General Writer's Block thread

Is it OK to take licence with a real location in a story? Something I've been writing (partially ties into CL, with steampunk technology):https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13482908870A55940100 is set in Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians. Now IRL Dutch Harbor, or "Dutch", is the port of the city of Unalaska (setting of Deadliest Catch) and an informal name for the part of the city on Amaknak Island, but in-story, it is the name of the entire part on Amaknak, which is a separate community from Unalaska. Do I need to justify this?

edited 4th Dec '12 3:11:45 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

I think it's fine, as long as you indicate it's a deliberate break from reality and not a research failure. If it's necessary to the plot for it to be like that, that should be obvious.

gloamingbrood.tumblr.com MSPA: The Superpower Lottery

I have a character who is cursed by a wizard to become a Baleful Polymorph. She is forced to turn into a black and white pegasus whenever the sun rises above the horizon and transforms back when the sun completely sets. The first time she transforms, her clothes are destroyed, but after this her curse is modified to include whatever she's wearing when she transforms. Can anyone think of how she would react/adjust to this? For further clarification, Pegasi in this universe are roughy as smart as people so her thinking patterns wouldn't be too different. Only a few animal instincts carry over (such as a horse's natural skittishness and tendency to bolt when faced with unknown things).

You mean when she reacts initially? I think she would get a bit panicky.

I mean more like what kinds of problems would she have adjusting to the situation.

I'm assuming your character is human. If so, she'd have some trouble with the mechanics: even horses have trouble learning to walk like horses. If you've ever seen a newborn foal, it's basically, "What are legs?" Horses have multiple gaits (walk, trot, canter, gallop). Humans walk and run, left-right-left, and that's pretty much it. Flying doesn't even bear thinking about - how do you even fold your wings? How the hell d'you move two limbs you never had before? She'll also be suddenly a lot larger in all directions. What if she transforms indoors, on a second floor, with the door shut? Or in the middle of a thick forest?

Re. the clothes: if the first time they're destroyed, she'd worry about turning back into a naked human, and fear further damage to her wardrobe. (By the way, why would the curse be modified to make her more comfortable? It's not much of a curse that changes to accommodate the cursee.)

She has a friend who is good enough with magic to alter her curse slightly, but can't actually remove it because he was not the one to create it. And I planned on her learning to walk by observing other horses and trying to copy. (It would take a few weeks at least. Flying is an entirely different story)Thanks for the suggestions.

edited 23rd Jan '13 6:18:06 AM by ScorpioRat

That makes sense. You're welcome

I suggest you try reading Animorphs, they have a book where they transform into horses. Its a good read on what's it like, because the format of the books is in First Person, from the eyes of the characters experiencing the morph.

Scenario: Person is mysteriously transported to an alien world, and he can mysteriously speak their language. The crux here is whenever he opens his mouth, the language he's using is an extremely antiquated, ancient, super formal language which the locals don't speak anymore, and he himself doesn't speak like that.

Do any of you encountered something like this? How was it portrayed, and what problems did it have? Initially, I wanted this to be something he doesn't know about, only something that the aliens notice and give him odd looks and expressions when he uses certain expressions (for example: "bitch" turns into "mongrel"). The other option is to have him be aware of it all, and have him think it out how its so annoying that his words translate like this.

What other options can you guys think up?

Erfworld did something mildly like that. The world censored all his curses to —bloop— and the like. He was heavily displeased.

Read my stories!

Need some help with brainstorming ways to have scientifically justified versions of specific kinds of Jump Physics for a cyborg/robot/power-armored character that doesn't involve obvious jetpacks/jetboots, Anti-Gravity devices, or Magic from Technology. The setting's time frame is late 21st/early 22nd century, with some forms of Unobtainium, Imported Alien Phlebotinum, various forms of (non-fantastic) Nanotechnology, and a generally quite advanced science/technology level (even for its times in some areas, often due to the aformentioned Unobtainium / Imported Alien Phlebotinum).

The aforementioned kinds of Jump Physics (per the trope's own terminology):

• Air Control.
• Double Jump.
• (Instant) Air Dashing, and other similar (but unmentioned) manuevers that may exist.
• Diving Kick (okay, that's not listed on Jump Physics, but it does involve questionable Art Major Physics related to jumping).

edited 31st Jan '13 12:23:37 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

A notorious and dangerous man enters a country, but is recognised by security and attacked. He disguises himself more thoroughly using magic and gets a job as a servant (via a contact) at the central government building.

• Initially: military uniform, scarred eye, mask, grey hair
• On entering the country: civvies, scarred eye/eyepatch, mask, grey hair
• Undercover: civvies, unscarred and blind eye, bare face altered by magic, blond hair

The power of acting, the absent mask and his position as an invisible servant all combine to keep him hidden for three or four days.

How (un)believable is this?

Pressurised air jets, slowly pumped into capsules while not in active use, then quickly and selectively released from nozzles mounted on various parts of the suit?

