Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[AceTrainer14]

I'll be honest, I haven't explored TV Tropes in YEARS. Is it very different now to how it once was?

 

[Max1996]

I'll be honest, I haven't explored TV Tropes in YEARS. Is it very different now to how it once was?

Hard to answer for me. How about you take a look for yourself?

 

[AceTrainer14]

Hard to answer for me. How about you take a look for yourself?

I had already looked and it looked pretty much the same, but it also sounds a lot more detailed. Was merely wondering if it had always been this way or had grown in size and scope recently

 

[CrystaI]

How was TV Trope in the past then? Reading from your line, it seems TV Trope was function differently compare to what it is doing now.

 

[AceTrainer14]

I may simply be misremembering the past. As I said, I hadn't really been on the site for some time so it seemed different, but that possible is just my memory. I simply recall it being on a much smaller scale and not quite as detailed as it seems to be. It seems more like a wiki/fan fiction bible now than a list of tropes.

 

[Instrutilus]

How was TV Trope in the past then? Reading from your line, it seems TV Trope was function differently compare to what it is doing now.

Wasn't TVTropes a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fansite?

 

[canisaries]

yeah, it started off as a buffy fansite, and then i think it expanded into TV in general (hence the name) and then everything else. the useful notes sections and so on probably came from a need to summarize information better.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I have a problem with negativity in general, and sometimes the angrier parts of TV Tropes upset me, such as tropes in the Scrappy Index. Which is my problem, not theirs, but still.

 

[canisaries]

eh, every character's a scrappy in someone's eyes.

 

[AceTrainer14]

Has anyone ever gone back and read a piece of work they wrote years ago that you thought was good and discovered just how terrible it really is? I was hoping to post a revised prologue for an old story for the Review Game, but I'm going to have to heavily polish the chapter afterwards for the two to even pretend to be in the same story.

 

[canisaries]

Has anyone ever gone back and read a piece of work they wrote years ago that you thought was good and discovered just how terrible it really is? I was hoping to post a revised prologue for an old story for the Review Game, but I'm going to have to heavily polish the chapter afterwards for the two to even pretend to be in the same story.

ahh yes. i have a fanfic on my deviantart that i was content with at the time and now it's a complete cringe-saster to even remotely think about. no structure, no plan, a character being insanely OOC (funnily enough another character got closer to that personality later on), an OC murdered for ａｂｓｏｌｕｔｅｌｙ　ｎｏ　ｒｅａｓｏｎ, every chapter beginning with useless description of the weather for some reason??

but i know this feel even better when it comes to old art. so uncanny. really wished someone would have told me the one-eye rule. and to never use vectors.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I'm trying to write an original story, which begins because the protagonist needs to deliver something. Unfortunately, thinking about this is now making me feel guilty, because a certain Cars 2 review contains a Reason You Suck Speech about how you somehow hate the story you created if you drop the setup to the plot.

I stopped watching that reviewer because he wasn't doing me any good.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I don't know if I ever thought it was good at the time, but there's a reason why my first story - original, come to think of it - has never been uploaded.

That being said ... hm, when I did my rewrites for the Prelude and Chapter One of The Long Walk, I hadn't hitherto realised how much polishing could be done

 

[Misfit Angel]

Has anyone ever gone back and read a piece of work they wrote years ago that you thought was good and discovered just how terrible it really is? I was hoping to post a revised prologue for an old story for the Review Game, but I'm going to have to heavily polish the chapter afterwards for the two to even pretend to be in the same story.

On the contrary. I've been finding some of my older work to be better. This is worrying, as I'm putting in a lot more effort and attention to my current stuff.

Maybe it's just a bit of self doubt showing its ugly head.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I've read your older stuff, and it was sometimes baggy in the wrong places and threadbare in ... well, the wrong places. Your supporting characters were ok but the plot sometimes gave the impression of being cobbled together (Looks who's talking, ho ho ho)

So there

 

[diamondpearl876]

Yeppp, and that's why two of my fics are currently being rewritten and heavily revised. On one hand, it's cool to really, honestly believe my writing's gotten better over the years, but on the other hand, I would really just like to move forward with said fics so, you know, they'll be finished someday. >_>

 

[AceTrainer14]

That's the issue I'm having: I really want to keep writing and focus on the new stuff, but then I realise how clunky and unpolished the old chapters are and I become torn between making the old stuff look good or keep going with the new ones. A real Sophie's Choice, but with less death.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Solution: constantly update the first chapter to match your current writing skills, leave the rest to rot. After all, it's first impressions that matter!

 

[AceTrainer14]

I know you are joking (perhaps) but I do feel this way sometimes XD Every time I re-read a prologue or first chapter I see something that irks me or just doesn't work and I feel the need to change it, leaving the rest of the story to just gather dust.

 

[diamondpearl876]

It's not the worst idea, I guess, though you risk having your readers feel a little off-putted because their expectations are dashed rather quickly. I'd probably just get mad at myself if I let myself do that lmao, and anyway, I have the opposite problem: my prologue/first chapters are always iffy, but I like the rest much better. Writer problems, man.