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UnfurledSails posted:I'm writing the first draft of my novel and it's about a guy who has to (at first) fend for himself in a foreign country with nothing. There is a point where he meets someone else who is in a similar situation, but until then I find that the pace is very slow, with very few dialogue. This guy has a lot of internal conflict; he is constantly at war with himself. This leads to a lot of inner battles that I find necessary but somewhat boring to write. It sounds tedious and it sounds like you find it tedious. This is bad. Can you put your guy in a lot more trouble? Really put him through poo poo? Steal his wallet, break his finger, give him dysentery. See if that gives you a more interesting way to deliver the payload of agonised self-interrogation?
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Aug 8, 2012 04:38
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Purple Prince posted:I don't know guys, Trainspotting was fairly easy to read for me, even in the Renton chapters. Then again Welsh mostly writes in standard English and only replaces certain words in Scots with their phonetic equivalents. No hail of apostrophes. As far as I can tell he only replaces the words that are noticeably different other than in terms of inflection. In addition most of the words he replaces are commonly used; the reader becomes used to them quickly. That's such a great sentence. As with so much in writing, the answer to 'can I use weird accents?' is 'yes, if you are awesome'.
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Aug 16, 2012 10:10
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Mr.48 posted:Thanks for the advice! I'm thinking of ordering The 10% Solution in paperback since I figure I'll be referencing it often and that might be awkward with an e-book. Good idea? Yes.
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Aug 20, 2012 08:23
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Phil Moscowitz posted:I would say...seth effreckin? Kiwi, IIRC.
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Aug 22, 2012 02:40
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I know I certainly would like to see the books others recommend to read. I would find that helpful, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. The Master and Margarita, by Bulgakov. Magic Realism before it was cool, a hilarious score settling romp through 30s Moscow by the motherfucking Devil and his rambunctious buddies, coupled with the most divinely beautiful writing about Pontius Pilate. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. A few dozen portraits of imaginary cities, with a framing narrative of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan talking about Marco's travels. Each city is a perfect jewel-like puzzle that keeps nourishing your mind even when you've solved it.
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Sep 10, 2012 09:07
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Martello posted:I've heard this is great, and I'll have to load it into my new Kindle for this gay training rotation starting this weekend. By the way, it's Perdido. I'd be interested to know what you think of this. By about halfway I was sick of his bullshit. I finished it in a kind of vituperative fury, mutilated it with a huge pair of pinking shears and fastballed it into the bin. So: not a fan. But I can see why people like him, he's a good writer. I just really hated what he wrote about and how he wrote it.
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Sep 11, 2012 04:22
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Perdido Street Station stuff. If I was going to use a single word to describe it, it'd be 'leering'. I'd not think less of someone who loved it, because he's undeniably talented. I'd put it in a similar box to the Malazan books - I liked them, but I'd only recommend them with caveats. edit: Oh and Martello - what did you think of the redditor who got all Clancey over sending a Marine battalion back to Augustan Rome? Read pretty well to me, and my skimpy classical education didn't register any major clangers, but it seems your literary MOS. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Sep 11, 2012 |
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Sep 11, 2012 05:41
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:I keep hearing good things about this series. I just now snapped up a digital copy of Gardens of the Moon on the cheap. Keep 'em coming. I'd recommend Erikson with reservations. He's a decent writer, but while he's fantastic at ultra-epic sweep he is bad at actual characters. Though he does have a surprising knack for Woodhousian banter. If GotM does your head in, try fifty pages of the next one, Deadhouse Gates, and see if you like it better - he wrote it much later and it shows in the prose. I'd put Joe Abercrombie on my must-read list - he did a trilogy (The First Law) which starts incredibly strongly and peters out a little towards then end, but is absolutely worth reading nonetheless. I'd say his more recent book The Heroes is probably his best, if you want a standalone. And he has a new one coming out soon. The chronically underrated CJ Cherryh's Morgaine books (Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuan, Fire of Azeroth) are excellent gritty fantasy and so is The Paladin. Also in the unsung category is JV Jones, who did some fairly bland fantasy before getting totally inspired by ASOIAF and writing A Cavern of Black Ice and its three sequels. Gnarly, gritty, intensely realised stuff. Unfinished sadly - I think there's still one to go. Edit: Let me know if you end up liking Erikson, actually - I have the first six books and I'd be happy to send them down to you for postage cost.
