Charas-Project
Off-Topic => All of all! => Topic started by: DragonBlaze on March 19, 2014, 04:57:54 AM
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So I decided to take a break from game development to try my hand at writing. I feel like bringing a story to life via a game is really rewarding, but there is also a lot of overhead in creating resources, programming systems, and creating levels that make the whole process really slow. Because of that, I thought it would be fun to start writing a story/novel and bypass all that other stuff.
So I gotta ask, is anyone here an author or is big into writing?
Personally, I have not written anything but technical documents and school essays in the last 10 years, so I have no idea what I'm doing. Sure, I think the first two pages of "Chapter 1: Questions of the Abyss" are bad ass, it's probably all in my head. Not that I plan to ever be an amazing author, but does anyone know of any good sites where you can post fantasy chapters or stories and get feedback from novice/armature writers?
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I've tried my hand at writing many times but never actually finished anything. I've posted stuff before on deviantart and writing.com, even allpoetry.com though they are more poetry oriented they're not bad for short stories.
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Lots of difference sites out there with lots of different people with different opinions and values about writing.
Gary posted his thing here on charas some month back: http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=28910.0 (http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=28910.0)
And yes I know you feeling, I got this 200 pages fantasy thing written in English from 2007, and I can't read it now because it would shatter my illusion of how good it was. It's probably the least grammatical crap ever.
Also, reddit, you can find anything there: http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters (http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters)
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I love writing. I'm most-way through a sizeable fantasy book, though it's kinda taken a back seat... But yeah, I love it when I get time.
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I've tried my hand at writing many times but never actually finished anything. I've posted stuff before on deviantart and writing.com, even allpoetry.com though they are more poetry oriented they're not bad for short stories.
I've actually looked at writing.com before because I was interested in reading some armature stories (for free), but the site doesn't seem that well kept up or active.
Lots of difference sites out there with lots of different people with different opinions and values about writing.
Gary posted his thing here on charas some month back: http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=28910.0 (http://www.charas-project.net/forum/index.php?topic=28910.0)
And yes I know you feeling, I got this 200 pages fantasy thing written in English from 2007, and I can't read it now because it would shatter my illusion of how good it was. It's probably the least grammatical crap ever.
Also, reddit, you can find anything there: http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters (http://www.reddit.com/r/fantasywriters)
Oh snap, I never check out 'Creative Arts' on charas, that's flippin awesome he was able to complete a novel. Gonna be honest, I only read the first page, but I'll probably continue reading it in the near future.
Also, I need to check out that reddit page in the near future.
I love writing. I'm most-way through a sizeable fantasy book, though it's kinda taken a back seat... But yeah, I love it when I get time.
How long did it take you to get that far in the book?
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I'm absolutely awful at writing. It's most def my week point when it comes to game making. I'm quite envious of people here when I check out the short stories they write for creative arts and contests.
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I'm absolutely awful at writing. It's most def my week point when it comes to game making. I'm quite envious of people here when I check out the short stories they write for creative arts and contests.
Well wait until I post the first few chapters of my novel here. It'll probably make your writing seem good in comparison :p
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I'm always mad at myself when I look at my incomplete stories. I never fuckin finish anything, nevermind novels. xD
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I'm the exact opposite of Meis I like to think that I'm actually good at writing, both stories and in games. Up till the point where other people actually read and comment it.
Also, another suggestion would be to engorge yourself in some fantasy literature. Just don't read anything from Tolkien, that dude always get stuck at explaining every little detail about his world. Sure, this is a writing style but y'know. Opinions.
Well wait until I post the first few chapters of my novel here. It'll probably make your writing seem good in comparison :p
Please do
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Also, another suggestion would be to engorge yourself in some fantasy literature.
