General Writer's Block thread

I'm afraid not, though surprisingly enough, I was considering the idea that the reason The Magic Goes Away in some of my settings is that somehow the capacity for magic that is normally innate in every human to one degree or another (not everyone is created equal, after all; some people are natural athletes, others are not and may even never be able to become athletic, to draw a parallel) has more or less atrophied in most people over the millennia; a skilled mage/psychic with the supernatural equivalent of an X-ray/ultrasound/MRI scan who knows what to look for would be able to see vestigial remnants of this lost capacity in the souls of modern-day muggle humans.

I was thinking of "Potency" to describe the Mystical Power stat — you know, referring to the mystical potency of the character's spirit.

Perhaps I should mention some of the approaches used by some official settings. In Shadowrun, magical or technomatic power is tied to one's Essence rating (a measure of your raw life-force; it's not related to your Hit Points, though); your Magic or Resonance rating cannot exceed your Essence value. And if you lose Essence (typically due to invasive/extensive augmentation with cyberware or bioware), your Magic/Resonance value automatically suffers an identical, mandatory loss in value.

Meanwhile, in the Nasuverse, a Magus is what s/he is because she possesses Magic Circuits — a metaphysical analogue to the nervous, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems of the physical body, located in the soul, that absorb Mana (ambient magical energy) and process it into a usable form called Od. The power of a Magus is defined by two factors: The number of such Circuits that s/he possesses (something that cannot be changed naturally^note And attempts to do so through artificial means are, AFAIK, always hazardous and deeply flawed, leading to Blessed with Suck.), as each Circuit has a maximum limit for how much magical energy it can process and store; and the quality/efficiency of the Circuits' ability to process energy. The latter is quite a prized trait, because while the most prestigious families in Mage society achieve their status through a consistent history of producing powerful mages that are typically marked by some of the highest numbers of high quality magic circuits (typically in the ), there are a few non-noble mages who cause outrage among those nobles by possessing decidely superlative magical power to most if not all noble magi in spite of having only a mediocre or even sub-average number of circuits, all because they had the fortune of being born with ridiculously high quality circuits.

edited 1st Nov '14 3:42:37 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I think I have a problem with plotting. Like, I'm stuck in a formula of either "heroes travel to different locations to gather a MacGuffin" or "hero tries repeatedly to defeat a Big Bad, but fails until they figure it out".

Nothing wrong with those, of course, but I'm writing a Gag Series on top of a Teen Drama base (obviously, there's not much in the way of "drama").

But I can't do it. I can't plot stories that are actually funny and character-driven. I mean, what do I do?

Weird in a Can (updated M-F)

Hmm...try making the antagonist interesting. They're usually the ones who do stuff, then the heroes react. I forget the name of that trope...

Alternatively, reduce the antagonist to minor role, or forgo them entirely. I don't know if this helps, but look into the situation they face, why, and what everyone's goals regarding it are.

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

I believe the trope you're looking for is Villains Act, Heroes React.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

What does each of your protagonists want?

What obstacles would be funny for them to have to deal with?

How do they get in each others' way?

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

The key to writing a funny action sequence is to make sure that the protagonist shoots themselves in the foot. The antagonist sets up the initial conflict, but once the protagonist decides to do something about it, everything they try just makes the situation worse. Much worse. To the point where more people are trying to stop the protagonist than the antagonist. Think "Pink Panther". Alternatively, if you want a self-doubting protagonist, everything they try to do makes the situation much worse for them personally. And of course no one encourages the Protagonist or tries to help them out. Things are only set right in the very last climactic scene.

Okay. I've got a few things.

1. Exposition Dump s. I am very very bad with those. They're required in some fashion, however, as the characters are learning everything at the same time as the readers. Anything I could do?

2. I think I've known this for a while, but my book tends to reflect myself in ways that are...uh...obvious. For example, the author is getting mad at the characters due to them attempting to solve their problems via a legal battle instead of violence. One of the characters turns out to be able to hear him because reasons. She decides to stand up for him and screw everyone over.

This is likely a side effect of how I write, but are there any major downsides? I like how it's going right now, so...?

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

The key to a good exposition dump is 1) Structure the exposition in the form of a story so that it's more interesting to read, and 2) Have things happen during the explanation that contribute to moving the plot along. Think chapter four of "Lord of the Rings" where Gandalf is retelling the history of the ring to Frodo. Not only is the story interesting in itself, but it ends with dramatically throwing the ring into the fire. Oh, and Sam is caught listening in, which is what causes him to become included in the party.

On exposit dumps: don't.

On writing completely without an outline: also don't.

Reveal the background in smaller, digestible lumps, as it becomes more and more relevant. When the audience is presented with the background info, it should tie in with what they now know. Spy novels are a good way to do this: usually the challenge for the protagonist is to learn about the relevant background, bit by bit; the reader can do the same. This way the reader can appreciate the intricacies of what happened before the plot kicked off, since it's being fed to him in bits as it becomes relevant.

Of course, that takes planning, which leads us to the second point. Think of writing as fighting a military campaign: unless you want it all to devolve into a disorganized, embarrassing mess, you'll need to chart out how it goes; at the same time, once you kick it off, you'll need to be flexible, seize opportunities, maneuver as you desire, and occasionally revise the overall plan to account for things. Within the framework of a general outline, you have some freedom of action: enough to make things fun, not enough to tie yourself up in knots.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Eh, you can write without an outline. Just expect there to be more editing for structure involved.

