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Question for Thunderdomers, how do you decide on what story to write, prompts and flash rules and all? What goes on in your head? Do you snag the first potential story out of your brain and put it on the page? Do you spend half a day brainstorming and narrowing down your options? I have a problem of starting very late (Saturday-Sunday) and just going with whatever seems good enough. I guess the lack of editing time compounds the problem, but often I'm already hamstrung from the very beginning. This week I took in a flash rule to focus my creativity into something more defined (FREEDOM).
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Jun 27, 2013 02:16
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There's an e-book that tells you how to do an awesome ritual with goat blood that generates Thunderdome plots. Just PM me 100 bitcoins and I'll send you the download. Make sure to disable any anti-virus programs first, tho This past week I started early and my piece sucked, meanwhile whenever I win it's literally by scraping the leftover tar-like substance out of my brain tubes and throwing it into a post minutes before the deadline. I usually think of a plot that sucks. Then I throw a wrench in it. When creating the basic idea for a plot, I like to let my inner little kid come out a bit. Lets say I wanna write a story about a baseball player getting ready for a big game. But WHAT IF he's been abducted by aliens, and has to play against his will on an intergalactic allstar team. But then WHAT IF his sports star status gains the affections of a green-skinned babe from Venus, who wants him to throw the game due to _____________ Yeah it's pretty much like that. "But what if" is probably one of the more important phrases to keep in mind when conjuring tales.
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Jun 27, 2013 03:04
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Yeah, start by thinking of a really really crap and obvious way to do the story. Then tweak it in your mind by changing bits until you laugh, or cringe, or go 'hm, interesting'. That's your story seed. I normally let my story seeds roll round in my head for a few days gathering lint. Now think of 2-3 characters (no more) that could go in there, and work out what at least one of them wants, why they can't get it, and why the reader should care. Now sit down and rattle out the story. Now edit it, leave it, edit it again, leave it, edit it, post it. Throw your prompt up and I'll have a go at it (just the first part, you get to write it). sebmojo fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jun 27, 2013 |
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Jun 27, 2013 03:12
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Thanks, guys. I've never given much thought to "but what if", but I'll see if I can use it.sebmojo posted:Throw your prompt up and I'll have a go at it (just the first part, you get to write it). My flash rule is "your main character must struggle against the control of someone or something outside him/herself"
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Jun 27, 2013 03:32
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Everytime I've won the TD it's been, oh. Wait. <==========================
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Jun 27, 2013 03:34
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Schneider Heim posted:Thanks, guys. I've never given much thought to "but what if", but I'll see if I can use it. Ok. Free associating time. Protag is under control. Mind control, physical control, emotional control. Mind control is dull, aliens? Psionic supermen? Eh. Let's stay away from genre unless we get a cool idea. Physical control, trapped by a criminal? Trapped by a friend? Okay that's more interesting. Why would a friend lock someone up? Helping them get off drugs? Hm, bit dull but warmer. Come back to it. Emotional control, what sort of things control you emotionally - friends, lovers, children. Children. Hm, trapped by your children. Because they're trying to get you off drugs. Or administer drugs, maybe? Ha, Midwich Cuckoos - your main character's child is a psionic superkid with mind powers and has trapped the protagonist until the drugs they're giving him/her take effect. Probably her, as it's a nice twist on maternal instincts. Still crappy, but I think I could make a story of that. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Jun 27, 2013 |
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Jun 27, 2013 04:20
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sebmojo posted:Ok. Free associating time. I actually had a similar train of thought while in the bus. Something about a mom who's all but enslaved by her family who sit on their rear end at home everyday while she tries to provide for them... Thanks for showing me how it can be done!