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Sep 13, 2012 02:45
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Mr. Belding posted:Why is his talent undeniable? He used the word largely twice in three paragraphs. In one of those the sentence was, "He lay largely on the bed." If nothing else he's got a tin ear, which is a pretty big hurdle for me to get over when labeling a writer as "talented." Partly it's to not be an rear end in a top hat because some people love Mieville to bits. But also he has a great fecund imagination. And from memory his wordsmithing was at least competent.
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Sep 16, 2012 04:40
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Erik Shawn-Bohner posted:That's the real drug you should seek: working hard, being accepted by a set of peers who don't suck, and being read and appreciated by people who won't read trash. THUNDERDOME! I've written basically nothing apart from half a crappy novel when I was in prison back in the 90s (long story) and Thunderdome has been the best thing for pushing me to actually get the poo poo down.
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Sep 24, 2012 22:53
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Erik Shawn-Bohner posted:What-up incarceration buddy. Heyyyyyyy!
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Sep 24, 2012 23:58
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hiddenmovement posted:Ok, so I've made some major progress and substantial revisions to a novel that I have been working on for the last year. I've still got a tonne of work to do, and I've been trimming and chopping things in and out. It's sitting at 70k words right now after major subplot revisions, the deletion and creation of a few side characters, and the addition of stronger thematic elements. Sure. Post a thread, is probably the best way. I'll prepare my flensing knife.
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Oct 21, 2012 01:38
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Novum posted:Here's the deal. I'm not a writer, I don't think I'm a writer, I'm under no illusions that I have any semblance of talent or technique. With that said, I remember I used to enjoy creative writing a lot when I was in middle school and high school and, until I discovered I could get girls to like me by playing guitar, writing was my favorite hobby. Obviously this totally fell by the wayside in a big way, but I never really forgot how much fun it used to be. Creative Convention: We Hate You and We Want You to loving Die Just write something, make it as good as you can make it, then post it. Under 500 words in the short fiction thread, longer pieces in their own thread. Alternatively, the Thunderdome is a fantastic way to get your flash fiction chops up - weekly prompts, praise for the winner, humiliating avatars for the loser. Check out this thread for an example of truly terrible writing and what sort of response it gets. And, if you aren't better than him, don't post. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Nov 4, 2012 |
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Nov 4, 2012 21:22
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Novum posted:Yikes, no kidding. I'll step back for now and just keep doing writing exercises on my own like I've been doing so far. Your call. Have a read of some of the other threads and see if you think you are better/worse - you can get some really good advice here. At least read the Thunderdome thread and consider doing a week there like Martello suggests. I've found it fantastic for improving my writing. PM me or email me at jimbowardo at gmail with one of your pieces, if you want an impartial opinion on how it measures up. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Nov 5, 2012 |
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Nov 5, 2012 04:03
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Gary the Llama posted:I had a couple of my short stories published by small online magazines last month. Got paid even. ($5 for one, ~$80 for the other.) Would it be inappropriate of me to link to them in case anyone wants to read them? Yeah man go for it.
