9961 réponses à ce sujet

[Spiritwolf1]

Much more pleasure for me, to get out a chapter, cause I really enjoy writing. I never really have a picture painted when I start a chapter so to see it form is as much a mystery to me as it is my readers.

[hot_heart]

I think it's important (but not always necessary) to find it fun. I guess it comes to down to personal writing style and whatever state of mind works for 'the piece'.

That said, writing about Miranda in ME3 is pretty depressing.

[fluffywalrus]

AustereLemur799 wrote...

You guys were talking about writing being fun a couple of pages back. How true is that really?

What's the consensus here? Is it bad when writing isn't enjoyable? At the moment it feels like more of a chore. Do people grind out chapters to meet deadlines? Is it more business or pleasure?

There are parts that i know I have to write, but don't really want to, for various reasons.

For instance, in my fic "Feathers" the Eden Prime mission. I've played it so many times I kind of hate it. Writing about it...investing that time and energy....felt like heresy.

***SPOILERS IN CASE ANYONE JUST SO HAPPENS TO WANT TO READ MY FIC LATER ON***
On the flip side, in "Flotsam" (my origin fic...), I dreaded writing the entirety of Chapter 11. It took about a week to get myself worked up enough to write it, and it literally hurt to write. It had been a long time since I have cried for such an amount of time. Easily the worst day I had this past summer.
***/SPOILERS***

But aside from those kind of things, it's pretty much fun for me. Sometimes I agonize over how to change a specific part of the story, or how to align certain events with each other, how to progress characters, and that's a lot more business than pleasure. but writing it...writing it's fun. For me, at least.

[AustereLemur799]

My state of mind is...I don't know, exactly. I've started this project, and I'm determined to see it through simply because I'm notorious at not committng to anything and I need to prove something to myself. That said, most of the time I have sleepless nights about it all. I'm constantly thinking and worrying.

I think it's great that people enjoy their writing - I've seen stories where the author's flair for enjoyment has shined through. I just wish I could get that...

I can't say that I've experienced Miranda as an LI in ME3. I think Jacob is the worst of everything - his comment about the Normandy being Shepard's true LI is just slap-worthy. I guess I can't complain having Liara, so I'll just shut-up.

[Spiritwolf1]

AustereLemur799 wrote...

My state of mind is...I don't know, exactly. I've started this project, and I'm determined to see it through simply because I'm notorious at not committng to anything and I need to prove something to myself. That said, most of the time I have sleepless nights about it all. I'm constantly thinking and worrying.

I think it's great that people enjoy their writing - I've seen stories where the author's flair for enjoyment has shined through. I just wish I could get that...

I can't say that I've experienced Miranda as an LI in ME3. I think Jacob is the worst of everything - his comment about the Normandy being Shepard's true LI is just slap-worthy. I guess I can't complain having Liara, so I'll just shut-up.

No one can complain having Liara, although I know there are people that hate her.I find that I can never just sit and write though, I sit, write a bit  and then my focus goes elsewhere, like for instance in this chapter Im yelling at my husband to kill some guy in battlefeild 2. Very distracting game when IM trying to write. When no one is home Ill write  bit, do some chores, write a bit the Gryph comes along and lures me into MP then I write a bit play the violin. Now in saying that tehre are the rare parts that I do plow through but most of the time I do what I call A.D.D.  writing

[AustereLemur799]

My beta asked me an interesting question. He asked whether scenes with my 'favourites', e.g. Liara, are easier to write because they're, well, my favourite character. In actual practice I think they're just as hard to write because they mean a lot to me and I, personally, feel the need to get them absolutely right, or else I'll feel ashamed.

What do others feel about this? Is there any reprieve with 'easier' scenes? - What qualifies as easier to write?

[fluffywalrus]

AustereLemur799 wrote...

My beta asked me an interesting question. He asked whether scenes with my 'favourites', e.g. Liara, are easier to write because they're, well, my favourite character. In actual practice I think they're just as hard to write because they mean a lot to me and I, personally, feel the need to get them absolutely right, or else I'll feel ashamed.

