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Roquentin posted:Am I the only one who p much needs the tactile fun of handwriting in order to jog my interest in whatever I'm working on? It's gotten to the point where I often do this for assigned papers too, not just the thing I'm writing. It's like the worst variation on blank white screen writer's block. Even once I have a number of pages in a word doc I still don't feel like writing if it means punching glyphs onto a screen; I need a pen and a notebook. I'm worried that it's gonna eventually fuel my laziness to the point where there's no workaround and I stop doing creative writing. Get a speech-to-text program and a headset. You can kill two birds with one stone: -Reading it aloud so you know where the weak, awkward, or over-written parts are. -Typing that poo poo without it being laborious.
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Feb 17, 2013 23:24
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 02:17 |
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I tried Write or Die again. It used to play MMMBop when you stopped writing. Now, it rickrolls. 
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Feb 25, 2013 02:40
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I tried to do the Authentic, Painstakingly Constructed World, and it was only hindrance. I ended up with more notes than story by about 3:1.
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Mar 6, 2013 05:12
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Martello posted:Either work really hard on your world-building or don't. It doesn't matter. It's your story, write it or don't. Not sure what you're saying. Now that I think of it, though, it was a hindrance because I was hoarding information. As I revised the story, I piled new notes on top of the old ones. Then, down the road, I would just loving forget which one was which. It became like reading through every possible sequence of a big choose-you-own-adventure. So, I just tossed the whole, burdensome works out.
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Mar 14, 2013 21:11
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The first thing the reader has to know, in most cases, is what business-as-usual looks like. Set up the everyday world, then let the Kool-Aid Man bust in.
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Mar 19, 2013 18:47
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I don't have a copy of The Hobbit or LOTR kicking around, but, if I remember correctly, Tolkien lets us know that hobbits are little, furry people who love them some comfort and stability before Gandalf comes knocking. We don't know much more, but a state is established before it's upset. That's what I was getting at. Since my last post, I've realized that my preference was showing. Starting that way is both how I tend to present stories, and how I like them to be presented. I also read a lot of fantasy, fairy tales, myths, and legends. They tend to follow that sort of presentation. Mundane settings aren't really all that familiar to me. I guess a brotha forgot that some stories don't have elves or minotaurs.  But are there any that have elvotaurs, the half-bull, half-elf monstrosities with really big, really pointy ear-horns for impaling adventurers? Anyway, a certain Toad needs to put greater effort into posting such things. Understood.
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Mar 21, 2013 06:20
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Well, if it's gonna be that kind of party, let's kick it like it's 1936. Lord Raglan's Hero Scale 1. Hero's mother is a royal virgin; 2. His father is a king, and 3. Often a near relative of his mother, but 4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and 5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god. 6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him, but 7. he is spirited away, and 8. Reared by foster -parents in a far country. 9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but 10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom. 11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast, 12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and 13. And becomes king. 14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and 15. Prescribes laws, but 16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and 17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which 18. He meets with a mysterious death, 19. Often at the top of a hill, 20. His children, if any do not succeed him. 21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless 22. He has one or more holy sepulchres. Truby's 22 steps is the modern version that can be applied to mere mortals/kitchen appliances/black comedians in fatsuits.
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Mar 21, 2013 07:27
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Yesterday, I wrote me a rant. When to start a story is a question of time. Story is imitation of a complete action over time. I suppose the author's own definition of the word "action" dictates when a story starts, as does the sort of action. You wouldn't want to start the blooming of a flower at some point after the petals are already parting, but any point between then and the seed being planted could be a beginning. I would think that every story starts somewhere between the birth and death of a single person, in order for there to be one complete action, but what do birth and death mean? Lots of myths, legends, etc., start with a literal birth. However, any interrupted stasis is a birth. Bilbo sits around stuffing pipes and cupcakes in his mouth in Happy Land, Fight Club Dude has his soul-killing work-consume routine, Jake Sully is unconscious for months or years in a comfy bed-pod thing (is there an umbilical-type thing, too?). Then, a knock, a fire, and a landing, respectively, interrupt stasis and introduce them to the outside world. The film school cliche of starting with the alarm clock going off does this, too, but crudely. So, let's say you have a crime story. It starts with a shootout (hero is out-numbered) or car chase (hero is behind). How exciting and "in the action". This situation happens because the criminals have had the upper-hand for a while, and the cops have been looking the other way or struggling to keep up. The problem has been growing for a while, and so has the protagonist's displeasure with it. That's the stasis, business as usual, and the moment the protagonist is loving sick of that poo poo is when the contractions would start in earnest. Start the story when baby needs out. Such is my rant.  fake edit: Does this make sense in other genres/structures? Like I said, I don't get out of Fairyland much, and would like to hear your thoughts.
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Mar 22, 2013 21:11
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Both. It was intentional, and you feel sorry for him for attempting humour.
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Mar 26, 2013 19:11
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 02:17 |
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A little catharsis for the frustrated writers out there. Eminem - Rabbit Run
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May 7, 2013 02:17
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