9961 réponses à ce sujet

[hot_heart]

Wait, Elder Scrolls games have endings?! I'll believe it when I see it...

[Spiritwolf1]

I have 3, yes three Tim Hortons around the corner from my house in the same intersection and they are all always packed.

My hardest stuff is coming up and I've been majorly putting off my fic knowing what is going to happen and not wanting to do it.

Modifié par Spiritwolf1, 06 avril 2013 - 10:42 .

[Spiritwolf1]

dragon-claw666.deviantart.com/art/Passionate-play-359799943


For Fluffy

[Seracen]

dpMeggers wrote...

...
I havn't seen what you're referring to, but that probably ranks among the most Canadian proposals ever. Other contenders would be proposing at a Stanley Cup parade or using the Joe Canada speech somehow.
...
And crap now I'm worried about writing a good ending...

Gamer News Video regarding said Tim Hortons Wedding Proposal...

And Oh Pish...I'm confident you have a good ending in you.  After all, if it doesn't make you happy, are you really ready to put it out there? 

[Seracen]

dpMeggers wrote...

All of them! Every single one!
...

Spiritwolf1 wrote...

I have 3, yes three Tim Hortons around the corner from my house in the same intersection and they are all always packed.

My hardest stuff is coming up and I've been majorly putting off my fic knowing what is going to happen and not wanting to do it.

Gotta agree, you are only as inspired as the next chapter.  Thus, I suppose you could make a case for every chapter being the most difficult, but that's sooo depressing!

FIE!  All the chapters are fun!  I defy you laziness and writer's blocks!!!

[Ignis Mors]

dpMeggers wrote...

Regarding the donoreo idea: Please, do not give Tim Hortons any ideas. They don't need the help. (Personally I would have gone for a vanilla creme filled chocolate donut. Or a Chocolate donut, vanilla frosting, sprinkled with oreo bits - if you really want an overdose)

MrStoob wrote...

On getting reviews.  I think I was lucky that my musing coincided with the wake of the ME3 ending debarcle.  Lots of people were reading and writing at that time so there seemed to be a lot of through traffic on FFNet and I received regular reviews on earlier work.  As ME becomes more distant in the past, it'll become more and more difficult to grab readers I should imagine as people move onto other things.

I'm not sure I've ever read anything that I would call 'so bad it's good' - I've read some bad fanfiction (which I stopped reading shortly thereafter), but nothing so truly horrendous that I would have to point at it and say "Hey Everyone! Come look at this terrible, horrible piece of garbage! BASK IN ITS STANK!!!"

Re: reviews. I started writing my ME fic in the lead-up to ME3 (in anticipation of ME3 I think?) so I benefitted from the month-before month-after deluge of readers. But I think my readership suffered because I'm such an inconsistant writer. I think everyone who follows my story is still reading it, but I don't know that I'm attracting any new readers. It probably doesn't help that I wrote an origin fic in the wake of the clamor for better endings. Apparently my muse is not a sellout. 

And now QOTD time. Going to change it up a little today - I'm not going to ask about characters!

Today's Question: What do you think was (or will be - if you've planned it but haven't gotten around to writing it yet) the most difficult passage of your story for you to write? What made (or will make) it so difficult?

A scene where Jessica( the femshep) dumps Miranda because she's worried that she'll kill her on accident. A few times I tried to force Jessica to stay with her, but it didn't work.  Oh well, they're back together now. 

[dpMeggers]

Seracen wrote...

Gamer News Video regarding said Tim Hortons Wedding Proposal...

And Oh Pish...I'm confident you have a good ending in you.  After all, if it doesn't make you happy, are you really ready to put it out there? 

Ya that's sort of adorably Canadian...

As for the ending...I sort of have to get to it first. and I'm not 100% sure where I want the fic to end, because I think I'd like to continue the story of Damon Shepard into ME1 (and maybe all the way up to 3 if I learn to write more efficiently).

No scratch that I just thought of how I want it to end while writing this post. 