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Nov 13, 2012 11:10
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Metaphor should be the backbone of the story, not the other way round. And the best way to get good vivid similes is to have them come out of metaphor. If your story's the tree, metaphor is the trunk and similes are the leaves. So if you've got a loser character, and you're describing his car, put some detail into the car that comes from your experience (fast food wrappers, dirty, finger writing on the back windows). The car is now a metaphor for his life, so you can talk about his life by talking about the car. And you can get some texture by showing how he reacts to the car. Is he angry about it? Is it his refuge? Does it defeat him? Is there a change you can show in his character by having him take some action with the car? There's good advice for writing similes above, and as they say you should do it sparingly, but I think you'll find it simpler if you're describing something you can see in your head. And just like it's fine to say 'he said, she said', it's fine to just describe things. 'There was a blue cup on the table. It had a white rim with a chip out of the edge.' sebmojo fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Nov 22, 2012 |
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Nov 22, 2012 22:26
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Gary the Llama posted:Here they are. Any feedback is appreciated. Read them. You have some serious chops. Of the two the first is my favourite, perhaps because your cool, detached tone fits your narrator best. However the core of the story eluded me a little. Maybe because that dry precision didn't mesh with a confession of a crime of passion? The cyberpunk yarn was also solid. But the darknet/reality crossover confused me, as did the plot. He was trying to escape the net, but loads of homeless people already had, so he needed mushrooms because...? Also the characters felt a little too detached, too cool. I know it's part of the genre convention but based on these two I think you could afford to write with a little more passion. Definitely good stuff though, and congrats on the publication! You should come over to the Thunderdome and throw down, it's p much the best thing when it comes to cranking out prose to weird prompts and talking trash.
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Nov 22, 2012 23:01
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LaughMyselfTo posted:So, I'm a really novice writer, and I've recently started a new project. It's both my first serious first-person-perspective project, and my first serious project with a female protagonist. Now, I haven't fallen into any of the obvious traps that have been brought up in the last few pages, like having the character objectify herself in a blatantly male way. But I'd just like to ask: Are there any other potential pitfalls I should watch out for? Post a bit that you're worried about and we'll give you some more specific feedback.
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Nov 26, 2012 21:19
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e: Wrong Thread
sebmojo fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Nov 28, 2012 |
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Nov 28, 2012 23:22
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CB_Tube_Knight posted:Part of it is the immediate audience, I might have been too reactionary in my response, I'm pretty defensive of fan fiction and fan art because I think they're just for fun most of the time. Now the depravity that is displayed I could do with out. Get your rear end in the Thunderdome. We'll sort you out.
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Jan 10, 2013 11:33
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squeegee posted:A fiction writing tip that I've always found helpful is that your characters should never directly respond to each other or literally answer each other's questions. I do think the "never" aspect of this can be taken too far, because I've read stories that take this infuriatingly to heart and everyone is just spouting out mysteriously dense sentences past each other while staring off into the distance, but it's a good thing to keep in mind. Fiction dialogue should not mimic real life dialogue; it should distill it to its essence and it should always advance character, plot, or theme, preferably in multiple ways. The way a character responds to a question or statement should show something about his/her values, concerns, thought process, or priorities. It's hard to do that when they're just literally responding to each other in the small-talk kind of way that real people do. This is an excellent rule. Weirdly, I first read it in a Dilbert book. The same book had a great rule of thumb for humor: The core of humor is what I call the 2-of-6 rule. In order for something to be funny, you need at least two of the following elements: Cute (as in kids and animals) Naughty Bizarre Clever Recognizable (You've been there) Cruel Edit: ^Stabbey, I'd give him a sudden flash of some horrible consequence of 'it' not working. As it is it's way too abstract. However I worry you're overusing interior monologue, based on tis and the other excerpt I looked at (which was improved, btw, sorry for not replying to your pm) sebmojo fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Jan 11, 2013 |
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Jan 11, 2013 00:23
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Oxxidation posted:More like you're single-handedly driving FYAD into CC, but whatever gets people writing is fine I guess I don't think he's saying CC was a hugbox - but it was a bit moribund in terms of volume, and the 'dome is helping with that. Speaking of which - do come back, I really liked the one of yours that (bizarrely) lost that time.
