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Hello, fellow writers! Got any question that you can't find answer from Google or Wikipedia, but you don't think it needs a separate thread for? You came to the right place!

Don't be shy, and just ask away. The nice folks here, writers and non-writers, experts and non-experts, will do their best to help you.

The folder below contains links for special interest threads, mostly at OTC, but also from Yack Fest and Troper Coven.

    Special Interest Threads 

Also take a look at Useful Notes on various topics. They can be pretty useful.

Now, bring on the questions, baby!

edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy

storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#8826: Dec 30th 2013 at 7:02:30 PM

I have a species of aliens that communicate through electric fields and have been confused about how to handle Translation Convention with nonverbal gestures. Right now, I have it saying stuff like mumbled, yelled, grunted, etc. but I'm worried that readers will get confused when they realize the aliens aren't actually talking the normal way and in fact don't even have real mouths. Any suggestions?

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
ScorpioRat from Houston, Texas Since: Jan, 2013 Relationship Status: Forming Voltron
#8827: Dec 30th 2013 at 8:00:46 PM

Maybe you should describe their speech in electrical sounds instead, like buzzed or crackled.

Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#8828: Dec 30th 2013 at 8:14:17 PM

If you're just looking for a reason for them to confiscate her clothes, simply have them arrest her on suspicion when she's found at the scene. Then she gets the prison jumpsuit, and they have a reason to enter the clothes into evidence and keep them when she's released, making her find some way to get others.

edited 30th Dec '13 8:15:51 PM by Madrugada

garridob My name's Ben. from South Korea Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
My name's Ben.
#8829: Dec 31st 2013 at 5:24:59 AM

Gimme your best anecdotes of childhood power plays. I have a protagonist who, by virtue of his socio-economic status, should be very out of place in his rich school. I'm looking for anything from about 6 years old to about 13.

edited 31st Dec '13 5:38:11 AM by garridob

Great men are almost never good men, they say. One wonders what philosopher of the good would value the impotence of his disciples.
demarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#8830: Dec 31st 2013 at 7:25:18 AM

The most legitimate reason I can think of to confiscate someone's clothes is because they suspect that there is genetic material from the killer on them (which would require that she encountered him somewhere). But if, as you say, they're just framing her, then any bull reason would do.

Are you playing this for laughs? I keep seeing her running around the police station in her underwear, trying to prove her innocent, yet clumsily causing hijinks wherever she goes.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
LongLiveHumour Since: Feb, 2010
#8831: Dec 31st 2013 at 2:09:10 PM

[up][up]Not sure what you're looking for in terms of power-plays but —

In my old primary school birthday parties involved the entire class. Three of us were born only a day apart, so our parents threw a single joint party that saved everyone a lot of hassle. This year a girl's parents decided to organise the gift-giving: instead of each guest buying one small present for each person (so we'd each get around twenty parcels of varying quality) all the guests should make a money pile and buy a single expensive gift. Though now I see the pragmatism behind the idea, when you're ten a large plastic, two-headed Dilophosaurus is a much cooler present than a quality tracksuit. Most of my classmates and their parents didn't appreciate the interference, or the bossiness, or the way they were a little bit rich and acted like it. None of this was their daughter's fault, of course, but we'd never liked her much before and after that birthday party I'm afraid we must have ostracised her.

edited 31st Dec '13 2:16:10 PM by LongLiveHumour

demarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#8832: Dec 31st 2013 at 2:37:13 PM

Power plays in elementary school. Well. There's the classic "So and So told me he doesn't like you", and "I saw So and So doing (insert something stupid)". There's stereotyping- "I bet you got charity gifts for christmas", there's rubbing your nose in it- "This is designer wear, you don't own any", and then there's ostracism- "You cant come to my birthday party unless your family has a membership at our club". Kids that age aren't subtle, but they can be clever.

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
LongLiveHumour Since: Feb, 2010
#8833: Dec 31st 2013 at 5:42:52 PM

Traps: getting someone to admit they don't know something ("Everyone knows that!") or to sound stupid. "What's your favourite TV show?" to someone who doesn't have a telly; asking the meaning of group-specific argot; jokes based on things everyone but the target understands...

edited 31st Dec '13 5:46:46 PM by LongLiveHumour

garridob My name's Ben. from South Korea Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
My name's Ben.
#8834: Dec 31st 2013 at 5:45:18 PM

Thanks guys. That's all good stuff.

Great men are almost never good men, they say. One wonders what philosopher of the good would value the impotence of his disciples.
peasant Since: Mar, 2011
#8835: Jan 1st 2014 at 5:00:28 PM

I've a character I'm thinking of naming "Percival" who is in his late teens and somewhat of a quiet, shy introvert. As such, which is the character likelier to use for day-to-day use; given a setting of present day Britain? "Percival" or "Percy"?

