The Writing (and Artistic) Ranting Thread

[Shadow]

"The 'they let out a breath they didn't know they were holding' line is the worst trope ever. It's so unrealistic." Wow, so you've never been so surprised/horrified/shocked/frightened/etc. that you've inadvertently held your breath? Wow, your life must be boring af. I wonder what it's like to have the emotional response of a soggy pillow. It must be so exciting. /sarcasm

The reason why that, and a lot of other one-line tropes, is so common is because people do it. That's it. You're just not aware you're doing it most of the time. :/

 

[EA9Sol]

*Goes checks alerts to see someone has added one of my stories to their reading list aaaaaand I haven't updated it for ages* ._. I'm so terrible at that. I should try to update it, but I have been getting brain farts on how I want to progress the story. I'll just have to re-write it all and take a different approach. I just feel so bad..... :'(

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

I'm getting the weirdest sense of deja vu as I look over the last scene I've written--like I've seen it before, only not with my eyes, but (gods, this is going to sound stupid) in a dream. Maybe I dreamed about how the situation would play out, and forgot about it, and my waking mind plucked it from my subconscious as I wrote? There's just something about Reeves' line, there... ._.

Likewise, I'm torn about the way he acts in that scene. Would he really plead? I have a hard time imagining anyone facing that fate wouldn't, but at the same time, is it out of character for him? Or have I found Reeves' breaking point?

Gdi, FIRST DRAFT! Stop nitpicking about it; whatever's wrong with it, you can fix it later. Stop torturing yourself. :facepalm:

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

Thinking of changing the side antagonist's name. I mean, technically I could keep it, on the premise that not every villain has to have a name that sounds villainous; but on the other hand, I'm not sure if his name feels natural with his character. And as he shares a name with one of my friend's sons--and in the completely unlikely chance she ever reads my books--I don't want to have to explain how I named the character a good year before I'd even met her. But then again, as I did name him before we knew each other, it's not like I have to explain myself in the first place, right?

I mean, I know a lot of people assume all writers name or create characters based off people they know, but we don't; I sure as hell haven't.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

Sorry for the triple post. ._. But this is better off here than anywhere else.

I wasn't prepared for that today. I wasn't even looking for it, and if I'd been more awake, I wouldn't have let myself get that far. Some good has come of it, though, but I won't be using that good until the sixth drafts. Because frankly, after I'm done draft five of TMT, I need to have some distance from it. I'm cranky and impatient with my progress, and I won't do myself any favours trying to improve things without first having a clear-cut idea of how.

 

[V's patron]

The producer liked my concept/pitch but thought my script was very loose/too many ideas/too broad to work at this stage.

guess it's back to the drawing board (typewriter?/scratchpad?).

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

Seriously considering taking a legit break from all my writing. It doesn't have to be half a year or anything, but maybe a month...if I can manage it. ._. Fact is, I've been resisting burn-out for a while now. It hasn't been constant, but it has been frequent enough that it feels like my focus is entirely on the technical bits, and none of the creative aspects. I miss feeling strongly about the world; I miss near-constant conversations with my characters in my head--I miss being annoyed by the holidays pulling me away from my work. Things have become so forced, steeped more in impulse than desire, and while impulse has always been a part of it, the relationship between it and desire used to be a lot more symbiotic.

It was a Tumblr post that got me thinking about this, initially; mainly because what the blogger described of their own experience paralleled my own. I need to stop thinking of myself in terms of those casual writers who maybe write once every three months, and start thinking about how, for nearly five years, I've barely taken a few days off here and there. People in other jobs have taken a crap-ton more vacation time in half that time--so why do I constantly feel like I'm making excuses for something I obviously need?

There's a lot more to this, really, but that'd get pretty lengthy. The long and the short of it is, I need to take a break, consume other things I enjoy (shows, books, games, whatever) without that "you should be writing" guilt. It might feel like a creative death sentence (dramatic, I know--I don't like not working) but I think it'll honestly benefit me and my work in the long run.

Now let's see if I have the wherewithal to pull this off...

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

Thinking I need to put Shattered Time on the back burner. Truth be told, after 3 years, I still only have a vague notion of how the story is supposed to go down, and I'm not in the right head space or place in my life to work through the details. Moreover, I feel like I've just been pressuring myself to work on it because it ties in with some of the events in FotS and TMT, and I feel like I have to do it. When I work on it, I want it to be because I want to, not because I feel obligated to, when my mind is directing me toward other projects.

That said, with the holidays so close, I'm not sure I want to tackle the next round of edits (which might be developmental in nature, and therefore, large scale) for FotS just yet, either.

This year has been irritating on quite a few levels, but the creative blockage has definitely exacerbated the situation, given it was always my go-to when I needed a break from real life stresses. >.>

 

[V's patron]

I've been suffering from writer's block for a few months now so i bought a year pass to MasterClass on a whim. They have classes by Aaron sorkin, Dan Brown, Judy Bloom, Margaret atwood, Shonda rhimes, etc.