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Jan 12, 2013 23:41
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Molly Bloom posted:I'd be interested in hearing how people deal with action scenes. How do you make it readable? Do you block it all out? Just move your combatants through the space and tell a story as you do it. Think of it cinematically. What is the camera watching? Brief disorienting cuts, moments of slow detailed motion, focussing on an image for a moment, propulsion by clipped words. Here's a passage from one of my thunderdome pieces: quote:Jack had thrown a brick through my window first. Come through after it, knife in hand. I’d gripped his wrist, slammed the hand into the wall. Taken his headbutt, fallen over. He’d kicked me twice, three times. I remember the sound of his boot hitting me, the sound of a rib cracking. I remember grabbing the knife from the floor, stabbing up. His hot blood washing off in the shower afterwards, spiraling down the plughole. This is clipped and brutal to give the idea of flashes of memory and instinctive action, but there's still a progression. For a more elaborate style, but still making the action clear: quote:I saw her eyes flicker to the side and I hurled my cup of tea at her face, pushing my chair back and over as I did. There was a subdued 'thwip' as a needle passed over me and buried itself in the wall, followed by a crash that knocked the wind out of me and probably cracked a couple of ribs as I hit the floor hard. I pulled my bony knees up to my chest and shoved the table with all my strength. It slammed Evangeline into the wall behind her and her handbag fell to the floor. Here I was trying for a smart combatant who's planned out his actions beforehand, so longer sentences, noticing all the detail. As an exercise, pick a good fight in a film and write it out. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jan 23, 2013 |
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Jan 23, 2013 02:41
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Yeah, that happened to me as well, so much of English is based on words imported or derived from other languages, so should I really be using words derived from Latin in a world where there was no Latin? I decided "screw it, I'll just use English, borrowed words be damned." I would just end up driving myself and the readers nuts if I tried to work around that. You could go the Gene Wolfe route and use words that are obscure and archaic - it works very well in Book of the New Sun. Edit: quote:•Is there some sign that the writer gave a poo poo about this story, put something personal in it? These are great advice.
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Feb 3, 2013 21:27
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Sitting Here posted:I'm working on two "big" stories right now, one of which is whimsical and a bit absurd. This one is more serious. I find I do less info-dumping in my story if I as the writer have a detailed understanding of the world I built. I guess it's because if I know why things are the way they are, it's easier to write those things as if they are second nature to the characters. DOES ONE OF THEM INVOLVE SEBASTIAN THE TALKING PIG IF NOT WHY NOT
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Feb 26, 2013 21:49
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Sitting Here posted:Yep, that would be the whimsical one. I just have this need to torment myself with spergy world building after spending a bunch of time writing the dialog and characterization of a talking pig who rides around on a sea ship that goes in space (but it's not really space, it's like, this whole other thing [Plus there's air there {or maybe they just don't breath, IDK}]). Yay! Have you read Gene Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun? It's not a great book (and marks the point after which I stopped liking his stuff) but it has one hell of a void schooner or w/e the heck you want to call it.
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Feb 27, 2013 01:52
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Sitting Here posted:It was my Thunderdome action entry! From two weeks ago, I think? I was just playing around with the characters/setting. I'll be posting more work from that story in the Farm here in a short bit, I think. Here it is
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Mar 1, 2013 01:10
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Martello posted:It's called comma-splicing and the Bohner hates it. I love them but since he sees a lot of my stuff I usually reluctantly cut 'em. He can elaborate on why they're so awful, or conversely why he's such an awful person. I like it as a a tool for varying rhythm, it gives a sentence more energy for when you want that. 'And' has a more deliberate feel. But like anything else it can be overused. Often you should just ditch the splice and split them up.
