Random Questions Thread

That their eyes are brown, or that one cannot simply gaze into their eyes and glean things from it. Or both.

edited 28th Aug '16 5:41:26 AM by WillDeRegio

That said eyes are brown and either the viewpoint character has nothing but contempt for their owner or they are going blind.

Are there any kinds of mirrors that are possible to be used by people with no more than Stone Age-level technology?

Other than a still pool of water, I doubt it. The first recorded mirrors were polished metal.

Actually, Wikipedia says that the earliest ones were made from obsidian (which has to be polished to be properly reflective). All the Google Image Search results about obsidian mirrors, however, show that they give really darkened images. Maybe since I'm writing a science fantasy world on an alien planet, I could just invent a different kind of naturally occuring glass that is not so dark-colored (or at least, can come in a wider variety of colors), and to hell with any science that naysays its possibility. Still, if there is a real-life material that could fit what I need, I'd prefer using it. Hell, even if I go with the totally-fictional-material route, I would appreciate suggestions on how to make it seem at least superficially plausible, to better maintain WSOD.

edited 29th Aug '16 11:20:20 AM by MarqFJA

Well, TECHNICALLY all you need is sand/silicon and heat—naturally-occurring glass happens when lightning hits a sandy area like a beach or a desert. It's just not very clear. Or, well, smooth. Maybe since it's an alien planet, there's some natural areas where some kind of heat-source reliably melts sand into glass? Or there's a naturally stormy coastline/desert (lots of storms/monsoons in winter, for example) where the natives have figured out "lightning + sand = glass" and they intentionally collect a specific type of sand in pans/molds so it can be sanded down and polished easily.

edited 29th Aug '16 11:36:44 AM by Sharysa

Anyone have a good resource that's specifically about how to write dialogue (in novels/short stories, not plays)? I've realized I need a lot of improvement in that area.

Unfortunately, most of the stuff I can find are quick tips about really general things. What problems are you having specifically?

My main problem is that I usually write, and read, stuff that's heavy on description, light on actual back-and-forth dialogue, so I don't have a good grasp on how to write long stretches of people talking - how to get across the visuals (what the characters are doing, the expressions on their faces, etc.) without ruining the flow of the conversation. Also your basic problem of when to stick simply with "he said"/"she said" and when it's okay to use some purple prose.

It became a recurring problem in my last fanfic, since I had to "translate" video game dialogue into book form. I hoped I'd learn and improve as I went, but I don't think I did Figured someone here might know a good place to go for help.

Generally, the three basic tips for all types of writing are:

1) Read your dialogue aloud.

2) Once you read it aloud, don't try to make it TOO realistic. You don't want what looks like a transcription of a tape recording. It's all right to use a couple of "ums" and elipses (the "...") and a Verbal Tic like stuttering for individual characters, but actual realistic talk will slow your writing down and annoy a lot of readers.

3) While you're reading the dialogue, if you notice any natural pauses or subject changes, you can usually break up the speech and put some tags or actions there—both for flavor, and to give the readers a second to breathe.

edited 29th Aug '16 8:30:47 PM by Sharysa

Excellent - thanks! I foresee a lot of talking to myself in my future.

One of the biggest things that's helped me with writing dialogue is eavesdropping. Listening and playing close attention to how other people talk helps me figure out different things during conversations when writing, including responses and body language.

A professor I had in college encouraged us to do this, and I've found it a huge help since then.

edited 29th Aug '16 9:32:06 PM by randomdude4

Good advice. I'll try that too.

I'd say it's also nice to have allusions to what's going on beyond the conversation itself. For example, instead of an ellipsis, something like "She took a sip of coffee and added, 'Maybe.' " or "A crowd of people headed their way. He waited until they passed before answering." If the "outside" interacts with the conversation, it will help the reader visualize the whole scene beyond two voices talking in a shapeless void, or in front of a metaphorical greenscreen ("cafe", "street").

