Random Questions Thread

Tension. Suspense. Dozens of hours' worth of video essays have been made on this very topic, and that's just on YouTube!

Neither of those scare people, they just startle or disgust.

You make horror by suspense and atmosphere.

What is the Latin (or Greek) prefix for start or beginning? I've checked half a dozen sites, and none of them have one listed.

Ante- or pre-.

That only means "before", not "start" or "beginning". My best guess is use proto- or primo-, meaning "first".

edited 26th Oct '17 5:00:54 AM by MarqFJA

In both languages, you have an inchoative -sc-/-sk- infix, which is a bit different from what you're asking but fulfils the same function. Latin example: rubeo I am red, rubesco I become red. The best known verb with that feature is probably disco, originally meaning "I first hear about", which pretty quickly came to mean "I learn". I don't remember enough about Greek to give an example, but they exist. If you want a nominal prefix in Greek that more or less means beginning, I can give you eo-, which is often used by palaeontologists when naming early representatives of some group in the fossil record. It comes from the noun ἠώς dawn. Does any of this help?

edited 27th Oct '17 8:07:31 AM by InigoMontoya

When you have a character remember someone else saying something, how do you write it? Do you go italic like when you have a character says something in his or her mind?

Only if they are remembering it by saying it in their mind. Otherwise, it's like reporting indirectly any other thought, feeling or action of the characters.

Suppose that I were to write a series of Warhammer 40,000 fanfics that start with the Imperium of Man facing such unsurmountable odds that the Emperor of Mankind decides to take a fraction of the Imperial leadership, military and civilian population to another (non-original) universe for the express purpose of getting a breather and rebuild their forces, and from there the overarching storyline eventually progresses to the Imperium launching a long-overdue counter-offensive to retake their home universe, which then gives way to the resurgent, now trans-universal Imperium (or perhaps specific Imperial characters) go on a variety of other endeavors that may or may not involve contact with other universes.

With that all in mind, would naming this fanfic series Exod(us)Hammer 40,000 end up becoming a case of Artifact Title? Come to think of it, is Artifact Title that bad of a thing if the origin of the name is the event that started the whole storyline, and which continues to be a defining event for the successive generations of characters that would be born in the wake of it?

edited 1st Nov '17 1:45:12 PM by MarqFJA

Sounds like Artifact Title would apply after a point, yes. I don't think there's anything wrong that, though.

"It is the whole premise of the thing" seems legit enough excuse for the title. As long as the events are centered about it - they're in exodus or returning from it.

What about "we've returned from our exodus long ago, and now we're doing things that are more or less unrelated to it aside from the fact that our culture still bears the marks of that event"?

is it okay to tweak an established mythical creature into something else? since banshee were originally all female but my take is that the males are just uncommon and look no different from females.

edited 5th Nov '17 5:52:30 PM by ewolf2015

The most commonly accepted assumption is yes.

Others might disagree depending on how closed or marginalized the culture is, or what the original core theme of the creature was.

like which ones do people don't like being changed to something else? I mostly go far a rule where the more obscure a mythical monster,mthe more faithful they are to their original myth.

You could look up "closed cultures." I think that's the term. Even though examples would be generalized, you can figure out if it's a legit "closed culture" by who's saying it is and how many people are saying it isn't. Examples of closed cultures include Native American nations, African tribes (or at least the mythologies from various African countries, IIRC), and I think that's it for the most part. There are some Asatruar that consider their faith a "closed culture," but most people — including other Asatruar — disagree with that sentiment.

Got a quick character writing question. One of the characters I'm developing is supposed to be somewhat Book Dumb. Because he spent most of his life in slavery, he never received a formal education and didn't learn how to read until he was fifteen. He is by no means stupid or lacking in common sense, he just has a difficulty expressing himself verbally due to a limited vocabulary and often has to have words he's never heard of explained to him, he takes his time to think about things, and he's something of an Extreme Doormat on top of this (since slaves here are often conditioned to blame themselves for everything, including their own slavery).

Only thing is, how do I go about demonstrating the 'he's not actually stupid' half of the equation? Because I feel as though if that's not shown in some way, the audience is likely to assume he's a typical dumb knucklehead anyway.

edited 8th Nov '17 10:03:48 AM by PresidentStalkeyes

One thing I'd suggest would simply be to show that the character can learn - so for instance when he's had a word explained to him he is shown later to use it in the proper context. Another would be to have him show good problem-solving abilities for something requiring hands-on expertise (leave him with a complicated task and when they return he has found a way to greatly simplify it). Finally, he could display good psychological insight - even if his wording is crude, he could spot someone being manipulated and explain this in his own way.

Sorry for the late response, but thanks!

I've been thinking on that advice for a few days, and one of the tricks I've hit upon is to have him demonstrate, in addition to awareness of when people are trying to manipulate him to do less-than-moral things, a sense of self-awareness about his own circumstances.

For instance, at one point he tries to explain that his long stint in slavery has left him Conditioned to Accept Horror, except he doesn't know how best to word it and so settles for 'when yer've been doin' somethin' most guys would tell ya's bad fer so long that y'can't think o' doin' much else'.

I'm thinking there's also a few occasions when he thinks that something is wrong from either a practical or moral point of view, but he doesn't say anything to avoid angering anyone in power, which often leads less-savvy characters to think he's just dumb. Which may be deliberate on his part.

So yes, this advice has been very helpful.

edited 11th Nov '17 2:20:53 PM by PresidentStalkeyes

does having a hacker character that has a bit of luddite complex and wants to free the world from virtual reality seem contradictory for a villain?

edited 11th Nov '17 2:18:45 PM by ewolf2015

No, one can definitely be against a thing that they are highly knowledgeable/proficient at and are taking advantage of. Means to an end and all that.

"when yer've been doin' somethin' most guys would tell ya's bad fer so long that y'can't think o' doin' much else" does sound much like a layman's way of describing a not uncommon situation.

I've had one ex-slave character, she was in a favoured position with her owner so she was kinda myopic to the effects of it. After being separated from that life and being forced to see the others, she had realized that she's been looking at it wrong. But, she still considers servitude a part of her own personal identity, and has mental conflicts with expressing objections or trying to force her stance in a dispute, etc. Especially as by the twists of plot, she had in possession a couple slaves that are even more ingrained than she was so ordering them firmly was a must. She realized that at some point she would have to weight being a hero and leader versus running back under the wing and illusion of Happiness in Slavery and feared that choice, putting it off.

edited 12th Nov '17 6:40:28 AM by Adannor

I'm trying to come up with terms for describing the different major factors that determine the appearance of an object. There's "shape" for the overall outline/structure of the object, and "proportions" for the overall size of the object as well as the relative sizes of said object's component parts to each other.

Is there a term that could be used to inclusively refer to the color, texture, and other physical aspects of an object's surface, irrespective of the object's overall shape and proportions?

"Aspect" maybe? "Surface"?