A Thread for Writers to talk about Writing

[Crocket]

3 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

If this is fan-fiction, which it sounds like, then I have just one word in response:

Haunted... 

 

I was thinking a mama kraken and its kraklets, but ghosts might be fun to write.

[Mister Dilsby]

8 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

If this is fan-fiction, which it sounds like, then I have just one word in response:

Cheese?

[Just Jim]

15 minutes ago, Crocket said:

I was thinking a mama kraken and its kraklets, but ghosts might be fun to write.

Oh yeah!  For me, abandoned usually equals haunted.  But the idea of a mama kraken and her kraklets has all sorts of fun possibilities! 

And if you wanted to add ghosts, I'm certain some of the unlucky chosen to explore this mine will think it's haunted, even if it is a kraken... that part practically writes itself, and could be really scary, or really funny, depending on how you're approaching this. 

Edited July 28, 2016 by Just Jim

[Ten Key]

On 7/26/2016 at 11:37 AM, TheEpicSquared said:

So I would like to start my own career story (mostly for something to do until school starts in August, but also because, why not ) so do you very experienced writers have some tips and/or advice for newbies like me? Thanks  

On 7/26/2016 at 1:53 PM, KSK said:

Also I think some of your advice makes a lot more sense once you've actually sat down to write something. Maybe it's just the way I work but I'm fairly convinced that I could have read 'how to write' books until I was blue in the face but much of what I was reading wouldn't really have clicked with me without that initial experience of sitting down and banging out some words.

^ This. Your first attempts at writing will probably be bad, and it is very easy to feel like you're wasting your time. You aren't. Those first shaky attempts serve to provide context that will, in turn, make all of those 'how to write' guides helpful. This is something that holds true for almost anything you might try in life. . .mathematics, art, computer programming, music. . .you can't really begin to understand something until you've tried it and failed. 

I mostly agree with everything that's been written so far, but I'd just like to add a few thoughts. . .

First, understand why you're writing your story. Be honest with yourself about it and set your schedule accordingly. User feedback requires frequent updates and, while the feedback is both wonderful and useful, there is a price to be paid for relying on it too much. 

Second, consider writing ahead. Though there are always exceptions, most of the time once something is "out there" there's no taking it back. I don't think it's necessary (or even helpful) to know where your story is going before you start writing it, but you should have a good idea of where you're headed before you start posting. And that may mean a good deal of writing before anything sees the light of day. 

Finally, don't worry about it too much. Writing is a lot like Kerbal Space Program. . .Crash. Burn. Iterate. 

[Just Jim]

16 minutes ago, Ten Key said:

First, understand why you're writing your story.

Yes, yes, yes!!!  This one sentence says it all. 

[Andem]

On 7/26/2016 at 7:25 AM, Kuzzter said:

Good stuff! Don't add it here though, you should start a new Mission Reports thread so we can all follow your ongoing mission  

Ask and you shall receive!

 

[adsii1970]

@Just Jim: Question for you... do you stage photos or actually just take images from within your game, or a mixture of both?

[Just Jim]

10 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

@Just Jim: Question for you... do you stage photos or actually just take images from within your game, or a mixture of both?

At this point, both.

[adsii1970]

Did you land the airliner on the island airfield or hyper edit?

[Just Jim]

11 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Did you land the airliner on the island airfield or hyper edit?

Landed it. Only took a couple tries to get lined up right...  lol. That is the stock Stearwing A300, and despite it's size, it's remarkably easy to fly and land.  I don't normally use stock aircraft, but I only needed it this one time, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover just how stable it is.  Well done, Dev's! 

 

11 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

@Just Jim: Question for you... do you stage photos or actually just take images from within your game, or a mixture of both?

I was writing yesterday, so let me follow up on this a bit now.  Most of the time I use screenshots of me playing the game.  But because of how the story has evolved, and where I'm taking it, I also set up shots and use HyperEdit when needed.  The best example of this is my scaffolding. 

There is no way to set one up next to a building that I know of..... or is there?  I just had a thought.  Using the KIS and KAS mods, maybe I could build a scaffolding from scratch!  I'll have to try it later.

Anyway, for something like this, or bouncing my "Magic Boulder" from moon to moon without some sort of ship attached, HyperEdit is the easiest way.  Yes, arguably it's cheating.  But I made a decision a while ago that to make Emiko's timeline work using wormholes as part of the story, and not spend decades getting to places like Karen and Plock, I would have to suck it up and use HyperEdit. 

