A Thread for Writers to talk about Writing

[Spaceception]

I've finished chapter 3 of Infinitum, what do you guys think?

 

Edited February 17, 2017 by Spaceception

[steuben]

My take on everybody met in the war. It's separate from the swan-verse.

The problem is Gene talking the whole time. How can you do a character telling a story?

[Draconiator]

I just wanted to say I am so very grateful that people like Etherium...been a fan of KSP for a while prior, and as soon as I discovered that people write stories here, I wanted to do the same, but didn't know where to start.  That all changed with Just Jim's Emiko Station.  I still read every new chapter when they come out...and well, I'd like to tag him as my main inspiration.

@Just Jim, thank you for your wonderful story, if it wasn't for Emiko, the Etherium would have never tried to take over Kerbin.  I do have a good imagination, and I find story ideas come easily to me.  Again, thank you for your inspiration, you rock!

I need to mention my very first person who I inspired in turn, @DarkOwl57, remember what one of those guys said, write for YOU.  I just love telling stories, and the Kerbal universe sandbox is like the ultimate way to set up a story.  I hope to thrill people with my tale sure, but mostly I write for ME, and hope what makes me feel good, makes you feel good.  Just...do what comes naturally.

I just completely adore this community...and to think it all started with an impulse buy, without even being sure I would like it or not.  KSP has opened windows for my creativity I didn't even know were there....

[DarkOwl57]

Wohoo I was mentioned by a writer!!! Yeehaw!

[Just Jim]

19 hours ago, Draconiator said:

That all changed with Just Jim's Emiko Station.  I still read every new chapter when they come out...and well, I'd like to tag him as my main inspiration.

@Just Jim, thank you for your wonderful story, if it wasn't for Emiko, the Etherium would have never tried to take over Kerbin.  I do have a good imagination, and I find story ideas come easily to me.  Again, thank you for your inspiration, you rock!

Thank you so much!!!  I'm honored!  And I'm a big fan of the Etherium as well. 

Edited March 8, 2017 by Just Jim

[Spaceception]

I've finished chapter 4, how's the story so far?

 

[NISSKEPCSIM]

I'm writing a book. It isn't a kind of fan work on the forum or anything, it's an actual book. Three 120 page copy books stuck together with glue and duct tape. 196 pages so far. A couple of months ago I hit the dreaded writer's block. I realised that all I needed was time to think. After abut a month, I'm back into writing. I forgot how fun it could be!

On 3/1/2017 at 4:00 PM, steuben said:

The problem is Gene talking the whole time. How can you do a character telling a story?

You do it through flashbacks. At least, that's what I do. You tell the story, then, at the very end, turn it into dialogue as you reveal to your readers how it was actually being recounted by a different character.

Edited March 10, 2017 by NISSKEPCSIM

[NISSKEPCSIM]

I started a new pet-project, 'Kontakt'.

 

[Ten Key]

On 3/1/2017 at 9:00 AM, steuben said:

The problem is Gene talking the whole time. How can you do a character telling a story?

Honestly, I think the problem is that Gene isn't talking the whole time. 

I would cut the first two paragraphs entirely. . .they break up the immediacy of the scene, and don't really convey any information necessary for the rest of the piece. I would also cut out the dialog between Jeb and Val. . .this scene isn't about the dead pilots. It's about Gene. It's about Gene's connections to, and perceptions of, the deceased, the program at large, and the audience listening to him speak. Let the reader see what happened through Gene's eyes. Let him tell the reader how, at first, there was no indication as to what the argument was about, how there seemed to be no reason for the escalation. But as the words grew more heated, and the accusations more wild, those who knew the two of them could start to feel the ghosts, Jeb and Val's dead comrades egging them on through the guilt of their own survival. Let the reader feel Gene's pain at the loss of two friends, and the weight of the burden of having to pick up the pieces and carry on. 

Let the scene be about Gene. 

[KSK]

Hey folks,

In case anyone hasn't been following along, Squad held a writing contest to celebrate the release of KSP: Localised. It turned out to be rather popular, so much so that the Squad staff needed to shortlist the 90 odd entries to a poll of thirty.

Go take a look if you haven't already! The articles are around 300 words each, so they're pretty light on the eyes and they're all worth a read. Some of the authors are long time denizens of this thread, some are relative newbies to the forum.

So give em a look and click through to the poll. As the saying goes, it don't matter who you vote for, the important thing is to get out and vote!