What I actually have the most difficulty writing is action sequences. They are the bane of my writerly existance. Part of it (I think) might be because I can think of individual events that I'd like to happen but I'm not really sure how to string them together - lack of reading action oriented books maybe. Out of the three 'action chapters' I've written so far, I think I've managed maybe like 2 paragraphs of actual action. So the most difficult passage for me is what I'm writing right now - Akuze. A night filled with large, angry, shrieky, acid-spitting worms. I've scrapped something like 4 drafts already so I'm hoping this one works out - it's looking better than the rest, finally, but it's probably going to need a hell of a lot of editing.

[Seracen]

dpMeggers wrote...

.....

As for the ending...I sort of have to get to it first. and I'm not 100% sure where I want the fic to end, because I think I'd like to continue the story of Damon Shepard into ME1 (and maybe all the way up to 3 if I learn to write more efficiently).

No scratch that I just thought of how I want it to end while writing this post. 

What I actually have the most difficulty writing is action sequences. They are the bane of my writerly existance.
....

I've scrapped something like 4 drafts already so I'm hoping this one works out - it's looking better than the rest, finally, but it's probably going to need a hell of a lot of editing.

Well, feel free to ask if you need any advice on the action scenes, as they happen to be a specialty of mine.  Back in the the day, I went overboard with the action, like John Woo via Anime crazy... 

My secret was that I daydreamed the entire scene in my head before writing it.  Occassionally props were involved...

STOP JUDGING ME!!!! 

Modifié par Seracen, 07 avril 2013 - 10:54 .

[MrStoob]

Seracen wrote...

dpMeggers wrote...

.....

As for the ending...I sort of have to get to it first. and I'm not 100% sure where I want the fic to end, because I think I'd like to continue the story of Damon Shepard into ME1 (and maybe all the way up to 3 if I learn to write more efficiently).

No scratch that I just thought of how I want it to end while writing this post. 

What I actually have the most difficulty writing is action sequences. They are the bane of my writerly existance.
....

I've scrapped something like 4 drafts already so I'm hoping this one works out - it's looking better than the rest, finally, but it's probably going to need a hell of a lot of editing.

Well, feel free to ask if you need any advice on the action scenes, as they happen to be a specialty of mine.  Back in the the day, I went overboard with the action, like John Woo via Anime crazy... 

My secret was that I daydreamed the entire scene in my head before writing it.  Occassionally props were involved...

STOP JUDGING ME!!!! 

It was funny for my finale chapters.  I'd not particularly had any action in the story at all.  Then for the last few chapts I decided to be elaborate on a sparring session between James and Shep and then in a kung-fu-esque fight between Shep and Kai Leng.  I did actually used to do kung-fu so I drew on moves and techniques that I know.  Wasn't sure if it was jarring or not to the rest of the tale.  I don't usually do 'action', more touchy-feely dialogue.

Edit:
oh.  Some good advice from here a while back about writing action.  Try to keep it from one person's perspective so it's clearer who is doing what to whom and where.  Trying to write everyone's specific actions can be confusing.  Not a hard and fast rule, but it certainly helps cut the chaff.

Modifié par MrStoob, 07 avril 2013 - 11:05 .

[Lilivati]

dpMeggers wrote...

What I actually have the most difficulty writing is action sequences. They are the bane of my writerly existance. Part of it (I think) might be because I can think of individual events that I'd like to happen but I'm not really sure how to string them together - lack of reading action oriented books maybe. Out of the three 'action chapters' I've written so far, I think I've managed maybe like 2 paragraphs of actual action. So the most difficult passage for me is what I'm writing right now - Akuze. A night filled with large, angry, shrieky, acid-spitting worms. I've scrapped something like 4 drafts already so I'm hoping this one works out - it's looking better than the rest, finally, but it's probably going to need a hell of a lot of editing.