[CatastrophicFailure]

50 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

Yes, arguably it's cheating.  

That's not cheating, it's... um... practical effects? A second unit? Conservation of resources? Hang on, I'll get it..

[Just Jim]

26 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

That's not cheating, it's... um... practical effects? A second unit? Conservation of resources? Hang on, I'll get it..

hehe, that's why I included the word arguably.  It depends on how you look at it.

From a players perspective, if my story were a mission report in the strictest sense, then I should not be landing asteroids on OPM moons using HyperEdit. I should be attaching rockets to them and doing it the hard way.  So from that POV I would say it's definitely cheating.

However, from a fan-fiction writers POV it's quite different.  In a story like Emiko Station, which includes scaffolding and wormholes and glowing, smoking boulders and all sorts of other weird stuff, then something like HyperEdit can be your best friend, and who cares if it's cheating or not.  You use the tools available to make the story work.

 

Oh, and apparently I'm out of likes for the day...  that went fast...

Edited July 28, 2016 by Just Jim

[Mister Dilsby]

18 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

You use the tools available to make the story work.

Right. And everyone who's writing a mission report/fanfiction hybrid needs to make some kind of decision of what his or her personal rules are. Everything you see a craft do in my comic is at least possible to execute without Hyperedit, the ALT-F12 menu, or performance-enhancing mods. Kerbfleet craft have to actually execute it--Tedus and Bob really did survive their crash landings on Eve, and when Intrepid finishes Jool-5, it will have done so legit. I suppose the one exception to this rule was when I hyperedited the M7 Eve rescue ship to the KSC2 launchpad, but come on that was awesome.  

Non-Kerbfleet craft do often get hyperedited for the sake of expediency, though I still confirm the maneuver was possible. For example, Wernher von Kermulan's "Fliegenstrudel" got into Kerbulus orbit legit, and then after confirming that the ship did indeed have enough dV in the tanks to make a hypothetical transfer from Kerbulus to Kerbin I hyperedited it to LKO, entered atmosphere to get my 'fireball' shots, then hyperedited again to land it in the spot I'd chosen. 

Edited July 28, 2016 by Kuzzter

[Just Jim]

16 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

Right. And everyone who's writing a mission report/fanfiction hybrid needs to make some kind of decision of what his or her personal rules are. Everything you see a craft do in my comic is at least possible to execute without Hyperedit, the ALT-F12 menu, or performance-enhancing mods. Kerbfleet craft have to actually execute it--Tedus and Bob really did survive their crash landings on Eve, and when Intrepid finishes Jool-5, it will have done so legit. I suppose the one exception to this rule was when I hyperedited the M7 Eve rescue ship to the KSC2 launchpad, but come on that was awesome.  

Non-Kerbfleet craft do often get hyperedited for the sake of expediency, though I still confirm the maneuver was possible. For example, Wernher von Kermulan's "Fliegenstrudel" got into Kerbulus orbit legit, and then after confirming that the ship did indeed have enough dV in the tanks to make a hypothetical transfer from Kerbulus to Kerbin I hyperedited it to LKO, entered atmosphere to get my 'fireball' shots, then hyperedited again to land it in the spot I'd chosen. 

I would like to add I do as much as I can without HyperEdit, not because "It's the right thing to do..."  I use it as little as possible because playing the game itself is so much more fun.  For example, I recently halo-jumped a character from a space station 50km over Minmus, and landed her right at the front door of my colony base on the surface with no cheating, or using HyperEdit.... and minimal RCS... and it was awesome!  I couldn't believe I nailed her on the first attempt. 

Now, I could have used HyperEdit to get the same shots, but it would have taken out the fun and satisfaction of doing it the hard way.  So like @Kuzzter says, it's a personal decision how much or little to use it.  Too much might take the fun out of things.

[Andem]

So now that the first two "real" chapters have come out, do y'all have any suggestions on things to work on or things to avoid?

[Just Jim]

4 minutes ago, Andem said:

So now that the first two "real" chapters have come out, do y'all have any suggestions on things to work on or things to avoid?

I like it, but I did notice one small detail.  The first frame of chapter 2, your lettering and background are both very dark, and it's a little hard to make out the words.  You might want to lighten up your letters just a bit.

[Andem]

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

I like it, but I did notice one small detail.  The first frame of chapter 2, your lettering and background are both very dark, and it's a little hard to make out the words.  You might want to lighten up your letters just a bit.

