathy for other races?

9. Do they have a job/occupation? Why did they pick that? Did they ever change it? Are they happy with it or are they aiming for something else?

10. What are their hobbies and pastimes? Do they have any natural talent or particularly strong interest? Was it something they knew from the Dream or did they develop it once awakened?

11. Have they ever changed their own appearance? Was it intentional or due to external factors? Did it affect their glow as well? How long did it take? Would they ever change back?

12. What do they usually wear? Do they prefer regular clothes or growing "clothes" out of their bodies?

13. How do they feel about death? Does it make them curious or scared? Do they wish to understand it or do they simply accept it?

14. What do they think of the Nightmare Court? Would they ever join it? What would make them do so? / What made them join them? Would they ever leave it?

15. What are their feelings on their race being minions of the Jungle Dragon? What's their attitude towards those who turned? How do they feel about the shift in perception of their people from other races?

16. Where were they when the call of Mordremoth struck? Did they hear and follow it, or did they resist it?

17. If they were to turn into Mordrem, what would they look like? Would they manage to turn back? / When they turned into Mordrem, how did their appearance change? Did they manage to fully turn back?

18. [Free space for 3 pieces of trivia about your sylvari!]

[nightglider124]

Baby girl

Sup, m’lovely!

Oh-ho-ho… a breakdown?

Absolutely. Actually, chopping it up into an organised answer with paragraphs might help me with my own process. Planning can be such a headache and it only gets worse if everything is a mess and a half.

Ahem.

Please stand by for a long ass but hopefully helpful post.

Physical Planning

By this I mean, when you actually use a pen and paper to bullet point and jot down your idea; whether it be a basic, rough draft or a deeply descriptive plan. But, it’s that very first step after an idea pops into your mind.

When inspiration knocks. Answer the damn door, you fool. Don’t tell yourself, “Oh, I’ll write it down later. I’m sure I’ll remember.” Spoiler! You won’t. I am fairly certain I am not alone when you tell yourself that and merely minutes after, it’s gone without a single trace. Then, you’re left with that pointless frustration at yourself for not remembering and it sucks. So, to combat that, always write an idea down straight away. Whether it’s on paper, a napkin, a sweet wrapper, your hand; it doesn’t matter. Just get the brief idea down somewhere to jog your memory later on when you go to write it up as a proper idea. With this, smartphones can be your best friend because the universal ‘Notes’ feaure that most of them have can come in real handy for this. Have an idea? Note it down in your phone to reference later on. Main point here is, get your idea down somewhere. You’ll kick yourself if you don’t.

Label your ideas. You don’t have to have a solid, concrete title for your story which means you also don’t have to definitively label your quickly written idea. Use a keyword that has some meaning to your idea. If it’s about… watching a sunset for example, just call it, ‘Sunset’ for the time being. This is just another way to keep things a little more set out and organised. It just really helps to label them so you don’t get confused over what you wrote. Many times have I written an idea on a scrap piece of paper at school or work, shoved it in my pocket and pulled it out when I got home, forgetting what it is and seeing no title so I’ve ended up chucking it in the bin. Labels are your pals. Embrace labelling your ideas. 

Keep them separate. It’s just good common sense to keep multiple ideas serparated from each other. Don’t note down a bunch of things about one idea on the same paper as another because odds are, ya’ll gon’ get confused as fuck. Also, it doesn’t hurt to write them in different coloured pen so you know they have nothing to do with each other. Keeping ideas apart is just yet another way of ensuring you are being as organised as you can for your own sake. Messy ideas and confusion are not the ones. 

Write them out properly. So, you’ve got your McDonalds napkin with your idea on it stuffed in your pocket and you’ve just got home. Time to write out on a fresh, normal piece of paper. You don’t have to do this but I prefer to have fresh versions as my phusocal copies of plans rather than whatever shred I wrote it down on in my moment of inspiration. This way, you can pinpoint more parts of your idea and expand and add details and make it more than just a passing thought. This is when you can write it up as an actual plan. 

Keep them neat & tidy. Guys, you’ve worked hard to make up your written draft; the least you could do is keep it nice and tidy. Don’t crumple it, don’t put holes in it, don’t let anything spill on it, don’t let it get ripped. Keep it clean. I recommend using plastic wallets as this is what I do. I pop my paper plans in a plastic wallet and then place a sticky label on the front of the wallet, again, so I am aware of which idea is which. Keeping your written ideas in a wallet will keep them fresh, clean and smooth. Perfect for when you want to go back and read over it or write it up elsewhere but I’ll get to that.

Keep them in a folder. Folders and organisational objects are a godsend. I don’t know why you wouldn’t store ideas in a folder of some description. Mine is red and actually one I used in high school for English class but now it stores any and all, properly labelled, story ideas. Have a gander.