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Jun 27, 2013 04:41
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If anyone's looking for an agent, the Twitter hashtag #MSWL might interest you today. A bunch of agents and editor tweeted what sorts of things they're looking for right now (oftentimes absurdly specific), and some kind soul is archiving them all at http://agentandeditorwishlist.tumblr.com/
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Jun 28, 2013 00:16
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Icon-Cat posted:If anyone's looking for an agent, the Twitter hashtag #MSWL might interest you today. Thanks so much for this. I sent the link around to some of my friends, and one of them just got a full manuscript request as a result. 
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Jun 29, 2013 05:38
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Icon-Cat posted:If anyone's looking for an agent, the Twitter hashtag #MSWL might interest you today. I wish there was something like this all the time. Thanks for the link earlier, Chuck Wendig seems pretty cool. Will check his writing on writing books out, though that's the kind of thing I usually hate to read. Just usually, though, not all the time. Say, are there many cool places to get self-publishing information from people that have, like, done it? Besides Goonreads, I mean. Might as well ask due to a summer/university project (I have to make a "plan" for self-publishing something). PoshAlligator fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Jun 29, 2013 |
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Jun 29, 2013 14:27
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I'd be interested in hearing how some of you got your first piece published. Did you research various literary magazines and write something specifically for that publication, or write something and then figure out the best places to shop it around? I know there are many ways to go about it, but hearing personal accounts from anybody who wants to share might be worthwhile. A couple of months ago I started writing a novel that had been gestating for some time. I figured I'd bang out some short stories, get them published, and have some pub' credits to my name when I finished my novel. I gotta laugh now at my amazingly naive hubris. Thank god I stumbled upon these writing threads, especially thunderdome, to understand how truly bad my writing was. While I've never been at the bottom of the TD pile, I had serious issues that, hopefully, I'm correcting. I am now going back and completely rewriting the first 50 pages of my novel. It was really bad - cringe-worthy exposition and info dumps. Now that I have a pile of thunderdome stories and other short stories I've written, I'm kind of vacillating on how to proceed. My thunderdome entries haven't been that great, and neither have my other short stories. I'm trying to decide if I should keep writing whatever I want or if I should start writing stories with an eye towards certain literary magazines, etc. I just finished powering through the thousand or so posts in this thread and want to thank everyone who's spent the time doling out advice.
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Jul 2, 2013 15:29
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Jagermonster posted:I'd be interested in hearing how some of you got your first piece published. Did you research various literary magazines and write something specifically for that publication, or write something and then figure out the best places to shop it around? I know there are many ways to go about it, but hearing personal accounts from anybody who wants to share might be worthwhile. Your approach isn't bad! You have the right idea--you want to use short stories as proving grounds. They're a way for you to practice your craft, sure, but the submission process gives you soft skills that are just as important, eg targeting your markets, making sure your cover letter or bio is professional, and making sure that your formatting meets requirements. Good presentation is huge. My own account: I had my first story published by a professor of mine in undergrad. I wrote it for his creative writing workshop, he asked me if I was willing to get it published, and I said yes. He'd just written a poem for a fledgling web-based magazine (Blood Lotus) and sent them my piece. That was back in 2006. Not long later I came across Duotrope, and that's my primary tool now for unsolicited submissions. I'm sure you know about it, but I can't overstate how important it is. Besides allowing you to target your markets, you can (more importantly) follow links to the magazines' websites and see what they're all about, and often read a story or two and see if the kind of stuff they publish is the kind of stuff you write. Again, knowing your market is key.