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My idea does come from a place of passion but I won't lie and say that I haven't seen a marketing angle for this project: "Preteen and teen girls like YA fantasy novels. Preteen and teen girls like anime. What if there was a YA fantasy novel that was anime-esque?" So I'm not denying that there isn't going to be at least a little anime in this, I just don't want to go full: quote:Name-kun left her house with a slice of toasted loaf between her teeth, due to her hands being full of daikatana and wakizashi, and a bo-staff strapped across her back. ...that. And there's some other influences, Journey to the West is a pretty solid one as well. I have an Appeal I'm going for, but I don't want to alienate other audiences with too many Gratuitous Weeb Words like "doki-doki" and "kokoro" and so on and so forth.
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Nov 5, 2021 21:56
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there are like a million ya novels that are basically just anime with strong internal monologues and through a western cultural lens already im pretty sure
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Nov 5, 2021 23:19
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Yeah your idea sounds perfectly fine and doable, but if you're looking at the specific marketing angle of "this is like anime, like the teens watch", how much of the current crop of YA books and anime have you gone through? It's a good idea if you're writing with an eye for being published to read the stuff that's currently out there in that market. More broadly I think you're going to be fine? You're worrying about your book coming off as "too weeby" so you've already got some level of self-awareness, and that's probably going to keep you from the most stereotypical stuff. And if you don't want it to feel like an anime then don't....write it...like that? There's not really a better answer I can give on a broad strokes level. Until there's some actual text to talk about I don't know that you'll get better advice than "if you don't want it that way don't do it that way".
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Nov 6, 2021 01:23
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Alrighty, thanks for that. I might make a thread and start posting sections in a few days or so, I'll let you know about it then.
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Nov 6, 2021 01:54
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This is my advice for anyone who wants to write in a particular genre for the first time: read some works in the genre you want to write in first. Learn who the big names are, the tropes and conventions, so you can market yourself (readers like books that are "perfect for fans of" other works and authors, and so publishers like them too) and make sure you're not reinventing the wheel. Luckily, Asian YA has been having A Moment lately, so I don't think you'll have a lot of trouble finding examples. On the other hand, because there's so much already out there, you may have trouble standing out unless you can put a unique spin on the genre. Also, are you Asian? Because if not, writing Asian settings is a risky move because you may get criticized for spreading hurtful stereotypes and appropriating Asian culture. The less deep knowledge and understanding you have of the culture, the greater the chance you'll accidentally reproduce harmful tropes. If you still want to go through with it, I suggest doing lots of research into Japanese culture at the very least; ideally you'll have paid Japanese sensitivity readers looking over the manuscript before final publication. Of course, if you are Asian, you can disregard this whole paragraph!
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Nov 6, 2021 02:17
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Oh, I already am moderately aware of YA fantasy, I was quite the Percy Jackson fan back in the day, and I read Deltora Quest as I mentioned. I am white, but I am staying aware of stereotypes. The whole 'don't say "'Samurai' or 'Ninja' or 'Shogun'" was part of trying to avoid the obvious national stereotypes, and I'm avoiding the "Japanese people are nerds" part by just... having a cast of characters with variable intelligence, but I realize I have blind spots and I'll definitely try and seek out some people who can help me with this.
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Nov 6, 2021 02:44
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It would also help to just imagine what a character lives like. What would their home look like, what would they do when they wake up, what their average day is spent doing, etc. If they're a commoner addressing a person of higher status, how would they talk to that person if there were no honorifics? Don't be afraid to write test scenes that won't necessarily make it into a finished novel. A lot of world-building happens where the reader can't see.
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Nov 7, 2021 03:06
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I would also like to provide Relatable Writing Memes:
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Nov 7, 2021 04:58
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Here's my thread. I'll try to start assisting with critiques and questions where I can to get that Cred that will get people to critique me. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3984147
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Nov 7, 2021 06:54
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Junpei posted:I would also like to provide Relatable Writing Memes: The third one's dialogue sounds like every conversation I've heard in media for the past 6 years.
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Nov 8, 2021 18:55
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D34THROW posted:Anyone ever successfully written a short story (or short story series) or novel (or novel series) using an RPG system to determine the flow of things? Basically playing, say GURPS, against yourself. I'm thinking of doing so because I've tried collaborative writing before and I really like the unpredictability of it, so I'm thinking RPGs as a guide might be a way to incorporate that into my writing proper. Junpei posted:My idea does come from a place of passion but I won't lie and say that I haven't seen a marketing angle for this project: SurreptitiousMuffin fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Nov 16, 2021 |
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Nov 16, 2021 22:41
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Thanks. I'll definitely keep that name in mind. Also, here's something #relatable. 
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Nov 17, 2021 00:37
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Junpei posted:Thanks. I'll definitely keep that name in mind. This is exactly me but applied to whole books and minus the rough draft step.
