Author Topic: The Thread for Writers  (Read 33879 times)

Prince Janus

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #30 on: April 04, 2009, 01:20:07 am »
   I've had various little projects in the writing realm, some of which go on hiatus, others get completed, and some abandoned.


   The first big one I guess was a modern Zelda called The Legend of Zelda: The Forgotten Past. Basically, in the 1980's, Hyrule has begun (as it seems to do often) taking the events of its past with a grain of salt. So when a guy in a Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and shades just walks in like he owns the place and the Triforce of Power mysteriously disappears, nobody really cares that much. Nobody that is except the nation's young princess, Zelda (but she's schizophrenic anyways). Well, somehow, Her former nanny (who has long since been committed) learns of the location of yet another skeptic: some kid named "Link" of all things. He's not convinced there's any real danger either, and even when he is, and Ganon starts killing victims, nobody outside of the enslaved world will believe them... well, almost nobody. 

     This, however, never really left the ground. The concept was semi-inspired by the Jewish Holocaust, but could have used some more...   I dunno, solidity. plus it never actually got written in the novel style (you know, Paragraphs and description and shit). However...

     There was another Zelda story which had a surprisingly high success: A sequel to Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. This was the only game in the series officially marked as a numbered sequel, so I took the liberty of naming the story "Zelda 3". Amazingly, nobody confused it with A Link to the Past.

     Zelda III: The Secret of GANON continues the adventures of the original generation when a plot is executed to store and hide the Triforce in the neighboring kingdom of Calatia, with Link as the bodyguard and, to the public eye, merely a representative and hometown hero (Link was born here.) However, this plan fails and Link is ordered to recollect the Triforce and sneak it back over to Hyrule. (learning what Hyrule did could lead to an international incident.) However, Link has a bit of unfinished business in this town, regarding what happened to his parents and why he can't stop thinking he had an older brother...    ...also, Ganon haunts Link's dreams, poking him and seemingly encouraging him to ignore his orders and concentrate on his personal vendetta.

Now, this one actually was completed. You can read it here:

http://www.thehylia.com/forums/empty-t1871.0.html

   
    My third project, which eventually died out, was my personal stab at the "Search for Schala" scenario. Magus has settled down and tried to make friends amongst a colony of refugees in 12,000 BC. Unfortunately, bounty hunters come looking for "Janus", and burn down the colonists' home. In a rage, Magus learns what they were planning, but also scares away the friends he worked so hard to make. Once again on his own, Magus, alongside his changeling pet, Alfador, contemplates finding out where those hunters came from and why they wanted Janus...  ...not long before he realizes someone has stolen his amulet. Following a tip, he sails to a nearby city, where he finds a young dancer girl has stolen it, and chases her. She tosses the amulet in a Nu's mouth and jumps in, a gate forming inside the Nu (crazy huh?)   Pretty much the rest of the fic is Magus apprehending this brat, and the two of them working together to figure out what those bounty hunters were up to in both 600 AD and 12,000 BC.


   This one effectively died, but had it seen completion, then during a dire situation with a sealed "Zeal" door, Magus would have asked the girl (her name's Terri) to "use her pendant and open the door". Terri eventually agrees, but has no idea how Magus would have known she had Schala's pendant. She and Magus argue for a few moments after this. She asks him how he could have known about it, and he tells her.

     "Don't insult me", Magus says. "I knew you were Schala the moment I saw you."

     To this, she admits, but instead of a heartwarming family time, from that moment on they pretty much just bitch at each other about all things. (Usually Magus is to blame.) However, at the end of the story's resolution, Magus attains some wisdom and offers a heartfelt apology for treating her so bad.


   ...as I said, that one pretty much died, for better or for worse.

    Now, I'm working on a long-term continuation of Captain N.


     Twenty years have passed since local youth "Kevin Keene" disappeared after buying a strange television. When a young man going into college comes across the same box, he too becomes victim to it, and finds another world on the other end. A world where, yes, video games are real. In his first few days there, this boy defeats Ridley, meets Link, makes good friends with Mario, and even starts a relationship of some sort with Samus Aran...     