What do others feel about this? Is there any reprieve with 'easier' scenes? - What qualifies as easier to write?

I'm not sure what counts as "easy to write". For me, I love writing Shep and Liara scenes, because I love their characters. I trust myself that I know their characters enough to not make a mistake, and accept whatever critiques that may come my way over it, because the way i experienced Liara isn't the same as how other people did. Same with other members of the cast, so I actually don't really care about if I'm being accurate to what other people feel the character is...what I write is how the characters are in my mind, and that's real enough for me.
I've had people PM me saying that my Shep shouldn't act in such a way, or that my Liara wouldn't think in such a way. Meh. As few as they've been, I don't really mind, because they don't get that as soon as Mass Effect was released, everyone took personal agency over the characters ad the events within, destroying any singular canon truth or interpretation.

So I write those scenes a lot because they're fun, but...are they easier? Not really, for me. I just enjoy them more. I do thin there are harder scenes to write, but I don't feel there are easier ones by default.

[AustereLemur799]

fluffywalrus wrote...
the way i experienced Liara isn't the same as how other people did. Same with other members of the cast, so I actually don't really care about if I'm being accurate to what other people feel the character is...what I write is how the characters are in my mind, and that's real enough for me.
I've had people PM me saying that my Shep shouldn't act in such a way, or that my Liara wouldn't think in such a way. Meh. As few as they've been, I don't really mind, because they don't get that as soon as Mass Effect was released, everyone took personal agency over the characters ad the events within, destroying any singular canon truth or interpretation.

So much this. I fully understand that Mass Effect is different for everyone. I wouldn't ever tell anyone that a certain character should behave this or that way and you're getting it wrong. I think that it's interesting to see everyone's different interpretations. Canon is boring, after all.

But good on you for having the confidence to go through with your vision. Sometimes I think that is my biggest flaw - I'm too afraid of pissing other people off even though the story I'm writing is/should be my own.

Which begs the question, do you write your own story or a story to please the masses?

Sorry, I know I'm asking a lot of deep questions tonight.  

[fluffywalrus]

AustereLemur799 wrote...

fluffywalrus wrote...
the way i experienced Liara isn't the same as how other people did. Same with other members of the cast, so I actually don't really care about if I'm being accurate to what other people feel the character is...what I write is how the characters are in my mind, and that's real enough for me.
I've had people PM me saying that my Shep shouldn't act in such a way, or that my Liara wouldn't think in such a way. Meh. As few as they've been, I don't really mind, because they don't get that as soon as Mass Effect was released, everyone took personal agency over the characters ad the events within, destroying any singular canon truth or interpretation.

So much this. I fully understand that Mass Effect is different for everyone. I wouldn't ever tell anyone that a certain character should behave this or that way and you're getting it wrong. I think that it's interesting to see everyone's different interpretations. Canon is boring, after all.

But good on you for having the confidence to go through with your vision. Sometimes I think that is my biggest flaw - I'm too afraid of pissing other people off even though the story I'm writing is/should be my own.

Which begs the question, do you write your own story or a story to please the masses?

Sorry, I know I'm asking a lot of deep questions tonight.  

Well, I kind of had the benefit that I wrote for myself long before anyone else.
When i first bought ME1, I spent 5-6 hours at the character creation screen, deciding on physical traits, a personal backstory extrapolated from the templates I was given, and went into a little Au detail with it in terms of who she is and how she got to where is is in the game.

As I played, I would often stop after each mission and write two journal entries. One from my Shep, and one from a crew member. Sometimes I'd write more, depending on the mission (on Feros/Noveria/Therum/Virmire, I'd write all possible characters). The entires wouldn't necessarily be long, or read like journal entries (in Wrex's case, i'd often do small talk between him and other crew, as he's not the type to mull things over often). Sometimes it would be a collection of thoughts, or a conversation, or whatever. It was just a writing exercise I was used to at that point (I was DMing a pen and paper game at the time, and would write similar things for all involved NPCs so I could figure out what to add to the next session, due to the actions of the characters).

