Writer's Block Daily

That thread doesn't look like what my English teacher said vignettes are, but it looks fun.

Speaking of vignettes, the ones I have to do for English are taking up a lot of the time I usually reserve for my novel. But I'm still having fun with them. I should do them more often, like in a diary like I mentioned before, and collect them for publishing when I feel brave enough.

edited 22nd Apr '11 10:32:09 AM by snowfoxofdeath

On the bus ride home, I started typing a short story for my character in the "Is This Character Interesting?" thread. Hopefully I'll finish it later.

Once I get my laptop back from my siblings, I'll start the thread, so that'll be from 2:30 Central Time to 4:00 Central Time, depending if they will let me on for just a moment to post it.

Does anyone still write stuff out on paper, with a pen or pencil?

I know I do, but it seems that writing in general has shifted from pen-and-paper to chair-and-keyboard. I always write my work out by hand before typing it up, and that works really well for me.

I hand-write if I don't have my school-issued MacBook handy. Most of the time, I just type my writing out.

I write in hand some, but its easier to fix later on computer for me.

edit: actually all of my first drafts for my book from versions 1.0 to 3.0 is in paper and pencil.

edited 22nd Apr '11 12:34:59 PM by jasonwill2

I write long-hand first, as well. Keeps the word count down.

Sometimes I write in pen, just to get that feeling of scribbling out unsatisfactory lines and words.

A lot of my writing is in my writing hanging files. The disadvantage of typing on the computer is that I don't have access to it all the time.

I'm aiming for the launch at 3:00 Central Time.

I hand write in pencil, and make all of my editing/corrections in pen.

Hah, no. I have enough trouble keeping all my university notes together. If I write something by hand, chances are that a week later I already won't find it anymore. And if I do, I might not be able to decypher it, due to my bad handwriting. And it doesn't allow for in-text corrections. And it's generally just unwieldy!

No, no. For my free time writing it's only the PC.

The Character Carnival is up. Feel free to jump in. I want it to reach a conclusion, like how Castle ended. However, I am going to write parts of the ending sequence when I have time.

Well golly gee whiz, you sure gave those pesky people who do like writing things by hand what-for!

Right. I can has a summary? Or a way to jump into the story?

Ah, that wasn't my intention. Sorry if it came across as hostile, but I don't see how. I mean, it was even mostly self-deprecating. But as said, if it did come across as such I apologise; that wasn't intended.

edited 22nd Apr '11 1:12:25 PM by Octo

It's all good, I was just teasing. But the repeated "no"s give off just a touch of hostility.

Character Carnival is very accesable. The whole plot is pretty much Writing by the Seat of Your Pants and a Writing Exercise in a single setting. Even though I wrote the OP and I have an ending in mind, I'm going to go to the flow, and see what direction the thread goes.

All you need to do is to dig up one of your characters and drop in.

edited 22nd Apr '11 1:15:28 PM by chihuahua0

I've posted. I hope what I've done is acceptable :x

I hope to God I can write description for this.

I was debating between two characters, but now I've picked someone entirely different. Based on my writing style, my selected character's not going to care much about his environment. He's a cynical teenage boy prone to complaining.

edited 22nd Apr '11 1:22:23 PM by CrystalGlacia

Teenage boy? Looks like I need to edit my post again, as this will add on to it.

Expect the edit messages to end my post throughout the thread. A part of the writing process is revising.

Oh, right, didn't get this is a new story. Well, that makes it easy indeed, heh.

The rule of thumb is that each thread is a different story, a clean slate. However, Continuity Nods often appear, however.

Presume that no one had read the last thread, to avoid confusing newcomers.

Holy crap I leave for an hour and already there are 14 posts! People must have been waiting for it for a while ^^;;

Also, I don't know how to join in. Rainer is very... er... shy.

edited 22nd Apr '11 2:36:16 PM by OhSoIntoCats

Let someone approach him. Shy characters are harder to do, since the character threads are so rooted in interaction.

I suggest we cease non-crucial talk on the Character Development Thread both here and there, since the rules say that OOC-chatter should be kept to a min. Keep OOC-talk for when you have extended absences, dropping out, needing elaboration for what's going on, sorting out inconsistencies (like what happened with Alice and Cyrus), and things like that.

I am looking over my Script Frenzy play. I finished it last night. Well, I wrote the ending last night— there's still a lot of stuff that needs to happen to build up that ending (and to get to the 100 page goal). It's an alright end, a bit ambiguous, but that's on purpose— I wanted to avoid a happy ending where everything is wrapped up with a bow.

Anyway, reading through it for the first time since I started writing, I noticed that I have characters just sort of... randomly appear. Like, all the time. For instance, a police inspector shows up in Act 5 to arrest my main character, and he acts like he's been trying to arrest her for quite some time, but this his first appearance in the play. In fact, he didn't exist at all, not even in my head, until I wrote that scene and had him walk in saying she's under arrest. Obviously I'll write him in earlier now and build up that plot, but I just thought it was weird because there was never a police inspector in my original concept, he just showed up because I needed an extra antagonist. Meanwhile, an antagonist I did have in the original (very loose) outline has all but disappeared since Act 2. And the transvestite character I had planned has turned into a fat, balding Deadpan Snarker techie who insults the hero every chance he gets. When did all this happen?

This writing without planning thing is weird.

You mean normal people have outlines and schedules for writing?

...Come to think of it. *posts in the weakness thread*

Planning and writing just don't mix with me. There have been times where I've tried to sort out timelines for my story, and failed miserably. I also seem to have trouble stringing events in my head in such a way that resembles a plot.

Maybe I'll try making a timeline on GoogleDocs or something.