Hell Kenny's Britney Brite got me to say 'yo' a few times at the end of a sentence.
Oh my god I thought I was the only one to do this.
The Writing Process: Discussion & Tips
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Heh. The whole "yo" thing itself is influenced from One Piece and how Oda gives a lot of characters certain ticks. I thought it would be fun to give Britney one herself.~
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Phew, I just finished writing the end of the first half of Stargazer. Sure it's only one part and not the whole thing, but since the two halves have different parts and can stand alone as full-length stories in their own right, and it's been over a year since I started writing it to begin with doing so carries a great sense of satisfaction.
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Sai-chan is going to make me stay on track for a little writing exercise, and I figured, hey, maybe you guys would like it too. It's a mini-writing challenge where you write based off a word over the course of 30 days.
technically I already failed day onehttp://anarchivedblog.tumblr.com/post/24317456361/using-the-prompts-below-write-a-drabble-or
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wats a drabble ?
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It's a real thing. :T
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After another long while of not continuing it, you read your "king idea" because you're thinking of doing actual character charts. Your initial intent was to just check a couple of things, but you end up reading it out of curiosity.
And it's shit.
Shit upon shit upon shit upon shit. Upon some more shit that took another shit. Well, okay, maybe not that bad, but it's just frustrating to read because it's much worse you remembered it to be. And you are once again reminded of how much editing and re-writing it needs. And there's 43 pages of it. Containing all of those bad habits you have as a writer.
Does anyone have any advise on how I can find the motivation to rework this thing? :/
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@Laca: You may be better off completely restarting and approaching the story from another perspective. Other than that, peer review and working in tangent with an editor (can be a friend) helps.
Now, if I may be so bold, I'd like to open up a discussion. I've had a certain question on my mind lately.
Where does one draw the line between pretentious writing and clever writing? Is it in the tone, author's intent, style of writing, the message one illicits from it or some other factor? Do you believe there's a thin line between the two or are the differences as clear as night and day?
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I might be a little confused by what you mean, because pretentiousness and cleverness are on two different scales. Pretentious writing is boastful writing, whereas clever writing is more witty and brilliant. I can now see though what you mean. There's an exceedingly fine line there, but the important thing is to never actually be clever. Clever things should come natural to you. If you ever stop and think "well it'd be more clever to do it like this", then well, you're no longer being clever. Cleverness comes completely naturally and organically. It only works if it's on-the-spot really. If you're artificially inserting something, it's well, forced, and it typically shows.
So what you should be doing is what comes natural to you and stop trying to be clever. It'll usually come to you spontaneously, especially if you're not trying to force it out. Here's a good article on that: http://io9.com/5881386/how-not-to-be-a-clever-writer Basically, the point is, trying to be artificially clever stymies the natural writing process. If it's artificial, it appears to be pretentious, and that's not good. Everyone has a natural degree of cleverness, it just comes on its own and can't be forced.
Another way to prevent pretentious writing is to take note of your writing at all times. Strengths, weaknesses, what you're relying on too much, etc. Just be conscious of what your strengths and weaknesses are. But don't ever try and drown out your weaknesses with strengths. If your strengths start shining through too much, it feels like you're boasting. A lot of handling that deals with making good use of lampshading, irony, and similar tongue-in-cheek tropes that kinda poke fun at yourself a bit.
For instance, CdA's most pretentious aspect is that it takes itself really seriously as a story. I want it to be great and masterfully told. But I have to constantly be looking at its strengths and weaknesses and really gauge whether or not I'm being too forceful with that notion. Poking fun at my writing from time to time is likely to circumvent that.
It all comes down to just being organic, but conscious and hopefully it works from there. Also, this post is really pretentious.
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I'm curious. Do any of you guys do weblogs around here? And does anyone write non-fiction? Like an online journal, or a recipe blog, or a travel blog, or anything like that?
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I do extremely sparingly. :I Though not really anything worth sharing.
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No! Imagination is where it's at!
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At most I'll do a metaphorical poem about shit but that's it.
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This post is deleted!
