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Posted: July 2, 2012

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Break down your problems, guys.

^neurotype Jul 2, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

What?

You cannot solve a big problem, for instance 'why am I bad at writing fantasy,' by leaving it there. There's components to a problem like that. Maybe you can't picture the world. Maybe you spend so much time on names you don't think about the plot.

Exampletimes: 'I am terrible at poetry. Help me!' What are you supposed to say, 'go get a soul from the soul bin'? Seriously, not enough.

Now if I said something like 'I have a lot of trouble creating meter because I don't hear syllable emphasis clearly'...maybe you can suggest things like saying the words out loud, or looking at them in the dictionary...etc.

Quite frankly there's this brilliant Oglaf cartoon that sums it all up, but 1) it's very very NSFW and 2) the site is down.

Right, the discussion part: take a big question you've had and try breaking it down into its components. Or...please, for the love of words, tell me about syllables.

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=Skeleton-Boy Aug 22, 2012 Professional General Artist

Critical thinking and solution-focused answer-seeking are simply rare things, I think.

Meanwhile, you want meter help?

^neurotype Aug 22, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

That's sad.

I want to learn how to discern meter.

~DomnuWyrda Aug 17, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

I can almost never seem to finish any story I begin. I used to have about 50 or something odd short stories, fully completed, back in the day, when the great compy crash of '04 hit. I lost everything. I was traumatized. Nowadays, I can write short little snippets, but whenever I try to go into a full on story, I lose focus or hit a block. I think it's partially due to a secret fear of another crash happening and taking all of my hard work with it, and partially because I have other things to keep me entertained now besides writing my own stories for my own amusement. That's why I came to deviantART. I thought that maybe if I could see visible proof (comments, faves, etc.) that people enjoy my writing, it would drive me to please them instead of just myself and I would have a reason to keep it going.

^neurotype Aug 18, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Good.

Try dropbox, too. Cloud storage

~DomnuWyrda Aug 19, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

The storage isn't the point. I have numerous backups now, but the damage that's already done is the problem.

^neurotype Aug 21, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Oh, but honestly the only way to get over that paranoia is to make backups and shit. I almost lost all my data recently and was like OH GOD NEVER AGAIN.

^neurotype Aug 19, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

I know, but I mean what happened isn't a concern at all if you use dropbox with an internet connection.

!Wimshurst3 Jul 30, 2012 Professional Artist

I'm bad at inconsistent emotions. Establishing and sticking with a single mood is easy for me. For example, my MC in my current book feels angry for a few chapters. I established that well and was able to work with it. Then she undergoes a pretty traumatic event. The next day she has to meet a couple men. I know that after undergoing the type of event that she did a person's emotions can run high. With my MC, she internalizes everything as much as she can but, when talking to the two men, she breaks and swings between anger, grief, and happiness for a chapter. I'm having trouble with her going through these emotions but still having the chapter run smoothly. It's written from her perspective, which makes it even harder for me. I managed to finish the chapter but I'm really unhappy with it. Any advice on writing smooth mood swings?

Also, I'm worried about being too melodramatic in that chapter too. To put things bluntly, the MC got gang raped the chapter before the previous one. The two men could have helped her but, because they were threatened by the attackers, stood by and did nothing. She's pretty angry at the men for that and yells at them. It seems like a reasonable thing to do (I know I would have yelled at them) so it's not like I'm going out of my way to focus on the event. But when it comes to that sort of thing it is oh so easy to turn it into a sickeningly annoying emotion-melodrama fest. I need to stay true to my character, but I also need to do this well. The event isn't the focus of the story, nor does talk of it carry on for any more than a few chapters (those chapters all take place the day after, so I assume that's reasonable for people to be taking notice then. My book is also very long, so it's relatively few chapters compared to the length of the whole thing). The effects of it drive many of her actions for the rest of the book and force her to address other issues, so I'm not worried about the entire book becoming melodramatic because of ti. I'm really just focused on not letting this chapter become an angst fest. So, anyone have any advice on staying away from the melodramatic?

*Rovanna Jul 30, 2012 Digital Artist

One trick I've found to avoid melodrama is to not spend too much time describing the emotions themselves and spend more time describing what caused them. If you write the gang rape scene, then have the MC yell at the men, then we will get that she is angry and traumatised, you dont' have to write all that "rage boiled in her like a seething kettle of rage" because the reader can understand from her actions/what has happened to her.

(Is this for The Mouse? I've bookmarked it to read when I have more time, it sounds interesting)

^neurotype Aug 8, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Oooooh. That's a really good idea, too

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