Note: I'm aware that "Percival" and "Percy" are not derived from one another. However, they do sound similar enough for the latter to be used as a short form of the former.

LongLiveHumour Since: Feb, 2010
#8836: Jan 1st 2014 at 6:31:47 PM

Percy, I'd say. It's still a rather upper-class name, but at least it won't make everyone think of the Round Table or keep quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail at you. On the other hand, how independent is he? If he's proud of being "different" (and as an introvert he could well be - introverted people should come up with special code-signs or something) then he may seek to stand out from the crowd: not wearing brand-name clothes, affecting different body language, using the unusual name "Percival"...

edited 1st Jan '14 6:40:50 PM by LongLiveHumour

eital Since: Nov, 2013
#8837: Jan 1st 2014 at 7:35:35 PM

One of my characters is an ashtmatic athlete and is illness is more or less under control. She goes through a few stressful situations and her ashtma isn't triggered, and I don't know if I should mention in-story she's surprised about it or just not mention it at all.

peasant Since: Mar, 2011
#8838: Jan 2nd 2014 at 1:26:58 AM

[up][up] Thanks. It's interesting that you brought up the comment about "Percival" being an upper class name as it is my main hesitation with using the name since the character is supposed to be a "commoner" (i.e. not part of the aristocracy/upper class, who make up the majority of the private school where he got a scholarship to). At the moment, I think I might stick to the current "Cai".

As you can guess with choices like "Percival" and "Cai", the Knights of the Round Table is a deliberate allusion to his personality.

edited 2nd Jan '14 4:09:50 AM by peasant

LongLiveHumour Since: Feb, 2010
#8839: Jan 2nd 2014 at 6:30:35 AM

[up] Well then, for a school like that Percival might be just the right name wink Maybe his parents even chose that name so he'd go up in the world - not gonna make a Life Peer with a name like Dwayne.

[up][up] If you're never going to use the asthma at all, then don't mention it. If her asthma will affect her in the future, then hint at it once or twice beforehand.

edited 2nd Jan '14 6:31:36 AM by LongLiveHumour

TacticalFox88 from USA Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Dating the Doctor
#8840: Jan 3rd 2014 at 4:02:19 AM

Tropers! I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask this, but I need as much honest feedback on this that I can:

Is it possible to create a long continuous story without main characters?

To further clarify I'm working on a story (which we hope to get animated in the vein of Rooster Teeth RWBY, eventually. ) with two other people. To be as brief as possible it's a science fantasy story in a fictional universe about pirates with a long continuous story with various plots, sub-plots, characters, and character development with each of us having a collection of characters we created. By default, if you want to keep it real, my central character I created would be the prime candidate for title of "Main character" (i.e, like Naruto, Harry Potter, Walter White, Goku, etc) by a landslide. Were it the other way (they having a prime character for central protagonist), I wouldn't care and I'd still have the same issue.

Now, that being said, here's the problem: the other two, quite literally, believe every character should be as "equal as possible" (to quote one of them). So that there are no main character or central protagonist. I'm....what?! I know there are a lot of stories (most shounen manga being the prime example of this if you're very familiar with the genre) where after awhile side characters start to become neglected and the author goes crazy with wanking the main protagonist(s) leaving the others in the dust.

That's perfectly legit and I'm cool with that. But to me this is going WAY to far and to be honest, it's going full fucking retard. Because to me if all characters are equal, then there's nothing for the audience to "focus" on and get attached to because it would likely switch PO Vs too often for said audience to care (if we're going to the logical extreme of every character being equal and there not being a central protagonist)

Now if this was a short story made up a collection of stories (like some in English class in High School and college) or some very niche military science fiction stories, THEN I could MAYBE see where they are coming from. But even then, after a certain length one or two characters will start to appear more than the other.

Tropers, am I fucking crazy in thinking their approach will crash and burn or are there a host of stories that like what they're describing where I'm completely unaware of their existence?

New Survey coming this weekend!
demarquis (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#8841: Jan 3rd 2014 at 5:23:26 AM

Well, there are experimental works with ensemble casts and no one main character. I'm told that the works of Ryohgo Narita are written this way.

That said, the real problem here is that you and your colleagues have different ideas of how this work should proceed. You need to sit down together and try to work it out. If that is impossible, you have a decision to make. Can you sacrifice your ideas in order to work with your colleagues and get it done? If not, then it's time to respectfully leave. That's a tough choice to make, but you have to make it. Maybe you can finish this with them and then do one on your own that is more like the vision you have?

