10369 réponses à ce sujet

[Miri1984]

I can do description but it annoys me. I usually have to go back and insert it, especially since I write in close third - something has to really strike my character before it will be describEd in any detail.

[Addai]

klarabella wrote...

I love descriptions. It's essential if you want to create your own vision of the world. I'm a fan of the rule show don't tell. Many authors rush from dialogue to dialogue, they let their characters tell me what I should see for myself.

I love atmosphere and nerdy bits (not to be confused with dirty bits!), but it can definitely be overdone IMO.  So I try to evoke rather than describe in minute detail, unless a detail is important to the story or I find it interesting for its own sake.

Speaking of dirty bits, I hate writing sex scenes.  Def my least favorite thing and I'm sure it shows.  To me there is nothing duller or more cliche' than describing body parts for its own sake, so I tend to focus on the emotion/ thought process and it makes my characters seem like they're doing psychoanalysis when really I'm sure they're 99% getting busy.

[mousestalker]

Addai67 wrote...

klarabella wrote...

I love descriptions. It's essential if you want to create your own vision of the world. I'm a fan of the rule show don't tell. Many authors rush from dialogue to dialogue, they let their characters tell me what I should see for myself.

I love atmosphere and nerdy bits (not to be confused with dirty bits!), but it can definitely be overdone IMO.  So I try to evoke rather than describe in minute detail, unless a detail is important to the story or I find it interesting for its own sake.

Speaking of dirty bits, I hate writing sex scenes.  Def my least favorite thing and I'm sure it shows.  To me there is nothing duller or more cliche' than describing body parts for its own sake, so I tend to focus on the emotion/ thought process and it makes my characters seem like they're doing psychoanalysis when really I'm sure they're 99% getting busy.

The best feedback I've ever gotten were for some smutty stories posted under another name. That makes me really uncomfortable.

"Hi, I'm mousestalker, I write really short stories that kinda suck but I write great porn!"

[Corker]

College profs loved me for my short, concise answers to essay questions. Technical journals tell me my style is too informal and chatty. Go figure.  (Honestly, I think they're both right...)

I'm not even sure when the last time I wrote a bona fide story was. I do a lot of scenes. 

No, I take that back.  'Dirty Work' was a story.  But that's been the only one for a long time.

Modifié par Corker, 08 octobre 2010 - 03:42 .

[SurelyForth]

I've come to the point where, personal weirdness and technical ability aside, I actually enjoy writing smut. The part I struggle with (besides an obsession with hands) is that I have a terrible time judging what's too graphic when it comes to these things, so I err on the side of ambiguity when I actually publish.



I can't really think of strengths because I just see rambling and the word "and". Weaknesses? The word "and", rambling, lack of meaningful description, jarring stylistic jumps (I at least I try to keep them consistent within each character's perspective), iffy dialogue, an over-reliance on character quirks, pacing issues, and an unhealthy commitment to keeping most of my characters pretty f*cked up. And in constant peril.

[LupusYondergirl]

Addai67 wrote...

klarabella wrote...

I love descriptions. It's essential if you want to create your own vision of the world. I'm a fan of the rule show don't tell. Many authors rush from dialogue to dialogue, they let their characters tell me what I should see for myself.

I love atmosphere and nerdy bits (not to be confused with dirty bits!), but it can definitely be overdone IMO.  So I try to evoke rather than describe in minute detail, unless a detail is important to the story or I find it interesting for its own sake.

Speaking of dirty bits, I hate writing sex scenes.  Def my least favorite thing and I'm sure it shows.  To me there is nothing duller or more cliche' than describing body parts for its own sake, so I tend to focus on the emotion/ thought process and it makes my characters seem like they're doing psychoanalysis when really I'm sure they're 99% getting busy.

I suck with world description.  I'm more dialogue than anything.

But I admit, I love writing smut.  There's something fun about it that makes the younger version of me who lives in my head giggle and say "take that, Sister Mary Margaret! Ha!"  (Ahh, catholic school.  My parents couldn't have found a better way to make me... no longer Catholic if they tried.)

Although I also use smut to express my characters' psychological issues.
"I'm secretly intimidated by your titles.  Do what I say!"
"I have an abandonment complex! Tell me you love me!"
"I'm afraid of being forgotten!  Scream my name!"
"I seek validation through sex.  Let's go again!"

Ah, the crazy,  So hot.

My highest-feedback chapters are almost always the ones with smut in them.

[Addai]

mousestalker wrote...

The best feedback I've ever gotten were for some smutty stories posted under another name. That makes me really uncomfortable.

"Hi, I'm mousestalker, I write really short stories that kinda suck but I write great porn!"

Heh.  Well if there's one thing that I've learned in my brief and not-so-illustrious fanfiction writing experience, it's that the things I like are not always what other people like, and the things I think people could hate end up being the most popular, and I have no freaking clue how to tell the difference.