This is it exactly.  I always feel like I become very repetitive when writing action sequences.  I think because as a READER I normally skim them in other people's work because they don't interest me beyond the outcome/consequences, it makes it very hard for me to write them like I care about them.  But I think (hope) I'm getting better as the story progresses.  (And I do care to the extent of wanting every part of my story to be well done, but I still find it difficult to be "in the moment" in my head when I'm writing an action sequence.  It's also easier when the action has some kind of emotional consequence or pay-off instead of simply moving events along- like I'm not at all worried about having to write Benezia's death in a chapter or two.)

MrStoob wrote...

oh.  Some good advice from here a while back about writing action.  Try to keep it from one person's perspective so it's clearer who is doing what to whom and where.  Trying to write everyone's specific actions can be confusing.  Not a hard and fast rule, but it certainly helps cut the chaff.

I used to read a lot serial fantasy paperbacks that tied in with D&D game settings when I was in high school.  One of the biggest things I remember are the kind of action sequence where you can practically see the dice rolling- one character does EXACTLY ONE THING described in 1-2 sentences of detail.  Then you get 1-2 sentences on how this impacted their opponent.  Then you move onto the next character in the party.  IMO this is not the model to use for writing an action scene. XD

Modifié par Lilivati, 07 avril 2013 - 01:52 .

[dpMeggers]

Seracen wrote...
My secret was that I daydreamed the entire scene in my head before writing it.  Occassionally props were involved...

I think I've mentionned this before but I speak all of my dialogue out loud - accents included - so props sound perfectly reasonable to me.

I've had two sort of 'battle' setpieces so I actually have doodles of maps and troop movements in my notebooks. Including one where I drew a grid all over it so that I could use grid references in the radio communications. 

Lilivati wrote...

This is it exactly.  I always feel like I become very repetitive when writing action sequences.  I think because as a READER I normally skim them in other people's work because they don't interest me beyond the outcome/consequences, it makes it very hard for me to write them like I care about them.  But I think (hope) I'm getting better as the story progresses.  (And I do care to the extent of wanting every part of my story to be well done, but I still find it difficult to be "in the moment" in my head when I'm writing an action sequence.  It's also easier when the action has some kind of emotional consequence or pay-off instead of simply moving events along- like I'm not at all worried about having to write Benezia's death in a chapter or two.)

Regarding the bolded: yup, pretty much exactly what I do. I'm sure people work very hard writing their action pieces but for the life of me I can't bring myself to do more than skim them because unless someone is doing something utterly insane I'm not really interested.

In a way I think it comes back to 'write what you know'. In this I mean that I can get into a character's head and write about what they're thinking/feeling/whatever fairly easily, because I'm a human being and I know how to think/feel/whatever. It's much harder for me to write gunfights, siege warfare, tactics etc, because I'm not a soldier, or a cop, or a private military contractor or whatever. I don't have those experiences, so I can't draw from them to write about them. I'm not without an imagination, so I can write about these things, it just takes a lot more planning and care to do it.

Modifié par dpMeggers, 07 avril 2013 - 02:42 .

[dpMeggers]

A question regarding human military dress codes in the ME universe - namely hair colour. Aka - inconsistency flail.

So most modern militaries that I know of require more or less conservative/practical hairstyles - including natural hair colours (dyed or otherwise) and either short or tie-up able hairstyles for women. ME1 and 2 play this pretty consistently, but in ME3 Shep has the option of purple (fem) or blue (bro) hairstyles and longer, not tied up hair (see also ME3 Ash).

So...what's the prevailing opinion? Alliance keeps it professional and Shep only got away with the weird hair because they were under arrest and then commanding a ship in the middle of a war of galactic extinction? Or Alliance has relaxed standards and couldn't care less what colour your hair is so long as you do the job? Or Shepard is Shepard and therefore special?

[Lili I know you've addressed this with your Shepard and her pink (blue? I don't remember the specific colour) hair getting shaved off when she enlisted. That made me laugh.]

[ftkerns]

dpMeggers wrote...

