Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Beth Pavell]

Spoiler

In my opinion, season 5 is a bungled adaptation. I've never had a problem with plot changes being made for a new medium. Prior to season 5 I thought most of them were fine. But after a lot of thinking what it boils down to is this - the producers stopped trusting the complex, ambiguous, brutal story and started falling back on Hollywood clichés that I can only assume are supposed to be giving the audience what it wants (Which is bizarre since seasons 1-4 broke all the rules and were huge successes). You've got contrived heroism on the Wall, which started earlier and got steadily worse. Han Solo Bronn is shoehorned back in into a storyline that just makes no sense. The Sand Snakes have absolutely no depth.

If it were just the plot problems I might have managed to forgive it enough to watch the whole season, but the acting took a big dip (More Kit Harrington, Emilia Clarke and Aiden Gillen, less Peter Dinklage and no Charles Dance, alas) and the choreography with it. I think the final straw was the skirmish with the cavalry in Dorne, where they all miraculously act stupid just so Bronn can do the badass mercenary cliché again.

It's all such a shame, because there has been so much to like before now. I mean, even the most stupid moments were more annoying because they wasted valuable episode time - that scene with Podrick and the whores being a big offender. I never get tired of Jaime and Brienne's bath scene, or watching, well, anything to do with Tywin[/quote]

 

[AceTrainer14]

@Lugion

Spoiler

The problem with the last two books is that a lot gets introduced which means certain characters can't do as much. Sansa has the beginnings of an interesting storyline that the show could have developed (killing Baby Arryn, marrying someone and becoming ruler of half of Westeros), and while Brienne may not achieve much in AFFC (though it definitely seems she will have a purpose brining Jamie to Stoneheart), at least she doesn't hang around the whole book waiting to kill people which is all she's done on the show the past two seasons. Nothing GRRM has written is as bad as that mess of a finale, which basically just one pointless death after another, none of them actuall meaning anything since everyone had died - are we meant to care Mycrella died when she did nothing all season? I don't care about Dany coming back to Westeros just yet, because quite frankly that means the series over because what the fuck else is going to happen once the dragons burn everyone alive? Hardhome was great because of its direction, ADWD did a decent job of that scene but Dany riding Drogon was awfully rendered, and the final was just stupid, pointless and OTT. I am intrigued for what they do next and how they bring everything together, but season five was such a pointless waste of 10 hours.

Since I only just saw what @Beth Pavell said, I forgot to mention Dorne - I still can't get over the fact they dropped Arianne. Sure, her storyline hadn't developed a great deal in the books, but she was a sassy character in charge of her sexuality and would have served the same purpose as having three pointless sisters doing fuck all.

I kind of wish I had thought of using Seaking or Kingler earlier, cause both could have been great Pokemon for Sandy. I may have to rejig some of my teams for The First Warriors.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Spoiler

Focusing on the writing here, since this is the writy forum, A Feast For Crows was always going to be a bitch to adapt. Part of the slowness in the plot I feel was reasonable given that it was setting up the situation for A Dance with Dragons - I'm thinking of Cersei's misrule, which really needed plenty of time in her head to be properly believable. And between that and A Dance with Dragons, there is a big cast change. That's difficult enough to deal with in a book, harder in a TV show where you are at less liberty to move characters around, what with actors wanting specifics from their contracts and whatnot.

The Dornish story should have been the focus. Dorne moves much of the Sopranos-esque politicking to Sunspear, the sort of thing that went down really well in Season 2. They could have even kept Jaime going to Dorne to add an extra dimension to that and to make the plot a bit more dynamic, maybe adapting some of the Arys Oakheart story. But it would have had to be a proper diplomatic delegation, rather than this half-baked rescue plot.

See, what George Martin never fails to do is to really think through the diplomatic repercussions of all the manoeuvring in the story, something I don't see happening in the original material make for the drama. You can't just stop paying that kind of attention to detail all of a sudden, after having sold the story as a gritty, realistic fantasy

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

Hey, uh... sorry to interrupt your Game of Thrones stuff, and I probably don't have to say this, but... sorry I haven't been writing lately. I just can't find the motivation for it. Do any of you have any ideas for how to deal with that?

 

[Beth Pavell]

Well, I write every day, whether I want to or not. It doesn't matter whether I manage fifty or five hundred words, it's about getting the habit down so when I go through a blocked patch, I don't end up stopping entirely. I've always thought that the longer you stop writing for, the harder it is to pick it up again

 

[Jersey Jimmy]

Well, I've still been writing, just not my fic (Tumblr roleplaying). It's not like I've gone four weeks without writing anything.

 

[diamondpearl876]

I'd like to write something with Ho-oh and Pumpkaboo. No idea why, I just do. Every other pokemon I've just already stuck on my MC's teams.

 

[Life]

Spoiler

no just kidding i don't actually watch GoT.

Anything that's pretty neglected in the anime or fan fiction I tend to gravitate towards. I've been wanting to write something with Mr. Mime but want a good story to use it in first, since it's one that a lot of people seem to steer away from.

