Writer's Block Daily

Greetings and welcome! I hope that you find your time in this sub-forum enjoyable and helpful! ^_^

[edit] Bah, page-topper, cutting off the introduction that I'm responding to! :/

To see that introduction by BrashBuster, see this link.

Sorry about that! ^^;

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Aug 12th 2023 at 10:21:14 AM

Note to self:

Never, ever. write a large scoped (semi-realistic) war story again, especially one that's as complicated and vast as World War II.

And ESPECIALLY never write a NAVAL warfare story.

You feel it's too taxing for you?

It is always a good feeling when you re-read your story so far and feel proud of it. Sure not everything is perfectly written but I've stopped writing it for too long and want to go back and collect data on the characters, and I have to say so far I enjoy many of the concepts I've come up with.

This is encouraging to read! I'm glad that you're finding your story to be so! ^_^

Thanks! Taking a step back can be a gamble because usually I end up cringing at my old writing, but I think this one holds up decently so far.

@Lone - Yuuuuup.

In the process of writing my WW 2 alternate history fiction, I have read literally over 10,000 pages of military/history books and articles over the span of two years so far.

While the research and study itself was incredibly beneficial, to the point where it actually helped me get my Masters degrees and help me decide what I want to study for my Ph.D...to Hell with that noise, I'm NOT going through that again.

@War Jay - Oh, absolutely! Even though the earlier chapters (read: ones that I wrote just few months ago) can be an Old Shame, I do find myself chuckling at some of the more satisfying lines I wrote.

Edited by dRoy on Aug 21st 2023 at 10:12:53 PM

This is not strictly-speaking on-topic, but as writers here might be familiar with fiction-magazines I'm hoping that it's okay to cross-post:

Over in the "Literature Recommendations" thread, I'm asking for suggestions toward a sci-fi fiction magazine.

(For reading purposes, rather than submitting purposes, that is.)

sweats in Pantser

(The comment is supposed to be negative btw)

Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Sep 5th 2023 at 5:11:03 AM

Relatable

That does fit me somewhat...

I'm proud to say that I actually thoroughly plan my story out before starting it.

But you know what they say. No plan survives enemy contact and everybody has a plan until they punched in the face.

...And my story's enemies have punched me in my face many times.

I do have a small vauge outline for stories I plan on getting to, and I think I do have outliens made for other stories.

My issue is that for what seems to be longform serialized content even if I start out with vague outlines it somehow leads to me making roughtdrafts/summaries instead (that weren't for the content for the earlier outlines)

@Cutegirl920fire: I'd call that somewhat of an Insult Backfire. ;)

How so?

Because, as somewhat of a "pantser", that sounds like pretty impressive writing to me!

Or, put another way: writing done off-the-cuff, with little planning, can still be excellent writing.

I do have to admit though that I'm not the sort of person who will instantly act on an idea. While I don't do big outlines or anything, I'll usually let the seeds grow for a little until I feel prepared to tackle them. Right now I have a basic story concept (Average middle class American girl finds out that her family is actually massive and has ties to magic, which causes her to go on a journey to meet the other branches of her family and become a part of this world) that doesn't have a specific conflict or anything outside of a few scenes floating around in my head, so I'm letting it simmer until I get enough of an idea for it... and then I'll jump in and wing the rest from there

Maybe it'll be my Nano story who knows

Indeed, I think that I'm similar: inspiration doesn't always come all at once, but may come in parcels at various times.

Which is why, to my mind, having an idea and then writing an entire large work from it immediately sounds like a remarkable feat, rather than something negative!

I also consider myself as a pantster, again I do have outlines, but for longform work they seem to transform into rough drafts as I keep writing.

I did attempt to try to get an outline made for the chronological first book of my WIP. But that is webcast I feel that I have to stick the landing with that specifically as its the first introduction, and because I think a good first introduction would make or break an ongoing work's popularity until the ending arrives.

So yeah, it's me again.

