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I'm not sure if this is the place for this, but I'm currently having trouble managing plot threading, I think because I over complicate the process for myself. Outlines work to a degree but sometimes when I write characters, they break the outline (their motivations make more sense but defy the plot), or I accidentally make a dumb plot hole that didn't think of before that I feel is really bad to handwave. In this case, is it best to just restructure the whole story again and rewrite the outline? Are there any good resources, interviews, etc on threading plots together and how other writers do it? That would be helpful. I pretty much stuck to short stories until writing an actual novel so I have absolutely zero experience with managing a lot of plots, and this is the most difficult part of the transition. Thanks! anime was right fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jun 8, 2014 |
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Jun 8, 2014 17:16
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blue squares posted:Writing the blockbuster novel has a very lengthy section on outlining, revising that outline, and revising as the novel gets written Cool, I'll check that out. Thanks 
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Jun 8, 2014 17:52
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the new mirrors is looking at social media photos of themselves (i did this but it was handy in illustrating a couple of other things about the setting real fast)
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Jun 12, 2014 04:10
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I just thought it was tacky, but if the dude is pretty self depreciating, it's fine imo. Just like, don't make him a problematic character in general.
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Jun 17, 2014 05:37
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hi zip, did you self publish and then get an actual publishing deal? or did you just happen to go digital first? ravenkult, your work is really superb btw.
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Jun 30, 2014 19:27
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cool, i wasnt 100% sure even if you had a publisher listed. ill probably pop in here another day in the near future to ask about publishing, unless there's a better thread for that?
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Jun 30, 2014 19:36
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Zip posted:Incidentally Lou if you're asking because you're looking for a publisher, my publisher is accepting submissions. It's co-op publishing so you get more freedom and a bigger chunk of sales... but, it is a new publisher... cool! i'm definitely not ready, but i'll bookmark them and see if they're still accepting in the upcoming two or three months. i still need to do some pretty extensive style editing. thanks
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Jun 30, 2014 19:37
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Zip posted:Let me know when you are and I'll give him the heads up that something is being submitted that he should pay attention to... No promises though. that is more than i could ever ask for consider yourself slightly richer.
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Jun 30, 2014 19:45
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Sithsaber posted:Isn't that writing structure only suited to screenwriting? Brad Bradley was not having the best of days. After a string of events that could only be called chaotic, he found himself in the passenger's seat of a car, specifically an Aston Martin. With the press of a button, he could hear the whirzzzzzzzzz of the window. He turned his head out he window and saw a Land Rover. His eyes bugged, and then returned back. With a sudden gasp, he turned to notice that his driver was a woman he knew. Wanda Wanderson's skills at driving were questionable, not because of her repeated history of safe driving habits, such as her hands currently being on ten and two. No, Wanda's ability to drive this car was uncertain because she had a vagina. And boobs. "Oh man, the terrorists are going to catch us!" exclaimed Bradley! "Not a body can catch me!" Wanda's words were as fierce as her extreme views on things like wage equality. "Stairs! Theres Stairs!" pointed Bard. Wanda tensed her knuckles, among other things. "Imma go down. On them. The stairs I mean." anime was right fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 00:17
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snow crash has a pretty confusing car chase scene but thats mostly because of the skating part
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Jul 4, 2014 05:54
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it looks like the second part is an interjection but the third part isnt a direct continuation of the first part. which is why i think you wrote it like that in the first place.
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Jul 8, 2014 06:42
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Sithsaber posted:Never write anything after 4 in the morning. no, thats the best time to write, just edit when you're wide awake.
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Jul 8, 2014 15:24
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its definitely a personal preference thing, but yes. i find the lack of distraction at later hours, along with a sleepy mind, help create a good atmosphere where i dump out a few pages of drivel. its a weird time where my unconscious brain does half the work, but im still awake enough to realize if something is really goddamn stupid. i suppose thats not going to work if you wake up at 6am everyday though. anime was right fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 15:58
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i agree, please post your writing sithsaber
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Jul 8, 2014 17:09
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the posted:I guess this is the most basic question: So, I have an idea for a novel. Now what? I feel like if I just "start writing," I'll end up wandering and going nowhere. write it
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Jul 25, 2014 03:39
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i was really intimiated by the thunderdome at first but its not that bad. my goal from the get go was "dont get a dm".
