Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[AceTrainer14]

Congratulations Flaze, that was the 6000th post in the General Chat! WOOOO! I had a prize for you, but I left it in my other cyber-pants so.... yeah... enjoy having that prestigious title of 6000th poster in one thread!

In the less exciting moderator related news:
- We need an Academy lesson for end of this month/early next month; if anyone is interested let me know ASAP, or if you have ideas feel free to share.
- I will make a note of this in the actual Directory thread, but if you have a story listed in the Directory that has finished can you please let us know so we can move those stories to the Archive/Archive Directory? This would include one shots that were published some time ago. Thanks!

 

[Dorothy]

- We need an Academy lesson for end of this month/early next month; if anyone is interested let me know ASAP, or if you have ideas feel free to share.

I can try and put something together regarding worldbuilding (specifically in fleshing out a continent/country).

 

[Flaze]

We've kind of had that though I think

 

[AceTrainer14]

Yeah, we have had quite a few worldbuilding ones lately, perhaps too many, so perhaps something else. We could always use one perhaps on how to describe and write Pokemon?

 

[Dorothy]

Yeah, we have had quite a few worldbuilding ones lately, perhaps too many, so perhaps something else. We could always use one perhaps on how to describe and write Pokemon?

It's been way too long since I wrote Pokemon, so I don't think I'm the right guy for that, unfortunately :/ I have been building a thorough history, culture, and political structure for this continent for three years now, though, so that's what I have to draw upon ATM I am working on branching out more, though, so hopefully I'll have more to offer soon. I may have writer's block with my book, but fic ideas keep coming.

 

[Flaze]

When would you need the article ace?

 

[AceTrainer14]

@Jabberwocky; I may be mistaken, and feel free to go back and double check past lessons, but I do not think we have really covered things like Hierarchies or creating detailed histories for your world. We could always do something on that?
@Flaze: Preferably the end of this month otherwise early May.

 

[Flaze]

I would love to but just going to school already deminishes my free time a bit xD; why don't you ask Topaz or tophat, those two have a lot of Pokemon with diverse personalities in their fics.

 

[Dorothy]

@Jabberwocky; I may be mistaken, and feel free to go back and double check past lessons, but I do not think we have really covered things like Hierarchies or creating detailed histories for your world. We could always do something on that?

I'll look into it. While I am skilled at geographies and such, my real strength is in history, geneology/nobility, and sociocultural interactions. I'm totally up to write something on any or all of those (especially with regards to fantasy fiction).

 

[ShinyFlareon]

The only thing I'm even marginally good at is dialogue, and I already did a lesson about that...

On a completely unrelated note, I just found a small upside to having a messed up sleep schedule. I get to read books that I pre-ordered right when they get delivered to my kindle. I just read the latest novella in a series I've been following ever since Ryuu got me into it. It was...meh, but I was kind of expecting that. But, like everything else these authors have been putting out recently, it's starting to make me wonder again if I can't just write a novel-length fic and send it off to Harper-Collins along with a query letter asking to become one of the writers for this series.

...What, I've had worse pipe dreams. It's not like my hopes regarding what to do with the rest of my life could get any lower.

 

[Dorothy]

Wow, it's been two years to the day since Bulbagarden! updated with chapter 41. Totally not intentional when I published chapter 42.


....Promise not to take so long with chapter 43

 

[Flaze]

Can I be in it no? okay :c

 

[Dorothy]

Can I be in it no? okay :c

Eh, maybe.

Also @AceTrainer14; currently 815 words into something re building history, culture, and government for constructed worlds for the Academy.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Also @AceTrainer14; currently 815 words into something re building history, culture, and government for constructed worlds for the Academy.

Forgot to say but you do need to submit a lesson plan as well, just so we know what your talking about

We've managed to go a few pages without resorting to massive debates, so why don't I start a new one? In all seriousness, I have been dwelling on this matter for a few days after the latest episode of Game of Thrones, so I was wondering; would anyone here ever write something with sexual violence in it?

 

[Beth Pavell]

I wondered when someone would mention that. I was a bit surprised, personally - the way that scene plays out in the book is squicky enough, but I wasn't quite expecting it to be more violent on screen. Anyway, I would be very wary about taking on the subject myself. Context is everything with sexual violence and it's so easy to get wrong. George Martin tends to get it right, in my opinion (Except when the Saltpans business is described. By that point I was so done with reading about that sort of thing).

I suppose I would make references to it off screen, as it were ... not sure I could bring myself to write on-screen sexual violence

 

[Persephone]

I find writing sex-related scenes to be very difficult. Sexual violence would be really stretching my limits. And that's just in terms of being able to write it well and says nothing about my personal willingness to do so. Which is basically zero. I genuinely can't think of a single instance where I would do anything more than an implied threat of it happening, and even then there are options I would pick over that in the overwhelming majority of circumstances. I try to keep things respectful to those in similar situations to the characters I write about, and I don't think I could possibly do justice here.

In short, no. I would never use it.


And yay, first post in the chat thread.

 

[Dorothy]

Also @AceTrainer14; currently 815 words into something re building history, culture, and government for constructed worlds for the Academy.

Forgot to say but you do need to submit a lesson plan as well, just so we know what your talking about

Ah, I'll get on that, thanks.

We've managed to go a few pages without resorting to massive debates, so why don't I start a new one? In all seriousness, I have been dwelling on this matter for a few days after the latest episode of Game of Thrones, so I was wondering; would anyone here ever write something with sexual violence in it?

If I did, I would absolutely not be graphic about it so as not to alienate pr trigger any of my readers who have experienced such things. I try to avoid being graphic in general for that reason.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I've thought about writing it, as I did have plans for that kind of stuff to happen in Let the World Fear Us, but the closer and closer I got to that scene (I should really finalize, edit and release the chapters I have done), the more and more I realized I can't. That, and a very close friend of mine who tends to read my stuff before I even show her links to it has gone through that herself. I wouldn't want to trigger her PTSD, because it's debilitating for her.

Oftentimes, I don't feel like it really adds to a story, anyways. Sure, you can have the idea in there to add to the plot, to add to someone's motivations for revenge or justice, but to sit there and physically/graphically describe it? That's just dumb. I can't think of a single graphic rape scene in a movie or book that I felt was crucial to the viewer/reader's experience.

 

[Dorothy]

If you're not careful, you run the risk of fetishizing or romanticizing it as well, which was one of Watchmen's failings.

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

If you're not careful, you run the risk of fetishizing or romanticizing it as well, which was one of Watchmen's failings.

Didn't something like that happened in the Twilight saga as well and was heavily criticized for it?

As for writing sexual violence, I'm not sure I'm willing to write that graphically. Off-screen is a possibility, but definitely not on-screen for me.