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Why didn't you start out at the point where she gets the superpowers?
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Jan 21, 2015 02:08
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Bobby Deluxe posted:
I hear The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker (the cognitive scientist, yeah) is really good. quote:Not on the reading list but highly recommended by a lot of people: Julia Cameron, 'The Artist's Way' I really want to like this, but it basically starts with OKAY LET'S ASSUME GOD IS REAL AND MAKES YOU WRITE and goes from there.
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Jan 24, 2015 11:54
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Watch Justified. See how all the suspense scenes are mostly them talking, then like five seconds of action at most. Learn from it.
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Feb 4, 2015 10:25
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I don't think any platform will make it more likely that anyone actually bothers to read any of it, so you might as well go with whatever you like the look of best.
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Feb 27, 2015 07:46
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Screaming Idiot posted:I've got a problem. That's a good reason to keep trying to quit drinking and low your caffeine.
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Mar 1, 2015 22:11
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http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/tom-shone/when-novelists-sober
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Mar 1, 2015 23:01
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Screaming Idiot posted:Well, it's not that beer and coffee make me more creative, it's that the beer made me stop worrying about things and the caffeine gave me and enthusiasm. Without them I'm just a nervous, tired wreck and I can't get my ideas in order. I have depression as well, but the drugs aren't covered under my insurance plan and they make me a listless zombie, so I just drink until I stop worrying and my back stops hurting. Then I usually feel up to writing, I know what Stephen King said in On Writing, and I agree with him for the most part, but his work after he got clean was substantially poorer than his nosebleed days. It sounds like you've got more important poo poo to deal with than writing. Work on fixing the other stuff.
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Mar 2, 2015 01:56
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The Saddest Rhino posted:Don't be a little bitch 
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Mar 16, 2015 18:11
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If you at a skill level where you're asking writing advice from goons, maybe you shouldn't take on a project of doing a stylistic remake of a piece of medieval literature that you apparently don't even know that well.
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Mar 29, 2015 00:10
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RedTonic posted:I had a dream last night that I was gonna forget to sub. I don't wanna fail with a complete entry on my harddrive. Steven Pinker of all people wrote a style guide. It's pretty good, apparently.
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Apr 19, 2015 21:05
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ravenkult posted:Agreed. I'm just saying, you shouldn't be looking at his writing and going ''Yes, this is what great writing is like. I should emulate this.'' Jim Butcher's prose is functional at best. You should try to do better than that. The advice on his blog, however, is almost entirely concerned with plotting and structure, which are his strengths. It's also pretty much the Cliff's Notes version of Dwight Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer which is a good book. (His writing teacher was Swain's pupil and ran his writing program, I believe.) Learning from the greats is great and all, but generally speaking, if you're asking for advice on technique on the internet, you're probably not someone who has the natural instincts to just read something good and take in all the right principles from it. Mamatas is an obnoxious wanker, by the way.
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May 12, 2015 23:46
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secret griffin sex cult
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May 23, 2015 19:37
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chthonic bell posted:I find Waugh's views morally repulsive, though. Not as repulsive as being a guy called Evelyn, of course.
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May 30, 2015 21:16
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I'd rather read books that don't make me feel like I'm pondscum.
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ravenkult posted:I wanna hear more about Stephen King's ''weird sex issues.'' I really don't. Is this really the right thread to listen to him blather about this bullshit? Blergh.
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May 31, 2015 10:52
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:If so I'm going to be pissed. I wasted thunderdome time if that's the case. 
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Jun 12, 2015 19:02
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Omi no Kami posted:I'm pretty sure the answer is "Just write," but are there any specific drills/practices that help you guys work on making character voices sound distinct and easily distinguishable? I find that my dialogue is all super-generic, or heavily accented/specialized to the point of absurdity. For your purposes (it's for the detective game, right?) find a writer.
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Jun 18, 2015 02:19
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Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is good.
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Jun 27, 2015 16:15
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:I think you mean whenever you're constipated. Unless you're saying you're writing is full of poo poo 
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Jul 2, 2015 10:19
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blue squares posted:Thought on not waiting to begin editing after finishing the draft? My novel manuscript is in a drawer waiting for me to take it out on August 1st. But that gives me only a month before school and work begin again. I really want to start working on it now. I already know many things I want to add and improve, and I don't think I am "too close" the work to be able to spot the flaws. http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/122693055511/hello-i-was-wondering-all-the-tips-i-ever-find
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Jul 2, 2015 23:42
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Read Red Knight, don't do that.
