Writing Discussion II

[Nazi Flower Power]

Well, Bontavation specifically wanted to know what makes your work unique and interesting. On that front, I'd like to point out that themes like "god," "secularism," and especially "tradition vs progress" are all pretty common in sci-fi, and "identity" is explored in literally every genre.

A lot of people pop into this thread and share their ideas for expansive, not-exceptionally-intriguing sci-fi or fantasy universes. The problem with this is that generating ideas is only a fraction of the art of writing; it can be hard to say whether an idea will make a good story or not, because the quality of a story depends on how the author actually implements the idea. This is part of why the people with "a cool idea for a book" vastly outnumber the people who have actually written a decent book.

I am currently writing the book.

This is good.

[Nazi Flower Power]

Everyone in this thread.

Pull out whatever you're working on right now.

Now, explain why we should care. Why it's interesting. Why it's unique. Why it's exciting. Why it's whatever. Basically, tell us what makes the story good enough for us to keep turning the page. What's our stake in your narrative?

It has unusual worldbuilding, and likable characters where you wouldn't expect them. The setting is a futuristic neo-Nazi dictatorship, but it's surprisingly diverse and multicultural. The censorship hasn't stopped Latin American and Asian (both Near Eastern and Far Eastern) influences from getting into the culture. There is some question how much the trappings of Nazism actually reflect the people's beliefs and how much they are just being kept around for tradition's sake. There's a lot of corruption and moral ambiguity, especially when it's not clear if the corrupt officials are corrupt because they are disillusioned with the Nazi system or if they are corrupt because it just comes naturally.

[Laerod]

Very cool. Are you planning to use a service like makeplayingcards.com to make a physical set?

Yus.

Oh, so they're an original set? They look interesting.

I'm making a Tarokka set, but I took extensive liberties with the images, especially those of the lower deck of fate. So neither really original nor really unoriginal. =S

[Nazi Flower Power]

Very cool. Are you planning to use a service like makeplayingcards.com to make a physical set?

Yus.

Oh, so they're an original set? They look interesting.

I'm making a Tarokka set, but I took extensive liberties with the images, especially those of the lower deck of fate. So neither really original nor really unoriginal. =S

Well, the lettering is still crazy good.

[Vozt Yurkova]

Everyone in this thread.

Pull out whatever you're working on right now.

Now, explain why we should care. Why it's interesting. Why it's unique. Why it's exciting. Why it's whatever. Basically, tell us what makes the story good enough for us to keep turning the page. What's our stake in your narrative?

you probably shouldn't care tbh i'm writing it for me more than anyone else.

[Bontavation]

Everyone in this thread.

Pull out whatever you're working on right now.

Now, explain why we should care. Why it's interesting. Why it's unique. Why it's exciting. Why it's whatever. Basically, tell us what makes the story good enough for us to keep turning the page. What's our stake in your narrative?

you probably shouldn't care tbh i'm writing it for me more than anyone else.

Why respond? Why even post in the thread?

[Vozt Yurkova]

just an excuse to tag the thread really

[Yoite]

just an excuse to tag the thread really

If you don't care to share your work, in a Writing Discussion thread, then why bother?

[The New World Oceania]

just an excuse to tag the thread really

If you don't care to share your work, in a Writing Discussion thread, then why bother?

Where are your manners: Yurkova is our resident screenwriter!

[Yoite]

If you don't care to share your work, in a Writing Discussion thread, then why bother?

Where are your manners: Yurkova is our resident screenwriter!

Is he? I have been out of the loop for a while.

*checks his posts*

Eh, I suppose he is. Well, don't mind me or my perpetual lack of validity or relevance. I'm just an antiquated shadow of faded aspirations, and a drama queen.

[Vozt Yurkova]

It's not that I don't want to share my work. When I have something substantial that I want feedback on then I'll probably put up a link to it. I'm just resigned to the fact that very few people are ever going to see my work, so I'm writing it mostly to give myself a sense of achievement. It wasn't my intent to come off as being dismissive of the thread - it was self-deprecating more than anything.

I suppose the idea of a martial arts flick set in Wales starring a punk-girl who beats her way through an army of werewolves, robots and luchadores would make anyone pretty excited, but at this point there's only 40 pages of jumbled up script and barely coherent notes.

[Yoite]

It's not that I don't want to share my work. When I have something substantial that I want feedback on then I'll probably put up a link to it. I'm just resigned to the fact that very few people are ever going to see my work, so I'm writing it mostly to give myself a sense of achievement. It wasn't my intent to come off as being dismissive of the thread - it was self-deprecating more than anything.

I suppose the idea of a martial arts flick set in Wales starring a punk-girl who beats her way through an army of werewolves, robots and luchadores would make anyone pretty excited, but at this point there's only 40 pages of jumbled up script and barely coherent notes.

