10369 réponses à ce sujet

[Klidi]

Thank you for this!

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
who was very rarely stable.

I couldn't agree more.

[Sialater]

Leave it to Monty Python.

"I drink therefore I am." 

Modifié par Sialater, 07 octobre 2011 - 08:17 .

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Mark of the Assassin contest has been updated to include stuff like fanfics! Hooray!

There's a 1000 word limit, but I would encourage people to enter something if they can, just to show us writer-types *want in* on the official competitions. I'd hate to see them limited to graphic art and cosplay forever.

To arms!

[Corker]

*head scratch*

I'd like to, but I'm not sure how to write something for a character I only have a visual reference for (not having played MotA yet). I could try something, but it'd be a shot in the dark.

[Sialater]

So, it has to be MotA related?

[Corker]

The original contest, IIRC, was *Talllis* art or costume, so it may have to be Tallis-related.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

I'm guessing it has to be Tallis related.

@Corker, the first part of Redemption is online. Maybe that'll give some ideas?

[Tryynity]

Corker wrote...

The original contest, IIRC, was *Talllis* art or costume, so it may have to be Tallis-related.

Same here - I thought about writing about my Kyora character and calling her Tallis - but Im guessing they want it to  be fully DA2

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

I'm not so sure it has to be DA2 related. Just Tallis related

[Tryynity]

Can anyone pls give me some quick links to their fiction that contains GOOD fight scenes - I need to learn some words other that KA-Ching LOL and some for some upcoming fight scenes.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Hmm...I haven't heard anything bad about this fight scene, so, Part 21 of The Hunt, which is practically all fight scene.

What kind of fight scenes are you after, though? A battlefield is very different to a duel.

Modifié par Shadow of Light Dragon, 18 octobre 2011 - 12:27 .

[Corker]

Some fight scenes from "Search for the Dragon's Claw:"

Prologue: Skirmish with some darkspawn in the Deep Roads; two-sworder with archery backup.

Chapter 4, Reflexes: a duel in the second half of the chapter, observer's POV

Chapter 6, Dragons: dragons and dragon cultists vs. the dual wielder, the archer and the mage, in a sewer

Chapter ?, Wardens: An ambush in the forest

Chapter Penultimate, The Dragon's Claw: A high dragon! Orlesian bastard! Cultists! Blood magic! Earthquakes and lava! Dog! If it's a little over the top, it's meant to be - the entire story is supposed to be sort of Indiana Jones-y.

Dragon Age: ElvhenanDragon Age: Elvhenan[/url] (18+, NSFW warning) has a decent scene where the POV is overwhelmed by giant spiders (edit: and duh, a berserker attack on Ft Drakon); Wild Blood (18+, NSFW warning) has a mage taking on two shipfuls of qunari toward the end, in what I think is a fairly plausible manner. There's a few shots of Fenris and Varric fighting qunari in the streets as well, but I don't know that they're long enough to qualify as "scenes."

Modifié par Corker, 17 octobre 2011 - 05:48 .

[Tryynity]

THank you - thank you - much appreciated - so hard trying to scan through thousands of FF entries to find what you want. That should be more than enough though. Ill review also while Im there
as a proper thank you.

[jamesp81]

So, let me ask you other writers a question.

How do you deal with disappointment? I don't deal very well with it at all. I recently published a fic that I really put some heart and soul into. Apparently, no one likes it. 2 weeks or so, not a single comment. That has been very depressing.

I'm sure it's not perfect, it could use some revision. I'll get to it when I can find some time, I'm sure, but still. I find it difficult to deal with, in any case.

[Corker]

I try to not be disappointed in three ways:

1. Friend list/BSN blog comments and likes, particularly from the friends who are also writers whose stories I enjoy. Of course I like "likes" from all my friends, but it's especially nice to know that people whose stuff I admire also admire my stuff.

2. Page views. My fan stuff here on BSN doesn't get many comments, but I see the page view count go up. That's good to know.

3. Work on personally rewarding stuff. Not *all* of my stuff falls in this category, but the long stuff does. Even when there are few comments, it's still something I'm proud to have written, so I'm not disappointed.

Buuut sure, there comes the day when I fire something off and it sinks into the ether with nary a bubble, and it's on the kmeme or similar so I don't know what the page counts are. And I flounce a bit, and I wonder about the taste of the readers, and then I wonder if I wrote a stinker; I may complain a bit to my husband about the vagaries of fan fiction, and then I write the next thing.

I do admit that, when something like three fills on similar themes all sank, I was seriously wondering if I was doing it wrong. Finally, a single but extremely enthusiastic commenter showed up, and I felt somewhat reassured.

