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I'm willing to join in as well, at least for the summer while I got time to kill.
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Jul 11, 2014 06:45
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DoctorWhat posted:...is this the right thread to ask about it? I don't think I've ever posted in CC before. The better place to send it to would be the Fiction Farm. I put the crit there for you.
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Jul 31, 2014 20:40
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Blue Star posted:My problem is that the premises of my plots and stories always fizzle out, and I don't know how to keep them going. What if they don't steal the jewel because it belonged to some poor man and is the heirloom of his dead wife? What if they keep the jewel because it has mystic power and use it further their own goal? What if the sorceress betrays them by not paying them? What if instead of going home, they go to the dollar store to buy some some of those cheap stones and sell them as "mystic jewels." Throw some curve balls into your story. It keeps readers interested and, more importantly, writing something unique is more fun then writing something played out.
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Aug 30, 2014 08:52
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Superb Owls posted:Went to Thunderdome this week... and lost. And I'm just wondering two things. a) Is it OK to read other people's Thunderdome entries to see what you could've done better and b) What was it like losing Thunderdome for everyone else? Losing was pretty great because Martello gave me an in-depth crit that made it pretty clear all the problems that story had and hopefully I don't ever make those mistakes again. It was really a good thing to happen and made me realize that I'm a bad writer and that I really have to strive to improve.
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Oct 21, 2014 15:48
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Curious, because I hear a lot that present tense is good if used correctly, what is the correct use of present tense? I know that getting across a feeling of immediacy is one of the reasons you should use it, but what other cases would you use present tense/not use past tense?
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Nov 10, 2014 07:02
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Disclaimer: I'm an idiot and not that good at writing First person peripheral, which is what you're describing, is kind of the link between third person and first person PoV. The most famous novel I can think of that uses this is The Great Gatsby. Pros: The narrator has a real, physical impact on the story (compare to third-person, where usually the narrator is independent from the story). The narrator's character influences how the story is told (while this also occurs in third person, it feels a bit stronger in first person peripheral) Cons: We don't get to see what the protag is feeling More focus may become placed on the narrator rather then the protag, which if done poorly, can make your story less interesting. If your narrator isn't an interesting or important character, the reader can get bored of your narrator pretty quickly. First person peripheral isn't all that bad, and can be something worth experimenting with. Consider writing a scene or a two from different PoVs and see how they change that scene, or if it's a short story, write the whole thing in a different PoV. Some stories work better with first person, other with third, and some with the more uncommon PoVs. I wouldn't say that have first person peripheral is a deal breaker in a story, and if you want to work with it, then go right ahead. Just don't do it to do it. Make it have an actual impact in your story.
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Nov 27, 2014 19:25
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Benny the Snake posted:Um, is it cool if I ask what everybody thought of my TD story for this week? hey im working on a line by line crit for you since you wanted a crit, but I expect you to pay it forward by critting someone else's. It doesn't have to be a line by line, but I will look down upon you if it isn't. If your not ok with having the person with the most DM not thinking highly of you, I suggest you put effort in that crit. Also, don't crit one of mine because I haven't been writing lately and probably won't for awhile. Do someone who is actually writing and needs some feedback. flerp fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Jan 27, 2015 |
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Jan 27, 2015 10:19
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so you want to write? stop playing video games and just write, write, write
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Mar 16, 2015 19:57
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Benny the Snake posted:Maugrim made it clear to me that my narrative choice of a newspaper article sucked the drama out a huge explosion. I chose the style because it's an economical one and I thought it would've compensated for the low word count. It did but not in the way I expected i think to do a newspaper article effectively it requires you to be really clever and know a lot of why stories are interesting. When you write in that specific way, you limit yourself highly, since it takes away the agency of the situation and makes it hard for the readers to view the mindset of the characters. We're stuck with the facts, and descriptions are usually left at a minimum in a newspaper article, so you either go two ways - something that is boring but authentically like a newspaper, or add in things that are not in a newspaper, but if your doing that, then why the gently caress are you writing it as if its a newspaper. In short, don't do that and write normally. It may seem like a neat thing to do but 99% of the time it will fail. If you want to say more with less, then read and write more in that style. Dont do gimmicks. Now that that's out of the way, gimmicks can work, but with a huge caveat: you have to be super loving good at writing. I remember reading a short story that was an acknowledgements page for a book or something, and it was very clever in how it told the story. However, i would never be able to write anything as compelling as that, nor do i think that story was particularly good. It was the gimmick that was interesting. Maybe, once you improve your writing and start feeling like you can limit yourself and write a compelling story, then go for it. But right now, work on improving the basics. That's what I'm trying to do, and i think that's what you should do too.