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Nov 17, 2021 00:46
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Fate Accomplice posted:This is exactly me but applied to whole books and minus the rough draft step. This would be me except add another orthogonal line for how well the spin off satire novel is doing in comparison.
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Nov 17, 2021 02:55
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:My general rule with stuff like anime has been like, it's cool that it influences you but I want to see it's not the only thing that influences you. There's definitely an angle there, "this is for people who love anime but I also know my poo poo c.f. prose fiction and I'm bridging the gap between two things I love while smartly getting rid of the poo poo that doesn't work." This is why I think Will Wight is doing so well as a self-published author with Cradle. You can see the wuxia/xianxia influences very clearly, but he's melded it with his other influences and produced something that is brilliantly written. Junpei posted:Also, here's something #relatable. Absolutely me, and you can see me flail around through this chart in real time if you jump into my writing livestreams.
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Nov 17, 2021 06:21
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The worst thing about querying is the wait.
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Nov 17, 2021 09:42
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I can honestly say that the wait was the easiest part for me. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to alter the outcome once that query leaves your hands. Relax and vibe: whatever’s gonna happen next is out of your control. Forget the query entirely. Become a sacred void
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Nov 17, 2021 16:35
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Nov 17, 2021 18:17
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Oof, I feel attacked.
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Nov 17, 2021 19:33
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Those are really relatable. I used to think I constantly needed to revise and perfect my short stories, and then I would remember that people would pack convention rooms for old bad webcomic creators, so gently caress it, here's a rushed short story about the Red Army circa 1955 encountering aliens. I have to admit I also started going to more hugbox-y writing communities, which I know isn't always the best idea, but it was nice to just occasionally get a "hey! I read it! I was entertained!" response instead of immediate, soul-crushing (though often helpful) nitpicking from every reader. It mainly just motivated to put myself out there more. I now prefer to do feedback for story swapping in voice channels. The type of exchanges that go: "Hey, is this part really necessary?" "Oh, it's a foreshadowing or theming moment that comes up here, here, and here in the story." "Ok, tight, I'll keep that in mind." Are way easier to deal with as a verbal conversation rather than as a series of forum posts that take place over several days.
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Nov 18, 2021 04:24
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Writing LitRPG with GURPS...no weather tables. So what am I doing? Looking at overall weather in Utah at seasonal sample points to create my own weather tables. I swear, worldbuilding is just as much fun if not more than writing itself. I wrote like 70k words of worldbuilding once without even getting to the actual story. EDIT: Or I could just go gently caress it and actually have a date in my head for the story and sample historical data for that date. WeatherSpark seems to have the data I'm after, more or less. I just need a starting point, my readers don't need the exact loving weather station data. sebmojo posted:Not with an attitude like that they don't My geeky rear end does  That could be another Google sheet!Honestly, I keep track of stuff myself that, if I started a Patreon, would be behind the paywall - currency weight calculators, an encounter log, creatures converted to GURPS from D&D and then converted to the postapoc world, etc. The farthest the actual website will get is the map, if someone happened to click on the "End of Chapter X" location mark and see that it has a date attached to it. D34THROW fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Nov 18, 2021 |
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Nov 18, 2021 16:41
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D34THROW posted:, my readers don't need the exact loving weather station data. Not with an attitude like that they don't
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Nov 18, 2021 19:08
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Nov 18, 2021 22:29
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The next day: “oh no, not like that” One day I’ll beat my brain
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Nov 18, 2021 23:03
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Thunderdome 2022: Write Something, Stupid
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Nov 19, 2021 03:29
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Nov 19, 2021 11:14
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sebmojo posted:Not with an attitude like that they don't drat you. I've spent the better part of this morning kludging together two new sheets - one that creates random weather data based on local averages (all manually input, I'm not that good at scraping and whatnot) from here - and another that will take that data and put it in a more user-friendly format. General Battuta posted:Just write the drat book I have enough posts queued to get me into 2022, thank you very much
D34THROW fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Nov 19, 2021 |
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Nov 19, 2021 17:01
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Just write the drat book e: oh it’s a litrpg
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Nov 19, 2021 17:50
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I am painfully plowing through my WIP, only 20k/100k words completed this year despite writing a 40,000-word outline, and even I recognize that getting too hung up on worldbuilding and minutiae will stop you from actually getting the thing written.
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Nov 19, 2021 17:52
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change my name posted:40,000-word outline, ...
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Nov 19, 2021 19:31
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That includes worldbuilding stuff in the notes on each chapter and I'm not even really sticking to it too tightly in this draft except as a loose guide. That was just to get my preliminary thoughts down and winnow out the stuff that doesn't work storywise.
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Nov 19, 2021 19:50
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Honestly I wish I had some of the worldbuilder’s disease. When someone asks to see my outline it’s just a mishmash of random notes, where “include a skeleton” is equally ranked with “these two countries have a trade agreement” or “character A tries to kill character B.” People who do deep dives on stuff like fantasy politics and economies, what’s your secret? How do you start researching a topic you’ve decided to include? I need to do some amount of this to make my world feel real but I don’t even know where to start.
