Fiction Writing: Advice and Discussion

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Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

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.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2013 01:54

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# ¿ Jun 1, 2024 14:36

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

Sanderson has the best work ethic I've ever seen and I could learn a lot from him. I'm in.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2013 01:43

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

Just write something with a good story and it won't matter if your protagonist is a super amazing wunderkind or a pathetic no-talent moron because it will be enjoyable to read. It's not a D&D campaign, it's a novel/short story, right?

# ¿ Jul 20, 2013 04:36

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

Orson "Exterminate the Gays" Card suggests that writer's block is your brain telling you that you're doing something wrong. Look over what you've already written and try to improve it. If you're staring at a blank page, look at something you finished in the past. Get your mind running.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2013 22:40

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

Stuporstar posted:

Also, Soulcleaver, he's quitting smoking. The source if his writers block is quitting smoking. The solution is taking some time out to quit smoking. For gently caress's sake.

I offered some maybe useful advice from a famous (if morally repugnant) writer? Not seeing the problem here.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2013 05:07

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

Cometa Rossa posted:

I asked this a while ago but never got anything so here it goes again.

I'm writing a novel set in a country whose language I don't speak. Obviously I'll be writing in English - is it better to watch for giveaway idioms and English-isms or just drat it all and hope the reader suspends disbelief?

I wrote a short novel (coincidentally related to your avatar) about an obscure battle in World War II and used barely any idioms or slang with the Japanese or Burmese characters. I did, however, spend a lot of time on Google researching both locations and their cultures to make up for the gaps in my knowledge. I'm no master literary craftsman but I thought that working on making the setting and characters believable was a much better use of my time than coming up with some dialect full of foreigner-speak shibboleths. Just my two cents, I could be way off.

# ¿ Sep 17, 2013 07:21

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

Walamor posted:

http://writeordie.com/#Web+App

This is your new best friend.

This is cool as hell. Thanks for the link.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 13:48

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

lunatikfringe posted:

1. Are there recommendations for/against the use of foul language in character dialogue? Such as it is OK to use occasionally, but too much cheapens the quality of the narrative? Or does its use in certain situations enhance realism? (Many people swear/curse/etc during those "Oh poo poo!" moments)

All of the above. No need to be prudish (unless it fits the particular character or setting) but using the word "gently caress" 835 times in your novel will only make you look like a 12-year-old trying to look tough.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 19:29

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

Sitting Here posted:

If you're a laptop user or have an easy-to-move desktop, sometimes all you need to do is make your writing space different than your casual internetting space.

I thought of getting one of these or something similar since I apparently don't have the willpower to avoid screwing around on the internet when I should be working on my novel. Has anyone here used a portable word processor before?

# ¿ Feb 8, 2014 01:01

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

That looks rad, thank you.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2014 03:28

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

There have been some literal anime action novels (The Vampire Hunter D series is decent pulp fantasy) but take away the cartoon visuals and it's just an action book. Unless you use a lot of anime cliches to make your inspiration clear, what's the point?

# ¿ Feb 22, 2014 16:12

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

R.A. Salvatore writes great action scenes. Unfortunately, his characters are zero-dimensional and the dialogue is always terrible and he's obviously sick of writing Drizzt books, but what are you gonna do? He's the least worst of the D&D brand novelists, at least.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2014 21:10

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

CB_Tube_Knight posted:

Mistborn isn't incredibly written or ground breaking in most ways, but it isn't the typical fantasy story we see paraded out that might as well be another D&D game or Tolkien clone.

Didn't Sanderson say in an interview or podcast sometime that he wanted Mistborn to draw upon the heaps of tired fantasy cliches but do something fascinating with them? Tropes like the chosen one, evil overlord, thieves' guilds, etc.?

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 22:17

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

I've played thousands of video games and I run a gaming review site and I still agree with everything 3Romeo said. Video games are just about the worst source of writing you can find this side of TV Tropes. There are occasional exceptions like Planescape: Torment, but overall it's not a medium worth taking inspiration from if you want to be a good writer.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 07:09

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

3Romeo posted:

edit: gently caress was I seriously beaten on talking about Torment?

It has brilliant, multi-layered writing in a medium that's usually "kill these five thousand dudes with a machine gun". Of course it's gonna come up. :shrug:

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 07:33

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

The most recent Tolkien ripoff I can think of is Eragon. A professional publisher probably gets a dozen similarly uncreative submissions in a day.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 19:51

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

3Romeo posted:

In re: Spec Ops--I've never played it, but from the description in that link, it sounds like an interesting premise: a game (Spec Ops) based on the themes of a movie (Apocalypse Now) based on the themes of a book (Heart of Darkness). I'd be interested to see how those themes change between the different mediums. That is, how does the audience respond to being complicit in the horror (the game) compared to being a passive observer (the movie) or being privy to the narrator's/Marlow's inner thoughts (the book)? If the game can pull those themes off well, could a player who's never read the book come to the same conclusions about violence and power that Marlow did?

Spec Ops: The Line is designed to make the player feel like a loving war criminal and it does so quite well. The interactive element (you are actually participating in these virtual atrocities) does add a personal twinge of regret to the mixture that you don't have with Apocalypse Now or Heart of Darkness, but overall it's not half as powerful as either of those other works. Still an excellent experiment with the writing of the medium, though, much like the BioShock example mentioned earlier.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 20:58

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

CB_Tube_Knight posted:

Does anyone have a favorite portrayal of Lucifer. Medium doesn't matter. And I have the comics in my Kindle already so I'm going to look over those.

The comics are indeed well done but anyone who answers with anything but Dante's Inferno is a scrub.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2014 05:48

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

DivisionPost posted:

Want to be a writer? Prepare to gently caress up. Develop a thick skin so you can take it when you gently caress up. And maybe try to apply the things you learn to all your writing.

This is the best advice in the whole thread.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2014 10:11

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# ¿ Jun 1, 2024 14:36

Soulcleaver: Sep 25, 2007; Murderer

dear person who gets this fax:

pen is stuck

please help

# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 06:05

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Fiction Writing: Advice and Discussion