Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Misfit Angel]

Today has been the most terribly lazy day, I've literally had all day to myself without a single distraction in the world and I've written maybe two lines and then spent the rest of the time staring at the wall. I'm starting to think I'm falling into the clutches of depression again.

 

[Instrutilus]

Welp, that little issue in my village ended. They broke the door down and went in after him. Fun times.

Yeah, apathy can signal depression returning, but you noticed so you can take action toward it.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Perhaps this quote from Catherine Sedley will put a brief smile on your face (Context: Catherine is wondering what James, duke of York, sees in her when he takes her as his mistress)

"It cannot be my beauty, for he must see I have none. And it cannot be my wit, for he has not enough to know that I have any."

Zing

 

[Misfit Angel]

A smirk did appear, yes. I needed it, considering I learned that *both* of my parents have hereditary-linked heart failure which means I'll probably have it myself anywhere between 10 and 15 years from now.

Life, eh?

 

[diamondpearl876]

Life indeed, though there's never a real guarantee you'll experience the heart failure yourself. Still, the uncertainty can get to you.

I've been kind of terrified of my family history my whole life as well, since every kind of female cancer runs in the family, as well as arthritis/other pain issues, asthma, heart issues, aneurysm/stroke issues, mental health issues, and now, my 8-year-old nephew was discovered to have a brain tumor recently. I have minor health issues in comparison to this stuff, but, you know. Life.

 

[canisaries]

well, in positive happenings in life, i got my matriculation exam results back yesterday and everything went better than i expected. so well, in fact, that it's very likely i might be automatically accepted to the uni i've applied to.
in total, i have 3 Ls and 4 Es, L being top 5% and E being the top 15% after that. not as good as my sister (6 Ls,1 E), but i've already come to terms with the fact that my sister's a superhuman. won't stop my brother from still belittling me and boasting about getting a perfect score on his math exam, though...

 

[Time Breaker]

A small tidbit from one of my lessons in school today:

A critic [should] always remember that a character acts and reacts as a character in a fictional world and not in a real world. In the fictional world, the character must be the one that exists and not the character that the critic would like him to be in the real world.

I feel like this is really important to remember, whether you're reviewing a story, or even just watching a show or reading a book. Always view the characters as characters.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

@Six Paths That reminds me, I'm interested in the idea of having characters do things that are typically considered bad writing if you're clearly trying to make a point that people aren't perfect, and/or good people can do bad things.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I suppose the corollary to this - so to speak - is that characters don't become better people just because the actors who portray them are attractive. It's a common reaction alright

 

[Misfit Angel]

"This is total trash. Why would character x react to situation y in z way when we know that n isn't true?"

My personal favorite and one I get a lot.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I'm probably guilty of that sometimes, especially when reading first person. I admit, I have a low tolerance for the unreliable narrator (It probably doesn't help that I have a good memory for detail when it comes to story). I find myself feeling that the author is trying to gaslight me

 

[Misfit Angel]

Oh yeah, that reminds me of another few. "Why is character x saying y? We know that's not true." Or "Character x said y about situation z, so it must be 100% fact and I don't know why character n is reacting as if it's not."

Some of it can come down to bad writing, but it also seems like a lot of readers expect everything to be clear cut and simple, with no room for deception or intrigue.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I tend to notice the opposite more in critiques. Don't get me started on "The problem of Susan" in The Last Battle. Or how there's no clear evidence of sex at the end of The Amber Spyglass, so much as a rather Victorian metaphor.

I suppose it's down to the way I was taught English in school. There was a strong emphasis on finding evidence in the text to back a point up

 

[canisaries]

i wish i was more social so i could understand people better...

 

[AceTrainer14]

There's still time to enter our URPG contest - all the info is here, someone needs to give @diamondpearl876 a run for her money Doesn't need to be brand new content either - read the thread and find out!