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I thought it would be a good idea to spread the word of the "story board" a monthly vidcast hosted by Patrick Rothfuss where established authors discuss writing. It can be accessed through the geek and sundry channel.
3 episodes have been done so far and it's pretty interesting for anyone who just wants to get a little bit of perspective from experienced people.First episode is about urban fantasy
Second episode about what makes good characters
Third episode is about plot and structure
It's definitely not going to teach you how to write but maybe helps you to avoid one or two newbie mistakes. It's also interesting to compare different approaches.
Also on a side note anyone here who has dealt extensively with writing humor? Just like to hear a few opinions on that.
The theory behind it is pretty simple but even from professionals I don't see it often or pulled of well. -
All I know about writing humor is that I never know what does or doesn't make people laugh, and that the best you can do is try to do things that will at least give you your own smirk.
Also character flaws, puns and slapstick can get you something good if all else fails.
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Humor is a difficult subject to tackle, because I'm fairly confident in my ability to deliver humor in a more serious setting through use of irony, black humor, and the like.
Humor in a piece made to make people laugh is a whole different ballgame. I doubt my abilities of writing comedy far more, though I would say I'm fairly good at hitting my target audience fairly well, and that's what comedy comes down to is understanding that there is no such thing as "universal comedy". Not everyone is going to laugh at even the best joke ever told. That's when it's important to understand and know the audience consuming your work, and that's when you can truly call your stuff funny.
Humor comes in a very large spectrum: there's deadpan, there's parody, there's absurdity, there's slapstick, there's referential, there's satire, there's dark comedy, there's highbrow, lowbrow, anticlimax, bait-and-switch, etc. Different people find different things funny. Every type requires a different approach and a lot of it comes down to understanding your target audience, but the single most important facet is understanding your own strengths.
There's no surefire method to writing funny, but the best thing to do to hone that is to study and observe. Everything. Watch lots of sitcoms. Read lots of cracked and The Onion articles. Take every joke apart and analyze where it comes from and who it is targeted at.
Let me use myself as an example here: D.U.R.I.A.N. is no great thing at all. But it's a very good example of the "understand your audience but play to your strengths" advice. D.U.R.I.A.N., my memberfic, KNOWS exactly who its target audience its. No offense to its readers, but the fact that I have enough knowledge about what the target audience wants inside and out, it appears better than it already is. It's a pile of prose garbage, and its a literary landfill. Literally. But, people enjoy it because it's created specifically for them.
BUT. To give myself SOME credit, I can't just target an audience and know what they want and just give it to them. You have to play to your strengths most importantly. I can write parody and I can write referential. They're not my favorite genres of humor, but they're things I am most capable of writing. So DURIAN gets a lot of credit from references and parodies that strike the right target audience.
I hope that makes sense without being too much about me. I'll go more in-depth on this when I have more time though.
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Irony is like… the best form of comedy ever, ever.
Now, EXECUTING the very definition of irony (an unexpected turn)? That requires practice.
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Yeah I guess like with everything you have to study it. I don't know I really like humor for (emotional) pacing purposes. It's just really hard to deliberately use it when needed, I often feel like when you design a joke you can't really tell anymore if it's funny or not.
I also feel like that written humor can be very limiting at times compared to standup and tv series/movies. You don't have the human element and you are mostly reliant on your framework(characterisation, scene, tone).I also feel like it's easy to fall into writing it in a way that people recognize it as a joke like having characters be overly snarky at each other to lighten the mood. That feels often forced.
The most natural, most genuine humor I read is when the characters themselves don't have anything to laugh about but you the reader because of your perspective can laugh about it or to quote mel brooks(xD I hope nobody read what mistyped) "tragedy is when i cut my finger, comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die" -
I feel that the best way to go about writing humor, at least when your work isn't a comedy, is to not go about writing humor. As in, let it come naturally instead of deliberately fishing for laughs, since in my eyes there's no worse humor than forced humor.
