Writer's Block Daily

well i admit, i need positive reinforcement , i have low self esteem issues, and most the people who'd reviewed my works said they were crap. does that answer your question?

note: honestly i don't suffer too much from it but still have problems dealing with it.

edited 25th Sep '16 3:56:28 PM by ewolf2015

Well, from the little I know about your work you seem to have a decent grasp on characters and ideas, but a harder time with narrative. You wrote you are unable to form imaginary images due to brain damage, right? I think that is called aphantasia, and I can imagine how it could make things awkward.

Have you tried practising your drawing skills, or resorting to alternate forms of narrative, like writing your storirs as a series of reports, diary entries, letters and other non-conventional forms?

And don't let those people put you down yet, all writers were less-than-good once.

edited 25th Sep '16 4:07:43 PM by EternaMemoria

it's more of a low form of that, i can still visualize, it's just faint.

Can't decide between "Do the world a favor and never do that again." or "If you do that again, I will murder you in your sleep."

The second sounds narmier.

And I believe you should avoid random death threats in the future. Specially when you don't give enough context for us to know if you are angry or just talking about choosing lines for your writing.

edited 26th Sep '16 10:22:05 AM by EternaMemoria

Ha ha ha ha hah! I agree with Eterna Memoria's advice, yes.

Tera Chimera, it's always important to make the context clear when dealing with sentences like those, comrade... (^_^)U You REALLY don't want for anyone to accidentally misinterpret them as an out-of-the-blue death-threat directed to a fellow troper; those kind of words are serious business around here, and make for "excellent" "ban fodder".

edited 26th Sep '16 2:27:03 PM by VPhantom

how can i avoid making my same sex relationships from being somewhat heteronormative? (note: one of couples are a spy assassin and a mechanic)

How would they be heteronormative in the first place? One more feminine partner and one more masculine partner?

I have a relationship dynamic like that in one of my works, but avoided the 'guy partner and girl partner' bit by having the smaller, more flamboyant partner also be much more aggressive and fiery, as well as being the Top in their sexual relationship.

But aside from that, I can't really imagine what you mean, really.

without giving too much away, the spy assassin is charismatic, somewhat manipulative, and seductive while mechanic is a down to earth, reasonable guy who also pretty badass.

That... doesn't sound particularly heteronormative? I mean, unless you're referring to both of them having relatively masculine-sounding personalities. You may be more concerned about this than is necessary.

one of them wears a skintight outfit..but i doubt it.

regarding my last post: would it be funnier to lampshade the Does This Remind You of Anything? moment or should I let the audience pick up on it by themselves? I really can't decide.

edited 27th Sep '16 10:37:43 PM by randomdude4

i'm not sure

randomdude4: I'm not sure the lampshade's worth it for that trope. Lampshading (and to some extent, subversion and aversion) tends to work best where it's easy to recognize what's happening as an example of a cliché or standard setup. Where the setup has a lot of character of its own. The Does This Remind You Of Anything? trope seems almost too basic and broad. Each instance derives its character and its value from the content - from the interesting tension between the misunderstanding and the reality - not so much from the technique. It's fun based on how the two things relate, the disorientation where they're confused for each other and the surprise when understanding hits (either for the characters or for the audience).

To go from there and point out that these kinds of misunderstandings are common, or that authors do often construct such situations - for a trope so basic, underscoring it isn't likely to add much value.

edited 30th Sep '16 11:50:13 AM by dogimo

Set it up for a third-party Brick Joke. A friend or relative overheard, and jumps to a conclusion that leads to a misunderstanding down the line. Like donating a bundle of adult magazines.

Or, y'know, just Don't Explain the Joke. Pointing the innuendo out usually makes it less funny, unless the joke is that everybody's using innuendos and then someone just says something explicitly sexual without any innuendo.

Writing a scene where a character runs out into a blizzard to escape a Closed Circle Inn of No Return in the middle of nowhere (she's genre savvy enough and has seen enough to know that, if she stays there, she will die), only to keep finding herself back at the inn. Working really hard to make it ambiguous whether she's just getting turned around in the whiteout conditions or if something's making it so that she can't leave.

Sounds cool

how can i write slice of life episode without boring myself to death?

Watch/read slice of life works that don't bore you and take notes on what works and what does not.

i was thinking of making most of my slice of life episodes be either mundane fantastic or mundane made awesome.

You'll have to do anyway, since you are far from the first writer to be confronted with such a problem, and you might want to see what the solutions are first.

Seriously. See how other people have handled it before haring off.

I have a bad problem with everyone speaking too formally. My dialogue is always stiff and awkward.

Spend some time writing down exactly what you hear yourself and other people say in real life conversations. That will end up being too far in the opposite direction, of course, but he point is it will help you loosen up.

Eavesdrop. Listening to how people talk helps immensely.