What I actually have the most difficulty writing is action sequences. They are the bane of my writerly existance. Part of it (I think) might be because I can think of individual events that I'd like to happen but I'm not really sure how to string them together - lack of reading action oriented books maybe.

I've been told that I'm pretty good at writing action, which honestly surprises me. I've never been in a real fight (the closest I ever got was being punched in the gut in, I think, first grade, and that pretty much finished me off right there), and only fired a gun a few times (a few years ago my best friend and I spent an afternoon target shooting out in the sticks just for the sake of doing something different, and I couldn't hit jack ****). The kind of scenes I enjoy, aside from action, are simply characters sitting around talking to each other...and on some days, I actually prefer those kinds of scenes. But, somehow, the actiony stuff I write seems to work out pretty well, and lately I've started to have quite a bit of fun with it.

In fact, a few days ago, another writer asked me to help her write an action scene for a fantasy novel she's working on. I'm not into fantasy at all, but it seemed like it'd be fun, and also a way to get out of my comfort zone and broaden my horizons a little. I asked her a few questions to get a better idea of what I'd need to write (fighting styles and whether there were any loose objects around the characters that could be used, that sort of stuff). When she answered the questions, I sat down and wrote the scene in about an hour.  She liked it, though we're giving it a few days before I go through it again and see if it needs any revision.

So I'm happy to provide whatever help I can, should you ever feel the need. 

As for specific advice, this is really good:

MrStoob wrote...

Some good advice from here a while back about writing action.  Try to keep it from one person's perspective so it's clearer who is doing what to whom and where.  Trying to write everyone's specific actions can be confusing.  Not a hard and fast rule, but it certainly helps cut the chaff.

I tend to write each scene from a specific character's POV anyway, so I consider it good advice for any kind of scene, whether it's action or just dialogue. Whenever I read a story or a book that has the POV jumping around from one character to another in the same scene, I just find it jarring. And in an action scene, it can definitely get confusing. So, if I have a fight that lasts more than one scene, I'll do each scene from a single character's perspective.

If you've got several characters fighting the same group of people at the same time, and have specific actions that happen with characters other than your POV character, what I do is simply have the POV person look around occasionally. In the chapter I posted a couple days ago, Chula and Dakka ran into Kai Leng and a squad of creepy, armored and helmeted cyber-ninjas with blank face plates. I was writing in Chula's POV when the fight started, and had her taking on the blank-faceplate guys while Dakka handled Leng. During the fight, there were just a few things I needed to show Dakka doing, so I'd have Chula fighting the bad guys, taking a quick glance over her shoulder to see Dakka deflecting Leng's sword and then ****-slapping him in the face hard enough to send him staggering across the room, then returning her attention to the guys she was fighting. A bit later, she looked over at Dakka again, just in time to see her land another haymaker on Leng, then focus on her own opponents.

Lilivati wrote...

This is it exactly.  I always feel like I become very repetitive when writing action sequences.  I think because as a READER I normally skim them in other people's work because they don't interest me beyond the outcome/consequences, it makes it very hard for me to write them like I care about them.   But I think (hope) I'm getting better as the story progresses.  (And I do care to the extent of wanting every part of my story to be well done, but I still find it difficult to be "in the moment" in my head when I'm writing an action sequence.  It's also easier when the action has some kind of emotional consequence or pay-off instead of simply moving events along- like I'm not at all worried about having to write Benezia's death in a chapter or two.)

Re the bolded bit: I find myself doing the same thing with stories that spend several paragraphs describing one or two little things. And I also start skimming if I'm reading an action scene and it's not very interesting. Which is one of the things I always worry about when I write something actiony. If you put in the time and effort to write something, you want readers to actually read it.  I always worry that I'll start writing the same kind of thing over and over. So I try to come up with something unusual, something a little different, something unexpected.

