I just want to talk about that one Loki-Wife writing the Steampunk fairy bullshit and talking to him and crap, specifically her justification for how her insanity all started. Like she uses the excuse that, as a writer, she talks to her characters as some sort of writing exercise and it's totally normal you guys no really all writers do this. Well the thing is, I do a fair bit of writing in my spare time (For comics at least...That still counts as writing, shut up) and I can legitimately say I
1.Don't do that
2.Think it's stupid and
3.Think it's not a very effective writing exercise
I've seen this sort of idea pop up every once in a while where fan fiction writers or otherkin or soulbonders or whoever will treat characters like they're entities that exist outside of their imaginations and have their own thoughts and desires independent of the authour's and that is not only insane but also leads them to develop some very poor writing habits.
One of the big problems that comes from this attitude (Besides being married to Loki) is it causes these people to develop too strong an emotional connection to these characters to write them effectively. The aim of any good writer is, of course, to create a sense of emotional connection between the reader and the characters in their story but part of doing that is not being afraid to fuck up the lives of the characters you're writing. The essence of narrative is conflict and when you begin to think too much of the characters you write as actual people with real emotions you become hesitant to throw hardship their way. While it's important to make your characters seem like real people with their own goals and ambitions you really can't go soft on them and talking to them like they're sitting in the room with you is not a step in the right direction.
There's also the fact that, if one were to treat this as a simple writing exercise, it becomes a little short-sighted. See, while doing some sort of a mock interview with a character might be a first step at getting a sense of their personality and who they are you really need to take it further if you want your character to feel really fleshed out. See, one of the most interesting things about people is the fact they don't really have a single, immutable personality to them: They behave differently depending on the circumstances. The way I behave on Ballp.it is different from the way I behave at home is different from the way I behave at work. A well written fictional character is really no different: They will behave in different ways given the circumstances and, perhaps more importantly, the way they perceive themselves is not necessarily the way they actually are.
What I tend to try to do instead when i'm writing things is to sort of act things out...Basically just reading lines aloud when I'm alone and trying to improvise scenes by talking to myself. I feel it's a better way of going about things because it makes me put myself in the place of my characters and build off my own experiences to try and figure out what their motivations and thoughts are (Though this can lead to new sets of problems I suppose). It also gives the added bonus of letting me test to make sure my dialogue sounds natural.
So I know we have some people who write far more professionally than I so I do have to ask: I am just blowing smoke out my ass here or does this make sense? What are other people's thoughts on the writing process and the weird and unhealthy ways fictionkin and soulbonders and Lokiwives go about it.