This is actually probably the best advice. Reading as much as you can will give you a base to start from. Best advice I ever got for anything was to never be afraid of your influences, let them show through in your work and you will craft your own style out of it. Just be conscience you aren't straight up ripping people off. :P
http://jacobdunn.com/2011/02/25/writing-a-fantasy-novel-magic-systems/ (http://jacobdunn.com/2011/02/25/writing-a-fantasy-novel-magic-systems/)
That's also a great guideline. Obviously, they're just guidelines and also an opinion, but I personally agree with this critique and find it makes for better story telling in a fantasy novel if you are aware of these problems that can occur in a world with magic. You could probably apply this to other areas of writing, I just can't think of any off the top of my head.
Oh, one more thing. Character development, character development, character development. I used to think the story was the most important part of the story, but it's not. If you're characters can't bring the story to life than nothing will. Beware of character tropes, mary sues, cliches, and all other manner of traps writers often fall into. I've spent hours writing back story that may or may not make it into the novel (the novel I'll never write). Nonetheless, when I do write anything, it helps me to better shape a character's actions, body language, choices, speech, everything.
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Also, another suggestion would be to engorge yourself in some fantasy literature. Just don't read anything from Tolkien, that dude always get stuck at explaining every little detail about his world. Sure, this is a writing style but y'know. Opinions.
I've been trying to recently. I've actually read more books the past 6 months than I have the past 6 years haha. I like to think I have a strong grasp on proper syntax, grammar, and structure, but weaving words together that epic/compelling to make the reader engaged is another story. I need to read a bit more, but of the books I've been reading recently, all the authors have completely different styles, so it's been hard to pick out good tends in styles. I'm gonna keep working at it though!
http://jacobdunn.com/2011/02/25/writing-a-fantasy-novel-magic-systems/ (http://jacobdunn.com/2011/02/25/writing-a-fantasy-novel-magic-systems/)
That's also a great guideline. Obviously, they're just guidelines and also an opinion, but I personally agree with this critique and find it makes for better story telling in a fantasy novel if you are aware of these problems that can occur in a world with magic. You could probably apply this to other areas of writing, I just can't think of any off the top of my head.
I skimmed through that, and it seemed like some great stuff. Did that guy write any more articles on writing fantasy novels?
In games I love elaborate magic systems because being able to level up magic and decimate the battle field is pretty bad ***. With stories however I usually hate the use of magic, as a lot of times magic is used as an unexpected escape route. The author of the article made a lot of good points about magic in novels, but I think my approach will be to not use it very often. Some characters in my novel will have magical abilities, but it'll only be one ability that starts off very subtlety such as being able to sometimes predict cards in gambling to finally having vague premonitions of the future. The only character that might have 'strong' abilities is one of the antagonists, but I'm okay with this as it's central to the story and it'll cause prediciments for the main characters instead of a magical escape route. Finally, I really really want to avoid things such as teleportation or elemental spells.
Oh, one more thing. Character development, character development, character development. I used to think the story was the most important part of the story, but it's not. If you're characters can't bring the story to life than nothing will. Beware of character tropes, mary sues, cliches, and all other manner of traps writers often fall into. I've spent hours writing back story that may or may not make it into the novel (the novel I'll never write). Nonetheless, when I do write anything, it helps me to better shape a character's actions, body language, choices, speech, everything.
Great point! I've thought a lot about developing the main character and making many points about society as he explores the world, but I haven't put too much thought in the other characters back stories yet. It's something I'll need to think about before I introduce them.
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Teleportation spells suuuuuuuck. It reminds me of Star Trek. Their tri-quarters and transporters always save the day!
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I've read quite the number of published works were tropes such as last minute telportation or overall mary sue-ness applies. Makes you feel like watching an American action movie where the hero will be alive at the end no matter what, it kills suspense. I prefer writers such as Stephen Deas who isn't afraid to make twists and kill people off. Lots of writers get too attached to their characters.
Also yes, magic in video games are about blowing **** up with cool animations, but it's the pokemon syndrome. What kind of adventure would there really be if you can summon earthquakes, thunderstorms or anything that's in the description of those moves? So aim for a more high-fantasy setting, where magic requires reagents, or some 20 years of mastering or like power words or hand gestures - anything. Also, give some faux explanation of how magic is in fact invoked. The Tales of- games are really good at that with every game they release. 'cuz they always change the name of magic and how it works.
