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Rules of Writing A contribution thread - get posting

#16 User is offline   SimeSublime Icon

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Posted 06 May 2005 - 03:00 AM

I don't write much, or at all, really. Mostly, I start off with a plot twist, then try to build up some characters and events to reach the twist. This is all in my head though, and I can never motivate myself to write it down.
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#17 User is offline   Laughlyn Icon

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Posted 06 May 2005 - 11:48 AM

QUOTE (Rhubarb @ May 5 2005, 11:38 AM)
Ahaha, yes. This one was discovered by me fairly recently. Booze tends to make my imagination take greater leaps. Unfortunately, it also makes me incapable of writing.

Try JM's other option then; Speed's very good for wrtiing\dreaming up ideas, ecstacy tends to lift your mood and keep you working, and bad (weak) acid can help the imagination somewhat (unless you start seeing hoards of giant manta rays decending from the ceiling). This all depends on how much you take and how you react of course, but it's worth keeping in mind.

you do need to remember to re-read with a clear head however.
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#18 User is offline   Rhubarb Icon

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Posted 06 May 2005 - 01:55 PM

Yeah, I don't like taking drugs, recreational or otherwise. My brain is unstable enough as it is. And although certain drugs can make for some awesome visual art, it's definitely not good for writing. Especially the concentration-type drugs... I mean, they certainly keep me writing, but what came out wasn't exactly gold. I've never taken LSD or E, but going from the descriptions I've been given, I think I can get watered-down simulated effects from certain states of mind I tend to get in, and although the results are imaginative, they aren't very, em, suitable. And even weed tends to mess up my style so bad that it reads as utterly convoluted gibberish the next morning.

Seriously, writing a novel is hard. Really goddamn fucking hard. There are so many fucking bits and pieces to keep track of, all these bloody themes and metaphors and allegories that keep working their way into the narrative without you even noticing. You change one thing and the whole damn structure caves in on you. You want some imagination-enhancers, go for your life. But a clear head is needed for the actual 'committing to paper' part. Otherwise you end up with a mess.
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#19 User is offline   Laughlyn Icon

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Posted 06 May 2005 - 03:38 PM

Your damn right about it being a hard writing, I'm not saying take drugs for the whole process, more that they're a good way of generating ideas\new directions that you might decide to follow (hence the re-read part). Nothing straight from the influenced mind should go to the final stages. Cannabis was missed off the list because you tend to produce gibberish, Cocaine got skipped because it make you stop listening to the voice in your head saying 'this stinks'.

You did mention that you suffer from writers block from time to time, so occasionally trying to break it chemically can help, even if it's just to put you into the right frame of mind.

This probably reflects on my scattergun approach to writing, I normally start with a basic idea\where ever I last stopped, and then write several concepts in connection with it, going back later and collecting the best elements and relating\tying them to what's gone before. It's probably far more time consuming than it should be.

I'm going to have to come back to this a bt later and explain it better, when I have more time.
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#20 User is offline   J m HofMarN Icon

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Posted 07 May 2005 - 03:01 AM

Hmmm writing process, that's kind of difficult information to divulge. Well I guess the first part of writing is getting the idea. Usually I'll have one character I get attached to in a way. Chris, for instance, is the protagonist of all three of my vampire novels. He started out as a pretty simple character with a fairly straightforward purpose and a solid backstory. I pretty much knew who he was and what he was going to do.

Then I realized that my original story was too short and I started elongating it. I thought of things Chris would do or say, of people he would fight, and basically made up scenes. It was those scenes that fueled the two sequel novels. I really love to write scenes but sometimes it's difficult or tedious to work them in. I hate the piddly filler that pops up in most novels so I try to have every part of my book work as a scene of some sort.

In Glamis it was very much the same. I had a list of jokes I wanted to work in and a world map. I'd planned out a lot of that novel and actually had four pages of long hand notes and two hand drawn maps to go with it. I guess my novels focus more on how events shape characters than how characters cause events.

As for writing? I try to write at least one thing every day. It could be a poem, a chapter for one of my novels or a scene from a play. I really don't do a lot of revision because I tend to think things out in my head a lot more and decide what works. A lot of things just come naturally to me like that I suppose. I'll usually be lazy and hedonistic for a good part of the day, while the work bears down on my mind. I tend to write very late unless an idea strikes me early. Most of my stuff is done around sunrise or the dark hours of the morning.

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#21 User is offline   Voodoo Dog Icon

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 10:01 PM

I've just been inspired by you good people to start writing for the very first time in my life, so thanks. I'm working on a short story which I will post here. It's called The Darkness of the Elves, make of that what you will. And no, its not LOTR fan fiction. (Be better if it was) In fact, I'm thinking of starting my own thread to keep my stories on along with giving people a chance to make comments/suggestions. Are you allowed to do that? And if so, is the edit function any different in here? I'd like to go back and make improvments on my stories based on what you kind chaps suggest. If I agree with you that is. I can't do that however, if my ability to edit runs out after forty minutes.
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#22 User is offline   J m HofMarN Icon

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 11:01 PM

No the editing ability dosnt exist here either but its cool you've decided to write. Go ahead and start a thread we could always use more good material. Good being the key word. If it's a love story about a guy named Santeria Puppy and Janet McSherwood than you should probably burn it and sprinkle holy water on the ashes.