By the end of the game, I basically had a book of character development and thoughts and while I've tossed a lot of that out for my current fic, due to the story evolving, I have this feeling that my story has existed and has been mine for years. These characters have been known entities for years, especially my OCs. So...all these additions i made to the canon while playing the game kind of solidified my belief in my story and my ownership of it, so it's existed long before I ever considered typing it up to release to the public

I mean, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of changes i've made, and i'm running on a loose guideline of my first playthrough, but it's still the same story, the same characters, just small twists because i have more power now than I had while playing the game. it's my story, I've written it for myself, but due to some prodding from PMC65, I got around to releasing it...which gained me some amazingly awesome loyal readers, who I enjoy trying to entertain.

So it's a win win. In the end, I could stop writing and be satisfied with just knowing it in my mind, but the process of writing leads to new ideas, and shifts in what I had planned, so it's exciting for me. I won't deny the joy that comes from knowing a bunch of people are getting entertained by my take on the canon, and I really enjoy the community I've found myself falling into, but I more or less put myself first in this. I've always enjoyed writing about things, and while most of my projects never got finished, it was fun while it lasted. I won't pretend that i'm going to go all the way through to the end of ME3, because that would take forever and i'm not a wizard, but if the story stops being fun, i'll end it.  i'll be sad, but I'll stop, and just hope that my love for it will return.

BTW I followed your story on fanfiction.net, so when I'm done this semester, I'll get around to reading it Honestly can't wait, as it's already nearing 100k words, and I love long stories. They give me an excuse to stay in bed and read for a whole day
So yes, I shall look forward to yours I'm ALWAYS up for some Shep/Liara. I find it fascinating to see how each person sees them both, and how each develops the two, and it's kind of really why I read fanfics in the first place. other interpretations

Modifié par fluffywalrus, 28 novembre 2012 - 03:46 .

[Lilivati]

Kaidan v. Ash is a weird dichotomy for me. Kaidan is one of my favorite characters in the series whether or not Shep is romancing him (I know I'm very lonely in that opinion) and Ash is one of my least. Not going to go into why; had that argument way too many times on the internet and I'm tired of it. XD I'm actually playing through my only "Ashley lives" file again in ME3 and I edited it to switch to Kaidan, because I figured I saw the storyline once with Ash and that was enough. (I'm also weird in that I replay ME3 more than either of the previous games.)

I do however believe it's a good example of how everyone experiences the game differently. Horizon is a big moment- and I think it is a credit to the original writers that love or hate it few people fail to have a strong opinion on it- and with the first Shep I put through it, for her it was not a moment of "why is he abandoning me" but more a revelation, along the lines of "what the hell am I doing if this person who knows me best of all can't believe the real me would stoop to working with these people?" She was starting to let down her guard around Cerberus; she never did so again. It's a really complex event emotionally, a turning point in that story line, in my own headcanon for that Shepard.

The absolute most enjoyable part of an RPG for me and I suspect many other players is the headcanon, the parts you create to fill in the gaps and make the story your own. It's why I have a hard time enjoying non-RPGs to be honest. Everyone does see each character in their own way and that presents its own difficulties when writing. I find it really hard to do any justice to Garrus for example due to how uninteresting I find him- but I worry more about getting the characters I care about right, or at least true to my perception of them, so that makes it a different kind of challenging. I've also found writing them changes my perception. I understand and appreciate Ash a lot more having written this far into Beginnings, and that's going to make it somewhat easier to write about her eventual death in a genuine way. I think the biggest thing though is to try to respect all the characters, regardless of personal feeling.

As far as writing being fun, well, creating stories is fun. Sometimes that means the writing is fun. Other times you're just writing the parts you need to cover to get to the next part that WILL be fun to write. As I get deeper into my fic I worry less about the readers feeling I'm not being "true enough" to the characters or the story; I'm telling it as I experienced it. There's really nothing else I CAN do.