So far ive started the classes for Aaron Sorkin and Dan brown. They are pretty fun.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

I've been spending a fair bit of my spare time trying to connect with the writing community on Twitter (which has led to a lot of getting followed/obligatory follow-backs), and I've realized something; I'm doing the same thing I did on Wattpad. Yeah, it's nice to connect with other writers, and yeah, I'm finding some with interesting premises--but I'm also finding a crap ton that...well, release some pretty subpar stuff.

Especially on the technical scale. You can have some of the coolest concepts in the world, but if they aren't executed well, then it makes for a pretty disillusioned read. You don't have to be the best at spelling or grammar--do what you can, and your editor is supposed to help you with the rest, right? Only, a lot of their editors are clearly failing them in this regard. And to be fair, some of the writers are failing themselves too, when they don't make the effort to redraft their work, secure beta readers, hire an editor, etc.

I really wanted to network, but I'm given to wonder how many of these people I'll still follow in a year's time--or at the very least, how many I'll mute, just so I can find the ones I genuinely like in my feed. Not that I don't expect some of them will do the same to me, 'cause I do...

 

[V's patron]

I wrote about 6 pages of a fanfic called "unexpected guest". It's a newt/leta story. I feel like I'm doing the Aaron Sorkin thing of just writing dialogue but nothing really happens.

I'm a pantser not a plotter (atleast when it comes to fanfics).

It's my first fanfic in a long time but I guess my crush on Zoe Kravitz is too strong.

Whatever gets you out of the funk I guess.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

With this draft nearly done, I really need to start putting together a plan for gathering beta-readers, get a little questionnaire written up for afterwards. I should also figure out how many chapters/pages I'll be giving out at a time, or if I'll send the whole MS, and allow people to choose how long they stick around.

...Then there's also the, "they kind of need to have read the first book in order to read this one" thing. ._. Maybe I should provide free e-copies of WoN to anyone interested in beta-reading FotS?

 

[V's patron]

Unexpected guest is up to 10 pages now and I still have no idea how to end it.

 

[Shadow]

What part of "this prompt doesn't work for any of my characters, please pick another" do you not f***ing understand?! -frustrated sobbing- :banghead:

 

[V's patron]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13167260/1/Unexpected-Guest

I finished the indulgent mess of a fanfic.

 

[Rebel Dynasty]

I'm equal parts excited and scared about the upcoming rewrites to The Mythos Trials. Why, why did I ever incorporate that stupid, cliché af sub-plot? Now I have a ton of messy surgeries to perform. D: Buh-bye, ridiculous, "Gwen is jealous of a nymph being overly familiar with Phenex". Buh-bye, "it looks like a love-triangle, but it never actually becomes one, so why is it even there, anyway?" The crush can stay (since it actually adds something to the ending), but how I'm going to keep it, remove the rest, and add in the new, plot-relevant stuff, I have no effing clue.

I want. To punch. 2016 me for doing this. I also want to punch every version of myself that followed that didn't fix this prior to this bloody draft.

Never. Again.

Never again am I going to be like, "Oh, it's fine, the first draft is allowed to be complete and utter ****; who cares if you add in *insert junk*?". The next time I'm iffy about using certain content, I'm not bloody well using it. :banghead:

 

[lorddemolatron]

Well i got and finally maked an new AU verse for one game to write as fanfic and cannot wait to share this before as im sure it was not even on mind for fanfiction for now

 

[V's patron]

I thought of a V spinoff where he hangs out with the cast of the DMC musical. It would be like Being Human(UK) meets Marvel's Defenders and maybe I should just put this in my back pocket...

Someone finally commented on Unexpected Guest asking for another chapter or another Newt/Leta fic. So I started writing another chapter and it's going.

I'm gonna have to rewrite crimes of Grindelwald in the process.

I did think of a modern-day AU where Newt moves in with Sirius during Order of the phoniex. He gets recruited by the Order and tries to gain intel on the ministry. But leta starts getting suspicious of his double life as he tends to spend their nights at her place rather than his...

 

[lorddemolatron]

So well im doing now this one of mine ideas for RE fanfic with pairing Cannon/OC with twist as its again viliain one but what would be if before he was ofc brainwashed to have loyalty for OC more, could be fun do this

 

[V's patron]

There is a website called "I write like" that could analyze your writing style and match it with a famous author's.

For my Newt/Leta fanfic Unexpected Guest, I write like Agatha Christie. For my tv pilot, I write like Anne Rice. For my DmC/DMC fic, it gets tricky because each chapter I changed styles. For the Dante one, I write like Cory Doctorow and for the Vergil one I write like HP Lovecraft.

I started taking the Neil Gaiman masterclass and doing the assignments can be rewarding.