     ...but where is Kevin Keene?? Where is the original Captain N during all this!? After Mother Brain was ultimately defeated, he said he was going back to him home world, promising he would stop by and visit often. However, he is nowhere to be found either here or on Earth. Now, when the world needs a Game Master more than ever, Ridley has re assumed power over the space pirates and essentially drove out all other villains in terms of competition, annoying Dr. Wily and absolutely ruining poor Bowser (Ganon is deceased.) Is this new kid the only thing standing in Ridley's way?

     This series takes a lot of liberties. It's more or less based on the actual games than it is the series, and there's a lot of discontinuity between here and the show. Instead of a pompous jackass, Link is a kind of dorky but lovable nut, Mario actually has a part, and Samus, instead of being an overbearing psycho lady in a walking gold tank, is a shy girl who, when away from the comfort of her power suit, hides herself in a big green sweater she is almost always seen with. She and the new guy do develop an interest in one another, but she's very afraid to express it, not sure what Ridley would do if he found out.

     Book I: The New Captain N   is completed, now working on book II: Operation JET.

Delta Dragon

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #31 on: April 04, 2009, 03:55:08 am »
I have a friend who is in the process of publishing a fantasy trilogy, and she said right now is an awful time to try and get fantasy published.  Fantasy is "in" right now due to the now-subsiding Harry Potter/Chronicles of Narnia/Lord of the Rings craze.  As such, there are many many fantasy authors trying to get their stuff out there.  And seeing that the fantasy craze is, as I've said, subsiding, it's a difficult situation to be in.

However, that doesn't mean you should give up.  NEVER give up.  Seriously.  Chase you dreams until there's nothing left.  Never give up; never surrender!
More like Harry Potter/Twilight.  I like LOTR and Narnia much better, but the others are much more popular these days it seems.  At least from what I can tell.

FouCapitan

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #32 on: April 04, 2009, 04:13:29 am »
More like Harry Potter/Twilight.  I like LOTR and Narnia much better, but the others are much more popular these days it seems.  At least from what I can tell.

I think any author not trying to market to the ugly teenage pseudo goth girls will have no competition from Twilight.

I used to write a lot more, but nowadays it seems like the urge to write is sporatic, and I can't plan to sit down and flesh out stories and novels like I would like to.  I've had an outline as well as a few chapters lying around for a series I wrote about vampires myself.  (These were a clan of half-human descended warriors, not your typical gothic fare)  It was really bizzare, looking back, spanning everywhere from Heavy Metal stylized fantasy with centaur clans, wars brought about by tribal clowns from hell, hybrid creatures born from laboratories, spiritual guardians of the Earth and even a few adventurous space travelling heroes in the mix.  Sort of a cross breed of Lord of the Rings, Highlander and Dragonball Z.

If I ever finish my Chrono fanscript, I may pick this one up again.  It really was a unique world I fleshed out.

teaflower

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #33 on: April 04, 2009, 10:01:12 am »
I'm not going to give up now. I have tanked my English grades for this one work. I have wasted more time than I care to detail on this. I have written and rewritten, read and reread, edited and reedited this story more than I can count. I am not going to give up this dream, not now at least.

Personally, I don't even know what my target audience is. The story follows the adventures of a 25 year old guy and the youngest semi-major character is 16. And she's not an emo little bitch. I don't think that would target the teenage pseudo goth girls. But then again, the youngest major character is 18 and is a freaky dead thing, so... then again, when you think about it, he's supposed to be 27...

Right now, though, may be a good time to invest in the fantasy novel. What with the recession and all... or is that the really stupid movies like Paul Blart? Who knows. I don't anymore, at least.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #34 on: April 04, 2009, 10:37:07 am »
Ages are numbers.  It's more about the maturity of the characters and how they react in any given situation.  You can have a 40 year old man (say, for instance, Michael Scott from The Office) and still have him (intentionally or not) act like a fourteen year old.  There's more to age with a number, especially with characters.  After all, with literary characters all you have to go off of is descriptive details and examples.

teaflower

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #35 on: April 04, 2009, 10:46:05 am »
Indeed, but it feels like most times teenagers 'connect' with teenage characters. I'm thinking my audience is young adult, but... I don't know. But I know one thing; this is fantasy.

... how sad is it that I've already started the sequel?