[CatastrophicFailure]

And remember to vote early... and often. 

[KSK]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

And remember to vote early... and often. 

That... we do not speak of.  

[Spaceception]

I've finished chapter 7 of Infinitum, what do you guys think of the pacing and plot development, and everything? Feedback would be cool

 

[AHeroReborn]

I have just written my first story what do you think?

 

[steuben]

AHeroReborn, I banged hard against the main character. He's ranking pretty high on my trusty Fluke brand Mary-Sue-o-Meter. You may want to run him through this check list http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm, and review this article Common Mary Sue Traits.

Though that is a detail take on Werhner I don't think I've seen before. 

[Guest]

10 hours ago, AHeroReborn said:

I have just written my first story what do you think?

IMO if all you're doing is adding 'k' to some words and putting in a guy named Wernher, you're not really writing a KSP story at all. Sure, definitely bring in references to other sci-fi genres you like, thats lots of fun and I certainly do it all the time. But for it to work as ksp fiction it has to have elements of the game and its shared canon.

So for example, I could write a story set in the 18th century where a certain group is protesting tax policy by throwing a certain product into the harbor. I need to do more than call the city Koston and call the product 'snacks'. I have to make the story genuinely Kerbal. Maybe the ship they're on has some gunpowder-fueled boosters that explode. Maybe they're throwing the snacks overboard willy-nilly and the Kraken appears. Maybe when the Kritish come to raid the Katriots' secret stash of oxidant and struts, there's a signal from the top of the VAB (one light if by rocket, two if by SSTO!) and Paul Kerman has to ride a rover through town to warn everyone.

You get the idea

 

Edited March 26, 2017 by Kuzzter

[AHeroReborn]

22 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

IMO if all you're doing is adding 'k' to some words and putting in a guy named Wernher, you're not really writing a KSP story at all. Sure, definitely bring in references to other sci-fi genres you like, thats lots of fun and I certainly do it all the time. But for it to work as ksp fiction it has to have elements of the game and its shared canon.

So for example, I could write a story set in the 18th century where a certain group is protesting tax policy by throwing a certain product into the harbor. I need to do more than call the city Koston and call the product 'snacks'. I have to make the story genuinely Kerbal. Maybe the ship they're on has some gunpowder-fueled boosters that explode. Maybe they're throwing the snacks overboard willy-nilly and the Kraken appears. Maybe when the Kritish come to raid the Katriots' secret stash of oxidant and struts, there's a signal from the top of the VAB (one light if by rocket, two if by SSTO!) and Paul Kerman has to ride a rover through town to warn everyone.

You get the idea

 

I think i understand. I have been thinking of ways to add that. thank you for giving me lots of ideas!

Edited March 26, 2017 by AHeroReborn

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, Kuzzter said:

So for example, I could write a story set in the 18th century where a certain group is protesting tax policy by throwing a certain product into the harbor. I need to do more than call the city Koston and call the product 'snacks'. I have to make the story genuinely Kerbal. Maybe the ship they're on has some gunpowder-fueled boosters that explode. Maybe they're throwing the snacks overboard willy-nilly and the Kraken appears. Maybe when the Kritish come to raid the Katriots' secret stash of oxidant and struts, there's a signal from the top of the VAB (one light if by rocket, two if by SSTO!) and Paul Kerman has to ride a rover through town to warn everyone.

Would totally read this. 

[SaturnianBlue]

While this is admittedly a little belated, i'd like everyone's thoughts on the Asteroid Sentinels, and what they think of Series 7 and 8 overall. I haven't really had much thought on the overall series, and it would be nice to see what you think.

One thing I can’t help but think: I didn’t really take away as much about characters as I wanted to; I had an interesting theme about the truth and disinformation, overreactions and irrational thinking, something I was quite proud of, but I wish I got more in about the characters.

    The meetings helped to establish the ground crew’s personality/approaches to issues: Mort, Wernher, Gus, and Gene. Gus was the “nice guy” who wanted a peaceful solution, no matter what it cost in money. Mort was financially conscious but also completely gung-ho when it came to dealing with the enemy, and Gene was the voice of reason for most topics, and Wernher was with rockets.

The Kerbonauts on the other hand… They didn’t really stand out. I sort of tried to make Valentina the leader and the more thoughtful thinker, while Bill was supposed to be the person for quick solutions. Jeb sadly doesn’t stand out that much. The idea was to make him more of a cautious and more longer-term thinking kerbal after the portal incident, but it totally suppressed his personality.