[saintjimmy43]

I dropped my first fanfic this morning:
http://social.biowar.../index/15067940
Please, let me know what you think!

[mothbanquet]

Lilivati wrote...

Kaidan v. Ash is a weird dichotomy for me. Kaidan is one of my favorite characters in the series whether or not Shep is romancing him (I know I'm very lonely in that opinion) and Ash is one of my least. Not going to go into why; had that argument way too many times on the internet and I'm tired of it. XD I'm actually playing through my only "Ashley lives" file again in ME3 and I edited it to switch to Kaidan, because I figured I saw the storyline once with Ash and that was enough. (I'm also weird in that I replay ME3 more than either of the previous games.)

I'm in the same boat.  My default Shep has Kaiden live, though the choice was one of sheer practicality and losin Ash hurt him deeply, as they got on really well together.  I actually found Kaiden to be well-constructed in ME3, and the trust issue was a nice angle for him, though I can't speak for the romance side of things.  Still, it was nice to have that conflict with Shepard right from the beginning, and the way it steeadily thawed over the course of the game was superb.

[hot_heart]

Just a bump, and to say "Hooray, I got my 60th review"; a number I never expected to reach. I should get back to writing at some point...

[mothbanquet]

hot_heart wrote...

Just a bump, and to say "Hooray, I got my 60th review"; a number I never expected to reach. I should get back to writing at some point...

Congratulations!

[Drussius]

Long post incoming, since I haven't been able to get online since Monday, and there's been a lot of interesting questions asked! I'll snip where possible to shorten as much as I can. But first, I have to say two things:

First: Congrats on the 60th review, hot_heart!

Second: I left my story at a huge cliffhanger moment and promised that the next Chapter would be up on Friday morning. And then my cable modem died. I was extremely upset by the idea I might have to break my promise. But thankfully here I am, fresh back from the store, and my new modem works perfectly. So it looks like I get to stay on schedule after all. I'm glad for that. And now... my thoughts.

AustereLemur799 wrote...

You guys were talking about writing being fun a couple of pages back. How true is that really?

What's the consensus here? Is it bad when writing isn't enjoyable? At the moment it feels like more of a chore. Do people grind out chapters to meet deadlines? Is it more business or pleasure?

I won't say it's bad if you feel like it's a chore, but I find it's harder to write if you start feeling that way. As far as I go, however, writing is immensely fun for me. Ever since I was a kid, it was a way to express my imagination and have something to look at later on when I wanted to revisit something. Most things I've written in my life were kept solely for me, or shared with my father and my ex and perhaps one friend... but no one else. But I write because I love doing it.

I don't have to grind through sections because generally speaking I have the opposite problem. I could write a hundred boring conversations in a row that do nothing to advance the plot and have a blast doing it. I have to make a conscious effort to keep myself on track. I may have a scene that doesn't seem to contribute anything here or there, but I promise... they all have at least one piece of information that ties into the story somewhere... otherwise they'd be in my "cutscenes" file... which I believe for Event Horizon currently stands at about 98,000 words. Stuff I wrote but felt didn't contribute to the story.

AustereLemur799 wrote...

My beta asked me an interesting question. He asked whether scenes with my 'favourites', e.g. Liara, are easier to write because they're, well, my favourite character. In actual practice I think they're just as hard to write because they mean a lot to me and I, personally, feel the need to get them absolutely right, or else I'll feel ashamed.

What do others feel about this? Is there any reprieve with 'easier' scenes? - What qualifies as easier to write?

Well, my story is mostly OCs, so I don't  have the worry about getting them "right" except to stay true to their characters. Which is the most difficult part in my experience. One of my characters, for example, was very tricky to keep in just the right tone, so as to give clues to his recently-revealed secret, without making it overly obvious. I think 98% of my readers missed most of the clues, so I might have been a little too subtle, but still. I think I managed to keep his character consistent, even post-reveal.

