General Writer's Block thread

One thought might be to try coming up with some fresh names, and then taking elements from various stories that you already have in mind and recombining them into new forms using characters with those names. For one thing, that way you can still use some of the ideas that you have in your head. And for another, instead of a jump directly from the fan-fic that you've been writing to whatever you move on to next, this may provide a "stepping stone".

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Oct 25th 2019 at 3:24:50 PM

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Thank you both for your tips ^^ I'll try with short stories as I never was able to really get any of my writing projects to finish even back when I wrote a lot, I may have started too ambitiously haha xd

I'll take one step at a time, very first step being to squeeze time into my days for writing every day or at least every few days.

I noticed a weird thing about myself. I hold utmost loathing for real-life Nazis and Nazi-like regimes/ideologies, totalitarian dictatorships, racism and those who commit genocide and other atrocities of similar heinousness, primarily driven by how utterly immoral they are. Likewise, I detest any instance of a Karma Houdini whose villainy went so beyond the pale for me that I feel betrayed by the storywriter for letting them get away scot-free with their evil.

However, in recent years I've been developing an interest in writing and reading fanfics and original fiction where an Evil Overlord or the like actually succeeds in taking over the world, or a race of Transhumans or a Superior Species of Human Aliens comes to dominate over the masses of regular humanity as a Nazi-like dictatorial ruling elite, or revolves around a race of partly-humanoid aliens that can be basically described as "living engines of atrocity"... and the commonality of each example becoming/being able to engage in all sorts of depravities with impunity.

Perhaps the only saving grace is that none of these story ideas ever involve real-life victims of Nazis etc. as being deliberately singled out as targets by these villains; in fact, now that I think about it, the victims that I typically envision almost always belong to ethnic/national groups that have never had a history of being persecuted as a minority. And ironically, in developing the backstory for one of the villainous groups in question, I actually took inspiration from certain real-life ethnic groups that have suffered constant persecution for centuries if not millennia.

That being said, ever since I had come to recognize this... trend, I think is the right word... over the course of last year, I've always wondered what the hell said of me. And I come here to ask you guys for what you think that says of me.

Bear in mind that at the same time those story ideas popped into my mind, I've also been working on different stories where more or less the reverse happens, i.e. an idealized paragon of righteousness (be it an individual or a whole country) delivers much-needed justice upon vile filth that have gone for too long unpunished. It weirds me out how I can be interested in such polar opposites.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Everything depends on how well written the stories are. So, what were they?

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

I can't say much as I don't know who the person I am talking to, both the user and the person him/herself is a mystery to me. But with what I'm given, perhaps you want to write a warning or perhaps the prosecution of those who did bad things before, say someone like the British.

Or perhaps you're possibly writing on how it might feel if it was the reader that could be subjugated by a tyrant and would be too weak-willed or have their backs broken to fight back. Again, a warning but one where it's the reader that puts their shoes in nations or ethnic groups that's been enslaved/empowered/dominated/etc. in the past and to make sure that it would never happen again.

Action does not mean intention, of course. It's up to you, yourself Marq FJA, as to what you are writing, what your intention was and what was the subtext of what you wrote. Let's use Fahrenheit 451 as an example:

Ray Bradbury wrote his story as an opposition to Nazism and what the burning of books stood for(i.e the deletion of a culture though you can have your own interpretation of what it meant), then it became a story as an opposition to the Mc Carthy era and the Red Scare; how it was used against the Hollywood Blacklist and the, dare I say it, NKVD-like breaking and entering of houses to investigate any probability of Communist sympathies(If I am wrong about this, then it's clear I know nothing of the Mc Carthy era).

It's all up to you as to what you meant about what you're writing there lad. While the quality of the story IS an important part, reading in itself must be entertaining lest that people will think they're being lectured and throw a book into the fire.

And why don't I end my essay with a quote? Should be fun:

Edit:Bugger me, Mc Carthy were two words? Oh, the capital letters.

Edited by Thecoldboringguy157 on Nov 6th 2019 at 12:25:51 AM

... I'm starting to remember one possible explanation that I had entertained long ago when I first tried to articulate to myself why am I coming up with these ideas. I think it's a weird form of cathartic venting of all my frustrations and tensions at a lot of things — from family issues to world politics to human-perpetrated ecological mayhem and even the occasional existential crisis — by indulging in the darkest impulses that lie within the human mind, all within a completely fictional setting. Sort of like an indirect "Then Let Me Be Evil taken to its Logical Extreme", you know?

I haven't written anything. Just draft notes and rough ideas, whenever I had spare time to do so. Like almost all of my fiction-writing so far.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Oh, you said "writing and reading" so I misinterpreted that to mean you had been reading something that inspired you in that direction.

I wouldnt worry about it too much. You are not defined by what you write. Be true to your inner muse, and whatever the reason, your interests will move on as you develop as a writer.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Marq, don't ever let Internet be your armchair psychiatrist. That way lies madness. People around here are mostly nice and sane, but asking these kind of questions is asking for trouble, especially since it diverts the discussion towards a person (even if they asked for it themselves), which could lead to a situation when the forum rules will be violated. If you noticing a pattern in your writing and that pattern is starting to bother you (as in, it's starting to negatively affect in how you function IRL), I suggest you to see a medical professional. That would be more beneficial to all parties.

