Writer's Block Daily

How is he beating up a tong at 14?

^

Edited by SeptimusHeap on Mar 4th 2021 at 3:27:16 PM

You'd be surprised at how young some top Taiwanese triad bosses were when they got their starts.

Edited by eagleoftheninth on Mar 4th 2021 at 6:33:23 AM

Also, he's mad swole for a 14 year old.

He's a Hero!

Finally getting around to writing my All is Lost moment after so much time deliberating about writing!

Nice. Always a good feeling!

Anyone else struggle writing openings? It's the hardest part. It gives me writer's block constantly. Once I have the first few lines down I can write and write and write, but starting things is super hard. I usually resort to opening with dialogue because it gives me a good jumping-off point.

Maybe outlining can help. Or perhaps you could try writing the ending first, so you have a good idea of where you're going before you start, and so that no moment tops it in intensity.

I'm a Pantser; while outlining does help sometimes, my current method of writing is to write in waves in between YouTube videos. I'm actually more productive than it might sound. But because of my off-the-cuff method, while I tend to know how the chapters and scenes will go, it's hard to find the starting point.

To be specific, it's not that I have trouble knowing how to begin a story. It's that first lines are hard.

Yeah, that can really be hard sometimes. Maybe you can try starting In Medias Res, then come up with a beginning to suit that?

I do think that I likewise recall struggling with beginnings, with those first few lines. Sometimes they come easily, sometimes they do not.

(And I'm likewise a "pantser", for what that's worth.)

I've actually done that before, or something similar. When I'm really stuck, I occasionally just start out the scene typing up nonsense until I gradually shift into the scene, then I go back and add the beginning.

"To be specific, it's not that I have trouble knowing how to begin a story. It's that first lines are hard."

Sometimes, the first lines of my work are the very last things I write. I find it's a little easier once I know how everything turned out.

So i came up with the basic idea for my next "life and times" story.

Basically, it's about introducing another character of mine: the weed-smoking irish noble-in-exile Aidan Furlong. It starts with him eating a burger (did burgers even exist back then?) In the plains, then he walks along the forest until he avoids an arrow and hides, thinking that assasins are after him...however, unbeknownst to him, it was just Eleanor teaching her two brothers how to shoot the bow for hunting during their family's apple collecting trip in the mountains. Of course, aidan thinks they are assasins and tries to take them out, hilarity ensues...basically, something like a road runner/tom and jerry cartoon where a character tries to catch somebody using all sorts of tricks.

However, i kinda want this story to end with Aidan realising that they aren't assasins and that he feels guilty for trying to kill innocent civillians and saves them from a dangerous situation, prefferably one he himself was responsible for putting them into. The thing is, i have no idea what, and i don't even know how to get there naturally...

And i also want to know, since its a big part of Aidan's character...did people smoked weed before the 1960s?

Edited by kinnikuniverse on Mar 26th 2021 at 11:29:08 AM

The hamburger was invented in the early 20th century.

Cultivation of cannabis goes back to ancient times. It was used as a way of achieving euphoria probably all the way back into pre-history. I don't know when they first started to smoke it in cigarette form in Europe, but probably not before the introduction of cigarettes (from the Caribbean) to France in the early 1800's. I dont think that the term "weed" was a common name for it until the 20th century.

So...what does the british eats as a snack? As for the explanation for weed, perhaps, when he was still a member of the irish ruling house, he visited france and picked up weed there?

Anyways,that's not important. I need help coming up with chaining events together to form a story, as well as coming up with gags and failed tricks...

I'm kinda in a rut. I want to write sci fi or fantasy but I get to fixated on originality and overthink everything.

Then deliberately steal a scene from somewhere. You don't have to use it, just write it.

OK, I have a very weird, very specific question. So, I'm writing a novel that involves dinosaurs. A while back, I stumbled upon some leaks of upcoming merchandise and production photos for the movie Jurassic World: Dominion. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say a number of the dinosaurs that will be making their big-screen debuts in this movie are ones I put in my own book.

Should I change what types of dinosaurs I used to avoid accusations of plagiarism?

I mean...I don't think you'd be accused of plagiarism at all. If the rest of the story is totally different, then all it means is that you used specific dinosaurs. Nobody calls, say, Animal Crossing a rip off of Jurassic Park just because you can dig up a T-Rex fossil in that game.

The thing is, these aren't Stock Dinosaurs— at least, not "great-stock" ones. These are species that— to my knowledge— haven't appeared in fiction before, and I don't want people to think I'm just trying to ride the coattails of a major movie by using them.

Edited by ElSquibbonator on Apr 4th 2021 at 2:23:57 PM

Which plot-relevant species are you concerned about? Just wondering.

I mean, that's understandable, but all it really means is that you did your research. Like I said, I don't think people will cry "ripoff" just because you used specific dinosaur species.

x2

I didn't want to name them because of the sensitive nature of the leak, but they're Giganotosaurus, Deinonychus, and Quetzalcoatlus. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with using them, and they've appeared in fiction before, but the inclusion of those three together specifically might cause people to suspect I was copying the upcoming movie.

Edited by ElSquibbonator on Apr 4th 2021 at 2:25:33 PM

Eh, if your plot isn't similar, it's more likely people will assume it's a Shout-Out.