As for what's easier to write? My personal experience on that front is that the easiest stuff to write revolves around characters I'm particularly attached to or ideas that have been in my head for ages. Certain characters in my story flow onto the page with amazing ease. And certain ideas that I've been kicking around for a while (Minor Spoilers: such as the entirety of Chapter 30 in my story, or a certain hanar's role in the tale) were amazingly fast to write and were changed very little during editing.

AustereLemur799 wrote...

fluffywalrus wrote...
*snip*

*snip*

But good on you for having the confidence to go through with your vision. Sometimes I think that is my biggest flaw - I'm too afraid of pissing other people off even though the story I'm writing is/should be my own.

Which begs the question, do you write your own story or a story to please the masses?

I understand the nervousness over pleasing potential readers. Even though I constantly advise people to write what they really want to write and not worry about what other people think, and I try to do that myself, I admit to anxiously waiting for my devoted reviewers to review so I can see if I'm still on the right track.

But in the end, to answer your question, I definitely write my own story. While I hope my readers enjoy it, it's my story first and foremost. Hence my decision to write OCs instead of something with familiar characters that might get more readers. I'm just practiced at character development... I've been making up and writing about characters for the last 25 years or so... and I feel a little limited while writing characters that aren't my own. Which was why I chose Zaeed as an established character to include in my story.

Minor Spoilers Follow:

With Zaeed, I felt that he wasn't really fleshed out that well. He's got a few stories to tell in the game and a personality that stands out to me a bit, but he felt very one-dimensional in the games to me. Which I felt gave me a little room to explore things. Plus, in ME3 he's there for like five seconds, says Cerberus betrayed him and he wanted to pay them back for it, and nothing else is said on the matter. I decided that my story would provide a possible explanation for how and why he was betrayed, and dig into some of what he did during the early half of ME3, just because it struck me as something that was conspicuously lacking on details, and he fit seemlessly into my story.

[ToaOrka]

kalenath wrote...

ToaOrka wrote...

Okie doke, three questions:

1. So, according to their ME3 in-game description, I know weapons like the Crusader existed during ME, the soldiers apparently having used the weapon on Torfan. My question is what weapons would've existed before ME2 as well? So far I've got the Crusader, Disciple, Widow, Katana, Mantis, Avenger, Predator, Shuriken, Collector weapons, and Prothean weapons.

2. If not implicitly stated (like the acolyte stating it was made for the resistance), should I just assume at least a prototype of the weapon would've existed during ME1 times?

3. There's a link in my signature to my own OC-fiction I'm working on, would any of you guys with dA accounts be willing to drop by there and leave me some advice?

1) From what I can determine, most of the weapons existed during the events of ME1, in experimental form at least. The Revenant was known if VERY expensive. The Widow as well (used by specail sniper teams), but it was too heavy for normal soldiers to carry. The Claymore would break any non-Krogan's arms if they tried to fire it. Shepard could use all of them because, well, it was Shepard. The Geth weapons were VERY rare, but not 'new'.

The ones that I believe were NEW at the time of ME2 were the Incisor sniper rifle, Evicerator shotgun and Phalanx heavy pistol. There is some question as to WHEN the SMGs started showing up. But the Locust was known, if almost unobtainable. (Locked in a vault)

2) The Acolyte may have been in development before the war, but NOTHING speeds R&D like a war. Especally a war like the Reaper war. The idea was probably there, after all biotic barriers and shields were becoming MUCH more common. But the weapon itself was likely developed during the conflict and rushed into service, like the Krysea.

Sorry for the late reply!

So that means I'm good canonically in my ME 1 fiction, I had planned on having the Eviscerator come under the ownership of my lead Turian, but now I know I can toss that idea out. However, I thought that it's full name, the "Lieberschaft 2180 shotgun" indicated the year of its creation, and ME takes place during 2183, but I could be wrong. Also, I had mentioned a white Alliance pistol a few times with the intent that it was the Phalanx, but I was able to revise it to be a Predator.