Humor isn't the main focus of the stuff I've written, but if something comes to mind while I'm having the characters bounce off of one another that I feel is funny or at least chuckle-worthy, and above all natural I'll include it. This usually results in some snark, so I guess that's my humor ''forte'' in the loosest possible definition of the word. Though sometimes funny mental images come to mind that I try and include if appropriate. I wrote such a scene the other day, in fact.
And now I just need to work up the energy to start typing my stuff up again.
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I feel with humor it's something you either have a natural knack at knowing what makes people laugh or it's something you have to work hard at. Well to an extent anyways, it's like what Kitsu mentioned previously in the thread about being clever. If you try too hard at it, you're not going to end up getting the result you want.
Also I've encountered that some jokes just don't cross between mediums well, if at all. I'm surprised at how many jokes revolving around physical humor (something I feel is my strong point) managed to translate semi-decently in my GREASER, something that was intended to be a physical comic but because my art ability is worse than my writing ability I wrote in sort of a script prose. Though it goes without saying the opposite applies as well.
Humor really is complex since even if you have good jokes or concepts it also needs to fit the tone and logic of the world you've set up. Making a quick gag, regardless of how funny it may have been, at the expense of the world or characters we've known up to that point is a really quick way to deteriorate the overall quality of the story.
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Have any of you guys ever created a mood board in order to spice up your imagination? I had to make one for this short film I'm shooting next year, but all of a sudden I figured: "Why not make one for one of my story ideas?" I'm a very visual person, so it was an appropriate exercise methinks.
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Here's a fun exercise, even though Christmas is two months away!
Go through your stories and have each character write a wish list to Santa. These wishes can be abstract in nature and should reflect on your characters motvations. Don't just do this for your main characters. What does Tom the general store clerk want? What about Jane Doe the Receptionist? Or that guy sleeping on the street corner in Chapter 14? Do this for every single character, even if it's just one wish each.
Then, when you write, consider that wish list for every character! Say the general store clerk wished for a security camera, you can have him be extra jittery and nosy when your protag goes inside. Or the guy on the corner wishes for a roof over his head and to be with his family, which should very much reflect in his dialogue. Don't be too terribly materialistic with the wishes, though. But MAKE ONE FOR EvERYBODY, and refer back to that when you're writing or rewriting those characters!
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Alright guys, legitimate curiosity and a need to better my own writing compels me to ask: What are some examples, to you, of well-written villains?
The villain is just as much a character as the hero and should receive all the same developmental care. But what truly makes a good villain? One that's compelling? Sympathetic? Or do you just have to hate them? And for that matter, how would you even tie all the optimal traits into one and create something of distinction and lasting appeal?
How do you immortalize the villain?
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My favorite type of villain to write is the one you can sympathize with, if even just partially. Someone who you can see via flashbacks they've lived a life that makes the reader/viewer understand how they came to be the way they are today. Not necessarily justifying it or excusing it, just giving the audience a bone so they can be like "oh that's why this guy has a god complex" or something like that. When you can get the audience in that character's head and see what makes them tick, why they're doing antagonistic things, etc you generally have the audience interested.
It's fun to have villains that are incarnations of the nature of evil itself, especially if they're endgame type of villains, but the ones with depth that you can care about are always the most memorable in my book and certainly the most fun to write.
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For me, the best villains either tend to be unapolegetic but logical in their goals (Megatron from Beast Wars, Red Skull, anyone you love to hate without insulting your intellgence) or the sympathetic/understandable kind (a certain character in the Silent Hill series, the Ice King, quite a few Batman villains).
The greatest example would have to be the tragic villain, which can be as equally good as the tragic protagonist. Basically a villain that's been doing horrible things because they're fighting against circumstances beyond their control and yet the hero must crush their goals (and in turn their soul) for the greater good.
Looking at my X-Mas story, my abandoned game projects, my magnum opus and even TC, I tend to write this type of villain in with varying extents every single time.
I guess I like that the best because it means that the heroes would have to play the bad guy to a victim in order for justice to prevail or something. A sacrificing of other people instead of him or herself for peace which is in some ways harder.
