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A Thread for Writers to talk about Writing


Mister Dilsby

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On 9/29/2019 at 1:56 PM, Triop said:

I can't write, it's just hard for me to get my thoughts into written words.

1 or 2 sentences I can handle.

That is why I post mostly pictures on this forum.

I don't mind though, I hope you don't either.

That's 5 sentences... A new record ! ^_^

WOAH HE CAN WRITE PARAGRAPHS!!! *wink wink* No offense, though. I stan Triop fan.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Can anybody check for holes in the rules or info in this topic. I want to make sure people understand and I would love crit on my topic. Any holes in the story or problems. Thanks! 

Topic:

 

Edited by Arco123
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I'm not much good for checking wargaming rules I'm afraid. I haven't ever played KSP as a space war game (modded or stock) so I don't really have any idea of what's balanced and what isn't.

I've had a look at the thread but can't find a great deal of story to comment on either. The quote on the first post is a bit odd though:

"Fuel shortage, Cold war, Privatization, and the Abundance of resources in the Kerbal system has lead to The Great Kerbal War. Which ravaged the Kerbal system for 4 years..."

Without more material to work on, it's not immediately obvious to me why any of those factors would lead to war:

  • If Earth history is anything to go by, a Cold war is what you get when the protagonists are too well armed to engage in an actual shooting war without destroying themselves.
  • Privatisation (of what?) doesn't seem like a reason in itself for war. 
  • A lack of resources seems like a more plausible reason for war than an abundance of them.
  • How did the Great Kerbal War last for 4 years (or even get started) with a fuel shortage in progress?

Fair warning - I'm kind of biased against space war in general so you may want to get somebody else to critique this. I'd try not to be critical for the sake of being critical but you can probably expect quite a few questions like the ones above.

Edited by KSK
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I'm seconding KSK on this one. You've got the book club blurb, but not much else.

It feels like you are going to run some simulations in the background and post the results, ala the classic bar fight show "Deadliest Warrior" [link redacted due to section 2.2 potentials. -ed.] Unless your going for something like Star Fleet Battles, but given the fact the New York whitepages is smaller than the rule book that is a fair bit of work.

Any more backgrounder information, or simulation rules?

 

 

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On 1/13/2020 at 3:05 PM, KSK said:

 

  • If Earth history is anything to go by, a Cold war is what you get when the protagonists are too well armed to engage in an actual shooting war without destroying themselves.
  • Privatisation (of what?) doesn't seem like a reason in itself for war. 
  • A lack of resources seems like a more plausible reason for war than an abundance of them.
  • How did the Great Kerbal War last for 4 years (or even get started) with a fuel shortage in progress?

Oh, well, maybe they got to a point where it just got too stressful and then a war occured. 

Well anyways, what's happening is the resources on Kerbin are not good enough and some of them just want more. 

The resources are outside of Kerbin 

Kethan from the moon and other planets allowed them to mine and turn them into fuel. This is also a reason why they had a war in space. Factions were just taking them and fighting for it. Also a lot of resources are outside of Kerbin so there's a big incentive to get out. 

57 minutes ago, steuben said:

I'm seconding KSK on this one. You've got the book club blurb, but not much else.

It feels like you are going to run some simulations in the background and post the results, ala the classic bar fight show "Deadliest Warrior" [link redacted due to section 2.2 potentials. -ed.] Unless your going for something like Star Fleet Battles, but given the fact the New York whitepages is smaller than the rule book that is a fair bit of work.

Any more backgrounder information, or simulation rules?

Those will be added soon in info and maybe it's own section. I haven't gotten all the info done it so I just want advice before moving forward. 

Thanks! Anything else you guys have?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey writer types! I used to do inline stories on my imgur albums, as part of various challenge submissions and other shenanigans. But they didn't generally seem to get much traction. Maybe that's just because it's imgur and I should switch to doing mission report threads here and just use imgur for hosting. Anyway, I was wondering if someone would take a look at my stuff and see what you think. I try to mix mission reporting with dumb jokes and characterization of the various kerbals. Here's some of my work:

Kerberos: Stupid Spaceboat To Orbit

sea rescue mission

reusable mission to [REDACTED]

LF-only mission to Duna

Joolia: a Jool-5 mission

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This idea just propped up in my mind after I finished unlocking all the elements of the Tech Tree. Would someone please care to critique the premise, and point out any issues?

Spoiler

Kerbalkind has been divided into four clans : Pilots, Engineers, Scientists and Workers. Any Kerbal born into one of this clan will inherit that clan's attribute, for example a Pilots child will be a Pilot, Engineer's child will be a Engineer and so on. Inter-clan marriage is frowned upon, and in some cases outright prohibited.

With the exploration of Eve and Duna, the tech tree was finally unlocked. After putting all the technological advances to the development of Kerbalkind, it was observed that the 'Scientist' clan was slowly losing its purpose and relevance. Since the Tech Tree, as decreed by the Book of SQUAD was complete, there was nothing more to be researched. Any one attempting to research even further are punished for blasphemy.

Soon, all Scientists are forcibly retired as their services are no longer required. They are kept in check to make sure they dont discover any technological breakthrough beyond the Book of SQUAD. This leads to the 'Scientific Internment Camps (SIC)'. Scientists are no longer employed by KSC, but young kerbals from the Scientist Caste who display enough aptitude are accepted as honorary Pilots or Honorary Engineers.

In time, a myth that 'Scientists' are a burden over the world was perpetuated. Citizens were indoctrinated to hate the 'Scientists'. The blame for all the problems in the society was shifted to the Scientists. A section of Scientists got fed up and went to exile, to a Desert called 'Swarg' (The Desert Launchpad). They followed the principle of non-violence and non involvment in the affairs of the outside world.

