UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
No one knows who the killer is, not even you!
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
I've reached the point in planning where ideas are no longer coming easily and I'm getting bored of trying to figure things out. How do I make it interesting again?
I feel it is thematically appropriate that I know nothing more
Theo the Cat was contacted through the usual sources. The message was simple:
"Write a mystery."
He gritted his teeth as he read it. He knew what that meant. They wanted somebody dead, and it was his job to make sure nobody ever found out what really happened to the guy. The Jimmy Hoffa special.
Theo had only successfully pulled this off twice before, and is still in hot water with the boss from the time it didn't go so well. Now he has an even shorter timetable than before. It's got to happen by Sunday night.
That gives him four days to scope out the target, learn his life, and plan out how to best make him disappear for good.
This "mystery" is going to require finesse, but it's got to be done quick. Pressure's a terrible thing in this line of work. Now it's time to get the writers together and find themselves some pens.
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
"When what was supposed to be an easy job goes wrong and their contact is discovered dead, Alexis Romanov and the crew of the Penumbra find themselves drawn into a web of intrigue where the difference between enemies and allies balances on a knife edge. But can Captain Romanov navigate the delicate balance of Earth nations, the separatists, and colonial corporations for long enough to uncover the secret that people are killing to protect before all humanity become engulfed in war?"
I've reached the point in planning where ideas are no longer coming easily and I'm getting bored of trying to figure things out. How do I make it interesting again?
Can you describe this a bit more
I have solutions but I gotta know a bit more detail
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Theodore Flooseveltproud parent of eight beautiful girls and shalmelodorne (which is currently being ruled by a woman (awesome role model for my daughters)) #dornedadRegistered Userregular
I feel it is thematically appropriate that I know nothing more
Theo the Cat was contacted through the usual sources. The message was simple:
"Write a mystery."
He gritted his teeth as he read it. He knew what that meant. They wanted somebody dead, and it was his job to make sure nobody ever found out what really happened to the guy. The Jimmy Hoffa special.
Theo had only successfully pulled this off twice before, and is still in hot water with the boss from the time it didn't go so well. Now he has an even shorter timetable than before. It's got to happen by Sunday night.
That gives him four days to scope out the target, learn his life, and plan out how to best make him disappear for good.
This "mystery" is going to require finesse, but it's got to be done quick. Pressure's a terrible thing in this line of work. Now it's time to get the writers together and find themselves some pens.
this post is now my notes
gonna dictate it and put the recording on repeat tonight while I drink bourbon and think fictionally
My current concept is a caravan story set in an expansionist empire starring a nobleman, a pack boy, and a military "specialist" whose job is incredibly esoteric and practically useless
The story's set on a flat world that is essentially pre-Columbian, but ringed on all sides by mountains
My big Brandon Sanderson hook is the magic system, which revolves around individuals who are told specific incantations by those from the "other side", who then forget what they're told as soon as they cast the spell
I cannot decide if I want something so cliche as a group that can remember what they're told afterwards
OK, using the Jim Butcher story skeleton format of
*WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS*, *YOUR PROTAGONIST* *PURSUES A GOAL*. But will he succeed when *ANTAGONIST PROVIDES OPPOSITION*?
here's what I got.
When the design for a new ship capable of traveling to distant planets is stolen, a detective with minor superpowers is on the case. But will he succeed when the theft sparks a city-wide street war between rival corporations?
...there are also robots.
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
with word counts, its always nice to remember that a short word counts the same as an excessive one, and usually does a better job of transmitting whatever message you want
unless of course you're mccarthy, in which case hit that novel with a thesaurus over and over
So in order to keep the novel from reading too floridly, a fair portion of the chapters will be from the perspective of a travelling journalist who stumbles upon the upcoming Ragnarok nonsense while touring with Hammerblow
so this is one part Walt Simonson's Thor, one part Almost Famous
I've reached the point in planning where ideas are no longer coming easily and I'm getting bored of trying to figure things out. How do I make it interesting again?
I'm not a good planner so I'd say fuck it and start writing and figure it out as you go. Although I guess you got to wait a week for Nano to start, but the base of an idea, a list of character names, and alcohol are the key components to writing.
If I don't hit 50,000 words, I won't be especially upset. This is just a great reason to get writing again, and to let some of the thoughts lurking in my head out to play. If something interesting happens, then awesome. It will be a boon just to try and be rampantly creative for fun.
