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my nano is an epic fantasy novel (it doesnt have elves or orcs at least) my first book was cyberpunk clearly i just need to write 5 more books until im original
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Nov 12, 2014 22:07
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| # ? May 14, 2024 05:58 |
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Write 5 then put them all mashed together
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Nov 12, 2014 22:17
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Bobby Deluxe posted:In its current form this is bad advice though, because the reader needs to arrive at the revelation that they could have seen it coming. Really great revelations come with a mountain of foreshadowing that clicks into place with the final piece of info. Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick is magnificently good at this kind of story telling. He never cheats, but plays with reader expectations like he's dangling a catnip mouse for a kitten.
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Nov 12, 2014 22:35
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God, there's a flashback. I haven't read OoTS in years. It just strikes me as something that has to be done just right. Too much signposting and it's not a surprise. Not enough, and it looks like a last minute rear end-pull. My favourites are always the ones that make you want to read/watch the whole thing again so you can look out for the things that seemed unimportant the first time round.
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Nov 13, 2014 02:00
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If you ever get the chance, read a story thats in past perfect perfect. It's somebody in the past telling a story about another person telling a story in the past. It's quite thrilling and really not as boring as it sounds. The beauty of it is as you start to peel back the layers of the tenses, and you slowly start working your way until the present, and then boom, there it is, all laid out like a loving masterpiece. Really breathtaking.
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Nov 13, 2014 03:15
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crabrock posted:If you ever get the chance, read a story thats in past perfect perfect. It's somebody in the past telling a story about another person telling a story in the past. It's quite thrilling and really not as boring as it sounds. The beauty of it is as you start to peel back the layers of the tenses, and you slowly start working your way until the present, and then boom, there it is, all laid out like a loving masterpiece. Really breathtaking. "Harry," he had said, "have you had breakfast?" "No," Harry had said, "I haven't had breakfast."
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Nov 13, 2014 04:22
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crabrock posted:It's somebody in the past telling a story about another person telling a story in the past. So it's The Orphan's Tales?
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Nov 13, 2014 04:28
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:Muffin had been reading many stories that had been written in the past perfect and past perfect continuous. He had looked up from his newspaper. What had had he had for breakfast? He hadn't been able to remember. Oh wait, he had had ham, then he had had haddock, then he had had hazelnut spread on toast. He had turned to Harry, his friend. That's actually super lyrical, love it.
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Nov 15, 2014 06:00
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Even when muffin is trying to write bad, it's still good
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Nov 15, 2014 23:58
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If submitting a story written for Thunderdome to a couple of mags, would its floating around on this forum here be a problem? For anyone who's published Dome stories before - did you edit the story out of your original post, or is that bad Thunderdome etiquette, or does no mag give a poo poo about a writing thread on an internet forum? I know the stories are archived on writeocracy, but that requires a login to view, at least.
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Nov 18, 2014 05:27
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Morning Bell posted:If submitting a story written for Thunderdome to a couple of mags, would its floating around on this forum here be a problem? For anyone who's published Dome stories before - did you edit the story out of your original post, or is that bad Thunderdome etiquette, or does no mag give a poo poo about a writing thread on an internet forum? I know the stories are archived on writeocracy, but that requires a login to view, at least. Many publications specifically say that anything on the web, no matter how trivial, even your blog with zero followers, disqualifies you. Read their submission guidelines closely and always err on the side of caution.
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Nov 18, 2014 05:29
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Morning Bell posted:If submitting a story written for Thunderdome to a couple of mags, would its floating around on this forum here be a problem? For anyone who's published Dome stories before - did you edit the story out of your original post, or is that bad Thunderdome etiquette, or does no mag give a poo poo about a writing thread on an internet forum? I know the stories are archived on writeocracy, but that requires a login to view, at least. Edit your post out of the thread. You can leave a link to the archive if you like. I think there's also a way to hide stories on the archive too, though I don't think that would be necessary.
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Nov 18, 2014 05:32
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The archive is unsearchable. Like SH said, just edit it out. It's perfectly fine as far as the dome is concerned.
