Writer's Block Daily

A commenter called my writing boring.

They meant it as a compliment.

I am very happy with this.

In context: they said the thing they loved about my writing was the way I captured the boringness and mundanity of reality, and it made my characters leap off the page. And the more I look at my writing, the more I think that's pretty much my strength: I can stick two characters in a random situation and just have them talk about random stuff while keeping it interesting. In one story I wrote, characters debating whether or not they thought the other looked pretty segued nicely into how people see beautiful people and how Hedy Lamarr is more closely associated with her hotness than with her helping to lay the foundation for wi-fi. So when I hear about how I write the subdued nature of reality well, it makes me happy, because it means what I think is my strength probably is my strength, rather than my ego puffing itself up.

Well, that does sound intriguing, I suppose. While I've grown to somewhat despise them in Real Life due to rampant pretentiousness among some of my fellows, I'm rather fond of well-done conversation derailment in the manner you described.

Congrats to you, my friend!

I keep hearing and seeing amazing things about it. Too bad I don't really see myself getting in on the fun .

Trust me, it's always good to get something done, no matter how horrid it may seem at first (or after).

edited 14th Apr '17 7:06:26 PM by ilili

i redone one of my character's ezaniel. the man from before told me he was mary sue due to his skills and appearance, however, i have since added some bits of flaws to him. still kept the fanservicey angle through.the guy in question must have never came back but i might as post it to see if anyone else thought he was decent. i just don't think he's good enough i guess.

ezainel

different question, what would be a different way of saying "a deep, booming wolf howl is heard as the group of huntsman make there way out the woods."

since i keep on using is heard alot. i can't think of anything else.

Are we talking prose or script?

In either case, "is heard" uses the passive voice, which is recommended against by English majors and screenwriters alike.

A few alternatives that come to mind:

• A deep, booming howl echoes across the clearing.
• They reach the edge of the woods, congratulating themselves for being free of the danger. Just then, they hear a deep, booming howl. It echoes across the clearing, sending chills up the spine of each and every huntsman. The trees seem to engulf them again as they realize they're not out of the woods yet.
• The huntsmen reach the forest's end. Congratulations all around until a deep, booming howl interrupts the mood.
• The huntsmen are out of the forest. Suddenly they hear a deep, booming howl.

Obviously there's plenty more ways to do it that I haven't even thought of. So feel free to tweak or toss out as needed. The way I see it, the goal shouldn't be just to convey what is happening, but also how your characters (or the audience) feel about it. The longer you spend describing the howl, the longer it feels to the reader/viewer.

In both prose and screenwriting, pacing is really important and can help sell an effect. It's one thing a lot of amateur writers forget.

Drop the 'is heard' part, for starters, because that's passive voice- it distances you from the action. Do something to the effect of 'a wolf howls' rather than 'a wolf is heard howling' and go from there.

Ninja'd; that's what I get for trying to post from my phone, lol

edited 15th Apr '17 8:29:07 AM by CrystalGlacia

Like a booming howl bellows from behind them or?

If that floats your boat, then sure!

any screen writiers here? (i know one but hope to see others)

An early sign my Cosmic Horror Story is going to shift into a somewhat silly Lovecraft Lite: possessed victims can't say words that have the letter U in them. Why not? As one character puts it, "Have you seen the names these things have? Stuff like 'Shg'jkggrt'mngwt'? Whatever language they use, it's got pretty much no English vowels. They just don't know how to say it." ("But the only vowel in 'Cthulhu' is-" "Yeah, well, not all horrific monstrosities from beyond time and space are created equal.")

Alert for any screenwriters in the vicinity: Sounds like Hollywood is gearing up for another Writers Strike. If you're looking to repeat the success of Breaking Bad or Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (which started during the last one), now is the time to finish up your project and shop it around.

how the heck can i format a transition to a daydream done in crayon? the after a another character snaps them out of it, it poofs.

edited 26th Apr '17 7:06:11 AM by ewolf2015

Describe it.