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Mar 24, 2015 04:18
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Any tips on how to adapt the style in the future?
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Screaming Idiot posted:Something I should have mentioned in my earlier post: if someone takes the time to critique your work, then be grateful, no matter how bitter and full of vitriol their review might be. They still did a favor by reading your stuff, and that's a helluva lot nicer than simply ignoring it. seriously, if someone tells you that they hated your story, you should be grateful. someone spent their time reading something they actively hated and spent even more time trying to tell you why, and you should be happy they wasted their time at all reading your story let alone putting their thoughts down. one of the best crits i got was where my story was (rightfully) ripped apart and i believe that is one of the biggest moments for me that improved my writing. i cant thank Martello for that crit and thunderdome by extension for everything theyve done. dont be a dick about crits tia
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Apr 28, 2015 02:37
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Just tell them they're wrong and post examples (like big examples, Hemingway for your situation) of why they're wrong. and do it publicly. if you just pm the dude telling him he's wrong, he might edit it or change it, but if he doesn't you screw over the people who need the advice. Call people out on their poo poo, especially if they potentially screw over other, newer writers. If they start off with those bad habits, then it just becomes that much harder for them to break. And if it's over the internet it's even easier to call people idiots. Though at the end of the day, they may actually give a poo poo and ignore you and say you're wrong. At that point, you kinda just have to shrug and say oh well, not much I can do. It sucks, but at least you tried.
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May 11, 2015 11:17
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The Saddest Rhino posted:read video game fanficts
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May 26, 2015 21:12
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Szmitten posted:I'm always bewildered by people who can produce while listening to anything. I can't concentrate even though I'd like to not be in a silent void. I listen to music while I write or do homework or whatever, but I listen to video game music which has a tendency to feel more like background music so it kind of falls in the back of my mind. I like it though, it makes something id normally consider tedious or boring into something more enjoyable thanks to how much I love my music. It's more about the person, I think, because it's hard for me to stay concentrated and not get bored of something before it's finished, so music definitely helps in that regard.
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Jul 2, 2015 20:16
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painted bird posted:I listen to music to get into the right "mood" for writing a particular piece and I have playlists set up for my main project for that purpose. I think if you have five PoV characters it'll confuse your reader. There's no hard rule on how many PoVs you can have, but I'd keep it as low as possible unless you have a good reason to move PoVs around. I don't know the length of what your writing, but I feel like switching between five different PoVs will start to become annoying for the reader no matter the length. PoV switches need to be heavily justified but if your story really does call for 5 PoVs and you think that's right, then try it out and see how it works. To me (based on no information on what your writing about), unless you are writing an extremely lengthy novel, five will get confusing and annoying to read. That's just me though and you should be open to experiment and see if it works.
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Jul 3, 2015 19:49
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:Fewer milstakes
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Sep 16, 2015 17:49
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first draft: meh good enough *pushes post button
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Sep 18, 2015 19:28
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sign up for thunderdome but never submit
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Sep 20, 2015 02:07
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Hi, I'm gonna effortpost here for probably like the first time and even though I'm far away from being the most skilled writer here, there's been something that's been nagging me about a lot of thunderdome stories, and stories in general, so I want to throw this out here. Stop Telling, Start Showing Now, I know you've heard that a million times. I've probably said this at least once in every single batch of crits I've done for Thunderdome. I'll confess too, earlier, I wasn't too confident on what telling vs. showing meant. However, in my creative writing class, I've been having to write poetry. That's taught me a lot, a lot of things about images. Poetry thrives off of imagery, while prose doesn't necessarily need it. There'll be a whole bunch of people who will say it's all about character or plot, but very few will say that stories are all about images, and yet, they kind of are. Like not as necessary as in poetry, but because of that images get overlooked by writers. They seem optional, and they are. However, it's like extra credit on a test. If