2124 réponses à ce sujet

[ColorMeSuprised]

Nenalata wrote...

Maria13 wrote...

Since they've whittled it down to 20 I would suggest the top 20 should be named... After all that is one in five...

Yeah, someone asked him if the list could be posted. Basically, it's up to Jessica and Chris. /hopes/

I feel like I tried out for a role in a school play and wait for the list to hang on the bill-board.

[The Sarendoctrinator]

motomotogirl wrote...

DG just tweeted that he and the other writers have narrowed the entries down to 20

Thanks for telling us! Wow, 20 entries? And in the beginning, I thought he would only have to read five... It's great that they're working on this during their weekend too.

ColorMeSurprised wrote...

It's consider classic literatur! You absolutely have to read them! And you will understand just why I hate the overuse of flowery methapors...

No, don't read them. It's bad that I did it out of my free will. It took me three months to read the bible. Another three to read the coran. I needed about as much for these two books, which, together, are not even half of the first two...

Yeah, I'll just stay with classics like Shakespeare, Greek tragedies, and Dante. I really enjoyed Dante's long descriptions in Inferno, probably because of the fantastic location. When the story is describing something we've all seen on Earth (grass, sunsets, etc), I think brief is best because it's easy for us to picture in just a few words.

[CuriousArtemis]

The Sarendoctrinator wrote...

Thanks for telling us! Wow, 20 entries? And in the beginning, I thought he would only have to read five... It's great that they're working on this during their weekend too.

Great for the contestants, not so great for the judges lol But I also have to work on the weekends, and my work also involves reading stuff I don't always particularly want to read ... (freshman English teacher) 

[Scrimgeour10]

 David Gaider @davidgaider

Tempted to put up a list of "never do's" for this type of short fiction. Would that be angst-inducting, or helpful?

Thoughts? 

Modifié par Scrimgeour10, 29 janvier 2012 - 12:16 .

[The Sarendoctrinator]

motomotogirl wrote...

Great for the contestants, not so great for the judges lol But I also have to work on the weekends, and my work also involves reading stuff I don't always particularly want to read ... (freshman English teacher) 

Yeah, that's what I meant - great for us, and great because it shows a lot of care to read more entries than they were required to. I really hope they're enjoying the stories.

[BlazePT]

Yeap, don't read them all or make them 1000 words long

[tklivory]

Scrimgeour10 wrote...

 David Gaider @davidgaider

Tempted to put up a list of "never do's" for this type of short fiction. Would that be angst-inducting, or helpful?

Thoughts? 

I wish he would.  No better concrit available at this juncture, I would think. 

[Nenalata]

Scrimgeour10 wrote...

 David Gaider @davidgaider

Tempted to put up a list of "never do's" for this type of short fiction. Would that be angst-inducting, or helpful?

Thoughts? 

My masochistic streak is telling me yes. So is my desire to improve. My arrogance as a writer is whispering, "psh, yaaa," but my pride as a writer is screaming, "NOOOOOOOO."

[The Sarendoctrinator]

Scrimgeour10 wrote...

 David Gaider @davidgaider

Tempted to put up a list of "never do's" for this type of short fiction. Would that be angst-inducting, or helpful?

Thoughts? 

HELPFUL!

Okay, now I'm a little worried. Not that I think I've done any "never do's". But I'm really curious what he means by that.

[ColorMeSuprised]

Scrimgeour10 wrote...

 David Gaider @davidgaider

Tempted to put up a list of "never do's" for this type of short fiction. Would that be angst-inducting, or helpful?

Thoughts? 

I would love to read that list! I wonder if one of my constant faux pas would be on it!

Oh, and: Helpful!

The Sarendoctrinator wrote...
Yeah, I'll just stay with classics like Shakespeare, Greek tragedies, and Dante. I really enjoyed Dante's long descriptions in Inferno, probably because of the fantastic location. When the story is describing something we've all seen on Earth (grass, sunsets, etc), I think brief is best because it's easy for us to picture in just a few words.

I only like to read Shakespeare, but to be frank, the stories are too one-track minded and lack depth. The only book I really enjoied was "Much ado about nothing". The only reason I could stand having to read Romeo and Juliet three times was because in English it's just a pleasure to read. I hated it in German and even more in French.

My only love sprung from my only hate
to earley seen unknown and known to late.
Prodigious brith of love it is to me
that I must love my loathed enemy.

I just love the flow of the words. But the story is stupid.

Oh, but who I love is Edgar Allan Poe!

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain,
thrilled me, filled me with fanatastic terrors never felt before.

Oh, I love this dead guy so much!

