steinrokkan posted:

Imagine running into a "story problem" in a series where you can have people randomly eaten by dragons, stepped on by a giant, or have a wizard do it, whatever "it" even is.

You think Tolkien agonized for years about the eagles? No, there are eagles now, gently caress you. Orcs too strong? Ghosts! Gandalf too dead? Welcome Gandalf 2.0

Lemniscate Blue posted:

Tolkien is a terrible example to pick for this because he absolutely agonized for years over drat near every aspect of his stories, and rewrote huge sections multiple times before getting to where he was comfortable submitting them for publishing. Most of his writings he never actually got to that point at all, and his notes and different versions were organized into something vaguely coherent and published posthumously by his son.

mycatscrimes posted:

I imagine when you've set up a world where any outlandish thing can happen, the challenge is less thinking of a way to solve a problem, and more finding the solution that will actually feel satisfying.

steinrokkan posted:

Imagine running into a "story problem" in a series where you can have people randomly eaten by dragons, stepped on by a giant, or have a wizard do it, whatever "it" even is.

Lemniscate Blue posted:

Tolkien is a terrible example to pick for this because he absolutely agonized for years over drat near every aspect of his stories, and rewrote huge sections multiple times before getting to where he was comfortable submitting them for publishing. Most of his writings he never actually got to that point at all, and his notes and different versions were organized into something vaguely coherent and published posthumously by his son.

Riot Carol Danvers posted:

I wish I could find the tweet, but when my friend Lane found this out, she said "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME DAVE STRIDER IS THE BLUEPRINT FOR GOD'S PERFECT LESBIAN?!"

Cythereal posted:

https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1686409836718682112?s=20

Kuros posted:

“Sir, a second Barbie Fabulous Dreamliner Jumbo Jet (tm) has hit the World Trade Center.”

Arsenic Lupin posted:

The original big time gap was before A Dance With Dragons. It was caused by a writing roadblock called the "Meereenese Knot" which you can google if you care that much. Apparently he's still stuck in it; as you say, he's written himself into a corner and can't get out of it.

I suspect it's most like The Last Dangerous Visions, where Harlan Ellison was sure that eventually he'd fix the problem but also couldn't bear to think about it. Many of the authors whose stories Ellison accepted died before publication. Since Ellison's death, another publisher has taken over and says the stories will be out Fall 2024.

George R. R. Martin posted:

The 1978 volume of my own 'New Voices/Campbell Awards' anthology series will probably be published some time in 1985, so I don't think I'm the person to make pronouncements, stern or otherwise, about the lateness of TLDV. I know all too vividly how easily and how badly these things can get out of hand. Still, there's no doubt in my mind that the lengthy delay of TLDV has been a tragedy--a tragedy for readers like myself who have been looking forward to the book, a tragedy for the field that badly needs a shot of the sort of literary adrenaline the previous DV volumes have supplied, a particular tragedy for the writers involved, and especially a tragedy for Harlan himself. I can only hope that, somehow or other, this tragedy will turn out to have a happy ending. Despite everything, you know, I'd still like to read the book, and so would a lot of other people.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

The one modern-world joke that peeved me a lot was "none pizza with left beef". It didn't make any sense in-fiction.

steinrokkan posted:

Nah, he mostly just wrote whatever.

Also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Uz0LMbWpI

Just write the first thing that works and then tell everybody you actually found it very satisfying and thematically resonant / heavy with symbolism.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

The original big time gap was before A Dance With Dragons. It was caused by a writing roadblock called the "Meereenese Knot" which you can google if you care that much. Apparently he's still stuck in it; as you say, he's written himself into a corner and can't get out of it.

I suspect it's most like The Last Dangerous Visions, where Harlan Ellison was sure that eventually he'd fix the problem but also couldn't bear to think about it. Many of the authors whose stories Ellison accepted died before publication. Since Ellison's death, another publisher has taken over and says the stories will be out Fall 2024.

selec posted:

I’m in a discord with some older sci fi authors and these dudes (many of them award winners themselves) seem to hold Tamsyn Muir in a special place of contempt. Not from a politics angle—they’re all generally boring libs—but just from the perspective of craft they are astonished at the work, comparing it to the stuff you find while cleaning under your fridge. I haven’t read any but nothing I’ve read about it from fans or haters makes it sound like it’s For Me. It’s just funny how much ire they have for the product.

PurpleXVI posted:

lmao, that's hilarious. I think she's genuinely gifted author, both on the level of her ideas and on the level of executing some stuff in really interesting ways, writing-wise and presentation-wise.

SimonChris posted:

hawowanlawow posted:

my BIL's baby mama really has passive aggressive vagueposting down to a science

"So thankful that God gives me strength and patience" = "I wanted to talk some poo poo about my husband and kids on Facebook"

the great combination of two of the most potent brain poisons: church and social media

Mokotow posted:

Whats going on here i am old

CharlestheHammer posted:

I represent cig companies while complying about neo libs

Girl you are the neo lib

Read After Burning posted:

A classic:
https://twitter.com/mattxiv/status/1506326400336384003

PurpleXVI posted:

lmao, that's hilarious. I think she's genuinely gifted author, both on the level of her ideas and on the level of executing some stuff in really interesting ways, writing-wise and presentation-wise.

Clerical Terrors posted:

wtf how'd she do that

Deptfordx posted:

Guy Gavriel Kay's head got so deep into Tolkien he had to write the Fionavar Tapestry before he could write anything else.

Read After Burning posted:

A classic:
https://twitter.com/mattxiv/status/1506326400336384003

BioEnchanted posted:

Steven Universe was great for that. The audience figured out many of the twists because of all the foreshadowing in the early episodes and were allowed to just be right, and it helped the storytelling immeasurably because the siller early episodes were given new meaning in retrospect.