Writer's Block Daily

They sound better in Chinese Im sure.

@De Marquis: yeah, I spend some time on the media forums for Comics which is kinda nice for talking about stuff that's already out there but it doesn't really feel like the appropriate place to discuss craft-things I guess? I mean I suppose you can just talk comic-writing anywhere you'd talk any other writing but I thought a specific place would be kind of interesting.

If you start the thread I'll contribute.

I'm kinda surprised there isn't already a thread, sounds like it would be a slam dunk.

Where's the best place to find a beta audience/test audience? I want to see what promises I'm making and need to fulfill for my readers in the story, but I have no idea what they are yet or what things the readers will notice or latch onto first.

Thinking about lizard folk, molting, and hand-/fingerprints. Might not be able to have thumbprint scanners with them.

Looking up flowers because one of my protagonists is a member of a species of half plant/half reptile lizrdfolk, who grow flowers from time to time and even though it's mostly for aesthetic reasons, I have a hard time deciding if I want the flowers to have a practical purpose.

The thing is, flowers are a plant's reproductive organs and I still can't think of a purpose beyond impressing mates and I have a couple other ideas, and I don't know if they'd be worth exploring for the species.

A lot of common garden flowers are actually very useful herbs.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/medicinal-herbs-common-uses.aspx

That works as well, given the long history the species has in making potions and poisons. Using their own flowers would be a pretty good justification of that.

@Aespai: I don't know about the best place for beta/test readers, but Writer's Block has the Writer/Critic Dating Service. Maybe give that a shot.

So, quick question: Do you think it would be appropriate to market a story about a girl who's body is infested with bugs as a children's story?

Well, we have lots of very dark-natured children's fiction. A Series Of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter past Book 3, Grimm's Fairy Tales, and Garth Nix's stories.

You'll be fine.

Well, it might help that it's a rather idealistic story that teaches about various bugs.

I'm trying to decide whether I've just written the equivalent of a rape, and whether I am even a person who should be deciding that.

We have threads where you can submit a writing sample for feedback.

Whenever I have a character with wings, fights have a tendency to have at least one wing-powered suplex.

Wings for me signal that the fight is going to turn into a match of kinetic energy management, balancing altitude, speed, and turning capabilities as both sides try to play to their own strengths and minimize their opponent's. Making things interesting, one side or the other might not rely on wings and aerodynamics for flight—My Rules Are Not Your Rules in action...

I'm currently reading through Xenophon's Anabasis, and it's seriously leading me to consider some manner of modern-era version. The first thing that comes to mind is the Czech Legion, actually, and that'd make for a fascinating story: an army desperately trying to get home while trapped in a vast, hostile land.

I've noticed a pattern in my writing:

1) Normal writing: Generally serious, though not without humor.

2) Prompted writing where everyone else crams in as much drama as possible within the time/word limits: "Oh, I need to write about a stranger? Great, I have two story-worthy strangers!" [Insert a nearly stream-of-consciousness work with lots of self-deprecating humor about how talking to strangers is ridiculously hard and terrifying.]

Also, Leonard Nimoy died. I heard from George Takei's facebook about his heart troubles getting him in the hospital, and it's just :(.

Anyone else ever have a problem where an element in your story with no intended real-life significance runs the risk of getting one due to subsequent current events?

Boy howdy, yes. My Terran characters are constantly making throw-away quips with the implicit assumption that 20 Minutes in the Future won't be too different from today. I can't think of a specific example right now, but I know I've had to modify a few of those.

edited 28th Feb '15 8:31:34 AM by KillerClowns

Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most human. *hat off*

@Darkblood Flowers are for impressing pollinators, not mates, so maybe something along those lines? Also there are flowers which kill pollinators, and flowers which look smashing but offer zero reward, and flowers which are alcoholic (drunk bees!), and it is all so so cool.

Is there an expression along the lines of "plugging the sieve", i.e. trying to block something that cannot be blocked? It's driving me bonkers.

Putting one's thumb in the dike.

Isn't that about success, though? At any rate, the Dutch story around that expression has a happy ending.

Depends on the context; in most cases I've seen it indicates a desperate, rather pathetic attempt to hold back a catastrophe that might or might not be successful.

I'd say this is one of those cases where some creative use of metaphor may be more appropriate than depending on pre-existing idiom.

Writing about space elevators. Realized I said "geosynchronous" when I should've been saying "geostationary". Curses.