I may have stopped writing actual works a while ago, but i couldn't help but scribble down some crazy idea based on my thoughts, feelings and worries about my futre, about homeless people that mixes slice of life, differing views on meanings and the homeless experience...and weird ass adventures and yakuza-style shonen-tinted fights and secret societies...yeah, it's weird.

I even came up with some characters:

-Hobo Bob: our protagonist. A man who has been homeless for a long while. He is oretty much a more nihilistic and depressed version of the dude from the big lebowski. He spends his days wandering around, fishing for food and simply waiting for death to come...along the way, he meets all sorts of weirdos and fellow homeless people such as:

-Johnny the Laddie: a self-proclaimed trash archaeologist who travels the region looking for hidden memorabilia in junkyard and trash bins.

-Sophie the Harpy: a teenaged girl who fled her home to escape from her dire home situation. An aspiring Gymnast with a stormy temper, she sees homelessness as a way to be independent, and she frequently saves Johnny's ass...i mean, accompany him in his "archaeological" expeditions. Their more positive outlooks on homelessness and meaning contrasts with Hobo Bob's old fashioned persepctive on the matter (at least, old fashioned according to them), which serves as a parody of generational divides. She also has a fondness for Worms, because she has sympathy for them because they get stomped on without people even realising they are here.

-Ross the Boss: the leader of the Marufuji-Gumi, an organised group of homeless people who runs the sanctuary of Kibo-Cho, a haven they build with the goal of providing a home for the homeless...why the random japanese names and the yakuza-style naming? Well, because he's a huge weeb and he named his group after his favorite wrestler, Naomichi Marufuji.

-:Rick the Dick: named so because he's a lazy bum who is homeless because he actually is too lazy to work and live, actually being a true parody of the old stereotype about unemployed people. And, well...he's a bit of a dick.

However, he used to roll with a gang called the Skwee Gs, who drove modified ride on cars and were like homeless street pirates. But one day, he was betrayed after he was wrongly blamed for a heist gone wrong, feeling he has been set up. And now, he wanders off, looking for revenge on his former gangmates. He also loves collecting Baseball cards.

And yeah, somewhere along the way, they have baki-style crazy martial arts fights along with comedic hijinks and poignant discussions about the meaning of life and being poor...

Yeah, it's weird and nonsensical, but hey, it kept me occupied and made me laugh, so i guess that's cool.

Edited by Kinni454 on Sep 8th 2023 at 4:17:16 AM

After a few months of dormancy, the Constructive Criticism thread has a new entry. I did some housekeeping to remove my entry for the next poster's entry, though, the next poster is working on fixing the text.

I think some of those ideas sound fun actually!

i know, buy its so random. Its like one moment, you go from fucking poignant slice of life a la midnight dinner about my fears of never being good enough, ending up homeless and dying in the streets and there is nothing i can do about it...to simpsons/gintama hijinks to fucking Baki/Hokuto no Ken with hobos to ride on car-riding hobo pirates...to baseball.

If that ain't a perfect representation of my mind, then i dunno what else is...

Also, some ideas are literally inspired by me and things that i've seen. Hobo Bob is, like, my worries and a bit of my personality, whereas Johnny is basically indiana jones mixed with Oscar the Grouch, and Sophie's backstory is basically inspired from a recent pehnomenon in my home province not too long ago about girls fleeing their homes. We call them fugueuses in french, and there even was a TV series about it. Oh, and the gymanst part is because i thought about kathy ohashi or whatever her name was, for some reason.

Ross the Boss is based on my weeb side, while Rick the Dick is based on the nickname of someone i know and also on a character from a radio show i used to listen to when i was younger...that, and the idea of a bunch of hobos riding on ride on cars being all gangsta and "they see me rollin', they hatin'" is just really funny.

Yeah, i'm an idiot lol.

Don't beat yourself up! You have wonderful ideas and stories that go batshit crazy have their own, unique charm!

For real. And hey even if this current story doesn't work out, you can always develop these concepts to use later!