Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[Nitro Indigo]

I just realised that the reason The Wayward Butterfly hasn't gotten popular is because I can't think of a short way to describe the premise.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

I'm afraid I'm no artist. All I can say is that I recommend doing an insane amount of practice work if you want to get good at visual art. There's no substitute for working hard and putting the hours in.

I just realised that the reason The Wayward Butterfly hasn't gotten popular is because I can't think of a short way to describe the premise.

I doubt that a concise blurb is the key to popularity. Fics don't get popular all that often, you know. An attractive summary will get people to click, but they'll only become regular readers and commenters if the story itself really engages with them. That requires quality prose, interesting plot, appealling characters, and any number of other things readers hope for in a fic.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

True... I was also thinking yesterday about how the Pokémon in my fanfic haven't done any Pokémon-y things yet, though it's hard to have exciting fight scenes when your sole viewpoint character can barely see, and I restricted myself to one viewpoint character because my previous fanfics have gotten bogged down by switching between perspectives. The appeal relies on being witty, and I don't know if anyone finds it funny or not. I always want input if my ideas are good or not, but I never do, and I know you're not into My Little Pony.

Also, I wanted to make another thread about transformations yesterday, but I don't know how to make the first post interesting without sounding like I'm shilling my own fanfic.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I tried drawing a cover again, but I'm still not happy with it, and I'm too nervous to ask for one because I can't afford a commission right now. I liked canisaries' cover for Hands of Creation and it's the style I'm looking for, but I don't know if she(?) does commissions. I'm not begging for free art, by the way.

Also, I've killed this thread! Yay!

Anyway, I saw Toy Story 4 a few days ago. Woody's forced smile should become a meme.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@Nitro Indigo - you can earn art in the Review League by cashing in points from reviews. Reading and reviewing others fics is also often a good way to get oneself out of a writing rut.

Another piece of advice I have for you if you want to write quality stories is not to assign too much importance to tropes and plot devices, and to spend some time working on your ability to craft characters, your word choice and authorial voice, and your understanding of how to introduce and develop themes.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

@unrepentantAuthor Oh yeah! I wanted to get art for a story via the review league before, but then I never got around to it.

Is that advice based on things I've said before, or is it just advice in general? I do think my characters are underdeveloped, though, so I should definitely work on that.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@Nitro Indigo It's advice based on your recent posts, which emphasise device ideas like poor eyesight over character goals and the like. No criticism intended, you understand, it's advice that I would give to most authors.

Good luck with your writing, and I hope you can use the league to get what you're after.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Speaking of which, I recently realised that a good motivation for that character is that she doesn't want to feel useless, for a variety of reasons. It ties into an idea I already had for the epilogue, but I don't want to spoil anything else.

I also haven't asked about characterisation much because I already have a general idea of what my characters are going to do.

 

[canisaries]

My commissions are closed and they're not the banner type right now, but I am one of the League contributors so you're welcome to come to me through that route. Also, if you're ever in need of advice regarding self-made art, my inbox is open for it, free of charge.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Okay. I might PM you later asking for advice. I think I draw on paper better than digitally, so I should try that first.

I've wanted to get review league points, but it's not often that I have enough things to say about a fanfic. Most of my comments on Fimfiction and Archive of Our Own are questions.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Just thought I'd remind everyone that there's an ongoing event to sign up to, with one week remaining for registration. If you have any interest in participating, don't be late to join in!

In cat news, it's been great to see my mate who works abroad and I've been keeping active and productive. Getting pretty anxious about work and money, but I guess that puts me in the same situation as countless people. That's the world we live in. Chin up!

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

I've got to say, as a great fan of Zigzagoon, I'm not quite sure what to make of the new Galar variant. I kind of like the black and white look, but on the other hand something about it just doesn't seem right. Hmm. Maybe I'm just used to Zigzagoon looking a lot friendlier than this variant seems so far. I just hope we don't get over half the regional variants being part Dark-type, like it seemed in Alola.

But hey, I can't complain about a Weezing with a chimney at least.

 

[UselessBytes]

I blame @canisaries for my inability to look at the new Weezing with a straight face.

In other news, the new contest has finally got me seriously writing again, so hooray!

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Does it bother anyone else when online writers colour-code dialogue?

 

[canisaries]

Does it bother anyone else when online writers colour-code dialogue?

i haven't been much to platforms that actually allow it so no, but i feel like it would annoy me if i came across it and it didn't contribute to the story in any way. especially so if it's just a get-out-of-learning-to-write-dialogue-tags card

 

[Beth Pavell]

It's almost always a recipe for disaster. I certainly would never recommend it on a forum with more than one theme

 

[Felly]

The closest I've done is bold text, but even that's just for RP. If I do colors in RP, it'd be in addition to the bolded text, and even then, it'd just be one color. It'd be more of a stylistic thing than anything else there though, and since it's typically only one character's dialogue in the post anyways, I guess it wouldn't really be a huge deal there.

I've never actually done it for stories though. It'd be way too much of a hassle to do, especially considering there would be a lot more characters to work with. It'd be a pain for forums too, like Beth said, because of the differing themes people would be using, assuming the forum had more than one theme to choose from.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

I enjoy it when medium matters and authors experiment with visual presentation but not everyone knows how to make it work. Homestuck popularised coloured chatlogs but Homestuck was always hosted on it's own dedicated website with little chance of someone's browsing habits fucking it up. Doing it on a forum or whatever sounds like a daft move.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Assuming the theme is the same for everyone I'd still say: do it for a reason. If the medium doesn't normally allow for dialogue tags - IMs, for example - then there's an argument for it. In general prose I can't see that it's going to add anything in 90% of cases, so much as make the story look like someone's MySpace page. Minus the auto-playing nu metal, I suppose

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

It's wonderful to see so many people signing up for the ongoing oneshot competition! Thanks especially to everyone putting themselves forward as a judge. I'd just like to remind anyone who isn't signed up yet that the deadline is today at 23:59 GMT. Good luck to all participating!