Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Nitro Indigo]

I came to the realisation that most people don't like Gates because it's "Cars 2-ish". Let me explain...
"Remember kids, friendship can solve all of your problems, including saving the world from villains! By the way, said villains became villains because they're disillusioned with the world for inadequately-explained reasons, and they killed someone horribly."
The main differences are that the characters in Cars 2 stay dead, and the characters in Gates have developed personalities.

 

[canisaries]

first day of uni tomorrow... really nervous.

no, not because of any studies. because we'll apparently be socializing and getting to know each other until "the evening". and i don't do well with prolonged periods of socializing.

 

[Misfit Angel]

no, not because of any studies. because we'll apparently be socializing and getting to know each other until "the evening". and i don't do well with prolonged periods of socializing.

One of the big reasons I never went to university myself was the dreaded orientation process. "Let's go around the room and tell everyone a little bit about ourselves!" NO. NEVER. I am boring and uninteresting, all of these shitbags are boring and uninteresting, NOBODY CARES about how they like pumpkin spice, just get the damn lectures started already.

Of course that's not the only reason. I'm not some horrible hermit who makes life-changing decisions based on the prospect of 2 hours of socializing, nope nope

 

[diamondpearl876]

I've been debating going back to school for my Master's or PhD (or both at the same time, if I can find a decent program for them), and the main question is: online or on-campus? Definitely online, mostly for the flexible schedule but also because college was an awful socializing experience and I don't really want to bother trying again. I've done pretty well in my life without networking so far, I can do it some more. 8)

 

[Beth Pavell]

I don't have any choice but to study online, which is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand the Open University is better organised than most brick and mortar universities - but on the other, for various reasons it has to be part-time, so I have to juggle studies whether I like it or not

 

[canisaries]

welp, back from the first day and gotta say: never thought i'd see the day where for the most of the time i'd be one of the MORE social people around

really shoulda expected nerds from a technical university

 

[Nitro Indigo]

There was an eclipse where I live a few years ago. My class got to miss part of my least favourite lesson to see it.

 

[diamondpearl876]

It's still dark where I am, but nothing too exceptional... Supposedly, the midwest is where the total eclipse is at. Too bad I don't live there anymore.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Shamelessful plug of the photo I took earlier. Had to take this practically blind because I couldn't see my camera through the solar filter I was wearing.

It's still dark where I am, but nothing too exceptional... Supposedly, the midwest is where the total eclipse is at. Too bad I don't live there anymore.

Could be worse. @Caitlin; is in Las Vegas right now and it's raining. The only day of the year that it rains is eclipse day. Talk about shit luck.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I remember one total eclipse some years ago - I think it wasn't long after the millennium, actually, in the days of yore before social media - which I saw from a beach in Cornwall. Now that was a piece of luck, Cornish weather being very good at being cloudy when you least expect it

 

[diamondpearl876]

Now I'll do a shameless mod plug. Just a reminder that we're looking for new additions to the mod team, especially now that we're going to be one man short! If you're interested, check out the staff drive here and don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns if needed.

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Does anyone here remember Pokémon Apokélypse? You know, that fan-made trailer featuring Team Rocket wielding machine guns, Jigglypuff singing in a strip club, and Giovanni lighting a cigar with a Charizard's Flamethrower, among other things? It was supposed to be a parody of "dark and edgy" reboots, and while it was certainly hilariously silly and self-aware enough overall to fulfill that goal, I actually kind of did take it seriously during my last watching of it a few days ago. Not because I thought that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread that Nintendo needs to make official now - because that would be absolutely ridiculous - but rather because I thought that many of its core ideas - including Pokémon battles being outlawed and its degeneration into a corrupt underground blood sport - were actually rather interesting and have legitimate narrative potential. And one could argue that the overall execution of the trailer was a lot better than the majority of Pokémon fanfics that attempt to be "dark and edgy" (although maybe that has more do with the trailer having some fun with itself being a dark and edgy adaptation of a children's series versus fanfics that unironically try to be dark and edgy adaptations of a children's series...)

 

[CrystaI]

(although maybe that has more do with the trailer having some fun with itself being a dark and edgy adaptation of a children's series versus fanfics that unironically try to be dark and edgy adaptations of a children's series...)

What is the difference between the two?

 

[CrystaI]

Sorry for the double posting, but I really want to rant out something that makes me irritating for the whole afternoon in order to make myself felt better.

We often hear the non-sensible bash criticizing the other user "If you don't like it, just leave!". Well this sentence sounds much more irritating and arrogant when someone in Real-Life tells this to you directly face-on.