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Aug 17, 2014 19:37
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KevinCow posted:Thanks for the advice, everyone. just enter, you might lose, but oh well. no one's gonna care if you lost in the thunderdome.
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Aug 17, 2014 22:43
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Peel posted:Yeah, this is really important to remember or you'll just be paralysed with fear when you try to write. im in the clear, phew
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Aug 19, 2014 23:40
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Zip posted:I went to a goonmeet last week and although it was awkward, I had a lot of fun. (Where the gently caress were you Lou? I was looking.) i had a vacation planned a couple months in advance already when i went to sf, sorry dude, monday was my only free day
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Aug 27, 2014 18:21
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Zip posted:Bummer. I was actually asking around trying to find you man. Chance to meet another CC'er was exciting. no prob, you in the area? its not like i dont drop by sf every once in a while, i have lots of friends there. if you are and i plan a trip, ill shoot you a PM and we can discuss BOOKS and BOOK THINGS
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Aug 28, 2014 04:22
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Bobby Deluxe posted:The sorceress used the stone to destroy their home. They need to find bigger stones so they can do battle with her. please dont post anime fanfics
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Aug 30, 2014 23:56
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if you need to, you could buy a cheap netbook and make sure it doesn't have any distractions installed or available on it.
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Sep 3, 2014 00:51
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Writing a book is like committing an atrocity: you serve it one sentence at a time.
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Sep 4, 2014 03:35
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the other thing is like, if you describe weather, you can do it in an important sentence with about three extra words and then its in the readers head without going "hey, hey yo, its raining". "the smell of garbage overwhelmed that of freshly wet grass" "he raised his hand above his forehead to block both sun and strike" blah blah those are terrible xamples but how i would squeeze it in if you need it as an early detail but without boring me. anime was right fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Sep 9, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2014 02:43
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im pretty sure id need to get a book published before i eve thought about that
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Sep 10, 2014 06:52
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crabrock posted:this lack of capitalization, what the gently caress crabrock, jesus, get yourself together post really not a fan of the word post, a post sounds so neutral, i would go with the word content, or drivel sucks. imo its insane to think in this day and age we can get away with urban dictionary garbage in our literature, thanks for giving into this millenial horseshit like with the yolos and carpetbaggers
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Sep 17, 2014 01:01
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goddammit crab rock why did u have to edit im gonna eat all your yogurt and bread and theres nothing you can do about it
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Sep 17, 2014 01:01
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to be real about criticism: everyone has an opinion, and every opinion has an underlying reason behind it. that reason might be dumb as hell. for example, a person thats doesnt like sci-fi or something may have just been bored to tears by star trek once and never got over it. but then they could go around and tell you "i dont like the characters they didnt grab me". their boredom manifests in misplaced criticism, and while it may be impossible to parse it, what you need to do is search for the pattern behind it. for example, if you get a bunch of crits that are like: "i think the characters are boring, they dont grab me" im bored, nothing happened "the prose is too flowery" - im bored, nothing happend "the setting just isnt grabbing me" im bored, nothing happened etc, depending on how people state what they didnt like, you can search for patterns that connect their dislike of something. the same thing actually applies to positive criticism as well. what i learned in working in other creative indusries is that everyone has a thing to say. ignore it and instead find the reason they said that thing. that is where you're going to find what you're looking for in a crit. you will always get white noise. always. but on the surface level, what may appear as white noise might be valuable, and what may sound valuable and informative may actually be white noise. this applies more to people who give poo poo criticisms, by the way. you have to look through their bitterness, their selfish projection because basically people are dumb smelly idiots who think with their butts and farts.
