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Author Topic: Tell me what to write  (Read 1539 times)

Supermikhail

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Tell me what to write
« on: October 09, 2011, 04:21:19 pm »

But not in the (relatively) usual way. Basically, I'm tired of complex plots, well, actually of needing to look ahead at all. So I ask you to give me a single scene that I could work on without much pressure. Example? Well, if I could work it out myself, I would have. Maybe someone could provide a general theme, or storyline, but then I would need individual scene ideas or little plots. I would do one scene then pick another one and tack it on the end of the first, hopefully creating some semi-logical connection. It probably could be discribed simpler as "community writing where someone else does the writing." I don't want to try to impose on anyone, so random ideas are welcome, in the vein of "someone did something / went somewhere / talked to someone etc."

Well, here's hoping for a rescue from my mild case of writer's block.
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Enzo

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2011, 05:16:53 pm »

Doctor Hedgerow Hughes, in the service of her majesty, infiltrates the lair of Baron Von Moorstead and disables the central power transmitter of his clockwork automaton army, thus preserving the future of the Empire.
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LordBucket

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2011, 05:57:47 pm »

Doctor Hedgerow Hughes, in the service of her majesty, infiltrates the lair of Baron Von Moorstead and disables the central power transmitter of his clockwork automaton army, thus preserving the future of the Empire.

However, the power transmitter not only supplied power to the clockwork army, but also to the lights and doors in the facility, thus trapping the good Doctor inside at the bottom of a hermetically sealed, 7-level underground lair. Over the course of his attempts to find his way out, he encounters the single other living occupant of the facility: a humanoid chimera that is the Baron's only surviving experiment in genetics. Since it is completely dark, Doctor Hughes is unable to actually see the creature, but it turns out that she is female, and very lonely, because she is the only creature of her kind.

Armok

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2011, 06:13:35 pm »

Que incessant shiptease.
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Supermikhail

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2011, 06:55:01 am »

Well... I had quite a strange sleep pattern since I started this topic. I don't know about my writer's block, but it appears I cannot escape the curse of over-complicating things. Specifically, I came up with the following passage.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It should sound pretty desperate. Although, in my defense, the scene description wasn't exactly a description of a single scene, but I shouldn't complain because I didn't provide any example and other things. Well, I don't know what to do with what I have written, besides half an idea to start all over because I don't seem to be getting close to disabling the central power transmitter, and instead went in some completely sidewise direction.
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Armok

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2011, 09:39:52 am »

Funny, but a bit over the top. It reads like a comedy sketch.
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Enzo

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2011, 10:08:40 pm »

That was indeed a bit silly. Doctor Hughes is a gentleman adventurer*, sir, not a charlatan!

*Also a doctor.

Quote
He darted into the next shadow, and it was just too deep.

I did like that line though.
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Fniff

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2011, 08:54:32 pm »

In a radiation-soaked post-apocalyptic world, an insane AI who became malevolent too late goes very quickly through the stages of grief about the fact the humans died before he could even start.

Supermikhail

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #8 on: October 13, 2011, 12:18:30 pm »

Sorry, not doing requests right now. I've got a mind to take a good rest. Maybe that's what my writer's block needs. I think I'll wait until I get really inspired to start doing something again. Maybe forcing myself to write everyday and not meeting some perfectionist deadlines and especially NaNoWriMo wordcounts is what's made me so frustrated.
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Fniff

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #9 on: October 13, 2011, 01:16:57 pm »

I suggest one page per day, though. It might help.

mr. macduggan

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #10 on: October 13, 2011, 11:01:36 pm »

When I'm stuck when writing (though I kinda suck) I force myself to write a page in 10 minutes flat. Do this once a day, and don't beat yourself up about the inevitable low quality of the hurried writing, and your ideas will flow MUCH easier from your mind to the page. If you find this limit easy, you could always increase the amount you have to write, but these speedwrites always break my blocks.
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Supermikhail

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2011, 02:15:02 am »

Er... C'est impossible. Opened a new reply to try this exercise, and plunged into a bout of procrastination. But besides that, I've never been able to write that fast. I mean, I'd usually barely get to a page in a half-an-hour, that is on a good day. I still want to push the "everybody is different" clause. And "burnout".

But now the idea of one page a day seems inspiring. I think I feel about relaxed enough for that. But what to write about? I still don't know how to follow up on that little Hughes romp. I mean what interesting thing could happen in the "netherworld". And the AI idea, I'm not sure how to make it funny.
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Fniff

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2011, 07:19:15 am »

Who says it has to be funny?

Supermikhail

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #13 on: October 15, 2011, 08:41:11 am »

Spoiler: One more (click to show/hide)

Who says it has to be funny?
Well, I for one. :-X In short, I think there are few things that make fiction readable, especially on the Internet. One of them is humor. Others are sex, and zombies. Which would you like to be featured in your idea?

Also, I think that's really something I wrote. There is a chance it'll make peope puke. And it might cut the things I can put into my writing to the last two... Well, I smiled while writing, but... it's just me.
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Capntastic

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Re: Tell me what to write
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2011, 01:06:31 am »

I was going to go line by line and red pen the whole thing for you, but it's really too incoherent for me to sit through.   I'll point out what I noted from the first few lines though:  'Creepy' isn't a useful descriptor, you can't really express anything by saying 'a creepy little girl', without relying on people's subjective conceptions of what that actually means.   Further, 'disproportional' is being used in the same way, since it means out of proportion.   You're not explaining what it's out of proportion to.   Obviously you mean the rest of her face but there's still a mental gap between making that connection.   And then you sort of use the same descriptors:  'creepy' and 'disproportionately large eyes' like a sentence later.  Random is also a really empty word to use.
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