There are original and fanfic story ideas in there so it’s a good little thing to have on hand if you’re trying to be focused and organised. It just keeps everything in it’s place which makes it so much easier for you. Life, for real, save yourself a headache and get yourself a folder. It helps a lot.

Keep them in a notebook. If you don’t like the idea of having a big ol’ bulky folder sitting on your desk or whatever, opt for a notebook that you just keep close to hand. Notebooks are wonderful and can act as both your initial scrap orrr you can write pages and pages of plans. They’re flexible. I use notebooks all the dang time. I keep them in the drawer beside my bed usually so that if I wake up with an idea or something; bam! There’s my notebook. Seriously. I have like 5 active notebooks that I just grab.

See? 

The Harley Quinn one is probably my most frequently used. I love my notebooks and they can be a good alternative to a big folder. But, they can also be great as material for initial ideas. Personally, I will get an idea and grab one of these babies and go to town, writing my ideas and plot points and what I want to create. After, I’ll tear the pages out and staple them together. Then, I’ll tuck them into a plastic wallet and pop that in my red idea folder. It’ll stay in there until later when I have the time to sit at a computer and write it up. Don’t know notebooks. They’re fabulous.

Store the notebook or folder safely. The whole reason you’re writing in a notebook or storing them in a folder is for safekeeping. Don’t ruin that hard work by leaving your stuff around to be thrown out or lost. Pop it in a place that you remember and is some place you look at all the time. Personally, I keep my folder in the drawer beneath my bed so that it’s within reaching distance when I get the urge to write up and/or expand on ideas. I mean, maybe I’m a little on the crazy side but I love things being organised; especially my ideas and stories. There are so many damn ideas; I need to lock them up somewhere other than in my head.

Digital Planning

This is definitely a personal choice but I deeply believe it’s better to have a digital version of plans for quick referencing, rather than shuffling through papers in order to write up a story. 

Now, say you’ve got three story ideas written down on paper. They’re safely stored and tucked away but you want to transfer them onto your laptop.

Word is your friend. It really is and so much better since the olden days with that godforsaken paperclip who always tried to help but was absolutely rubbish. I use Microsoft Word to write out any and all plans and chapters and oneshots. I sometimes use Zenwriter which is a cool and fairly cheap program out there which really aids a writer in forgetting the outside world and focusing on what they’re writing. Unlike Word, Zenwriter gives no distractions. As it is full screen software, it hides any buttons or toolbars for you to do a random Google search about why they’re called socks and not foot gloves. I recommend Zenwriter to all writers. It’s great they do a free trial, I believe so I’d defo tell people to give it a go at the very least.

Anyways, you have three physically written ideas. Get three Word documents open and transfer your papers ideas to each document. This is going somewhere. I promise.

Save each idea as something memorable. Labels, labels and more labels. Just like the paper version, you don’t need to have a concrete title in mind for the story idea yet. But, I usually title my plans as followed, ‘Title - Plan’. Simple yet effective. You can’t just save the file as a bunch of random numbers and letters. If you do that, there’s no point as you’ll most likely forget and lose it, not realising it is right in front of you because you’ve titled it something random.

If you’re organising plans for fanficition in particular, I would also put into a title if it’s an AU story. I do. A normal universe plan will be, ‘Title - Plan’ whereas an aulterante universe story plan will read like, ‘AU - Title - Plan’. Just little things to help yourself out is all it is, really.

Save all files in one location on your computer. So, you’ve copied your 3 paper written ideas to 3 separate Word documents and are in the process of saving them under appropriate titles. Where do you save them? Documents? Pictures? Music?

Personally, I keep everything to do with writing in a folder, accurately titled, ‘~Stories~’. This contains literally everything. Plans, stories; everything to do with writing is in this folder. This folder is also kept within Documents; a local and familiar section of Windows explorer. Please see below:

Good. As I said, for the moment, we’re just keeping all 3 ideas together so that we don’t lose track or anything. Of course, you could title your main folder as something else but this is how I label my folders.

Be extra and sort them out. You’ve got all 3 documents in your ‘Stories’ folder and you’re that much closer to being an organised genius. You’re not yet finished, however. Once inside of my ‘Stories’ folder, I have 8 folders. I know; you’re probably convinced I’m too into this organising thing but it helps me so, points for Night.

Let’s analyse my folders, shall we?

Counting The Days - Pretty obvious, no? Because I have big plans for this series and I plan more than one story and because it’s my long-time story baby, it gets its own folder. I’m still in the process of cleaning some of these folders up by the way guys so, it does take some time and a lot of patience. Just as a heads up. Anyway, this folder will eventually be moved to that, ‘TT - Stories’ folder which we’ll come back to shortly.

Other - Anything that I’m not sure where to put so it goes in this folder so think of… a miscellaneous folder. Any random bits that you know are connected to stories somehow would go into this one. 