Ok, I had that feeling too. I think I'll bump it up a shade or two. I'll probably (try to) fix the previous covers too for a more unified look (If imgur's new UI will let me).

[Just Jim]

Hey everyone.... I'm currently watching the 4th episode of "Lost In Space", "And There Were Giants In The Earth".

There are 2 reasons why I mention it. 

First, on a personnel note, this was a huge inspiration for me when I was a kid (Yes, I'm that old...), and where I stole borrowed the name Chariot for my heavy rovers.  Back then it was the coolest thing on TV, at least to me... 

Second, as I sit here and watch it now, I have to admit the sub-plots are so jumbled and mistimed and dangling, it's a perfect example of how NOT to write sub-plots into a story. 

Seriously, one minute the planet is freezing, then it's not, then it is again... then the planet only has some form of parasitic life-form, but a few minutes later there are turtles and Penny's weird monkey pet critter.  Then they're running from a giant cyclops, but they camp out that night and have a nice, bright campfire that probably could be seen for miles... and Will is playing a guitar.... etc, etc.... 

Yeah, plot wise, it's a huge mess.  So bad, in fact, I thought it might make a good example for this thread. 
If anyone is interested, and can find it online or Net Flicks or Hulu or whatever, watch it, take notes, and then do the exact opposite of what they did!!!

 

 

Edited July 31, 2016 by Just Jim

[adsii1970]

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

Hey everyone.... I'm currently watching the 4th episode of "Lost In Space", "And There Were Giants In The Earth".

There are 2 reasons why I mention it...

Yeah, plot wise, it's a huge mess.  So bad, in fact, I thought it might make a good example for this thread. 

If anyone is interested, and can find it online or Net Flicks or Hulu or whatever, watch it, take notes, and then do the exact opposite of what they did!!!

[edited by adsii1970 for content]

The original Battlestar Galactica also had this problem, as did M*A*S*H and a few other television shows, but that can be a different thread.

Right now, I am working with index cards that I update with each installment. This is the only way for me to keep things straight. To give you some idea, here's what I have note cards on:

• The crew of the various sea-going vessels.
• The crew of the space station.
• sub plots, such as clues as to who flew through the hangar on the island air station, etc.
• Key friendships of Kerny - that way I can keep track of who went where.

I also find myself re-reading earlier chapters to keep myself straight, too.

 

[Just Jim]

3 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Right now, I am working with index cards that I update with each installment. This is the only way for me to keep things straight. To give you some idea, here's what I have note cards on:

• The crew of the various sea-going vessels.
• The crew of the space station.
• sub plots, such as clues as to who flew through the hangar on the island air station, etc.
• Key friendships of Kerny - that way I can keep track of who went where.

I also find myself re-reading earlier chapters to keep myself straight, too.

That's a great idea.  I have a loose leaf notebook stuffed with info for Emiko. 

And I also go back and re-read stuff a lot to try and keep things straight, and also not forget any sub-plots (like vanishing landers...). 
One of these days I should get around to printing a hard copy.

[NSEP]

In not a writer, but when i do write something, its always a little story about little girls and boys with their little adventure, wich is cute. But my hand writing and English pretty bad. Thats the problem. And i used to make little comic books when i was like eight years old, just simple comics with simple stickmen saying simple things, but that was when i was eight, now i have improved ALOT more. I really like comics, because it combines the thing i am good at (drawing) and what im bad at, but i would like to do (writing). Feel free to give me tips. It would be my greatest hobby if i could write stories.

[0111narwhalz]

Okay, I'm starting to get frustrated. What is the font the forum uses by default? It shows up as "normal text" in Google Docs, which is...unhelpful, at best. None of the fonts you can select after look quite right.

[CatastrophicFailure]

4 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Okay, I'm starting to get frustrated. What is the font the forum uses by default? It shows up as "normal text" in Google Docs, which is...unhelpful, at best. None of the fonts you can select after look quite right.

I think it might vary by whatever system you're using to view it at the time. I know the selectable fonts do change on various setups. 

[0111narwhalz]

Just now, CatastrophicFailure said:

I know the selectable fonts do change on various setups. 

Does this mean the list of fonts, or just the tileset that the font uses?

[CatastrophicFailure]

14 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

Does this mean the list of fonts, or just the tileset that the font uses?

I think it's the fonts themselves. I know a couple of times I've set alternate fonts and they show up as something completely different on other peoples computers.