Nov 10 2011
Grenac’s Review Forum
Please see the comments below. Thanks!
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- Guest Authors WantedIf you’re interested in becoming a guest blogger for SN, I’m looking for writing advice for current and/or prospective authors (for example, on some element of writing craft, marketing/sales, promotions/publicity, agents, the publishing industry, or anything else many novelists and/or comic book writers would find helpful). Please send me a 1-2 sentence quer […]
- The Avengers Was SolidI’d give it 3 stars out of 4. The closest comparison that comes to mind is that it’s the movie that Fantastic Four wanted to be when it was growing up (before it got addicted to cocaine and dropped out of school). Some other thoughts: The writing was very fresh and clever. I liked the way […]
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- Please Avoid Having Characters Repeat Each Other
I feel terrible, but I’m rebooting my previous story. It’s better to start with a new forum though. I was planning on posting another story here, but since it has nothing to do with superheroes, it’d feel weird. So, expect Ianthe and Coco’s return. I just need to revamp the plot and powers.
I think that was what I needed, to start fresh. Despite being advised – repeatedly – not to rewrite, I absolutely couldn’t move it forward. Maybe this time I could remove all the girly from the story, heh. Character revamps might be called for.
However, lately, I’ve been finding it difficult to want to write Keegan. I…kind of like his character (I’ll have to spend some time in his life to see if that’ll change), but I don’t very much like writing him. Can anyone offer any advice on this?
Im confused, Whenever I read the story Keegan seemed all planned out. Writing him seemed like it came easy for you. Has it always been like this? Not liking to write about him?
About your old review forum, Don’t feel bad I like to rewrite alot ( A LOT!!!! ) but what seems strange is that after finding his site I feel like I can stick with my story longer. Your Feedback really helped me out. In fact everyones did. I think I should thank the members of SN. Exspecially You. Your Story always encouraged me to write my own. The descriptive details in the fight scenes were always wonderful. I’d always think man I wish I could write my story the way he does. Thanks!
YES YES YES! Grenac’s still writing!
…
Sorry. I’m just really excited.
Hmm. Keegan. I like him. (Randomness…!)
Yeah. That’s happened to me, mostly with Rebecca. I usually just wait a few days, then open up my computer, look at my previous chapters, and suddenly get a great idea for a scene.
If you could understand that, congrats. My brain just exploded from happiness, so expect random, nonsensical musings for the next six or so hours.
This is becoming a very good day.
Thanks for putting up with me guys ;_; Me and my million reboots, just like my friend, Mirage
With Keegan, I used to be okay writing him, but lately I feel like skipping over his lines. Maybe it’s because he’s a difficult character, what with his, not being able to express himself clearly. Ethan, another protag in another story, is much easier to write, perhaps because he’s less of a grump and more friendly-like. Even Rai isn’t that difficult to write. I think Keegan is the only male character I struggle with 8I
I’ll post some new snippets next week or so, hopefully I’ll have things straightened out by then.
Marquis, I am looking forward to more story from you ÓvÓ! Crystal, I hope you’ll find some time to write soon! Keep me posted pls :3
Hmm… well if you’re having trouble with Keegan, it could be two things. *puts on doctor cap and stethoscope* Either A, you don’t know enough about him to write him and so you feel blocked when you try, ’cause you don’t know how he’d react; or B, you know him really well, but whenever you write him he turns into a different character.
Or it could be C, Keegan himself doesn’t want you to write him because he’s aware of how crazy authors are and is terrified of getting involved in that… but I can’t help with that problem. xD
If it’s A, I’d suggest doing some random character studies or memes. If you’re on a site like gaia, use him in a roleplay (roleplays are AMAZING for fleshing out characters.) If the problem is B, then it depends on what you want Keegan to do in your story and what it is that changes when you write him that you don’t like.
Wow I hope that makes sense.
I miss this site. I miss reading y’alls writing. MERRY HANUKKAMAS YOU GUYS. xP
I think it’s A and B…though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was sekritly C >w>. Hmm, roleplay sounds nice, but I’m terrible at it. I might ask the SQS girls for help. Chara memes/studies will have to wait until I get to my com, but I have a few lined up that I haven’t done yet
Thanks Myna.
I miss you on here and your writing ;n;
Grenac!!! Where’s My Review!!!!
Heeey guys. Since my charas need more…help and I suck terribly at rp (except when it’s joke mary-sue, awkward terrible fanfic rp XD omg, then it’s a blast like in that one livestream…) I thought I’d take another approach.
Basically, anyone that comes across this forum can ask my charcters any – and I mean any – type of question they want. Though it might be easier if you know the characters lol.
But still, anything goes. Just avoid profanit
ies pls.
The characters will then respond, by force if neccessary.
Characters are: Cirocco, Ianthe, Luce, Rai, Keegan, and Alexander. So far those are the only ones introduced. BTW, I recommend (Read: beg) you call Coco by her handle name. It’s just easier for us all.