* Most of my other accepted pieces have gotten published because of Duotrope (a couple markets I learned about from friends and co-workers). My general approach is to filter magazines by genre and style and make sure they accept simultaneous submissions. Once I have a list (I aim for five, ranging from no-pay fledglings to pro-paying established journals), I send that story out to each one, generally changing the format of the manuscript each time, since most magazines have different submission standards. And after that, it's pretty much a waiting game. At any given time I have five or six stories out to twenty-five or thirty markets. Lot of times I'll even forget I'll have certain stories out, and I get reminded two or three or five months later when I get an acceptance or a rejection. After you've done that for a while and gotten some publications under your belt (and you will, sooner or later, using this process), you'll probably want to revisit your novel. That's cool. Once it's as good as you can make it, go looking for an agent. They aren't hard to find (there's a good search engine over at Poets and Writers, for example), and it's pretty much that same process. Write a professional cover letter, make sure everything is as good as you can make it, list your past publications, your related life experience, and send it out to twelve or fifteen or twenty agents. Just like sending out your short stories, it's an odds game. TLDR Bullet Point review: --Target your markets for your short stories. Be professional, follow guidelines. --Always keep a handful of stories in rotation, each out to (at least three; the more the better) potential markets. If you get a full run of rejections, you may want to consider shelving the story for a while and look at it later with fresh eyes. But get that thing back out as soon as you think it's good. --The more markets you send your work out to, the better your chances of publication. Just make sure that when your story gets accepted, you withdraw it from other markets. Oh, and mention that it's a simultaneous submission in your cover letter. --Use this same process for agents. You want to make sure that they're looking for the stuff you write. Finally--I don't recommend writing stories for particular markets. I've done it, and they've gotten accepted, but most of the time I spent writing those stories I kept shaping them to the magazines who solicited me. In other words, I kept thinking about what they wanted, instead of letting the story be the story, and they weren't as much fun to write. *I spent a little bit of time as the fiction co-editor of a lit magazine, and we got something like three hundred submissions a month. That experience was eye-opening. We'd get stories that had nothing to do with the theme of the magazine. We even got some 150,000 word fantasy novel. Even if it was good (it wasn't), we couldn't have done anything with it. Asbury fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Jul 3, 2013 |
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Jul 2, 2013 18:02
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What do you guys think a sane balance of narrative to dialog is? I ask because I'm writing a piece that's turning out to be very talk-heavy, but as it's a slow-boiling drama set in a rural village I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Obviously it's very much a case of 'if you can do it right then do it' but I'm curious to hear people's views on this. What's the effect of a lot of dialog, assuming the dialog serves a purpose and isn't empty babble? Does it progress or retard the plot? Should I consider writing a play or screenplay instead of a novel?
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Jul 3, 2013 01:24
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I tend to lean toward dialog-heavy writing a lot of the time. Dialog is cool because it can do double duty as characterization and exposition. The big issue is if your characters are talking in empty space and there's no action. I suppose if you posted a sample of your dialog, it'd be easier to tell you whether it's pulling its weight.
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Jul 3, 2013 02:31
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I used to write very exposition heavy stories, and people told me it was boring. I've been trying to put more dialogue in but it's often difficult for me and people tell me my characters are flat. I need to remember to give them personalities, and not just use them as vehicles for more exposition. So as an answer to your question: have enough dialogue, but don't overdo it at the expense of describing what the gently caress is going on. In other news: http://www.bartlebysnopes.com/contests.htm
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Jul 3, 2013 02:50
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Sitting Here posted:I suppose if you posted a sample of your dialog, it'd be easier to tell you whether it's pulling its weight. Quick background to the setting and characters. Postwar England, sometime between 1957 and 1963. This is set at a dinner party hosted by Lewisham, which has been going badly ever since Wegner arrived. Lewisham is a successful businessman and a patriarchal figure in the village. George Richards is his subordinate and friend. Wegner is the village doctor, 'A thin, anaemic young man'. Something to note is that it's in first-person from the perspective of another character, who doesn't act here. --- At last Richards spoke up. “So, Doctor, I trust your practice is going well?” Wegner glanced around him, blinking, as if he’d just been woken from a daydream. He brushed an errant hair behind his ear and cleared his throat. “I- I’m sorry?” Richards repeated his question. “Oh, it’s - it’s going well enough. As one would expect.” “You haven’t gotten involved with-” Lewisham was on his feet: “George!” Richards balked. “It doesn’t suit the present company to ask such personal questions, George, you should know that.” Richards glared at Lewisham, then bowed his head. “You’re right.” He turned to Wegner. “I’m sorry. I forgot myself. I must have had too much to drink.” “Well, it is a drat fine wine, George, so I forgive you,” said Lewisham. Everyone laughed, except Wegner, who had somehow become even paler.