you can do it, then why the gently caress aren't you? WHAT IS TELLING It means being abstract. What are abstractions, you're probably not asking because I don't think you're all idiots. Well, an abstraction is something like love, or hate, or hunger, or jealously, or some kind of idea that we cannot physically see. We can't see hatred. So, an abstraction would be "He was full of hate." Look at sentence for a little bit. Think about it. What does it do? On a surface level, it's nice, because it gets straight to the point. He's mad. Sweet, that's some character knowledge that could be important. But go just a bit deeper and you'll realize that's all it does. It just plops the idea on the floor and says "welp, that's just how it is." It doesn't do anything to the reader. It just sits there. It's boring. Stop being boring. HOW DO I KNOW IF I'M BEING AN IDIOT AND TELLING? That's the hard part, and it's not easy. Sometimes abstractions aren't going to be as simple as you writing "he hates this person." For example, I'm gonna take an example from my writing because I'm a selfish rear end in a top hat and also don't feel like doing any callouts and will make fun of myself, but I wrote this early in my TD history (Sally is a mammoth btw): "Without those two, I would’ve stopped years ago. Every hour I worked to make Sally a reality, Sharon and Katie were by my side. Every set back and failure slowly drained my dedication. I thought it was impossible. Sharon and Katie knew it was possible. Sally was a reality, not because of me, but because of the girls." Looking at this, this doesn't seem an awful set of sentences, at least in my opinion. Nor do they seem especially abstract. But read it again. And again. Until you notice something. There's no images. There's nothing you can imagine. It just sits on the page, tells you everything you need to know, and is kinda boring. "I worked to make Sally a reality" - what does that mean? How did he work, what did he do? "Sharon and Katie were by my side" - so like physically, or emotionally? How so? "Every setback and failure slowly drained my dedication" - this is probably the best place to put some images. "Setbacks and failures" don't do anything physical when I can describe a specific setback or failure and then I can show how his dedication drained. You see, it's tough, especially when your writing a story, to find these moments in your story where you place in abstractions. It takes experience writing, it takes you writing abstractions without realizing it, and then going back and seeing them and changing them. It also takes experience reading, to see how other readers deal with images to avoid abstraction and express their abstractions through concrete details. The easiest way to find an abstraction is to look at your sentence and think to yourself "what do I see?" If nothing, then either your description is horrible or it's an abstraction. SO WHAT'S THE POINT OF SHOWING PEOPLE THINGS? AND HOW DO I SHOW THINGS? Alright you idiot, I'll show it to you. I had an exercise in my creative writing class where we were supposed to convert abstractions into concrete images to show them. For example, I was given "I feel like a different person with a whole new perspective." When I'm trying to write an image, and this is just me, and people will have different ways of doing this, but I think of the idea, and wonder what can I use to show this. I just let the idea sit in my head for a while and imagine something. Something physical, something I can touch or see or hear. Then, I put it on the page. Don't need to be fancy. Say all you need to say. So, for this specific line, I went a little out there, and wrote (note this is poetry) "I see grey moths/ Swarming around a yellow light./ I realize/ That I'm not watching the flickering of the light/ Or listening to the hum of the moths,/ But reaching out to the darkness." Your images don't need to be complex, but they need to show something. When you write, readers assume your writing for a reason. That when you choose an image, you choose it because it's the right image. It's what you feel. These new sets of lines show a lot more then the last ones. It shows the original idea, but it makes it more specific. It gives more information. This person seems depressed. Personally, I hate the whole "reaching out to the darkness" bit because it feels a little angsty. But it at least shows something! Maybe not exactly what I want to show, but that's what editing is for. There's substance there, something that gives a look into the mindset into the speaker. I have at least a better understanding of the second speaker than the first speaker. Take your ideas and think about them. When you think of hatred, how does a person, your specific character, show hate? Do they sulk away in their chair, do they mutter under their breath, do they walk by without looking up from their phone, do they write an angry post about them on an IRC channel? When you look at all these examples, even though I wouldn't say they're amazing, you see a lot of different images and more importantly, a lot of different characters. That person sulking in the chair is different from that person muttering under his breath. They react to things differently and how they react gives us some insight to who they are. That's one of the reasons why images are nice. They show character in a way that abstractions never will. "I hate that person, character thought" doesn't give us a lot of character. "Character tore at the lint in his pocket as person spoke" shows us a hell of a lot more, not only because I can see the dude tearing at the lint, but also I can see that he has some anger, that he