Guild Wars 2

I know that some players have made (or, in my case, are making) back stories for their characters. Well I like to hear them if you guys don’t mind sharing. Have fun posting your stories, and I’ll post my own when it’s finished.

Well, my mesmer’s story is here, but I have a few other short stories on the forums. I’m in the process of writing an essay for school and backstory on my Sylvari guardian. Both are a lot of fun.

I have several segments/one-shots written up and am currently working on two longer pieces. I haven’t posted any yet, but I may do so over the coming weeks. If so I’ll link them here.

I always have stories for uncreated characters but not on my characters- i dont know why.

Im motivated to write them down now. And defiantly will keep an eye on this thread for stories ~ <3

Calliope.8675:

Well, my mesmer’s story is here, but I have a few other short stories on the forums. I’m in the process of writing an essay for school and backstory on my Sylvari guardian. Both are a lot of fun.

How do you have a backstory for a Sylvari character? Their story literally begins with their birth.

The race is over two decades old at the time of the personal story – twenty years is plenty of time for a backstory, and the personal story doesn’t have to feature in the backstory at all.

My stories for example tend to run parallel or take place before the personal/living story. A backstory can simply take the character, the world, and work from there. It might have nothing to do with the personal/living story at all.

Besides, who knows exactly how much time actually passes between you starting a character and starting your personal story? For example, I have plenty of characters that haven’t done any of their personal story (or only enough to get their first keys) suggesting that they had many, many adventures all over the place.

AkioFallstar.5460:

The race is over two decades old at the time of the personal story – twenty years is plenty of time for a backstory, and the personal story doesn’t have to feature in the backstory at all.

My stories for example tend to run parallel or take place before the personal/living story. A backstory can simply take the character, the world, and work from there. It might have nothing to do with the personal/living story at all.

Besides, who knows exactly how much time actually passes between you starting a character and starting your personal story? For example, I have plenty of characters that haven’t done any of their personal story (or only enough to get their first keys) suggesting that they had many, many adventures all over the place.

This is how you have backstory. It doesn’t mean you have to dig into their childhood. It just means it’s an event in the past that has an impact on the “present” of your character. Time in the world of Tyria is quite loose. The time between the present and Vinesta’s clip of backstory is about eight years, which I did include the first little bit of personal story as well as allude to map completion through the heart challenges.

I don’t have much one more of a neurosis. My engineer kills every single moa and chops down every single snow cherry tree. Why? his child was killed by a deranged moa and his wife blamed him for not stopping the Moa,angry and depressed she killed herself. Now every time he sees a Snow cherry Tree he is reminded of her and so he cuts it down to avoid the pain and every time he sees a Moa he fills with rage and goes on a killing spree.

There be that gallows humour.

I like it, but I have just one question – why do cherry trees remind him of her?

Did she hang herself from a cherry tree? Was her name Cherry?

I like what I’m seeing so far. Calliope, your story is amazing. I love it. ST Babaganosh, while I like your story, I feel as if you can into a little more depth with it. Also, I agree AkioFallstar. While I understand why your engineer kills moas, I don’t get the snow cherry trees. I’m still working on my story. Hopefully it will be done soon. I’m looking forward to seeing more!

Well, perhaps they smell like her. I’ve noticed they have blossoms on them whenever you’re chopping them down, so maybe that was a scent she liked. Or, perhaps in a [dramatic] fit she impaled herself with a softwood stake from a Snow Cherry sapling. I could list a few more ideas, but those were the first two I thought of.

They sBuheir first night under a cherry tree just staring up at the stars sharing each others hopes and dreams. I know the story needs some work. Really to come up with why the moa was there on the first place was it a gift from his nemesis the butler at caudecustomer manor? Why were they nemesis’ did raven truly abadon him when he needed him most.? This thread has inspired me to flush this story out allot more thanks!

Guh, all this talk of stories makes me want to post parts of mine up somewhere…

AkioFallstar.5460:

Guh, all this talk of stories makes me want to post parts of mine up somewhere…

Why don’t you just post them here? That’s what I am going to do when my are done.

Mine aren’t nearly done yet, and being a semi-perfectionist I’m constantly making little changes and edits.

I’m taking part in a little GW2 related writing contest at the moment, and I’ve started essentially writing a prequel to my main story for it – depending on how I do I’ll post it up here after the contest ends in Oct.

Otherwise I may just post the introduction of the actual story here sometime. Need to proofread. And then proofread. And then proofread. And then- …I think I might have a problem.

You know, that’s what “editors” are for. I’d be happy to help you proofread.

Where is this contest at?

I very much appreciate the offer and I may well take you up on it someday.

On a somewhat related note, you have a PM from me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Unless I did something wrong you should have already received something.

lol I did, but I meant in the case of proofreading.

Ok. So here’s the first part of my first story. Please criticize me and make suggestions at will, and tell me what you think.