Modifié par ColorMeSuprised, 29 janvier 2012 - 12:33 .

[BrennaCeDria]

Snap, I take a nap to get rid of a headache and we're down to 20?! *So* curious, now!

[WhiteKnyght]

Definitely intriguing

[My Name Does Not Matter]

I would say that they should choose the top ten or twenty rather than five and be lazy.

[My Name Does Not Matter]

Scrimgeour10 wrote...

 David Gaider @davidgaider

Tempted to put up a list of "never do's" for this type of short fiction. Would that be angst-inducting, or helpful?

Thoughts? 

Soooooo helpful... I'd eat up any constructive criticsm they'd have to offer.

[CuriousArtemis]

ColorMeSuprised wrote...


And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain,
filled me, thrilled me with fanatastic terrors never felt before.

Oh, I love this dead guy so much!

But he was such a crap poet!   

*gets bricked by CMS*

[My Name Does Not Matter]

AmbraAlhambra wrote...

rickf7666 wrote...

I have two concerns about much of the other fan fiction I tend to see. I was wondering how the general community felt about these things.

The first is the tremendous amount of flowery descriptive metaphors that bury a story for me. I'm not really a fan of the language used in poetry. Maybe I'm a bit to literal minded.

The other thing is a first person narrative. I tend to get turned off by this approach. I'm not quite sure why. I have read some good first person stories, but I've read a lot more bad ones.

Any way, I was just wondering what everyone else thought of these things.

My 2 cents on this:

The first: I like, as Corker said, word paintings as well. Imagery is something that's important for me as a reader and for my writing, and I really love lyrical or poetic descriptions. I love feeling like I'm right there, I like getting lost in a character's POV. When I can do that - those are usually the stories that really strike me. Of course this can be done without lyrical descriptions as well, but I tend to prefer it. I really, really love how George RR Martin describes things, and his writing style is my favorite.

So this is something I strive for when I write - although it really depends on the character since all of my writing is in third person limited, so how something is described, for me at least, is really dependent upon the character that I'm writing in the head of and their personality colors everything they see.

For example, when I wrote a piece with Leliana as the MC, I made the descriptions a touch melodramatic - kind of like how an old grandma would tell a tale with embellishment. I did this purposely because this seemed to me to fit Leliana's character. With my OC Aedan, he tends to think literally, so I described things how they are with just a little metaphorical descriptions - and whenever I did that, I compared it to things he would be familiar with readily.

Can this be overdone? Absolutely. Everything doesn't need to be described in that way, and there doesn't need to be 2-3 paragraphs to describe a sunset unless there's a specific reason to do so.

The second: 1st person can be great when done right. I've read a couple entries for this contest that were in first person that I really loved. I think 1st person has its uses although it can be over-used and maybe used in cases where third or some other POV would be better, but I don't get turned off by it in and of itself.

Sorry for the wall o' text. Just my thoughts.

Oh man, I love metaphores and similies. You can easily overdue 'em though. Albeit, there's so many people who also don't  Do them enough.

I wrote mine in third person perspective, I don't generally like first person perspective either. You could get too caught up in the "me, me, me!" sort of thing too easily, along with the "I did this, I did that". But third person has his downfalls too, unfortunately. Sometimes it can be hard to relate to the central character and things can get a bit too descriptive.

[ColorMeSuprised]

motomotogirl wrote...

ColorMeSuprised wrote...

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain,
filled me, thrilled me with fanatastic terrors never felt before.
Oh, I love this dead guy so much!

But he was such a crap poet!  
*gets bricked by CMS*

What? I slander Shakespeare and you shouldn't be allowed to say Poe was a crappy poet? I'm not that narrowminded.

*throws stones nevertheless*

Put I like "The Raven" very much, to be honest. I learned all stanzas and have his complete collection of short stories, poems, ballads and longer stories (since you can't really call them books...).

I guess The Pit and the Pendulum is one of the more popular stories he wrote. Or The Tell-Tale Heart. But I read everything.

(And yes, to be really, really honest, "The Raven" is one of the few poems I like).

Modifié par ColorMeSuprised, 29 janvier 2012 - 12:58 .

[Firky]

I wrote my entry in first person, but the narrator isn't the main character. I did it that way because I really have no idea how a Tranquil would think/speak. So, my narrator describes his experiences with her and the story is about her, but through his eyes.

I dunno. I like 1st person, but if it's done well. The best example I can think of is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's a holocaust story, but narrated by "Death" himself. Death has seen a lot of death, obviously, so the content becomes less difficult to hear, because he's fairly flippant about death. (But it's still a very moving piece of writing.)