The Status Quo is disturbed after it is revealed that there lies technology beyond the Book of SQUAD. Several Books,  like Angelo's Thesis, Freethinker's Fortune, The Roster of RoverDude are discovered and it becomes the objective of Swargians to explore these new Books and their tech trees.

(Scientist only Career Mode)

I would welcome all sorts of constructive criticism. :)

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On 3/7/2020 at 6:41 AM, Selective Genius said:

This idea just propped up in my mind after I finished unlocking all the elements of the Tech Tree. Would someone please care to critique the premise, and point out any issues?

  Hide contents

Kerbalkind has been divided into four clans : Pilots, Engineers, Scientists and Workers. Any Kerbal born into one of this clan will inherit that clan's attribute, for example a Pilots child will be a Pilot, Engineer's child will be a Engineer and so on. Inter-clan marriage is frowned upon, and in some cases outright prohibited.

With the exploration of Eve and Duna, the tech tree was finally unlocked. After putting all the technological advances to the development of Kerbalkind, it was observed that the 'Scientist' clan was slowly losing its purpose and relevance. Since the Tech Tree, as decreed by the Book of SQUAD was complete, there was nothing more to be researched. Any one attempting to research even further are punished for blasphemy.

Soon, all Scientists are forcibly retired as their services are no longer required. They are kept in check to make sure they dont discover any technological breakthrough beyond the Book of SQUAD. This leads to the 'Scientific Internment Camps (SIC)'. Scientists are no longer employed by KSC, but young kerbals from the Scientist Caste who display enough aptitude are accepted as honorary Pilots or Honorary Engineers.

In time, a myth that 'Scientists' are a burden over the world was perpetuated. Citizens were indoctrinated to hate the 'Scientists'. The blame for all the problems in the society was shifted to the Scientists. A section of Scientists got fed up and went to exile, to a Desert called 'Swarg' (The Desert Launchpad). They followed the principle of non-violence and non involvment in the affairs of the outside world.

The Status Quo is disturbed after it is revealed that there lies technology beyond the Book of SQUAD. Several Books,  like Angelo's Thesis, Freethinker's Fortune, The Roster of RoverDude are discovered and it becomes the objective of Swargians to explore these new Books and their tech trees.

(Scientist only Career Mode)

I would welcome all sorts of constructive criticism. :)

Go for it! It looks like a fun idea!

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Kerballing (Got Dunked On) said:

A part of history... what? Was there something in the forum TOS that I missed?

Oh... In a nutshell, Stan Lee is probably the one author more than anyone I try to emulate.
But the video I wanted to share had stuff about World War 2 history we shouldn't be talking about here.
I posted that video before I realized it contained a section about... that. So I deleted it

So here's a different one instead... a great little lesson how to write a really badS story from the master himself.
If you want to write your own fan-fiction piece... watch this, and take notes:
 

 

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Here's another really, really good one I just found, on what makes a Superhero
About 3 minutes into it he gets really deep into makes a truly believable superhero... and exactly how I tried to write my Emiko... and all the other characters.
In many ways Emiko ended up being a Kerbal superhero... but she was also so messed up... hehehe. I think Stan might have liked her... i hope.

The other thing he mentions is NOT trying to write to a particular audience.... Just write for yourself... and about what you want to write about. It will come out better that way, trust me.

 

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Yes, Stan "The Man" Lee is worth listening to. As I say that I wonder what other masters are worth listening too as well. I can think of four names. It might be worth generating a list of names and books. 

But, at the risk of a mere apprentice of arguing with a past master, it isn't that the greats don't have rules. They do. They have the rules that are drilled into us apprentices from day two. (Day one being this is the end of the pencil you write with, and do it one paper. From both experience, skill, and no little talent, they know these rules reflexively. They also know when and how to break these rules and get away with it. 

I guess that is why we study them and their works. To try and find that Grand Unified Theory of How to Craft Literature. 

 

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Hey all, I'm looking for a bit of advice on a story I'm thinking of writing - it's not KSP based at all, but people here seem to know what's what :)

In particular, I'm struggling with names and terminology for a made-up race. I've got a lot of the world built up in my head (and a notebook!) but it's somewhat difficult to write without actually naming something once in a while. Without going into too much detail, the story revolves around Borrower-esque race that effectively co-exists with modern humanity, although language barriers and other practical issues prevent any real communication between the two, with humanity mostly ignoring them outside of scientific curiosity. The issue is... well, what do they call themselves? I have a term that humans would use to refer to them, but I can't for the life of me come up with anything they'd label themselves and things around them as without it sounding kinda silly. I'm assuming there's something of an art to it, but it's not something I have any real experience with.

A more conceptual thing I'm grappling with is how much detail I can get away with without it coming across as ridiculous - I'm fully aware that centimeter tall human-like beings couldn't exist in reality, but I'm not sure whether it's something I should even address at all or just ignore it? I have a very hand-wavy loose explanation involving convergent evolution, but I doubt that would hold up to scrutiny, and might actually make it less believable if I were to bring it up. This ties into my first issue as well, I suppose - would it be more believable to, for example, describe such a being as living in [non-human word for hollowed-out stone] or just to leave it as a "house".

Thanks, any input is appreciated :D

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The Worldbuilding subreddit is a good resource for this kind of thing. As for what to name your species, in the real world a lot of group names are ultimately translations of descriptive things like "allies" (Lakota), "the hidden ones" or "the tall ones" (Celts), "people of the Han river" (Han Chinese), "gatherers", "hunters", or "people of the mountains" (Kongo), etc. Some of these are names the group gives to itself (autonyms), while others are imposed by a colonial or other external power and the original name is eventually lost.

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