A Thread for Writers to talk about Writing

[KerballingSmasher]

On 7/3/2019 at 8:28 AM, KSK said:

Do you feel the need?

Yes. I feels the needs for bad English. ;D

Edited July 6, 2019 by Kerballing (Got Dunked On)

[Mikenike]

On 7/6/2019 at 1:35 PM, Kerballing (Got Dunked On) said:

Yes. I feels the needs for bad English. ;D

HAHAHAHAHA! That is funnie! 

 

Still have writers block for my story. Haven't done very much in KSP lately, although I have done a lot in the time I have, still have the main characters missing after recovering vessel.

[Selective Genius]

Ok, so I was looking up some history and a plot bunny hit me.

Trade between the Europe and the East happened through land routes, with the Red Sea route being the favored route. But when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, the Red Sea fell to Arab hands and the entirety of Eastern Merchandise went to Europe through Arab intermediaries. This led to an insane increase in the price of Indian and Chinese imports, which prompted the Europeans to discover a sea route to India.

In interplanetary trade, could a similar 'Red Sea' exist? Without which traders from Kerbin would need alternate trade routes to Jool and beyond? And if yes what could be the most plausible choice?

Dres comes to mind, as a Fuel Depot of sorts, but I am hoping for more options?

Edited July 14, 2019 by Selective Genius

[KSK]

Minmus, Duna and Ike could all work as propellant depots

• Duna has ice caps in-game. If you're using it as a strict Mars analogue then you could find water ice and dry ice there. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen - all the ingredients you need to manufacture  propellant for hydrolox, methalox or kerolox engines.
• Minmus - well you need to do some handwaving but you could find all the ices there that you find on Duna. Possibly.
• Ike - plausibly has supplies of water ice in permanently shadowed craters. The same way that our Moon and Mercury do.

Whether any of them would make sense as a 'Red Sea' is an interesting question and depends how necessary ISRU refueling is in your story. If Dres is your 'Red Sea' between Kerbin and Jool, do any of the alternatives even make sense, in terms of delta-V and journey times? Maybe there's simply no point going via Duna if you then need to twiddle your thumbs in orbit for six months waiting for the next transfer window. Maybe doing a direct injection from Kerbin to Jool would be acceptable, presumably at the expense of cargo per trip (since you'll presumably need more propellant?). 

Then you get into the economics of the whole thing. Maybe a trading venture only makes sense if you can ship x many tons of stuff, every y months, and is therefore effectively fixed to one route?

Finally, what technology are you using. Maybe your kerbals are scooting about the system in fusion powered torch ships and look bemused at such quaint concepts as 'transfer windows'

 

TL: DR.  Interesting question, lots of factors to juggle, Minmus, Duna and Ike could all work as propellant depots.

 

[DDE]

Technical question!

How to efficiently capture and upload screenshots without Steam?

17 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

In interplanetary trade, could a similar 'Red Sea' exist? Without which traders from Kerbin would need alternate trade routes to Jool and beyond? And if yes what could be the most plausible choice?

Stopover points are pretty much a non-starter in spaceflight, and the marginal dV increase needed to directly reach certain destinations directly are quite tolerable. Thus interruptible trade routes are difficult to arrange.

[ResonantWaves]

6 hours ago, DDE said:

Technical question!

How to efficiently capture and upload screenshots without Steam?

Holding down the Windows key and tapping Print Screen (or Prt Sc on some keyboards) is a very easy way to do so.

I've actually been thinking about writing a darker, sadder version of KSP fanfiction featuring the original four, or rather, their absence. Not much of a writer myself but it does intrigue me... I've got a friend that's not on the forums but maybe he'd help me write it, and a few others around Discord and Steam. Interesting.

Edited July 15, 2019 by ResonantWaves

[steuben]

 

Quote

How to efficiently capture and upload screenshots without Steam?

F1 works as well for taking screen caps. But it depends on what you'll be using them for, to define efficiency. As for Uploading them I've recent gone with Imgur.

 

14 minutes ago, ResonantWaves said:

I've actually been thinking about writing a darker, sadder version of KSP fanfiction featuring the original four, or rather, their absence.

Darker and edgier *shrugs* sure. Just keep in mind audience apathy and narm which can lead to the words that can kill a fic.

Now, advice before you get too far into the project, since this sounds like it's your first rodeo: 
- ignore the O4. Everybody does the O4. Yes, I know that in my current flagship line the O4 are there. But, they are secondary characters, and not view point characters... Yeah it's an excuse. But do try to think about other characters.
- plan. Plan your plot, your characters, your settings. Every fifteen minutes of planning saves fifteen hours of writing, and prevents five awkward plot holes. Or worse a deadend plot with no way out.
- think about medium. Text, comic, video, something cross-media. Each has its own strengths, weaknesses, necessities, and conventions.
- read. Both books of the genre and associated non-fiction books. As well as some how-to books, and TvTropes, but bring a friend, a good rope, an axe, a zeppelin and 30 chinamen when reading TvTropes.
- ask. There are those of us who haunt this realm that will be will to part with situation specific advice.
- write. Should go without saying, but it happens that folk will talk a story and do nothing.
 

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

8 hours ago, DDE said:

Technical question!

 How to efficiently capture and upload screenshots without Steam?

In game, F1 takes a screenshot. You can also tweak settings to supersample them for better resolution. Imgur is a popular free image hosting site, just stay away from the comments. 

[ResonantWaves]

4 hours ago, steuben said:

 

F1 works as well for taking screen caps. But it depends on what you'll be using them for, to define efficiency. As for Uploading them I've recent gone with Imgur.

 

Darker and edgier *shrugs* sure. Just keep in mind audience apathy and narm which can lead to the words that can kill a fic.