Since i'm planning out a future series right now, it's quite nice to have some dedicated feedback to keep in mind.

 

Edited April 3, 2017 by SaturnianBlue

[Avery616]

Hello so i am a asipreing writer and i want to start my own series.

I have managed to get a plan for it down in everything. 

However theres  just one missing detail.

Basically i dont know how to post it.

Like do i post a thread and then add the story in the replies?

Or do i add the first bit of the story in the thread and add the rest of the additions to the story in the replies?

So i ask that any Older accounts on this thread to help this newbie along if they have the time. 

And thanks for giving some time to read this request as well.  

[0111narwhalz]

@Avery616

There are almost as many ways to format your post as there are ways to write your story. Some authors (e.g. @steuben) like creating a new thread for each installment. Others (e.g. @Kuzzter) find that an index of Imgur albums in the OP of one thread works best for them. Still others (e.g. @Just Jim) simply place a table of contents in the OP and link to comments with content. On certain forums (e.g. the Limit Theory forums), it is customary to place content in one thread, and discussion in another.

Personally, I prefer the third option. Two of my three ongoing major works feature this mode. Kerbal Future does not, because it would make the first post far too large without a separate break, and I have too many comments to rekerjigger. I initialized Warped Stars with a short prologue, then proceeded to post chapters. The table of contents came later. YAMR, my latest, was initialized with an empty table of contents. I had to fight with the forum software to prevent it from automerging my first chapter, so note that hazard before choosing this option.

The second option may work well if your medium is entirely or almost entirely pictoral. It gives your readers a continuous reading experience, should they like. However, it does preclude the possibility of textual content, at least of any great size. Particularly well-suited to webcomics graphic novels. Content is still embedded within the thread.

The first option may work well if your works are episodic, and only tangentially related. It promotes discussion on a particular installment, rather than the collection as a whole. However, it tends to disjoint your work, so be aware that your readers are less likely to see connections between episodes.

The fourth option is largely unrepresented here. However, an example can be found in the Encyclopedia Kerbalis by @MinimalMinmus. Similar to option two, this one promotes a continuous work. May work well if you feel that commentary would detract from the experience.

These are but a few possibilities. Ultimately, it's up to you how your story will be published. I would suggest that you plan for the work being bigger than you expect, though, because these things run away easily.

writing!

Edited April 12, 2017 by 0111narwhalz

[KSK]

3 minutes ago, 0111narwhalz said:

The fourth option is largely unrepresented here. However, an example can be found in the Encyclopedia Kerbalis by @MinimalMinmus. Similar to option two, this one promotes a continuous work. May work well if you feel that commentary would detract from the experience.

It almost never works here in my experience. Even when you post a request on the main thread to please put comments in #thisthreadhere, people rarely take much notice and just comment on the main thread anyway.

I prefer the third option myself. For episodic work, I don't mind having comments in the main thread anyway - it makes them easier to relate to specific parts of the story, especially if the story is long running.

Good luck with the series @Avery616!

[0111narwhalz]

9 minutes ago, KSK said:

It almost never works here in my experience. Even when you post a request on the main thread to please put comments in #thisthreadhere, people rarely take much notice and just comment on the main thread anyway.

It's standard operating procedure over on the LT forums. Probably has to do with the fact that there are few enough people there that everyone practically knows each other personally.

[MiffedStarfish]

Hello! I am writing my first story right now, it is about the Duna Initative, a section of a company who are trying to set up a permanent foothold in the Duna system in the midst of a space age civil war back on Kerbin. Stock combat features heavily, and it is militaristic. It is half story, half battle test of my ships for the Navsl battle club, as in I am writing up what actually happened on my screen and not making up favourable outcomes. I have only written 3 short chapters and so far they are all build up, but I'd really appreciate criticism or suggestions. 

You can read it here:

 

[MinimalMinmus]

1 hour ago, 0111narwhalz said:

The fourth option is largely unrepresented here. However, an example can be found in the Encyclopedia Kerbalis by @MinimalMinmus. Similar to option two, this one promotes a continuous work. May work well if you feel that commentary would detract from the experience.

Actually, I didn't really think it as such, but rather as "Main thread: canon building, and more serious writings", and "sister thread: fun writings". I don't really think one is better to discuss than the others, and it's actually a spontaneous phenomenon as people don't want to disrupt the continuity.