General Writer's Block thread

It doesn't really matter tbh, by 1945 Germany had no capability to intercept Allied bombers, acquire intelligence to prepare for a nuclear attack, or even have that many valid targets as the majority of their industrial and military infrastructure to conventional strategic bombing campaigns.

It's difficult to overstate how thoroughly Germany was already defeated by 1945

So flying two nukes straight into Berlin could be an option then?

It's 1945, Allied airpower can basically do whatever the hell it wants.

Germany already lost, invading Berlin was just a formality

Edited by LeGarcon on Jul 6th 2023 at 11:35:51 AM

In this alternate history the war is prolonged by a few months because a fictional character kills off the nazi leadership, declares himself reichsführer, and proves more competent than Hitler.

Not sure how early that should happen to matter at all, but even then it's only a few months because beating USSR and USA is obviously impossible and the new reichsführer is dead by the winter. After that, it'd be basically over.

(Supersoldiers are also involved and the nazis have almost all superpowered people who exist, but this is much more down-to-earth than Über and there's only six or so of them. The most powerful one would lose to a nuke and die)

Edited by Nukeli on Jul 6th 2023 at 6:46:57 PM

My point remains the same, Germany surrendered because it physically couldn't continue the war, not because of any political issue.

I've heard an exchange over at the Random Questions thread.

Nukeli claimed, responding to Cutegirl920fire's question, that vague depictions of autistic characters along with ambiguously transgender, asexual, and aromatic characters can cause negative consequences, that is, non-autistic/allistic persons trying to deny the autistic characters and mock people who do see it.

Does anybody has recorded proof of such instances of non-autistic people denying autistic-coded characters and mocking people for suggesting it?

Consider what happened recently with "Gwen Stacy is Trans" in the latest spiderverse movie. She's heavily trans-coded. She's about as close as you can get to being explicitly trans without actually saying "this is gwen stacy, she is trans and also a spiderperson with spider powers"

There was a substantial backlash to people pointing this out. This would naturally hold true for other marginalized groups.

I don't see why such a thing is being brought up and proof is being requested. There is always backlash to characters being interpreted as anything other than white, cis, thin, straight, etcetera. It would almost certainly hold true for any given group.

Anyway, I do disagree that it could cause problems in a way that is worth thinking about. The existence of any character which deviates from the "default" position in society causes problems, and those problems ought to be caused.

Edited by Florien on Jul 7th 2023 at 11:30:58 AM

Also Thor: Love and Thunder literally had characters say Axel's original name was Astrid, but people apparently think it was a "joke" (transphobic newssite) or jump through hoops to deny his transness by claiming that Astrid is a gender-neutral name in the real world (it definitely isn't) or in Asgard (on zero grounds).

That propably helps demonstrate the degree of denial the majority always has about implied minority (And i'd seriously estimate autism is about as stigmatized as transness, just differently).

I've been attacked and seen others attacked for saying that Sherlock Holmes seems autistic.

For reference, Doyle based Holmes' character on a real person he knew who could've been autistic. For further reference, here's somebody's compilation of passages from Doyle canon where Holmes' behaviors look autistic.

I would say one reason for the denial, besides naked ableism, is that media has given people inaccurate ideas about autism (everybody's Rain Man, Sheldon Cooper, a white male child, violent, or a mindless vegetable) so people just fail to recognize traits obvious to anybody who actually knows about autism. Like actually autistic people, who then get attacked.

EDIT: I'm also reminded of Benedict Cumberbatch's comments about autistic people and characters (warning: genuinely shocking and disgusting).

Edited by Nukeli on Jul 9th 2023 at 11:44:06 AM

Re: Adept Gaderius

As an Autistic person, whenever people believe someone is Autistic or I am compared to someone, it's always a character they hate or someone that the writers have designed to be mocked.

Exceptions are the guy from "The Big Short", who actually was IRL autistic, and the guy from "The Accountant" who half of the movie is about his Autism. No one argues these two aren't Autistic, and the second guy is a bit troubling, but it's better than being compared to "Rain Man" or Sheldon, or whatever.

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Is this the right place to ask if it's generally better received to be within a sub-genre, to have a twist for one, or two do a hybrid of two sub-genres?

Like, if I do a 1990s Russian Detective story, is the 200% inflation, lack of jobs, and uber high corruption provide a place close enough to 1930s America for the story to be referred to as "Noir" or "Hard Boiled"?

Does the main character have to be an anti-hero or outsider? Does there actually have to be crime mysteries?

I've seen on TV tropes or other sites, that "Post Cyberpunk" is like cyberpunk but reform from "the inside" is possible. I've also read that Cyberpunk is like noir or hard-boiled, but set in what the 1980s thought was the future. So does that mean I could have insiders and reform, and call it "Post-Noir" or something like that.