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #36 on: April 04, 2009, 10:54:58 am »
It's not sad at all that you've started on the sequel.  If you enjoy doing it you should continue to do it.  Don't let getting published or not getting published play much of a role in it.  Although, I can't be overly optimistic; getting published is better than not, because it guarantees you at least some audience... and you can make some money off to the side.  Just do it because it makes you happy.

But what you really need is some input from someone who's been where you're at.  Someone who has the experience and the know how.

Have you taken and writing seminars?  Many times libraries will host writing classes, usually for free or a very cheap fee.  You could also invest in some "How to Write" books, which teach you the importance of form of storytelling, grammar, some of the standards, and pretty much "how to sell your concept to publishers".  Also, find a published author online and try to send them a letter or an e-mail and pick their brain about how to get started, what it takes, and what essentially "sells".

Just don't give up.  It takes time.  And it may take you making some changes to your story in order to make it work.

V_Translanka

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #37 on: April 05, 2009, 10:49:10 am »
Hey, I'm a writer too! I write things...like, um...grocery lists? My Facebook status? This post? That all counts, right? :P

But seriously...I write not enough and a lot of it...Mostly comic-booky stuff (people with super powers getting in over their heads)...I've got a vampire (+etc) story (that's where V Translanka lives) too...a smattering of Chrono fanfics...and the occasional bad poem (but I like 'em sometimes and sometimes that's all that matters).

Daniel Krispin

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #38 on: April 05, 2009, 08:43:46 pm »
Hey, I'm a writer too! I write things...like, um...grocery lists? My Facebook status? This post? That all counts, right? :P

But seriously...I write not enough and a lot of it...Mostly comic-booky stuff (people with super powers getting in over their heads)...I've got a vampire (+etc) story (that's where V Translanka lives) too...a smattering of Chrono fanfics...and the occasional bad poem (but I like 'em sometimes and sometimes that's all that matters).

Well, I don't think that first part should be taken as a joke... Facebook statuses can be seen as literary writing. You should see some of mine... I do not hold myself constrained to the typical song quotations and simplistic commentary that most feel inclined to set up as their status. At all points I feel compelled to practise my art, and I am most dismayed when I cannot, in writing something, convey my own voice through the words. If you are a writer, all writing counts.

And if you like your poems, and you are even a moderately critic of your own work, they are probably not as bad as all that.

V_Translanka

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #39 on: April 05, 2009, 09:43:10 pm »
Mostly now I just put quotes or things I think about the game screenshots I post in my Facebook statuses...>_> But I know what you mean (though i don't think it would apply to a grocery list! lol)...

My poems are often times...idk...simple? Unless I really dig in I'm mostly better at the flow than the prose, I think...or something like that...lol

Thought

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #40 on: April 05, 2009, 10:15:38 pm »
While I could be wrong, I'm fairly sure I've heard of Hamlet being rewritten in Facebook status updates.

So aye, that sort of stuff can be "Writing!" DUN dun DUNnnn

Daniel Krispin

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #41 on: April 05, 2009, 11:03:10 pm »
Mostly now I just put quotes or things I think about the game screenshots I post in my Facebook statuses...>_> But I know what you mean (though i don't think it would apply to a grocery list! lol)...

My poems are often times...idk...simple? Unless I really dig in I'm mostly better at the flow than the prose, I think...or something like that...lol

Do you follow any of the metres? See, I'm a formalist, so I'm typically bound to my iambics, as my the quote in my earlier post makes evident. I'd consider that simple. Free verse, to do well, is way, way tougher and more complex. Most people can't really do it in my opinion. I certainly can't.

And Thought, I don't mean things being written as Facebook statuses, I mean actually writing some glorious prose (even poetry) into one's statuses. For the number of times that my status has hailed Orion's flaring sign in the heavens, or cursed the Furies that hound my spirit... my friends must think me utterly mad, of course, but none other I have ever seen writes Facebook statuses as I have. Nor, for that matter, sends texts as I do. Oh, the long treatises and mighty declamations that have left my phone! Much, I must add, to the chagrin of my friends, whose preferred method of reply is 'lol.'
« Last Edit: April 05, 2009, 11:28:13 pm by Daniel Krispin »

V_Translanka

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #42 on: April 06, 2009, 07:10:53 pm »
Do you follow any of the metres? See, I'm a formalist, so I'm typically bound to my iambics, as my the quote in my earlier post makes evident. I'd consider that simple. Free verse, to do well, is way, way tougher and more complex. Most people can't really do it in my opinion. I certainly can't.