"I will participate in the game. It's a wonderful, wonderful opera, except that it hurts." - Joseph Campbell
I'm working on a short story now which I plan to have done by Halloween since it's of a supernatural nature and I suppose I'll link it in here when I'm done
For NaNoWriMo proper I've got a detective novel in mind
Protagonist is a fairly low-rent private investigator who's initially hired to look into some recent corporate espionage jobs that have been going on, which he's initially reluctant to take because it's a bigger job than he usually works, but he's finally convinced by the possibility that an old flame may have been involved
As things progress he finds out that he's in way over his head and crosses paths with various spies and agents of a secret group within the US government
All this is a bit of a jumble, but my gimmick here is that the detective is really sick near the start of the story so most of the time he's running a crazy fever or doped up on meds, and the intention is to call into question whether he's actually getting involved with dangerous assassins and femme fatales or if this is all a fever dream he's having
I feel like it's a bit ambitious but since there are literally no stakes and no risk involved in writing this I'll give it a shot
Also it takes place in a quasi-cyberpunk setting, not too removed from our own time but (very) minor cybernetic implants are slowly becoming more common, and the influence of huge corporations continues to rise
checking in from the script side, my goal is to hit 90 pages by November 30th, and I'm about a quarter through my planning and structure, so I'mma have a busy week leading up to the first of November
basically it's going to be an exploration of working hard and following the correct channels to succeed in life versus underhanded ambition and manipulation for success through the lens of a group of possibly sociopathic assassins
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lonelyahavaCall me Ahava ~~She/Her~~Move to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I've reached the point in planning where ideas are no longer coming easily and I'm getting bored of trying to figure things out. How do I make it interesting again?
I'm not a good planner so I'd say fuck it and start writing and figure it out as you go. Although I guess you got to wait a week for Nano to start, but the base of an idea, a list of character names, and alcohol are the key components to writing.
It's annoying that I will be writing in the day and working in the evening. So alcohol won't get to play its part most days.
Tapeslinger's post up there just helped though. If I get stuck I'll just throw in a cliche. I've been trying to avoid them, maybe I should be embracing them.
Brovid Hasselsmof on
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
You're writing a first draft. Avoid nothing. Chuck it all in there. Make yourself a big ol' pot of slop. It may not be delicious but it will be edible and you will have a full belly instead of an empty one.
"When a young woman's sister goes missing under mysterious circumstances, she ensnares a demon to aid in her search. Can she keep him under control long enough to find her sister, and does her sister even want to be found?"
She binds the demon to her service with a rad tattoo, and her sister has been abducted by a cyber demon. It is a story for a modern age!
I'm gonna give this a go this year. Been years since I've written anything more than an 18-page short screenplay but in at the deep-end what?
This is what I'm leaning towards doing so far:
Drogheda 1649. Parliamentary forces under the command of Oliver Cromwell have breached the defenses. Civilians and soldiers alike are put to the sword as his army takes the city.
Welsh mercenary Nathaniel Morgan, disgusted by the slaughter saves a young woman from a group of his 'comrades'. Anna is a Spanish woman of seemingly high birth. Her entourage slain; she offers Nathaniel untold riches if he can escort her safely to a waiting ship in the walled town of Galway on the western side of the island.
They escape the city and set out west pursued by Hendrick a veteran of the Thirty Years War with a black reputation and currently an agent of unknown forces with designs on the girl. They also must contend with a country that hasn't quite left its pagan past behind encountering dark spirits and their earthly servants, as well as a hostile population as Cromwell's forces spread chaos in their wake.
That's basically my starting off point.
The opener reads like historical fiction but I hope to include some horror/fantasy elements. The conceit being that any of the local myths and legends of the area are basically true. So in Ireland we've got pookas and leprechauns and banshee etc. plus old fashioned Christian Witchcraft. If anyone's played Darklands you'll get what I'm going for.
Still have details to work out, like what the MacGuffin is. The Spanish lady is definitely not some sort of princess. (If she was she'd be some inbred mutant Hapsburg who could use her bonus limbs to run up walls). She knows something however and needs to get to the American colonies with it. I'm thinking she's an agent for some other power - all very vague at the moment and I don't want to get too Assassin's Creedy with the conspiracy theories. Also whether the whole thing is set in Ireland, or they make it to the boat relatively soon. If so, then there'll be some piratey adventures (No peace beyond the Line!) and voodoo too.