Tribunes Rytlock Brimstone, Torga Desertgrave, and Bhuer Goreblade were having a meeting in Rylock’s office.

“Are you sure she is the one for this job?” Torga asked.

Rytlock chuckled. “You haven’t seen her in action like I have, Torga. There’s no one else that fights like her.” The Blood tribune paused for a second. “Well, maybe no one other than me.”

“Will she accept the mission, though?” Torga questioned Bhuer.

“Of course she will,” Goreblade said.

Just then, a charr female entered the room.

Bhuer smiled. “Ah, Ember Fireeyes. It’s good that you’re here. The three of us have a very important mission for you.”

Ember nodded. “I see that all three Legions have a part in this. Reminds me of my Ghostbore Musket. What are my orders, sirs?”

“Yes, I remember your gun and that you chose Blood’s cannon over Ash’s turrets,” Torga snarled, flashing one of her fangs in annoyance. “We need you to attack and capture a Flame Legion base.”

Ember grinned. “Sounds fun! What do I need to know?”

“It’s a solo mission for one thing,” Rytlock replied. “Your target is Incendio Templum. Any more questions?”

“Just one. When do I start?”

Uden Reavstone.3426:

Bhuer smiled. “Ah, Ember Fireeyes. It’s good that you’re here. The three of us got a very important mission for you.”

Read that aloud to yourself. “The three of us got…” Does that sound right?

Uden Reavstone.3426:

Ember nodded. “I see that all three Legions have a part in this. Reminds me of my Ghostbore Musket. What are my orders, sirs?”

I hope the importance of this musket is explained later.

Uden Reavstone.3426:

“Yes, I remember your gun and that you chose Blood’s cannon over Ash’s turrets,” Torga snarled. “We need you to attack and capture a Flame Legion base.”

I know this is all just a sample of dialogue, but it’s flat. I’m not very familiar with the Tribunes, but I do think one of them is missing a tooth, right? Or one of the fangs is broken? Anyway, add some flavor. “Torga snarled, flashing a fang at Ember with his annoyance.” Something to that effect.

Uden Reavstone.3426:

“It’s a solo mission for one thing,” Rylock replied. “Your target is Incendio Templum. Any more questions?”

Yes, you have more questions. The Charr are militaristic. They are going to march toward something either knowing the danger or the numbers. The only time Charr marched towards an “unknown” was in Destiny’s Edge and Kralkatorrik awakened. ~ By the way, you missed your t in Rytlock for this part.

I like the dialogue. It is effective, but needs more meat on its bones.

Thanks Calliope for the criticism. I made the suggested changes. I replaced the “got” in the sentence “The three of us got…” with a “have.” The Ghostbore Musket is from the Iron Legion personal story, but yes, its importance will be explained in the next chapter. Torga is female, but she is missing a tooth and her eyes are different colors. I did add a little to that part, though. I added the missing t in Rytlock’s name. Now for the “Any more questions?” part. Something like this happened in the Ash Legion personal story, and I thought it would go well. Anything else you guys want to point out?

Oops! She. Ha ha. =) The point is what you don’t say in your dialogue is important too. Some people wave their hands around a lot when they talk, look past you, look at you, curl a lip because they don’t like the subject, and it’s these nuances that make the dialogue feel alive. He said – she said – are good sometimes, but not always.

Half the battle of writing is reading. I read all the time to improve my own writing. I read books by Writer’s Digest, I read Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley, the Guild Wars 2 books, and on occasion I’ll read 3-4 words out of the dictionary (so nerdy, I know). But, you pick up the things you like about the writers you like. I digressed a wee bit, so here’s my point: Readers like a character they can connect to, physically, emotionally, or mentally. Readers tend to have an especial interest in “broken” characters.

Now, I’m going to toodle off to my guardian’s story. =)

A few general comments regarding writing stories about your characters (very opinionated, I admit, but still food for thought):

When writing with elements based on somebody else’s work, I try to avoid utilizing key figures. It spares the effort of trying to match characterizations and minute details, like the (potential?) missing tooth mentioned by Calliope. Instead, introduce an intermediary character that meets with them off-screen.

How do your characters speak? You can identify most races in GW2 in a few lines by their patterns. (For that reason— all my own are raised to speak in a ‘neutral’ human fashion.)

As Calliope suggested for a specific line, but expanded… read your dialogue aloud. If it doesn’t sound right, or doesn’t sound like something that’d actually be said, try holding your intended conversation with yourself and see how it turns out.

Don’t scrap something just because it’s short and doesn’t seem to go anywhere. A lot of the writing I do ends up as micro slice-of-life vignettes only a page or two long. They add characterization and have potential for insertion into other works, compilations, or even just to stand alone for fun.

Sorry that I didn’t respond in a while. College takes more work than I thought it will. Lol. Anyways I thank you all for the criticism and suggestions. I’m taking it all into account as I make the next chapter.

Looking forward to it.

…The more I read the more I feel like I should put up at least a snippet or so here and there.