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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

Greninjaman said:
But what if the place was abandoned for years? How is it still theft/burglary if no one ever goes to the place?
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From what little research I just did, abandoned buildings are still owned by someone, whether it’s the owner and they just forgot, the owner’s descendants, the government, etc. Unless someone says, “hey, this place is open to the public, and you can take from it”, it’s still private property.
 
more than a torchic said:
From what little research I just did, abandoned buildings are still owned by someone, whether it’s the owner and they just forgot, the owner’s descendants, the government, etc. Unless someone says, “hey, this place is open to the public, and you can take from it”, it’s still private property.
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True. Thanks!
 
Yeah, it's why even people who literally break the law to explore/document abandoned sites or buildings still frown upon people who take "souvenirs".
 
Greninjaman said:
Have you guys ever had a chapter planned out a certain way, but you decide to scrap it and do something else with it because it does not really fit in the story?
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I just did that with PHAV. I had an idea for a chapter, only to split the chapter into two so it wouldn't feel so rushed, only to cut out over half of the stuff I had originally written.
 
more than a torchic said:
I just did that with PHAV. I had an idea for a chapter, only to split the chapter into two so it wouldn't feel so rushed, only to cut out over half of the stuff I had originally written.
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Wow. I straight up deleted half the chapter that I had, since I felt it really didn't add anything to the story. I realized that there was a better way to have the story go.
 
Greninjaman said:
Wow. I straight up deleted half the chapter that I had, since I felt it really didn't add anything to the story. I realized that there was a better way to have the story go.
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For Chapter 3 and 4 of PHAV, I cut out large portions of the first drafts (probably over half fo reach one). Sometimes, I just don't like how the pacing, or a scene feels weird, and I have to delete it. I keep the best ideas of the first draft and expand on them to get a better draft, if that makes sense.
 
more than a torchic said:
For Chapter 3 and 4 of PHAV, I cut out large portions of the first drafts (probably over half fo reach one). Sometimes, I just don't like how the pacing, or a scene feels weird, and I have to delete it. I keep the best ideas of the first draft and expand on them to get a better draft, if that makes sense.
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Indeed, it makes sense. This is YOUR story. You do what you think is best for it.
 
Originally, Pokemon Moonlight Silver was going to include the Whirl Cup as a massive Pokethlon. But then I ran into two HUGE problems:

--Ash played such a pivotal role in that arc, it was hard to take him out without making the story suffer
--Misty would effectively be getting a freebie win down the road, which wasn't fair to me.

So it got cut. Looking back, I should've cut it from the start
 
Greninjaman said:
Have you guys ever had a chapter planned out a certain way, but you decide to scrap it and do something else with it because it does not really fit in the story?
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Had to do this a lot. Part of my future chapters were planned. But whenever I get to them, I took some level of improvisation and this ended up changing a few things. For the sake of pacing and plot progression. There are times when I feel certain scenes escalate too much, too fast, so I ended up cutting out some content or delaying them for later chapters.
 
Greninjaman said:
How much is too much when it comes to exposition? I can imagine that going overboard with it can make the reader not want to keep reading your story.
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That's a hard question to answer, because it really depends.

The best way to give exposition is a little bit at a time, or to make it interesting to read. Maybe a character is telling a humorous/exciting story. Maybe you're dropping bits and pieces throughout your descriptions. Experiment a bit. If the exposition seems to drag on, cut out the less important parts. You don't want to bore your audience, but you also don't want to leave them dry (is that a phrase?)
 
more than a torchic said:
That's a hard question to answer, because it really depends.

The best way to give exposition is a little bit at a time, or to make it interesting to read. Maybe a character is telling a humorous/exciting story. Maybe you're dropping bits and pieces throughout your descriptions. Experiment a bit. If the exposition seems to drag on, cut out the less important parts. You don't want to bore your audience, but you also don't want to leave them dry (is that a phrase?)
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Yeah. That's partly why I scrapped what I had for Chapter 2. I felt that there was a bit too much going on.
 
Originally I considered starting chapter 1 of We Live, that Animorphs fanfic I talked about, by having a character reminisce on the events during the one-month timeskip after the prologue, but I got stuck because it was boring and felt like a rehash of the prologue's themes. Eventually, I realised it was better to start the chapter with one of those reminisced events.

Also, lately I've been low-key obsessed with the Voidcritters from The Sims 4: Kids Room Stuff. It's an in-universe Pokémon clone that has no reason to have as much effort put into it as it does. Instead of going the easy route and making derpy expies of Gen 1 Pokémon*, each one has its own identity and its own piece of lore. It's even a multimedia franchise; the main attraction are the trading cards that are needed to play the video game á la Skylanders, but it also has a TV show on one of the kids' channels, a poster, some decals, and you can even write books about it in the Freelance Writer career. I wish there was more Voidcritter fan content.

*Vulpes sort-of looks like Eevee, but that's it.
 
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Where would the line between Supporting Character and Main Character? Like, what would make a Supporting Character a Main Character? What would make a Main Character, a Supporting Character?
I am wondering if Leon should be labeled as a Supporting Character or a Main Character in my story.
 
Greninjaman said:
Where would the line between Supporting Character and Main Character? Like, what would make a Supporting Character a Main Character? What would make a Main Character, a Supporting Character?
I am wondering if Leon should be labeled as a Supporting Character or a Main Character in my story.
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This is something that you don't have to decide on right away. Originally, Hesh in my story was a minor character in previous drafts, serving more as comic relief. But his role expanded in the new iteration of the story, taking the spot of deuteragonist. It's not entirely unprecendented since I did plan for Hesh to have a larger role. But now, it feels like a portion of the story would be lost without him, which is the unexpected part.
 
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