Just a misunderstanding then, and yes that does sound exciting. In fact, it sounds like it could be the plot of a great Saint's Row game.

[Stella Cadenza]

Greets, my fellow bards!

I must show my musings to you soon!

[Nazi Flower Power]

I must show my musings to you soon!

Please do.

[Scomagia]

I've been thinking about fictionalizing my childhood trauma. I've been feeling a disconnect from my writing lately and I want to see if that might help.

[Gyatse]

So… I am wanting to run some ideas by you all. I've had some ideas, but unfortunately i've felt a bit disconnected from my writing. The first was after a major war, the world's power grid has gone down... It'd follow a family and their survival and would involve depression, suicide, fear of the unknown, etc... The second was about an occupation of the United States by China and one man's attempts at survival against a totalitarian regime... And the last was about a boy who can barely remember the government take over, in which a dictatorship seized rule of his nation... But that by questioning it, he finds himself high on the enemy of state list.

[Yoite]

I've been thinking about fictionalizing my childhood trauma. I've been feeling a disconnect from my writing lately and I want to see if that might help.

Writing is a traditional outlet for both introspection and escapism, so it sounds like it could be therapeutic.

[Scomagia]

I've been thinking about fictionalizing my childhood trauma. I've been feeling a disconnect from my writing lately and I want to see if that might help.

Writing is a traditional outlet for both introspection and escapism, so it sounds like it could be therapeutic.

Or painful. Or both.

We'll see, I suppose.

[Yoite]

Writing is a traditional outlet for both introspection and escapism, so it sounds like it could be therapeutic.

Or painful. Or both.

We'll see, I suppose.

Pain can be therapeutic. *nods*

[Nordengrund]

I am working on a novel in progress and I really want to share what I have so far, should I wait until I finish because I do not know how long it will take.

[The New World Oceania]

Or painful. Or both.

We'll see, I suppose.

Pain can be therapeutic. *nods*

Arguably a dangerous thing to say

I am working on a novel in progress and I really want to share what I have so far, should I wait until I finish because I do not know how long it will take.

Share, I suggest.

[Nordengrund]

Pain can be therapeutic. *nods*

Arguably a dangerous thing to say

I am working on a novel in progress and I really want to share what I have so far, should I wait until I finish because I do not know how long it will take.

Share, I suggest.

I'll do it tomorrow if I have time. In the mean time I would like to leave you with a creation myth I wrote. It is not for any particular story I am writing, but I am proud of it and I love mythology, so I decided to save it in case I need it.

Creation Story

Before time began, there was a powerful being called Great Mother. She was lonely, so she created the Great Father.

They mated and the Great Mother gave birth to the gods. She had four children total: the God of Light, the God of Time, the God of Space, and the Lonely God.

The Great Mother died after the last child, and the Great Father committed suicide.

The Lonely God was bullied by his siblings for being a “parent killer” and his deformity.

He fought his siblings in a conflict known to the Mortals as the War of the Cosmos.

He lost the fight and was banished to Celendor, a barren rocky planet.

For many centuries, he wandered his new home, and watched the suns rise and set.

From his extreme loneliness, he began uttering to himself. The god held imaginary conversations with a figment of his mind. Eventually, he talked to his imaginary friend so much, it became real.

The Lonely God introduced himself to his new friend, the Nameless One. Around this time, the Lonely God discovered that he could create things from his mind, so whatever he thought about became real.

One day, while walking across the rock covered land, he desired to see plant life, so he thought about it, and grass and trees began to grow.

He grew thirsty, so he imagined water. Oceans, and freshwater bodies appeared.

He imagined rain, and rain appeared. The Nameless One decided to give creation a try, so he tried to imagine rain, but thunderstorms appeared instead.
When the Lonely God imagined animals, the world was populated with herbivores. The Nameless One, however, tried to do the same thing, and created carnivores.

One day, the Nameless One decided to take matters into his own hand and imagine his own original thoughts instead of going along with the Lonely God.

He thought of beings that resembled him in appearance and sentience. Next to him, this being, called a Mortal, emerged. The Nameless One called him First Man.

Even though the Nameless One and First Man socialized, he wanted someone like him, so the Nameless One created First Woman.

The Nameless One felt proud of himself for successfully creating something succesfuly for once, or so he thought.

The two Mortals mated and produced offspring, and they produced offspring, and so on. The Mortals had violent tendencies; they killed one another, fought over possessions and lied and stole.

The Nameless One sought help from the Lonely God. He told him about the Mortals. The Lonely God told him that the humans are like animals, they have no rules to live by, nothing to guide their actions, and since they were the products of the Nameless One, they were prone to corruption.

The next day, the Nameless One assembled all of the Mortals into one area and demanded their attention.