...also, I have some dirty tricks. I write humor and smut pretty well, and humorous smut, and those are pretty popular. If I'm feeling down, I can crank out something along those lines and usually get at least a couple of back-pats for my pains. (I think it gives commenters something easy to talk about - "haha that was sooo funny!" is easier to express than "The tension between pain and healing in this piece was wonderful; I really thought it was neat the way the wound slowly closing paralleled the way OC's heart was closing off - pain went away in both cases, but only one was true healing... very cool!" Commenters like that are darn rare.)

[mousestalker]

Most of my stuff gets very little commentary or feedback. I have some very kind friends, whom I adore. The most reviewed, popular thing I've ever written was a Fenders fill over on kmeme (I'm not a huge fan of Fenders). I did it for the challenge of it and I'll never let anyone know that I was the one who wrote it.

As for egoboo, the only thing I can add is figure out why you write. I write because I want to get better at it. The BSN and fanfic generally are a new writer friendly environment. If you don't get much positive feedback, you generally get even less negative feedback. All the writing advice I've ever read consists mostly of 'write every day'. The more you do, the better you should get. If you stop, you'll never get better.

The myth about writing the great American novel your first go 'round is just that, a myth. Margaret Mitchell's first novel was 'Gone With The Wind'. What doesn't get mentioned is she had been a fairly well known newspaper reporter for years before she started the book. JRR Tolkien's first book was not 'Lord of the Rings'. His children have made a fortune publishing all the dreck that his fans will buy that he wrote before LoTR. Harper Lee's first (and last) book was "To Kill A Mockingbird". She was as close to a prodigy as you'll ever see, but she was a published author of essays and short stories before she published her novel. Having Truman Capote as her beta reader didn't hurt either.

If you think your story was worth reading, try publishing it elsewhere. There are several LiveJournal communities, there's a sizable reader base at ff.net and there's deviantart as well. The more places you put it, the more eyeballs you will likely attract.

Modifié par mousestalker, 18 octobre 2011 - 07:50 .

[jamesp81]

That's the problem. I already put it out there on ff.net.

Not a good sign I usually get at least a couple of commenters here and there, but not this time. Subject matter might've been too heavy, I don't know.

The real reason I write?  Two of them: sometimes an idea strikes and I just like to put it down on paper.  But beyond that, what I do for my day job is completely worthless and has no meaning.  If I can eventually write for a living, I'd like to.  It's an honorable profession that shapes the thinking of society in some pretty significant ways.  It is here that I might do something lasting and meaningful with my life:)

Modifié par jamesp81, 18 octobre 2011 - 09:08 .

[Sialater]

I second everything Corker and Mousetalker said.

Just keep going and write for yourself. Who cares what anyone else thinks? (Now, ask me how many times a day I have to repeat that to myself.)

[Corker]

I would so be a liar if I said I didn't care what readers thought.

But not all writing has the same importance to me either, yanno? There's stuff I'd write regardless of popularity. Long have I toiled, composing Anglo-Saxon-styled verses that are not exactly 100 Greatest Folkie Hits material, because I groove on it. My pulp adventure serial was getting written, reviewers or no.

But, oh let's see... "The Ballad of the Hero of Ferelden." Yes, I had this idea to write ballad verses for each and every major decision point in the game, as well as every LI, and probably a few of the LI combinations, so that people could assemble the song of their own Wardens from the parts. It seemed like a neat idea. I wrote a bunch of ballad stanzas. Nobody seemed to give a fig. Ballad stanzas got boring. I haven't touched it in over a year, I think. If there had been interest and encouragement, I'm sure I would have continued.

I'm pretty sure my smut output would be way lower if it didn't get me tasty, tasty compliments. I can't spend 'em, but they're warm fuzzies.

I think the thing is, not to hang all your hopes and feelings of worth on a single piece, even one you put a lot of heart into. Write the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Some will be popular, some not so much, and the ones that are your favorites will be glossed over and the ones you didn't think much of at the time will have people standing and asking for more. Just try to roll with it, and write the next one.

[Tryynity]

jamesp81 wrote...

So, let me ask you other writers a question.

How do you deal with disappointment? I don't deal very well with it at all. I recently published a fic that I really put some heart and soul into. Apparently, no one likes it. 2 weeks or so, not a single comment. That has been very depressing.

I'm sure it's not perfect, it could use some revision. I'll get to it when I can find some time, I'm sure, but still. I find it difficult to deal with, in any case.

I try to tell myself it doesnt matter - but Im not a good liar

I have had one so far - but lots of visitors.  Lots of visitors + no comments = My story sucks is my formula.

We are all performers - I cannot think of anything worse than standing on a stage - doing your thing and you get nothing from your audience.... even a boo is better than silence (unless you can convince yourself everyone is asleep - but I dont think so)

As writers we need to spread our love everywhere we go - give what you want back.  I comment on everything I read I never BS there is always something nice to say.  I also enjoy helpful criticism, my beta reader is helped me so much with only one piece read so far.... its the whole sounding board thing.