Here's how I'd tackle it (in my very hackneyed not-quite-screenplay-format-for-the-forums)

edited 26th Apr '17 8:48:29 AM by AwSamWeston

I'm really excited. I've been working on music for a new short film with my editor and the cinematographer (who happened to be a music minor), and I just saw a rough cut of the video, and it gave me so much confidence, guys!

This is easily gonna be my best short film yet.

Was writing a car chase, and apropos of nothing, this exchange popped into my head:

Well, I ran into Reality Ensues in my own story because The Fair Folk keep saying that indentured servants aren't really slaves. Some of them genuinely pay attention to treating them properly, but others like to financially/physically abuse them because hey, it's their fault for getting into so much debt. Seeing as their new queen is an American human, she does not like this aspect of feudalism.

Hell, her castle's heads of staff admit that they've ALREADY thought about getting rid of it, but while she COULD have the richest nobles help her pay off all the debtors' contracts overnight and then outlaw debt-bondage because she's the queen and they have to listen to her, a lot of people are used to their functionally-cost-free workforce, seeing as the contract is "paid off" through the worth of their labor, but the debtor can go years without physically touching any money.

Deliberate Values Dissonance, why do I pay attention to you?

so in a scene that might not get written, the scene fades to white after the main character gets almost shot then transitions to a police interrogation room how do you format that?

edited 1st May '17 4:22:34 AM by ewolf2015

Two options:

-->FADE TO WHITE.
(SLUGLINE FOR INTERROGATION SCENE)

or

-->FADE TO:
White.
(SLUGLINE FOR INTERROGATION SCENE)

I tend to stick with option 1, but that's moreso a play on "Fade to Black," which happens at the end of a screenplay, not in the middle. So I have a sneaking suspicion that some screenwriters will call it bad form. (Fun fact: Screenwriters / producers look for every possible reason to not read your screenplay, and "bad formatting" is high on the list.)

This also comes to mind as a third option (and would need tweaking for your needs):

edited 1st May '17 6:14:45 AM by AwSamWeston

seems good, thank you . you are a godsend for novice screenwriters.

I have trouble deciding which of my many stories I should prioritze working on.

Anybody got some tips for me?

I suggest answering these questions, organized from what I consider to have the most weight to the least weight:

• Which work is almost done?
• If there is a deadline, which work is due next?
  • Some people work on projects in "reverse deadline order" so that they can be finished with their projects early, so I would consider this the second "heaviest" question.
• Which work has the most potential for making money the quickest?
  • That is, short stories or poems (or other works) you plan on submitting to contests (with monetary awards) or something similar. Barring contests, poems are probably the least likely to accrue you sustainable royalties, so consider putting poetry projects off until after getting other, monetizeable works completed.
• Which work is being talked about? Which work has interest?
  • If you have a publisher or agent (or potential buyers such as family and friends) interested in a story idea, you might consider prioritizing that work over others.

These are not always going to be the most important questions concerning prioritization of writing projects, but I hope they help!

Gotta say I haven't really considered any of those. Thanks!

I ran into a problem today, in one of my scripts I'm doing, the main character use vines to look into the history of some race through a series of shots. Then it's narrated by someone as the shots are shown.

Explaining how to not make it jarring is appreciated, thank you.

Just had a random thought about Duke Nukem Forever, of all things.

In the game, Duke is such a manly manly man that his health bar is actually his ego. Bullets and explosions don't hurt him, but they do make him feel bad about himself (which odd, since if I was that invincible, getting shot would only make my ego bigger). There should've been a boss whose primary form of attack was insulting Duke. It doesn't matter where he is on the battlefield, he yells out something like, "Nice gun. Compensating, much?", and Duke's ego immediately takes a hit as the insult rattles him. But there are white noise generators or something strewn around the place, so if the boss is readying an insult, you can turn one on and the static is so loud that it drowns out the insult, Duke can't hear it, and he doesn't get his ego bruised.

Have no idea where it came from. I've never played DNF and never had any interest in doing so. But whatever.

Interesting. I remember there was a Monster of the Week in Power Rangers Samurai that could inflict physical harm to people. Of course, Samurai being one of the weaker entries in an already admittedly silly kids' show, the insults used didn't get any worse than "you're boring" and "your cooking sucks," but it's still an interesting concept.