Or am I like, one step too far from Noir / Hard Boiled changing the time and setting, and another different step trying to have Post-Cyberpunk elements?

@Working On Being Good:

It depends on your writing skills and confidence. Write what you feel natural in, don't write something contrived or convoluted. Don't attempt to do a hybrid of two sub-genres unless you possess the necessary familiarity with its genre conventions and tropes.

For the 1990s Russian detective story, the main character can be both an anti-hereo and outside. The story doesn't need any crime mysteries, a story about the main protagonist observing and intervening in clandestine criminal matters and government corruption can work as a story. It's not a Post-Cyberpunk story, but a Hard-Boiled Crime Story.

Where do you think the autistic stereotypes of "violent" and "mindless vegetable" come from and what are examples in media?

When the writer is trying to make the character autistic, he is usually a shitty stereotype like Sheldon or Rain Man. But you're saying the fans only headcanon characters they hate or who the writers wrote to be mocked as autistic, that literally not true. Sure, the non-autistic people will propably only pick up on the writer-intended characters because they don't know anything.

But have you ever *seen* people make autistic headcanons about characters??? It's either characters they relate to (like the aforementioned Sherlock Holmes) because most of those headcanons are actually made by autistic people (when non-autistic people make autistic headcanons, it's also the characters they like and want to woobify).

I'm also an autistic person. And i'm actually active in fandom spaces, so maybe i know better about the subject.

The violence association is pretty easily found if looked for. And the notion that autistic people are either supergeniuses or intellectually disabled is basically everywhere.

Edited by Nukeli on Jul 9th 2023 at 9:04:30 PM

Sia or whatever, had that terrible movie about an "Autistic girl" who basically behaved like a person who was moderately intellectually disabled.

Are you referring to the cinematic disaster Music (2021)?

Yes

We also have Palladium's "Beyond the Supernatural" which had Autistic characters serve as nothing but a character who suddenly is drawn towards whatever the next plot point or clue location the GM wants the players to visit.

The podcast, Mega Dumb Cast (They go one page at a time), had a really rough time with that and interviewed an Autistic person. People on Twitter were really confused, because the Autistic character, instead of being like Monk or something (Really aware of their surroundings to the point of discomfort), they were instead completely unaware of their situation. I think there was mention of them running into traffic or something.

BTW, I'm pretty sure the person "Rain Man" is based on, isn't even Autistic. "No, absolutely not. Rain Man is based on the life of Kim Peek, a man who was diagnosed with FG syndrome".

Edited by WorkingOnBeingGood on Jul 10th 2023 at 4:19:15 AM

re the autism=violence stereotype, there's this thing ~Dtecno Kira was reading where a plot point was that there's a type of autism that turns people into bloodthirsty killers. The name of the thing escapes us at the moment. like 80% sure we have it on our phone right now and just need to actually read it at some point

It's a bizarre stereotype if you know literally anything about autism, but then Insane Equals Violent is a bizarre stereotype if you know literally anything about mental illness so I guess these stereotypes come from people who do not in fact know literally anything about the thing they're stereotyping.

It was book one of the Zaregoto series. Depending on which edition you get the subtitle has a different name but I'm familiar with it as The Kubikiri Cycle.

Also bloodthirsty killer might be a bit strong, it just said that it would make you harm yourself and others.

But yeah definitely not one of the book's finer points.

How might you germanize the names of the mythological birds Hræsvelgr and Hábrók?

I'm considering naming a nazi wunderwaffen project in my story either of those.

After restarting my warrior cats fic about 50 gazillion times, I think I FINALLY have an idea for a plot that works; it also requires me to not split the cats into separate Clans, and instead have one MASSIVE clan that's going to be experiencing a rebellion and a fracturing process.

Hopefully I can actually keep up with it this time.

Good luck to you in keeping up with it, and have fun in the writing! ^_^

(If you do find that you have trouble keeping going, maybe starting a blog of your progress—here or elsewhere—might provide some extrinsic motivation?)

Haha, I think the real issue is less that I don't have the motivation and more that I tend to have trouble finding a good starting point. Many attempts died just because I couldn't nail chapter one, and in general I had more fun remaking the allegiances every few weeks instead of actually working on the story :P

Ooh, yeah, starts can be hard! :/

I suppose that you could jump into the middle and then work backwards until you find a point that seems like a good start...? (If you haven't tried something like that already, of course!)

@Nukeli

There is a video that is titled something like "Learn how to read German, without knowing German. All you need to understand is English and these spelling tips".

Basically, the tips are like "Well you see, all of these German words, are the same as English words, it's just that this one sound is replaced with this other sound. That's because all of these words diverged in different directions."