[Sarah1281]

klarabella wrote...



I love descriptions. It's essential if you want to create your own vision of the world. I'm a fan of the rule show don't tell. Many authors rush from dialogue to dialogue, they let their characters tell me what I should see for myself.

My problem with that rule is that I've read all sorts of stories that people claim do that excellently but there's just so much boring description that I don't care about (what people look like, what the scenery look like, what buildings look like...) that it either takes me forever to read or I skim it. I don't really want to be told OR shown what things look like as I have enough imagination to fill in the blanks and so writing things that bore me to death isn't something I'm fond of doing.

[Addai]

Sarah1281 wrote...
 I don't really want to be told OR shown what things look like as I have enough imagination to fill in the blanks and so writing things that bore me to death isn't something I'm fond of doing.

Some authors purposely limit description for this reason.  It drives me a little nutty.  In order to confirm that Ender of Ender's Game is blonde, for instance, you have to extrapolate from a couple obscure comments.

[Sandtigress]

I'm not sure I have a grasp at all on what my strengths and weaknesses are. I don't think I do enough description, but I get lots of complements on how well I do it, and I hate my action scenes, but get told I do them well. *shrugs* I also think my dialogue is awkward as hell, but no one complains about it.

If I had to say I had a strength, it's emotion, I like writing that. Much to my surprise I also do short and sweet pretty well. Actually, no, that's not that much of a surprise because the less dialogue I have to do the better I feel about a piece, so the set I did in letter format was very comfortable for me and seemed pretty generally well received.

I just hate writing dialogue!

[Sarah1281]

Addai67 wrote...

Sarah1281 wrote...
 I don't really want to be told OR shown what things look like as I have enough imagination to fill in the blanks and so writing things that bore me to death isn't something I'm fond of doing.

Some authors purposely limit description for this reason.  It drives me a little nutty.  In order to confirm that Ender of Ender's Game is blonde, for instance, you have to extrapolate from a couple obscure comments.

And we still don't know if LotR elves have pointy ears or not.

[Maria13]

Addai67 wrote...

Sarah1281 wrote...
 I don't really want to be told OR shown what things look like as I have enough imagination to fill in the blanks and so writing things that bore me to death isn't something I'm fond of doing.

Some authors purposely limit description for this reason.  It drives me a little nutty.  In order to confirm that Ender of Ender's Game is blonde, for instance, you have to extrapolate from a couple obscure comments.

Re this.  It's quite interesting how some authors use this, in Iain M Banks' "The Player of Games" There is one reference in the  300 hundred pages to him being black.  In Michael Dibden's Aurelio Zen's series it is only in book five or six that you get the briefest of desciptions as to what Zen looks like. 

Actually, I quite like this technique it maximizes impact and makes the reader go: "Woah..."

Modifié par Maria13, 08 octobre 2010 - 06:23 .

[Addai]

Sarah1281 wrote...

And we still don't know if LotR elves have pointy ears or not.

We do actually know that.  Tolkien described hobbit ears as "elvish, slightly pointed," and he makes other references to leaf-shaped and pointed ears.  But the fact that he had to clarify in notes does say something.

[OfficerDonNZ]

I'm far better at writing dialogue than descriptions, so the descriptions I do have tend to be very basic, usually to give you an idea as to where the characters are. Here's an example of what I try to do.



“I don’t like this, there’s something about this place that makes my horns twitch.” Neeshka said quietly as she peered around the entrance of the graveyard.



“It’s too still even for a graveyard, no birds or other wildlife, nothing.” Marcus said agreeing with the tiefling that something was off, as he looked around in the dim light. The heavy mist didn’t help much either. The graveyard was surrounded by woodland on all sides; it looked to have been a natural glade or other clearing at one time. Now it was dominated by three crypts as well as numerous single graves, but it was the lack of sound that bothered the harbourman. There was nothing, not even a breath of wind.



I'm quite pleased with this as the characters themselves tell you a little about where they are, a place that's very creepy. The description isn't overly long or complex and it comes up once, right at the start of the chapter. The finer details are left to the readers imagination

[LupusYondergirl]

Sarah1281 wrote...
My problem with that rule is that I've read all sorts of stories that people claim do that excellently but there's just so much boring description that I don't care about (what people look like, what the scenery look like, what buildings look like...) that it either takes me forever to read or I skim it. I don't really want to be told OR shown what things look like as I have enough imagination to fill in the blanks and so writing things that bore me to death isn't something I'm fond of doing.

In my house we call that Anne Rice syndrome.  Everything's fine, and then BAM, six pages talking about vines on iron railings and antebellum architecturial details. 

[SurelyForth]

So does anyone else have the daily urge to yank every word you've ever written down from the internet, squirrel it away where no one else can see it, and then spend the next few weeks being like "What are you talking about, fic? The most creative thing I've done is take pictures of naked barbarians."