My theory with SMGs is that they were more popular in the Terminus systems than in the Traverse — or, maybe Shepard just didn't like them, I honestly have no clue.

[Drussius]

ToaOrka wrote...

*snip*

My theory with SMGs is that they were more popular in the Terminus systems than in the Traverse — or, maybe Shepard just didn't like them, I honestly have no clue.

This was just a simple matter of game mechanics, not lore. I'm sure submachine guns have always been around lorewise, even during ME1. But it came down to game mechanics. In ME1, weapons didn't increase your cooldowns, add weight, or do anything else to hinder you. There was no downside to carrying every weapon you could get. And since there was already one type of rapid-fire weapon in the form of an assault rifle, having a second was unnecessary, since it would have just been the same thing in a different visual form. Once you add weight and cooldown, submachine guns are distinct because they're lighter and fire fast. Without weight and cooldown, as in ME1 they're just another assault rifle.

But if you need proof that they were around Pre-ME1, during Kasumi's loyalty mission in ME2 when you find the locust, the codex that you get says that it was used in (I think) 2176 to kill a president. But I'm positive the date was 2170-something. So submachine guns were definitely in circulation around 2183. As I said, it was just a game mechanic issue.

[Dark Satris]

ah, here i am again. i find it amazing how many conversations i've missed and dont bother to catch up on. xD

i may be a little slow on writing for SE for a little bit, as i'm trying to set up a new 'fic placed in the world of Mortal Instruments, but cant find a good way to find a summary xD

well, good to 'see' you all again, been a little busy in tekkit since the server im on had to start using a new map cause of a crash (>:/) but i hopefully will be on more often now

[hot_heart]

Thanks, Drussius and mothbanquet!

[Ignis Mors]

Another question. How would you guys suggest to come up with a good description line for stories?

[AustereLemur799]

Thanks everyone for answering my questions from the other night - it's interesting to get other people's insights.

Just got my first negative review.  Any advice on how to deal with that? In my head I know I should be thinking logically and taking constructive crtiticism and all that... Yet in my heart I feel really upset and bummed. At the end of the day, I spent four weeks writing this particular chapter and I failed. It hurts.

I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that I've moved house. I've published two chapters since then. The first didn't exactly get the praise or feedback I'd hoped for. The second was an ambitious chapter and basically backfired. The question is, am I using an 'upheaval' (i.e. moving house) in my life as an excuse for poor writing?

[Dark Satris]

well lemur, the only thing i can recommend is to not let it affect you to much, as it's not the end of the world. if you have to rewrite certain parts, oh well, and i mean remember the first review i got? that wasn't helpful in the least to be honest and probably would've stopped people reading SE in the first place if it weren't for you.

keep on writing, that people like everything you give is never gonna happen. ever. even the best professional writers make mistakes or do stuff their fanbase doesnt like.

hope this helps my friend,

S.R.

[Drussius]

AustereLemur799 wrote...

Thanks everyone for answering my questions from the other night - it's interesting to get other people's insights.

Just got my first negative review.  Any advice on how to deal with that? In my head I know I should be thinking logically and taking constructive crtiticism and all that... Yet in my heart I feel really upset and bummed. At the end of the day, I spent four weeks writing this particular chapter and I failed. It hurts.

I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that I've moved house. I've published two chapters since then. The first didn't exactly get the praise or feedback I'd hoped for. The second was an ambitious chapter and basically backfired. The question is, am I using an 'upheaval' (i.e. moving house) in my life as an excuse for poor writing?

Well, without having read the Chapter in question or seeing the review, I can't offer any insight as to the validity of the criticisms in question. But having said that, I will say this:

If the criticism was constructive at all... If they said why part X didn't work for them or what was wrong with part Y, then you've been given something positive wrapped in negative wrapping paper, so to speak. The trick is to take your ego out of it, peel away the negativity, and look at the reason for what they say objectively. Look at part X and see if you happen to agree with what they say, or if you can see where their criticisms are coming from. If you can, you might be able to modify the part in question to improve its flow, or realism, or whatever.