I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#8842: Jan 3rd 2014 at 10:19:34 AM

I'm having trouble coming up with Wearing a Flag on Your Head / Captain Geographic outfit designs for a Russian character that don't employ Soviet/Communist symbols and colors (i.e. all-red costume, hammer & sickle, or more simply red stars). It doesn't help that the Russian's flag tricolor combination is too commonly used by many other countries (France and the Netherlands are two examples), and thus easily confusable with them (at least the US flag distinguishes itself clearly with the stars-and-stripes pattern).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

edited 3rd Jan '14 10:22:43 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
m8e from Sweden Since: Jul, 2012 Relationship Status: Wanna dance with somebody
#8843: Jan 3rd 2014 at 11:52:45 AM

The russian flag is the only one of those that have the blue band in the middle. Maybe lampshading that?

Oh, I don't think anyone would confuse the combo of a russian flag scarf and a fur hat with the coat of arm's two headed eagle.

edited 3rd Jan '14 12:04:46 PM by m8e

MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#8844: Jan 3rd 2014 at 12:02:33 PM

Yeah, it's the only one with the middle band in blue, but how to translate that into a (near) full-body costume? I mean, try to imagine a Russian Captain Patriotic/Captain Geographic who can stand next to these guys (representing Canada, USA, and UK respectively) and not stand out in a "one of these is not like the others" way.

EDIT: Aw, crap. There's more than Russia who has a blue middle band in their red-white-blue tricolor flag.

edited 3rd Jan '14 12:13:38 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
m8e from Sweden Since: Jul, 2012 Relationship Status: Wanna dance with somebody
#8845: Jan 3rd 2014 at 12:50:40 PM

Don't forget Thailand.tongue

Sorry, missed the superhero thing, but anyway, make it white, blue, red from top to bottom with something stereotypically russian. Don't mix it up on differents areas like people do with the american flag.

Red pants, blue "underwear"/waist band/belt and white upper body with the coat of arms.
Red boots, blue pants, white "underwear"/waist band/belt and a naked chest with a Carpet of Virility.
Red pants, blue upper body and white fur hat.
Red boots, blue pants, Carpet of Virility and white fur hat.
and so on...

SabresEdge Show an affirming flame from a defense-in-depth Since: Oct, 2010
Show an affirming flame
#8846: Jan 3rd 2014 at 7:20:00 PM

re: Tactical Fox: I've certainly seen works where the "main character" spotlight rotates between several characters; Red Storm Rising and Red Army are the examples that come immediately to mind (not surprisingly, both are WWIII-gone-hot stories that are too big for any one character to cover). Still, there's a difference between "several main characters" and "no main character". The key is this: character development needs to occur in the story, and that takes page time. At the same time, not every character in the story is going to be in the spotlight's center; there do need to be secondary characters and the like, if only because there's no page time for everyone's story to be told. Or else, their story is sufficiently similar to another's that it's better to focus on just one character and tell a good story focused on them, instead of two half-assed stories split between two characters. If you have a section of eight or nine soldiers, for instance, it's much better to give one character as a main viewpoint and rotate the attention through the others, instead of skipping through all their viewpoints and ending up with a lot of repetition.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.
storyyeller More like giant cherries from Appleloosa Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
More like giant cherries
#8847: Jan 3rd 2014 at 10:24:22 PM

Does anyone know if it's possible to reverse a microphone to produce sound? If so, how loud would it be?

Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's Play
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#8848: Jan 3rd 2014 at 10:52:10 PM

A simple microphone can definitively be reversed. Don't know how loudness is controlled there, though.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
alethiophile Shadowed Philosopher from Ëa Since: Nov, 2009
Shadowed Philosopher
#8849: Jan 4th 2014 at 12:23:51 AM

The theory works; however, a microphone is rigged to amplify the motions of the membrane into larger voltages in the wire, while a speaker is rigged to amplify the voltages in the wire into larger motions of the membrane. Thus, in practice, microphones make cruddy speakers and vice versa.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)
MarqFJA The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer from Deserts of the Middle East (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
#8850: Jan 4th 2014 at 1:29:15 PM

Could "quantum forces/principles not yet discovered" serve as a plausible way of providing a scientific justification for non-anatomical/physiological genetically-based superpowersnote , such as a Witch Species with Psychic Powers and/or Functional Magic? Or would it actually make more sense to handwave it as either "genes also affect the metaphysical part of your existence (i.e. soul/psyche)" or "some or all genes are innately linked to metaphysical counterpartsnote  in your soul/psyche that are passed down to genetic offspring/clones/gene-receipents when the associated genes do"?

edited 4th Jan '14 1:34:08 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

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