wants to take out his anger, but for some reason, can't at this moment. Probably because it's a socially unacceptable, but who knows? I STILL DON'T GET IT, WHY CAN'T I KEEP WRITING BAD? There's also another reason to write images. They look cool. Seriously, you're here to entertain, and cool, interesting images are awesome to look at and we love it. Like, look at my AV. It's seriously loving rad and awesome and I actually wrote a poem about it (well the art piece it's based on) because 1) it was an assignment and 2) it looks loving rad. We love this kind of poo poo. We love vivid, unique things. I took an art history class once and it loving owned. Seriously, look at art sometimes. Think about the images, see what they do, how they look, how they conjure up the emotions in you. Why does Picasso's Guernica make you incredibly depressed while an Gothic Cathedral makes you feel awe? That's what your images should be doing (Ok, maybe not on the level of Guernica, but you should at least be trying). Like look at this.  That's rad. Try to capture those images. Try to show us that poo poo. Then your stories will be rad. I want your stories to be rad. I want to read rad stories. WHAT ABOUT METAPHORS. THOSE ARE WEIRD AND COMPLICATED AND I DON'T LIKE TO WRITE THEM Here's the thing, people are pretty simple. We like to act all smart and clever, but in actuality, we just want something interesting. Give us an image that makes us linger on it for a moment. Metaphors/similes/figurative language are great for this. For example, consider Alberto Rios metaphor in My Chili (another poem btw): "Chili: The small letter z/ Which sometimes masquerades as the capital X,// Adding, thereby to the other's reputation/ Among the adults of the alphabet,// But chili content as z not to say anything/ Only to get the chance to live// Part of two lives." Hot drat, that metaphor is loving insane. Like, think about it. Keep thinking about it. I mean, literally, ponder what he is saying right there. Done yet? Ok, I'll give you a bit more time. You probably need it. Isn't that loving great? Like, you have to reach into the deepest part of your mind to figure out what he's saying, but it works. It works super well. The great thing about metaphor and similes and whatnot is that they give us two things to think. We see chili looking like a z, or a capital X, but we also see z and X as a chili. We're seeing two things at once, both mixing together, adding to each other to make something greater then the two pieces. You might be saying, "But that's for poetry. I write prose." Only an idiot decides that he's not going to use a saw to cut wood since only a carpenter uses that. If it's in your toolbox, use it. TRANSITION QUESTION BETWEEN WHAT WAS PREVIOUSLY SAID AND CLICHES I also want to take about cliches. I think cliched premises are fine if you are able to make it unique in some way. Note that this is my personal opinion and some people will still yell at you if you write cliches (that person may also be me). There's a reason why some premise are cliched. They're something we like to read. Sometimes we want something familiar, not too familiar that we feel like we've experienced it before, but familiar enough that it doesn't feel like outlandish. Taking a breakup, or a divorce from the perspective of the child in the middle of it, or a fantasy world where the king is evil and the heroes have to defeat him, these all can work as long as you treat them right. Don't just write "Fantasy Story #5000000000," write a story that brings some nuance to the cliche. Treat it as a rough block and chisel it to make a brand new statue. HOWEVER. Cliched images are unacceptable. Seriously. gently caress you if you write "His eyes are full of energy and youth" or something else that I've heard a million times. This goes back into the abstractions, but mostly in that this isn't exactly an abstraction, but it has become some popular and boring that it has stopped having an effect on people. These are dead words. Make it clever. "His eyes are full of puppies bouncing around the room." Boom. That's more unique, that's got you thinking about cute little puppies jumping around AND eyes darting around the room. Now you're getting somewhere. If you feel like you've heard a metaphor before, like "his skin crawled" or some other poo poo I can't think of but there are like a million of them, don't use them. Simple as that. I DIDN'T ACTUALLY READ THE REST OF THIS Write more and read more. Also, think about your images, think about how you can choose images to express your ideas in a way that is more entertaining and more evocative then just stating them plainly. Use images to show character. Avoid abstractions. Be creative. Go out there. Say what you really feel. You're gonna fail. I'll probably call your story poo poo anyways. But at least try. Put your heart into your stories. Show me who you are through your writing. Make me see crisp images. Make me see things in a way I've never seen them before. You can do it. Only one person has your perspective. That's you. Now show it. flerp fucked around with this message at 17:04 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 16:59
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heres my sure fire method to writing words 1) turn on computer/tablet/phone or take a piece(s) of paper or even a typewriter 2) open up a word app like google docs or word. if using paper, pick up a pencil or do whatever the gently caress you do with a typewriter 3) write words by hitting the keys. If using a pencil, use your hand to move the pencil to make words, or do typewriter poo poo and there you go! you figured out the trick to writing!