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Hm, I'd say I like villains who are frank about what they do and their villainous natures. They don't have to revel in their villainy megalomanic-style, but they're aware of their role in the story, to get a little meta. Those kinds of villains are pretty fun when they're deliberately contrasted against straightforward, idealistic heroes.
After writing two relatively straightforward examples of the ''arrogant superhuman'' villain archetype, I'm trying my hand at a guy who's more rational and goal-oriented. I have some ideas for a group of (mostly) anti-villains, but that'll wait for another time.
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Not necesseraly directly revelant to what makes a good antagonist but rather to what makes an engaging hero<-> villain dynamic.
You can write villains that reflect certain characteristics of your heroes gone bad/extreme.Any of the more known batman villains come to mind.
Also making villains relatable doesn't mean you have to write a backstory that make people feel sorry or cry in empathy.
I think writing a villain that's unquestionably bad but who's goals are relatable is worth a lot.The baddie in the movie looper is a good example
! He's killing kids but you really get why he's doing it
Also just throwing it out there, when you get away from the idea of the antagonist being a person you wander into very interesting challenges.
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All really good stories are relateable in some way. It doesn't matter what kind of tale it is, a story's worth is ultimately proven by its grounding in human emotion and experience. I think that applies the most when one sets out to write great characters, and it's as true for heroes as it is for villains. But while a hero should show the best in humanity, a truly effective villain, the kind that sinks in and stays with you long after the tale is concluded, that swirls around in your psyche and chills you to your center, should embody the darker part of ourselves, the kind that we don't normally talk about, but is there no matter how we deny it or fight against it. After all, it is the struggle against these villains that really defines a hero, isn't it? A true villain is not who we are, nor is it something separate from us, but it is who we could become under the right circumstances. A symbol of us at our worst. A villain should ultimately be as relateable, if not more so, than a hero. In looking for dastardly and despicable qualities, one shouldn't look deeper than themselves for inspiration. Honesty is key, if you want a memorable antagonist. And really, when you look at some of the best villains around, what do you see? Something completely foreign and alien? Sometimes. But if you look deeper, it won't take long before you find the simple things, like rage, envy, bitterness, hatred… you know, the things we feel all the time.
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not sure if people care but a new story board is up
guest: Myke Cole, Naomi Novik, Peter V. Brett, Saladin Ahmed
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I hope I'm not intruding, but the mention of Batman villains reminded me of something I found once. I'm not sure if it can be easily related to your normal story-writing (instead of a movie) but uh yeah…
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! “Heath found all kinds of fantastic ways to humanise him in terms of simply being real and being a real person, but in narrative terms we didn’t want to humanise him, we didn’t want to show his origins, show what made him do the things he’s doing because then he becomes less threatening.” - Christopher NolanHandsome man save me from the monsters.
Avatar credits to rcerione
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not sure if people care but a new story board is up
guest: Myke Cole, Naomi Novik, Peter V. Brett, Saladin Ahmed
Thank You! I totally forgot about this month's storyboard.
About villains… I like the ones that are more antagonists than they're villains. They might have contrary goals, and dark ethics, but the reasons why they do it have to be understandable, and not just 'He's a villain'.
I'll just throw as an example, every villain from the Mistborn series, but specially the Lord Ruller. And the last book is all about heroes and villains, and the pure evil villain isn't that bad when you think about it (won't spoil).
I guess it all comes down to what Kylor said.
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Question time!
Kinda similar to my "What makes a good villain?" question from earlier but at a much more general level; would anyone care to define to me what constitutes a Mary Sue? Does simply having flaws that are, in-universe, considered negative negate a character from being a Mary Sue? Does a character simply need to be layered or dynamic to negate it?
A Mary Sue is, often as a point of definition, considered to be a "perfect" character or one with very few or no flaws. They excel at everything, are known by everyone and sought after romantically, or popular for no apparent reason. They are often considered fantastical in nature and unrealistic in their achievements or status. But simply having flaws doesn't mean they're exempt from the term. The flaws could be passive or easily resolved.
