Behold, the body of Adonis and the brain of a squirrel.

[Deepfreeze32]

My problem is that I have to work, and socialize, and practice music...



What think you of this?

EDIT:

So there are two "schools of thought" for creative writing: Gardeners and Architects. Gardeners practice what is called "discovery writing" where they just write and write until the end makes sense. This style of writing lends itself to great characters, great interactions, and a good sense of overall flow to the piece. The downsides are that the lack of advance plotting detail means that "twists" either don't make sense, or are so obviously foreshadowed that they lose the punch. Gardeners include George R.R. Martin (Who AFAIK coined these terms), Stephen King, and Patrick Rothfuss. Architects, on the other hand, craft an outline before writing what will become the first draft. The strengths of this type of writing are that the plots can have amazing zinger endings that really knock it out of the park, and the world is often super detailed and cool. Most people who do tons of worldbuilding are architects. The downsides are that characterizations can often feel flat, and sometimes the characters may do illogical things to advance the plot. Architects include Brandon Sanderson, Kevin J. Anderson, and J.K. Rowling. (Tolkien would probably fall into this category too, but I can't find much info about his writing style at the moment)

Of course, the truth is that Gardener and Architect are really just the extreme ends of a spectrum, which means most writers are in the middle, but tend towards one style or the other.

So which of those two styles do you tend towards?

Personally, I tend towards architect, as I like to have the major beats of a story planned out in advance. I do a little bit of discovery writing when trying to flesh out a character, but I try to have at least one character who can advance the plot (Such as a leader figure who gives orders) should I get to a situation where the next story beat wouldn't make sense for these characters. Worst case scenario, I change the outline if I need to.

[RedPlums]

Sliced bread?

[Chozon1]

You don't have to work in the kitchen in fast food. They usually have two teams, the front and back.

Mass Effect?

Yeah, but then I'd have to work with people. That's almost as bad as food. Cleaning I wouldn't mind, I don't think; toilets and tables and all the various fluids and scraps of both are easier for me to manage.

Unless I worked at Taco Bell. I have feeling they burn through maintenance at Taco Bell with astonishing rapidity, and even I, who has looked into the gaping maw of an outhouse unafraid, quell at the thought of Taco Bell toilets. O_o

Mass Effect...I can never make up my mind about Mass Effect. It's supposed to be one of the greatest RPG trilogies of the past decade, and they look awesome (Andromeda was featured in last month's Game Informer, and it looked pretty dang sweet) and so I really want to give them a shot...but at the same time, I'm not particularly willing to play them due to all the sex and trash in them. Every time I get the yearning for a nice RPG, I look them up only to end up backing away. So I am currently at an impasse, I suppose.

And...Bioware has basically made the same RPG over and over again since Icewind Dale. :\ So part of me wonders if Mass Effect was just amazing to those people who haven't played two decades of Bioware titles?

My problem is that I have to work, and socialize, and practice music...


What think you of this?

EDIT:

So there are two "schools of thought" for creative writing: Gardeners and Architects. Gardeners practice what is called "discovery writing" where they just write and write until the end makes sense. This style of writing lends itself to great characters, great interactions, and a good sense of overall flow to the piece. The downsides are that the lack of advance plotting detail means that "twists" either don't make sense, or are so obviously foreshadowed that they lose the punch. Gardeners include George R.R. Martin (Who AFAIK coined these terms), Stephen King, and Patrick Rothfuss. Architects, on the other hand, craft an outline before writing what will become the first draft. The strengths of this type of writing are that the plots can have amazing zinger endings that really knock it out of the park, and the world is often super detailed and cool. Most people who do tons of worldbuilding are architects. The downsides are that characterizations can often feel flat, and sometimes the characters may do illogical things to advance the plot. Architects include Brandon Sanderson, Kevin J. Anderson, and J.K. Rowling. (Tolkien would probably fall into this category too, but I can't find much info about his writing style at the moment)

Of course, the truth is that Gardener and Architect are really just the extreme ends of a spectrum, which means most writers are in the middle, but tend towards one style or the other.

So which of those two styles do you tend towards?

Personally, I tend towards architect, as I like to have the major beats of a story planned out in advance. I do a little bit of discovery writing when trying to flesh out a character, but I try to have at least one character who can advance the plot (Such as a leader figure who gives orders) should I get to a situation where the next story beat wouldn't make sense for these characters. Worst case scenario, I change the outline if I need to.