Prompts - These vary to meme types on Tumblr to requested ideas. This folder is literally for any written thing telling me some little ideas to inspire more or to simply give me something to write.

TT - This folder is actually a Night folder. It’s literally a Teen Titans folder full of comic panels, episodes, clips, screen grabs, fan videos etc. It is literally a content folder. This acts as an inspiration folder. It helps me get into the right mind-set to write about my fave hero dorks. This is very, very helpful for me and like I said, you don’t have to make this kind of folder but it’s a nice aid.

TT - Oneshots - This folder is for completed oneshots that have been posted online.

TT - Plans - This folder is where I keep all the story plans.

TT - Stories - This folder is where I store all finished stories that I have written through the years. Inside this folder, there is a folder for each story I have written with all chapters in the correctly labelled folder. 

Writing Help - This folder has pointers for polishing my writing skills. It’s full of piece about grammar and spelling and all that jazz. Very helpful.

Yet more folders. We’ve reached this part; you’re spoilt for choice on the golder front. You’ve got 3 separate ideas. saved under good, memorable titles and inside of your ‘Stories’ folder. You would then drag them all inside of the folder labelled, ‘Plans’ or whatever you decide to title it. I’m a stickler for a range of folders. So, inside my ‘TT - Plans’ folder, there are 4 folders. Again, I’m splitting these up a lot because that’s just how I am but you don’t need to if you don’t want to. Organising stories and plans is completely up to the individual. This is just a guide and reflection of what I personally do.

Here comes the analysis train again.

Additional for ANY plans - So this folder is for any additional documents I’ve written up that help and support my plans for specific stories as in character bios or big events that need to happen or anything like that. This folder goes for all plans; active or not.

Plans - ACTIVE - This folder is for story plans that I am currently focusing on and have a real focus on for the future. They are plans I know 100% that I will turn into a story.

Plans - COMPLETE - This folder is for plans of stories that I have already finished writing. Not necessarily needed but I like to keep them because I’m just a hoarder to be honest. 

Plans - STORAGE - This folder is for plans that I don’t really know if I’m ever going to bother going further with but also plans that I can’t quite part with yet; just in case I get the urge to pursue and expand on some of them. There are some plans that you look back on and think ugh god no’ not doing that and you just delete them but there are a few that remain in the grey are so instead of chucking them or forcing yourself to complete them; make a storage folder. You can always go back to these if you run out of active ideas anyway.

So, this is where you can deviate to how you like but I think having about 3 folders like this really helps you to differentiate between all your wonderful ideas. Then, all you have to do is move your 3 documented files into whichever folders you like.

It’s completely optional for you guys to write up plans like this. As in, it’s up to you whether or not you want to do both a paper version and digital version. I like to simply because I’m extra. I find it really helpful to have a digital version but I keep the paper versions too as backup. As we all know, technology likes to fuck us over from time to time so having a hardcopy is always a smart move.  Before I did this, I can’t tell you how many plans I lost. Like I said though, it’s up to you how you store and organise plans. This is just my process.

Actual Planning

Considering we’re already talking about how I store and organise my plans, I thought why not share my process of actually writing a plan itself?

Title and Summary. This is the very first thing I do. I will usually write my makeshift title or solid one if I’ve already got one in mind from the get go. I will then follow it up below with a brief summary containing multiple keywords; just so from a quick glance, you will remember what this idea is about. It’s a nice way of not having to read through some big fat plan without knowing what the idea itself is. Summary and then in depth version is my way to go, anyway. 

List your characters. Again, optional. I like to do: Title, summary and characters. I literally write a name, age and small bio just to help me out a little. I does help; believe me. It’s like… are they normal universe characters? Are they AU characters? Are they an OC? I usually place this just after the summary and before I go in depth with the actual plan.

More detail. This is where the real part comes in. This is the point where I usually write a full plan. I usually set it out by pinpointing the main events in my story. I will always plan it in chronological order and insert anything I miss in the right order. I wouldn’t try setting a plan with the main events of your story being all over the place, if I’m honest. Itjust makes it confusing and frustrating. This will normally be done in theformat of bullet points and small headers, but I’m flexible and I don’t do thisevery single time. Like I said; it’s down to the one writing the thing.

Expand. Alright,so you have 10 points that will act as 10 chapters, for example. At this point,expand. Go through each point and write more into it. I’ll admit, sometimes Icould very well copy and paste from my plan into an actual chapter; that’s howmuch detail I put in. Anything memorable you want in a specific chapter;whether it’s a gesture or dialogue or whatever, now would be the time to notethat in. Just expand enough so that you have a thorough understanding of what’sgonna go down in each and every chapter. You don’t want to finish off a plan,without it being very detailed and get completely stumped midway through yourstory because your plan wasn’t prepared enough.