I'm currently travelling overseas and staying in a guesthouse (more specifically speaking it felt like lodging house instead). The cleaner is doing her routine cleaning, I didn't say anything, I was just staring at her, waiting her to finish such that I can use the toilet. But for whatever reason, she suddenly spitted out: "If you aren't satisfied with my cleaning, please leave this guesthouse and look for another place to stay." HUH!!!??? WTF are you saying? I was simply waiting for you to finish because I need to use the toilet. Moreover I had paid my money to stay in this guesthouse for a month, why on earth shall I dare to breach the staying contract and give away my money for such stupid reason? Although I do agree the hygiene status of this entire guesthouse is not 5-star hotel level, and I didn't expected that right from the start, but rather than telling the guest aka customer to leave, she needs to improve her overall cleaning skills and and relearn the hygiene and sanitation knowledge.


Afterword: "If you don't like it, just leave!" is the most arrogant line to tell someone to go away. It only demonstrated the speaker's unintellectualness and irrationality.

Edit: If the Mod think this post is irrelevant for this thread, please delete it. As I had accomplished my purpose of voicing out my discontent.

 

[canisaries]

i use blog posts to vent, recommend it as it doesn't really clog anything (as far as i know) but is still there. the downside is that only using blog posts to vent makes people who only see your blog think that you must be insane lol

anyway, i just got home from the final day of my uni orientation week... am tired. not because we did lots of work or anything, but because it was so boring - starting the day with boring lectures about the common standards and spending the rest just walking around the campus (which is HUGE and like a friggin labyrinth with all its buildings connected via catwalks, luckily you can almost always find your way outside and just read the biulding names there) and sitting at guild rooms hearing about how they personally like to dick around. hint: very often it is drinking

but i guess the silver lining here is that now i've realized how actually super excited i am to learn about coding and to get better at it. though the dark center is still the fact that i haven't managed to make any friends yet, and this was supposed to be a very social week. ah well. the clubs fair is coming up, if i join a bunch i might actually learn to have fun with people again. here's to hoping there's an artist club.

 

[CrystaI]

I don't want to use my blog for venting dislikes. Because for me, blog is for the purpose of posting personal constructive opinions. I don't want my blog to become a cluster of negativity, hence I choose to rant out random Real-Life events in General Chat Thread.

BTW, just a little positiveness (may be it tends to be neutral rather). I said I'm currently travelling overseas. Can anyone guess where am I now? Hint: The home of Pokemon and anime and manga.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

This month, my mental plan for my story idea has been about a flying-squirrel-thing protagonist being roped up into fighting fire and ice monsters by some phoenix-things, but after reading about villains on TV Tropes, I have a vague idea about what the antagonist could be like, and how an ancient civilization will be involved in the plot.

In other news, I've been into Viva Pinata recently.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I have to wonder how script-fic writers actually do it. I've spent the past two days converting the first three chapters of my story into a script for a super sekrit project and I'm having a really hard time dealing with the lack of solid description, characters interacting with the environment, even facial expressions and subtle visual cues that get lost in translation. I wonder how they do it.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

The problem with scripts is that they're supposed to be adapted into a visual form; they're not good for telling stories on their own.

In other news, I'm considering slightly restructuring the story so that the protagonist and deuteragonist know eachother before the conflict (not the story) starts. The idea for it came from my desire to write a character who is a giant bird who's genuinely concerned about a bitter protagonist's emotional wellbeing, created from me thinking too hard about Cars 2 fanfics.

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

What is the difference between the two?

Well, unless you're suggesting that they're both so bad that they're good (or so bad that they're bad), I think that the main difference is that with the average Pokémon darkfic (ex: one that you would randomly pluck from a fanfic site), all of the archetypical tropes associated with that - copious amounts of blood and gore, near-pervasive swearing, and "badass" versions of the protagonists - are usually played completely straight and - most importantly - often either feel out-of-place or are sloppily or one-dimensionally handled relative to the actual story being told. That is to say, it's rarely really justified to add those types of things to stories that - especially with some of the lesser examples of Pokémon darkfic - otherwise tend to be rather standard tales of betrayal, revenge, romance, and other un-Pokémon-like things. And yet it seems that many of stories - including non-Pokémon ones - still make the mistake of tacking on things that are "dark" and "mature" without actually making the story itself dark or mature.

Meanwhile, the goal of parodies - including Pokémon Apokélypse - is of course to exaggerate some aspect of something in order to make fun of that something or make a point about it, and in order to do that successfully, one would have to have some idea of what makes that something work (or what makes it not work). In that sense, the creators of a parody (or a good one, at least) would arguably be more likely to have a strong handle on the tropes associated with some piece of fiction than actual creators of said piece of fiction. And that's an important thing, because while a piece of fiction being parodied doesn't necessarily have to be good or well-written (and indeed, the point being made is often that it isn't good), the parody itself most certainly does. Your own mileage may vary as to whether or not Pokémon Apokélypse is actually a good parody or if it's just as unironically silly as the "dark and edgy" re-imaginings that it tries to parody, but for me, I think that it's just over-the-top enough, just legitimately awesome enough at times, and just below cringe-worthy enough for it to be better than what it parodies. And the addition of generous helpings of cheese and nostalgia to go along with all of the exaggerated darkness and edginess ("When will it stop!?" "When I've caught them all!") also helps to give it some points over its less ironic counterparts, I think.