Random Questions Thread

I think some cases have been in fact prosecuted as assault in some fashion. I think there was something on PubMed that discussed such a case.

What would trigger a descent down to the Netherworld?

In this Dark Fantasy story for kids I am writing, the three Kuda (Theriomorph knights) from Maranatha travel down to the Netherworld/Rem, the Land of the Ungodly Ones.

Problem is, I don't know what to motivate them especially they are 12 year old Theriomorph kids and they are also knights in-training.

They might wanna try to prove how ballsy they are by going to a dangerous place that's explicitly forbidden, not exactly an uncommon scenario for fictional 12-year olds, especially fighters in training. Perhaps one of them actually has a good reason to go, like a lost loved one having gone missing there, but hides it.

I'm looking for a stupid and random power that seems weak at first glance but ultimately proves very useful, and not in a This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman way. I've been scouring the Heart Is an Awesome Power page for a while now, but nothing has caught my fancy yet.

@ilili: My go to series for weirdly specific but incredibly useful powers is {{Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure}}. Just google the Wikia for the series and search for "Stands", which is what the superpowers in the series are called.

I can make a more specific suggestion if you tell me more about what you want this power for. Are you using it as a plot device, or its user is a proper character? What's the feeling and theme you're supposed to get from it? How's the power supposed to be overcome: a physical struggle or a mindgame? Etc.

tl; dr: Why do you ask?

should you mention the race of a person in a screenplay?

Maybe, if the character needs to absolutely be that race. I'd imagine that you wouldn't want most of the boycotters in, say, Selma to be a bunch of white folks, would you?

Are they not white? Mention their race. Most casting agencies when doing calls involving no mention of race will specify they are only looking for white people.

I always feel iffy about mentioning exact races in my screenwriting. So, to get around that while still specifying "non-white," I just make a point of describing them in a way that would completely eliminate a white person being cast.

Here's an introduction I wrote a couple weeks ago:

That example describes to a T what kind of attitude he has, how he looks physically, but doesn't mention race at all — but between the skin color and the name, all the signs point to him being black. (That and I'm just really proud of this introduction and wanted to show it off!)

aw thanks but opted to show that jenni, was a Japanese by the way she talks and behaves.

I find a lot of white people are really hesitant about "just saying it," but that's perfectly fine in many cases. I mention a person's race right off the bat, both in the character sheet (through names) and in stage directions. A lot of my characters are Americans, so some of them inevitably have "white" names (both first name and surnames) and that definitely means the readers will default to thinking they're Caucasian if I don't mention their name and appearance at the same time.

I'd far prefer the writer to just say someone's race, and NOT write a painfully fetishized "his skin was the color of caramel, his eyes were an exotic almond shape, and his hair was black as midnight." Like... no, just say he's a tan Asian, please.

In Takotsubo: Thaddeus Kerry, the nurse? Black. Lina Rowe, the gangster/seamstress? Native-American. Josie Henderson, the police officer? Also black. I'm pretty sure all the Spanish-named characters get a pass for defaulting to Latino. (Except for the Filipino girl.)

In Moonflowers: The Song family is Asian, but Alima's parents are Lucy and Ned. Danielle and her aunt Celeste DeTour? Not European French, but Creole/black.

Japanese or Japanese descent, though? "Mannerisms" of a diaspora Japanese person are HUGELY different from a Japanese person from the islands.

edited 22nd Mar '17 10:28:12 PM by Sharysa

I'm black btw. Nigerian-American to be exact. also, she's a japnese immigrant while was raised in America for 5 years.

edited 22nd Mar '17 4:22:17 PM by ewolf2015

The first part of my post was a response to Sam Weston, not you.

Also, do you mean "she was raised in America from five years old" or "she lived in America for five years?" Those differences are going to result in EXTREMELY different mannerisms and speech. "Raised in America from childhood" will definitely mean "culturally American, with or without traditional parents." (Some families assimilate completely and go so far as adopting white names; others hang on to their culture and teach their kids everything they can; most families are somewhere in the middle.)

"Lived in America for five years" usually means she stays culturally Japanese. Five years really isn't much of a difference unless, again, she was a young child and very impressionable. Another way to get "culturally American" in five years is on the opposite end of the spectrum—if she went to college in America as a young adult just getting independent.

Sorry to be nitpicky, but people already have trouble distinguishing "the Asian diaspora" from "Asians who live in Asia." Just saying "she's Japanese, so I'll have her act/talk like this" is the best way to get Asian-Americans to facepalm.