And I feel as though simply being dynamic or layered may not be enough to distinguish the label from them if they were to easily resolve their personal problems or the plot's problems. So where is the line? We know that a character could have all the qualities of a Mary Sue and still be enjoyable to read but where is the line drawn? Is it in the engagement?
And… Though it's obvious that it most likely does, does the story's context or tone affect how much of a Mary Sue a character is? Is there an objective, clear-cut outline for writing a non-Sue character? And most importantly, where do your tastes lie? Do you find that you enjoy Sues more often than not? Which ones do you not enjoy? Does how well the story is written have a large impact on your judgement?
Tons of questions. Hopefully I wasn't annoying in this interrogation.
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new storyboard
scalzi is on it !
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I've been pondering on the idea of creating a small comic/story. The only issue is aside from character designs, I HAVENT A CLUE WHERE TO START THE PLOT, THE DIALOGUE AND HOW TO GAIN INSPIRATION AND IDEAS.
Realistically i thought of using a famous story and designing my own take of it, with added humor too. But its hard to find a story i can both whittle down and put down on paper in a way that is easily understandable.
Where do i start?
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I think you can start writing down the things you like in a story for example:
a perverted old man
a robot
a murder
magic
a talking mouseand then you can start elaborating
If you want to practice drawind a story already existing i suggest a fairy tail
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I think you can start writing down the things you like in a story for example:
a perverted old man
a robot
a murder
magic
a talking mouseand then you can start elaborating
If you want to practice drawind a story already existing i suggest a fairy tail
I was thinking about moby dick. The story is simple enough, and the characters can be converted to people from ap. The dialogue, how i condense the story and convert it to comic format, and the level of humor is really what i need to focus on now. its going to be waaaaay longer than i intended.
Fuck i wish i could be in a room with everyone here and brainstorm some ideas.
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@Uncle:
Question time!
Kinda similar to my "What makes a good villain?" question from earlier but at a much more general level; would anyone care to define to me what constitutes a Mary Sue? Does simply having flaws that are, in-universe, considered negative negate a character from being a Mary Sue? Does a character simply need to be layered or dynamic to negate it?
A Mary Sue is, often as a point of definition, considered to be a "perfect" character or one with very few or no flaws. They excel at everything, are known by everyone and sought after romantically, or popular for no apparent reason. They are often considered fantastical in nature and unrealistic in their achievements or status. But simply having flaws doesn't mean they're exempt from the term. The flaws could be passive or easily resolved.
And I feel as though simply being dynamic or layered may not be enough to distinguish the label from them if they were to easily resolve their personal problems or the plot's problems. So where is the line? We know that a character could have all the qualities of a Mary Sue and still be enjoyable to read but where is the line drawn? Is it in the engagement?
And… Though it's obvious that it most likely does, does the story's context or tone affect how much of a Mary Sue a character is? Is there an objective, clear-cut outline for writing a non-Sue character? And most importantly, where do your tastes lie? Do you find that you enjoy Sues more often than not? Which ones do you not enjoy? Does how well the story is written have a large impact on your judgement?
Tons of questions. Hopefully I wasn't annoying in this interrogation.
Sorry for taking so long to answer this question.
Mary Sues do depend a lot on context but as a general rule of thumb they get little development but high pay off in personality or rewards to their character and is done in such a way that it's no more than wish fulfillment.
Now honestly I think despite this Mary Sues can be enjoyable, assuming Goku and Captain America count as them. They're well liked and powerful but they also have nice, humble personalities. Sometimes that's enough to help a Mary Sue like character come off as sort of cool.
@Smudger:I've been pondering on the idea of creating a small comic/story. The only issue is aside from character designs, I HAVENT A CLUE WHERE TO START THE PLOT, THE DIALOGUE AND HOW TO GAIN INSPIRATION AND IDEAS.
Realistically i thought of using a famous story and designing my own take of it, with added humor too. But its hard to find a story i can both whittle down and put down on paper in a way that is easily understandable.
Where do i start?
1. Start the plot in the middle or just the beginning of a conflict. For example take the first episode of Adventure Time and how it went straight into the zombie problem, or how One Piece started with a story about rescuing a kid from bandits. In short just take the first scene you want to do and do that. Focus on characters and stuff later.
