Quill and Ink Corner: A writing thread for the Cobbies.

As writers, what are your most self-annoying habits in writing that result in Small Reference Pools/Most Writers Are Writers?

In high school, I wrote about high schoolers chasing their Beatrices. As a college underclassman, I wrote about college students and office workers chasing their Beatrices. As an upperclassman, I wrote about filmmakers falling in love over pop culture references. After I graduated, I wrote about office workers dealing with unrequited love.

I'm starting to realize I have a problem crafting protagonists that aren't me, unless maybe I set it in a high-tech future. But even then sometimes.

I have gotten several comments that I write military life with greeat realism ... which usually makes me scratch my head and think "Duh?" But it is an extention of what I know, obviously.

• sigh* I just wish I could get more reviews that are more than "Great chapter" or similar words. There's no substance there, and while I'm glad they like it, I want more of why they like it. I also wish the anonymous reviewers that leave me great substance (or even better, questions to answer) would log in so I could respond.

I do a lot of research prepping. This annoys me because whenever I don't research something beforehand I feel very self-conscious.

And in general I take my writing very seriously due to wanting a career. I try very hard to keep from talking about myself or using my stories as a vehicle for my personal opinions. I get the feeling that I am a ghostwriter for my own work.

I do the research, but that's because the truth is often weirder/more interesting than the popular conception for most things. That and there's lots of good plot-hooks in reality. You just have to learn that they are there.

In some cases, though, I do the research to see if the end result I'm describing is realistic but don't describe the process. Reason; I'm not an expert and I don't want to try and basically teach the audience about something I myself am not that familiar with. The 90% of the readership that isn't already an expert won't really appreciate it, and the ten percent which are experts will more than likely catch me in some kind of error anyway.

And with some things (like, say, computer hacking) getting it 100% perfectly accurate might cause problems also; I wouldn't want the FBI knocking on my door asking me where I got my information.

Getting good feedback is a challenge. There's no other word for it. The only way I've found you can get it is to keep showing your work to people who might enjoy it, and then cultivate the hell out of the few people willing to give you the kind of feedback you want.

I do my best to respond to everyone who leaves me constructive comments, thereby encouraging more constructive comments. And I make sure that I leave comments myself when I do reviews.

That is one of the reasons I do not use writing sites for review. It feels way too much like pointless back patting and a fear of giving negative (constructive can be negative in this sense) feed back.

Oh, no, if someone doesn't like something about my writing, I'd much rather they say so in a constructive fashion, and I've gotten a couple of reviews to the effect of "this part here was badly written" or "you left this gigantic gaping plot hole you twat". It's still more useful to me than "nice chapter."

I'm still trying to decide if this review was meant to sound condescending or not:

I can't speak for the writer of that comment, of course, but if I said something like that, there would be no condescension in it at all, just joy.

Yes, it is rather ambiguous. Take it with a grain of salt.

I think I will try to get out the next chapter of my Western over spring break, for sure. I don't have much homework since midterms are over.

Is that your way of admitted you left that anonymous review?

The rest of it is pretty good constructive comments, just that bit threw me a bit.

Oooh, writing thread. Think I'll stick around for a while and hope to get back to my fun writings.

So, I'm not writing a book. I'm writing a module for an anime con. I run World Of Darkness and I tend to base what I'm running of pop-culture to give people an easy hook into the game. Last year I ran a Ghost Hunters parody thing that ended up really creepy at the end.

This year I want to run something different, but in the same vein so I'm looking for something modern and pop-culturey that I can riff off of. I want something where the characters are fairly identifiable so that my players can jump right in. I just need some suggestions.

Twilight.

Yikes module writing. No thanks :P

Shima, why don't you pop into the anime forum and ask them what's new and popular?

Because what's new and popular probably isn't that well known. And more importantly I probably won't know it. I'm currently leaning towards Ouran Highschool Hostclub.

Ooh. That would be fun. And probably very funny.

It would, and it has the perk of being popular and old enough that people have really had a chance to watch it.

Hmmm... not so well known is Assassination Classroom. <_< That would be a heap of fun... but, you might have to give it a few years. <shrugs>

Okay, after some long consideration, I've decided to just do this.

My novel is basically one which as the following synopsis:

To be honest, I did write a better one on reddit, but nobody read it, so meh. Basically, it was this:

If that all sounds vague, I'll just continue and summarize what the novel is about.

Basically, I've decided to give this world several rules:

• All fairy tales, works of fiction, whatever are just that, fiction;
• Once a work has been made, it creates a new "world" as long as people are still reading this work;
• Public domain work are more subject to changes as they are basically less restrictive, therefore, these worlds are more open;
• All fictional worlds are real the moment they are conceptualized, however, the access to each world may be limited;
• There are more rules that may or may not spoil the progress of the story.

When Edgar C. Howard is still working late at night at his store, which is directly attached to his home, a mysterious woman pays him a visit, going by the name of Diana Pierson. As Edgar is a rather generous person, he offers Diana a place to stay, in exchange for her working at the store. However, as time goes by, they grow closer together, until they fall in love. But who really is Diana, and why did she come to him? And how about the storms that rage over the entire world? Are they connected to something darker?

Now, I'm not saying my novel is really great, but I'm still satisfied how it is right now. I am going to work on several chapters I've written because I'm not truly satisfied with them, that and the last chapter I've worked on was at least ten pages bigger than the previous chapters, where the second longest chapter was about 17 pages, so yeah, they do need a little bit of padding. Also, overall I could improve my writing.

So yeah, anyway, that having said, I'm using leanpub to publish my novel. The minimum price is $2.99, but I have a coupon ready that is valid until May 1st 2013. You'll get a $2.99 discount on it. The coupon code is TROPESONELDRITCHFAIRYTALES. And yes, in case you're wondering, that would make the price drop to $0.00, so if you're not entirely interested in purchasing a novel that isn't done yet, but you are a little bit interested in the story, then you have absolutely no reason to not get it now.

Also, if you're nice, I might extend the time period. But only if you're nice. I've already done that on Telltale Games, but that's mainly because nobody actually gave a crap there. Well, three people used the code, while I think a few others are planning on purchasing it with money or already have, so yeah.

Also, in case you are really wondering, there is no catch. I have a feeling I have to say this, because even on reddit nobody used it, so I either must be doing something wrong or people are really suspicious about things being given away for free. Sure I'd love to earn from my writing, but I love it more if people actually would read my stories.

Finally, there is a three chapter sample, which is currently about thirty pages long. So yeah, there's that.

EDIT: I kind of have the feeling I should just take this to Writer's Block instead / as well.

edited 15th Mar '13 6:43:16 PM by GaryCXJk

It is fine to share here if you want. It is what the thread is for.

Shima: Since you're using WoD have you considered Highschool Of The Dead? It's fairly new but fairly widely viewed.

I have not seen it, and don't have access to watch it, so that would be a very bad choice. And Wo D has shitty rules for zombies so anything with zombies is right out.

After a three-day hiatus, back on the writing job. Hopefully I can get a couple of chapters done before I have to go to bed.

I'm finally getting back into writing. It's not easy. This story is a nightmare.