Anyhoo, my Nanowrimo name is Phlegmzubal so feel free to follow me if that perks your interest. I guarantee it'll be the best nine paragraphs you'll read all year!
Schadenfreude on
Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
That sounds cool, Schadenfreude! My idea was originally going to be historical fiction with some fantasy stuff thrown in, but at some point the fantasy stuff took over.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Also I was sat on my sofa earlier and had an idea about a scene or bit of dialogue and thought "ooh I should save that!" But there was no pen and paper within immediate reach and because I am monumentally lazy I didn't want to get up and walk to my desk so I thought "eh, I'll just remember it."
Text someone your ideas if you have no pen or paper nearby.
Me, text me.
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Ok. But my ideas tend to come in bits and pieces or fragments of imagery so you'll probably get a bunch of texts that say "wet dog falling crockery" or something.
I have a Notes app on my phone that I use for quick ideas.
If I'm driving or whatever, I have Siri take notes for me so I don't have to try and type it in. You can just press the button and tell Siri "Add ________ to Story Notes" or whatever.
Of course, sometimes she doesn't understand me and I end up with weird sentences in my Story Notes. "Traffic Bully finds Odin?" WTF?
That sounds cool, Schadenfreude! My idea was originally going to be historical fiction with some fantasy stuff thrown in, but at some point the fantasy stuff took over.
It's just so much work making up geography and history when there's so much of the real stuff about .
Of course if I do manage to actually finish it and don't wuss out two pages in there's gonna be an absolute nightmare of editing/2nd drafting to make sure what history I do cherry-pick is correct.
I'm working on a short story now which I plan to have done by Halloween since it's of a supernatural nature and I suppose I'll link it in here when I'm done
For NaNoWriMo proper I've got a detective novel in mind
Protagonist is a fairly low-rent private investigator who's initially hired to look into some recent corporate espionage jobs that have been going on, which he's initially reluctant to take because it's a bigger job than he usually works, but he's finally convinced by the possibility that an old flame may have been involved
As things progress he finds out that he's in way over his head and crosses paths with various spies and agents of a secret group within the US government
All this is a bit of a jumble, but my gimmick here is that the detective is really sick near the start of the story so most of the time he's running a crazy fever or doped up on meds, and the intention is to call into question whether he's actually getting involved with dangerous assassins and femme fatales or if this is all a fever dream he's having
I feel like it's a bit ambitious but since there are literally no stakes and no risk involved in writing this I'll give it a shot
Also it takes place in a quasi-cyberpunk setting, not too removed from our own time but (very) minor cybernetic implants are slowly becoming more common, and the influence of huge corporations continues to rise
This sounds like a cyberpunk version of one of my favorite novels of all time
Sorry, Hullis
GREY GHOST IS MY MASTER NOW
Ok. But my ideas tend to come in bits and pieces or fragments of imagery so you'll probably get a bunch of texts that say "wet dog falling crockery" or something.
I am totally fine with that, I will save them and possibly amuse myself by trying to put them together into a single coherent idea, whether they were intended to be that way or not. 8->
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
Posts
Theo the Cat was contacted through the usual sources. The message was simple:
"Write a mystery."
He gritted his teeth as he read it. He knew what that meant. They wanted somebody dead, and it was his job to make sure nobody ever found out what really happened to the guy. The Jimmy Hoffa special.
Theo had only successfully pulled this off twice before, and is still in hot water with the boss from the time it didn't go so well. Now he has an even shorter timetable than before. It's got to happen by Sunday night.
That gives him four days to scope out the target, learn his life, and plan out how to best make him disappear for good.
This "mystery" is going to require finesse, but it's got to be done quick. Pressure's a terrible thing in this line of work. Now it's time to get the writers together and find themselves some pens.
I'm really going to need to lift my game if I'm to complete this.
All right, all right
I'll start it tomorrow, fuck NaNoWriMo anyway
Can you describe this a bit more
I have solutions but I gotta know a bit more detail
this post is now my notes
gonna dictate it and put the recording on repeat tonight while I drink bourbon and think fictionally
My current concept is a caravan story set in an expansionist empire starring a nobleman, a pack boy, and a military "specialist" whose job is incredibly esoteric and practically useless
The story's set on a flat world that is essentially pre-Columbian, but ringed on all sides by mountains
My big Brandon Sanderson hook is the magic system, which revolves around individuals who are told specific incantations by those from the "other side", who then forget what they're told as soon as they cast the spell
I cannot decide if I want something so cliche as a group that can remember what they're told afterwards
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
gimme all the cliches
my concept title is "Wistborn: One of the Last Few Empires, There Weren't Many"
here's what I got.