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Nov 19, 2021 20:06
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The secret is that you can deep dive as much as you want in your notes but unless it comes into play or your protagonist will see it (ie, will it ever actually come up in the book?), then you don't actually need to build out 2000 years of history beyond sketches or a basic timeline IMO. Obviously historical events influence current-day societies, religion, relationships between countries, etc, but don't kill yourself with it. It's all "forest for the trees" stuff, your characters should be the focus, not trade agreements.
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Nov 19, 2021 20:19
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change my name posted:The secret is that you can deep dive as much as you want in your notes but unless it comes into play or your protagonist will see it (ie, will it ever actually come up in the book?), then you don't actually need to build out 2000 years of history beyond sketches or a basic timeline IMO. Obviously historical events influence current-day societies, religion, relationships between countries, etc, but don't kill yourself with it. It's all "forest for the trees" stuff, your characters should be the focus, not trade agreements. Yep. See, thread title. It it's fun writing that stuff for you then fill your boots, but its not Writing Your Bok
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Nov 19, 2021 20:31
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Yeah I have the opposite problem. But in starting to write it out just now (there was a big war in the past 100-200 years, the divisions still need to be healed between multiple countries) I think I realized that I’m basically writing the establishment of the fantasy EU, so maybe the answer is just to research that. Beyond a rough timeframe and who fought who, I don’t even have solid reasons established for why the war happened—I kind of need something for characters to feel some kind of way about that’s deeper than “we hate country x for unspecified reasons” you know? This backing is really just there to support the characters’ journeys of learning to see things from other perspectives. That’s the part that interests me. But the world needs to support that journey in a way readers can connect with, I can’t entirely handwave the reasons there’s conflict to begin with.
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Nov 19, 2021 20:58
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kaom posted:Yeah I have the opposite problem. But in starting to write it out just now (there was a big war in the past 100-200 years, the divisions still need to be healed between multiple countries) I think I realized that I’m basically writing the establishment of the fantasy EU, so maybe the answer is just to research that. Beyond a rough timeframe and who fought who, I don’t even have solid reasons established for why the war happened—I kind of need something for characters to feel some kind of way about that’s deeper than “we hate country x for unspecified reasons” you know? I also have a fantasy EU in my WIP, and if you can't settle on a cause for the big war, why not have every country give their own irreconilable reasons for why it happened? Fantasy Germany considered it a war of self-defense as other countries had been pushing into their borders for too long, fantasy France thinks it was started over an economic dispute, etc. That could also provide a good shorthand into the national attitudes of each.
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Nov 19, 2021 21:02
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change my name posted:The secret is that you can deep dive as much as you want in your notes but unless it comes into play or your protagonist will see it (ie, will it ever actually come up in the book?), then you don't actually need to build out 2000 years of history beyond sketches or a basic timeline IMO. Obviously historical events influence current-day societies, religion, relationships between countries, etc, but don't kill yourself with it. It's all "forest for the trees" stuff, your characters should be the focus, not trade agreements. I’ve spent the entire pandemic year inventing a conlang based on ancient Egyptian, and also actually learning ancient Egyptian… and some current Egyptian Arabic as well, and once I found myself getting lost in things like number systems and words for every aspect of alien biology and blah blah blah I was like, ok when am I ever gonna use all this? So I’m back to working on my series, and more new words and grammar gets worked out when I actually need the words than when I’m deep-diving into minutia I’ll never ever need. I don’t regret the time I put into the conlang or learning more about grammar and linguistics and actual human languages, and it’s made a great base for coming up with a more non-anglo future world. As well as all the time I spent on alien biologies, future techs and histories and basic details about each setting. But drat it’s made my many novels each take forever to write. And poo poo I’ve come up with when I actually need it ends up dramatically improving any earlier worldbuilding I did.
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Nov 20, 2021 01:39
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Using GURPS for a LitRPG, boss mook just regained his composure after being shot in the leg, sighted in on one of my MC's heads just peeking over cover, and sent a lead projectile of death that way... ...and in a system where lower is better, he crits and is doing 7d6 damage plus whatever effects of a head wound. With that luck her head would pop like a melon. Guess it's time to break out the deus ex machina again. D34THROW fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Nov 21, 2021 |
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Nov 20, 2021 22:44
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Are we liveblogging our work now? I've got several thousand words of "UUuugGHUGHGUhGH" and "WHY NO WORD GOOD PLOT THINK WRONG CONCENTRATE" to paste in this thread each week
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Nov 21, 2021 05:05
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D34THROW posted:Using GURPS for a LitRPG, boss mook just regained his composure after being shot in the leg, sighted in on one of my MC's heads just peeking over cover, and sent a lead projectile of death that way... Post your own thread for this kind of thing, I think
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Nov 21, 2021 07:43
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