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I'd like to become a professional writer in the next decade.

7 (29.2%)

Less than videogames.

6 (25%)

I am a professional writer.

3 (12.5%)

More than my health.

2 (8.3%)

I'm not sure.

5 (20.8%)

More than videogames.

0 (0%)

Not at all.

1 (4.2%)

Total Members Voted: 24

Voting closed: April 23, 2012, 11:42:36 pm

[Supermikhail]

Looking forward to reading it.

If the test turns out alright, maybe you'd be interested in a couple of writing prompt challenges to keep creative juices flowing? I've been meaning to do it myself, but it's hard to do on your own.

[lordnincompoop]

First though, I need to acquire a drawing tablet, since I think the digital medium would be much more cost efficient and allow me more freedom. It'd be pretty cool to be the next Fault around here, I think.

So wrong. So very, very wrong.

If you want to improve your artsing skills, there is no reason or excuse in the world for you not to be artsing right now. Drawing tablets are expensive toys and tools, nothing more; they will not by any stretch of the word make you more skillful. It's like waiting to learn how to read until you get a computer, or something.

Good tablets go for hundreds of dollars. A pencil and some paper? Only a few. And I bet you'll just scrap the tablet after the third day too, frustrated at your lack of awesomeness.

This applies to your "manga style" especially, because despite that a lot of people think there are only three things involved in the process: Paper, a pencil, and ink. The tools themselves will never make you better or let you be better; you have to do both.

Because what you really need is time, patience and the balls to do it - expensive toys, no matter how much they want you to buy them, are completely unnecessary.


As an aside, I've found digital art to be much harder and restrictive compared to my set of pencils and paper. It's still doable, but it's time-consuming, and the payoff is never quite as much as I'd like.

It'd be pretty cool to be the next Fault around here, I think.

I realise xkcd isn't highly thought of, but this is very relevant anyways.

[JoshuaFH]

Looking forward to reading it.

If the test turns out alright, maybe you'd be interested in a couple of writing prompt challenges to keep creative juices flowing? I've been meaning to do it myself, but it's hard to do on your own.

Thank you very much, I'll be working on it in chunks and pieces during my 20 minutes or so breaks everyday. I find that I can accomplish quite a lot if I break it into very small chunks.

First though, I need to acquire a drawing tablet, since I think the digital medium would be much more cost efficient and allow me more freedom. It'd be pretty cool to be the next Fault around here, I think.

So wrong. So very, very wrong.

If you want to improve your artsing skills, there is no reason or excuse in the world for you not to be artsing right now. Drawing tablets are expensive toys and tools, nothing more; they will not by any stretch of the word make you more skillful. It's like waiting to learn how to read until you get a computer, or something.

Good tablets go for hundreds of dollars. A pencil and some paper? Only a few. And I bet you'll just scrap the tablet after the third day too, frustrated at your lack of awesomeness.

This applies to your "manga style" especially, because despite that a lot of people think there are only three things involved in the process: Paper, a pencil, and ink. The tools themselves will never make you better or let you be better; you have to do both.

Because what you really need is time, patience and the balls to do it - expensive toys, no matter how much they want you to buy them, are completely unnecessary.


As an aside, I've found digital art to be much harder and restrictive compared to my set of pencils and paper. It's still doable, but it's time-consuming, and the payoff is never quite as much as I'd like.

It'd be pretty cool to be the next Fault around here, I think.

I realise xkcd isn't highly thought of, but this is very relevant anyways.

I suppose I have an ulterior motive for wanting a tablet over pen and paper, that being that it's far easier to hide my digital works. I'm not very skilled, and so I'm really embarrassed to let my RL friends in on my hobbies or dreams, so I'd prefer to keep the whole affair out-of-sight-out-of-mind on my flashdrive or something.

Thank you very much for your insight.

[Fishbreath]

I'm not very skilled either, and I still put stuff up for the whole world to see. What it comes to is this--there's a limit to how much and how quickly you can improve as an artist without outside feedback. You'll figure out what you need to work on more if you have an outside eye looking at it. I've chopped off bits of Many Words entries that I was quite enamored of because test audiences told me they didn't work, and that's useful: if I like something, I'm less likely to look at it objectively, and I need an outside eye to tell me it needs to be fixed.

It works the other direction, too--I hold a fairly low opinion of my capability as a writer, and sometimes it takes a friend telling me, "No, that was actually great," to make me realize that sometimes I'm not as bad as I think.

In that vein, an exercise in description, something I'm really bad at:

Spoiler: The Girl with the White Lily (click to show/hide)

Palms clustered around a spring nestled between two dunes, and in the shadows of the trees she stood, facing away from him.

She was tall and slender, and her diaphonous white dress seemed to float around her. Her hair was dark, tumbling down to her shoulders in barely-controlled waves. She must have heard his approach, and began to turn toward him. Time seemed to slow as she did, and her every feature burned itself into his memory. Her chin came to a point, but her cheeks were rounded to make her face heart-shaped. She had a button nose above a narrow mouth, and then he saw her eyes. They were upturned slightly, the color of chocolate, and he felt her look deep into his soul. He was powerless to turn away.

Her lips parted in a shy smile, but he saw sadness in her eyes. She spoke, and her voice was like music. "Help me."

