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Wittgen posted:What's interesting to me is that Elaine does get to make moral judgements as she likes. She just gets body slammed by magic if she fails to answer one correctly. But what is correct depends on her personal morals, so it can be a moving target and she has to be on her toes. Yeah, she's a complex and difficult character to write, and I really like what I've been able to do with ethics and morality with her, along with exposing people to the fact that *medical* ethics and normal ethics are not the same thing, and will occasionally have different answers to the same question. It's deep and complicated, and IMO it's one of BTDEM's strengths. I'm not writing pure popcorn, some of what I write hopefully makes people stop and think.
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Jan 5, 2022 22:36
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Ytlaya posted:Yeah, that's the impression I got, but it's kind of funny to think that the music you liked when you were younger will be considered a world-renowned classic in the future. yeah it's all pretty cringe lol. but i still listen to brand new and sleeping with sirens etc that were all the rage when I was 12 years old so I sort of get the emotional reason to do it even if I think it's insanely cringe and bad writing to follow that up lol.
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Jan 5, 2022 23:11
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Holy moly today's Beware of Chicken was pretty great.
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Jan 6, 2022 01:49
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I've decided to just wait out a couple of weeks until the dust settles and read it all in one go.
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Jan 6, 2022 01:57
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Wittgen posted:Holy moly today's Beware of Chicken was pretty great. That was indeed a great chapter, and a great place to end the chapter.
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Jan 6, 2022 04:13
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Larry Parrish posted:yeah it's all pretty cringe lol. but i still listen to brand new and sleeping with sirens etc that were all the rage when I was 12 years old so I sort of get the emotional reason to do it even if I think it's insanely cringe and bad writing to follow that up lol. Maybe the protagonist is actually lying and deliberately trying to change the future such that Evanescence becomes the biggest band in history I'm very fortunate in that my favorite music artist (Shiina Ringo) has been continuously making music since I first started listening to her at age 15 in ~2000. Just always been there, with different periods marked by different music.
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Jan 6, 2022 09:16
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Wittgen posted:Holy moly today's Beware of Chicken was pretty great. Yeah that fuckin owned. Can't wait for the next one, it's gonna be so good.
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Jan 6, 2022 09:53
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Complaining about Evanescence in web serials is a bit rich when Sluggy Freelance and Crüxshadows are the most operator poo poo imaginable in actual traditionally-published novels. Let the re: trailer trash protagonist have her dorky music taste.
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Jan 6, 2022 10:07
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Complaining about Evanescence in web serials is a bit rich when Sluggy Freelance and Crüxshadows are the most operator poo poo imaginable in actual traditionally-published novels. Nobody can ever have anything, for the universe will take everything you love and laugh while doing it. I think I've actually gotten brain damage from reading First Contact lol.
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Jan 6, 2022 13:27
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Larry Parrish posted:
Probably, yeah.
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Jan 6, 2022 16:10
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Complaining about Evanescence in web serials is a bit rich when Sluggy Freelance and Crüxshadows are the most operator poo poo imaginable in actual traditionally-published novels. Oh John Ringo YES! Ninja edit: I remember when I looked up Cruxshadows expecting it to be some kind of hyper-macho speed/death metal, and instead it was some kind of sissy anemic goth industrial poo poo. And every special forces badass in the ringo-verse listens to it to get amped up to go headshot terrorists. navyjack fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jan 6, 2022 |
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Jan 6, 2022 19:16
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you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to him"
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Jan 6, 2022 19:31
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Complaining about Evanescence in web serials is a bit rich when Sluggy Freelance and Crüxshadows are the most operator poo poo imaginable in actual traditionally-published novels. No problem with having dorky music taste; it's just funny when you write your story so that the author's dorky music taste ends up becoming some of the most famous and well-regarded music ever in a story set in the real world. It's not just the protagonist's favorite music - it's the country's favorite music, that sold a zillion albums by 2040. Being cringe is still obviously way better than being a fascist right-wing operator novel (and I've argued before in this thread that there's nothing inherently better about traditionally published novels, given the sort of garbage that routinely gets traditionally published)
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Jan 6, 2022 20:40
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I don't think I've ever seen song lyrics from a real song (as opposed to something the author made up) incorporated in a written story in a way that wasn't awkward at best. It's just not a good idea regardless of the author's taste in music.
