9962 réponses à ce sujet

[hot_heart]

Pencil neck? Is your Jack from the fifties?

Also, DPMEGGERS! Where did you appear from?!

Modifié par hot_heart, 13 juillet 2013 - 07:59 .

[Seracen]

@ Mr.Stoob: hah, can't believe I forgot about Bioshock. Then again, I stated before how my mind just captures bits of story like that, and then recycles it.

That's why I try to remain "pure" when writing my own stories, lest I copy off others' notes by accident.

On the subject of dialogue characterization, it can indeed be fun, if frustrating at times.

As for collabs, I can see the authors dividing the scenes as suits their enjoyment.

Case in point, I am currently slogging through a sequence of events. While interesting, I think I'm just gonna get the bare bones down, and come back to it later when I'm more interested.

I've been doing a lot of my story that way, it seems, as I close in on the ending. I think it's b/c I know I'll have to change it around depending on how it actually finishes. Ah well...

[MrStoob]

hot_heart wrote...

Pencil neck? Is your Jack from the fifties?

Also, DPMEGGERS! Where did you appear from?!

Indeedly, meant to highlight the arrival myself.

What's wrong with 'pencil neck'?  If she's grabbing you by the throat, with that feral deranged look in her eye, it'd sound scary enough lol.

[dpMeggers]

hot_heart wrote...

Pencil neck? Is your Jack from the fifties?

Also, DPMEGGERS! Where did you appear from?!

Eh, I got over the guilt I was feeling at not updating my fic which lead to me avoiding places where I might be reminded that I hadn't updated my fic.

I still haven't updated, but I'm less fussed about it because I'm writing other things too now.

Also I suspect that if Jack had her hands around my neck and was calling me pencil neck I'd be deeply concerned about the possiblity of a neck snap.

[Seracen]

dpMeggers wrote...

hot_heart wrote...

Pencil neck? Is your Jack from the fifties?

Also, DPMEGGERS! Where did you appear from?!

Eh, I got over the guilt I was feeling at not updating my fic which lead to me avoiding places where I might be reminded that I hadn't updated my fic.

I still haven't updated, but I'm less fussed about it because I'm writing other things too now.

Also I suspect that if Jack had her hands around my neck and was calling me pencil neck I'd be deeply concerned about the possiblity of a neck snap.

Ah, don't feel too bad, it's good to see you again!

Also, I imagine Jack could call me anything she darn well pleased, I'd hardly be in a position to refute her!

In other news: another day, another chapter, thank goodness.  I tried using Dragon Dictate.  It's convenient for some form of writing, I suppose, but it feels so unnatural.  I also end up spending more time editing, so I think I'll forego it for writing fics, at the very least.

Does anyone else have luck with dictation software?  Perhaps if I train it enough, it'll get to a point where it'd be useable; but I'd have to buy a wireless headset, as I'd like to pace as I talked.

Listening to the Dark Knight OST as I wrote this last chapter.  I skimped on a few scenes, but at least it's out.  I'm getting to the point where I can't just write whatever I am in the mood for, as there aren't enough chapters left for me to do that with...it must be done in sequence!!!

[Ignis Mors]

Seracen wrote...

dpMeggers wrote...

hot_heart wrote...

Pencil neck? Is your Jack from the fifties?

Also, DPMEGGERS! Where did you appear from?!

Eh, I got over the guilt I was feeling at not updating my fic which lead to me avoiding places where I might be reminded that I hadn't updated my fic.

I still haven't updated, but I'm less fussed about it because I'm writing other things too now.

Also I suspect that if Jack had her hands around my neck and was calling me pencil neck I'd be deeply concerned about the possiblity of a neck snap.

Ah, don't feel too bad, it's good to see you again!

Also, I imagine Jack could call me anything she darn well pleased, I'd hardly be in a position to refute her!

In other news: another day, another chapter, thank goodness.  I tried using Dragon Dictate.  It's convenient for some form of writing, I suppose, but it feels so unnatural.  I also end up spending more time editing, so I think I'll forego it for writing fics, at the very least.

Does anyone else have luck with dictation software?  Perhaps if I train it enough, it'll get to a point where it'd be useable; but I'd have to buy a wireless headset, as I'd like to pace as I talked.

Listening to the Dark Knight OST as I wrote this last chapter.  I skimped on a few scenes, but at least it's out.  I'm getting to the point where I can't just write whatever I am in the mood for, as there aren't enough chapters left for me to do that with...it must be done in sequence!!!