And if the characters are doing something while talking, then their actions may also convey emotions pretty well: " 'Yeah, I feel fine!' Glass twanged as she slammed the door shut."

edited 30th Aug '16 4:45:10 AM by Kakai

Thanks! I'll experiment with working in that stuff. I suddenly have a lot of revising to do, but it'll be fun

Try this.

Our 'Writer's Resources' page lists several collections of writing advice (look under "Advice and Articles" and "External Resource Collections")—I haven't sifted through them for entries on this topic myself, but perhaps you'll find something useful!

Which reminds me: I recently discovered "The Grinder", which looks like a rather useful means of finding publications to which to send submissions—besides mentioning it here, I've now added it to the above "Writers Resources" page, I believe.

Thanks. You guys are great. I'm going to comb through those resources and see if I can fill up some other recently-revealed gaps in my basic knowledge. If I still have questions afterwards, would it be better to post them in the general thread rather than here?

I should add Springhole to that page now. It's chock-full of great articles ranging from the absolute beginner on up.

But in practice, Random Questions and General WB are kind of interchangeable, in terms of what kind of material gets asked in each thread. General WB just isn't as clear with what it's about as Random Questions is, hence why this thread has way more posts. You're unlikely to get any difference in attention either way, though.

edited 30th Aug '16 6:28:37 PM by CrystalGlacia

Another question, this time on the subject of writing in third person. This site had great advice, but it insists on a "neutral, invisible, non-opinionated" narrator. Trouble is, I like to add a touch of humor here and there when describing things (planets, people, etc.), so my narrator does end up developing a bit of personality. Is that something I should definitely avoid or is it okay in small doses?

Whichever one you can execute. I'm sure you can think of good narrators in either category.

I'm personally more in favour of giving some personality to your narrator, but it's ultimately up to you - go ahead and write the way you think it'd work better. Don't smother your own writing style, it'll look artificial if you do so. To be quite honest, I'd read "neutral, invisible, non-opinionated" as refering to avoiding stuff like long infodumps, morality lessons and dropping the anvil on the reader - and even then, some of this can work if you know how to do it.

I've been trying to put a bit more science into one of my Science Fantasy stories. Context: Refugees from Earth flee World War III to a planet that's unexpectedly swarming with griffins. They only had enough time to do a basic scan and make sure it wasn't TOO hostile to humans, and they didn't find out about the griffins until a few months after landfall because the griffins of their region had been hibernating for the dry season.

I was thinking of giving the griffins magnetism/electric powers to explain their ability to fly and their hide's "magical" ability to deflect metal. They can't be killed with ranged metal weapons (only stone or wood) and it's really hard to kill them with metal melee weapons unless you're good enough to compensate for the deflection (and aren't panicking because a griffin is trying to bite/claw your face off). There is still a variety of ways to kill them—often by bashing their heads in with a rock or stoning them, having their unicorn help out, or using a ridiculously expensive crystalline weapon that isn't affected by magnetism (because it's essentially a SHARPENED rock)—but they are pretty damn formidable and religiously feared by both the humans and the native Lizard Folk.

Does this seem at least SORT OF plausible, or should I just shift their abilities to normal telekinesis?

edited 2nd Sep '16 1:02:05 PM by Sharysa

Sounds like a better idea to just go with "magic". Lots of bullets are, for the large part, non-magnetic (lead, tungsten, copper, etc.) The moment someone realizes that loading a gun with old-style stone cannonballs works, everyone will move to that method, and it's dramatic arms race time.

I'm writing an interlude for an alternate history TL with an ISOT. For my interlude, I'm planning to have Ed Wood examine his uptime cinematic failures and deciding to improve as much as he can at film-making.

My question is-is it possible? Is it even plausible that someone who we know as so bad at what he did can look at the failures of his from another history, and actually improve his abilities? Do you guys think someone like Ed Wood can fix his problems with narrative, editing, and aesthetic and combine his enthusiasm with real skill?