She was facing him directly, and only then did he notice the white lily tucked behind her ear.

---

Dannik sat bolt upright, the dream fading as the real world came rushing back. That was no ordinary dream, he knew. He rubbed at his temple, sighed, and resolved to talk with his teacher in the morning.

[Supermikhail]

My, you're good. One point, though. I thought I'd play a grammar nazi. But more out of curiosity, because I remember you disproving my grammatical point at one time. So,

She must have heard his approach

Is that correct? I think it should actually be "him approach", because "approach" has different meanings in its noun and verb forms.

[lordnincompoop]

Maybe it's just my aversion for descriptions, but I had difficulty getting past around the third line.

My, you're good.

So I disagree with this.

I never really could imagine what you were talking about, to be honest. I got all these little snippets, but not her. I found most of your similes (is that what it is?) in trying to describe her to be rather ineffectual; they were there, but they gave little substance and were simply obtuse instead of poetic.

Your short sentences aren't helping matters much. They can work as a style, but there's a distinct lack of both flow and eloquence in this example. So start looking at that flow.

[Fishbreath]

That's what I always think when I read my own work, but I really don't see what sorts of things precisely I can do to fix it; when it comes to writing description I'm the equivalent of tone-deaf. I can't tell what's going to work and what won't until I get to the end, and sometimes it feels like I'm shotgunning solutions out there until I find one that works.

[Supermikhail]

Well, I guess I made a tasteless boor out of myself again... or, hopefully, tastes differ. Frankly, I didn't even try to imagine what was written. I guess I took it as poetry (even though I almost don't read poetry normally), each sentence was a thing in itself and rhythm mattered very much... Or something like that. Sound more important than meaning, and meaning hidden under stylistic figures.

Yeah, I guess I've got the blues today. Plus I'm somewhere near the bottom of the curve of my opinion about my own writing. Possibly not undeservedly.

Still, regardless of my low self-esteem, I think the flow is good. The way sentences are arranged, very natural and tastefully worded.

[lordnincompoop]

That's what I always think when I read my own work, but I really don't see what sorts of things precisely I can do to fix it; when it comes to writing description I'm the equivalent of tone-deaf. I can't tell what's going to work and what won't until I get to the end, and sometimes it feels like I'm shotgunning solutions out there until I find one that works.

From what I can tell, prose should flow somewhat like natural speech, in most cases. Read what you wrote out to yourself, and if you spot any hitches change them.

I really do think you can afford to merge some sentences; this may sound like grade-school bullshit, but the rule of thumb of using fewer but longer sentences may actually apply here. I think the periods in frankly unnecessary places is what's causing this disjointed effect, so try that.

[Vector]

Maybe it's just my aversion for descriptions, but I had difficulty getting past around the third line.

My, you're good.

So I disagree with this.

I'm with you, but it was first sentence.

Too damn many traditional images, all of which give the image of a particular woman without ever touching the core of her.  Less is more is very, very applicable in this instance.

Also?

I am really tired of reading about women with perfect faces and perfect bodies and beautiful gazing into the soul, yadda yadda.  Musical voice!  Shy!  Lips slightly parted!  Diaphanous dresses!  Heart-shaped faces!

Jegus.  It isn't original anymore.  With the high number of narratives in which women-aren't-people, we really don't need any more.  I'm not accusing you of misogyny in general, just saying that this woman is written like any number of others, which end up being more set piece than real human being.

[Fishbreath]

The traditional image thing was kind of the point, as was 'image without the core'--the goal wasn't to tell you who she was, just what the dream looked like, and given your response, I'd say I managed to convey that pretty well. I think if I were to continue that story, I'd take it in a direction that sample doesn't imply, but the universe needs a bit of shoring up before I'd call it ready for very much more than wee writing exercises.

Speaking of which, we haven't done an exercise/prompt in so very long. Let's do one on description: fix an image of a person, place, or thing in your mind, then make us see the same one.

[Vector]

The traditional image thing was kind of the point, as was 'image without the core'--the goal wasn't to tell you who she was, just what the dream looked like, and given your response, I'd say I managed to convey that pretty well.

Well, let me put it this way: if I were reading that book, I'd close it right there and throw the sucker out the window.

I'm sorry for being so overwrought about this.  But seriously, too many terrible stories have opened in precisely that manner.

[Fishbreath]

Well, let me put it this way: if I were reading that book, I'd close it right there and throw the sucker out the window.

I suppose we're just willing to tolerate different levels of crap before giving up on a book. I've got a friend who'll skip it if she doesn't like the back cover blurb, while I'll give most things twenty pages or so.

[Vector]

I suppose we're just willing to tolerate different levels of crap before giving up on a book. I've got a friend who'll skip it if she doesn't like the back cover blurb, while I'll give most things twenty pages or so.

Ah, well, I spent my childhood reading 12-14 hours a day, so my tolerance for the most common tropes is basically zero--and yeah, I do skip books based on the back cover being too manipulative sometimes.  Doesn't help that I have a terrible temper, either =/

But, I really do wish you the best of luck with this, whether you keep the passage or not.  Don't give up :I

[Fishbreath]

Like I said, 'twas just an exercise in description--I've got too many other stories in progress to start another one now.