I'm...not entirely sure what you mean lol...maybe? If you're really interested, I started trying to do a "Poem a Day" thing in my SoY thread before my lil hiatus...I have a lot of backlogged days now, though! >_>

Thought

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #43 on: April 30, 2009, 11:26:20 am »
I am happy to report that I am finally writing again, though I am not writing as often as I'd like (that being 10 pages a day, every day).

I do find myself thinking how other writers do things a little too often for my tastes, however. There is merit in examining how other writers compose their works, certainly, but that is not quite what I am talking about. Rather, I find myself inadvertently wondering things like "how long do other writers make their chapters?" or "how much detail do other writers give to a scene or character," etc. In short, it seems like, as I am getting back into writing, I am being too worried over how others handle the technical details of a story. I want (or perhaps it is just I think I want) to focus on the story, damn the technical details. So I suppose this could go in the frustration thread.

That aside, it is quite amusing to see how certain ideas have stuck with me over the years. I can trace certain elements back to stories I wrote in the 5th grade. These elements have changed radically but I know they are essentially the same visions from so long ago. It is all the more amusing because these were, at one point, science fiction specific elements, then they become sword & sorcery fantasy specific elements, and now they are alternative history/fantasy specific elements. Which is to say, they are specific to me and not the genres like I had once thought.

At the risk of sounding ridiculous (because most fiction stories are ridiculous when described), one such element started out as a total rip off of the Federation from Star Trek (I read a fair number of Star Trek novels in 5th grade). Over the course of that particular story this group morphed from the peace-loving, exploratory-based TNG rip-off into a world spanning tolerable government that was really an unwitting front for a shadow government. Then it became a group of plucky rebels fighting against a doomsday government… in space. Then I abandoned science fiction, only for this general element to be inadvertently resurrected as a world-spanning order of magicians in a fantasy setting. There have been a few other iterations, but most recently this element has taken the form of what is essentially a university in an alternate history/fantasy scenario (sort of along the genre-lines of the Alvin Making series; “magic” exists in the real world and by existing it has changed important parts of history, though in my case history diverged with the founding of the University at Bologna).

I do wonder if I will still be writing about this element in another 15ish years.

Samopoznanie

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Re: The Thread for Writers
« Reply #44 on: May 02, 2009, 01:48:39 pm »
Writing's pretty well the only art I've excelled at over the years. I was pretty happy with my visual (painting with oils and water colours) and musical endeavors (Russian-language choir, guitar), but neither really came to me naturally. It was always a bit of a forced or mechanical process, even if the final product was nice. Gave both of them up eventually, though I'd like to make them a hobby again sometime.

Words though, I've continued to play with. I'm focused on writing, but in a non-fiction sense of the term. I realized around my second year of university that I'm too lacking in creative capacity to write good fiction. Looking over my work, I just found too many cliches, or character / personality traits that were too blatantly derivative of my own life experiences. Oftentimes they seemed to be stolen from other novels, video games or films, and others just had too much of my views and personality in the characters. I figure a mark of good creative writing is the ability to create characters that are far-removed from your own personality.

That said, I've busied myself with history in the last few years. The nice thing about Russian history in particular, is that there are a lot of creative works (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn) with such political content, they often work their way into things. I particularly like working with political figures' own quotations to flesh out their personalities and establish a narrative flow of sorts. Especially to give things a touch of humour, given how often politicians put their feet in their mouths. Richard Nixon is great for that, LoL. There's actually a very nice biography out there ("Richard Nixon: Alone in the White House") where every word of Nixon's dialogue is taken straight from the White House tapes and woven into the book. Makes for a really effective portrait.

The longest and most detailed thing I've written so far was a thesis on the politics of identity, which rounded out about 25,000 words. I was pretty burned out on the topic by the end of it (took about 4 months to write), but it gave me enough to work with that I could write a smaller piece on it later (about 25pp), and that's supposed to be published in a collection sometime this year.  :)

Music reviews are also a lot of fun. Used to submit a lot of stuff to Epinions.com, but don't have a lot of time to write them now. Still, reviews are a fun break from things. Especially when you're reviewing something bad, so you can go all-out and trash it!