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Mar 1, 2013 01:12
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systran posted:When writing less than 1,500 word pieces, what are some different ways to go about structuring and then editing? I've learned that I can rattle out a piece pretty fast, but I think what matters is a central conflict that is the right size for the story's length. My process is to muse about ways I could address the prompt for a few days, mentally crossing off avenues and exploring new ones, then sit down with a few hours to go and write it. I edit as I go, stripping out needless/bad words and keep an eye on the wordcount to make sure no new characters are introduced past the 1/3 mark and the last third is roughly directed towards denouement. E: ^^^ lots of good stuff in those two. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 08:43 on Mar 24, 2013 |
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Mar 24, 2013 08:39
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CantDecideOnAName posted:Yeah. I tend to ramble when I'm not sure what the most succinct way is to say what I want to say, like in this case. I'm aware that IRC would be full of goons, but it seems like it might be a bit more casual than a forum post that everyone can see and scrutinize. Link me to it and I'll have a look.
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Mar 27, 2013 08:14
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CantDecideOnAName posted:One of these days, magnificent7, I'm gonna challenge you to a throwdown. Just do it. Here, I'll make it easy: BRAWL: magnificent7 vs Can'tDecideOnAName Length: 1000 words Due: Thursday midnight PST. Prompt: A secret that should never be told.
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Apr 28, 2013 22:43
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Sitting Here posted:I demand that I preside over this. ALL NEMESIS ALL THE TIME BABY we can co-judge, assuming one or both doesn't wuss out quote:Random question I already posed to some people, to a mixed response: When writing about ancient/prehistoric people, do you prefer "made up" sounding names, or more literal ones? Like I might call a cave man Grud or something. But since in his language "Grud" means "that greenish moss stuff that grows on rocks," maybe to his people the literal name is actually something like GreenRock or whatever. I like descriptive names, because it actually makes it more alien - gives a feeling of stories living in the names that people carry around with them. Gene Wolfe does this brilliantly in his Soldier of Arete/Mist books, the Spartans are called the Rope makers, Athens is called Thought, Thebes is called Hill (I think?). It can be twee if done badly of course. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Apr 29, 2013 |
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Apr 29, 2013 02:54
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magnificent7 posted:Oh. This was for rill? I didn't do it! I have failed. WRITE A STORY.
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May 3, 2013 05:47
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Holy hell, you're the worst. OK, victory goes to CantDecideOnAName by default.
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May 5, 2013 04:21
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If you ever find your characters answering each others' questions, rewrite.
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May 20, 2013 09:53
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Overwined posted:It's part of show, don't tell. Yeah, pretty much that. If you have two characters asking and answering each other in a simple direct way (unless that's explicitly the point) then you should probably be conveying the information in another way. Of course it's not a absolute rule, but it works very well as a rule of thumb for non-sucky dialogue - not least because it takes away a crutch, since you have to keep finding interesting ways for the characters to avoid answering each others' questions.
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May 21, 2013 01:11
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asap-salafi posted:I totally understand and I'm willing to put in the hard work and deal with my crappy writing skills. I just needed to know what I should be doing, so thanks for the advice. I'll keep my dreams in my head for the time being and focus on writing a short story. Honestly - come on over to the 'dome. You cannot help but improve.
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May 21, 2013 22:37
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asap-salafi posted:Yeah it looks cool, I will after a few weeks. I really like my avatar though and it would destroy me if I came last. Can't they have a week where you don't get that horrible "THUNDERDOME LOSER" tag? :iamafag: Absolutely not. But if you have a story with a beginning, middle and end, no major grammatical errors and recognisably human characters I guarantee you will not lose a round.* And, c'mon, you won't wager $5 on your writing? *No actual guarantee provided
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May 22, 2013 00:12
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CantDecideOnAName posted:Speaking of people who should have a losertar and don't. Ahhhh good point. I will set the wheels in motion.
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May 22, 2013 12:52
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As a mild counternote I've had a couple of 'dome stories where I didn't spend enough time joining the dots and should have added a line or two explaining what I meant (specifically this one and this one). In both cases I knew exactly what was supposed to be happening but didn't convey that well enough. So I guess the solution is to write the story and ask people what they think happens, and if no one gets it then add a bit of clarification.
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May 24, 2013 00:01
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