I've never tried dictation software, as I usually write where there are other people around, and that would 1) reveal to people who think of fanfiction as just porn that I write it, and 2) it always seemed a bit silly to me. 
The Dark Knight has an awesome soundtrack. 
As for my writing, Finally got my ME/TF Prime Beast Hunters crossover done, and now my muse, the annoying thing it is, wants to whisper about the fic that I haven't updated in nearly a year. Feels good to be able to write about something that doesn't feature Prime.  Also, I'd appreciate it if you guys could look at and give me some feedback about it. Link here.  The Prime Effect.

[Fatiguesdualism]

@Ignis Mors: I'll give yours a read if you like, probably take me to Thursday or so to get back to you though and to be fair I'm not a big Transformers fan so I'll probably miss some character stuff. Also be aware I'm not much good at the whole reviewing game yet!

As a somewhat more morbid topic, just how much death is too much? I'm asking because I've gotten myself into the position where I can kill off a 'canon' character and it seems plausible to me do so. But I've just killed Shep's mother (off-screen, unrelated incident) and I'm feeling if I kill off [redacted] so soon after that - well it just seems excessive. I mean [redacted] not going anywhere, I could always leave it open to come back to later (or throw out the airlock if need be)!

Anyway so the question is how many characters can you reasonably kill, without it starting to seem vindictive/excessive?

EDITED:  So people won't call me 'meanie'

Modifié par Fatiguesdualism, 16 juillet 2013 - 01:28 .

[feriwan]

Can someone help me?
I plan to write a fanfic from the beginning of ME1 to after the ending of ME3 in four parts - ME1, ME2, ME3, post ME3.
I'm thinking of mostly writing about stuff that happens in between missions, or what my own take on certain missions is (so maybe a slight deviation from canon, but still follow the main lines).
I think I can write well enough and all (I already wrote one fanfic - Firebase Ghost) or at least, well enough to satisfy myself and a few others, but I need help with the title(s). Anyone have a good idea?

[Seracen]

Fatiguesdualism wrote...

@Ignis Mors: I'll give yours a read if you like, probably take me to Thursday or so to get back to you though and to be fair I'm not a big Transformers fan so I'll probably miss some character stuff. Also be aware I'm not much good at the whole reviewing game yet!

As a somewhat more morbid topic, just how much death is too much? I'm asking because I've gotten myself into the position where I can kill off a 'canon' character and it seems plausible to me do so. But I've just killed Shep's mother (off-screen, unrelated incident) and I'm feeling if I kill off Liara so soon after that - well it just seems excessive. I mean she's not going anywhere, I could always leave it open to come back to later (or throw out the airlock if need be)!

Anyway so the question is how many characters can you reasonably kill, without it starting to seem vindictive/excessive?

I am running into a similar situation.  I just had a character die, and am about to kill another one off in the next chapter.  I think I'll end up reorganizing the chapters a bit b/c of this.

It's not b/c I think it's implausible.  It isn't even b/c I think it's too soon.  It's b/c I want the emotions to linger a bit longer before the next hit comes.

I am assuming Shep's mom is a minor char in the background, so if you kill off another character soon afterwards, it's just raising the stakes.  At the end of the day, it has to make sense within the confines of your story.

For instance, nobody questioned Mordin or Thane dying.  A few folks questioned Legion dying.  A lot of folks question if Kirrahe died in Thane's place.  This wasn't b/c of the frequency of death, so much as the manner in which it was handled.

If you are killing for shock value, I tend to avoid it.  If it makes sense, do what you gotta do, I say.

feriwan wrote...

Can someone help me?
I plan to write a fanfic from the beginning of ME1 to after the ending of ME3 in four parts - ME1, ME2, ME3, post ME3.
I'm thinking of mostly writing about stuff that happens in between missions, or what my own take on certain missions is (so maybe a slight deviation from canon, but still follow the main lines).
I think I can write well enough and all (I already wrote one fanfic - Firebase Ghost) or at least, well enough to satisfy myself and a few others, but I need help with the title(s). Anyone have a good idea?

Alas my friend, I suck at titles, lol

You could always go with a progressive series of adjectives/nouns...

ME1: Origins/Inception/Genesis
ME2: Rise/Succession
ME3: Terminus/Endgame
ME3: Epilogue/Coda/Remembrance

Like I said, I suck at naming conventions.  Recently, I basically name it after a major plot thread in the story (but preferably one people won't pick up on until at least halfway in)

[dpMeggers]

I think at one point or another we've all complained about titles here.