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Sep 30, 2015 03:59
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Tyrannosaurus posted:For the record, I would be interested in reading people's actual methods. if i have an idea: oh poo poo its sunday and i  ed welp, time to put this idea on paperif i have no idea: oh poo poo its sunday and i ed welp, time to come up with something like maybe a dog with a hat? yeah thats good, time to put that on paper.
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Sep 30, 2015 06:44
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Idk, for some people, some things work while others don't. like, TD works really well for me since it gives me a deadline, some arbitrary (or if i'm ed, concrete) punishment if I don't finish. Same thing with LW. Of course, this doesn't work for everyone. There's a ton of things that people have done, whether it be forcing yourself to write with a deadline that has a punishment/reward if you fail/succeed, or just setting a half hour or more to pure dedicated writing, or just shaming yourself into writing because you're a piece of poo poo who needs to just loving write, c'mon, it's not that loving hard, like, just put some words on the page and loving go at it. I just went to a reading where they were asked how they write, sometimes you just gotta force yourself to, sometimes you have to have inspiration, but the key thing is to just loving write. There's no magic formula, no special trick, you just do it. I wish it was easier, I wish I could just say "do this, and boom, you'll be writing like a pro!" But there isn't. So, write, and write, and write. Also read too, that's useful too. But also write.
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Oct 6, 2015 04:59
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Plot:
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Oct 25, 2015 18:24
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please, for the love of God, if you are doing a ton of dialogue add in some physical description. like, unless you have loving amazing dialogue, like Hemingway level dialogue, then ten lines of talking without any description will make it seem like two people talking in a void reading a script which is really, really, really bad. also, how people move when they talk and how they react to what's being said usually gives more information on their mental state and opinions then what they say.
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Nov 2, 2015 17:27
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i have two people of different genders so i can just he and she pronouns and dont have to keep using their dumb names that i hate because gently caress names
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Nov 2, 2015 19:00
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magnificent7 posted:Jeff picked at a wart on his hand. "It's not like you killed someone, right?" quote:"No, I guess not. She was alive when I left her." Jim said, with a blank expression on his face, unable to turn away from Jeff's wart-pickery. quote:"No, I guess not. She was alive when I left her." Jim said quote:her." Jim said  punctuate your dialogue right!!! https://litreactor.com/columns/talk-it-out-how-to-punctuate-dialogue-in-your-prose this is like my biggest pet peeve and its so easy and simple seriously stop being lazy.
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Nov 3, 2015 02:47
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Hey, I just wrote this big thing about critiques in writing groups on a friend's Facebook, because I am like this IRL, too.
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Nov 24, 2015 09:10
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Sitting Here posted:I'd like some fictional advice please adopt a fiction from a shelter, they need good homes.
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Dec 2, 2015 01:38
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Sitting Here posted:i'm having this problem where I can't get my dependent clauses to talk to my conjunctions? I've tried rerouting them through the primary adverbial clauses but no dice. limping along on sentence fragments here, HALP have you asked your dependent clauses how they feel? and dont interrupt them, just let them know your there to listen. and REALLY listen.
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Dec 2, 2015 02:01
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spectres of autism posted:i just wanted to post something. a good way to write is to use less adverbs im gonna emptyquote you
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Feb 14, 2016 18:27
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NiffStipples posted:Don't write This is horrible awful advice for any writer, mostly because it says "dont write." You have to write and there shouldn't be a moment if you want to be a writer where you should say "I can't write" (the operative word being cant, which is different from don't want to). I'm not in the mood, I'm not feeling it, every cognitive thought of mine is garbage are all excuses to not write but you can still write. Here's the thing, you have to write bad. Writing good isn't natural or easy and a final draft of a finished novel/short/whatever doesn't come about because you just got in the groove and wrote it all because it was easy that day. It happens because you said "I am going to write this" and you wrote a terrible first draft then a terrible second draft and then kept at it until it stopped being terrible (hopefully). The moments where I hit a stride are few and far between and they last just long enough to maybe write a flash piece of like 1k words. If I'm looking to write a novel like that, I will never finish it. I just won't. I tend to agree with passion and writing for yourself is alright as long as you make the distinction between "I am writing purely for myself" and "I am writing for myself to show to others" which are two very different things and require you to do different things. If you're trying to write a book DO NOT write purely for yourself as a chapter because it will not work for any other reader besides yourself. Writing for other people in mind makes sense because you are trying to get this published to be read by other people. You can be passionate and also write for other people. It's not easy and the passion comes out much better in editing, but I find it's easier to edit a story and make it stronger when I've written it with knowing that I'm writing a story to show to other people rather than with a something I wrote purely for myself. That doesn't mean that my story lacks passion if I don't write it just for myself. I'm still writing for myself, but I'm doing it for other people too. Also you should probably stop thinking of books as songs or movies but as books. They are very different from each other.