Edit accordingly. Changethe font, colours, size, boldness or italicize until your heart’s content. Thiscan be a really helpful technique for some writers. I personally, don’t reallychange it from standard black coloured font set at default of ‘Calibri (body)’.But, I know some people find it better to work with bright colours etc. Again,do what helps you.

Add in images or short clips or references. I do this a lot with images. If I’m going to bedescribing a dress that one of my female character choices will be wearing, Igather up a bunch of images from google to help when the time comes to write itup. This goes for clips and references too. If there’s something you wanna addin that you’ve been inspired by; paste that in there. Anything that benefitsyou in the writing process, lock that down into your plan. It really will makeyou breathe a sigh of relief later on.

Use available tools. So,if you’re writing on Word - which I suggest as I personally do use Word a hellof a lot to write chapters and plans - make use of the cool features on here.There’s a nifty tool where you use ‘New Comment’ and ‘Reviewing Pane’. This isan absolute life-saver. 

Alrighty, so you’ve got your three chapters.This is just an example, I don’t think I’ve ever written a three chapter story,haha. Anyway, imagine there is more writing and they’re separated a littlemore.

Start by highlighting the first chapter. Once you’ve done that, go ahead and click new comment up the top. Don’t forgetthis tool is found under the review tab of the upper toolbar.

After doing this, you should see it do thismagical thing here. It might not turn it red; if it doesn’t, do not freak out.Word gives you an assortment of colours that you unfortunately cannot changeyourself. The colour is automatically chosen. Anyway, click in the littlecomment box and type ‘Chapter One’.

Then, go ahead and do this for the other twochapters and label them as well. Just like before. After, click that button uptop titled, ‘Reviewing Pane’.

Finally, the ‘Reviewing Pane’ will pop up onthe left hand side of the screen. If you click any one of the red bars, it’lltake you directly to that chapter. This is absolutely amazing when you have asuper longwinded plan. It saves time scrolling and scrolling through the entiredocument. I strongly recommend doing this.

Remember to save. Don’tbe a dummy. Continuously save and don’t always rely on Word’s auto savefunction. As I said, technology can be a bitch so try to be ahead of it at alltimes. As already stated earlier on, you’ll want to title it well. Nothingrandom as you’ll lose track of it. And then, all you’ve gotta do is sort yourplans into your folders.

—

So, that is all! This is everything I canpossibly think of that I see during my planning process. I hope you guys findthis helpful and like I said, it’s down to you to find a way to organise yourdocuments in a way you like. If you’re one of those people that find order inchaos and absolute mess, then I salute you as I could never do that. I’m a bitof an organising freak once I get going.

Find your pace and find your process. Thank you @fireflyxrebel for the question. This was actually really fun to breakdown forya’ll.

Much love!

[mistfallengw2]

A legendary fine norn ask game

1. How are they building their legend? What do they want it to be? Are they being successful? What's their greatest achievement? Do they really care for it?

2. How do they feel about norn society's expectations and traditions? Are they comfortable in norn society? Is there anything they wish was different?

3. What's their family like? Are they still around? Do they like them and get along? Are there any particular expectations coming from them? Is there anyone noteworthy in the family?

4. Where are they from? Were they born in Hoelbrak, in one of the many homesteads and villages, or somewhere not in the Shiverpeaks? Did they like the place? Did they travel often or stayed long in the same place?

5. Which Spirit of the Wild do they have a connection to? How was the connection forged? How does their Spirit influence them? What do they think of their Spirit? Do they revere any other Spirit?

6. Can they shapeshift into Spirit Form? What does it look like? Can they do only one kind or more? Is there anything unique to it? If they can't, what's the reason behind it?

7. What are their thoughts on Jormag and the Sons of Svanir? Have they ever had to deal with either directly?

8. Are they a good hunter? Do they like it or is it just out of necessity? What's their most impressive prey? Do they keep trophies from their hunts? Do they prefer to hunt alone or with others? What weapons do they use, if any? Have they ever taken part in a Great Hunt?

9. Do they enjoy moots? What's their favorite part? Is there anything they don't like? Was one ever thrown in their honor?

10. Did anyone mentor them or did they learn things by themselves? Would they have wanted a teacher or a different one? Was there something they wished someone had taught them before they had to learn by themselves?

11. Do they have a job/occupation? Did they ever change it? Are they happy with it?

12. Are they close with anyone or do they keep everyone at arm's length? Do they make more enemies/rivals or friends? Are they involved in any drama? Do they have any meaningful friendship or bond?

13. Do/did they have a pet or a companion of sorts? If not, would they want one?

14. Do they have any heirlooms? Are there legends behind them or do they only have sentimental value? Or did they earn/find someone else's?

15. [Free space for 3 pieces of trivia about your norn!]