I usually go with song titles or lyrics, proverbs, nursery rhymes or famous quotes (in whole or part) when a title hasn't spontaneously presented itself.

[MrStoob]

Fatiguesdualism wrote...
kill off Liara

 meanie

[hot_heart]

Ugh, at this stage where I need to write the next chapter, but the actual content bores me. =/

[Fatiguesdualism]

MrStoob wrote...

*snip*

 meanie

My bad  I really should stop posting on here last thing at night!

@Seracen:  I think you've nailed it there on the emotional impact.  I haven't given Shepard the opportunity to react, fully, to his mother's death yet.  I think I'm going to have to show that before dropping anyone else.  Thank you!

@MrStoob:  Looks like she gets to survive

@hot_heart:  Summer writing blues?

[hot_heart]

More general laziness. I mean, it is really hot here right now and I do feel tired once I'm home from work and sorted dinner, etc. but that's just part of it. I need to write Miranda meeting up with old colleagues, and I've got a sort of interesting way to do it, but writing it feels like a chore. Usually, once I'm past a certain point, something clicks and everything becomes easier, but nothing so far...

[Fatiguesdualism]

Sorry to hear that! I really hate waiting for 'the click' too, it's like that 'second wind' runners go on about. A lot of plodding along until --TA-DA!-- (in my case it usually lasts as long as TA-DA! as well). Anyway hope you get your mojo back, maybe this is just 'the wall' before everything falls into place!

[Seracen]

Fatiguesdualism wrote...

[snip]
@Seracen:  I think you've nailed it there on the emotional impact.  I haven't given Shepard the opportunity to react, fully, to his mother's death yet.  I think I'm going to have to show that before dropping anyone else.  Thank you!

@MrStoob:  Looks like she gets to survive

@hot_heart:  Summer writing blues?

Methinks I was only able to grant Liara a stay of execution, rather than absolving her of it...  DUN DUN DUN!!! 
In all seriousness though, I'm glad I was able to help.  I am a staunch believer in milking every bit of worth out of a character's death.

Then again, I'm the sort of gamer who nurses the big weapons until I REALLY need them (eg: grenades, rockets, etc in shooters, or one time use items in RPG's); and this behavior tends to carry over.



@hot_heart: I've been dealing with similar issues of late, hence why it's taken me longer to write these last few chapters than the 40 before them.  I actually tend to write the first paragraph in the next chapter once I finish the current one I am writing, while the juices are flowing (because I find it hard to start a chapter cold).

I've done the whole "outline then flesh it out" approach; but there's only so much rote writing one can do before it loses that emotion that made it good in the first place.  As it stands, I am already going to have to go back and rework the chapters I've gotten out recently, but at least that's easier than starting from scratch.

I hope you have better luck getting your chapters out!

Modifié par Seracen, 16 juillet 2013 - 05:41 .

[feriwan]

As for my title of Mass Effect 1: How about "The greatest discovery in human history"

[dpMeggers]

feriwan wrote...

As for my title of Mass Effect 1: How about "The greatest discovery in human history"

It's a bit wordy for my tastes, and it doesn't really tell me a great deal about your story - in fact it would make me think more that your story is about humanity's discovery of mass effect technology rather than the first Mass Effect plot.

So questions:
1) What's your Shepard like? (M/F, class, background, service history, are they more renegade or paragon).
2) What's the story going to focus on? (Action, romance, crew interaction, many characters, one character, one POV or many POVs)

[feriwan]

dpMeggers wrote...

feriwan wrote...

As for my title of Mass Effect 1: How about "The greatest discovery in human history"

It's a bit wordy for my tastes, and it doesn't really tell me a great deal about your story - in fact it would make me think more that your story is about humanity's discovery of mass effect technology rather than the first Mass Effect plot.

So questions:
1) What's your Shepard like? (M/F, class, background, service history, are they more renegade or paragon).
2) What's the story going to focus on? (Action, romance, crew interaction, many characters, one character, one POV or many POVs)

Well, yeah, maybe a bit wordy, but still.... I was also thinking about the discovery of the reapers, which is probably the even greater discovery of all time...