Okay…that was an epic failure. Well, I found a questionnaire that I actually had Inspi to fill out. If anyone cares you can read it here: http://grenac.deviantart.com/journal/I-wasn-t-tagged-but-what-the-hey-276393221
It’s for Keegan, Ianthe, and Coco :3
No, not an epic failure.
I read it, just didn’t have the time to respond.
I’ll get back to ya in a few hours. Have an essay to finish.
…Apparently I am an idiot. A few hours=three days.
Hmm…When can I respond? I’ll try to as soon as I get to a real computer.
*runs off to stalk deviantArt*
Lmao, to me right now= years later XDDD don’t worry about it.
Guys, I did this: http://grenac.deviantart.com/art/OC-Interviews-277501158 and I keep finding out little details about my charas.
Like Rai’s flamboyant self that loves to pretend he and Keegan are an item.
I swear I’m working on this story, I just need to research/straighten out a few things. I just really want to make sure my charas are top-notch…as they can be for a first draft.
So I’ll ask again: Give me some real hard crit about my charas. Please and thanks.
YES. FREE TIME.
Hmm…I want to ask your characters something…I can’t think of it.
Oh, well. I can haz weekend.
Ask them to tell us something random. Or a secret, if you didn’t already do that. I’m too lazy to scroll through everything again.
Hmph. Is it weird that when I just typed in ‘G’ (trying to get to Google), your deviantArt account came up before Google?
I use Google about five times a day.
Crit? I already told you about most of the characters on your other forum. But…Don’t think that I’ve heard of this Rai guy.
I like him. Seriously, I was laughing so hard that my brother shouted from his room (it was midnight) for me to SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP ALREADY.
NOW GO WRITE.
http://grenac.deviantart.com/art/OC-Ianthe-279001793
I redid Ianthe’s outfit :B
I’m still working on this story, but it might take a place in the back burner because there’s another idea I’m also working out. So yay, multi-tasking!
I might begin posting when I get my commission from DO. Need proper Inspi and all that. I don’t promise anything though, because everytime I say a date, I don’t do it lol
When did you do that?! I’ve been stalking your DA for weeks now. O.o
…YAY STALKERS!
Ahem. She’s cute.
Ditto. I’ve been putting off writing for over six months now.
I need help coming up with city name. It’s a city known for crime and drugs. I want the name to be Spanish influenced, but I can’t come up with anything.
Quoting one of my previous comments…
“I like starting with a syllable that has the right sound and then building on from there. For example, this city sounds kind of messed up, so maybe something like Bent or Pack or Pax or Mar would work for the first syllable.
Then, to finish it off, you might use something like don, ion, ola, burn, dere, ville, port, er, burg, boro, rst, oma, iet or whatever suits you. For example, Benton or Marburn or Packola or whatever.”
For a more Spanish flair, I like Malagua (literally, something like “bad water”) or Malhombres (a bastardized version of “bad people”).
I went back to that comment various times, but it doesn’t satisfy my needs for this particular situation.
Malagua sounds ok, I’ll use it as a place-holder. I don’t wanna use predictable prefixes like Mal- or Mort-. I like Myna’s city name, Bellem. It’s short and sounds fitting without them prefixes. But everything I come up with is terrible.
Hows about: Acerbo, Escabrosa, Andero,Suplesa , these are all just off the top of my head.
So I’m rebooting the story for the millionth time. So far I only have a few abstract concepts though:
“Ianthe lives in a world of glass”
“A complicated caste system – the materialistic layer, the idealistic layer, and the realistic layer.”
“Buildings that reach high, yet always fall short of the sky…”
Oh, and what if the plot goes something like, the top caste layer releases a virus in the lowest caste layer to kill them off and…that’s all I got. That way the Strecosa can make a comeback
Oh and there’s discrimination between the layers, mostly only towards the lowest one.
I’m not sure what you mean by an idealistic layer (perhaps academics/intellectuals/artists), but it might be more memorable if they could release the virus against the materialists rather than the materialists against the poor. (If things are going pretty well for the materialists and they can afford to pay the wages of the lowest caste, what would be the incentive to kill them en masse?) The motive among the idealists might be that the status quo is not nearly to their liking, and they disapprove so much of what the materialists are doing that some of the idealists convince themselves mass murder is the best way forward.
Oh, that’s excellent, considering no one would think the second layer to do something like that (and it conveniently fits the rough beginning of the story). Thanks
How possible would it be to get a fantasy novel with a protagonist younger than 10?
I think it depends on the target audience. With younger audiences (especially 10 and younger), I assume it wouldn’t be an issue at all (although I’ve never worked with young adult fiction, so there’s a big caveat there).
With older audiences, I think it comes down to the quality of the writing and how interesting the character is. For example, Ender’s Game, Harry Potter, and Calvin & Hobbes appealed to many adults despite using child characters. On a more niche level, I think Hit Girl was probably the most interesting character in Kick-Ass. On the other hand, some works that could have been more interesting to adults have floundered on child characters. The Phantom Menace definitely comes to mind.
Personally, I’d probably be more receptive to a story about a kid if the kid is at least somewhat mature and competent.
I think this forum will be for hashing out different story ideas, perhaps not going into any specific chapter postings or anything.
