Let's Talk about Writing Excuses

I dunno, haven't read anything in a while (I'm talking media in general), I'm not the best person to ask for technological or physical accuracies/innacuracies anyway (like I said before, I couldn't care less).

Okay, I have been reading something (Fallout Equestria) and I've been enjoying it greatly. And I'm pretty damn sure Ponies aren't able to shoot guns via pulling the trigger with their tounge's.

edited 26th Apr '12 1:59:10 PM by Rynnec

I love it when a writer uses actual things that are things to solve or create problems. (Example that they could have used, because Dan Wells does do it - I Am Not A Serial Killer. The psychology of sociopathy, and everything about preparing corpses for burial.)

I don't see that as interfering with suspension of disbelief at all, though.

Maybe we should talk about the difference between making the audience suspend their disbelief (wizards exist) and feeding them inaccurate information because you were lazy (when my magic wand blew off a guy's head, he exploded for no reason). The second thing is what I'm talking about. There was a good Cracked article about this difference somewhere, but I can't find it.

Yes, exactly what I like in a book. Also, I Am Not A Serial Killer sounds great!

Read it read it, it Needs More Love. :D The first book isn't perfect, but it's quite a decent first-publication, and the sequels merely get better (and progressively more psychologically messed-up).

I am bumping this thread with Learn From Webcomics. While it focuses on webcomics the lessons it provides can beused for most all media. I'd check it out for some great advice onwriting told in an in-depth fashion.

[follows]

By the way, was anyone else disappointed that the Time Travel episode only discussed fairly cliché forms of time travel? (I was expecting Primer...)

I don't pay attention to many time travel episodes, since I tend to look at time travel differently.

Although I am interested in hearing it. Link?

http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/06/03/writing-excuses-7-23-time-travel/

I love writing excuses for the writing-craft advice, but those guys do have a tendency to miss fun ideas while worldbuilding. But then again, but me in front of a microphone and throw a prompt at me and I doubt I'd have anything interesting to say at all.

BTW: Just finished I am Not a Serial Killer. Very nice, very tight story. Thanks for the suggestion!

That is true - most of their worldbuilding ideas just don't grab me much at all.

You're welcome! Now read the others. :D

Sounds like a pretty good fit for me, actually.

What do you mean?

If there's anything I consider myself really good at in writing, it's worldbuilding. So a group that offers excellent advice on everything but worldbuilding would be pretty useful for me to follow.

Ah, that makes sense. In which case, don't bother with the worldbuilding episodes except maybe for personal interest.

they do some fun story-telling exercises too

For documentation purposes, 7.25 Writing Capers contains what I think is the first explicit reference to TV Tropes (to Xanatos Gambit).

I thought that was a really useful episode, actually (I'm still catching up at the moment).

Xanatos Gambit. Why did it have to be Xanatos Gambit.

I could've sworn we renamed it back when we were clarifying all the other Gambit tropes. Apparently not.

I'm sure it wasn't renamed, because it's just caught on too well outside of here. That's the reason why I was disappointed to here it come up - it's the embodiment of everything I fight in TV Tropes, but survives solely because of things like this.

Shame on you, Writing Excuses people.

It stays probably because the name Xanatos is quite memorable. Even if almost nobody remembers who the heck Xanatos was.

Unfortunately, while the name Xanatos is memorable, it's not in a way that helps anyone remember the trope is more than Evil Plan.

Anyway, this isn't really meant to be a derail. Sorry I brought it up.

[cough]

<_<

>_>

...anyway, then... I thought the most interesting points were

• A caper does not necessarily have to be a heist story - the important element is the group of specialists gathering to accomplish something impressive. (I think that means Lost Moon-slash-Apollo 13 is a caper!)
• By extension to non-capers, all of your characters should be contributing something important to the story. Especially the protagonist. (It might mostly be something thematic, but at some point they should actually affect the plot.)

This week's podcast addressed Villains Act, Heroes React (and to a certain extent Good Is Dumb, Evil Is Cool). I have been waiting for this subject to come up for a while. :D

Did anyone else think their advice was useful? I noticed they didn't really touch directly on how The Hollywood Formula applies (namely, it's practically a reversal, since Protagonist Plans Antagonist Obstructs).