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Jan 6, 2022 22:10
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Ytlaya posted:No problem with having dorky music taste; it's just funny when you write your story so that the author's dorky music taste ends up becoming some of the most famous and well-regarded music ever in a story set in the real world. It's not just the protagonist's favorite music - it's the country's favorite music, that sold a zillion albums by 2040. it's been a while since i read that story but i don't think you're supposed to think that evanescence had some kind of renaissance in the next few years and became an all-time classic band more than it is already, i.e. kind of but not really. tabitha is biased and also knows that elena is looking for gothy stuff so she maybe oversells them a little to impress elena and also demonstrate that her knowledge of the future can be proven or disproven. looking up the quote, tabitha says that evanescence had sold fifty million albums by 2040. evanescence has already sold, as of right now, something like 35 million if you factor in digital sales, spotify, etc. according to industry-accepted formulas for comparing the current market to the days when albums sold was a single reliable metric for how popular a band was. i don't have a hard time believing that in the next 20 years they're going to wrack up 15 million album-sale-equivalents from gothy moms and grandmas
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Jan 6, 2022 23:05
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Plorkyeran posted:I don't think I've ever seen song lyrics from a real song (as opposed to something the author made up) incorporated in a written story in a way that wasn't awkward at best. It's just not a good idea regardless of the author's taste in music. First Contact did it a couple times so far but also it's such a ridiculous mess that it didn't feel out of place in the slightest for a fox-man space marine to be blasting Hip Hop Soldier by Sir Mix-A-Lot while screaming and laying about with a chainsword. Also it got spaced out really well, like in between was all this action scene and then you went oh all that poo poo was supposed to have happened in 30 seconds, drat. It wasn't just writing the stupid song out like so many do
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Jan 7, 2022 00:23
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Larry Parrish posted:First Contact did it a couple times so far but also it's such a ridiculous mess that it didn't feel out of place in the slightest for a fox-man space marine to be blasting Hip Hop Soldier by Sir Mix-A-Lot while screaming and laying about with a chainsword. Also it got spaced out really well, like in between was all this action scene and then you went oh all that poo poo was supposed to have happened in 30 seconds, drat. It wasn't just writing the stupid song out like so many do First Contact is so very uneven in a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” way. Some of it is just dumb and bad, but then you have the green mantises, and Bunny Girl trying to keep her siblings alive while turning into Bunny Jason Voorhees, and figuring out that the reason why the other bug people are obsessed with cool hats is to distract the females after sex so the men don’t get eaten. In short, a land of contrasts but probably not worth the time because of how loving long it is.
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Jan 7, 2022 00:35
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navyjack posted:First Contact is so very uneven in a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” way. Some of it is just dumb and bad, but then you have the green mantises, and Bunny Girl trying to keep her siblings alive while turning into Bunny Jason Voorhees, and figuring out that the reason why the other bug people are obsessed with cool hats is to distract the females after sex so the men don’t get eaten. I think the only part I didn't like was the Nosferatu Program, which I found to be more silly than anything else. But I like ridiculously long mil sci-fi with like 50 different characters to follow, it's my jam. But it seems like you get what I mean about it. It throws everything at the wall and somehow it always lands in a way I haven't seen before.
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Jan 7, 2022 00:37
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Larry Parrish posted:I think the only part I didn't like was the Nosferatu Program, which I found to be more silly than anything else. I agree with the Nosferatu thing, I kept hoping that there would be a payoff for the dumb like there was with the “Burgerland” and “Animeland” stuff. I think with some ruthless editing, there’s a solid HFY series there. I stayed up too late a couple nights with it, which makes it worth what I paid for it.
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Jan 7, 2022 02:55
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Plorkyeran posted:I don't think I've ever seen song lyrics from a real song (as opposed to something the author made up) incorporated in a written story in a way that wasn't awkward at best. It's just not a good idea regardless of the author's taste in music. the only time lyrics incorporated into prose has ever worked for me was when it was a folk song/sea shanty/nursery rhyme sort of deal. In other words, the characters being the ones to say the lyrics is the means to provide the impact on the reader
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Jan 7, 2022 03:10
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It needs a serious editor to cut some of the fat, yeah. I'm kind of terrified at how much output there is over the past 2 years, though, dude is insane.
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Jan 7, 2022 03:18
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A Journey of Black & Red continues to break the timeline. I was attending a recent English play called ‘Our American Cousin’ at the Ford Theater in Washington and I had to stop a drunk man with a gun from ruining the show. And the play was not even that good! edit: oh my god yes 90s Cringe Rock fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Jan 7, 2022 |
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Jan 7, 2022 15:23
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does anyone know whether "into the mire" will be continued? last update was in february '21
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Jan 9, 2022 04:43
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90s Cringe Rock posted:A Journey of Black & Red continues to break the timeline. Yes!
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Jan 9, 2022 04:49
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well it turns out even hathan is a psychotic space fascist.
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Jan 9, 2022 05:33
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Jazerus posted:it's been a while since i read that story but i don't think you're supposed to think that evanescence had some kind of renaissance in the next few years and became an all-time classic band more than it is already, i.e. kind of but not really. tabitha is biased and also knows that elena is looking for gothy stuff so she maybe oversells them a little to impress elena and also demonstrate that her knowledge of the future can be proven or disproven. yeah i think a lot of people dont realize that the first evanescence album is actually the fifth best selling album of the 21st century (so far).
