General Writer's Block thread

You should probably talk to someone, like a parent, teacher or counselor.

Agreed, I believe. You've said that you don't believe that it will help (when discussing a therapist, at least), that you have trouble talking about how you feel. But whether they succeed or not, if you have someone like a school counselor available, what do you lose by making the attempt?

On another note, if you like Youtube videos, have you tried your hand at making them yourself? At the least it might be something new to try.

edited 20th Jun '15 7:25:50 AM by ArsThaumaturgis

Well, if I ask for help, they'll try to help by sending me to a therapist. And since I know it won't work, it won't, but I can't change how I think so there isn't a point in trying.

And watching someone do something is way different than actually doing it. I don't have the anything needed to be on Youtube.

Who says therapy won't work (other than yourself)? My sister was an anxious wreck and she went to therapy for a few months (on top of taking medication) and now she can handle her anxiety much better. In fact, since I suffer from the same things she does, she helps me out with things she's learned.

There is a difference between being a moody teenager and having depression, which is why doctors/psychiatrists don't really diagnose things like that. Depression also has a lot of symptoms (AKA it's not always sadness, it can be laziness, disinterest, sleeping too much or too little, etc.). I would go into it, but it'd be best for you to look it up and its symptoms. Otherwise talk to your parents or people you trust with this sort of thing (like the mentioned school counselor).

I feel this is immensely off topic and I think you'll get further help from at that Yack Fest thread, or at least vent.

No, it's useless. I'll just stop talking about it for good now.

As to Youtube, I do realise that watching something isn't the same as making it; it just seemed like something that you might enjoy trying, whether you succeed or fail. It needn't start as something intensive—just a five-minute video (the subject depending on the sort of content that interests you) with a bad voice-over using a cheap microphone.

Otherwise, I agree with Electronic-tragedy on all points, I believe—including the point about this being off-topic: For my part, I'll leave this here for now.

edited 21st Jun '15 8:04:37 AM by ArsThaumaturgis

So I just started my creative writing class and I have to write four short stories.

My idea for the first one is a story from the perspective of an AI that thinks it's human because it wiped its own memory after killing the staff of the military base it was in charge of or something. And then at the end someone makes it remember it's true nature causing it to Go Mad from the Revelation.

Is this a good idea or has it been done too much? And I'm not sure quite how to convey everything in a way that'll make the twist come off as cool.

Hmm. It is kinda cliche. Also, how do you intend to pull this off? Does the reader know this is an AI from the get go, or is that part of the big reveal?

edited 25th Jun '15 12:30:22 PM by DeMarquis

It'd be the big reveal. For the vast majority of the story I want it to be like the AI is just a normal human going about his regular day, seeing to his day-to-day duties, and then...plot happens and stuff is revealed at the last minute. And maybe it ends a bit more ambiguously than "Goes crazy and kills people again."

Now that does seem kind of overdone. It might be more interesting if the reader knows the protagonist is an AI from the start and the reveal is that he's a killer. But stories where the protagonist seems like a completely normal person until the twist reveals otherwise are pretty common.

Actually, I was going to advise the exact opposite: conceal the fact that he's an AI, but make it something other than killing everyone.

I kind of want to do a "There Will Come Soft Rains" type thing, where the world has ended but the AI doesn't realize it (maybe it caused it? I feel like that's not that different from killing people though) and is just doing about it's normal business. Maybe instead of killing the inhabitants of the base (assuming I go with a base of some kind) they just died because of the apocalypse and it mindwiped itself to cope. It wasn't directly responsible for the deaths, but it wakes up, realizes its an AI and that everyone is dead and he's just been talking to the automated machines and holograms still running...and then madness. Or maybe a group of survivors stumble upon the base, and thinking that they're intruders kills them, but at the last second one of the survivors reboots the memories and then madness happens...

Am I getting to a slightly more original place now? Maybe a more sympathetic place without the AI being responsible for the original death of everything?

I'm thinking that it should be something with less drama- like maybe it was unable to save the humans under it's care, and mind-wiped itself out of sadness and regret.

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking. You put it a lot better than I did. I might have a better grasp on it now. I like the idea of guilt over being unable to do anything rather than guilt over murder. Feels slightly more original that way. And it makes itself human as like a second chance, thinking that maybe with "humanity" being installed so to speak, he could save them.

OH! I had an idea. What if the AI just kept running a simulation of the incident that killed everyone, putting itself in the position of the leader or whatever. But every time it runs it, it fails and everyone still dies - and because he fails the simulation his memory is rebooted and he tears himself up over it, and tries again.

And the story ends with him loading it again, so the AI's just doomed to repeat this loop of torturing himself.

I say this too because my working name for the AI is MILTON. Military Intelligence Logistics Test-Operating Network, which is kind of a silly acronym but it was the best I could come up with, but I didn't know how to fit in the "Test" part. But maybe a simulation helps?

RL military acronyms are just as silly. The simulation idea is interesting- that way you could have a tension building action scene that isnt what it appears to be.

I believe I've gotten either a tiny bit of writer's block, or I'm still emotionally exhausted from how my dog died.

Either way, the newest chapter of Moonflowers is HUGELY overdue and I can still only manage a couple paragraphs at a time. Even the rewrite I did due to Mad Max Fury Road's awesomeness is only helping somewhat. I put in a car chase because 1) my nurse character's preparedness is very useful, and 2) I finally figured out what to do with another female character I couldn't find a place for, and that was simultaneously making her a Badass Driver and a Secret-Keeper.

So I have the material and desire to write, but I can't fucking WRITE IT PHYSICALLY.

It's just so infuriating. WHY I HAVE NO ENERGY, UNIVERSE.

Sometimes, that means there's something else you need to write first.

By "something else," do you mean "something else in the story" or "take a break and write something else?"

Usually it's the second, but what would I know?

Just making sure.

I want to write a subplot where my main character's best friends run into each other one weekend, and while hanging out together, one has a streak of terrible luck, while the other has unbelievably awesome luck.

That said, I'm a firm believer in karma, and I don't want to feel like one of the characters is being punished by the fates for no reason. What kind of approach should I take here?

A friend was moaning about the choices made by one of my characters. So I let him take over and argue back. She really upset him, because he went on the attack and started to use his professional skills on her (he's a psychologist).

I realised "he'd" typed a question that went to far - I wouldn't have asked it (yeah, I know). So I had to send him away.

Imagine watching 2 good friends from different parts of your life meet, and fall out. It was like that.

head felt weird for 10 minutes afterwards.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR TRUTH HURTS 22.

Don't dismiss professionals. Proper trained ones, not some well meaning amateur. They talk to lots of people who don't think they can be helped. they will just listen and adjust to what you need from them.

Please trust others to help you. There is no shame in others helping you.

Do you guys think the title "A Song Of Peace" sounds cliché for a fantasy book?

Well, it sounds like A Song of Ice and Fire, and if that sounds too alike to you, you can change it, but you can really do whatever you want.

Isobel (lead female in new novel) has her next period this Tuesday coming.

I didn’t mean to work it out, it came up in conversation. I have had to timeline this one, because unlike ‘Promises’ I need to keep track of who’s doing what (or even who’s doing who!)

Alex and Izzy who houseshare are having the following conversation, and I know the date it is happening:

The fact that this is 2 days away from when I’m writing is a complete co-incidence.