To use my latest chapter as an example again...there's a quarian and a krogan chasing the bad guy across the still-damaged areas of Tayseri Ward. Quarians, as they're shown in the games, almost always get their asses kicked when they're in a fight. So I decided from the beginning that Chula would be a badass and would learn how to use every weapon she could get her hands on and study a wide range of fighting styles. And krogan are usually depicted as lummoxes whose fighting style amounts to, "shoot it, and when you can't shoot it anymore, just roar and charge headlong into it." So I made Dakka's fighting style very different from the average krogan. She's fast and precise, and has been learning all sorts of hand-to-hand techniques, particularly various human martial arts.

So, this resulted in a scene that has a krogan Parkouring through the ruined streets, hopping rooftops, vaulting and dive-rolling over debris, and bounding over handrails to keep up with Leng.  And when they finally catch him, she faces him empty-handed while he goes after her with a sword, and pretty much fixes his little red wagon. And then, to put a nice capper on the scene, and also add in another "different" element...Leng gets lucky and shoves his sword through her chest. Naturally, she takes it like a krogan.  When he starts to pull the sword out, she grabs his hand, pins it to the handle, and holds him in place. "Nice blade. Think I'll keep it."

Then, just to screw with his head, she shoves the blade back in, all the way to the hilt, and laughs in his face. He starts to freak out, still can't break her grip, and realizes something profoundly and life-endingly bad is about to happen to him. And then Dakka ****s her fist back and drives it into his skull with enough force to crack a slab of granite. She does this twice, then lets go of his hand. Then she pulls the sword out and gives it back to him. Right through the eye socket. 

(As you may guess, I don't like Kai Leng or the way he was used in ME3. So it'll come as no surprise when I say, he's definitely not coming back from this. )

Another thing that might make action scenes more interesting is to have your character say or do something funny during the fight. This obviously won't work with every character or situation...some things are simply no laughing matter. But it works for a character like Dakka. And it also works as a psychological tactic. She figures that slapping an opponent around instead of going all-out might make him think she's just toying with him. Some people, that would intimidate; others, it would anger. Either way, now they're more likely to make a mistake.

Also, it's just funny. 

And, in Dakka's case...she's still very young, and sometimes treats fights as a way of goofing off. Every now and then, when she punches someone, she'll provide her own sound effects. *punch* "Bonk!" *punch* "Boink!" *knockout punch* "Boioioioioinnnng!" 

So if your character has fun with it, I figure the readers will probably have fun.

Something else that comes to mind, as far as keeping the scene interesting, is the Jackie Chan method. If there's anything in the environment that can be turned into a weapon, it's fair game. If it's not nailed down, your characters can use it, and if they can pry it loose, it's not nailed down.  In the previous chapter of Freelancers, Dakka knocked a guy out with a potted plant.

Finally, try to come up with things for your characters to do that are simply awesome. This can get a little over the top, but if it suits your characters, and if you do it often enough that it becomes "normal," you can make it work.

For the "awesome" stuff, I've found a lot of inspiration in Red vs. Blue, of all things. Especially seasons 9 and 10. Seriously, any fight scene that Tex or Carolina is in immediately becomes a hell of a thing. These scenes have given me all sorts of ideas. :happy: A couple of the episodes are good inspiration for showing zero-G fighting, and a couple others are great for the use of jetpacks in urban combat.

There's one bit in particular that's a favorite of mine, from one of the last episodes of season 10. A guy throws a grenade at Tex, and instead of dodging it or running away, she punches it back to him and it blows up in his face. Awesome. 

Anyway, hopefully I'm not babbling incoherently at this point. It's almost 11am and all I've ingested so far is a pot of coffee. Guess breakfast might be a good idea....

[Seracen]

dpMeggers wrote...

A question regarding human military dress codes in the ME universe - namely hair colour. Aka - inconsistency fail.
...
So...what's the prevailing opinion? Alliance keeps it professional and Shep only got away with the weird hair because they were under arrest and then commanding a ship in the middle of a war of galactic extinction? Or Alliance has relaxed standards and couldn't care less what colour your hair is so long as you do the job? Or Shepard is Shepard and therefore special?