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Jul 3, 2015 20:22
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:I for the longest time have wanted to develop a word processor that has plugins for youtube/spotify/itunes/streaming services. Having the music there is a necessity for a lot of people, having the web browser open is a focus-crusher distraction. You can just install a second, different browser and install a blocker that only allows Spotify and Google Docs 24/7.
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Jul 4, 2015 11:48
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Jul 22, 2015 13:48
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Jul 23, 2015 17:20
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Another A+ Kloctopost.
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Oct 25, 2015 11:51
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I prefer "quaffed" or "chortle-sneezed".
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Nov 1, 2015 20:22
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change my name posted:Help does anyone have any advice about taking the paring knife to your book http://smile.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yourself/dp/0060545690
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Dec 6, 2015 20:22
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Mycroft Holmes posted:So, I have a strange request. I suffer from dysgraphia, a writing disorder. However, I very much wish to write some of the, admittedly lovely, sci-fi stories I have been compiling in my head for a decade. Does anyone know how I would get in touch with a collaborative partner to work on something like this? How are you posting this?
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Jan 10, 2016 00:29
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change my name posted:What's the consensus on submitting to an agent vs. publishing house slush pile? I've heard that the second is slightly easier to get published through, but that you really want an agent to push for you + make sure you're getting more money. http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2005/02/07/how-much-does-a-science-fiction-or-fantasy-writer-make/ quote:Broken down by Agented vs. Unagented:
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Mar 5, 2016 23:51
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magnificent7 posted:Hey, dead zone of writing advice. You know, me being a Russian, I'm a part of a culture that Americans love to write about without really bothering learning anything it about beyond reading a book or two. You know what? It's annoying as gently caress. You (as in, generic you) can't fake this poo poo. You can only really convincingly pull off the level of immersion into a culture that you yourself are at. You've read a few books about a culture? Congratulations, you can now insert a few scenes where your character, an American, goes to wherever you chose and, like, gets drunk in a bar and has a car chase. You could maybe even write a minor character who's an immigrant in your US-based novel and not embarrass yourself. Have you spent a few years actually immersing yourself in a culture? That's fantastic! You could now probably pull off a novel about being a foreigner in said culture, as long as you didn't try to be too profound about it or, like, write your exploration of their national character. You could probably even write about locals, as long as those locals spend most of the novel fighting off reptiloid ninjas. You want to write a novel about Cubans in Cuba being Cuban? You kinda need to have had more input than just a few books. I mean, I suppose there are people who amazing enough that they could pull this off. But are you this amazing? I mean, you are asking goons how to do it on the Internet. (As a sidenote, you do realize that the embargo is a lot more porous than you seem to think? Tens of thousands Americans travel to Cuba and back each year. Not to mention a couple million of Canadians and Mexicans, some of whom travel to US immediately thereafter.)
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Apr 14, 2016 22:19
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Djeser posted:I'm trying to aim for a terse, dehumanizing tone for something I'm writing, but I'm kind of at a loss for examples. Anyone familiar with something written like that? James Ellroy?
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Apr 19, 2016 10:09
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TBH I'd just recommend that you write a new one while you send the first one out. Most writers first sell, like, the third or fifth or even tenth novel they write.
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Aug 29, 2016 20:15
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bigperm posted:I personally would need several compelling reasons to root for a selfish heroin addict and your blurb has zero. Yeah. Generally speaking, there are character flaws and there are character flaws. If your character's a heroin junkie or (yes, these are on a different level entirely) sexually attracted to children or sexually assaults people, that poo poo kinda overrides whatever positive qualities you might choose to give them. I've tried reading a novel recently with a first person POV of someone who wasn't even using anymore and it felt like This, the Novel:  Incredibly annoying to read. Yours is an active user and an rear end in a top hat? Instant pass.
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Sep 10, 2016 08:51
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So it's junkie fiction, urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic? Will there be spaceships as well?
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Sep 10, 2016 17:58
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Naerasa posted:You do know you can use a nuclear bomb without it being the apocalypse, right? America's already done it twice before. So just urban fantasy and near future scifi, gotcha.
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Sep 10, 2016 18:04
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Chairchucker posted:Mmm yes, the idea of there being drug use in the aftermath of a nuclear war is completely ridiculous. Aftermath of a nuclear war... and also magic wish-granting stones! Mixing What Ifs like that is not a great idea. If you've got an alien invasion AND sexy vampires or you're ripping off the Martian and then the magical ponies waltz in and they're not a hallucination, you're either going full bizarro and good luck to you my friend or you've hosed up somewhere. The junkie protagonist is just a turd cherry on top.
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Sep 10, 2016 18:27
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I apologize. I get a little carried away when people start arguing. But, uh, I do suggest developing more ideas.
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Sep 10, 2016 18:58
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