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General Battuta posted:I've thrown out 550,000 words on this book you're a goddamned inspiration 
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Feb 8, 2016 09:07
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 12:14 |
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Write what you think you know, find out what you actually know
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Apr 15, 2016 17:09
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Blue Star posted:How do you guys deal with plot contrivances? What counts as a contrivance? I cross to the opposite side of the street without making eye contact, usually
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Apr 20, 2016 19:25
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Defenestration posted:Uhhh. dear everyone: don't be like this guy Maybe I have no integrity but I would be a hack and write the next Twilight if it was just that easy
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May 8, 2016 06:31
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i have no words but i must pub
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Aug 26, 2016 07:44
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crabrock posted:give up. that's what i did and it feels great. 
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Aug 30, 2016 06:24
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Naerasa posted:Holy poo poo, and here I thought I'd have to get published to have people hate my work this much. This is like all the fun of a bad review with none of the drudgery that comes with having a career behind it. naw it's not hate it's just goons gooning. I was writing a big long post, but actually just listen to Battuta. I don't feel especially compelled by the query because the reality-warping stones sound like boilerplate Mcguffins, but maybe they are more unique than your pitch makes them sound.
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Sep 10, 2016 20:08
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General Battuta posted:The stones are a good macguffin for this story because they say "What if you could make objective reality conform to the way you feel when you're high?" I mean, you're probably right but that isn't what I, personally, extrapolated from reading the query itself
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Sep 10, 2016 20:27
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Djeser posted:What is worse to the goon writer, jukies or sports? sprot bad
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Sep 10, 2016 21:36
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also, who you calling a jukie
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Sep 10, 2016 21:36
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RedTonic posted:sprot blood This is 100% unrelated to the topic at hand but I really enjoy the evolution of your avatar
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Sep 10, 2016 22:01
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someone should do the world a favor and burn my writing, but lol it's in the cloud I am really struggling with the idea that someone in 2016 with a laptop wouldn't back their poo poo up online
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Sep 17, 2016 20:44
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sebmojo posted:He was afraid someone would steal his ideas you might say he should've put a watermark on them
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Sep 17, 2016 22:07
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also who the f is this newb, hello friend have you considered checking out the thunders dome
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Sep 17, 2016 22:08
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anime was right posted:yeah but how do i do it without any talent or effort this is important to me, a person who builds huge imaginary worlds in my head that i think have consistency but are really just a hodgepodge of anime tropes just keep telling yourself you'll pull it together someday  repeat until you die, die hopeful
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Sep 24, 2016 17:36
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ok in all seriousness, this year I've discovered that discipline, above anything else, is the most necessary tool for writing. like it's oft-repeated and it really sucks to hear. I tried to make my brain do hula hoop acrobat gymnastics around it. It sucks in a way that is specific to things that are hard but true. Anyway my point is gently caress writing, man.
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Sep 24, 2016 18:15
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anime was right posted:are you saying No i would never say a thing crabrock said but to be a little bit blathery for a second, i would say that "just write" is a good mindset in the beginning, when you need to convince yourself to get words on the page. I think discipline is the next step. Discipline might be, for example, completing a full outline with notes and then writing an entire story or chapter by a self-imposed deadline. It might be getting up a little earlier every day to have time to write. It might mean maintaining your writing practice even when you're on vacation/relaxing. Etc etc etc. Basically it amounts to time management + resolve to keep working even when you're not ~inspired~. Then there is discipline in the writing craft itself. That's a little more vague. Maybe it's knowing what is tired and hackneyed and working to keep that stuff out your prose. Maybe it's forcing yourself to think through hazy plot points in advance, rather than solving things slapdash on the page. Maybe it's keeping detailed notes so you avoid dumb description/continuity fuckups. Beyond that, I think there is a certain kind of life discipline you should have too. Don't drink so much you can't make yourself get out of bed to write the next morning. Don't give away all your free time to leisure and then go "woops where did all my writing time go." Make sure your writing environment isn't an assy cesspit of empty beer and energy drink cans. Etc. in conclusion, don't Just Write. Write Right.
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Sep 24, 2016 20:45
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I'm working on a longish short story. I was totally thrilled with the concept on my first draft. Now I'm on my third draft and I feel like I'm in a really dull marriage. While it's definitely important to set your story down for a while, change the font, read it out loud, and all that helpful stuff, sometimes you really do just lose the ability to see it with fresh eyes. Uuuh yeah actually this post isn't really advice, it's commiseration. My current strategy so far is to get really really mad at myself and the story and the world for inventing an idiotic thing like writing. There is an upside to getting super mad at the process: the story starts to feel less like my ~*~creation~*~ and more like a puzzle that I'm solving. I've found that when I get to this stage with stories, they tend to receive more positive responses from critiquers (if I manage to finish). So don't be bored, get mad!!! Or something. The boredom is inevitable, though. Working past that is its own skill, and like any skill it needs to be cultivated through practice (learning to do that without burning yourself out is an important secondary skill obvs) Side note, Thunderdome stories are largely first drafts. Even if they've undergone some editing, I really do think you need more than a handful of days to perfect even very short stories. It could be good practice to go back to some of your older TD pieces and see if you run into the same boredom.
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Nov 4, 2016 02:26
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magnificent7 posted:35,000 words and no antagonist. I dunno, the project I'm working on doesn't have an explicit antagonist. Or rather, the setting, and the demands it puts on the characters, is the antagonist. The protagonist-antagonist relationship, when it's done right, is often just people with irreconcilable goals bouncing off of each other. So if your Lovecraftian monsters aren't explicitly "bad", they should still have an effect that causes conflict between your various characters. That said, if you're writing 400K of fantasy, you're going to have plenty of fat to trim. Love the fat. Enjoy it before you have to sheer it away and leave it to rot in your many many note files.
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Nov 28, 2016 08:43
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good books probably come from "I need to write this story" rather than "I want to write a good story, hmmm what do readers think is good" just follow yr heart and the lord will provide
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Dec 30, 2016 23:30
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Chokes McGee posted:not necessarily good books but at least books you like writing and have a lot of fun with actually no you acerbic goofball I mean well-regarded books that sell. For example, Frank Herbert was intensely fascinated by the Oregon dunes and flaked out on writing a research article so he could go wax on about ecology in one of the most influential scifi novels of all time. It's pretty easy to tell when an author is moved to write a story by their own longing, expertise, or curiosity, and IMO it makes the reading experience much richer. but also, yeah, a lot of people just want to write their passion and they aren't trying to hawk their words for max $$$$ on Amazon, or whatever. Some of those people will sell fiction, some won't.
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Dec 31, 2016 01:55
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this is probably a bad time to ask about the sequel to Baru Cormorant...
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Jan 6, 2017 19:30
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assuming you can write a plausible utopia, IMO the most obvious conflict would be something external that threatens the utopia. Or a character has to leave the utopia, then has difficulty returning. or something. I dunno, I kinda see the merit in creating a world that is super appealing to the reader, then threatening it or separating the protagonist(s) from it. but writing an appealing, plausible utopia is probably really hard, i dunno i've never tried it.
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Jan 11, 2017 20:44
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 12:14 |
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So, the amazing DocKloc wrote up a fresh new fiction advice thread. This one has been good, but it's gotten really long. Just an FYI for anyone who has this thread bookmarked.
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Jan 28, 2017 02:03
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