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Mar 21, 2016 17:54
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HIJK posted:I have a question re: the writing badly is essential thing. What do you do when you write the bad stuff but you know it isn't working and no amount of plotting, outlining, drafting, and "focusing on other scenes first" is fixing it...and then, out of the blue you get that thunderbolt idea that is totally different from anything you considered before but it finally ties the story together? How do you work with that? I... can't really answer that because I don't write novels so most of the time my stories are short enough that lightning bolt leads to a story pretty much. Most of the time, I don't really even get that lightning bolt until I start writing. It's only after a couple words or sentences in that I find that if a story starts to grab me, it will. That's hard, of course, because I have to start writing with nothing and it doesn't work out a lot of the time, but it's my process and it works sometimes and that's just how it goes for me. I have had in some of my stories where I've written scenes with the full knowledge that they are going to be deleted. They're there because they have to be there for me and I keep writing just to get that boring nonsense out of my brain and to clear it up. It's mostly that your brain latches onto something quick and easy (and usually bad) which distracts from the actual good stuff, so I find it's great to just write the most obvious thing possible just to clear your head of it. Then, with your brain warmed up with thinking and the obvious poo poo out of the way, you can think of the good stuff. Hopefully. Then, I go back and look at the scenes I had written early that were bad and see if there's an off chance that it's good (it's probably not) then I delete it. I think for a novel, a good outline with all the plot threads written out will help out a lot if you treat the outline as something malleable. So then when you get that brilliant idea you go look at your outline and see where it can fit, what it does in the overall narrative, and see if it changes anything after/before. Of course, I don't write novels so this could all be useless  . It sucks to throw poo poo out but I think it's a good thing, personally. Hell, I'd written about 15k words last month that are pretty much in the dumpster and that's ok. Also, if you do get that inspiration, then go right for it. Don't finish whatever scene you're working on if you have something better that you want to write. It's a rare moment when you get those bursts of inspirations so you need to take advantage of them whenever. Just write it first and edit it later (this might actually be terrible advice for a novel since it would seem like a bunch of scenes stitched together, but whatever). General Battuta posted:It's okay to say "I can't write" for a day, or a month, or a year. Sometimes your brain is hosed up and won't do what it needs to do. That's different from 'eh I don't really feel like it', you definitely need to work at writing and build it up as a habit, but...you don't need to write every day or even every month to make it as a writer. I agree, but I think waiting for inspiration is a bad way to go about it. I think of writing a lot like sports, where if you want to get better you have to go to practice even if you don't want to (and it's usually those days that you don't want to go and you go anyways that make you a much better athlete). If your goal is to become a good writer then you're gonna have to write, no way around it. If you're having like bad days with depression or other issues (you don't go to practice if you have a broken leg, to continue that metaphor), that's understandable but just saying "well, I'm just not in the mood for writing" is an excuse and you should try to write anyways.
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Mar 21, 2016 18:50
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youre going to write a story that uses that character key word being WRITE
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Apr 17, 2016 06:03
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i get rid of them
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Apr 20, 2016 19:29
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ok ill do a somewhat serious post i guess plot contrivances happen in drafting a lot of the time. they happen because your just writing and get the words out there and that you probably had a plot in your head while you were writing. so then, with the idea that makes sense to you, you put it into the story, but it turns out, poo poo, that doesn't make sense at all. or, more likely, someone will read your story and be like, poo poo, that doesn't make sense at all. i find this happens a lot with either character inconsistency, as the reader has the idea for the plot and character (like they had a scene that they REALLY wanted to put in but it doesn't make sense because the character wouldnt do that thing), but the two don't gel together, or that the contrivances are put in place to basically transition from one idea to the other with little to no hassle. in that sense, contrivances are actually kind of good in drafting (if you make the mental note to go back and edit them so that they make better sense) so that you can get to the parts that are more interesting/revealing in your drafting that will probably be more important in your story overall. to fix a plot contrivance, usually (there are exceptions), it's not a case of cutting, but rather adding. when writing, a lot of times, your ideas are sound and work, but it's just that the unconscious links you had in your brain that made everything make sense to you are not put in the story (mostly because you didn't even notice that the links were necessary) so it doesn't make sense to your reader. in that case, the two best solutions are 1) stop working on that piece and come back to it in a couple weeks/months where you come in more fresh like a regular reader and 2) ask people to read your story and see where they get hangups. most of the time, when your reader says "i dont understand why this happened" or "huh, this was kind of weird," that's a contrivance that you can better explain to your reader. i find people have a good intuitive sense of logic and emotions (usually better than yours because your experience as the writer colors your interpretation of the story much more), so use them and listen to them.