2. Do the dialogue that feels natural. Then edit it after you've had time to let it sit. Reading out loud to others also help.
3. I'll tell you what someone else told me: If you can't get inspiration and ideas about what to write, then you might not really have something to say. Inspiration really comes from our experiences, or our likes and dislikes. Try looking for a story similar to what you're going for and reading it. Then do another. Then read a story opposite of what you want. And so on and so forth.
4. Just start anywhere. Doesn't matter, just START!–- Update From New Post Merge ---
I was thinking about moby dick. The story is simple enough, and the characters can be converted to people from ap. The dialogue, how i condense the story and convert it to comic format, and the level of humor is really what i need to focus on now. its going to be waaaaay longer than i intended.
Fuck i wish i could be in a room with everyone here and brainstorm some ideas.
My biggest mistake was doing every little description and picture, which resulted in a lot of unneeded pages and burn out. Condense the story by doing it from memory and not worrying about accuracy or anything like that.
Adaptations are supposed to bring something new anyway, or at least something different. -
My biggest mistake was doing every little description and picture, which resulted in a lot of unneeded pages and burn out. Condense the story by doing it from memory and not worrying about accuracy or anything like that.
Adaptations are supposed to bring something new anyway, or at least something different.This has been my biggest hurdle so far. Thanks for the reminder. i might have to have a rough copy drawn up and sent your way for some pointers/constructive criticism if thats ok with you?
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
haha well ive spent some time sorting out characters, some scenes, the jokes and whatnot and to be honest i think i can make something of it.
the biggest part is trying to suss out how many pages each scene needs and making the dialogue clear and funny. i dont want to do more than than twenty pages, so its a real challenge.
My only hope is people dont mind the characters they play and the jokes im going to use. teheheee
edit: oh god this is coming together much better than expected now. its not got much left till i can do character designs and set out the pages.
Its going to be really hard not spilling the beans on whos in it and whats going to happen. fuck this is going to be enjoyable.
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Hmm, I have a problem and I wonder if you guys would perhaps be able to help me with it. Seeing as this is the start of a New Year and everything, I've decided to take my writing to the next level and try and tackle what areas I lack at and how I can fix them up. I'll be posting up a lot more stories this year and becoming more active in the community, and stop sitting on my unfinished works striving for perfection, but in the meantime I've been reading over some of my old stuff and I've discovered two semi-noticable problems.
1. I can't really tone down my personal voice.
For anyone who has read any of the stories I've posted on here, you'd likely know I write in a rather… odd stylistic fashion. My creative writing teacher once told me I had written in a way he'd never seen before, so I kind of take it as a point of pride these days, but I can't really... tone it down. It's not really a bad thing, per say, but it's gotten to the point where I feel more like I'm writing a journal of what I've always wanted to see and then just inserting characters and plot points. I'm working around it a bit by changing up genres and formats, but I'd like to know if you have any suggestions. They would be greatly appreciated. Especially seeing as it's diluting throughout my literary works enough to cause my second problem....
2. I can't really seem to differentiate my characters.
This isn't really as big of a deal as I'm making it seem, but I looked into it after reading Kenny's comments on my latest story. He said that none of my characters stood out, and that they all seemed to be relatively the same person, and I guess he's kind of right. I tend to just start writing and the characters personality naturally acts itself out in scenes within my head, so I don't bother too much with pre-planning them, but I think they're all starting to seem a bit less distinctive. I'm already playing around with methods of verbal quirks and archetypes, bu I think some of you guys might offer up good advice about such a thing.
Sorry for the long post, but if anybody has any ideas I'd greatly appreciate your input. Thanks in advance, may you have luck in all your future endeavors.
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Here's something that I like to do with characters, and that's drawing them out. It doesn't matter if you're a good artist or not, doing so can lead to features that you can reverse-engineer to form aspects of their personality or character that you might not have considered if you hadn't. Like for example I was sketching out a character for a future Stargazer story and he ended up looking like somewhat of an older, grimmer version of the main character. So I decided to keep that physical semblance, but give him personality traits and manner of dress that would set the two at odds both in the story itself and from a more thematic perspective. This process can also allow you to give them more personal designs, effects, and quirks to better differentiate them in the story and give the reader a clearer picture of them.
