Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Misfit Angel]

So I stumbled upon the world of Amazon self-publishing... I don't see myself using it for any of my current projects (unless I resurrect one), but the sheer amount of crap on there, and I mean literal dogshit writing, coupled with the fact that some of them have cult followings and hundreds of reviews, gives me hope that one day my writing might reach a broader audience.

 

[AceTrainer14]

The awards are one step closer now: after a few weeks of discussion and trialing a few things, @Arkadelphiak and I have found a banner we both can agree on! We will have to wait nearly two months to see it, but I promise you that it is one of our best yet!

 

[Kelleo]

Progress is always nice to hear, AT. ^^

On another topic, I went to Raleigh's Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions concert last night and it was so cool! The best part was at the end when they surprised us with

Spoiler

The original anime TV show theme and we got to sing along! The tv show is the most nostalgic thing for me because that's where I started Pokemon. I couldn't get a game, so I watched the tv show and played a couple games we had on N64. So yeah, this was a nostalgia bomb!

 

[Beth Pavell]

Banners made before the Awards start? We're down the rabbit hole here, fellas

 

[Flaze]

Well for once xD it's good that we actually got a head start on things.

 

[Lugion]

Is there a set date for the start of the Awards?

Am I just being dumb?

Find out next time... on Dragon! Ball! ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

 

[Arkadelphiak]

It took a lot of convincing, but everyone knows Ace has agreed to this infamous banner format:

 

[Beth Pavell]

Why, I'm almost sorry I'm sitting this season out now

 

[Soulmaster]

Is there a set date for the start of the Awards?

Am I just being dumb?

Find out next time... on Dragon! Ball! ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

They'll likely begin the week after the day before of the time when the planets all line up during a blue moon. Which iirc is the 32nd day of the 14th month.

 

[Lugion]

Why, I'm almost sorry I'm sitting this season out now

I'm not. Now, if I could somehow convince all the OTHER journey fic writers to sit out this go-round...

 

[AetherX]

The awards will start as soon as we can find someone else to tie with Ace.

 

[Arkadelphiak]

The awards will start as soon as we can find someone else to tie with Ace.

Okay, @Athena, we need you to write something this afternoon in less than 3,000 words that will defeat How to Conquer Kanto in Eight Easy Steps.

 

[AceTrainer14]

I'm not really fussed if 8ES wins or loses or ties or whatevers Best Journey this time around. I've won it before and while the story has progressed since last time, I think it is more character focussed at the moment. I'm largely entering it to go after the one award I haven't won yet which I could actually possibly maybe potentially win - anything else would just be pleasant

 

[Flaze]

I'm not really fussed if 8ES wins or loses or ties or whatevers Best Journey this time around. I've won it before and while the story has progressed since last time, I think it is more character focussed at the moment. I'm largely entering it to go after the one award I haven't won yet which I could actually possibly maybe potentially win - anything else would just be pleasant

Guys that won before dont' get to talk

 

[Misfit Angel]

Well this is kind of scary. Two years ago, I started writing a story that would have been somewhere in the middle of the mystery/action/drama genres, which started with the murder of a close friend of the two main characters. The murder would have been perpetrated by the Russian Mafia because the victim knew a little too much about what they were planning, so I wanted to set the scenery as Russia being this big evil rogue nation via radio reports.

The scary part? I had written through the radio reports that Russia invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea and the eastern/northern sections of the country before they met heavy resistance and eventually stalled. Much of the world looked away since they were afraid of a war with Russia over something like that. I had written this all almost eight months prior to all of this happening in the real world, but I had abandoned the story and forgotten the ideas before the actual events occurred. Interest in restarting the story led me to rereading the chapters and finding out I might actually be a psychic.

I dunno, it was kinda spooky. It felt like I was reading a(n admittedly poorly written, since it was just a draft) news article.

(I'm hoping to hammer out a few chapters in the coming days, maybe I can submit it for the non-pokemon category if I squeeze by the rules)

 

[kintsugi]

Odd sort of query, but does anyone here have enough familiarity with Latin to tell me if the phrase/motto I'm hammering together a) means what I want it to grammatically and b) has the actual connotations I want it to? I took Spanish in high school, but I've heard enough from my friends to know that the grammar is a bear and there's things like noun declensions and something weird with verbs or something(?) and I actually have no idea what I'm doing, nor do I want to be called out on it lol.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Odd sort of query, but does anyone here have enough familiarity with Latin to tell me if the phrase/motto I'm hammering together a) means what I want it to grammatically and b) has the actual connotations I want it to? I took Spanish in high school, but I've heard enough from my friends to know that the grammar is a bear and there's things like noun declensions and something weird with verbs or something(?) and I actually have no idea what I'm doing, nor do I want to be called out on it lol.

With Latin I personally wouldn't get too picky. It's not exactly the simplest language in the world. Reluctant as I am to say it, Google Translate tends to give decent translations, though they may well be grammatically rocky

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

The problem with Google Translate is that I'm never sure how much of the grammar it's actually translated, and how much it hasn't. I'd recommend using it to find out the exact words you want individually, and try to research the grammar somewhere. There may still be a couple of errors, but it should produce better results than translating the whole thing directly with Google.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I know that for French it's usually technically correct. What it can't differentiate between is similar tenses or figures of speech/idioms. I certainly wouldn't try and use it for extended text or for speech.

Fuck you Google, you're nowhere near a universal translator

 

[Soulmaster]

Odd sort of query, but does anyone here have enough familiarity with Latin to tell me if the phrase/motto I'm hammering together a) means what I want it to grammatically and b) has the actual connotations I want it to? I took Spanish in high school, but I've heard enough from my friends to know that the grammar is a bear and there's things like noun declensions and something weird with verbs or something(?) and I actually have no idea what I'm doing, nor do I want to be called out on it lol.

I've taken two years of it in high school so far so I should at least be able to tell you if you are far off or something if you want. So yeah, just send it my way if you want.

Well this is kind of scary. Two years ago, I started writing a story that would have been somewhere in the middle of the mystery/action/drama genres, which started with the murder of a close friend of the two main characters. The murder would have been perpetrated by the Russian Mafia because the victim knew a little too much about what they were planning, so I wanted to set the scenery as Russia being this big evil rogue nation via radio reports.

The scary part? I had written through the radio reports that Russia invaded Ukraine and took over Crimea and the eastern/northern sections of the country before they met heavy resistance and eventually stalled. Much of the world looked away since they were afraid of a war with Russia over something like that. I had written this all almost eight months prior to all of this happening in the real world, but I had abandoned the story and forgotten the ideas before the actual events occurred. Interest in restarting the story led me to rereading the chapters and finding out I might actually be a psychic.

I dunno, it was kinda spooky. It felt like I was reading a(n admittedly poorly written, since it was just a draft) news article.

(I'm hoping to hammer out a few chapters in the coming days, maybe I can submit it for the non-pokemon category if I squeeze by the rules)

Holy crap that is spooky. That is basically exactly what has happened. Um, sure you aren't a fortune teller or something.