Hey guys, since we are talking about race, I wanna ask something: I am an Asian myself, but I don't know how to inform readers of certain characters having Asian-characteristics without sounding awkward, and I can't say they "look Asian" since my work takes place in a fantasy world.

In related question to that, I'm wondering whether general residents of american Chinatowns tend to hold onto traditional Chinese mannerisms or do they americanize?

That's part of why I avoid saying specific races, myself, is because a lot of my work is in fantasy worlds or fantastical settings.

To your question, I'm sorry. That's a puzzle I haven't figured out myself without fetishizing features or sounding racist.

EDIT: @ewolf I'm already well aware of describing the color of the skin as just a color. I'm talking specifically about how to describe Asian features without cliches like "almond-shaped eyes." Same goes for Native American features, at that.

edited 24th Mar '17 12:15:09 AM by AwSamWeston

Err, I was wondering.

So suppose I have two characters. Tom is an orphan whose both biological and adoptive parents died of natural causes, but due to growing up in the streets in a bad part of town, he witnesses many crimes and murders. Randolph is an upper-middle class man who witnessed a murder in an alleyway when he was 8. I figured Tom would react to death in a less extreme manner than Randolph. Sure, he values human lives, but he doesn't feel the need to react strongly over death.

So here's when a scenario comes to play. Randolph writes a story based on his experience with a raven reminding him of and helping him resolve his childhood trauma, a la The Raven. Tom reads this story and calls him dense for having to learn about the cycle of life and death from a raven. Naturally, Randolph gets offended. He thinks Tom doesn't value human lives as he does.

Suppose someone else were to attempt murdering Tom. Would he react as strongly to death as Randolph based on the experience? Would Randolph think that it serves him right for calling him dense and being insensitive? And most importantly, did I get the characterization right?

@sharsya, i meant her father. she lived in japan for a very long time so it's expected she might not understand much of western culture.

@Aw Sam Weston, if you wish to avoid not sounding fetishistic (although i see people using candy or coffee to describe skin-tone as silly rather than fetishizing people of color.), then you can always just say she/he has dark brown skin or anything that isn't food related. because seriously, who the heck would describe their skin as chocolate? that's freaking stupid.

for one of my characters, Nackie, i describe his skin tone as being a light khaki color. he even jokes about why he doesn't wear khakis because of his skin tone.

i recommend this blog (although it isn't the end all of learning how to write people of color): Writing with Color: Description Guide - Words for Skin Tone. it has some decent tips but i wouldn't say it's the best. unless...you seen it already.

edited 23rd Mar '17 5:10:52 AM by ewolf2015

Seconding the Writing with Color recommendation. It's pretty cool.

As for the Chinatown question, they're usually pretty traditional.

that reminds me, I'm planning on doing something similar to what big hero 6 did, but much smaller. little japan/ Tokyo is a place where Nackie sometimes hangs out in and is the location of Genix inc.

^ Can you give a more specific description if you want help fleshing that out? Japanese enclaves like San Francisco Japantown already exist in real life, so I'm curious about how your concept might be similar or different.

edited 23rd Mar '17 7:42:53 PM by SnowyFoxes

i didn't know that was thing. thanks for telling me. i do intend on fleshing it out a bit more sooner or later. how i might do it is unknown at the moment, but i might take certain aspects from the real life one.

I'm going to ask here because the thread I made didn't get much attention.

Is having a man from Earth who travels through a portal to a Constructed World too jarring? I feel like it is having read over what I have in my story so far.

I'm considering the idea of revising my story because my POV character Adam feels horribly out of sync with the rest of the setting. It's Epic Fantasy, yet Adam is from California and it just seems odd. I feel like it could work better if he was the sole POV, but he isn't. There's a Switching P.O.V. and Loads And Loads Of Characters that are all a part of the constructed world. Going from him to a different POV who is a part of the world feels strange.

What do you guys think?

If that's the premise, it's not jarring, really. The idea of different worlds have been a thing for a while Inuyasha, that series with the kids who had a magical world in their closet which is separate from the Narnia series.

etc.

How much does outer space affect the weather? Like obviously the moon causes tides, meteors can cause devastation, and the sun emits radiation and all that jazz, but how much does it affect on a mundane day to day level?

(asking for a story where outerspace miiight get fucked with slightly, and I want to know what butterfly esque stuff will arise)

edited 24th Mar '17 3:44:24 PM by MrAHR

Almost solely gravity and radiation. Outer space is close to vacuum and thus does not interact readily with an atmosphere.