General Writer's Block thread

For those things that you don't feel merit a whole new thread, but would still like help on. Or just to chat about writing in general, I guess.

So I'm writing a story about a detective. How unrealistic would it be for him to get in a knife fight with an armed suspect?

What is the suspect armed with? A knife? I'd say pretty high— although there's probably only be the one knife between them.

Hum... Regarding character development. There's a character who's thousand years old (thanks to an incident in potion making) and is sick of it (because among other things, the situation elementalists have been subjected too didn't change much).

I would like her Character Development to be from Who Wants to Live Forever? to Living Forever Is Awesome. Would that be possible (with the situation for elementalists slowly changing?).

edited 17th Mar '11 3:07:07 PM by risingdreamer

Yeah, I think so. I have an immortal character myself who fluctuates between the two. In fact, that sounds like the most logical route- Character realizes the inherent disadvantages of immortality and does not have high hopes for it for much of their life, then finally accepts that it can be awesome.

@ Ronka: The fight's taking place in a kitchen, so I was thinking the suspect would have his own knife and the detective would snatch one up from the counter because it was faster than getting his gun out. Something about the situation feels off though.

@ risingdreamer: I think so. I think having a character be "bored with life" is unrealistic, if one can look at the big picture and not focus on the everyday details. Anyone who's lived for a century has probably seen/lived through some amazing things. And there's the future, I'd be pretty excited to get to see it.

Of course I'm not 1000s of years old, but eh.

Maybe she finds a passion that can be sustained for centuries? Like helping other people, or doing science, or something.

Hi. I has karate teacher. He is former policeman. Here is the thing with guns. If they are not drawn, you have the advantage. You move with a gun that's not in position, you can't do anything until you are cocked and ready. You move with a knife, it doesn't matter whether you're ready or not because it will slice.

So, in close combat, with a gun that is not perfectly positioned, it could work.

Oh. Makes sense. Thanks.

It's not something I hear about often, though. It's always police and gunfights, never police and knifefights. I wonder why.

May I ask you guys something else regarding characterization? I intended one of the villains in my story to take over the group (Mana Knights, a bunch of mages sick of the Fantastic Racism) he was part of because he thought the leader wasn't doing much (he was, but he had, you know, his limits).

I also imagined said character to be a former combat slave (was enslaved because he was a powerful magician) with little to no knowdlege about how to behave in social situations, as well as about things such as love and sex.

Said character is normally stoic and admant about his beliefs. Maybe he would be better off as a mere supporter to the traitor?

edited 17th Mar '11 3:30:23 PM by risingdreamer

Because police are given guns, not knives. Since they are usually the attackers, not the defenders, they prolly don't have to worry about not being ready.

edited 17th Mar '11 3:29:00 PM by MrAHR

Or maybe midia thinks hearing about knife fights isn't exciting enough, forgetting YMMV XD (how do I post the WMG icon?).

And Melloncolie and Crystal Glacia, thanks for the help on the immortal character ^_^. And thanks for always helping me, Crystal Glacia. Sorry for bugging you.

edited 17th Mar '11 3:34:09 PM by risingdreamer

Wow, this is all clicking into place now. That's what's wrong: what kind of idiotic suspect would attack a policeman?

I suppose the detective would be in civilian clothes though. Maybe the criminal assumed he was another seedy person snooping in his house?

So the situation is, the detective gets a tip and goes to investigate a house/apartment that either belongs to the criminal, or the criminal was using it as a base. While he's there he gets into a fight with the criminal, knife fight preferred but I can work with a gunfight. The criminal's a small-time guy, a petty thief/kidnapper but not a gangster or anything like that.

I'm thinking if the character doesn't have social skills, then they'd probably not be able to take a leadership position for themselves. They'd be great for a right-hand man, personal assassin, or bodyguard, though. Or even second-in-command might work; if people respect the leader enough, then they respect and trust anybody that he respects and trusts.

Then again... if the character was strong/skilled enough, then other people would be willing to put them in the leadership position. If he proves again and again that he's the best of the lot and cares for them, then they would look up to him. Dunno if that means he could lead effectively though, since that sort of position depends on all the underlings being afraid of/adoring the leader.

Posting icons: Above the text box there should be a bar of icons. Click one to use it.

Alternately you can just write it in. If you remove the spaces [ wmg ] ->

edited 17th Mar '11 3:43:53 PM by melloncollie

So, in a more general thought, has anyone here ever written minor characters that they realized might be more interesting or plain old fun than the main cast?

I've done it myself, with two characters who I've actually grown attached to whose whole purpose is to show up in the beginning of the story and never show up again.

Well, My main character is really boring to be around, or rather puts on an "old curmudgeon" front 90% of the time, so practically every character I write is "more fun" than him. Though I guess more fun to just toss him into a situation that he hates and see how he responds.

Oh, yeah. I got one now- Alastair Thornton. I was thinking about how a Metagross Gjinka would realistically work, and he came out. Intelligent, yet with a scarily bad temper, evil-looking red eyes, and there's four, yet they all think like a single unit, all while spouting off Technobabble with what sounds like a single voice.

edited 17th Mar '11 4:29:32 PM by CrystalGlacia

Metagross?

Mmhm. It's stated in the Pokedex that they're a combination of four Beldum.

If you want, read the Pokedex entries on Bulbapedia.

edited 17th Mar '11 4:43:06 PM by CrystalGlacia

OIC. I've done something similarish. I took a Team Fortress 2 combination, and I made a character the Soldier, and she was one of my blandies, but making her the Soldier actually gave me a great idea for a slightly off kilter boisterously peppy Blood Knight. I can only hope it's better than it sounds. Of course...she's a minor character and really only shows up once or twice...

That happened with my charcter Flinn. He was supposed to be there to provide a friend for Milo and give him advice. Now, he's getting about an equal role in the story with him.

I'm sorry, Milo, you're just... he's just kind of cooler than you are.

I once tried to write a one off cameo of a character from an old story of mine. It did not go well.

Hmm, haven't had that happen to me. Occasionally a secondary character will be more interesting than the main main character, but no interesting minor characters yet.

Would one climb out of bed? What would be a synonym for that process?

stumble? stagger? jump? fall? bound?

Climb usually works, though.

edited 17th Mar '11 6:37:27 PM by MrAHR

Get?

How about characters you were going to cut but people who read the story said they liked so much (without prompting) that you left them in or even expanded their role? I had this happen, it's a strange phenomenon.

A character I particularly (angsty spoiled dude who's in denial about being able to see the dead) don't like ended up as the protagonist. Just what the...

Okay, this is an existing character that I'm using in the Beach House thread. His name is Justin, and he is Kira. But unlike Light, he is shy, timid, does not kill innocents (although throughout the story, he would start using them), intelligent, quiet, and shows only a few emotions: stoicness, shyness, and embaressment. However, he both has a great sense of justice, very intelligent, and has physlogical problems.

How do I get him involve in the plot? Should I have the other players drag him into the Thirty Xanatos Pileup, because in the existing version that I consider dead, in retrospect, he doesn't have a good enough motive to even fight the antagonist.

edited 17th Mar '11 8:09:23 PM by chihuahua0