Fiction Writing: Advice and Discussion

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STONE OF MADNESS: Dec 28, 2012; PVTREFACTIO

Just stopping by to say that lurking in this thread (and other, related ones) helped me immensely several months ago, when I was trying to stay motivated with the writing project I know I must continue to survive. Awesome and abundant free advice, I kept several tabs open for weeks. Now I'm registered!

Thanks

# ¿ Jan 1, 2013 20:05

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 15:12

STONE OF MADNESS: Dec 28, 2012; PVTREFACTIO

I'd like to post some writing for critique, but have reservations about the whole 'prior publication' can of worms if I try to get it published later on. I know !pipes! mentions being able to close critique threads to the public (so as to avoid that complication) but does anyone around here have experience to demonstrate this works/is adequate?

# ¿ Jan 3, 2013 09:30

STONE OF MADNESS: Dec 28, 2012; PVTREFACTIO

yahoo answers

# ¿ Jan 6, 2013 12:46

STONE OF MADNESS: Dec 28, 2012; PVTREFACTIO

It's what the mass market demands. It's the same on TV and in movies in case you hadn't noticed.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2013 15:40

STONE OF MADNESS: Dec 28, 2012; PVTREFACTIO

Chillmatic you might dig the totally OTT 'Pyat Quartet' by Michael Moorcock (begins with Byzantium Endures). He's a genre legend famous for a nihilistic elf, but these books were a departure from everything previous, into the horror of interwar Europe. The protagonist, an insane, cocaine-abusing pedophiliac inventor with an all-consuming phobia of Islam and Jews is perhaps the ultimate unreliable narrator. If you reject The Kindly Ones as pornographic garbage you'll find little to enjoy, but the scope of the books coupled with the unfettered sci-fi approach is something to behold. Takes you from the lovely end of the Russian revolution thru the twilight years of silent film to the rise and fall of Fascism from the perspective of a guy who only survives through his own amorality. It's not ironic or funny or, for the most part, gratuitous in any way, it's horrible, but magnificent.

Also, let me tout Russell Hoban's wares, if you've never read Riddley Walker you're missing an amazing post-apoc YA novel not written for idiots.

Personally I doubt anyone writes that stuff anymore due to a brutal nexus of market forces vs. people being wankers, but there's probably proof to the contrary...

# ¿ Jan 22, 2013 20:11

STONE OF MADNESS: Dec 28, 2012; PVTREFACTIO

theworstname posted:

Souls? In science-fiction?
Souls are the domain of Science-Fiction's older hunchbacked brother Fantasy, and their beautiful but mildly retarded inbred offspring Science-Fantasy.

A bold claim. I can think of quite a few SF titans who were obsessed with souls, or at the very least with their absence - if you're talking about latter-day writers who just like to sperg on about tech then maybe you have a point..?

# ¿ Feb 5, 2013 10:19

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 15:12

STONE OF MADNESS: Dec 28, 2012; PVTREFACTIO

Benny the Snake posted:

So I have two questions. One: I have a project I've been working on for four years and I've passed out copies to multiple persons for feedback. What's an easy and surefire way to prove ownership in case somebody plagiarizes?

Two, the major feedback has been my writing reads not like conventional prose but like a script. Now my education in the field of literature has taught me that all writers started from one base form of writing. Most of the great Elizabethan poets for instance started writing pastoral before they branched out into their own genres. Should I continue writing prose? Or can I branch out into scriptwriting?

Definitely write pastoral. You'll know when you're ready to move on, but don't skip it. Pastoral's important.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2013 13:24

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