Writer's Block Daily

Fair point. But that doesn't change my point about getting an official diagnosis.

I have a psychiatrist. As far as we're concerned, I have quite a few of the symptoms, but we don't have anything concrete yet. It doesn't really help how self-contradictory it seems.

If I do have it, it really isn't the biggest deal. It sucks to not be normal, but on the other hand, you have an opportunity that others don't. I'm still pretty upset at how much I perceive others as hating me for being different, but I guess that's something I need to deal with.

I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually Night's alter ego or something.

A page ago or so he made a comment about a voice in his protagonist's head turning out to be an unexpectedly important character in its own right.

Through an entirely separate thought process, in an entirely different story set in another fandom, I recently came to a similar conclusion regarding one of my protagonists' "enemy within": as circumstances go, they're in a good position to emerge as an important character in their own right.

And if it's going to fit thematically, they're all set to show up in a MiG-23MF for some of the mental confrontations—meaning I get to reread my copy of Red Eagles for how a dogfight between an agile, docile MiG-21 and a very fast, very dangerous MiG-23 would go.

I'm pretty sure I'm your alter ego, or possibly idiot cousin.

Either way, both of you are geniuses.

To be honest, from my perspective at least, you two have a very similar style and if it weren't for different avatars, I'd be more likely to get you two mixed up.

You know, there's a great April Fool's prank here...

Red Eagles is a fascinating book. You can read a lot of it for free on Amazon.

Ah, the Flogger B. Apparently that specific variant is an export variant with several of the fancier things stripped out.

If you want any help or advice, ask away!

Meanwhile I'm suffering paranoia that my own novel is suffering from a plot that requires everyone to be idiots, hence paralysing me.

There's already one other Californian milhist-focused troper I've been confused for over in the various history threads. Apparently I'm a professional doppelganger or something.

Re: Flanker: well, as far Airvectors tells me, this was the frontline gen-1 Flogger variant. The US got a bunch of further downgraded (avionics wise, the airframe and engine were the same) Flogger-MS'es for Aggressor training. Should be generally comparable.

Random question: what are some of your influences and how did they affect your writing or style? For me:

• Mass Effect, Avatar: The Last Airbender: Filling in the little details. Find out how the different parts of the world I make interact and make them branch off in non-obvious but logical ways. Basically, if I have X, what does X imply or how could X be used? For example, given the turians' emphasis on duty, it's rather logical that some of them would take up Confucianism (although they'd probably ignore the parts where Confucius speaks against having a large army).
• Matthew Reilly: Multiple plots going on at once, frequently with one plot thread having stuff happen to it and the other learning stuff relevant to the overall plot.
• Just Cause 2, Wet: When I decide to go over-the-top with my action scenes, there's generally a carsurfing gunfight in there somewhere.
• Jim Butcher: Wounds a character gets stay with them to the end and can easily impede them. (Although I think he can take it a bit far, where wounds ought to be having far more of an effect than they are.)
• Equilibrium: Gun kata just looks so cool. Unfortunately, the fact that it was designed to look cool also means it's nigh-impossible to make a good gun kata scene in text.

Speaking for myself, that's the kind of question that needs way more than a quick post to answer.

That's a question with something of a loose answer.

Like, for me, I get heavily invested in things and they all have some influence on what I make, but it depends on the material I'm trying to write.

Am I going for something over the top and ridiculous? Devil May Cry is usually the first thing I point toward being my inspiration.

Am I writing a pulpy action adventurer type? Re-watching Indiana Jones films usually helps provide some backbone.

Am I making an epic about the end of the world and man's place as an fighting force against more powerful beings? I usually play or read up on some SMT for that.

But yeah, very loose answer for a question that probably needs a more solid one.

Ooogh. Let's see, now.

• Patrick O'Brian, Aubrey Maturin. The series still sets the gold standard for how to write a genuine, real friendship between two very different characters who seem to have little in common. Also, a wonderful display of the art of dialogue, especially as each scene leads to a point.
• All kinds of aviation and military history literature. No surprise there. An especial focus on the fact that, in the end, most armies and most people are more alike than different. (I think it was Lester Grau's double study, The Bear Went Over the Mountain and The Other Side of the Mountain, that really drove home to me how two different sides could view the same battle and the same war so differently. They knew what they knew at the time; it's a different perspective from the god's-eye view we have from the future.)
• Harry Potter, indirectly. Musings on how get-rich-quick schemes that focus on munchkinizing magic in conjunction with the outside, mundane world. Also directly led to me discovering my true love, political science.
• On the subject of munchkinizing, Charlie Stross and the Laundry series. Stross's writing style is delightfully gonzo, as a plus.
• John Le Carre's inimitable Smiley trilogy did a lot to shape me on how to plot and characterize. Top-notch books, especially the beautifully-crafted climactic scene of Smiley's People.

