Writer's Block Daily

What about fighting with knees and elbows? Someone whose fingers are off-bounds as deadly weapons might use a different style, such as grappling with a few strikes thrown in. (Depending on how long and curved the claws are, palm strikes could still hurt an opponent because it's hard to predict how momentum will affect the fighters' elastic bodies. Also oh god eyes.)

In other news, @SabresEdge, your reflections on Wroclaw make interesting reading.

edited 4th May '15 5:35:00 PM by LongLiveHumour

I like to give things clever names, usually names that references particular things I like, but I'm finding that I'm having a hard time carefully choosing references names because:

• A. There's a lot of material to work with and/or
• B. I'm too nitpicky about things "standing out."

I mean, these are usually for fan works or just general not serious writing, but I'd like what I write to have a certain aesthetic for one reason or another. I guess it's just a personal problem cause I find Aesthetics to have a sense of importance that they didn't have before.

Can you give an example of what you consider to be a "good aesthetic"?

I don't think it's all too much about having a "good aesthetic" as much as it is about having a certain aesthetic to fit what's being written. Like, even though my personal preference in aesthetic has some influence in what I'm writing, I usually try to deviate from it for certain stories.

Unintentionally, it has become a running theme for my female characters to all come from a current or former "commonwealth".

Girls from the Commonwealth of Nations, represented at some point or another: Australia, Canada, Britain/Scotland, Britain/England, New Zealand.

Girls from the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: a whole shitton of Polish characters of assorted backgrounds. (It's what happens when you have a story set in Poland.)

Even US characters: there are a few from the Commonwealth of Virginia, natch. At least one girl is going to have her background changed to come from the Pennsylvania, just to fit the theme.

So, whilst considering what went (IMHO) terribly, terribly wrong in a work that had so much potential and failed to live up to it, I realized that one problem was that everybody, even those who should very much be otherwise, had the values and ideals (such as they are) of a well-to-do, middle-class, liberal-ish American, or immediately adopted those values at the slightest push.

And now I'm terrified I might be guilty of the same sin. Fun.

For a final I have to write a research paper on short stories and write an original science fiction short story. The latter I'm having more issues with.

I feel like I have to give it a weird twist or something to make it memorable, but I just feel like a lot of twists in short stories are cheap, ineffective, not needed, and/or thrown-in for effect. I mean, some twists were great because they were hinted at and effective for the theme/atmosphere. So I don't really want a twist, but I feel pressured to do so to make it stand out (you could make the argument that I could just wing it since it's just for school, but I want this story to be good, you know?).

I've been working as a writer on this game project for the past week now. We had the premise before I got on board, but nobody seems to have any idea how the story is going to end.

I guess I'm allowed to have fun with this.

Read "Despoilers of the Golden Empire". (It's in public domain.) You might want to try something like that.

So I'm working on an abridged version of the Iliad, and have gotten a few books in. I'm wondering if I should write it in epic poem form or modern novel.

Let the twist be that there is no twist. I haven't read many sci-fi stories (other than the one YA anthology), but regular short stories can be unique without needing a single twist.

• Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?: little tragedies in ordinary lives. A few twist endings, but mostly any revelations take place in the middle or the start. There's an unfinished edge to the stories that feels quite unsettling.
• Borges: WEIRD SHIT. Since he does magical realism, sci-fa's more respectable sibling, you might look there for inspiration.
• Juan Rulfo, another magical realist, and the master of atmosphere. Try Luvina, from The Burning Plain and Other Stories. Dear gods I love that book.
• All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury doesn't have any twists - it just is. There's also nothing outlandish about the story (despite the sci-fi setting, which is vital) and yet I think it's one that people remember.

One thing I've noticed is common to the stories that stick with me is the suddenness of the ending. They don't slow down the way novels often do but stop sharp as though the writer has cut off the last paragraphs with scissors.

edited 7th May '15 2:03:41 PM by LongLiveHumour

Monster stories don't have a genre anymore, so I have no idea where to look for recent ones. No horror in Barnynobes, or Borders

&

Thanks for the help. I'll definitely check out those stories to get some pointers.

I also have been considering doing a work in the magical realism genre, so I can kill two birds with one stone eh?

I can see how suddenness can work, since there's no wrap-up or something that slows it down afterwards which can keep it in someone's mind.