[Lili I know you've addressed this with your Shepard and her pink (blue? I don't remember the specific colour) hair getting shaved off when she enlisted. That made me laugh.]

Firstly, about the fight scenes again.  I also added to the sense of length by switching between two principles, which can help or hinder depending on your writing style.  I try not to go as overboard as I used to, b/c as you say, it's not as important, nor as intersting as the fallout.  I still feel the need to spice it up & indulge, as plain dialogue gets stale.


As per style and fashion.  I think I'm going to go with the "SPECTRE/Representative" defense.  Shep's a SPECTRE, so he can do whatever (obviously the real reason is Player Agency, but whatever).

One could make a similar case for Ashley, considering her look in ME3 was closer to that of Miranda, as opposed to how she appeared in ME1.  I mean, it seemed to me that she was a glorified political figure during the trial of Shepard, and of course got SPECTRE status soon after (again, I think we can guess BW's logic).

As for justifying hair color, I remember writing a sci-fi story (which will never see the light of day...seriously, the amount of work required to make that tripe presentable is staggering...), wherein hair pigmentation had come so far, it was akin to implants in the skin.

One could also go the in-vitro/utero genetic mods, but I think most of society would shy away from any such mods that weren't necessary for survival (like in Joker's case).  Just remember the siblings on the Citadel arguing over an unborn child from ME1 (they were arguing over what seemed to be a standard in-utero medical procedure).

Modifié par Seracen, 07 avril 2013 - 06:36 .

[Lilivati]

dpMeggers wrote...

A question regarding human military dress codes in the ME universe - namely hair colour. Aka - inconsistency flail.

So most modern militaries that I know of require more or less conservative/practical hairstyles - including natural hair colours (dyed or otherwise) and either short or tie-up able hairstyles for women. ME1 and 2 play this pretty consistently, but in ME3 Shep has the option of purple (fem) or blue (bro) hairstyles and longer, not tied up hair (see also ME3 Ash).

So...what's the prevailing opinion? Alliance keeps it professional and Shep only got away with the weird hair because they were under arrest and then commanding a ship in the middle of a war of galactic extinction? Or Alliance has relaxed standards and couldn't care less what colour your hair is so long as you do the job? Or Shepard is Shepard and therefore special?

[Lili I know you've addressed this with your Shepard and her pink (blue? I don't remember the specific colour) hair getting shaved off when she enlisted. That made me laugh.]

It was blue.  XD  In ME1 Shepard is still a lot more closely tied to the navy than to the spectre program, or to being a "power at large" in the galaxy in her own right.  So in ME1 (and earlier in her service history) it makes sense that she would be more closely bound by their regulations.

As far as ME3 goes, I think it's a combination of the fact that Shepard- because of her spectre status and also simply because she's Shepard- gets away with a LOT more than the average officer, and the fact that she went from being relieved of duty and detained in an Alliance facility to running a significant part of a war with essentially no transition period.  While in the Vancouver Detention Center, Shepard wasn't subject to most regs and could've (in theory) grown out her hair or let other appearance characteristics slide.  Not sure where she would've gotten hair dye though.  XD  Maybe she dyed it prior to surrendering to Alliance custody since that happens off-screen?  And once the war starts, Hackett has bigger things to worry about than yelling at her to cut her hair or pin it up or dye it back.  

ftkerns wrote...

[A lot of excellent things.]

I really admire people who can write action well and make it engaging.  Granted, I'm fairly difficult to engage.  I tend to cringe away from over-the-top writing- if I can't see it happening in the real world (however that is defined in context- for example things that feel realistic in a magic setting vs. things that feel unrealistic DESPITE the magical setting) I tend to get turned off pretty fast.  Oddly enough I have the same problem for describing romances.  Too much sugar, clinginess, or high-color gives me a heart attack, though I am maybe almost overly fond of relationship drama (I mean, my Shepard romanced Kaidan, so...  But the fact that their relationship and their actions aren't perfect and they're not always completely in tune with each other is one of the things that makes it realistic to me.)