There's probably a lot more to figure. These are just the immediate ones to come to mind.

No matter how many other works I read it's likely that Micheal Stackpole, and more directly his Battle Tech work from the Blood of Kerensky and Warrior Triloges, has left a permanent stamp on how I describe vehicular combat.

Any other original references or go-to styles have probably been strangled under layers of other supplementary works by now.

My inspirations are probably as follows:

• Tom Clancy. Yeah, yeah, I know, but his work's pretty good IMO, and he's difficult to beat for military thrillers (unless someone has a better suggestion - I'm all ears!).
• Military literature, particularly stuff in the vein of Osprey Publishing's books. They've helped give me ideas for tech and techniques to use, and they've also made it patently obvious that not every force operates the same way.
• Star Wars books (!). I know that might seem really trashy, but there's a few gems in there, and they've influenced how I write description and super powers in the vein of the Force.
• Military autobiographies. Good way to learn how to make modern combat exciting on the page.

There's probably a bunch I've missed, but those are the major ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I have three words for you: MAN. MADE. LIGHTNING.

Also, stackpoling. In all seriousness though, he does write combat well, for all his other faults.

By the Holy Word of Blake! HAVE AT THEE!

The most obvious influences would probably be Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and JK Rowling, Even though I do not directly try to emulate them.

Say what you will about Stackpole and Clancy, but you could do a lot worse than learning from them in writing a battle.

Define? I can think of quite a few authorial quirks on his part that could be nicknamed that.

To Battle Tech fans (and he's got a Manei Domini avatar and praising Blake, so), that usually implies fusion reactors going off like bombs. (Though not fusion bombs.)

Ironically, it's not as common in Stackpole's works as is believed. I think the only real case was Kai's Hatchetman on Twycross. Most of the rest of the time it's just "reactor plasma does bad, bad things to the 'Mech it's let loose inside."

edited 21st Apr '15 10:51:31 AM by Night

Hmm, not what I would have thought, but then I have no familiarity with BattleTech.

Ah, let me see... what comes to mind most prominently?

• The late Terry Pratchett, of course. The man has taught me to see much I might have otherwise missed, and immunized me most effectively against the temptations of postmodernism by quietly proving that one can dissect and play with tropes in a story without slapping the reader's face with how clever you are.
• Planescape: Torment is as utterly immortal as its protagonist, proving that sharp comedy, sincere tragedy, and deep philosophical musings are not foes, and in fact complement one another beautifully.
• George Orwell. I confess I have read less of him than I should have; only Nineteen Eighty-Four and the indispensable Politics and the English Language. (Neither for school, funnily enough.) I mean to add more, though.
• xkcd and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal have made some incredibly sharp observations of human nature I've almost certainly assimilated and accidentally stolen.
• Many late-night chats with my college roommate (now the lead guitarist for a reasonably successful Midwestern Heavy Metal band). I don't think I ever directly mentioned my aspirations to being a writer — embarrassed at the time — but I can attest that he absolutely shredded many of the foolish beliefs that might have otherwise bled into my writing. (I like to think I returned the favor a few times myself, but not totally confident.)
• The Yellow Wallpaper. Not only was it one of HP Lovecraft's inspirations, I would argue it is more timeless than his works, which often fall prey to Seinfeld Is Unfunny in this era. Eldritch horrors have their place, but as this predecessor of Cosmic Horror proves, the truest horror can frequently be found in the sins and callousness of mundane humanity.
• Quite a number of my fellow tropers — I'm afraid to try and list them for fear I'd miss someone vital.

I still feel as though I'm missing some cornerstone, though, and find myself hopping back to edit...

edited 21st Apr '15 4:40:18 PM by KillerClowns

For more Orwell, I can seriously recommend Homage to Catalonia and England Your England as excellent works. Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War is another one I found out about indirectly, through the works of Timothy Garton-Ash; it ends on a bit of sentimental poetry from Orwell that's mostly fairly banal and conventional until the end, where it becomes unforgettable.

What reasonably successful Midwestern heavy metal band?