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Jul 3, 2013 09:55
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To be blunt: that's really awful dialogue. It's full of cultural niceties and conversational tics that don't have any place in dialogue because it doesn't actually say anything and instead just sounds like some realistic conversation at a very boring dinner party. I'm sure it would help us a little to have some additional context, as right now every character is just a floating head in a featureless room, but even then I'm not sure it'd be salvageable. It sounds very English, which I'm afraid isn't a compliment. Here's what I mean by that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1-ZEFDWNns The exchange (near the beginning of that clip) that Mr. Izzard describes is exactly what your excerpt sounds like. Dialogue should never be empty and meaningless; so instead of bland, boring stuff such as "I trust your practice is going well, Doctor?" Try something like this: "So tell me, Doctor, do you miss practicing medicine in the city?" The first line is drab and boring and empty. The second line at least delivers a morsel of information and character/world building and actually pulls its own weight. My only other suggestion is that you might want to cut the reader some slack by using the most powerful tool available to the novelist: prose. Instead of subjecting your characters to random, silly outbursts via dialogue (Lewisham was on his feet: “George!” Richards balked.") you could just have your narrator tell us some of that backstory or reasons why this might be a tense situation, rather than insisting on having your characters act every single emotion out. Here's a better example of what I mean from Orson Scott Card's book on POV and narrative (I put Card's comments in italics to separate it from the example he used). I know it's long but I promise it gets to the heart of what I see as a pretty clear issue with the dialogue you posted: quote:She sat down beside him. “I’m so nervous,” she said. Anyway, hope that helps. If you want more help you'll need to post a more focused exchange (perhaps between your POV character and one other person)?
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Jul 3, 2013 16:20
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crabrock posted:In other news: http://www.bartlebysnopes.com/contests.htm I'm not sure why there's an entry fee for that contest. Is it an incentive for writers to submit the best work they could make?
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Jul 3, 2013 18:21
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Schneider Heim posted:I'm not sure why there's an entry fee for that contest. Is it an incentive for writers to submit the best work they could make? It looks like it all goes towards the prize money. The more people who submit the bigger the prize. I just stumbled across it looking at journals to submit to and thought it was relevant.
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Jul 3, 2013 18:57
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Icon-Cat posted:If anyone's looking for an agent, the Twitter hashtag #MSWL might interest you today. Thanks for posting this. I've been getting my rear end kicked by robot rejection letters the last month or so and it's pretty discouraging. With something like this, it ought to be easier to distinguish if I hosed up the pitch part or the agent in question was never going to be interested in my poo poo to begin with. On a semi-related note, does anybody have any tips for how to write a synopsis that doesn't feel like the worst thing you've ever written? I've poked around on the internet looking for advice on them, and the consensus seems to be gently caress SYNOPSES.
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Jul 3, 2013 20:24
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Do not put everything in, just your A and B stories.
