A Thread for Writers to talk about Writing

[KSK]

55 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

Anything beyond that is impossible to answer, because every writer has a different style--what counts as an extra word for Hemingway is not an extra word for Austen, or for Joyce. And if you're still asking questions about the rules, then--sorry--you probably haven't reached the point where you have a style yet. 

Don't feel bad about this though - I can only speak from personal experience mind, but developing a style takes time and (I agree with @Kuzzter here) basically boils down to writing lots of stuff. Reading back through my own material  - which I do to try and avoid continuity errors and to remind myself about the quirks of particular characters if they haven't appeared for a while - it's painfully obvious that my own style has changed a lot since I started out and I imagine it'll change quite a bit more in future. That's just the way it goes. I  think @Ten Key also mentioned earlier in this thread that it's also normal to be a bit of a style chameleon. Read a lot of writer X and the next thing you write will probably be influenced by writer X's style.

[SiriusRocketry]

Hi guys- 

Jeb's Ride is dead. Sorry I've dragged this out, but yeah...

 

I'll be making a timeline of my canoniverse though! And I put up my craft in the Spacecraft Exchange...so there's something. See you soon!

[SiriusRocketry]

Here's the timeline!

Spent a few hours thinking it up, hope you like it.

[HippieGold]

I've just put out the second chapter of my sequel to my AAR Storm in the Stars, Beyond the Horizon! I've changed a lot from the last series, including the writing format, so I'd appreciate any feedback you guys could provide.

Don't be afraid to tell me if there's things you think I should change or cut back on, thanks!

[SaturnianBlue]

How do all of you go around thinking about culture of Kerbals, and more specifically that of certain areas of Kerbin?

[SiriusRocketry]

I think that most places on Kerbin are named after their biome/distinguishing features. For example, (in my canon) the KSC is on the Great Coastal Plateau, 20 miles from the seaside town of Washville. Then the Grasslands take over, then the Cold Mountains. Most of Kerbal Civilization is situated in the Northern Coalition (northern landmass), or the Belt (little equatorial islands).

Edited May 2, 2018 by SiriusRocketry

[steuben]

The only thing that I've named has been the space around the KSC. "Direc's Prairie" it came to be known in the popular media. Originally it was that classic irregular land that you find after the berm going east. But Direc plowed it flatter than [vulgar metaphor redacted]. I think it has a formal name the something something Reservation, but the prairie is the one that everybody knows.

[DarkOwl57]

Well, in LATT, I'm naming everything based on the names given by other players in the RP. See, LATT operates in a modified KP map. As such, physical areas are named either by the players themselves, or I give them appropriate names based on the terrain and the nation's "history." Example: Owlia is flanked to the East and West by mountains. The West border forms the border between Owlia and Basil, hence the name: The Border Mountains. To the East, however, I just put "Mountain" into Google Translate for Spanish and got "Calida," hence the name "Calidan Mountains." 

[VelocityPolaris]

Does anybody have a KSP fanfic that they might want someone to read? I like to read.

[KSK]

17 minutes ago, VelocityPolaris said:

Does anybody have a KSP fanfic that they might want someone to read? I like to read.

You're welcome to read mine, although I'm pretty sure you've already appeared in the comments(?) Otherwise, the link is in my signature.

[KSK]

On 5/1/2018 at 7:46 PM, SaturnianBlue said:

How do all of you go around thinking about culture of Kerbals, and more specifically that of certain areas of Kerbin?

For naming stuff I borrowed a map from a (very) old forum thread and modified it a bit. Otherwise, my Kerbals tend to be fairly unimaginative when it comes to names: redfruit, for example, is indeed a red fruit and greenleaf is (wait for it...) a green leafy vegetable. Some of my town names are almost as exciting, for example 'place which we use to trade', 'place where we shelter from the sea', although they look a bit more exotic translated into Old Kerba (in-universe version of Latin).

Having a smattering of grammar for an in-universe language is maybe a little over the top but I found it helpful to have that coherent framework for making up old fashioned proverbs and place names (or having an in-story etymology for one, historically important, place name) to add a little flavour text here and there. By a happy accident (as one astute reader spotted) Old Kerba also turned out to provide an appropriate in-universe etymology for 'kerbal'.

Culture-wise, I think my starting point was to figure out a backstory for the ubiquitous 'kerman' moniker, which backstory eventually came together into the Kerbal history set out in my Echoes of Time chapter. Everything else either flowed from that or was made up as I went along.