On the other hand, I can appreciate the occasional truly over-the-top scene if the lead-up is good.  (WIthout spoilers, I'm presently thinking of the very last action scene in Chichen Itza in The Dresden Files book Changes.  It's BEYOND over-the-top, but it makes perfect sense in context, and the author spent a hell of a lot of time getting to that scene so that it would make sense.  It's horrible, terrifying, overwhelming, and emotionally gripping.  But when they're fighting on the pyramid itself, my eyes started to glaze over.  Just way too many things going on for the sake of driving home the point of "big ass fight".)  One of the things I need to work on as a writer is not cringing away from writing the occasional overblown scene when it serves the story to have it in there.  If anything I feel like I understate most of the time.  But I've also had people tell me they really like the realism in my story, so maybe it works for me.  XD

I think all the tips from various people about tighter focus are well-taken.  Having a good idea of what I want to get out of the scene beyond "they fight these guys because they're in the way" would help a lot.  I'm just not used to thinking of an action sequence in those terms.

[Seracen]

@ Lilivati: loooove the Dresden series, though I like the Codex Alera even more (prolly b/c it's finished). Also a fan of Simon Green (Deathstalker Series).

I've never really shied away from big fight sequences, although lengthy ones tend to tax me sometimes (depends on the pacing within the fight, if that makes sense).

The best example, I think, is the movie Crank vs the movie Shoot 'Em Up. I liked both, but I didn't "enjoy" Clive Owen's piece as much as Jason Statham's. The reason? Even though Crank is an "Adrenaline Junkie" movie, as much as it can be, the film still gives you time to breathe, to process what you've seen, and to prepare for the next scene. Shoot Em Up never let's up, which, paradoxically, makes it wearisome to watch.

I consider action and pacing in a story to be akin to any strenuous. You'll fatigue without proper cool down times. This is why I consider good action to be the perfect foil for good exposition. One flows into the other, providing for a smooth ride to the reader (at least, the way I read).

[Lilivati]

Seracen wrote...

@ Lilivati: loooove the Dresden series, though I like the Codex Alera even more (prolly b/c it's finished). Also a fan of Simon Green (Deathstalker Series).

I've never really shied away from big fight sequences, although lengthy ones tend to tax me sometimes (depends on the pacing within the fight, if that makes sense).

The best example, I think, is the movie Crank vs the movie Shoot 'Em Up. I liked both, but I didn't "enjoy" Clive Owen's piece as much as Jason Statham's. The reason? Even though Crank is an "Adrenaline Junkie" movie, as much as it can be, the film still gives you time to breathe, to process what you've seen, and to prepare for the next scene. Shoot Em Up never let's up, which, paradoxically, makes it wearisome to watch.

I consider action and pacing in a story to be akin to any strenuous. You'll fatigue without proper cool down times. This is why I consider good action to be the perfect foil for good exposition. One flows into the other, providing for a smooth ride to the reader (at least, the way I read).

You're the second person this month to tell Codex Alera is better... maybe I'll have to give it a shot.   

You may have a point about big vs. lengthy and those qualities not being exactly the same.  In the aforementioned pyramid fight sequence, I felt like I'd been reading it for an eternity by the time the story moved on.  Also that pacing is really important, becasue the flip side is also true- too much downtime gets boring after awhile as well.  I hadn't thought of it in terms of reader fatigue though.  It's an excellent analogy.

[MrStoob]

ftkerns wrote...
I tend to write each scene from a specific character's POV anyway, so I consider it good advice for any kind of scene, whether it's action or just dialogue. Whenever I read a story or a book that has the POV jumping around from one character to another in the same scene, I just find it jarring. And in an action scene, it can definitely get confusing. So, if I have a fight that lasts more than one scene, I'll do each scene from a single character's perspective.