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Jul 3, 2013 20:57
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Chillmatic posted:Anyway, hope that helps. If you want more help you'll need to post a more focused exchange (perhaps between your POV character and one other person)? Thanks for this. I was aware that my dialogue was the weakest part of my writing (lack of practice), and having reams of poo poo dialogue seemed unhealthy. (Also, Eddy Izzard is one of my favourite comedians, so kudos for that!) The Orson Scott Card extract really does get to the heart of the problem: I'm using dialogue to progress the narrative when my prose should be doing that for me. I'm not writing a drat screenplay. The emptiness of the dialogue is due to my attempt to make the conversation progress the narrative by itself, with very little prose. This seemed rear end-backwards to me because Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one of my favourite authors, manages to use about one sentence of dialog per chapter and still have the plot work. Granted, Marquez writes in a synoptic style, but even, say, Pratchett, who really doesn't, is nowhere near as dialog-heavy as I'm being. Not to make excuses, but whenever I start to do the sort of exposition that Orson Scott Card is doing, I feel like I'm violating 'show, don't tell' in a fairly monumental way. My aim in writing dialog like this was to show only the surface of events, like a film or play, and have everything else lie in the subtext, only occasionally boiling over into the visible world. But I don't know if doing this is intrinsically bad writing or whether I'm just too poo poo to execute it properly. Opinions? Purple Prince fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Jul 3, 2013 |
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Jul 3, 2013 23:45
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Purple Prince posted:Not to make excuses, but whenever I start to do the sort of exposition that Orson Scott Card is doing, I feel like I'm violating 'show, don't tell' in a fairly monumental way. You are. It does. But...honestly? gently caress it. No, really; who cares? The blind repetition of "Show, don't tell!!!" is the piece of advice that did, by far, the most damage to my early writing. In fact, I'd go as far as to suggest that one of the most obvious 'tells' of amateur writing is this exact thing--aka when a writer doesn't feel comfortable telling us anything and instead, as she was taught to do, insists on all dialogue and action including a metric poo poo ton of exposition and banal movements that could've been accomplished with one neat, tidy paragraph of prose. The rule of "Show, don't tell" was created because, like all writing rules, some people don't know how to do anything in moderation. I find that some parts of it are nearly always relevant and true, while others are much more complicated. For instance: it's true you wouldn't want to say "I was cold" as it would obviously be better to say "I began to shiver." (a very basic example, but you get the drift) Here's the most simple way I can put it: 'show, don't tell', is just a guideline to be used to varying degree as you deem appropriate. In my own work, for example, I 'tell' when the POV is more distant and detached, when the action is of lesser consequence to the plot or i just want the words on the page to go by more quickly. And I 'show' when I'm very, very close in POV and there's a powerful or emotional or violent scene that demands the reader's close attention. AKA there's no reason to show any of the following: "I pressed the gas pedal after putting the car into 1st gear. The car began to move forwards down Hanover Street. I pressed the brake as I neared the stop sign at the end of Hanover Street. Soon I would be near Chestnut Street. I began to get a little bit hungry. I turned the wheel to the left onto Chestnut Street." when you could just say: "I drove to my girlfriend's house on Chestnut Street." If you find that your writing is too unwieldy or just seems to be stuffed full of a lot of crap, this could very well be the culprit. I know that certainly was the case for me.
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Jul 4, 2013 00:41
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In Orson Scott Card's example,the biggest issue in the first example is that the characters are telling each other stuff for the reader's benefit, which instantly makes it sound unnatural to the reader because we know people don't talk about that. You can use dialog to advance the plot, I think, but not if it's as ham-fisted as that example. People in stories are ostensibly "real" people, in that they don't know that their lives are a plot (unless they do I guess). So they wouldn't talk like they know that there's a plot. If pushed into a very tight and uncomfortable corner by scary people, I would say that I try to rotate between dialog, action, and exposition as often as fluidity and plot allow. There's no way to tell you how to create a nice rhythm of those three elements. Though I will say, if I write a full page that seems to be mostly dialog, I definitely go back and make sure my characters aren't repeating themselves or prattling on about things that no one cares about. If I have to drop a bunch of exposition somewhere, I try to do it in one of two ways: 1) When I need some amount of time to pass in between action/dialog sequences. If I'm writing in first person, the exposition will usually come in the form of the character reflecting on something they already know. If it's 3rd person, I guess it's more the narrator informing the reader of things that at least one character knows. I almost never write exposition about things the characters don't know, unless I'm writing 3rd person omniscient for some reason. Oooor 2)As summarized dialog. This is mainly in situations where one character is explaining a bunch of stuff to another character. Sometimes telling vs showing can happen in dialog too; slipping back into the narrative voice when a character would otherwise be yammering your reader's mental ear off frees you up to be a little more creative in terms of voice and style. You aren't restricted to that character's way of talking. Of course dropping a paragraph or so of exposition is good too, sometimes it's a much needed step away from whatever is going on in the scene, so you can move on to other things. IDK if anyone is like me, but I tend to get "stuck" in a scene, and have trouble moving my characters along. As for your sample--Work on making your dialog work harder. Also, I see that you seem to be doing period writing but your dudes all have kinda the same voice. It could be that it's such a short scene, but they need more color. Not knowing all that much about the characters in general, it's hard to say how to characterize them better. But I will say that as you write dialog, you should constantly have that character's motivations and state of mind in the front of your brain. They are characters in that they do and say exactly what you make them do and say, no more, no less. They aren't characters in the sense that, within the world of their story, they would be real people with real backgrounds that influence everything they do and say.