Also, gonna attach one of the things I've written in the past. It was supposed to be some sort of short introduction to a novel in the form of a travel journal but I screwed it up from there.
https://app.box.com/s/ldf34uui9j1ig5jddotp
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I've been writing as a hobby for a while but due to college I never had the chance to fully develop my setting and stories. Now that I'm almost done I'm expecting to get something done the coming year.
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I'm a amateur writter. I do some stuff on my DA, mostly stuff about my non-Charasian OCs, but I had been thinking of doing some Charasian based writing about Dave's adventures to go with all the games I have planned. Since even though they are big...They aren't that big. ^^; There's leagues of stories about Dave I could tell not to mention all the stuff based on RPs I've had with people here and on MSN and even Skype! I've also made it one of my summer projects to try and write out one novel length book to refine over the winter and to submit next summer. Cause I don't want to always do small but well loved, things like the Dentverse. Oh and I did try to be a writer for a web comic recently...but I had to let my artist go. T-T Shame I had a good plan for how to host it on DA till I could find some ad space or more permanent site.
Oh my tip for good writing? Forget everyone else's advise and stick to what you know! Oh and add in some humor. You honestly can't go wrong with humor. Satiric and semi-dark without beign a totall psycho tend to work AWESOME in fantasy works. Heck two of my favorite series to come back to? Xanth and Discworld.
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I write professionally (screenwriting). I have a festival until the 14th, but send me a message if you want to do a Skype meeting and hopefully I can help you :)
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Unfortunately just as I got really into my story, things got really crazy at work. I've essentially ripped apart all of the QuickBooks apps, and if I don't put them back together by the 18th when I move to a new team, there's going to be a lot of unhappy campers :p Hopefully in a few weeks I can start up again.
So Prpl, I just started reading your stuff. I really like the way the narrator goes about telling the story. I'll have to get back to you later with some more insightful thoughts when I have time to read through more of it.
I'm a amateur writter. I do some stuff on my DA, mostly stuff about my non-Charasian OCs, but I had been thinking of doing some Charasian based writing about Dave's adventures to go with all the games I have planned. Since even though they are big...They aren't that big. ^^; There's leagues of stories about Dave I could tell not to mention all the stuff based on RPs I've had with people here and on MSN and even Skype! I've also made it one of my summer projects to try and write out one novel length book to refine over the winter and to submit next summer. Cause I don't want to always do small but well loved, things like the Dentverse. Oh and I did try to be a writer for a web comic recently...but I had to let my artist go. T-T Shame I had a good plan for how to host it on DA till I could find some ad space or more permanent site.
Oh my tip for good writing? Forget everyone else's advise and stick to what you know! Oh and add in some humor. You honestly can't go wrong with humor. Satiric and semi-dark without beign a totall psycho tend to work AWESOME in fantasy works. Heck two of my favorite series to come back to? Xanth and Discworld.
What exactly do you mean by Charasian based writing? Like you take bits of Charas interactions and turn them into a fantasy story or something?
As for sticking with what I know, I don't know much, so I'm just sticking with what comes naturally :p Adding in humor is a good suggestion, I still need to work on refining that. I don't want the read to just be dull and serious.
I write professionally (screenwriting). I have a festival until the 14th, but send me a message if you want to do a Skype meeting and hopefully I can help you :)
That would be awesome! It'll be a few weeks before I can start writing again, and then it'll be another long while before I have enough content and refine it enough to share. Hopefully I can get to that point in the not-so-distant future.
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Try not to think of "write what you know" as writing about your life or things actually close to you. I mean, you can do that, of course, but you don't have to be limited to just that. I think of it as using your experience and feelings to understand how your characters would react and feel. You've probably never lost your family to a space manatee attack, but if you were writing your protagonist as they witnessed it, you could draw on experiences of shock and grief and remember how they felt -- that lurch in your stomach, shaking, heart racing, disbelief. Probably not the same scale, of course, but you still have that root of emotion and understanding, which is what you need to write a convincing reaction, rather than a stilted, forced one that plays out like an overdone B movie.