What I am trying to say is, I think that Scandian and German are both Germanic languages, just like English and German are. If you can find what the diversion rules are, I think you can find the answer.

Company in English, Kompanie in German, ect ect.

@Ars Thaumaturgis

I'm actually going to do that. That's a good idea actually. I have this problem where one of the novels I'm working on doesn't have flashbacks, but it is structured kinda like Reservoir Dogs or how Hard Boiled Fiction is structured.

I have this really annoying problem where this makes my plot structure kinda confusing to me, so I have a map for it all or at least a list of what each chapter does. The issue is that I keep having to retitle chapters as I keep adding stuff in the middle or around the beginning.

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I'm aware that it's going to be a miracle to get anyone to read it. It's a huge struggle to get people to look at even half a chapter, even with me trading critiques on reddit or whatever.

So I can basically ask questions about plot structure here, and not spoil anything, because none of you people are going to read this. Right?

Here is is the first four or five chapters so far. These are labeled with a single line each inside a private discord channel. That's how I keep track of them.

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Darkness, Drudgery, and Death

Chapter 1 (Version 4), POV/Main Character Character "Iosif" is introduced. Setting of Moscow is introduced. "Driver" character introduced. Iosif meets the second Main Character, doesn't know anything about them yet.

Iosif sees suspicious and weird things, really understands danger of the setting (Specific area of Moscow) Part 1, 1788 words , Before Iosif meets MC 2 Part 2, 2599 words , After Iosif meets MC 2

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Chapter 2 (Version 5) 3600 words, not going to have anyone look at this again as it would require splitting it into two and I've already had it looked and revised 5 different times, each time taking a week.

Proper introduction of second most important character and MC 2, from respective of 2nd MIC. MC 2 and 2nd MIC pledge loyalty to one another, and commit themselves to changing the setting, or die trying.

2nd MIC's codename and real name are given. Decent amount of inner thinking that might be spread over multiple chapters, if it wouldn't be very confusing.

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Chapter 3, Version 3? Part 1, 2364 words Part 2, 1328 words

Most functional and working chapter of them all. Iosif is tested, accepted, and trained for a new special unit. He has a proper introduction with 2nd MIC.

Iosif is told he's preparing for a "raid".

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So if I haven't melted everyone's brain or taken up too much space. I gave the above as context and I'll be stopping soon. I'm just curious and stuck about this next bit.

I have "Chapter 3.5" which is the action scene of the raid. It's like only 5% done, lots of events that aren't cleaned up, basically a text heavy outline. I don't have a mind's eye so I've been putting it off.

I also recently made a decision that I need to add a chapter entirely devoted to humanizing people within this section of Moscow and convincing the world that I actually have talked to women. I can't add women inside the unit, because that's not realistic according to any of my sources (This story is set in a real place and time) and it doesn't work with my sub-genre.

The M Cs and MI Cs can't really trust anyone, and they're almost always undercover or assumed alter-egos or something like that. I don't want to 'fridge" any women, and there is a reason why most anti-hero movies (Including superhero ones) are set before or after functioning relationships.

So because the characters only interact with people in the unit, perps, witnesses, or informants... And women can't be in the unit.... The characters only interact with certain kinds of women...

So I'm trying to write a chapter... where Iosif, has to help babysit the children of prostitutes, because according to many, many sources... A lot of prostitutes at this time are single mothers trying to survive.

My plan is to have Iosif trying to make sense of why he's not arresting her or why he's dealing with her openly, or what exactly his job as law enforcement even is. I have them currently comparing wages, complaining about inflation, talking about the dangers and risks of their jobs, and stuff like that.

Is this enough of a solution to the problem of my sub-genre (Normally) only having women as femme fatales, damsels, perps, and dead wives? Does the fact that, in chapter 1, a woman was revealed to have killed an attacker in self defense, help me at all?

What are my odds of being chased off the internet or banned from all writing groups? Am I doomed?

Edited by WorkingOnBeingGood on Jul 13th 2023 at 4:06:32 AM

I mean, there's no reason that you can't just assign chapter-titles once the writing is done—that might save you from repeatedly retitling mid-draft!

I mean, witnesses can theoretically come from any walk of life, surely?

Not to mention that if they're undercover, then they might be expected to interact with not only criminals, but the loved ones of criminals—some of whom might be non-criminal women, I would imagine.

In any case, do the characters never go to the shops, or bump into neighbours, or, well, encounter people in other situations in which they might interact with someone socially, even if in a minor way?

This I can't speak to, myself, not being all that familiar with your particular genre, let alone sub-genre. I'll let someone else comment there I think!