When the design for a new ship capable of traveling to distant planets is stolen, a detective with minor superpowers is on the case. But will he succeed when the theft sparks a city-wide street war between rival corporations?
...there are also robots.
Oh God I'm gonna fail miserably
unless of course you're mccarthy, in which case hit that novel with a thesaurus over and over
so this is one part Walt Simonson's Thor, one part Almost Famous
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
I'm not a good planner so I'd say fuck it and start writing and figure it out as you go. Although I guess you got to wait a week for Nano to start, but the base of an idea, a list of character names, and alcohol are the key components to writing.
{Twitter, Everybody's doing it. }{Writing and Story Blog}
Please shoot me a PM if you add me so I know to add you back.
For NaNoWriMo proper I've got a detective novel in mind
Protagonist is a fairly low-rent private investigator who's initially hired to look into some recent corporate espionage jobs that have been going on, which he's initially reluctant to take because it's a bigger job than he usually works, but he's finally convinced by the possibility that an old flame may have been involved
As things progress he finds out that he's in way over his head and crosses paths with various spies and agents of a secret group within the US government
All this is a bit of a jumble, but my gimmick here is that the detective is really sick near the start of the story so most of the time he's running a crazy fever or doped up on meds, and the intention is to call into question whether he's actually getting involved with dangerous assassins and femme fatales or if this is all a fever dream he's having
I feel like it's a bit ambitious but since there are literally no stakes and no risk involved in writing this I'll give it a shot
Also it takes place in a quasi-cyberpunk setting, not too removed from our own time but (very) minor cybernetic implants are slowly becoming more common, and the influence of huge corporations continues to rise
basically it's going to be an exploration of working hard and following the correct channels to succeed in life versus underhanded ambition and manipulation for success through the lens of a group of possibly sociopathic assassins
I'm gonna try.
to do 50k words
by the 19th.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
It's annoying that I will be writing in the day and working in the evening. So alcohol won't get to play its part most days.
Tapeslinger's post up there just helped though. If I get stuck I'll just throw in a cliche. I've been trying to avoid them, maybe I should be embracing them.
She binds the demon to her service with a rad tattoo, and her sister has been abducted by a cyber demon. It is a story for a modern age!
This is what I'm leaning towards doing so far:
That's basically my starting off point.
The opener reads like historical fiction but I hope to include some horror/fantasy elements. The conceit being that any of the local myths and legends of the area are basically true. So in Ireland we've got pookas and leprechauns and banshee etc. plus old fashioned Christian Witchcraft. If anyone's played Darklands you'll get what I'm going for.
Still have details to work out, like what the MacGuffin is. The Spanish lady is definitely not some sort of princess. (If she was she'd be some inbred mutant Hapsburg who could use her bonus limbs to run up walls). She knows something however and needs to get to the American colonies with it. I'm thinking she's an agent for some other power - all very vague at the moment and I don't want to get too Assassin's Creedy with the conspiracy theories. Also whether the whole thing is set in Ireland, or they make it to the boat relatively soon. If so, then there'll be some piratey adventures (No peace beyond the Line!) and voodoo too.
Anyhoo, my Nanowrimo name is Phlegmzubal so feel free to follow me if that perks your interest. I guarantee it'll be the best nine paragraphs you'll read all year!
I totally don't remember it.
If I'm driving or whatever, I have Siri take notes for me so I don't have to try and type it in. You can just press the button and tell Siri "Add ________ to Story Notes" or whatever.
Of course, sometimes she doesn't understand me and I end up with weird sentences in my Story Notes. "Traffic Bully finds Odin?" WTF?
It's just so much work making up geography and history when there's so much of the real stuff about
Of course if I do manage to actually finish it and don't wuss out two pages in there's gonna be an absolute nightmare of editing/2nd drafting to make sure what history I do cherry-pick is correct.
This sounds like a cyberpunk version of one of my favorite novels of all time
Sorry, Hullis
GREY GHOST IS MY MASTER NOW
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
What novel is that?
5,000 words? More like 200.
Dreaming of Babylon, Richard Brautigan
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
I am totally fine with that, I will save them and possibly amuse myself by trying to put them together into a single coherent idea, whether they were intended to be that way or not. 8->