1) male, vanguard, war hero, more paragon, but renegade to bad guys who get him pissed off.
pretty much all big decisions are paragon, romance Liara, then Tali, then Liara again, chooses destroy (high-EMS), least amount of crew dead, Ashley is VS

2) I don't know how many POV's, probably mostly Shepard unless you need more info from outside his POV. It's going to be (as I said before):

four parts - ME1, ME2, ME3, post ME3.
I'm thinking of mostly writing
about stuff that happens in between missions, or what my own take on
certain missions is (so maybe a slight deviation from canon, but still
follow the main lines).

So I guess partly crew interaction, but also action/adventure.
I plan to make ot a bit different from the games - as in, go beyond what game limitations there are (such as more than 2 crew members during missions, melee through shields) and also just stuff like altered conversations (but not that big of a difference) and probably different in-game time durations than was intentioned.

One of the big things will also be between ME1 and ME2, as well as between ME2 and ME3, and post ME3. More specifically, what happens when Shepard is 'dead', and then after the ME3 ending, and then even go on to my own headcanon crossover (I don't know why, I just really want to, ok?)


I'm just not to good at titles...
but thanks for all the help!

[hot_heart]

If it's about Reapers, I've always liked 'The Be All And End All'

Also, thanks for the support, guys! Just got to try and get stuck in some more and see what happens, I guess.

[dpMeggers]

If your intent for the first title was about discovering the Reapers (and I agree, that sort of huge!), you could try something like 'Discovering Truth'.

[feriwan]

But, I'm not really sure because it's more just the fact that reapers are 'discovered' in ME1.
My thing might be something more of tons of shorter stories that are all together part of what happens in ME1...

[feriwan]

Or maybe:
ME1 - A Spectre Rising
ME2 - A Spectre Returns
ME3 - A Spectre's duty
post ME3 - ???
Darn, can't think of anything for the last one, but I think the others are pretty good.

[Lilivati]

Sorry for the random interjection but I need to vent a little, and you're the only group of people I know who would understand...

I am two weeks overdue for an update to my story and every time I look at this chapter I feel like it's the worst thing I've ever written, up to and including the ten-sentence "story" I wrote in the second grade that was really just a rip off of "Little House on the Prairie". >_< And it's kind of an important chapter to get right too, as it resolves a long-running subplot I inserted into the story that is critical to how my Shepard got into her present emotional outlook.

I have no idea how to fix it. Even the things I meant to lighten an otherwise extremely serious chapter are turning into huge seriousface ordeals. And I'm worried it's waaaaay too over-the-top.

And meanwhile the update clock is ticking, and that little voice in my head reminding me I never finish anything is starting to cackle a bit. It doesn't matter that I was on vacation last week and my boss announced she was quitting and giving me all her responsibilities in addition to my own last month, both of which have taken a toll on my ability to put decent words on the page, it keeps telling me if I were more disciplined/organized I'd be able to keep up.

The story's just a huge mess right now lol.

Modifié par Lilivati, 16 juillet 2013 - 09:41 .

[enayasoul]

Lilivati wrote...

Sorry for the random interjection but I need to vent a little, and you're the only group of people I know who would understand...

I am two weeks overdue for an update to my story and every time I look at this chapter I feel like it's the worst thing I've ever written, up to and including the ten-sentence "story" I wrote in the second grade that was really just a rip off of "Little House on the Prairie". >_< And it's kind of an important chapter to get right too, as it resolves a long-running subplot I inserted into the story that is critical to how my Shepard got into her present emotional outlook.

I have no idea how to fix it. Even the things I meant to lighten an otherwise extremely serious chapter are turning into huge seriousface ordeals. And I'm worried it's waaaaay too over-the-top.

And meanwhile the update clock is ticking, and that little voice in my head reminding me I never finish anything is starting to cackle a bit. It doesn't matter that I was on vacation last week and my boss announced she was quitting and giving me all her responsibilities in addition to my own last month, both of which have taken a toll on my ability to put decent words on the page, it keeps telling me if I were more disciplined/organized I'd be able to keep up.

The story's just a huge mess right now lol.

Deadlines are good to set for yourself just don't let them stress you out.  If the chapter really bothers you a little bit take a few days off from it and come back when the stress is less.  Might help?  I usually do and then that's when the problem to whatever I'm having comes to light and solves the issue I was having.  Like a lightbulb going off.    

I waited two months to post a new chapter but I was also very busy with work and college, no energy to write even though I wanted to.  Begging me to write.

I can also understand the feeling of what you wrote is 'the worst ever'.  I think we've all been there.  That's where we can reword, revise whatever it takes, just getting something down is an accomplishment.

<_<