@Ars Thaumaturgis

No, I mean like I have stuff in Google docs tilted as "Chapter 4", but if I put a chapter between 3 and 4, 4 needs to be 5, and then I need to retitle all my chapters afterward.

EDIT:

"I mean, witnesses can theoretically come from any walk of life, surely?"

Nnnnnn. If we use the term "theoretically" very loosely. In this specific time and place, the fatality rate for talking to police, journalists, or even criminals is higher than the US has ever experienced, and roughly as bad, if not worse, than Mexico during it's worst years. Just for context, but I've seen two well documented cases of car bombs being used to assassinate competing crime bosses, and one former special forces guy assassinated with automatic weapons or explosives several crime bosses.

The MI Cs aren't really undercover, so much as wearing ski-masks and not speaking while disguised. When they are not on duty or disguised, maybe they could wear street clothes and interact with people who don't know them, but they're still legally not allowed to carry firearms while off-duty. Not carrying a firearm is extremely risky and carrying a firearm illegally is just as risky, because someone on-duty and working for the "Russian Mafia" might arrest you.

"Not to mention that if they're undercover, then they might be expected to interact with not only criminals, but the loved ones of criminals—some of whom might be non-criminal women, I would imagine."

During a time period where the court system is so overloaded, that you can only arrest a tiny number of offenders, and at least half of serious offenders (Who are already murderers, who you cannot easily prove, legally, that they murdered someone.) would rather kill you than go to prison. Their families would rather kill you than see a member go to prison, and they're likely to kill you out of sheer revenge.

Members of the family that aren't criminals, would likely be beaten or murdered for talking to you.

"In any case, do the characters never go to the shops, or bump into neighbors, or, well, encounter people in other situations in which they might interact with someone socially, even if in a minor way?"

This doesn't have the problem of exposing who you're talking to, to being murdered, or exposing yourself to being identified and murdered.

It instead has the problem of well. I'm really struggling to think of a single time that anyone in any books, movies, or TV shows I've seen... certainly in these sub-genres did any of these things. I believe because it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot.

Cyberpunk has a decent amount of maybe having a regular noodle place, but visiting a place too often runs into the "someone getting murdered" problem. At the same time, every single time a character visits a convenience store, they're either a minor trying to buy beer, or there is a robbery.

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Now, I already have it arranged so that one character talks to someone who doesn't know who they are, in a place barely anyone knows them.

The issue is, that's not going to actually be written down inside the novel.

1. The character who has that conversation has every incentive possible to talk as little about that altercation as possible. So none of the POV characters know much of anything about that interaction.

2. I'm realizing now that if such an incident took place within the novel, anyone who was paying attention or knew a decent amount of the setting, would likely accept that it's easier to conceal firearms in something like a bar... but the odds of there being a brawl that escalates to a shooting, is very detectable.

Even if the brawl didn't escalate, and even if there was security at the location, than they would just check the character for firearms.

There just aren't locations where it's dimly lit, you won't be checked for firearms, and there won't be an act of lethal violence.

Also, I don't think any of the characters can actually afford to visit a bar, or a movie theater, or a dark room for photography.

TLDR: Talking to people in general, has a statistical rate of danger... close to... I want to say, that of running red lights while not wearing a seat belt. None of the MIC are ill informed about the dangers and none of them are losing the will to live.

Edited by WorkingOnBeingGood on Jul 13th 2023 at 4:23:19 AM

Ah, I see! In that case, I'd suggest just giving your chapter-documents working titles—maybe brief descriptions of their contents—and then worrying about the numbering later. Maybe keep a text-document that lists their intended order.

Okay, then how do you get any witnesses?

And surely those involved in criminal pursuits are less likely to stand as witness, making it more likely that a given witness would be from outside of the criminal sphere...?

By the way, what is an "MIC"? I'm guessing that "MC" is "main character", but I've seen you use both that and "MIC", so I'm guessing that the latter is something different...

Okay, then I'm confused as to what sort of role they're playing: from your earlier description, it sounded as though they were masquerading as criminals in order to infiltrate a criminal organisation. ("... undercover or assumed alter-egos or something like that ...")

So how are they acting? That might better inform what sort of contacts they might have.

I was operating under the impression that we were talking about an undercover operation, as noted above.

The fact that it hasn't yet been done doesn't mean that it can't be done.

For example, maybe you have a few such meetings that at first seem like fluff—only for the character in question to later provide some crucial piece of information. Maybe they found something on the street one day, not realising that it had been dropped by one of the antagonists, or they overheard something through the vents in the building, or some such thing.

This is more a matter of curiosity, if I may: are you choosing to only have dimly-lit locations as a matter of style?

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jul 14th 2023 at 9:56:48 PM