[steuben]

As for culture I try not to delve into it too much. That's a pretty deep rabbit hole to go down if you are not careful. If you do go down that hole, tell the cat I said hi. 

The area of Kerbin I'm interested in for the Greenfields series is kind of like 1950's America, with more current takes on race and gender. There are other culture "families", probably about three or four. I haven't defined them since they haven't come into play yet. They are beginning to break out of a tech-stasis with the discovery of the goo. Something like the forty years of tech development we had prior to World War 2 took place over four hundred.

7 hours ago, VelocityPolaris said:

Does anybody have a KSP fanfic that they might want someone to read? I like to read.

I'll chuck my Greenfields series on the table, Tales of the Groundbound. 

[VelocityPolaris]

1 hour ago, steuben said:

As for culture I try not to delve into it too much. That's a pretty deep rabbit hole to go down if you are not careful. If you do go down that hole, tell the cat I said hi. 

The area of Kerbin I'm interested in for the Greenfields series is kind of like 1950's America, with more current takes on race and gender. There are other culture "families", probably about three or four. I haven't defined them since they haven't come into play yet. They are beginning to break out of a tech-stasis with the discovery of the goo. Something like the forty years of tech development we had prior to World War 2 took place over four hundred.

I'll chuck my Greenfields series on the table, Tales of the Groundbound. 

Thanks. I'm a bit like a toddler in that I like to read things with pictures in them (With the exception of works by our lord and saviour, KSK), but judging by the first few chapters, it looks like a pretty cool read regardless.

[KSK]

3 hours ago, VelocityPolaris said:

Thanks. I'm a bit like a toddler in that I like to read things with pictures in them (With the exception of works by our lord and saviour, KSK), but judging by the first few chapters, it looks like a pretty cool read regardless.

Again, you may be way ahead of me but may I suggest taking a look at @CatastrophicFailure's work? He does stuff with and without pictures and I commend them both to you. And yes - Tales of the Groundbound is a pretty cool read.

Just realised that I skipped over a big part of @SaturnianBlue's post - regional culture. To be honest, I don't think it's something I do terribly well. For various (fairly compelling) in-universe reasons, my Kerbals are fairly homogenous, culturally speaking. Such local culture as there is tends to be a bit ad-hoc and it's definitely a part of First Flight that would benefit from an editing pass or two. Although I do have desert dwelling Kerbals with some fairly distinctive phrases... s'cuse me, that's the doorbell...

Sorry about that folks - just the cliche police at the door. They let me off with a warning this time.

Joking aside, I think part of the reason for that cultural homogeneity was fear of cliche. My Wernher, for example, is emphatically not a Von Kerman and has no particular accent of note. However, on reflection, I think I've gone a bit too far the other way - a bit more local culture would be good.

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, KSK said:

To be honest, I don't think it's something I do terribly well. For various (fairly compelling) in-universe reasons, my Kerbals are fairly homogenous, culturally speaking. Such local culture as there is tends to be a bit ad-hoc and it's definitely a part of First Flight that would benefit from an editing pass or t

On the contrary, I think you’ve done this incredibly well. It’s like a well-seasoned meal, adding flavor without overwhelming the meat of the subject, which is extra important in a story like yours where the World is a character. And like you said, in-universe it just works.

Myself, now... 

Like @KSK I found a mapp, which in itself sounds like the beginning to a story...

...and I decided to go with it, as... odd... as some of the borders are, which has influenced the story itself more and more as I went along. I have entire histories (and pre-histories) of some cultures in my own head-cannon, and one might say I’ve even embraced the cliché...

Heck, I’ve gone way beyond embracing, we’d be legally married in 17 states.

and illegally married in 32 others...

[CatastrophicFailure]

I see @VelocityPolaris found something to read.   I just hope he’s read the other two first, or major spoilers. 

[VelocityPolaris]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

I see @VelocityPolaris found something to read.   I just hope he’s read the other two first, or major spoilers. 

Whoops. No, I don't think I read any of the prequels. Also, that poor, poor custodian.

[SaturnianBlue]

What is everyone's approach to designing characters? I plan on making a character profile for each of the major characters, but I don't have a clear focus on what I should include.