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Nov 18, 2014 13:15
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I've heard the Ira Glass too many times to count, but every time I try to sit down to flesh out more than a few thousand words I run out of steam completely; and it seems to be a frequently at the point where I think about overall story direction beyond sketching out a few scenes. Pacing, maybe? It feels as soon as an overarching story arc appears then I logically proceed towards it and I'm not telling the story I want, or that the direction I'm diverting into feels pointless. tldr - I'm happy to push through as the quote goes, but I don't know HOW
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Nov 18, 2014 21:36
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Southern Heel posted:I've heard the Ira Glass too many times to count, but every time I try to sit down to flesh out more than a few thousand words I run out of steam completely; and it seems to be a frequently at the point where I think about overall story direction beyond sketching out a few scenes. Pacing, maybe? It feels as soon as an overarching story arc appears then I logically proceed towards it and I'm not telling the story I want, or that the direction I'm diverting into feels pointless. Take it scene by scene. Don't think about the big picture. You can fix anything. You can't fix nothing. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Make a choice and if it's the wrong one, that's okay. Fix it later.
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Nov 18, 2014 21:57
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blue squares posted:Take it scene by scene. Don't think about the big picture. You can fix anything. You can't fix nothing. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Make a choice and if it's the wrong one, that's okay. Fix it later. Might be a bit premature for you to chime in that hard, champ. 
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Nov 19, 2014 21:37
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Sitting Here posted:Might be a bit premature for you to chime in that hard, champ. Quit following me around SA. Also you won that HM on name recognition alone. Yeah, I said it. just kidding it was a very well-written story
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Nov 19, 2014 22:00
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blue squares posted:Quit following me around SA. Why you!! no one was more surprised about that HM than me though. I've been farting around in a rut for months. I'm writing, but it's gross and bad and stupid writing. But yeah I love the goofy "crits" over in WAYWT and thought it was amusing that everyone smugly informed you that you just weren't ready to have an opinion.
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Nov 19, 2014 22:43
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Thank you so much for the crit on last week's entry, Jitzu. That's helpful and I agree with most of what you wrote. I actually hadn't thought about Rose specifically presenting as a ghost but I really like that initial interpretation and will probably try to accentuate that in future revisions. I was kind of struggling to get a little bit more of Rose in there but it's kind of a balancing act. I think the story rests on it being somewhat vague and there being a lot of things left unsaid, but at the moment the characterization is a little bland and I think her last line comes off a little to glib because of it. I was running up against the word count but that's no excuse. Is there anything specifically you'd like to know about her after reading it?
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Nov 20, 2014 01:22
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blue squares posted:Quit following me around SA. bq please stop it. a thing that people always moan about at your stage of "development" is how people with actual skill aren't following the rules you've been told. that's because only people without an understanding of the human condition and the ability to interweave it into a cohesive plot structure (aka conflict) need follow them. you need to follow them. spend some time thinking about conflict as a whole -- tension, pacing, wearing stupid white shoes and tucking patchwork jeans from the 80s underneath the tongues -- and try again later.
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Nov 20, 2014 01:47
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Baby Babbeh posted:Thank you so much for the crit on last week's entry, Jitzu....Is there anything specifically you'd like to know about [Rose] after reading it? I do have some ideas about this, but before I get into all that, I just want to quote SH's quip and apply it to myself. Sitting Here posted:Might be a bit premature for you to chime in that hard, champ. In giving crits, I'm just spouting my opinions off. I don't want to make it seem like I'm pretending to be qualified to give writing advice. In many ways, I'm not. I'm new at this. In fact your story, Baby Babbeh, is as good or better than all of my TD entries. That said, I do have an opinion: You're completely right that being subtle is important to the story. Nobody wants you to spell out the blow-by-blow details of this couple's divorce. All I was looking for was enough of a hint about what went wrong between them that I could make an educated guess. That would help give a little more context to their relationship, and would help to make their "reunion" more dramatic. You shouldn't have these characters say everything that's been left unsaid. But drop a subtle hint or two. As far as Rose's characterization, I agree that it could be a touch more detailed. For me, her last line comes off as concern for their daughter, as in "don't tell her anything about this; let's not get her hopes up about us getting back together." Not too glib, IMO. Maybe try killing two birds with one stone. If you give some subtle hint(s) about why these two people aren't compatible, it might tell the reader a little something about Rose. Your story does imply that she broke things off, after all.
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Nov 20, 2014 02:04
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Jitzu they are just ragging on blue squares a bit, nobody will ever be upset about anyone giving a crit. You are as "qualified" to give your opinion as anybody else. You can learn from good writers, bad writers, and people that have never put pen to paper in their lives. I forget who, but someone in this thread mentioned a long time ago that one of the most helpful pieces of feedback they got was "this is when I stopped reading," because it lets you know that there's a disconnect between the writing and the audience. Doesn't matter if they don't know what a metaphor is, it's still a potential springboard when you are editing.
