Rules of Writing A contribution thread - get posting
#32
Posted 09 May 2005 - 04:17 PM
A quick word of advice AGAIN; Cool it, stop the angry attention grabbing rant stuff, if you are going to pursue this 'story', host it outside the forums and link to it, because based on your content it's breaking the rules. Hecc's a mod round here, and if you want to be the first person to get banned from Chefelf.com, you're going the right way about it.
Rock_dash: I'm always interested in seeing what people come up with, so why not. That's sort of what the screening room is here for anyway.
#33
Posted 09 May 2005 - 04:45 PM
Did I derail another thread? Sorry. I'll return to the subject of writing style. Since this is the first thing I've ever written I don't know if it will be typical of me or not, but I don't seem to be a very character based writer. The most memorable character in The Darkness of The Elves is John McCarthy, and the focus is not really on him but on his message. Unless you count being fucked up as a personality trait, in which case he'll probably be the most in-depth character I'll ever create. Is lack of character a good thing or a bad thing? Some of my favourite authors focus more on the situation than the people, George Orwell, Philip K. Dick, Issac Asimov. However, I am also a huge fan of such character based authors as Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. I suppose it's not what you write, it's how you write it.
And Dark Elves don't make me Hannibal, Laughlyn. The catholic church on the other hand...IT'S ALL A VATICAN CONSPIRACY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! THE INQUISITION, THE CRUSADES, P-2, ALL OF IT! GRAAGH!
This post has been edited by Voodoo dog: 09 May 2005 - 05:14 PM
#34
Posted 09 May 2005 - 05:02 PM
but you know, that's the last I'm going to say on this matter, because this is a good thread that I'd rather not see locked in a flame war.
#35
Posted 09 May 2005 - 07:56 PM
I'm sorry you don't like the way I post. I'll be the first one to admit I can get carried away and ramble on and on. But I think I generally stay on topic, with a few notable and rather unfortunate exceptions, like apologising to Yahtzee for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and declaring my undying love for the lushous Ms. Sherwood along with asking her to spank me. (Ye gods, what the hell was I thinking?!?!?) YOU WERE RIGHT, I DO HAVE A HABIT OF TYPING IN CAPS WHENEVER I GET ANGRY OR ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT SOMETHING. But I don't think I do it that much. I'm a pretty enthusiastic guy, in case you hadn't noticed, and I like to get express my feelings however I can. If you genuinely can't stand me *sniff* then feel free to scroll down to the posts after mine. I won't mind in the slightest. Regarding the rule, I can't help but notice that a guy called Jon Gutner not only posts here, but has his own forum here. In case you don't know the guy, he talks like this:
i hopee i don regret dis
i don regret dis.
i don regret dis>>
do you liek dairy studff?./? i doo.
sinserialy,,..
BLAHMBABAGO!!!!!
Now call me mad, but I don't like that at all. In fact I can barely read it. But hey, if thats the way the guy wants to write, then its his business. He aint got kicked out yet, so I don't think I will.
Oh god. OH GOD! TANGENT! Quick, somebody post something on writing skills or we're all gonna die!!!!
#36
Posted 09 May 2005 - 08:24 PM
And I never understood Jon, apparently he was quite endearing to many people. I wasn't around those forums when Mr. Gutner was.
In my current state, I'm trying to figure out the best sort of tone for the story I want to write. I'm not sure which angle to go for, I'll be pondering it.
And everyone is made of sand.
#37
Posted 10 May 2005 - 12:02 AM
I also love weird imagery. The rich, dreamlike, fairy-tale stuff that's just a little bit surreal or discomforting. Like a garden made of glass, or courtyard of creepy sculptures, or an underwater mansion. Neil Gaiman is good at this sort of thing.
#39
Posted 10 May 2005 - 05:36 AM
- J m HofMarN on the Sand People
#40
Posted 10 May 2005 - 07:25 AM
#41
Posted 10 May 2005 - 10:49 AM
Sometimes both of those work but I prefer an anti-hero to be someone working for a cause he believes in and will do anything to achieve it. Little children in your line of fire? Blow the fuckers away! 'Cos if you DON'T, the evil guy using them as a shield will go on to destroy the world. It's the lives of a few kids compared to millions. You may have a few nightmares afterwards but you get the job done. Examples would be Magneto from X-Men, Judge Dredd from 2000 AD and Roland from SK's Dark Tower series.
