Writer's Block Daily

Now it sounds like North Korea.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Man, that sounds kinda like the starting thesis of a Harry Potter Dark Fic.

Broken masquerade, asymmetric warfare/insurgency, one side harboring virulently xenophobic ideological elements? That is Harry Potter if you break the masquerade. I should know, I helped world-build such a scenario for a few years.

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

I just found my lost pendrive and lost latest version of my fanfic. It was in a box of about thirty flash drives, all plugged in and forgotten at the University library. I love finding lost things. Even better if you lose and find them on the same day: a surprise present.

That's awesome!

Gah. 7396 words and counting. Chapter creep is not letting this one go.

Nous restons ici.

8175 words. Closing on an acceptable chapter here quickly.

Nous restons ici.

8403 after final editing. Only took me way the hell too long.

Nous restons ici.

My latest story idea seams to be a sort of combination of the His Dark Materials series, A Song Of Ice And Fire, and the Belgariad/Mallorean, influenced stylistically by Homestuck and The Secret Of Kells. I have conflicted feelings about this.

"Suddenly, as he was listening, the ceiling fell in on his head."

It feels good to update Moonflowers. Also, someone liked the album AND all of its chapters! It's just a little extra bit of happiness.

Now to finish Hunting the Unicorn's latest chapter.

I thought of a story last night when I wanted to fall asleep, and I remembered it this morning and I just don't know if I'll keep it in the long run.

I could keep it and add it in a series' timeline and write it out someday, but I feel like I have to let the idea mature in my mind before then.

In the meantime I have to work on my fanfic...

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

Okay. I know it may seem I'm completely inexperienced with writing, but I just have low self esteem. Not that that's any better...

Anyways, I guess I should stop asking questions about 'is this good or not', and focus more on the base mechanics of it. Namely, should the story be told in a neutral fashion, or should it be based on my moral beliefs? I mean, should I have the world itself consider the 'right thing' what I consider the right thing, or what we as a race generally believe is the right thing? I mean, what would people like more, someone else's point of view on morality, or characters they can more easily get on board with?

I suppose this is another one of those questions, but I need someone else's opinion on it. Personally, I'd prefer morality to be based around the author, but I'm biased. What are your completely unbiased thoughts?

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

If for one think that if you want characters that the reader is supposed to sympathize with, you should go with moral and ethics that at least to some extent work like in our world. A world with Orange And Blue Morality might be more interesting (at least it will have novelty value for a while), but it's harder to get attached to characters that show completely different views of the world.

Then again, just going with completely author-centric morality might end up somewhere entirely different than intended, as the readers might not share your views.

Ah, okay. Thank you.

It's hard to show what a 'more perfect' world is if both happiness and right...ness...are different to everyone. I suppose I'll have to make the world completely unbiased; however, with what I currently have in place, this will be difficult.

If you'd like more details, I'll go into it, but I feel I've been plugging my story here WAY too much.

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

That is true. Crapsack Worlds are easy to write, because majority of the world seems to agree on certain things they do not want from the world they live in. But despite this unanimity it's nigh impossible to write an actual, non-ironic utopia where everything would be good. It's funny.

Though I think that world completely unbiased moral code might be impossible to write, no matter what you had in mind. Of course, I might be wrong, but as for now I stand behind my statement.

edited 21st Nov '14 7:09:25 PM by Xeroop

Is the popularity of one or the other important to you? Are you looking at this from a marketing point of view—attempting to get as many eyes on your text as possible?

For myself, I think that there's value in writing in one's own way; I don't say to ignore any moral or ethical imperatives—far from it—but I'm inclined to adapt a truism from (indie/hobbyist) game development: "write the story that you want to read"; or perhaps "write the story that you want to tell".

My Games & Writing

I have just realized that several of my POV characters would be diagnosed with depression. One I wouldn't be concerned with, but 5+? I'm starting to think that my mental state is affecting my writing...

It's...fairly complicated. I want people to be made happy from my writing, whilst still doing the same for me. Of course, they're about as far apart as possible, due to my skewed POV. I figure I need to simply change my outlook on the world, otherwise no one will want to read it.

Or really, as is currently the case IRL, be associated with it at all. :(

That...that type of hing happens fairly often with me, except it usually ends with an Anti-Hero showing up and yelling at everyone's stupidity.

As Ars (kinda) said above, what are your motives for writing? If you are legitimately getting enjoyment from it, I think you should be okay. I'm not a psychologist, however, so you may be better off asking someone else.

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

I try to write for fun, but... Lately, I haven't had much time to post for fun, or if I do, I squander it with You Tube surfing and curiosity searches. Heck, I regularly have to force myself to write nowadays. I had originally thought it was due to the mountains of essays I've been stuck with draining my wanting to write, but with this latest discovery I'm no longer so sure...

...Yeah. The same with me.

I've actually written an essay or two on this kind of thing. It seems to affect me a lot. Complacency.

Essentially, you aren't happy enough with what you're doing, but you're too happy to do anything else? My advice? ...I'm trying this on myself, but perhaps it isn't the best idea; get yourself happy with it. Convince yourself that working on your book makes yourself happy, and that it's going to benefit others down the line.

I'm trying to convince myself to do the same in pretty much everything in life. I'm not happy because I'm complacent; too satisfied with my current, horrible, friendless state. I need to convince myself that being less complacent will make me more happy.

...Good luck. I'm sure you can do it.

Also HOLY FaCKING SHeT!!!!!!!

I'm running late from the editing schedule of my novel, as I'm lately been way too into designing stupid crossover things.

Presuming that your point of view isn't something that is detrimental to you—which is, I think, a separate concern, and not something that I feel that I should touch on here—it seems entirely plausible that there are others that have similar points of view; to the best of my knowledge, it would be extremely unusual for there to be no others whose perspectives have elements in common with yours.

Thus is seems likely that if your work makes you happy—and presuming that it doesn't do so simply because it's personal wish-fulfilment—there is some subset of other people who may be made happy by it, too.

edited 22nd Nov '14 4:42:10 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

My Games & Writing

Has anyone here ever had their opinion of an existing work of fiction be influenced by something it had in common with your own work(s)?

That's rather specific. You have a story to tell?

yey

Yeah, the specific personal example I was thinking of was Captain America: The Winter Soldier. To be as succinct as possible, the similarities I spotted between its plot and one of my plot arcs played a part in why I disagreed with some of the criticism about how its HYDRA twist was a bit of a cop-out in terms of the moral issues it was trying to raise.

I can elaborate if you want, but I was basically just wondering if anyone else had a story like that.