I also like to write about pokemon that have a hard time moving on land, as I think it's a fun mind-challenge to figure out how they can accompany their trainer for a long time away from water.

 

[diamondpearl876]

Spoiler

no just kidding i don't actually watch GoT.

Anything that's pretty neglected in the anime or fan fiction I tend to gravitate towards. I've been wanting to write something with Mr. Mime but want a good story to use it in first, since it's one that a lot of people seem to steer away from.

I also like to write about pokemon that have a hard time moving on land, as I think it's a fun mind-challenge to figure out how they can accompany their trainer for a long time away from water.

Why do people steer away from Mr. Mime?

Also I'll be using a magikarp as a main character in a journey fic soon. I've got ideas but we'll see how well they hold up. I'm not willing to change the species so it better work out... somehow...

 

[Life]

Why do people steer away from Mr. Mime?

I suppose that was a bad way to phrase it. Mr. Mime is one people tend to hate on, which is what I meant to say, which is something I've never really understood. I'm not sure how often it's used in fan fiction, though of what I have seen it's never been used as a main party member.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I think people dislike Mr. Mime because of how creepy he is and the fact that there are about 700 more popular Pokemon to choose from.

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

You don't see a lot of fics featuring Jynx either, most likely for the same reason.

 

[diamondpearl876]

I find some legendaries and ghost-types and dark-types to be far more "creepy" and intimidating than Mr. Mine and Jynx. 0_0

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

Hey, uh... sorry to interrupt your Game of Thrones stuff, and I probably don't have to say this, but... sorry I haven't been writing lately. I just can't find the motivation for it. Do any of you have any ideas for how to deal with that?

I have a pretty similar problem right now and have done for ages... It's pretty annoying, to say the least. An idea I've got is to try setting out a weekly schedule for myself, to get back to working on writing and stuff relating to it. So for the mornings, which are probably my best time, I'm thinking planning on Mondays, writing on Tuesdays, editing on Wednesdays, Thursdays I'm busy, and then hopefully reading/reviewing stuff here on Fridays (no, I haven't forgotten about that, I do intend to get to it). Something like that should work. Asking for more from myself now would probably result in me getting stressed and dropping back into doing nothing again which would not be ideal. But hopefully doing an amount of fixed work will get me going properly to write more the rest of the time.

Ah, sorry, this has dropped into what I'm doing more than what would be helpful for you, sorry. Well, I guess anyone could try something like this.

Oh yeah, the other thing I heard was helpful was if you write a 'fresh start note' or something and then post it somewhere. I recall trying that out a bit back and writing really quite well for a few days. Not sure if I would've kept it up, the moment of actually doing okay was rather cut short by what I can only call the 'uploading fiasco', but that's best left in the past.

On topic, I'd planned to write an aromatisse into my story, but sadly, she was cut because five characters would've been too many for me to work with, and she drew the short straw, so to speak. Other than that, I'd love to write an altaria sometime since it's one of my absolute favourite pokemon, and I feel there are a few interesting ideas I could try out with it. Hm, the only others that spring to mind are Zekrom and Reshiram, who I'd thought up an interesting dynamic for, but there's no way they could get into the plot without some shoehorning and plot derailment probably. The way I'm portraying legendaries doesn't really lend itself to having them actually appear - the only exception I'm making, as far as I've planned, is Keldeo who has specific reasons to break the general rules a bit.

 

[Dorothy]

I think people dislike Mr. Mime because of how creepy he is and the fact that there are about 700 more popular Pokemon to choose from.

Mr. Mime isn't creepy, he's just misunderstood

 

[AceTrainer14]

You don't see a lot of fics featuring Jynx either, most likely for the same reason.

There actually will be a Jynx in The First Warriors, though I am unsure what colour to make it... XD

I like writing Pokemon I haven't written much of before and I think would be cool to have. But now I'm stuck looking over the planned Pokemon for TFW and rethinking most of their planned Pokes. I was going to give Blue an Electabuzz, but now I am looking at that and just wondering what I would actually do with it.

 

[Dorothy]

I like writing Pokemon I haven't written much of before and I think would be cool to have. But now I'm stuck looking over the planned Pokemon for TFW and rethinking most of their planned Pokes. I was going to give Blue an Electabuzz, but now I am looking at that and just wondering what I would actually do with it.

The answer might shock you.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I kind of like the idea using Jynx and Mr Mime since they're lesser-know, lesser-used Psychic types. I doubt I'd use them as main team pokémon, so to speak, but as something different for a one-off, certainly

 

[Dorothy]

I kind of like the idea using Jynx and Mr Mime since they're lesser-know, lesser-used Psychic types. I doubt I'd use them as main team pokémon, so to speak, but as something different for a one-off, certainly

I feel the same way about Hypno. Gets a really bad rap, but I like it.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Actually now that I think of, most of the first gen Psychic types are actually quite creepy. Hypno, Mr Mime, Jynx, Starmie doesn't have a face, even Alakazam walks around with flipping spoons.