Was that one okay Rhubarb?
#42
Posted 10 May 2005 - 11:55 AM
And my antiheroes don't generally have agendas. And I've never had any trouble writing for them... in fact, my problem is creating heroes who aren't antiheroes. The way I usually do it is take a villainous stereotype and tell his/her side of the story by giving him/her some humanity (this is what Pratchett did with his character of Death, and with the three witches from Macbeth in Wyrd Sisters, not that I'm comparing myself or nothin'). As Slade says, there are only shades of grey.
One of my favourites at the moment is that creepy guy who lives in the old haunted mansion on top of the hill overlooking the village, the one who's all gaunt and hermit-like and is probably a sorcerer or something, or insane, or maybe just a pervert (this is England late 1800s btw). My version of that character is a sulky, alcoholic artist who's moved into this nasty, lonely, decaying old house in an effort to hide from his mad aristocratic family. He's rather ugly and sneering and antisocial and rude as hell to everyone, but he's likeable (I hope) because he's also rather witty, a bit of a loser in an endearing way, is a rather unhappy person underneath his arrogance, and is essentially a compassionate guy when he's pushed to it (as is evidenced by his treatment of the only other character in the story who's more of a loser than him). He's also the only who who thinks that Victorian societal values are stupid. Incidentally, he's my favourite of all my characters, and the one who I most relate to.
My other main antihero is a psychotic General (the setting is post-apocalyptic future) who as a child was forced into a horrific training regime carefully designed to destroy any positive emotions within him in a (failed) attempt to create a cold, emotionless killer. He's coarse, sadistic, cruel, violent, half-mad, and sees all compassion as a weakness, but he's also deeply hateful of himself, isolated from humanity, and is frequently suicidal. The reader isn't supposed to like him, but they're supposed to feel some pity toward him. He's also one of the only characters who isn't stupid and is contemptuous of his flippant, snobbish, upperclass associates (through which the average reader can relate to him), and he has a deep-seated, almost romantic appreciation of beauty. The story is ultimately one of redemption, in that the General develops affection for another character (which entirely destroys his mental defences and sends him even more insane), and ends with a compromise... he's still a fucking evil psycho, and probably always will be, but he has some compassionate tendencies in there somewhere.
Others have included:
- a gentleman assassin who simply can't relate to other people as living things, but is a thoroughly nice chap so long as you don't get to know him
- a wraith who has no body of his own and thus inhabits the animated corpses of the newly dead, but is the most mild-mannered and intellectual of all my characters
- a miserable and cringing escaped slave with almost no spine to speak of
- a little sorcerer alchemist dude who lives in a tower and has to keep replacing his door because bloody heroes keep breaking in. The heroes never make it far because the sorcerer is on good terms with his undead servants' union.
This post has been edited by Rhubarb: 10 May 2005 - 11:57 AM
#44
Posted 10 May 2005 - 12:24 PM
#45
Posted 10 May 2005 - 01:38 PM
Well, to go into my characters, would be... Not quite as much fun. I generally just begin with an idea for a character, that then mutates, twists turns and turns into something entirely different, gains backstory and ambitions as I write them into stories and such. Just to show how my characters do these things...
My first ever character, that had more depth than paper was a priest/vigilante that had his eyes gouged out. He brought justice to the street through his guns. That was three years before Once Upon a Time in Mexico came out, so it was my idea, MY IDEA! At first he was a good, just man with just a little bit extreme opinions on what sinners deserve. He then slowly over time, as I matured, turned into a man incapable of caring for the suffering of others before he begun his career as a vigilante. Afterwards he just turned into a vengeful psycho that used God as an excuse to hide behind while he shot rapists, criminals, child molestors and pagans. It wasn't till the end that realizes that he's a hypocritical fuck, and loses the ability to function without bumping into everything. He then redeems himself with a self sacrifice.
Other character, starts at pretty much the other end of the spectrum. He begun as a cold, demented warlord over a large clan but later turned into my favorite character. He gained a soul as I used him more and more, he never sacrificed his men and when he sent his men out to fight, he was out there with them. He was still morally corrupt, raped a woman to have offspring (reward for saving her life) and extremely cruel and disrespectful on the hands of those outside his clan. But he had that glint of goodness in him that made him just and beautiful to me.