Now, I know that's easier said than done, and I may be in the minority with my ability to remove my feelings from the equation and look at the feedback objectively, but it has done a world of good for my writing. My first Chapter of my story got several constructive reviews, pointing out bad habits, poor grammar, and things that just didn't flow well. One person was even kind enough to go through the entire Chapter with a fine-toothed comb and point out every single thing they saw as a flaw. Which I thought was fantastic. I just took my ego out of the equation, looked at each one separately, and made some changes. Some things I left just as they were because I didn't agree, and that's fine. Everyone has their own style. But from Chapter Two of my story onward, I made a conscious effort to fix the things that were pointed out, and I think my work is better for it.

But the point I'm trying to make is: If you're looking to improve your skills as a writer, criticisms can be a great tool. Other people may point out weak areas in your writing that you never recognized, and help you identify them, so that you can fix them. But you can't get defensive. Because if you start defending the way you are doing things, it innately results in you resisting admitting that there might be a better way. Which is why I always shake my head at people that ask for feedback on something they've written, and then argue about everything you point out, explaining why it had to be that way instead of recognizing how it might be better a different way.

On the other hand, if your review in question was just "Meh, this sucks. Terrible. Hate it," just try to shake it off and keep doing what you're doing. Especially if it's just one bad review among several more positive ones for the Chapter. Some people just won't like a particular story or style of writing. It's bound to happen. Nothing appeals to everyone. I had one person tell me they stopped reading because they didn't like the past/present back and forth format I used for the first 17 Chapters of my story. They said the writing was fine but the format was driving them crazy. Which was fine. I knew it wouldn't appeal to everyone, and I appreciated the honesty.

tl;dr: If the review was at all constructive and gave reasons, try to see past the negativity, look at the reasons, and see if it's something you can agree with, and possibly use to improve your writing. If it was just a "hated it" review with no reasons given, shake it off and concentrate on the more positive reviews.

But whatever you do, don't let one person's opinion sour your feelings about the story you're assembling. Keep in mind that even if you only got 1 review and it was negative, but 12 people are reliably viewing every Chapter, then maybe your story didn't appeal to one person who felt like saying something, but there's still 12 times that many who keep coming back. So you must be doing something right. Just something to think about.

Sorry for being long-winded.

[AustereLemur799]

@ Dark Satris

Thanks, buddy. Also, don't be so hard on your story. The first guy who mentioned stuff on grammar etc should really have sent you that in a pm and not on your review board for the whole world to see, especially since you'd rectified the issues by the time I came along. 

I meant to actually advise you that just because I don't review your chapters on the day they've been published doesn't mean that I've lost interest. The situation here for me in my new house is quite difficult. Now that I've moved house once, I hope that I never have to go through it again in my lifetime! Looking forward to reading your chapters has definitely been a plus point for me.

@ Drussius, you are never long-winded! - In fact I appreciate when people are. I hear everything you're saying. I'd rather people give me criticism than pretend to be positive, for sure.

I think it takes me a day or more to be receptive to constructive criticism. It's just that when I read things initially, I tend to get upset. This is definitely a negative personality trait that I have - I'm not sure whether it's appropriate for me to mention the full extent of my issues on this site. Basically I tend to focus more on the negative than the positive, and I really take the negative to heart.

I know that, at the moment, whatever I publish on FFN is a essentially a draft and a work in progress. Having a beta reader has really helped me a lot because I've made some really embarrassing mistakes due to my dyslexia - another thing that gets me down.

@ the floor: the other thing that makes me ashamed is that I've really stopped reading around since I published my own story. On the one hand I'm afraid that reading other people's stories may, in some way, influence my ideas and I don't want to be guilty of stealing other people's ideas. On the other hand, I feel unable to read successful stories because they just seem to reiterate my own lack of success to me. I know that these are horrible, bad traits that I have. I honestly used to enjoy reading around. Now I just feel ashamed of myself, my writing and my inability to read and fully-appreciate others.