Ive stopped reading most FF for now except when Im researching something.... only because of time plus it tends to dilute my own story for some reason...

Sialater wrote...

I second everything Corker and Mousetalker said.

Just keep going and write for yourself. Who cares what anyone else thinks? (Now, ask me how many times a day I have to repeat that to myself.)

But yea I have to agree with this also - its a balance between writing for your own enjoyment and for writing for others as well - you cant know ppl are enjoying what you do if they dont tell you - I would rather know I suck so I can stop embarrassing myself.

I had the same problem as a back up singer... Im my own worse critic - and I believe my negative self a lot quicker than the positive one.

Modifié par Tryynity, 18 octobre 2011 - 11:02 .

[jamesp81]

Corker wrote...

I would so be a liar if I said I didn't care what readers thought.

But not all writing has the same importance to me either, yanno? There's stuff I'd write regardless of popularity. Long have I toiled, composing Anglo-Saxon-styled verses that are not exactly 100 Greatest Folkie Hits material, because I groove on it. My pulp adventure serial was getting written, reviewers or no.

But, oh let's see... "The Ballad of the Hero of Ferelden." Yes, I had this idea to write ballad verses for each and every major decision point in the game, as well as every LI, and probably a few of the LI combinations, so that people could assemble the song of their own Wardens from the parts. It seemed like a neat idea. I wrote a bunch of ballad stanzas. Nobody seemed to give a fig. Ballad stanzas got boring. I haven't touched it in over a year, I think. If there had been interest and encouragement, I'm sure I would have continued.

I'm pretty sure my smut output would be way lower if it didn't get me tasty, tasty compliments. I can't spend 'em, but they're warm fuzzies.

I think the thing is, not to hang all your hopes and feelings of worth on a single piece, even one you put a lot of heart into. Write the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Some will be popular, some not so much, and the ones that are your favorites will be glossed over and the ones you didn't think much of at the time will have people standing and asking for more. Just try to roll with it, and write the next one.

I'm just not good at smut writing.  Just can't do it.   Several reasons for that, they're not important, but it just never was my thing.  I can see why people appreciate it, though.

[DreGregoire]

I personally am not a smut writer. (Shut up anybody who has read any of my few smut pieces!) I enjoy writing for the dance of words, actions, and emotions between my characters. If I wrote for the comments or acknowledgement I wouldn't still be writing. I'm not saying it isn't nice to get comments but it's not why I write. Dragon Age has just impacted me so strongly that I feel the need to share the stories I have in my own head as I play it.

Modifié par DreGregoire, 18 octobre 2011 - 11:43 .

[Corker]

jamesp81 wrote...

I'm just not good at smut writing.  Just can't do it.   Several reasons for that, they're not important, but it just never was my thing.  I can see why people appreciate it, though.

I generally try really hard not to think about why people appreciate it. 

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Regarding the MotA art contest, this from the devs about subject matter:

"We'd like your art to focus on Tallis, but we will not automatically disqualify you if you choose to write about MotA in general."

Regarding disappointment:

Personally I think that's one of the risks of posting something as a serial. If you don't deal with it well, it can potentially take the creative wind out of your sails while you're mid-story, or barely beginning.

To be honest, I was surprised you posted the section of story you already had in a single go as chapters rather than as a solid single chunk, or drawn out over a few days. It's sad to say, but I think a *lot* of FF.Netters bypass stories that have a higher chapter-to-review count. If they don't look at the Published date, they see a story with a lot of chapters that no one has thought enough on to leave a comment about. I suspect there's an assumption on the site that a fic with lots of chapters is a fic that's been around for a while, and a fic that's been around for a while that doesn't have a single review to its name "mustn't be any good."

I don't know about dealing with disappointment...but I would advise you to get used to it. It happens, no matter how much heart you pour into something, no matter how good your art might be. Either keep writing because you want to get a story out, or move on to a new story until you find something that sparks the kind of response you're after. Just don't let it make you give up.

(And while I don't write smut (or more accurately, haven't managed to get myself to branch out and try it yet), I do remember a time yonks ago when I was so awkward about anything that could be thought of in a remotely sexy manner, I actually blushed when using the word 'breasts' for what I think was the first time in a story. Now I can write innuendo like it's a second language. So I suppose there's hope for me yet.)

[mousestalker]

My main problem with smut is that writing it tends to reduce me to giggles. Even the serious passionate sweaty stuff is something I can not take seriously when writing.

Battle scenes are also problematic. Crack is not.

If it helps, I try to set myself problems. I re-read what I've written and try to address the stuff that is cringeworthy. Dunno if I'm getting better, but it's important to try to improve.