Writer's Block Daily

Well, all right...

It would have been nice to let us know earlier, to adjust, and whatnot.

If there's any chance you'd stay, I can clear up what's going on at the moment.

I'm just waiting for Dae Brayk to post, and wondering what Collen and Aqueos are up to, since neither of them have posted in a week.

edited 7th Oct '12 1:01:03 PM by Ryuhza

I'm trying to fight the new-story-takeover but not succeeding. Dammit, I have commitments and I'm not going to just dump In The Service this close to the end.

Wait we can check post histories? I thought we could only see edit histories.

Yes. "Find post by troper", there is a box on any forum page.

@ Cats: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

How does this sound for an elevator pitch?

Sounds like a good concept. However, it says nothing about the protagonist. Basically, what type of person is she? A two-word descriptor is enough, like "a hot-headed firefighter" or "a timid teen".

Hmm. I've described her before as a utilitarian neoclassicist, but that's probably not very helpful. :P She's an older teenager with a passion for literature and psychology, with a somewhat frenetic, analogical stream-of-consciousness that she tends to self-censor extensively - I might call her poetic, but I'm pretty sure that's misleading. So... I'm not sure I have a good, brief description for her. :/

Bookworm

edited 7th Oct '12 4:58:40 PM by Vyctorian

In other news, I made a fourteen-hundred-year-old dragonlike entity say, "Yo. Peace out, homie dawg. Fo' shizzle.", albeit sarcastically. Even he thinks it sounds ridiculous.

Is it really that necessary to describe the protagonist?

I mean, I probably would if I was doing it, but I can see cases where the plot might be enough of a hook on its own.

If I was a publisher I'd want to know about the protagonist, as not all readers resonate solely with the plot.

I would say the characters are much more important than the plot. That's the exact reason reducing the characters to a High Concept is difficult.

@Chimera: Okay, that's hilarious; I can just hear it being said in a deep, disgusted tone. May I inquire as to the context?

H'm, I wonder what the elevator pitch for my novel would be...I tried to summarize it yesterday and needed several paragraphs.

Upon meeting him in very suspicious circumstances, a much younger person greets him with a slightly aggressive "Yo." He briefly shifts into I-Don't-Have-Time-for-Your-Young-Whippersnapper-Slang mode and says the line, implicitly mocking her way of speaking.

I sent some writing for someone to look at.

-dies-

edited 7th Oct '12 8:22:09 PM by ohsointocats

To a publisher/editor/etc, or just someone? Either way, good luck I suppose?

In this post, I go hard on a book I love...in the name of literature!

Now, once I'm back home, I'll laying out the structure of Friday's post (Saturday will wait until later when more music videos are released) and brainstorming next Monday's post.

Just another set of eyes.

They say they were pulled in. Eeee.

Just a random thought; is it bad to have a novel that's Animesque?

((If you click the link "my life/work" you'll see more detailed infoz)) Moving along, it depends on what you mean by animesque. For me, I always write as if I were watching an anime, and you can see the cover of my (self) published book is done in an animesque style. So, to me, I don't think it's a bad thing, but what you mean and what I think can be totally different.

That's great! I actually woke up this morning after a nap (on est, I currently sleep days and am up nights) to find my own test-reader had emailed me about the first chapter of my second book. Apparently it's much better than my first, and much easier to get into it. Congrats

No, although you might have to account in differences between visual and written media when considering anime conventions.

@Masterofchaos: I wouldn't say there's anything intrinsically bad about it; anime, like films and comics and western animation and video games, has some quirks that people love and others that people might find repulsive. I think what many people have a problem with when it comes to anime, manga, and other Japanese-produced works- once you get past the aesthetic, which is related to this -is the cultural implications, and the fact that the Japan that many of these works take place in is a highly distorted one.

You see this in character polls for some of the manga in that country- Shrinking Violet or Yamato Nadeshiko-type females tend to score a lot better in Japan than they do over here, because many Westerners interpret those character types as sexist, while eastern viewers might see them as ideal women. You might see characters in comedy anime being hammy and loud in public, or doing strange things, when they would actually get scolded in real!Japan.

At one point in my life, anime was all I watched and manga was the only thing I read outside of required readings for school. It, of course, heavily influenced my early visions of writing to the point that I could not picture my characters or scenes in any other way. I stopped watching anime as much by the end of my freshman year and haven't bought a manga in even longer, but I didn't realize just how much it shaped my worldview until a year ago. I'm not trying to diss the medium at all, but such a realization was an utterly horrifying one to me. I remember shows like ARIA and Darker Than Black rather fondly- the former for its music and worldview, and the latter for its aesthetic and characters -but you have to be careful.

So, to reiterate, no. It's not intrinsically bad, but be careful and mindful of the implications that some anime tropes have.

edited 8th Oct '12 10:54:17 AM by CrystalGlacia

Chihuahua, I read your blog post on the horrors of Info Dumps, and wanted to comment on it—I find exposition to be a tremendously difficult thing to do right, and appreciate reading anyone else's thoughts on the subject. However, my browser unfortunately doesn't support Disqus (or vice versa), so I shall have to leave my reactions here.

For the most part I agree with your statements, most especially that Establishing Character Moments should take priority over long-winded explanations. After all, making the reader care about one's characters and story is the first priority when writing, and it never pays to take too long to hook one's audience. This is why In Medias Res openings are so popular, I think—I for one would likely discard a novel that starts with pointless seashell-cleaning.

Nonetheless, I can also understand why many authors seem to consider exposition blizzards something of a necessary evil. After all, the information they relay about the story and its world is often vital to the narrative. Understanding the mechanics of the Hunger Games, for example, is the backbone of that series' plot, and on those mechanics depend emotion, character, drama and all that good stuff. I think of my own novel-in-progress, as well: while I don't plan to reveal it immediately, the history of my future civilization is nothing short of pivotal.

The question, of course, is how to get important information across without bringing the story to a grinding halt? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that facet of the subject in further detail (since it's information I would definitely find useful!)

I'm not actually certain how one can have a novel that's animesque.