Indeed.  Sometimes though, when there are two or more of the main characters in a scene, it can become difficult getting all their internal feelings out if only going from one POV.  Upon reflection, I think I try and do it something like this:

Person A says something.  Narrative reflects why they said something. Person B responds. Narrative reflects why they responded so.

or

Narrative has Persona A reflect on something, resulting in them saying something.  Narrative has Person B reflect on what was just said, resulting in them responding.

For the reader, it could be more interesting to read the dialogue and wonder "Why did they say that?" then receive the internal thoughts.  But I think the second is more 'organic'.

Obviously this gets messy with more than two people.

My 2 cents for the morning. 

Edit: oh, and my kind friend just gifted me a copy of Bioshock Infinite.  Woo!

Modifié par MrStoob, 08 avril 2013 - 10:11 .

[hot_heart]

What are people's opinions on chapter titles? I'm not sure it was easy to do on the old FF.net setup, but the changes seem to have made it easy, so I'm tempted to add some to mine. In my head, chapter 13 was always 'Three Conversations/Exchanges'.

On the one hand, it's an opportunity to add further 'meaning' to the piece, but also...it can distract you from getting on with writing (TV example, but I know Seinfeld writers weren't allowed to come up with witty episode titles because they wanted them focusing on the actual plots).

Oh, and as for action scenes. Pfft, they're easy...they just take 3-4 months, that's all. NEVER AGAIN.

Modifié par hot_heart, 08 avril 2013 - 08:27 .

[MrStoob]

hot_heart wrote...

What are people's opinions on chapter titles? I'm not sure it was easy to do on the old FF.net setup, but the changes seem to have made it easy, so I'm tempted to add some to mine. In my head, chapter 13 was always 'Three Conversations/Exchanges'.

On the one hand, it's an opportunity to add further 'meaning' to the piece, but also...it can distract you from getting on with writing (TV example, but I know Seinfeld writers weren't allowed to come up with witty episode titles because they wanted them focusing on the actual plots).

Oh, and as for action scenes. Pfft, they're easy...they just take 3-4 months, that's all. NEVER AGAIN.

It's bad enough coming up with overall book titles!  Having to come up with a chapter title every time I wanted to post would do my head in.  

Edit: though in hindsight... chapter titles would probably be useful for my side story thing 'Out of the Blue', in which some chapters run along side 'Blue' and some have absolutely nothing to do with 'Blue' and are just interesting or amusing scenes/ideas I've messed with, such as the day Executor Palven finally cracks due to his door opening and closing every time someone passes on their way to the ambassador's bar.

Modifié par MrStoob, 08 avril 2013 - 08:49 .

[hot_heart]

But you could come up with so many puns involving 'blue'!

(Yeah, maybe it's best done retroactively).

[MrStoob]

Ninja-edited...

[dpMeggers]

Chapter titles: I'm with Mr. Stoob on this one - I can't be arsed.

Well that's not entirely true - I have a collection of vignettes belonging to my Briar Hawke character with named chapters, but that's because that wasn't a story so much as a collection of teeny tiny stories. In a fic with a coherent narritive I truely can not be bothered - especially because I have such a hard time thinking of story titles.

Action: I'm probably going to have some POV switching for a bit, but that's more due to the fact that the two characters are going to be in different parts of the 'map' as it were, so there will be different things happening at the same time. Yeah. I can't say I'm regretting the decision to write Akuze rather than have it mentioned or talked about after the fact, but ... I can say that I'm concerned about doing it justice. Having it come out boring...would be really, really bad.

So when I finish writing that part I'll probably come back in here frantically asking for editing help.

[hot_heart]

dpMeggers wrote...
So when I finish writing that part I'll probably come back in here frantically asking for editing help.

I'd be happy to help!

[Seracen]

hot_heart wrote...

dpMeggers wrote...
So when I finish writing that part I'll probably come back in here frantically asking for editing help.

I'd be happy to help!

Seconded!

Also, totally in the camp of "can't be bothered" when coming up with chapter names.  I've only ever done it the one time, in an aforementioned Scifi fic, which shall never be published without taking a damn bludgeon to the whole thing, lol.