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#23 User is offline   barend Icon

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Posted 08 May 2005 - 11:37 PM

i make up stories as i go along, i started three a few years back (short dtories) but never finished them... in fact i don't think i passed 4 or 5 pages with any...

i started a sci fi, but got tired of scanning through previous type to find details when refering to them...

this time i did it right. i made a whole series of other files just of information to refer to... loose databases if you will.

and a scene/plot-idea document to not forget where i am heading with subplots.

ultimatley i don't know where exactly the story is going, but i work better that way.

---------------

i think the day of the type-writter is over. because when typing story that your expecting to be about 500 pages long, (290 so far), there is nothing handier than Ctrl-F
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#24 User is offline   Slade Icon

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 12:18 AM

Don't forget spell check and find and replace!
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#25 User is offline   Rhubarb Icon

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 12:48 AM

QUOTE (Voodoo dog @ May 8 2005, 10:01 PM)
It's called The Darkness of the Elves


Aaaahahahahahahaahahaha

Hehehehehehe
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#26 User is offline   Slade Icon

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 12:49 AM

Way to encourage new creative talent, Rhubs... sleep.gif
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#27 User is offline   rock_dash Icon

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 01:46 AM

I guess it's time for my two cents. Dungeons and Dragons used to be a creative goldmine for me. Every character I made was different and I fell in love with many of them (My first character, Rock, is sadly becoming outdated to me. I don't want to lose him, but I came up with him in 7th or 8th grade, and we all know what it's like to read things you wrote from back then).

I haven't had a chance to play Dungeons and Dragons in awhile though, and now, I'm trying to make a comic (Story by me, art by a few of my closest friends since I don't have the patience or intellegence to learn drawing skills). So really, this is probably the first time I've tried to write a story without D&D as a crutch, and I'm having a damn hard time of it. I've got a core group of characters that I think are pretty well developed, but the male lead is so bland that he may as well not exist.

If you guys want, I can share something about the comic in a future post. I don't know if it's good or not, but I like it so far blush.gif
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#28 User is offline   Rhubarb Icon

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 03:25 AM

QUOTE (Slade @ May 9 2005, 12:49 AM)
Way to encourage new creative talent, Rhubs... sleep.gif

To reiterate...

QUOTE
It's called The Darkness of the Elves

Ehehehehhehee.
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#29 User is offline   J m HofMarN Icon

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 04:36 AM

I will contribute a song for this book. It will be called Darkelf song. Here are some lyrics I'm toying with.

This is our dark elf song this is our dark elf song
it is the darkness that is of the elves

This post has been edited by J m HofMarN: 09 May 2005 - 04:41 AM

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I don't know about you but I have never advocated that homosexuals, for any reason, be cut out of their mother's womb and thrown into a bin.
- Deucaon toes a hard line on gay fetus rights.
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#30 User is offline   Voodoo Dog Icon

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Posted 09 May 2005 - 06:18 AM

Dar! You won't be laughing when you've finished reading it woman! Although I'm glad you are, to be honest. I wanted the title to be something people will think is silly before they read the story, and as something rather sinister afterwards. In case you didn't twig, its a horror story.

Looking forward to hearing your song Hofmarn. Just try to stop it sounding too much like "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. A variation of that is gonna be a major part of the story. This may seem a little egotistical coming from someone who has only started writing, but I'd like this thing to develop into its own little Universe. If anyone else wants to post Dark Elf stories, poems or songs, then by all means feel free to do so. I think I'll save this thread for elves and start a different one for other shit. If you want to know what to expect from The Darkness of The Elves, heres the little memory aids I wrote because I was starting to forget all the shit I was going to stick in it.

The True Messiah John McCarthy
Diaries of McCarthy
Police vomiting
Dreams of serial killers
False memories
Premembering
Fairy dust
Vaginal secretions
Mirrors
Windows
Ravens
Painful masturbation to LOTR porn with handful of broken glass
Wrist snapping
Self-punishment for past sins
Unnatural love for own sister
McCarthy’s family
McCarthy’s silence
McCarthy’s middle finger
Susannah’s early puberty plus garden elves plus castration
Elf at window
Elf castration
Computer on floor
Eyelash blinding
Blind girl no eyes
McCarthy scratches own eyes out

If the sister thing scared you...good! Seriously, there won't be a full on account of incest fucking, it'll just be a brief reference to show how fucked up McCarthy is. Oh, yeah, the last one may seem a bit of a spoiler, but it isn't really. You want to hear something strange? I started this story wanting to show the delusions of an insane man, but now that I've written the case he makes for the Elves existence, I'm not too sure anymore. Now when you read it, you can either assume he's crazy or he's telling the truth. I kinda like it better like that. Are you feeling intrigued yet? I just hope Heccubus doesn't tear this one down as well...

This post has been edited by Voodoo dog: 09 May 2005 - 06:27 AM

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