I have a few story ideas rattling around:
- An adaptation of Snow White about a girl who wants to get to get out of the meth prison she’s in and make something of herself.
Despite having a drug addicted mom who wants her dead and an unemployed childhood friend who wants to keep her with him, she pushes on. She soon meets Matthew, her self-proclaimed knight in shining armor, who promises to help her out of her situation in exchange for her love. But Blanca doesn’t want to depend on anyone, crush or not.
- Thepreviously mentioned fantasy story. Character designs/sheets are still being worked out.
Wanna do something weird/interesting with it
- A story about a scatterbrain girl who’s suddenly the target of a mysterious group of villains and has to “wake up” to save herself and her friends. But maybe it’s better if she stayed “asleep” because she isn’t what she seems.
For most of my stories, I have the so much fun coming up with characters and building them up into their roles/relationships, then it gets to the plot part and bleh, I’m terrible at those.
I wish I would stop typo-ing all over the place :C
I came up with another story idea~
It’s about how a man tries to change the world for the better by providing a means to get superpowers. But he gets more than he bargained for when the world is thrown into chaos. The idea came from Albert Einstein’s regret in writing his letter to Roosevelt.
The story will center on two POVs: the scientist responsible for making the powers and an impulsive young woman who decides she will use them to carve a brighter future for her children.
“For most of my stories, I have the so much fun coming up with characters and building them up into their roles/relationships, then it gets to the plot part and bleh, I’m terrible at those.”
*high five* This is my problem too! My strength is at world- and character-building. But I find it very difficult coming up with a satisfying plot outline.
D: You can world build, that’s so cool! I can’t do that to save my life. But yes, the plots are usually what’s lacking. I’ll have like these characters and I think they’re awesome and stuff and then the plots like: o hai, I’ll just sit here and be blatant and generic.
Man, is it suck to have cool characters that you’re really fond of but unable to use? XD
That’s why I mostly do short humorous comic strip featuring two or more of my characters.
Haha, I still use them anyways. Though I do also draw them out, so it’s kinda okay.
I often do sketches of my characters too. It’s good fun, even though my art is admittedly not very good.
For You Guys That Have A Difficult Time Coming Up With Plots Have You Ever Considered Co-writing a story?
I was involved in a collaborative story once. It didn’t work out because my plots suck and theirs were all nice and stuff.
“You guys that have a difficult time coming up with plots, have you ever considered co-writing a story?” Only once, but with an experienced author. In nonfiction, the author (or someone on the writing team) really needs credentials–in my case publishing experience because I’m writing a book about how to write books.
If your goal is getting fiction published, I wouldn’t recommend a collaboration between two unpublished authors unless you’re sure that both partners bring enough to the table to justify the coordination hassles (unlikely). Also, if one author is better than the other, it’s likely that he/she will be held back by the less-competent author.
…
MoguMogu, that is the first time I’ve ever seen a collaborator identify himself/herself as the lesser partner. If the other author hasn’t been published before or since, I really doubt you were the only issue.
B.Mac You’re Right, Unless Both Writers Contribute Equally The Story Could Take A Very Long Time To Develop. On the plus side, If Each Writer Works Proficently Characters Settings And Plots Could Be Finish In Like 3 Days At The Max. Writers Could Propose Ideas And Figure Which Ones Are The Best For The Overall Story.
Also Mogu, I Don’t Think Your Plots Sucked. Most Likely They Simply Needed About Of Tweaking. How was your partner? I mean personality and critique whys?
Unless they’re at a similar level of competence (and develop at the same rate), I don’t think they could contribute equally. That might be okay, if they’ve been brought on for something besides their writing contributions*, but if the two authors are contributing basically the same thing, there’s a pretty good chance one author develops more quickly and/or takes the project more seriously and/or is better to start with and/or has any sort of creative differences and/or wants to take the project in a different commercial direction and/or imagines any of the above and/or feels cramped by his co-author’s stylistic tastes. A collaboration between two unpublished authors strikes me as an arrangement with a hell of a lot of risk/potential hassle and very little potential benefit.
*In my case, I would have done more than 90% of the writing, but the other author would have taken (and deserved) 50% of the pay because of the credentials he brought to the project. It’s a much fairer split than I would have gotten as the junior partner on a research paper.
Ahh ok, So dividing the work load to suit each writer.Generally I’m not a professional at co-writing. In fact the last time I worked together with someone was in the 5th grade. But I think I could help if Mogu ever wants to give it a try.
Also why are we posting in grenac’s review forum?
Because the conversation took a turn from my original post. I don’t mind though, it’s all good info.
The collab was a fanfiction series. It’s still ongoing. The girls are all nice and competent. There weren’t any problems with the story, I just couldn’t contribute anything because a) my writing skills weren’t as smooth and b) I literally hit a block whenever I tried to. My plots and stuff did suck, I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t generic and blah. The girls were encouraging, but I knew I wasn’t able to contribute.
I wouldn’t mind doing another collab, but it’d have to be with people I know. See with the girls, we formed a comfortable friendship and it was really nice. And it’d have to be just for fun.