I guess I'm a bad person. I feel better for admitting to it. I think it's bad when other people's success makes you feel bad. But there it is. I honestly admire all you guys. The truth is that it took me a year of lurking on the BSN before I summoned the courage to come on here. I feel priveleged to have mixed with other writers. Truthfully I don't feel worthy to dwell among you. My pattern is that I come on here and make a complete fool of myself, then disappear for a while, hoping that you guys have short memories. Then I come back when I'm drunk and make more of an idiot of myself.

I realise that none of this sounds particularly great!  Whatever happens, thanks for putting up with me thus far.

Modifié par AustereLemur799, 01 décembre 2012 - 04:24 .

[Drussius]

AustereLemur799 wrote...

I think it takes me a day or more to be receptive to constructive criticism. It's just that when I read things initially, I tend to get upset. This is definitely a negative personality trait that I have - I'm not sure whether it's appropriate for me to mention the full extent of my issues on this site. Basically I tend to focus more on the negative than the positive, and I really take the negative to heart.

Focusing more on the negative than the positive is actually very common. I'm no psychiatrist, but just based on dealing with various people over the years, I've noticed that if you talk to someone honestly, tell then ten good things and mix something significantly negative in the middle somewhere, they will almost universally shrug off all the complements, or perhaps plaster on a smile and say thanks, but will remember only the one negative thing you mentioned. It's most pronounced with a buddy of mine that used to do RPGs with me. He still talks about how I was "always harping on his adventures for the plot holes in the stories*, and when I counter with "Maybe, but remember the part where I said you had a great flow with portraying NPCs and how I always told you I had a blast regardless?" he doesn't remember that part at all. Just me picking on plot holes.

AustereLemur799 wrote...

@ the floor: the other thing that makes me ashamed is that I've really stopped reading around since I published my own story. On the one hand I'm afraid that reading other people's stories may, in some way, influence my ideas and I don't want to be guilty of stealing other people's ideas. On the other hand, I feel unable to read successful stories because they just seem to reiterate my own lack of success to me. I know that these are horrible, bad traits that I have. I honestly used to enjoy reading around. Now I just feel ashamed of myself, my writing and my inability to read and fully-appreciate others.

I have neglected my reading as well, though in my case it's more of a time issue than worries that I may be influenced by other writers. I barely have the time to churn out another 10,000 words every four days to keep on my schedule. Although there's definitely some of the latter issue too. Because I'm the type of guy who, even if I had a scene planned for months, if I read a story or saw a movie that had something similar, I'd abandon my idea immediately to avoid being accused of plagarism.

For yourself, all I could suggest is that you try to do less comparing and just enjoy whatever you read. If I compared the numbers on my stories to others, I think I'd be too depressed to write. But I love writing too much to let myself get down over the fact that other people get more reviews and readers than I do. I just feel blessed that I have a few people who love my story, and that's enough for me. My regular reviewers are awesome.

AustereLemur799 wrote...

My pattern is that I come on here and make a complete fool of myself, then disappear for a while, hoping that you guys have short memories.

What were you saying about memories? I forgot.

Seriously though, that's what this thread is for. Complaints, concerns, questions, even just for use as a sounding board for ideas. We're here to help!

And you're not a bad person for feeling jealousy. Everyone is prone to it from time to time. We're all human. Heck, I can barely shake my step-brother's hand without wanting to punch him, just because he's doing fantastic for himself financially and I'm struggling. But it doesn't mean I love him any less. Just means I wish I had the money he did.

You said yourself, you don't begrudge anyone their success. You just put yourself down as a result of other peoples' accomplishments. Sounds to me like the only person you're hurting in that is yourself. You just need to give yourself a bit of a break is all. Which I do not mean as a put-down. Just encouraging you to be a little less hard on yourself.