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Nov 20, 2014 02:25
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Ugh, I can't get into the creative writing class at my uni because a portion of it is reserved for first year students and it's a fifteen person class. I feel like I hit a wall with my writing and was hoping to get into this class so that I can improve, since I've pretty much been writing in a void with only myself as a reader. Oh well. Maybe I should look into this Thunderdome thing people keep talking about, but I'm not sure if I'm good enough for that just yet.
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Nov 20, 2014 19:52
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Akarshi posted:Maybe I should look into this Thunderdome thing people keep talking about, but I'm not sure if I'm good enough for that just yet. Do it anyway. Also join meetups and find writers you like. If you post what you think is your best story on a thread on here, I'll read it for you. blue squares fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 19:57
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Most people in thunderdone aren't good and you get free crits so I would enter this week and just do it
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Nov 20, 2014 19:59
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Creative writing classes are terrible. My advice is to not waste the money.
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Nov 20, 2014 20:00
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There's no such thing as 'good enough' for Thunderdome as long as you're willing to wear a goofy avatar for a bit if it doesn't work out, and keep plugging away. You still have a baby avatar so why not?
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Nov 20, 2014 20:03
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blue squares posted:Do it anyway. Also join meetups and find writers you like. If you post what you think is your best story on a thread on here, I'll read it for you. Whoa, thanks for the generous offer! My stories are all on the long side though, so if I post it here I guess I should cut out a paragraph of it or something? Peel posted:There's no such thing as 'good enough' for Thunderdome as long as you're willing to wear a goofy avatar for a bit if it doesn't work out, and keep plugging away. You still have a baby avatar so why not?
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Nov 20, 2014 20:34
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Akarshi posted:Whoa, thanks for the generous offer! My stories are all on the long side though, so if I post it here I guess I should cut out a paragraph of it or something? Put it in it's own thread. And yeah something around 5,000 words max Edit: 5k isn't a rule, just an arbitrary number I wrote. I probably wouldn't want to read much more--unless you're awesome. blue squares fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Nov 20, 2014 |
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Nov 20, 2014 20:42
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Akarshi posted:Whoa, thanks for the generous offer! My stories are all on the long side though, so if I post it here I guess I should cut out a paragraph of it or something? If it's less than 1000k, post it in the Flash Fiction Thread. I'm guessing though, since you said they're on the long side, that they don't apply. In that case, just post a new thread in CC for it.
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Nov 20, 2014 20:44
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Yeah, don't worry about it. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me feedback. I don't think the value of a crit is necessarily a better writer putting his arm around my shoulder, saying 'let me help you there, kid," and then laying out a ten point plan for exactly how to fix my lovely story. Rather, it's about an honest reaction from a reader that doesn't exist inside my head. Even if it's not something I agree with it's helpful to pull me out of my own rear end long enough to orient myself toward a more objective view of what works and what doesn't in the story. In this case I think your advice is spot on and it will definitely help me when I revise, which I'll probably do after I've given it a few weeks distance. Thanks again. If you'd like a critique on anything you've written I'd be more than happy to return the favor.
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Nov 20, 2014 21:42
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Akarshi posted:is there Thunderdome over Thanksgiving? TD hasn't missed a week in 120 weeks. so yes. i wrote a brawl about sparkly mermen on Christmas last year.
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Nov 20, 2014 23:27
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Welp, here's the link to my story. Thanks in advance! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3683213
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Nov 23, 2014 05:22
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I'm uncertain on a specific use of commas. For example: --He staggered into the room, hair disheveled and smelling of whiskey.-- Is that kosher or just horrible grammar?
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Nov 27, 2014 05:08
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That's fine
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Nov 27, 2014 05:20
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That's an "absolute phrase" and is fine grammatically but does his hair really smell of whiskey, please clarify
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Nov 27, 2014 06:58
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Subway Ninja posted:I'm uncertain on a specific use of commas. For example: yeah, swap the two descriptive phrases: smelling of whiskey and his hair disheveled
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Nov 27, 2014 07:02
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i swear whiskey is a cliche as much as any other thing. just mentioning whiskey makes me roll my eyes in pretty much anything. it's too much a "go-to" for "stoic man with stubble." from now on only little girls should drink whiskey.
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Nov 27, 2014 08:10
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Subway Ninja posted:I'm uncertain on a specific use of commas. For example: If the grammar in a sentence or clause doesn't seem right, rearrange or reword it.
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Nov 27, 2014 09:24
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It's grammatically correct but awkwardly phrased. Continuous forms (verb+ing) are less precise than simple forms. They have a use (to indicate the action is prolonged, ongoing etc) but in sentences where the order of events is important or unclear, it's best to cut them out and see how the sentence reads.
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Nov 27, 2014 10:47
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