Writer's Block Daily

It is said, however, that amongst us walks (er... posts) one—never identified, save perhaps by a long-defunct avatar or apocryphal signature—who was never a newbie. One who was already a regular the day the forum first appeared online, whose post-dates run back without end—until all searches hit a unique and unlisted database error.

Many names have been suggested for who this poster may be: Some whisper the name "Madrugada", some say "Chihuahua", and many more besides. There are, of course, problems with all putative identities for this legendary figure, and yet, none seem quite to add up to a full negation.

They say that this person posts even today, will post when we are all long gone, will still be posting when all the world is a dry, dead place and the internet is no more.

Which is to say: welcome, and well-met. ^_^

Man Chih is new what are you talking about

Thanks for the warm welcome! It makes things easier for me.

So to contribute to the thread:

A lot of people want a main female character, but doesn't get into any sort of romance. I believe romance is an over done sub-plot myself (girl meets boy, they fall in love, etc. etc.). But in my story, my protagonist finds herself to like a man she's working with, soon it becomes a mutual thing. I want the romance to be used for their character development, but how do I not make it another boring romantic sub-plot? Anything that hasn't been done before?

If there's a thread for this, my apologies. I have been a victim of this on other forums.

edited 11th Jul '14 5:23:18 PM by electronic-tragedy

Well, the best thing to do is look at romance and decide what you would want out of such a story, then write it.

I am an enigma which transcends time itself.

Nah. I dropped that ages ago.

I was here long before Chih, if I am not mistaken, although I only really started posting in this forum a few months before he did. Mads, on the other hand, is definitely eternal. Or at least legally allowed to run for president. Some people here don't make the distinction.

Welcome, Electragical One!

I've been on this site for about 5 years, I think?

Thanks again for the welcome! I'm mostly against joining forums because of the cricket noises that tend to sound when I announce my arrival. I suppose that is the best way to do it. Write the romance I want.

Sounds about right. You were here a while before I was, at least on the fora. I have been here about four or so...

Who you pointin' at there? Oh, OK.

edited 11th Jul '14 6:46:57 PM by JHM

Yeah I made the post and someone came in as I posted it. It happens.

@Everyone who thinks that's a good idea.

I mean... thanks. The same character/group also has a vow to the point of Suicidal Pacifism, so these people have a very different view of value of their own lives than modern day westerners/whatever. But I do not know if it is such a good idea to have this with a sensitive topic like suicide? I don't know.

I don't claim to know how it might be seen by someone who has been directly affected by suicide, but from my perspective the form of suicidal tendency that you're describing is quite different to the form more familiar to Westerners. I'm inclined to guess that, given the rather different motivations towards suicide and being placed in and stemming from so different a cultural context, it might not be widely problematic.

edited 11th Jul '14 7:51:33 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

I guess I could explain this better:

for the shiny new idea there's a group of people who are negotiators and go-betweens for humans and horrible monster/spirit/abomination things. By constantly interacting with the latter party they tend to become warped and scary and powerful, and all throughout this service they still have to serve both the best interest of the monster and the humans who live in proximity.

Because these folks are absolutely terrifying they did have a policy that when they were no longer needed or no longer felt they were able to fulfill their duties, they were supposed to off themselves, however recently it's become acceptable for them to retire as long as they can remain harmless. They've all agreed to and must maintain absolute pacifism even after they retire, though, because before, lynching used to be a problem if they thought these guys were not serving the human's best interest. This goes all the way to the point of Suicidal Pacifism because it's more important to not fight back and display this goodwill and trust to humans because doing anything at all might endanger the rest of them, and considering their job, that might have more dire consequences than just them dying.

The term for these people I was using was "witches", but I'm not sure if that will confuse people too much.

In homage to a cancelled Indiana Jones game, I wrote a fight scene on top of a runaway San Francisco cable car. It's also on fire, just because.

Fun fact: the conductors of cable cars are called "gripmen".

Today, I spent about twenty minutes coming up with legendary artifacts for a conalien to pretend to be selling.

Well, I think I came up with a good story for my Tumblr-format idea. The only problem is that when I described it to somebody and asked if it was interesting, his response was "meh". Which I think is a bad sign.

Eh, as long as you're excited and think the idea is fun, it should be good enough for you to write it. But as I do worry about other's opinions (a bit too much, unfortunately) I think getting several opinions of your idea is best. People are interested in different things, after all.

Today...I actually got something done. Considering how much of a disaster it's been otherwise.

Although at this rate this chapter's going to hit 8000+ words.

edited 13th Jul '14 12:32:20 AM by Night

On-topic literature wise, The Sims 3: Supernatural has a few references to Twilight. There's a Bella Swan expy, vampires can gain the ability to sparkle, and Sims can Confess To Watching You Sleep.

The last one made me laugh too loud.

EDIT: The Bella expy (Bailey Swain) in my game became a fortune teller, got impregnated by a promiscuous fairy, got left by that guy for an heartbreaker, and hooked up with some other supernatural while she cares for her fairy baby.

Poor Bailey. No Twilight logic to give her an Edward.

Just a midnight post.

edited 13th Jul '14 10:19:39 PM by chihuahua0

I just developed an idea: a romantic comedy told "Rashomon"-Style from the perspectives of various suitors to one person.

I've always wanted to do a "Rashomon"-Style story, but those are hard to put together. Maybe one day. One day...

I tried to write today but everything came out sounding slapped on and artificial. I know this is the first draft and I should keep writing, but it's bothering me. I sure do love roadblocks...

I need a mood that causes drizzling besides sadness.

Sullenness, perhaps.

Anxiety?