General Writer's Block thread

Yeah, like that.

Perhaps the boy wants to goodify the devil?

I like the idea of the bunny's evil interests and the boys good interests actually coinciding, at least at the beginning. But are you actually going to have the bunny try to kill everyone at the end?

@Bensan Dan: I like the second idea. You can use those three characters to explore different attitudes toward love, and then make different things happen to them. (does the hopeless romantic live happily ever after with his love, and thus prove his point, or does his quest fail?)

Yes, they do eventually live happily ever after with their loves, except for the protagonist, who lightens up about romance.

Though, I was going to have it like Kingdom Hearts: It's rather fantasy-ish, but modern, or have it like Duradura. I have the first bit of the story here. I could use help with the characters as well here, too.

@Bensen I'm not planning on letting the evil bunny win, but I want him and the boy to be in cahoots, at least for a while.

And, the boy's Magical Boy costume is going to be Spartan themed, since that's a male costume that actually looks like a Magical Girl costume. What kind of super-powers might he have?

Fire.

Ha! I love the homo-erotic magic boy costume.

Well let's see, what superpowers do Spartans have? According to the movie, there should be:

Super-SHOUTING!

Super-STARING AT ANIMALS!

Super-SEXY TIME! (must including SHOUTING!)

Super-PUNCHING!

Super-CG MUSCLE DEFINITION!

and maybe something useful like being able to use any weapon you pick up. And super strength and luck in battle as long as you rush headlong and never show fear.

Actually, in seriousness, the ancient Greeks had a whole mystical theory about manly power (Virility=the human espresso machine) , and I think you can steal directly from that.

Virility, eh? Sounds kind of Gurren Lagann-esque.

Okay, so I have something to add to the plot that I'm working on. You see, there's a girl who is constantly approached by men, but because of her shyness, she turns down everyone. Sooner or later, these guys don't take it very well, soon evolving into superpowered Yandere's and full-blown stalkers, all resulting in kidnappings, fighting, and...stalking, all before that one guy can gain the courage to ask her out.

Another alternate was that one guy who was able to ask her out and she accepts, but it leads to the same disastrous results above. Two alternates were either plot, but no powers at all.

Wow. I HAVE been out of touch. I'd never heard of TTGL before just now. Thanks for the ref :)

You should check it out. While I don't wanna say the show changed my life, it did help me understand somethings that did. *

Also I've released fan fic to the web.

edited 28th Mar '12 1:38:30 AM by Vyctorian

OK. I have a smart dude. And he is unfortunately, the smartest person in the group at present. However, he's not a genius.

I want him to say something wrong, without it being blatantly so, but since he's essentially speaking about a topic that the others know nothing about (prolly evolution), they have no choice but to accept, since they are basically not even at a level where they can go "that makes no sense!"

But I don't want to be accused of Did Not Do The Research, and I don't want to stop time, break the 4th wall, explain he's wrong, and then go back to the story unless I REALLY need to.

^ Depending on your style of narration, you might be able to use an aside that one of the characters later looked up what he was talking about and figured out that he was wrong.

Comic books. With as little internal monologing as possible. While on a trip around the world, with the only place with such information miles and miles away, and not going any closer.

^ Hmm . . . The only comic I've seen that explains when people are wrong is Ghost In The Shell, which uses significantly more footnotes than you'd probably be willing to handle.

Eeeeyup. I guess I could just include it later on when he's getting a "Reason You Suck" Speech from someone who WOULD know, I just hope it doesn't come off as retconning, since it will be easily an installment or two apart.

edited 28th Mar '12 1:13:44 PM by MrAHR

you could show him learning the incorrect information beforehand, then demonstrate (when he's not around) that the information is incorrect.

Yeah, his information that he'll be spouting is largely evo-psych stuff. He learned basic evolution and biology as a kid and a teenager, so I can't really show that since he learned it way back. I guess I can show it's wrong, but it will be hard.

Another way to show that what he's saying is wrong, and you know it, is to make it completely ridiculous.

For an example, you could probably watch a few episodes of Futurama.

No. That would be out of character. He's not an idiot, just using faulty information to justify his biases.

So, I didn't really want to devote an entire thread to this subject, but I'm struggling a little with my writing. Specifically, I'm trying to make my protagonist likable before her character development turns her into a wily, determined Lady of Black Magic. She starts off as a haughty, arrogant and vain Proper Lady, with a streak of generosity and an instinctual understanding of human nature. Trying to establish her positive qualities while her negatives are still so effective is a difficult balancing act, because while I don't want to Sue her up, I don't want readers to feel disengaged by her because she's a bit of a bitch.

edited 29th Mar '12 1:08:21 PM by Pattyunknown

Play up the generosity, is my first instinct.

But make sure you're very clear about her not being generous for PR.

Thanks, it seems so simple but it never crossed my mind! I think I might add another scene in the start of the book before the plot gets kick-started to play up those attributes. Reading through, I realised that I have focused far too much on her uptight vanity.

@Mr AHR: Is he some kind of でんぱ/Tenpo/whatever that enjoys showing off his knowledge?

...I have no idea what that means.