[steuben]

My basic list:
name, age, hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, [redacted due to nature of source genre]. I then turn the characters loose and let them develop themselves. Dangerous, I know. But it's a pretty small sandbox so they can't get away from me.

All of my characters will have the first five, and depending on how recurring a character it is I will also add little snip-its of personality. I won't do whole Lucas thing and do a three paragraph biography for someone who gets at most 30 seconds of screen time. Of course, if as I go along  I get someone like Daine Jir, man that guy... coconuts and chome steel,  I fill in the bio.

Something else i'll do is take a character from somewhere else, and play with a little bit in a different setting. Not so much a cross-over, as what would the character type do here. From there I'll fill in the character if it works out. It means i have a prototype already and can just make the note of like <insert character> from <insert wherever>, except.

These might help a bit for designing characters The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes & Heroines, 45 Master Characters, and Make Interesting Characters. 

 

[SiriusRocketry]

Pretty much what @steuben said about physical attributes, plus BACKSTORY (love that!) and occasional personality. Most of my works are written with music- this usually influences the story and how characters deal with stuff. 

For example, a electro-pop song indicates that something big is building and such a character will occasionally grab a bulldozer and take down the Fourth Wall.

Or if the Interstellar docking theme is playing, a dramatic, dangerous scene is being enacted, with plenty of solid, awesome quotes and serious skill etc.

If a somber, uplifting piano theme plays, it will be a funeral, or a loss of some kind, prompting breakdowns of characters and the occasional 'I'm sorry...' quote.

 

Hope this helps!

[KSK]

That's a good list @steuben

So far though, name and gender are about as far as I go when designing a character. Admittedly, I've only really written much about kerbals so far, so skin colour can be taken as read, eye colour I rarely seem to use, ditto hair colour. Ages, I'm quite careful to avoid, mostly because they could potentially provide fixed points to hang the rest of my timeline off - and risk bending it into odd or unrealistic shapes that don't really bear too much detailed scrutiny.

As the old saying goes, it's better to keep your mouth shut and leave everyone wondering whether you're a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it beyond all doubt.  

One of my main characters, for example, started off as literally as a babe in arms at the start of the story and is just about getting the point where she's starting to get a bit of body modesty (in an entirely forum friendly way I hasten to add). How old does that make her? More to the point - does her age provide sufficient time to fit in a reasonably plausible timeframe for various other events in the story? To which the answer is - yes but don't think about it too much or, if you really insist on poking things with a stick, please just assume a bit of handwaving about kerbal lifespans will fix it.  

Personality and backstory - so far I've pretty much made those up as I go along. I've found the very occasional flashback sequence to be helpful to provide backstory but I suspect that's a tool that I could easily overuse, so I try to be careful with it.

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by KSK

[Alpha 360]

On 5/7/2018 at 8:36 AM, SiriusRocketry said:

Or if the Interstellar docking theme is playing, a dramatic, dangerous scene is being enacted, with plenty of solid, awesome quotes and serious skill etc.

Oh I greet thee, oh fellow author who listens to music as he writes. Okay, a bit long but you get my drift. 

More and more often nowadays, as I improve little by little, I find what I like to do is to give one defining personality trait to each Kerbal, or kerbals if they are twins . 

For example, in my Voyages Extrodinaire, even though I'm not focusing on character development, the scientist has a favorite word she uses all the time to serperate her from the cocky, cliche pilot..... Okay, I did say I was not focusing on character development. 

Happy Explosions!

[KSK]

This morning's mildly comic moment.

I tend to shuffle chapters in progress between my tablet and my computer via email. Eventually I may join the 21st Century and get one of these new-fangled cloudy storage things but not right now.

So I was clearing out some mail this morning and was faced with:

Quote

*Redacted*
Re: writing

This message has no content.

Irony - that's kind of like coppery only with iron, right?

Edited May 12, 2018 by KSK

[KerbolExplorer]

What planet of @Gameslinx planet pack do you guys recomed using as the place were a spacecraft crash-land and a kerbal have to survive?Im currently thinking about Niebos.The planet needs to be habitable

[Gameslinx]

3 hours ago, KerbolExplorer said:

What planet of @Gameslinx planet pack do you guys recomed using as the place were a spacecraft crash-land and a kerbal have to survive?Im currently thinking about Niebos.The planet needs to be habitable

A ship actually crashed on Niebos. There's an entire video on my channel about it if that inspires you.