Writer's Block Daily

I've noticed that when I write mysteries, a lot of my clues tend to be two supposedly-unrelated things that don't quite fit together if you really think about it. Action A (mentioned in, say, chapter 4) happening is unremarkable, and action B (mentioned in chapter 12) happening is unremarkable, but actions A and B happening together is suspicious because of certain unstated links. I also tend to play with supposed "common knowledge"; for instance, a character might have a certain ability that's of no surprise to the audience and is widely known among certain characters, but no one notices when a character who shouldn't know of that ability offhandedly mentions it.

I know this won't be answered but, I've encountered that one person that got kinda offended.

they said this

I actually plan on doing research but I honestly don't know where to start. writing with color isn't receiving any questions, and I don't know where else to go.

edited 1st Apr '17 11:41:54 AM by ewolf2015

Well they're not wrong. But their reaction is a lot more knee-jerk than is helpful for a writer.

As I'm sure you're aware, writers have this age-old mantra called "Write What You Know." Now, a lot of people take this to mean you can ONLY write about things you've experienced, leading to a lot of fledgling books about writers being depressed.

But Write What You Know isn't limited to personal experience. If you don't have the experience you need, then talk with people who do! Reach out to any Muslim immigrants you know. Or conservative Catholics. Get their stories, their perspectives. And, barring that, you're still in luck! - the internet has plenty of people talking about their experiences. I know for a fact that there's documentaries and memoirs talking about the lives and experiences of each.

I can't say much more, being a straight white humanist male with limited experience about either group you're talking about. All I can leave you with is that "learn as much as you can about those groups" is the advice I've used in similar situations, and I haven't run into any problems yet.

Oh! And—

Disproven! Stop being so hard on yourself, please.

sorry man. it just that the internet is a big place and you can get sweep away by it. anywho, now they replied back with

see the problem is, research is not just reading some articles. it's talking to people, seeing experiences, going places. although I don't want to waste my time doing that, I'll rather go a library, ask some Muslim immigrants, rather spend millions to go to Syria to see what it's like. also, I know what write what you know is and the actual definition. it's common that people can get the term mixed up with only writing your own experiences.

and sadly, i kinda cursed him out for it. but i guess i was really under the emotions today.

edited 1st Apr '17 11:44:05 AM by ewolf2015

If you want to really write this, find an internet community with those people and watch them exist. Or make find people who are in that area. No muslim experience is the same (mine certainly wasn't), so you're better off casting as wide a net as possible.

Although if you are planning on to write something about religion, it helps to have a knack for understanding why people are religious. I am not religious at all and it is something I can't wrap my head around at all. I can understand it, but I can't really depict it to that level of accuracy.

Yeah, try to gather stories and impressions of several people from each of your categories, to compare and contrast, and see which one its closest to your ideas, what to change to make it your plot, whether changes would make sense, etc etc.

edited 1st Apr '17 1:27:43 PM by Adannor

after the debate, i was blocked by him.

There exists other people than this one dude.

i know. so i moved on.

Adannor hit the nail on the head. Especially when writing about people and places you have no idea about, and no way to get yourself there, the next best thing is to talk with people about their experiences. Few things are a good substitute for that real personal experience (firsthand or secondhand). Ultimately, the best thing libraries and articles can do is act as starting points for questions, or as padding to flesh out the knowledge you've already gained.

To reinforce my point, I've spent several years developing a story that features a bunch of groups. Two in particular that I had very little understanding about were Mormons and Native Americans (and yes I'm aware there's a crap-ton of native american groups; for the sake of simplicity I'm lumping them together in the context of this post. Sorry in advance.)

So with the Mormons it was pretty easy: Missionaries. They're everywhere, so it was easy enough to get in contact with them and learn as much as I could about their religion, how people in that community interact, and how they live out their values.

In the case of Native Americans, it's actually been harder. Many groups are guarded about their culture and traditions thanks to Hollywood's misrepresentation. I once visited an Ojibwe reservation with similar goals to my interactions with the Mormon missionaries. But instead I just ended up having a random conversation with one of their elders about her experiences in the boarding schools. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it pointed me to something I hadn't considered before.

I guess my point is, always be on the lookout for opportunities to learn.

Have you attended a Catholic mass? Do it. Have you talked with local Muslims about their interactions with non-Muslims in your community? Do it. It's that kind of immersion that will be the perfect starting point for all of your research.

Books and online resources only help when you know what you're looking for.

so, just talking to people online count as a online resource?

Anyway, I have to get my webcomic done during the summer. So, I have no other choice but to do all of this minus the talking to people in real life thing, in about 3 months.

Why do you need to get this particular comic done by summer?

I think there have been some good points raised in response to this. However, I think most of the response has been over-thinking it. My suggestion is to rely on what you already know and understand since you have this short time constraint. Thus, rather than making a piece concerning a Muslim girl (assuming you don't know much about Muslims given your responses), make a piece concerning a different girl. She doesn't need to be Muslim, does she? You said she used to be a Jewish girl.

You said that you "thought it could have been interesting" to have her be Muslim (or Jewish), but if the research is more work than you can do right now, then maybe the better option right now would be to use a religion you are more familiar with. Or your own religion and make it a kind of self-parody, if that makes sense for the particular piece.