A thing which has happened to me before is starting an outline that gets increasingly detailed as I go along until it's basically a draft by the last act.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

...I don't know, is there a way I can be successful while still making it up as I go?

I have the basics down, but all of my best twists/humour comes from spur of the moment. They still make sense, but are Adventure Time level.

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

There appear to be two general strategies to writing, and which you choose seems to be determined by your personality. There's the planners, and then there's the seat of the pantsers. I'm a pantser, big time. I just cannot write either sequentially, nor according to any kind of plan. All my best scenes come out of nowhere: I cant tell you how many times I started trying to write something in my head one way, only to have it come out completely different. I feel I am much more creative (and motivated) when I just let it flow. YMMV, obviously.

Sometimes I feel I should have all my novels start out the exact same way, same characters, same situations, but they all quickly devolve into something completely different than the others.

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

It usually takes a month for me to turn an idea on its head to make something better. By then I figure out how long the story will take chapter-wise then I make a very very loose outline and write from there.

I feel like I need a skeleton so I know whats happening, but loose enough for me to add in scenes or other ideas.

Yeah, its different for everyone. Try out a lot of styles and pick what gets you going. (I feel like I said this before, ha)

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.

I'm not one to say (because my writing is terrible), but I think the best option is to balance between outlining and writing on the go. What I do is write trivias about my setting as they come to my head, glue this info together and write. If a nice idea comes from my writing, then I add it to the outlining and solve the puzzle bit by bit.

You know, part of my writer's block is mainly due to not knowing exactly where to carry on or, in the case of my fic Power of the Kitsune, having no access to my notes and the like. Doubly so in collab fics.

Although right now, my major writer's block is with my PMD (and slightly inspired by Brave New World and the like) fic, Voids from Beyond. I just can't seem to decide which species to make the main character's Partner Pokémon as, but I am trying for a subversion in that it won't be the Pikachu which helped during the start. (Unlike in every single PMD game)

Thankfully, I do have a plan of how to move things on after I figure that out, so hopefully the block can be dealt with.

Moreso an RP thread I'm mulling over, I'm trying to think up of a plot to get some character development going. Two plots actually.

The first involves a canon character: Schezo, a Dark Wizard (specifically a successor). He is in possession of a sealed grimoire he can't budge open. I scrapped a "Get stronger, break seal, ????, Profit" idea in my head and now I'm drawing blanks.

The second plot involves an OC I have that's flat as a piece of paper, based off of the lore of Phantasy Star Online 2: Rina is a Newman Techer^note (They're a magic-like class with more close combat capabilities. However, the "spells" is technically not magic.) of about 16 years old. She's a cheerful, but rash tomboy who joined ARKS to follow a fallen relative's footsteps. Could someone help pitch some ideas to get some more characterization?

edited 13th Jan '15 1:06:36 AM by Schezoroark

A lot of people can't seem to grasp that an outline is for reference only, you don't need to absolutely adhere to it and it doesn't need to sound good or look pretty. It's just there to give concreteness to a developing story.

I've written several 6-8 page stories in the span of a few hours without any sort of planning or outline simply because I had a strong idea and didn't care about the quality. Some of the most entertaining stories I've ever read were written by people on forums I used to frequent who would make up a chapter on the spot and update daily. There's a certain way to write these stories to avoid hitting snags and writing yourself into a corner, and that takes practice to figure out.

That being said, the benefit of outlines lies in the fact that many advanced literary techniques are impossible to implement well without pre-planning and oftentimes stories with poor resolutions or disappointing climaxes are the result of the author not putting enough work into developing a solid outline.

If you find the text above offensive, don't look at it.

Bouncing off the talk about outlines: I know firsthand that writing an outline is nothing like writing the actual story. For a few years now I've been planning a long story in 5 parts,^note basically the length 5 novels, but they're live-action screenplays building up the world, shaping the characters, and hammering out a decent outline. I've only just started writing the first draft of the first part this month, and I can't tell you how immensely helpful it is to write down all the specifics of what happens! Just writing some of the early details has helped me flesh out a bunch of details down the road, and I even discovered some characters I didn't know I'd need later on.

Of course, things will change as the draft goes on. But the point is (again) that outlines are just a skeleton of a plot. Outlines are there to give an idea of what the final product will look like.

Award-winning screenwriter. Directed some movies. Trying to earn a Creator page. I do feedback here.

Hello there ! I'm here for some advices :o

Do you think that some kind of stories about like, two evil dudes out to murder a powerful tyran and her goonies, in a ruined world, could be saved of the typic Darkness-influenced audience apathy ? As if, I don't want do make it too much edgy, rather unnerving, with character and the narration acting all casual during all the murder and with some jokes or sarcasm. I don't plan on trying to make the two main protagonists too evil tho, and I'd try to say that this world still has some hope left after all of it is done.

Would you read a work like that ?

Fallout 2? More like Fallout 2 bad.

You're asking the wrong question. Would you write a story like that? And enjoy doing it? Then go for it.

Echoing De Marquis, you have to want to write it. If it's well-told, it's likeable. More to your story-questions, "evil dudes" is really subjective. Villain Protagonist is one of my happy buttons when it's done well. Unsurprisingly, my Darkness Induced Reader Apathy threshold is high. Boredom and tonelessness = BOO. Give me Gallows Humor, give me complex characters and tonal flexion. Just keep it colorful. Some favorite bad guy protags are Glokta and Calder from The First Law series, and Jorg Ancrath from The Prince Of Thorns.

You'd like my novel.

Quick question: is there any handy resource for writing Food Porn?

edited 9th Apr '15 4:12:17 AM by idiot