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Jan 10, 2022 01:08
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Jazerus posted:looking up the quote, tabitha says that evanescence had sold fifty million albums by 2040. evanescence has already sold, as of right now, something like 35 million if you factor in digital sales, spotify, etc. according to industry-accepted formulas for comparing the current market to the days when albums sold was a single reliable metric for how popular a band was. i don't have a hard time believing that in the next 20 years they're going to wrack up 15 million album-sale-equivalents from gothy moms and grandmas The overwhelming majority of that was the first album, though, with dramatically declining album sales after the fact; the only way hitting close 50M would be possible is if in Tabitha's future Evanescence makes a huge comeback. (I think that this web serial is pretty good though and never intended my post to seem like it was bashing it. I wouldn't have read enough to reach the point I'm describing in the first place otherwise! I just thought it was funny that a "going back in time" story basically created a future where the band they like makes a huge comeback and is still super famous as of 2040-something.)
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Jan 10, 2022 03:11
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Doctor Jeep posted:does anyone know whether "into the mire" will be continued? last update was in february '21 Anomalous Blowout posted:Real weird news to get to post in the Web Serial thread on a dead gay comedy forum, but thanks in part to all the awesome folks in here who read it and talked about it, Into the Mire has been acquired by a literary agency. I’m balls deep in the edits phase now and we’ll be taking it to London Book Fair this summer to get it slapped together into an old-fashioned book.
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Jan 10, 2022 10:32
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I have now started 5 or 6 serials that go from interesting plot -> generic magic school story. Please writers, stop this. It is so boring.
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Jan 10, 2022 19:50
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Peachfart posted:I have now started 5 or 6 serials that go from interesting plot -> generic magic school story. Please writers, stop this. It is so boring. Fine, they’ll now go from uninteresting plot to generic magic school story. Also please list what you read so we can know if there is going to be a generic magic school arc coming up. On a different subject, is there a word for a person that completely misses the tone of a story? I don’t know how many times I’ve read comments in Beware of Chicken with people that are upset that it isn’t a murderhobo or harem story.
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Jan 10, 2022 20:00
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Maguoob posted:Fine, they’ll now go from uninteresting plot to generic magic school story. I will list the most recent one that made me sad, Mark of the Fool. I rather liked this story(not the best but was decent), and I guess I should have seen it coming, but he gets to the school and suddenly it is the same 'it is college but with MAGIC' that has been done to death. I got through another 10 chapters then bailed.
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Jan 10, 2022 20:06
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Oh, and anyone that wants Beware Of Chicken to be a murderhobo story is either trolling or is dumb as hell.
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Jan 10, 2022 20:07
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Maguoob posted:Fine, they’ll now go from uninteresting plot to generic magic school story. The harem thing is at least understandable since the author frequently teases it might head in that direction. Not often in the text, but it shows up a lot in the pictures. I say this as someone whose one request from Beware of Chicken is more Beware of Chicken. Speaking of more, there's a new Millenial Mage chapter out today. I should go read it.
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Jan 10, 2022 20:12
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Can't wait for Millennial Mage to decide to pick up even more student loan debt by going back to generic magic school. At least she's got jerky.
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Jan 10, 2022 20:16
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I swear Ar'Kendrithyst became a lot more entertaining to read when I started to play 'spot the hidden dragon/s'.
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Jan 10, 2022 20:31
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Peachfart posted:I have now started 5 or 6 serials that go from interesting plot -> generic magic school story. Please writers, stop this. It is so boring. Run across waay more superhero school storylines, which are WIERD beasts, especially compared to early superhero genre stories which focused on characters fully acting on their own volition, entirely divorced from state power structures. Modern superhero school stuff is like... utopian reimagining of the police / military as a high school / college campus. Wierd stuff.
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Jan 10, 2022 20:39
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I'm going to blame My Hero Academia for popularizing superhero school. I guess it also was a fanfic thing for a long time because "make all the characters go to school together" is just one of those standard fanfic stories.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:21
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Maguoob posted:Fine, they’ll now go from uninteresting plot to generic magic school story. I still get a stray comment now and again on Royal Road saying some variation of "there's too much romance and too many lesbians in this clearly tagged lesbian romance story."
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Jan 10, 2022 23:36
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Peachfart posted:I will list the most recent one that made me sad, Mark of the Fool. I rather liked this story(not the best but was decent), and I guess I should have seen it coming, but he gets to the school and suddenly it is the same 'it is college but with MAGIC' that has been done to death. I got through another 10 chapters then bailed. Bro I'm pretty sure in the first loving chapter Alex talks about how he's going to go to Generasi if it kills him. Also, as much as I'm bored by Magic College, Mark of the Fool is probably the only one that doesn't suck.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:51
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As far as people not getting a story I pretty much avoid comment sections but I remember a lot of people on Ar'kendrythist always being like 'wtf this is boring' which always made me laugh. And the occasional whining about politics. I don't know what people expect out if stories about wizards since they're traditionally massively involved in politics.
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Jan 10, 2022 23:57
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