Something I completely disagree with is "You shouldn't play with things you don't understand and know! ... You must be familiar with these to write about," and "Research is not enough. You must have real experience from inside situations." If you follow this "advice," then you will never write anything other than what you already know. The person who said these things is just trying to control you and your writing, and I think you should just ignore them. Something supporting this assessment is the fact that the person blocked you. Obviously a closed-minded person.

My advice — if you want to use a RL religious group — is to learn as much as you reasonably can about POV-1 or POV-2, then try to write your story. It might be that POV-1 doesn't fit as well as you thought, but you wouldn't know that if you were to follow that "advice." Write What You Know suffocates many writers. A better piece of advice is "Write what you want to read" (though you should still do the due diligence and research where appropriate). Since this is obviously a fictional piece that we're talking about, I don't think you need to do years of research or write a doctoral dissertation on the subject before you write your story, though obviously if this were non-fiction you would need to do a crap-ton more research.

it's complicated.

and thank you.

edited 1st Apr '17 3:25:59 PM by ewolf2015

No prob. Good luck with finishing it on time.

It's difficult to generalize from this, but I think you're talking about two actions that are too disconnected? I would suggest writing an outline of what the, say, murderer did and use those notes as you write. So long as your detective recalls the Chapter 4 action while he or she remarks the action in Chapter 12, I think the audience probably won't mind too much.

Do you mean, like, a farmer's son (who the audience and detective doesn't know is a farmer's son) makes an off-handed comment about agriculture and nobody notices it until the reveal? What do you mean by "common knowledge" exactly? Common for the audience or for the character or the narrator?

RE "you literally should not write what you don't know, especially if it involves Muslims": I am willing to bet that the dude Ewolf talked to isn't actually Muslim, because there's a trend going around where Christian people are butting in on conversations about Islam and saying THOSE EXACT THINGS.

Meanwhile, the actual Muslims I know in real life and have talked to on the 'Net have WAY more open minds towards writing people who aren't of your ethnicity/religion/political-views. Especially fantasy. There's actually a movement for fantasy written by Muslims and centering Muslim characters, plus Muslims in Western countries REALLY want to see Muslim characters who aren't terrorists or backwater immigrants.

There's technically a mandate in the Quran saying "fiction/fantasy/non-realistic stories are frivolous at best and distractions from God at worst, unless it's specifically used to spread the word about Islam," but how many Muslims (especially the younger generations) ACTUALLY FOLLOW it? Half my friends are nerds, the Muslim ones included.

And that last bit he said: Real issues do not need fantasy, only make the things even worse.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. BRO HAS NEVER TOUCHED SCI-FI AND FANTASY IF HE DOESN'T ACKNOWLEDGE STAR WARS, HARRY POTTER, THE HUNGER GAMES, AND THE ENTIRE SUPERHERO GENRE.

Hell, people actively ENCOURAGE fantasy writers to bring real issues into their work for a sense of authenticity.

edited 1st Apr '17 9:02:19 PM by Sharysa

Also thanks.

The whole "Write What You Know" thing troubled me before, until I realized that pretty much everything I write is ultimately about emotional turmoil, even the story with the Eldritch Abomination invading. I believe I know emotional turmoil, so no worries there.

That is a good way to look at it. You don't have to know everything you write, but you need to know the core. If you plan on writing a story about culture clash, at its heart you need to have a fundamental understanding on how culture clashes work, even if all the cultures are fictional.

If you don't know something fundamental to your premise, you either learn it, or know something else to compensate.

Also if you don't know something fundamental to your premise, consider altering your premise. Obviously there are ways to get past it, such as time and effort, but there is something to be said for knowing your strengths and weaknesses and knowing how to accomodate them.

For instance I knew a dude who was planning this huge public domain crossover, had all his main characters planned from specific books and everything, and was drafting the first book. Second on his agenda, was to read all the books, as he had read none. While it was a cool idea, sure, it wouldn't have worked because he was going off of lazy pop culture ideas as opposed to the actual books, and saw that research as secondary.

edited 2nd Apr '17 11:45:58 AM by MrAHR

change of plans, I have now come to the realization that my art is not good enough to be a webcomic. so, for the next 10 years, I'll be practicing just about everything until it's good enough to be published. expect it to be released in summer 2027.

I know this is an exaggeration but I honestly can't make a comic looking like

this◊

or

this

the same could be even said for my writing style. although, it's leagues better.

edited 2nd Apr '17 1:02:44 PM by ewolf2015

I beg to differ. Looks decent enough.

Ewolf, you don't have to practice ten years for webcomic art. XKCD uses STICK FIGURES, and Order of the Stick is pretty damn close. Your art is pretty decent, and if you spend time drawing the actual comic, YOU WILL GET BETTER NATURALLY.

—
As for me, I just passed the fifty-page mark for Takotsubo, but it only feels a third of the way through instead of halfway like I planned. I have to keep reminding myself that this is just the FIRST DRAFT, and I can always cut things later.

that's one of the reasons I kinda don't like both. the xkcd comic you mentioned is some I'll more likely read than the order of the stick. but, maybe it's just because of style.

While both of those pictures look just fine for webcomics, bigger question is quantity, in speed and reliability of the output. It would need quite a bunch of different poses and scenes every couple days, after all.

that's where I state my problem, I suck at making my character's consistent.