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I needed to write something. So I decided to write a small blurb depicting a metaphor on how I feel about my current motivation and passion towards writing, and the lack thereof, that's been tearing at me for the past 3 years:
! There is a wall… in front of me. It is a massive wall that rips the sky apart and seems almost limitless in its height. And on both sides, it seems to stretch on for infinity, or at least it seems to split the world in half and create a fine division between the side that I'm on and the side where I want to be. It is impenetrable and smooth, it offers no footholds and no method to climb.
! As far as I'm concerned, the world has ceased its rotation. At one time, I was on the day side of the planet, somehow unscathed by high temperature weather but rather, within the normal cycle of life and photosynthesis; the way the world is meant to be, bright and cheerful, full of life and foliage and beauty. I crossed the equator, into the cold and perpetually dark night side of the planet, and no sooner that I did this massive, incomprehensible wall locked me out.
! I know that I once existed, and even lived for a long time, on the other side of that wall. And I know that, by all rights, this wall doesn't even make sense; it shouldn't even be there and couldn't possibly be indomitable. But my vision... has been stolen from me and my sight has become unclear. I'm starting to lose the ability to remember what it was like to ever live on the other side. I now even question if I remember the other side correctly, that maybe it really is a burning wasteland as all logic dictates it should be, with the Sun ever beating down on it.
! This wall is perfect. I can't smash a foothold into it because it is impenetrable, I can't walk around it because it stretches the entire circumference of the planet and even if I could scale it... I would suffocate in the upper atmosphere before I could even consider reaching the top and climbing over. The only way I can defeat this wall is if I learn to understand it, to treat it as if it's water and simply... walk through it.
! But I don't understand it. And even though... I can somewhat feel the planet's rotation return, and the Sun begin to glimmer over to this side once again... I feel as though it'll take a painfully long time to melt the ice that is so commonplace here. That it would take an era to return life to this side. So the only solace I take is that, the glimmer of sunshine is even visible. And that maybe... enough light will return someday that I can analyze the wall in front of me a little more clearly.
! And as I press my hand against the wall, and try to push forward... Slowly... Very slowly... I can feel my palm slip through... -
Since this isn't related directly to the monthly, I thought this thread would be more appropriate.
So, what's happening? Well, a long while ago I expressed an interest in making a screen capture video of how I generally edit my texts. It's now complete and has been edited into four parts. It's nothing amazing and the quality is pretty awful, but in case someone is interested I'll post it here. Now, with 40 minutes it's quite long and probably a bit boring. I did it on a whim in the middle of the night and hadn't really planned out what I was going to say, so please keep that in mind. Well, without further ado, you may proceed under the cut if you wish~
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Some parts did change a lot, whereas there were a couple of things that I decided later on to be unnecessary. I can't remember exactly what they were, though. I kinda want to do something like this for the first chapter, too. If only my roommates weren't always home, goddamnit!
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What do you all think of the prospect of putting together an anthology? Like, say, we write a set of short stories each built around a theme and present them all together? For instance, we can make it One Piece themed (NOT fanfiction!), so we could do something where all the stories are pirate-themed or each entry is based loosely on a member of the crew. Not saying for sure anything will come of this, but I want to gauge interest.
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sounds interesting…count me in~
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I guess that'd be interesting. Depends on what the theme is.
In an unrelated tangent, I may or may not be getting published soon. Nothing big, obviously, just a student-run literary magazine. I'm kind of embarrassed about it really, but I guess it's something. :P
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Hmmm … I know it was a while ago, but I thought I'd say I'm interested in this themed anthology idea, theme-dependent.
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Sounds like the chain story.
Only just as bad.