I guess a part of why I asked is because I visited a college recently that published its own short story mag and I read a story that had a twist, but I thought it was really cheap. I also disliked how they used the Unreliable Narrator trope, and they never really gave a hint if they were unreliable until it blatantly says so in the ending (though I'm a stickler on Foreshadowing so not giving me hints makes me feel cheated rather than surprised).

@26509: Anyone besides me feel like that trope page sort of misses the point of the story? It's focused pretty much entirely on the linguistic trickery and doesn't seem to get that what the story's really deconstructing is the imperialistic overtones of Golden Age sci-fi.

I noticed a few of my chapters for Hunting the Unicorn are getting emotionally hard to write. Finishing up the most recent chapter was a doozy.

On the plus side, time to update Moonflowers and my other story tomorrow when I'm not supposed to be sleeping.

Sometimes wrapping my head around all these plotlines is difficult for me; I'm just wondering how the hell the reader is supposed to keep up.

Moonflowers or Hunting the Unicorn? They're both pretty winding.

I promise I'm done setting stuff up for both, though. No more big messy twists.

edited 10th May '15 3:38:16 PM by Sharysa

I'm not sure we're discussing the same subject.

Someone once said that a creator needs to put in enough effort to make their art look effortless. Of course, they probably put it rather more snappily than I did.

edited 11th May '15 6:52:41 AM by LongLiveHumour

That'd be ideal. I think I can often pull off the opposite; something that seems to have required tedious planning but which I was able to conjure up off the top of my head. Of course, there's both pros and cons to that ability.

Just started adapting a short story I wrote a while ago (it had great ideas, but went terribly wrong) into a film script. I think the story is better suited for the medium. Although I think the opening stabbing scene stayed the same in terms of violence description...

I read this extensive rant against Age of Ultron, and it's interesting. I can't make a final judgement, since I haven't watch the movie yet, but I agree with some of the points.

TL;DR: A combination of too many characters and explosions results insufficient time for the film's human element—which is Joss Wheldon's most major stength. This contrasts from the first movie's compelling characters, with undercooked character development, and AoU's story approach will negatively influence future media.

It's very "the sky is falling", but the writer discusses the value of good blockbusters. So thoughts or counter-rants?

Xeroop: Oh, I thought you were one of my readers! You mentioned "the plotlines are hard to wrap my head around" and I thought that was in response to one of my stories, which both have REALLY murky plots. No harm!

As for Age of Ultron, I think it was an overall enjoyable movie—but with some REALLY surprising sour notes. Black Widow's sob story about how she got sterilized by the Red Room as a routine procedure to become one of their assassins was handled badly. If you're upset about forced sterilization, then you have every right to be upset and traumatized. A very important part of your body was essentially yanked out and thrown away without your consent. But it is VERY TRICKY to compare yourself to Bruce Banner and call yourself a monster because of it, especially since it wasn't clear at all whether Black Widow only thought she was a monster due to the trauma since she was probably in her late teens/early twenties when they sterilized her, or whether we were supposed to agree with her. Because Bruce, surprisingly enough, did not say a fucking word to assure her that no, being forcibly sterilized was not anything like his literal Hulking Out.

Also, Black Widow seemed completely unaware of adoption, foster-care, and surrogacy, which are all completely viable alternatives to people who can't have children. Which Bruce AGAIN should have told her about.

That was my main sticking point. My sister was upset at the nonexistent feminism. Which was also surprising since it's Joss Fucking Whedon.

edited 11th May '15 1:07:27 PM by Sharysa

I don't agree with him being hounded off of Twitter about it, but Joss Whedon is not as good a feminist as he thinks he is. That's not really news.

He's not that special NOW, but given one of his shows is a landmark of TV, he has a special nostalgia place in my heart with all the other Fair for Its Day works.

My issue is that he seems to stick with what he knows and doesn't do new stuff, which is bad because feminism is waaaay ahead of him after more than a decade.

I don't go on Twitter that much, so I have no comment on his departure/hiatus/whatever-it-is.

Age of Ultron is still an enjoyable movie with a good cast and production. I just need to skip the Bruce/Natasha parts (pretty easy, since they're forgettable outside of that one wall-banging scene I rambled about) and pretend that Quicksilver didn't die.

edited 11th May '15 1:57:50 PM by Sharysa