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Apr 20, 2016 20:02
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C7ty1 posted:So okay, this is pretty unashamedly about TD, so yeah yeah, whatever. i usually just type first lines and continue them for a bit. if by like the third or fourth paragraph doesnt have me like writing it, i usually just hit ctrl-a and delete it all and start over. then i do a couple more lines, see if anything takes me, but just writing out a couple lines gets the brain flowing and soon enough your actually gonna get somewhere somehow. if i dont get what i want just yet, i usually take a break, take a shower, go play some video games, w/e, but i come back and try again and i almost always gets somewhere. that somewhere might not always be great but w/e words are words. once i got the first couple of paragraphs done, i usually have figured out what im trying to do. im one of those exploratory writers or w/e the gently caress you want to call them where they just write and as they write theyre figuring out what needs to be done. i dont brainstorm or do any of that other crap but if that works for you, that works. the only writing method that's bad is one that doesn't make words imho. also a cool idea is to just write whatever without a filter. and i mean, sincerely, write without a filter. it doesnt have to be a narrative or a poem, it could be a loving rant if you want, but just write. it will be poo poo, i promise you that, but it gets the brain going. then once youve reached the point where your like "gently caress this is so terrible i dont want to free write anymore," delete it all and start a new story (i know sebmojo has a similar method where they write the most obvious, boring interpretation of the prompt and then go back and add things in to make it more interesting. i like starting from scratch but if your adverse to deleting your words, that method might be better). that new story will be 100% better than that first thing you wrote. i like to think of it like the brain comes up first with an obvious solution to a problem but w/ writing the obvious solution will p much always be boring and uninteresting. so once you get that out of the way your brain is a lot more open and more willing to try different (and more interesting) things. you have to get your brain engaged in writing and the only way really to do that is to write. flerp fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jun 3, 2016 |
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Jun 3, 2016 19:37
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write good words e: dont use bad words
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Jun 7, 2016 18:36
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Mr Gentleman posted:write words you like, who cares whether theyre good or bad i do
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Jun 7, 2016 19:06
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MockingQuantum posted:After a long time where I've done no writing whatsoever, I'm trying to get back in the habit for the purpose of writing some horror short stories or longer fiction, and possibly a horror podcast down the line. In the interest of doing anything whatsoever rather than paralyzing myself with planning and analysis (which I'm prone to), I just started writing a short story the other day, and have managed to keep the habit going for a while. As has been recommended multiple times in the thread, I'm not concerning myself with quality or it being a good story, really, I'm just putting words to paper and trying to finish something. That said, though, I'm kind of at a point of wondering where the heck this story is going and how I'm going to wrap it up. Is it worth stopping and plotting out the storyline in a more formal way, given that this is my first story in a long time, or should I just trust my gut, finish it out, learn what I can from it, and move onto the next one? sincerely, i dont know man. like my method is usually just like go into a story and just write it in a couple days (probably just one day because thunderdome) and then maybe edit it and make it better if i like it/got good feedback and then do another one but like, that's not how everyone works. so you have to figure out what you think is best because what i do works for me but it might not work for you. so if you need to, go back and try to outline some stuff or w/e you do because honestly, imo, the only bad writing method is one that doesnt make words. so as long as you are making progress on a story, then that should be good enough. you just have to figure out what works for you and that might require some experimentation and beating your head against a brick wall and what not.
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Jul 10, 2016 07:15
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RedTonic posted:May the anticipation is killing me
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Aug 26, 2016 05:18
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Aug 26, 2016 06:13
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