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Are you answering to all of the points, or just some of them? In either case, I'm not sure if a split-second of pressurized air can actually move a human-sized mass in the air without the involved apparatus being quite bulky in order to launch enough gas to do the trick within that incredibly short span of time.

Sounds believable to me.

edited 4th Feb '13 8:03:35 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

If this type or usage of magic is widespread and/or it's detectable, the government might already be on the watch for people using face-altering magic.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

@ Marq FJA

The diving kick seems the easiest to me. The Real Life section of it's page mentions that it is an exageration of an actual martial arts technique. So with just have your character attempt said move, but with cyborg/power armor-enhanced muscles or with the double jump.

I believe the answer to whether or not air blasts could be used to change direction(air control) or to double jump without bulky equipment is completely dependent on your level of pressurization technology. Its possible under the laws of physics, but it would take a lot of work/energy to pressurize and contain the amount of air needed to lift your character. It's also important to note that when changing direction, if one is not also double jumping, one is still falling (or rising on their original arc, and will then fall).

As for bulky equipment, as the character is a cyborg, it could be possible to "cheat" by internalizing some of the necessary gear in the legs or torso. Also, you didn't say that you had an objection to a jet pack, just an "obvious" one, so a non-obvious suggestion: a jet pack that rather that using combustion gas as propellant uses a series of extremely high-powered magnets to accelerate gas particals through a tube strapped to your character's back or legs. This will, via Newton's 3rd law, propel them upwards (or in the direction of the top of the tube), without any visible exhaust.

Also, a request for aid: what kind of abilities might a fantasy setting cleric-type character have?

Nihil assumpseris, sed omnia resolvere!

On another note... Any good sources on the kinds of ships that pirates used during the Golden Age of Piracy (including average crew sizes for the ship types)? Would a three-decker make sense for a particularly successful pirate, for example, or is it too impractical of an Awesome, but Impractical choice for piracy?

Series of extremely high-powered magnets on ordinary, non-ionized air? Wouldn't that create an equally strong and probably big magnetic field that affect any magnetism-sensitive devices within range... like the cyborg's own electronics?

Healing injuries and illnesses/poisoning?

PS: This thread doesn't get much traffic, does it?

edited 12th Feb '13 10:02:09 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I would be inclined to think that a triple-decker ship would be too big, as pirates generally relied on speed, but most of my knowledge of naval warfare of the period comes from a friend who's really into it, so I'm not entirely certain.

edited 12th Feb '13 8:46:50 PM by Nocturna

I seem to recall that by and large pirate ships tended to be rather smaller than their targets, for purposes of speed and upkeep.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Yeah, but smaller ships have smaller cargo capacity, less room for cannons (important for both offense and defense), and aren't suited for long voyages. The decrease in speed also shouldn't matter that much if you instead go after the bigger merchant ships, which would be both that much slower and tend to carry more treasures to steal.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Me showing an area of lack-of-expertise: how much larger than triple-decks could merchant ships get?

edited 15th Feb '13 11:36:10 PM by Noaqiyeum

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

Honestly? I have no idea; I am just theorizing.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Carried over from the Fanfics section:

So, I'm trying to write a series with a Self-Insert done right, but the main problem I'm having is actually describing the Self Insert and whatever other Original Characters I may be using. This series ain't posted yet, as it's not even planned out at all, but I'm trying to come up with a small amount of characters for this to work right.

In essence, here are the characters' names and any details that I come up with, not in trope format:

Zamuseru Uzukano: A warrior from an original world, with very repressed memories from his time in a "real" world of things that wouldn't make much sense in his current world, he seeks three things in his adventures in order of importance. 1) His beloved, Suzaku Yume; 2) Answers about who and what he is, as well as how come he has to follow the whims and fancies of Fate; 3) The strength to protect his precious people from evil and other harm.

Suzaku Yume: A warrior from an original world, but not a Self Insert in any way, she is stronger than her beloved (though she'll never admit she's in love with Zamuseru until somewhere around 2/3 of the way into the series)... and still gets kidnapped by the Big Bad evil empire of the series. She was supposed to hold off an invasion on her home village, but things happened, and now there's a five week limit in their home world for someone to get strong enough to take care of the invasion... if she doesn't get found by one of the village, that is, before the invasion starts.

Kiala Uzumaki: A fictional daughter of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze and Sakura Haruno, she got lost in the multiverse and wants to return to her proper time and place, but knows that she has a place in the multiverse that she unexpectedly achieved. She just needs to know where to go from here on out, as nobody in the multiverse knows that for her, so she needs to figure it out on her own.

...No, this ain't a Naruto-based series, it's actually a Nasuverse-based series. I just needed to get Kiala out of my head and given some form of depth aside from "she's related to the Uzumaki family by being a daughter of a male Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno".

Anyone know what to do with these characters to help flesh them out?

Feeling smug- made my 'beta readers' cry today (they were meant too!)

Do the job in front of you.

You sadist! Have you no shame? >:(

edited 4th Mar '13 10:36:57 AM by Nightwire