 

[VeniaSilente]

In regards to the other matter, it's the difference between using a loanword (i.e: incorporating a foreign word into English as an English word) andd codeswitching (Swapping from English to a foreign language). There aren't any rules on it (If there were we'd have fiance and anime or fiancé and animé), but I think it's entirely acceptable to ignore diacritics (Accent marks) with words that have no easy English equivalent: agape, schadenfreude, zeitgeist, hygge, komorebi, etc. Diacritics just give you clues as to how to pronounce the word, which English almost never does. Sorry foreigners.

the thing with agape is that it seems that "agape" without any accents nowadays is used to primarily refer to the brotherly love between christians, but the original meaning would mean a number of things, one prominent one being the love between a man and his god. and the problem's not really in the pronunciation, just the confusion with the "agape", as in, "mouth agape". i think i just need some speshul letters in there to show that it's a loanword, but i'm worried it'll look pretentious or alternatively i'll get it wrong, and being the grammar gestapo officer i am, i hate being wrong ;P for now, i think i'll take the middle road and use agápe. and use hagiasmós for the other fic. it'll give more clear google results if and when people google it anyway lol

While it is true there is no special ruling for diacritics on loanwords in English (and there would be not much sense to), this is the 21st Century and we are on the internet so if you want to make your loanwords clear, there should be no issue writing them with their diacritics - in particular if it is for making sure they are properly "marked" in the reader's mind as the loanword proper not and any sort of possible straight or reverse false friend. You can set up your keyboard to give you "dead keys" or Level2 (AltGr / Ctrl+Alt) access to diacritics you will use regularly with some official tools (on Windows: your country's international keyboard layout if any, if not, the MS Keyboard Layout Tool; on Linux: a custom xkcomp and or .XCompose file), or you could use any of a number of "clipboard history" tools to paste / replace loanwords that you will use regularly. But here I would stress "regularly", otherwise there's not uch point investing in the technical setup plus you might become uncomfortable using other people's keyboards because muscle memory.

And because internet, it's unlikely you'll get the loanwords wrong ever, it's just a matter you have someone trustable to ask to, ideally a "first class citizen" user of the word, but wiktionary can be of some help too. Basically: if you want to, it's a problem already solved, if you don't, it's solved too

@diamondpearl876
So it is possible... cool! The only problem is that this would be rather difficult for stories from FF.net, which doesn't allow copying to the clipboard for some reason. It would also be great to have an app or site feature that converts fics into Word or PDF documents automatically, especially for long, 100,000+ word fics on sites with lots of extra content and formatting. I'd develop one myself if I had the know-how and motivation to do so, but...

You can normally copy from FF.net actually, just enter their mobile version (coincidentally ). If you are on a FF.net fic page, just go to the URL bar and replace "www.fanfiction" with "m.fanfiction".

Well there's a police stand-off going on in my village. What have you guys been up to, anyway?

...At least your police get to do interesting stuff. Mine spent the day of yesterday going around from one home to the next to help municipal officers audit the condition and usage of wood burners for heating, and helping traffic flow on the streets when the buses got stuck waiting for passengers or trying to change lanes close to bus stops.
(Mind, oftentimes it is Special Forces here that have to do traffic control. My country is kinda weird about that)

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I'm clearing out my to-read shelf on Goodreads, and discovered that on the 20th of August 2016, I put Wings of Fire: The Dragonet Prophecy on there. That made me smile.

 

[Beth Pavell]

You know, there're few things I hate more in this world than hearing a woman shouting something after sunset and not being able to be sure what direction it's coming from

 

[Misfit Angel]

You should see what it's like where I live. At least once a week, a drunk lady shows up at around 2 AM, shouting just how much she loves Tony, how sorry she is about everything and how they should stay together. Honestly, I think this Tony character enjoys winding her up, otherwise she'd be at the curb with how annoying she is.

 

[Beth Pavell]

One more reason my all-too English soul wouldn't like living in New Amsterdam New York City