Spiral out, keep going.

Oh... In that case, did I screw up somewhere?

Your advice seemed sound.

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

Oh no no no, I wasn't asking for armchair psychiatry. I was merely asking what that said about me as a person. For all I know, what I described is actually be far more commonly occurring among fanfic writers than I believe, is perfectly normal and not by itself indicative of any moral hypocrisy, and thus it's nothing to worry about.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

How do I do just enough foreshadowing without being too obvious and predictable.

I'm currently using a lot of offhand comments from the characters in their fitting context to give out some clues that readers can put together.

Edited by Andermann on Nov 24th 2019 at 1:10:33 AM

I'm afraid to write, but I like to imagine.

Everything you ever wanted to know about foreshadowing

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

I have a character who's supposed to be Genre Savvy and fairly good at figuring out people's intentions. However, I need her to be wrong in a couple of critical instances without her coming across as incompetent or a Horrible Judge of Character. Giving her a good number of times when she's right would help to establish her competence instead of just implying it, but how do I make the slip-ups themselves not look like I'm throwing her the Idiot Ball?

I suppose that one way, at least, would be to provide a good reason (known to the readers, if not to her) for her to be wrong.

Perhaps there's information relevant to the "reading" of the person in question that's either missing or hidden by them; perhaps everything that they present is a mask, an act that they put on; perhaps some very pressing indeed extraneous matter or condition distracts her, or prompts her to hurry her "reading"; and so on.

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First post on this thread.

A few days ago, I've created a survival suspense writing prompt during a warm evening. It only lasted a few paragraphs, but it was good enough so I decided on reusing of that prompt as a starter for a collaborative writing story.

I'm here to find some writers who are willing to take turns writing a short suspense story collaboratively.

@Agent K: Eliezer Yudkowsky did a really good job with his Harry Potter fanfic, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. His Harry is really good at predicting what people will do before they do it, but Voldemort is even better so that when he and the other wizards get together to review what they know about the Dark Lord and his actions, Harry misses the truth (which we the readers know) by a millimeter, which in turn causes him to misguess wildly the farther forward he tries to outguess Voldy.

@Adept: Why dont you start a new thread on it? Maybe you will generate some interest that way.

Edited by DeMarquis on Dec 16th 2019 at 4:46:39 AM

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

and Thanks, guys, that'll help a lot! I can definitely see stuff like that happening at these points in the story. Which is probably a good sign that the failures aren't hopelessly contrived.

[Sorry, wrong thread.]

Edited by AwSamWeston on Dec 25th 2019 at 10:23:30 AM

Award-winning screenwriter. Directed some movies. Trying to earn a Creator page. I do feedback here.

I'm working on a crossover fanfic between Hitman and Death Note. Is anybody here familiar with both works? I just need need help proofreading something.

RIP KissAnime.

For the longest time, I've wanted to write a story about a whole region being completely made out of evil (or at least, evil people. Thinking of dropping this concept all together). In said region lives a family deep in the woods, a Vestigial Empire through monopoly; they used to control large aspects of industry ranging from penal labor to laundering and all kinds of evil goodness.

While headed by the man of the house, the father, he planned to make the eldest son - of four children which consisted of two other boys and a girl - the family's heir as he's the only one that displays strong leadership characteristics while the 2nd boy shows potential but only potential and the 3rd boy is hopeless.

Then the 1st son dies, assassinated, and the family mourns his death. To make things worse, their father catches a disease that's similar to Peter Pan syndrome - one that makes him revert to a childlike mind of thinking - and refuses the 2nd son to be the family's heir.

With nobody being able bodied and able minded to run their family's business legitimately, they're eventually forced to liquidate whatever industries they had their hands in and lay off/sell their workers to others until they're all but forgotten rumors. The 2nd son on the other hand, does his duties with contempt.

Those duties of his is to make sure that his family is fed as a graveyard worker and that he doesn't become an accidental uncle thanks to his promiscuous sister, all the while wanting to lead their family's name back into the sun.

Apologies for the long post, I've been thinking of this concept for most likely half a year now but I don't know if I should do it or how I should do it.

The setup is fine, but the key to a story like that is characterization. Somebody must be preventing the son from accomplishing his goals. Who are they and what are they like?

Edited by DeMarquis on Feb 21st 2020 at 1:07:17 PM

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."

So, I'm writing a novel, *knock on wood* fantasy setting. I'm generally writing this in chronological order but I find myself jumping ahead and writing scenes or bits for several chapters hence. My question is regarding pre-chapter flavour text. Is it best to keep it consistent, or is it acceptable for some chapters to have flavour text and some none?

From my perspective, it makes more sense to keep it consistent- every chapter has an opener, or none of them do, unless you plan to make the presence or absence of an opener have some kind of story relevance, or something. As a reader, if only some chapters had an opener, I'd be thinking, what's the author trying to say by giving this chapter a quote, but not that one? Or is the author just lazy?

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."

I'm inclined to agree, overall. I think that, if I were reading a book in which some chapters had preceding text and some didn't, the experience would likely feel a bit uneven. Presuming that the preceding text was good, I imagine that I would trip over the chapters without, wanting that little bit of additional flavour/foreshadowing; those chapters would feel like they were missing something.

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