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Sep 17, 2014 01:09
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Bobby Deluxe posted:Bitching is people telling you your writing is poo poo, and can usually safely be ignored. absolutely false. bitching is done for a reason, and it hurts to hear it, but bitching is quite often done for a reason, it might be for a lovely reason, or a great reason. my jobs have either direct involved reading criticism, parsing it, or compiling it. fun fact: amount of bitching about a thing is a very valuable metric to people in software development. bitching is useful. i would rather have 1 million angry nerds than 1 million silent ones, because one gives you information, the other doesnt. you should ignore their hostility and bile, yes, but if you've got a bunch of sweaty jerks slamming fingers into your keyboard, theres a reason and you should learn what that reason is, even if its "gross misogyny" or "has personal issues", then you can ignore it. anime was right fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Sep 17, 2014 |
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Sep 17, 2014 01:48
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crabrock posted:u all little bitches in my book ironic your name is crabrock bc you got a shell so soft ppl eat you like its cake
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Sep 17, 2014 02:05
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Bobby Deluxe posted:If however you just get a hundred "your writing is bad and you should feel bad" replies, there's not much you can do with that. Yeah you could take a fresh look at your work, but chances are that if someone didn't see the problem when submitting, they're probably not going to see it without specifics. And you could guess from demographics what they're likely to have hated, but again, it's leaving you to self-analyse, something decent writers have already done. strongly disagree here, because you need to look at the context that surrounds the "its bad". are you asking a certain kind of audience? are they saying it after a certain amount o time with the book? that can all lead to "it sucks" for an actual reason. the fact that you got the "it sucks" at a certain point, or from a certain kind of person, or phrased in a certain way, or surrounding a certain context, means you do have information to work with. it may be impossible to discern the reason with the amountof information, but if you have a "this sucks" vs nothing, the this sucks can give you valuable information you would otherwise not. i come from industries where "this sucks" is information that is cataloged and used as hard data, and its very, very useful as such. unfortunately in criticism, the numbers are smaller and you cant work with secondary data sometimes so its a lot harder to parse, but it -is- useful.
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Sep 17, 2014 02:13
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i like writing, any advice on stringing words into coherent-like, punctuated strings that do not resemble alphabet vomit?
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Sep 17, 2014 06:00
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the best crit i got was from systran who gave me a crit after i said i didnt get a good crit, thanks buddy, you're cool.
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Sep 20, 2014 04:41
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Liam Emsa posted:I have two guys named John and Mike. I'm trying to write a scene where John sees Mike, but John doesn't know who Mike is yet. But I've already introduced Mike earlier in the story. I want the audience to know that John is seeing Mike. If this was a movie it would be easy, because of faces obviously. But how do I do this in a book? I haven't given Mike a physical description yet, so I'm not sure how to give a nudge to the reader letting them know that the guy John is running into is actually Mike. as long as the reader is supposed to know its mike, just call him mike.
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Sep 29, 2014 03:44
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Liam Emsa posted:The problem I have with this is that I'm writing the chapter from John's perspective. It's what he's seeing around him, so it feels weird to write "He saw a man in front of him. It was Mike." Because he has no idea who Mike is at this point. if it's from perspective just make sure you share one detail then, imo. "large man with a mustache", etc. it doesn't have to be "his blistering pimple that shot pus of acid was impossible to ignore" x2 throughout your story. you can also use a title, but something thats discernible from other characters "the monster" "the gentleman" "the mexican food lover" etc. anime was right fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 03:50
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always use at least three different methods of saving. hard drive/thumb drive/cloud is fine
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Oct 9, 2014 15:39
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sithsaber i hope u improve but i think google is a better place of advice over this thread at this point in ur life
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Oct 10, 2014 02:08
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:We all start somewhere terrible, and work our way up. You won't get good at this quickly. Nobody does i started by writing the great american grovel
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Oct 10, 2014 02:52
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sithsaber if you post a story in CC ill post the oldest thing ive written in the past 3 years on my hard drive with zero editing and without reading it myself so i cant cringe out. unfortunately this is the oldest written work i have. i know cache cab is the one we're dogpiling here or whatever but i wanna see sithsaber post more so im offering to embarass myself (or not i have not read this in years).
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Oct 10, 2014 03:04
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General Battuta posted:My book is due Monday and I'm preeeeetty freaked out. I should've had plenty of time but then the narrative encountered complications — a cold, a party, a dead dog, a lot of scenes I realized could be way better. Feeling kinda rough. if it makes you feel any better none of us can relate to you because we dont know what "my book is due Monday" could possibly feel like. cheer up buddy.
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Oct 10, 2014 03:13
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