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so I didn't end up getting published, although I'm chalking that one up to my tardiness yet again. Well, third time's the charm as they say. It's a biweekly publication, although I seriously have to wonder, given the size of the thing, why 1000 words is the cap. seems like too much for one person to have on a page, even if they print it small.
also I'm just really annoyed at my writing teacher. I'm going to post it soon-ish, but whether it's good or bad, I just really dislike her style. She and this kid in my class have a way of talking that bugs me because they speak as though there's only one right way to write. The kid is really loud, a bit obnoxious, does most of the talking in discussion, and he has a bad habit of saying "here's what SHOULD be fixed/changed" or "you NEED to do this to make it more clear." He did bring up good points today though. Surprisingly he wasn't the one who annoyed me most. My teacher acts like there is a certain way you have to do things to make a good story. a couple examples from earlier lectures
- Stories must have conflict - A story can have plot without conflict. I read an interesting piece once on that subject, and I don't think it's necessarily boring if you have a good style. It got on my nerves. Yes, conflict is fascinating, and people generally don't want to read something where everything is fine, but to act like it can't be done is just silly and limiting. why should creativity have limits?
- Stories should be dramatic - kind of relates to the first thing. It's not a prerequisite for a good story. One example I always bring up is the Pixar short "La Luna." It's got neither conflict nor drama (well okay maybe the giant star hurtling at them was a slight moment of drama), but it's still fun to watch. It's still interesting. I can't think of a full movie that does this, but this particular animation shows that it's perfectly within the realm of possibility to write a story with no conflict. Am I going to do that? probably not, but the point of writing is not to tell people what they do or don't need to have. There's a difference between helpful advice and limiting creativity because you're used to things being written with similar tropes or ideas or because a certain set of principles is the norm when writing fiction or otherwise.
the reason I was bothered was because in our discussion when there was one part of the story (several really) where people were confused. I had a sound effect repeated twice (eheheh inside joke, it's actually three). I thought it would be easy for readers to figure out what it meant, even though I never outright said what the source of the noise was. the narrator voice is third omniscient, detached. as of now I see no reason the narrator should also be a character. I purposefully withheld the answer because I wanted to have a little bit of mystery, and even though this was a short story, my particular piece is a novel excerpt, and of course I plan on revealing it outright eventually. So as everyone's voicing their confusion, my teacher, turns to me and asks "was that deliberate?" and I'm like, "uhh… yeah." I'd barely gotten the words out before she just very loudly says to me "SHAME ON YOU!" and gestures at me with a finger. the fuck?? seriously?? I may not have entirely liked her teaching style thus far, but that's just fucking rude. she basically says that one should NEVER "put up a wall" between narrator and reader. information should not be withheld, and this is bad writing. Things that are put in a story just for the sake of suspense are bad. what? since when do I have to explain every goddamn thing in my story. sure, I guess it does build some suspense, but is she seriously telling me not to have suspense or mystery in my stories??
Has anyone here read Agatha Christie's murder mystery "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd"? spoiler alert, the narrator IS the murderer. It's a brilliant idea. That's what you call "unreliable narrating" at its finest. He doesn't reveal the entire truth, and that builds suspense as you slowly begin to realize things don't add up. How is a narrator withholding information much different than if a character had been withholding information? In this case my narrator isn't a character, but I just got so pissed at the way she implied that this was some kind of law that you MUST follow. And hey, there was ONE kid in my class who got it. He knew why I had put that in the story, and nobody else did. He interpreted it the exact way I intended in that regard. I could probably make a very slight adjustment, and I'd be able to clear up the confusion AND still keep the mystery of it intact. It was completely unnecessary to yell at me like I'm the worst person in the world because something I wrote wasn't clear. like I said, it would take a very slight adjustment to clear it up. I didn't sign up for this class to be humiliated like that in front of my peers when the goal should be to encourage people to write. I also got told for including a couple pop cultural references. actually, only one of them was a reference people noticed, and one apparently wasn't, but I had mixed reactions. Some said I should be careful/get rid of references others may not necessarily understand OR include more references. Not to say I didn't get useful feedback, because I did, but it bugs me how certain things had polar opposite reactions and my teacher, the would-be professional, acted like the least.