Because seriously, every day. And it's not even angsty or self-critical. It's just this sweaty palms fear thing that hits all of a sudden and I think, "What made any of this seem like a smart idea?"

[Sialater]

I actually strangled that part of me a long time ago. My terrors are more of the, God I suck, variety.

[mousestalker]

@SurelyForth, for what it is worth, I like your stuff.



I used to feel that way, but I take comfort that all this is semi-anonymous, so colleagues, partners and clients need never know that I write angsty stuff about oppressed elves.

[Addai]

SurelyForth wrote...

So does anyone else have the daily urge to yank every word you've ever written down from the internet, squirrel it away where no one else can see it, and then spend the next few weeks being like "What are you talking about, fic? The most creative thing I've done is take pictures of naked barbarians."

Because seriously, every day. And it's not even angsty or self-critical. It's just this sweaty palms fear thing that hits all of a sudden and I think, "What made any of this seem like a smart idea?"

I do wish ffnet had a panic button, but it never occurred to me to engage it while I was writing stuff that no one was reading anyway.  When I started something that a few people actually are reading, that's when it hit me that oh my god, someone is actually reading this.  Like, an actual person is sitting somewhere in the actual world reading it.

Denial is a wonderful thing.

[LupusYondergirl]

Addai67 wrote...

SurelyForth wrote...

So does anyone else have the daily urge to yank every word you've ever written down from the internet, squirrel it away where no one else can see it, and then spend the next few weeks being like "What are you talking about, fic? The most creative thing I've done is take pictures of naked barbarians."

Because seriously, every day. And it's not even angsty or self-critical. It's just this sweaty palms fear thing that hits all of a sudden and I think, "What made any of this seem like a smart idea?"

I do wish ffnet had a panic button, but it never occurred to me to engage it while I was writing stuff that no one was reading anyway.  When I started something that a few people actually are reading, that's when it hit me that oh my god, someone is actually reading this.  Like, an actual person is sitting somewhere in the actual world reading it.

Denial is a wonderful thing.

YES. THIS.

And then I think "wait, I've written how much?  HOW MUCH?  What is WRONG with me?"
And then I see how many people aren't just reading, they're being notified the second I post something new, and I want to bite my fingernails down to somewhere around wrist level.

[SurelyForth]

@mousetalker   Thank you. And I think I would very much die if any of my co-workers knew that I write about...things.

Addai67 wrote...
I do wish ffnet had a panic button, but it never occurred to me to engage it while I was writing stuff that no one was reading anyway.  When I started something that a few people actually are reading, that's when it hit me that oh my god, someone is actually reading this.  Like, an actual person is sitting somewhere in the actual world reading it.

Denial is a wonderful thing.

That's it. I think about it and it's almost like a dream where I'm naked in front of a room full of strangers, only I did this to myself! I stripped down, and I walked in into that classroom/meeting/convenience store of my own volition. It seems like the worst idea ever for about twenty minutes every day and then the feeling of exposed! passes until tomorrow, when I get nervous all over again.

Modifié par SurelyForth, 08 octobre 2010 - 08:22 .

[Sialater]

It goes away. I promise. Eventually.

[Mahkara]

I really think that the secret to writing good description is to ask whether your characters would care.



Like, if you're writing about an architect, it makes a *lot* of sense to describe every last building in minute detail. If you're using someone who is taking a walk through town, but is mostly focused on his/her internal thoughts, it makes no sense that they'll give a dmn what the brick walls of some building look like unless there's something really weird about them.



The same goes for action/sex. The reason we care isn't that a sword was just thrust into some guy's ribs (or other actions, depending...). It's that it hurts like hell, or that by doing this, guy A may be about to win the fight, or whatever.



Wee, back to lurking!

[Sarah1281]

And then I see how many people aren't just reading, they're being notified the second I post something new, and I want to bite my fingernails down to somewhere around wrist level.

You know, now that you mention it I'm starting to freak out by just how many people get an email every time I post something. Granted, most of them don't know anything about DA so probably don't read most of what I've been doing for the past few months but STILL!

[Reika]

Sarah1281 wrote...

And then I see how many people aren't just reading, they're being notified the second I post something new, and I want to bite my fingernails down to somewhere around wrist level.

You know, now that you mention it I'm starting to freak out by just how many people get an email every time I post something. Granted, most of them don't know anything about DA so probably don't read most of what I've been doing for the past few months but STILL!

I've had people who normally don't read DA stuff, or even play the game, PM me telling me they like my fanfiction.

So I'm really awful at the DA stuff, or there's enough there for the non-DA people to understand what I'm doing.

Or something.

And yes, I still have the urge to take down my stuff, except I had one person tell me in the Alistair thread that she was worried that I did take down my page when the link got broken. And then I got PMed on FF.net for not posting anything last night.

It's just...weird.