He divided them into different groups and appointed a leader amongst each group.

Some Mortals had a natural affinity for communicating directly with the gods and with animals. They were known as shamans.

The shamans approached the gods with a problem. The Mortals had no language, and therefore could not clearly communicate among one another. The two gods decided to write several scrolls for the shamans to read to the Mortals and teach them how to speak and read the universal language.
However, a sly fox told the gods that he too wanted every animal capable of speech, so the gods wrote scrolls for every creature. Then the sly fox snuck into the place where the shamans slept and stole their scrolls, and replaced them with the new ones.

When each shaman returned to his own group, he read the scroll. Each group of Mortals had learned and spoke a different language.

They migrated to different parts of the world and formed their own civilizations.

The angered gods punished the sly fox and all other animals by making them incapable of speaking to any Mortals except for shamans.

The Lonely God died from old age and his body became the afterlife and guardian spirits.

The Nameless One went to sleep beneath the earth and has remained inactive to this day.

[Scomagia]

Or painful. Or both.

We'll see, I suppose.

Pain can be therapeutic. *nods*

Not really. Pain accompanies therapy, though.

[Respubliko de Libereco]

In the mean time I would like to leave you with a creation myth I wrote. It is not for any particular story I am writing, but I am proud of it and I love mythology, so I decided to save it in case I need it.

Creation Story

Before time began, there was a powerful being called Great Mother. She was lonely, so she created the Great Father.

They mated and the Great Mother gave birth to the gods. She had four children total: the God of Light, the God of Time, the God of Space, and the Lonely God.

The Great Mother died after the last child, and the Great Father committed suicide.

The Lonely God was bullied by his siblings for being a “parent killer” and his deformity.

He fought his siblings in a conflict known to the Mortals as the War of the Cosmos.

He lost the fight and was banished to Celendor, a barren rocky planet.

For many centuries, he wandered his new home, and watched the suns rise and set.

From his extreme loneliness, he began uttering to himself. The god held imaginary conversations with a figment of his mind. Eventually, he talked to his imaginary friend so much, it became real.

The Lonely God introduced himself to his new friend, the Nameless One. Around this time, the Lonely God discovered that he could create things from his mind, so whatever he thought about became real.

One day, while walking across the rock covered land, he desired to see plant life, so he thought about it, and grass and trees began to grow.

He grew thirsty, so he imagined water. Oceans, and freshwater bodies appeared.

He imagined rain, and rain appeared. The Nameless One decided to give creation a try, so he tried to imagine rain, but thunderstorms appeared instead.
When the Lonely God imagined animals, the world was populated with herbivores. The Nameless One, however, tried to do the same thing, and created carnivores.

One day, the Nameless One decided to take matters into his own hand and imagine his own original thoughts instead of going along with the Lonely God.

He thought of beings that resembled him in appearance and sentience. Next to him, this being, called a Mortal, emerged. The Nameless One called him First Man.

Even though the Nameless One and First Man socialized, he wanted someone like him, so the Nameless One created First Woman.

The Nameless One felt proud of himself for successfully creating something succesfuly for once, or so he thought.

The two Mortals mated and produced offspring, and they produced offspring, and so on. The Mortals had violent tendencies; they killed one another, fought over possessions and lied and stole.

The Nameless One sought help from the Lonely God. He told him about the Mortals. The Lonely God told him that the humans are like animals, they have no rules to live by, nothing to guide their actions, and since they were the products of the Nameless One, they were prone to corruption.

The next day, the Nameless One assembled all of the Mortals into one area and demanded their attention.

He divided them into different groups and appointed a leader amongst each group.

Some Mortals had a natural affinity for communicating directly with the gods and with animals. They were known as shamans.

The shamans approached the gods with a problem. The Mortals had no language, and therefore could not clearly communicate among one another. The two gods decided to write several scrolls for the shamans to read to the Mortals and teach them how to speak and read the universal language.
However, a sly fox told the gods that he too wanted every animal capable of speech, so the gods wrote scrolls for every creature. Then the sly fox snuck into the place where the shamans slept and stole their scrolls, and replaced them with the new ones.

When each shaman returned to his own group, he read the scroll. Each group of Mortals had learned and spoke a different language.

They migrated to different parts of the world and formed their own civilizations.

The angered gods punished the sly fox and all other animals by making them incapable of speaking to any Mortals except for shamans.

The Lonely God died from old age and his body became the afterlife and guardian spirits.

The Nameless One went to sleep beneath the earth and has remained inactive to this day.

Turn it into a poem. Mythology and poetry go well together.

[Conserative Morality]

I finally untangled my pantheon family tree. As amusing (and appropriate, considering some mythologies) as it would have been to keep it tangled and incestuous...