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Jul 4, 2013 01:14
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The first rule of any form of art is that you can break any of the other rules if your way of doing things is better. There are books and plays and movies that are nothing but people sitting around talking to each other and they are amazing on the power of their dialogue alone. I could read anything by Nabokov even if he was writing IKEA couch assembly manuals; his command over the language triumphs over all else. Granted, I have nowhere near that ability so my first book is just non-stop dudes fighting, but I can still strive to improve myself in every fashion possible. Learn the rules until I get good enough to break them.
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Jul 4, 2013 01:54
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Symptomless Coma posted:Do not put everything in, just your A and B stories. Yeah, I'm trying to keep it as lean as I can, but it feels really dull and soulless. I've read that you should include the big emotional moments, but mine seem really flat without being able to give them much context. Selling a book is harder than writing one  Everybody already gave you a lot of good advice, but I'll second Chillmatic and recommend you not do anything just because you've been told you should. Do whatever you think your story needs you to do to be most effective.
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Jul 4, 2013 05:06
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I wanted to jump back in -- a few weeks ago Chillmatic told me to drop everything and go get a couple of specific books on writing. I responded saying I needed to finish the ones I already had first. It kind of got heated. He called me a hideous ugly little man with a tiny penis and I told him Jesus loves him no matter who he is. Or something like that. However, to prove I was smarter than him, I bought one of the books he suggested:  I've read so many books on writing. Well, I've read the first three chapters of so many books on writing. This is the third one I've read all the way through and can't stress enough how good it is. So I want to thank Chillmatic for the book suggestion. If you commute to work - GET THE AUDIOBOOK. It's 50 chapters, each chapter covers a tool, (chapter 13 covers Chillmatic because he's a tool. Get it?) The author narrates it and it's like having a front seat in a class.
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Jul 4, 2013 13:43
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magnificent7 posted:
I was just about to post this! Except I was going to put "some guy", and not actually dig back through the thread, so thanks. It's a really fantastic book, tremendous value in every rule. I'm up to #20 now, and it's taking all my self-control to pace myself and reflect on each one rather than blazing through, because each one feels like a genuine revelation. They take every level from the thematic to the technical, and the illustrative examples they use are from a mind-boggling variety of sources; speeches to novels to headlines to idioms. And goddamn, I have the book but I'd love to hear it read. Buying. That said, for anyone who is getting audio I'd recommend getting a printed copy too. It really helps with some of the rules to look at things like word placement and para length.
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Jul 4, 2013 14:21
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No rule should be followed over a cliff. Writing isn't engineering: there are no hard and fast rules, just a bunch of good guidelines. Knowing when to follow them and when to ignore them is a pretty important skill for writers to develop.
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Jul 4, 2013 16:03
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I'm on #20 of that book as well, though I'm going too slow to the point where I probably need to re-read the first twenty again. I've been actively using a lot of those "tools" though, especially the first few.