[My Name Does Not Matter]

Firky wrote...

I wrote my entry in first person, but the narrator isn't the main character. I did it that way because I really have no idea how a Tranquil would think/speak. So, my narrator describes his experiences with her and the story is about her, but through his eyes.

I dunno. I like 1st person, but if it's done well. The best example I can think of is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's a holocaust story, but narrated by "Death" himself. Death has seen a lot of death, obviously, so the content becomes less difficult to hear, because he's fairly flippant about death. (But it's still a very moving piece of writing.)

kalsdfjalksfjalskf

THE BOOK THEIF IS MY FAVORITE. :DDDDD

[Firky]

It's an absolutely beautiful book.

I got to the end in love with several of the characters, including Death himself.

(PS. Although, I'm not entirely sure that Death had a gender, but I pictured "him" as male.)

Modifié par Firky, 29 janvier 2012 - 01:03 .

[tklivory]

 All this talk about perspective reminds me of a BSN blog entry I did a while back, actually.  In the blog entry, I present a particular moment in the game (Zevran waking up after being defeated by the Warden) in different tense and perspective mixes.  I did it mainly as a exercise to show how the different types work and how they can change the 'feel' of a story.

In general, I write longer stories in TP/PA (3rd person/Past Tense).  However, I like FP/PR (1st person/Present) for some short works, or even for limited scenes interjected into longer works.  I especially like providing a break from 3rd person in longer works through the use of changing the perspective or the tense both.

I also have read some *amazing* short stories in 2nd person or FUTURE tense, but those are the most difficult to pull off.  Someday I'll write up a treatment of the roof of Fort Drakon using this method, probably as an exercise, but it is a moment where the 'narrator' pretty much knows what is going to happen, and then it happens - could be interesting.  This also works quite well in stories about psychics (particularly for experimentation).  

Modifié par tklivory, 29 janvier 2012 - 01:05 .

[kyles3]

Scrimgeour10 wrote...

 David Gaider @davidgaider

Tempted to put up a list of "never do's" for this type of short fiction. Would that be angst-inducting, or helpful?

Thoughts? 

Anyone who reads the Reasoning With Vampires tumblr will to tell you it's both helpful and hilarious.

[The Sarendoctrinator]

I guess part of the reason why I like Shakespeare's work is because of the way it sounds. I know Romeo and Juliet isn't the type of story I would read otherwise, but the more tragic stories like Hamlet are. Poe has great stories and poems too. Tell-Tale Heart is definitely one of my favorites. I love to see that kind of emotion in a character.

tklivory wrote...

I also have read some *amazing* short stories in 2nd person or FUTURE tense, but those are the most difficult to pull off.  Someday I'll write up a treatment of the roof of Fort Drakon using this method, probably as an exercise, but it is a moment where the 'narrator' pretty much knows what is going to happen, and then it happens - could be interesting.  This also works quite well in stories about psychics (particularly for experimentation).  

When I tried writing in second-person, it came out like this omninous being was leading the reader in a "choose your own adventure" tale... only without the choices. xD It was fun though.

[Arkatera]

rickf7666 wrote...

The other thing is a first person narrative. I tend to get turned off by this approach. I'm not quite sure why. I have read some good first person stories, but I've read a lot more bad ones.

Any way, I was just wondering what everyone else thought of these things.

There are a lot of pros and cons to the narrative viewpoints. First person narratives are a really easy way to disguise a lot of plot elements because you're "living" the character as you read it and the character  may not necessarily know of things like treachery or betrayal. It's also a good way to start an emotional attachment since in its simplest, you are temporarily the character in the story.

On the other hand, in a third person viewpoint you can do things like foreshadow or drop hints that let the reader know "outside the box" of a character's life what is going on. It's sort of a more omniscient view of a story.

I kind of liken it to playing a cinematic video game vs. watching a movie. They both have similar formats and formulas, but the enjoyment factor will be different depending on taste.

As for the wordy descriptors, I think a healthy balance is needed between describing things and then moving plot/character interaction a long. Tolkien, although a staple of fantasy writing, spent pages describing a trees. Contrasted by "The Hunger Games" which I just read out of movie hype, which is a first person present narrative has less than my desired amount of descriptions of things. It could be said that one is high fantasy and the other teen fiction, but the contrast can still work.

I don't so much as mind a slight excess of any of these as long as there's a good story and a compulsion to read; but finding that first is what I see several others (along with myself) who write struggle with.

Just my 2 cents.
-Ark. :]

Modifié par Arkatera, 29 janvier 2012 - 01:21 .