Now, advice before you get too far into the project, since this sounds like it's your first rodeo: 
- ignore the O4. Everybody does the O4. Yes, I know that in my current flagship line the O4 are there. But, they are secondary characters, and not view point characters... Yeah it's an excuse. But do try to think about other characters.
- plan. Plan your plot, your characters, your settings. Every fifteen minutes of planning saves fifteen hours of writing, and prevents five awkward plot holes. Or worse a deadend plot with no way out.
- think about medium. Text, comic, video, something cross-media. Each has its own strengths, weaknesses, necessities, and conventions.
- read. Both books of the genre and associated non-fiction books. As well as some how-to books, and TvTropes, but bring a friend, a good rope, an axe, a zeppelin and 30 chinamen when reading TvTropes.
- ask. There are those of us who haunt this realm that will be will to part with situation specific advice.
- write. Should go without saying, but it happens that folk will talk a story and do nothing.
 

 

Thanks for the tips! I knew a wee bit about writing beforehand (not my first rodeo, haha) but this'll come in handy, cheers!

[DDE]

18 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

In game, F1 takes a screenshot. You can also tweak settings to supersample them for better resolution. Imgur is a popular free image hosting site, just stay away from the comments. 

I’ve tried using Imgur. Unfortunately it has a tendency to ignore the order in which I upload images.

[CatastrophicFailure]

5 hours ago, DDE said:

I’ve tried using Imgur. Unfortunately it has a tendency to ignore the order in which I upload images.

There should be an option to “rearrange images.” It helps if you turn off the stupid beta format, too.

[qzgy]

On 7/16/2019 at 1:32 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

There should be an option to “rearrange images.” It helps if you turn off the stupid beta format, too.

There is. At least on desktop. Think it's on the side labeled rearrange images or image order or something. 

[Guest]

Hello ppls. 

There are a lot of writers who seem to play KSP @_@! I actually got KSP in the first place because I was writing a story that involved orbital mechanics and newtonian spacecraft! I thought I could get more fidelity in the story if I had a working understanding. And!... I ended up stopping writing and just playing KSP XD

It wasn’t just that though, I find that I’m only really creative when I’m in a happy state of mind and my life took a bit of a crappy turn which I haven’t quite gotten out of yet .

 

Edited July 20, 2019 by Guest

[Guest]

On 7/16/2019 at 10:09 PM, DDE said:

I’ve tried using Imgur. Unfortunately it has a tendency to ignore the order in which I upload images.

I use IMGBB for image hosting

(I just use MS Paint to save all my screenshots. It’s not exactly efficient since it’s not a one button thing. I press print screen in game and then alt-tab to paint and paste+save. It lets me crop and edit things on the fly if I want. It’s just how I’ve been doing it since forever.)

[roboslacker]

Does anyone know a good geometrically defined image editor? I need to make a 4 panel comic template.

[Selective Genius]

7 hours ago, roboslacker said:

Does anyone know a good geometrically defined image editor? I need to make a 4 panel comic template.

Comic strips like this one?:

I think it is made in Powerpoint...

[Kerbinchaser]

Been stuck in an endless time-loop where I never wrote Chapter XII of We Who Witnessed, but after a lot of procrastination I think I'm good. Chapter should, God willing, be up soon.

Man Writer's block sucks. 

[Alpha 360]

I'm looking for any fanfiction in progress to join up with. I can act as an editor, binge writer, confidant, or whatever. My last couple fanfictions have fell through over the last couple years, but I want to stay in the game in order to improve on my writing skills. It's just too risky to start up a new fan fiction because I haven't come up with any good ideas. I'm an improver, not a producer so to speak. 

Just contact me if you got any questions,

Peter 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Alpha 360
added my real name :)

[Kerbinchaser]

On 8/18/2019 at 3:43 AM, Alpha 360 said:

I'm looking for any fanfiction in progress to join up with. I can act as an editor, binge writer, confidant, or whatever. My last couple fanfictions have fell through over the last couple years, but I want to stay in the game in order to improve on my writing skills. It's just too risky to start up a new fan fiction because I haven't come up with any good ideas. I'm an improver, not a producer so to speak. 

Just contact me if you got any questions,

Peter 

 

Is this offer still up? I need a good editor for my WWW series. You won't have to do much, since I update it once a month, at the most. If you want to overlook the project, have a look in my signature. 

[Alpha 360]

I'm not a *good* editor, but I'll be willing to give it a shot. Could you post the link? I can't seem to access WWW from your signature. 

[ResonantWaves]

Hi! I'm a relatively new fanfiction writer and I've just published the first two chapters of my story Find The Gap, a KSP racing fic set in the same universe as @DarkOwl57's Life at The Top. Any advice, critique or feedback would be appreciated. Thanks, and goodbye!
 

 

Edited September 26, 2019 by ResonantWaves
stupid fat fingers typing wrong letters

[steuben]

27 minutes ago, ResonantWaves said:

Any advice, critique or feedback would be appreciated.

What level of analysis are you looking at?

[ResonantWaves]

53 minutes ago, steuben said:

What level of analysis are you looking at?

A general overview really- not too in-depth, just a reflection of what you enjoyed or what you think I could have done better.

[steuben]

22 hours ago, ResonantWaves said:

A general overview really- not too in-depth, just a reflection of what you enjoyed or what you think I could have done better.

A quick answer is don't spend a dollar on a word when you can get away with spending a nickel. To paraphrase an old master of the craft, "Tape your thesaurus closed."

Use the simplest word you can to get the point across. Save the "dollar words" for speech and use them only to show certain character traits.

I'll chew on it a bit more to see if there is anything else.

Edited September 27, 2019 by steuben

[Triop]

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 !