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Jul 4, 2013 16:09
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:No rule should be followed over a cliff. Writing isn't engineering: there are no hard and fast rules, just a bunch of good guidelines. Knowing when to follow them and when to ignore them is a pretty important skill for writers to develop. Edit: I'm being totally irrelevant, whoops. Symptomless Coma fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 4, 2013 16:57
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Do the people doing this Sanderson lecture want to form a writing group rather than risk random people? I'd prefer to have a group with people I know from Thunderdome who have proven themselves as good at giving critique (everyone I know of who is participating falls into this category). I can't catch anyone in IRC so I'm asking here. I think it would be cool to try to do some feedback things over Skype, but the timezones and work schedules would likely make it impossible. Maybe just use google docs? Let me know if anyone is interested and we can try to organize it. http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/extra/2013-summer-class/
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Jul 6, 2013 19:17
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Yea I'm down. I'm doing a collaboration with my soon-to-be wife and love the idea of critiquing decent stories instead of the rehashed crap I'm sure will be everywhere.
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Jul 6, 2013 20:21
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systran posted:Do the people doing this Sanderson lecture want to form a writing group rather than risk random people? I'd prefer to have a group with people I know from Thunderdome who have proven themselves as good at giving critique (everyone I know of who is participating falls into this category). Yes, this would be sweet. I am pretty unimpressed with the submissions/critique part of the Write About Dragons website. Maybe we can have the whole group sharing google docs and smaller groups for skyping, based on time zones?
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Jul 8, 2013 19:49
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Okay as of now these are the people who have said they are interested: -systran -Crabrock -Crabrock's wife -Chexoid -Dr. Kloctopussy So basically we have not very many people. Kaishai said she is leaning toward "no," but it would be great if we could guilt her into it. I know Muffin is probably doing the Sanderson thing but I don't know if he wants in or not. I think a googledoc is good and then we can try to organize Skype once we get going. I will try to set up deadlines when I'm home from work later tonight. If you want in, sign up: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai2bkoEcAn5ZdFExUTdXMmVsdWhKdVAxWDMxZlB3cVE#gid=0 angel opportunity fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Jul 8, 2013 |
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Jul 8, 2013 20:00
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I'd be happy to critique as well, though I only have a few short stories of my own (well, verging more on novellas or novelettes) to offer. Due to work constraints I won't be able to follow the Write About Dragons class format, but I'm always willing to harness outside pressure when it comes making myself more productive. I'm familiar with critiquing both one-shots and sections of larger works through email and in person.
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Jul 8, 2013 22:03
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systran posted:Okay as of now these are the people who have said they are interested: I think I could afford to step it up a notch. In.
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Jul 9, 2013 01:12
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Sanderson has the best work ethic I've ever seen and I could learn a lot from him. I'm in.
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Jul 9, 2013 01:43
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Last post about the Sanderson thing in this thread: If you add yourself to the spreadsheet I will add you to the google group which has more information. If you're interested just add yourself to the spreadsheet and don't post anymore in this thread.
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Jul 9, 2013 03:17
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| # ? May 9, 2024 19:15 |
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I come from a background of (text-based) RPGs, so the idea of brain vs. brawn has kind of stuck with me. As in, if I have a super smart character, would it too much to make the character a fighter as well? This seemed to be especially applicable to female characters out of the desire to not make them Mary Sues. Is there a character in a well-known work that could be deemed brainy and physically capable? She doesn't have to be a weapons guru or a weekend ninja of some sort; in fact, that would probably make things less believable. Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games could certainly be labelled a fighter who's smart, but my intended focus is leaning more towards the brainy side of things. How much fighting ability could someone who is only taught a few things (by someone who is very experienced) have if she borders on genius-level IQ? Are there any examples of female characters in classical or popular fiction that illustrates this? I would appreciate any tips on how to portray this adequately in writing.
Panda So Panda fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Jul 20, 2013 |
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Jul 20, 2013 02:22
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