My big problem lately has been finding time to write in between, ironically, studying writing.
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You've probably never lost your family to a space manatee attack,
Rad.
Also good to see you alive and stuff.
And Fish is onto something, fantasy is like the best place to do satiric, dark, cynical humour. Terry Pratchet (discworld) is probably one of the best examples of this. But don't try to force it, I've done that. It's just not working. Only do what feels natural. I like irony, especially in narrators.
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Does writing books for musicals count? I'm trying to get into that.
I used to be really into writing short stories in high school as part of a Creative Writing class. I would love to get back into it.
The things that helped me the most were these structure guides that helped me work out the main conflicts and the characters. I remember way back when Gaming World had a main website, someone did these amazing articles about conflict, character development, and theme. I recently picked up Writing Fiction for Dummies and it's similar to what these articles were talking about. I've also been recommended the Snowflake Method. You don't have to structure your works this way but they do help.
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Just curious how your little writing project worked out.
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Me and my friends have been writing a chain novel (One chapter each cycling between four or five people, about two pages a chapter) and it's proving to be really fun. I would be quite interested in starting one here; might be a bit more reliable than the usual RP type things since it'd be more organised like the chain game.
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I miss the whole writing comics thing SOME OF US used to do.
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Just curious how your little writing project worked out.
Being overly critical and writers block, along with my inexperience with writing, makes progress pretty slow.
Me and my friends have been writing a chain novel (One chapter each cycling between four or five people, about two pages a chapter) and it's proving to be really fun. I would be quite interested in starting one here; might be a bit more reliable than the usual RP type things since it'd be more organised like the chain game.
This should happen.
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Me and my friends have been writing a chain novel (One chapter each cycling between four or five people, about two pages a chapter) and it's proving to be really fun. I would be quite interested in starting one here; might be a bit more reliable than the usual RP type things since it'd be more organised like the chain game.
Well I guess that's what I usually do in an RP, might be why I end up killing them somehow.
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I miss the whole writing comics thing SOME OF US used to do.
What killed epic adventures, and why I'm not sure I could do it again, is that I was reading tons of comics back then and those sort of 'straight man reaction to silly things' jokes seemed classy to me at the time. Nowadays I couldn't do it like that... I'd want to make something more plot driven or something.
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But you had storyarchs, with timetravel and everything.
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I don't mean to brag, but I am a published writer. (http://www.landconference.org/journals/2013-creative/essay003.html) Also, this is what I've been for the last god knows how long. (And sorry, sorry, sorry to Lonewolf for never finishing those sprites.)
The truth is, writing is the one thing I'm really good at, so I've decided to go for that academically, and kind of where I've been the last.... that long. Anyway, if any of y'all are looking to write, the first rule is not "Write what you know," because, let's face it, most of us don't know much. The first thing is, "Write what you like." There's a book titled Steal Like An Artist, and that's exactly what you do as a writer. Basically, by this point in human history there is no thought you could have that someone hasn't already had, so original thought is a misconception. The trick is to present your ideas (which were probably someone else's first,) in an original way. So I'm not so much a writer as a master thief, and so are you.
As far as content goes, I've found writing essays like the one at the beginning helped my fiction a lot. Once you find out what's in the world, you figure out ways to look at and present it. And telling stories you already know does help telling ones you have to make up.
To all serious writers, here's a list for posting stuff:
http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines (http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines)
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Bit of a topic kick, but I guess I should post it here instead of making a new thread. Actually got a short story finished for the Descent of Arkhona writing contest for the Eternal Crusade MMO. If anyone feels like reading it just click the link below.
Mark of the Wulfen (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wezVot9s3yQwkeSAQweFJNAqjT0z8M0wu3MqR8NS3ug/edit?usp=sharing)
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Sweet. Just posting to say I'll read in the next few days; life's all consuming at the moment.
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Take your time man, I'm happy as long as some people read it eventually.