You know, I was thinking Rowling for architect before I even finished reading the description; solely because Potter does some plum stupid things in his adventures that never made sense until now. XD

I think I tend toward gardening. But, as you said, I tend to swim the middle line. Like for Traveler, I had about four or five scenes plotted and fleshed out, just drifting around in my head before I even knew I was writing the book. Nameless characters doing awesome things in a strange world. One of them fit well for the opening, once I made the world real and gave it some detail. To get to the rest I perched upon Jacob's shoulder and tried to follow him and the rest of the characters through that world, into events that made sense given what was happening, eventually linking it to the scenes I had planned out and the story as a whole. Which was fun, since half the time I didn't know what was coming until Jacob did, at which time I had rare "HOLY CRUMLBLY CAKES DIS COULD BE WHAT IS HAPPENING" moments. I had a short outline of notes and loose details of the scenes I wanted later on, but they really only covered the story as it was written. I had no idea how it was going to end until shortly before I ended it.

The other half of the time I was scrabbling around, trying to piece enough of the world together so that my characters could walk through it without resorting to love triangles. >_> This tends to be how all my stuff is; I have one or two ideas or scenes or locales, and I write a path to them or using them.

Also, that was amazing. <3 I listened to it twice. Now I am off to listen to Unholy Warcry. It has been too long since I listened to that song.

Sliced bread?

It's the worst thing to happen to bread since...ever. Literally. Pre-sliced bread is a terrible thing. In order to make it machine sliceable, they have to add chemicals to the dough to give it the proper texture. Further, to make it last longer on the shelves in its sliced condition, they add anti-fungal and anti-staling chemicals to the batter. The result is bread that is mostly air, and tastes nothing like real bread in either texture or flavor.

Let it and its convenience burn in the fire from which it was born. >_>

[micah211]

Eating a whole pizza and re-watching seasons 5-7 of Doctor Who?

[Deepfreeze32]

See, I'm kind of jealous of discovery writers. Being able to experience the story as you write it sounds awesome. The truth is, I've always had mixed results when I try the gardening approach. My first NaNo novel had the second half of the story discovery written, and...I'm not super happy with how it turned out. So I'm deliberately trying a different approach: Discover the narrative, then flesh out the beats and tweak as needed. I'm currently cooking up an outline for a story I think sounds awesome.



I think I've shown you this one, but this is my favorite Rhapsody song. Despite having heard Unholy Warcry first, I think this song just speaks to me so much more. Thoughts?

Bonus round:

Let me pitch my story idea to you: If you took the concepts of journeying, isolation, and exploration from the Odyssey and Star Trek; doused them in Warhammer 40k aesthetic of neo-feudalism/grimdark horror in space; added a hefty dose of thriller, all brought to a boil with the tensions of inter-house politicking and the devastating effects it has on the common folk. One thing that I should tell you is in addition to wholly original (or at least not intentionally stolen) scenarios, several critical scenes from the Odyssey are given the sci-fi twist. For example, the famous cyclops bit gets redone to feature a colony controlled by a crude AI, and instead of "blinding" it, they hack a drone to disable it so they may escape.

I'd go into more detail, but I'm still trying to figure out if this idea is any good. I personally really like the idea, though I'm worried that my treatment of some scenes from the Odyssey would get criticized as "rip-off." I have no intention of hiding the influence the Odyssey has on it, but it also isn't just a sci-fi retelling of the Odyssey, it's taking elements of that classic tale that worked and twisting them to suit the tale I want to tell.

So what do you think? Should I rework it, or does it work from the super high level pitch I've given you? XD

[RedPlums]

Did you watch the inauguration?

[Chozon1]

Eating a whole pizza and re-watching seasons 5-7 of Doctor Who?

Pizza + binge watching = usually awesome. You probably picked the one SCi-Fi I would normally refuse...but then, it is pizza...so...yes?

Do I have to actually watch, or can I eat my pizza and go into a glassy eyed slump?

Actually, that question can be applied to most of my life. O_o

See, I'm kind of jealous of discovery writers. Being able to experience the story as you write it sounds awesome. The truth is, I've always had mixed results when I try the gardening approach. My first NaNo novel had the second half of the story discovery written, and...I'm not super happy with how it turned out. So I'm deliberately trying a different approach: Discover the narrative, then flesh out the beats and tweak as needed. I'm currently cooking up an outline for a story I think sounds awesome.

Heh. I wish I could plan better. XD Much as I enjoy walking through my story as it goes, there are many times that leads to a strange, wandering course; there are many moments I realize after the fact that I wrote B-C-D, because I wanted to get to E from point A. Then I have to go back and cut two hours of work that was basically sniffing flowers. O_o

Let me pitch my story idea to you: If you took the concepts of journeying, isolation, and exploration from the Odyssey and Star Trek; doused them in Warhammer 40k aesthetic of neo-feudalism/grimdark horror in space; added a hefty dose of thriller, all brought to a boil with the tensions of inter-house politicking and the devastating effects it has on the common folk. One thing that I should tell you is in addition to wholly original (or at least not intentionally stolen) scenarios, several critical scenes from the Odyssey are given the sci-fi twist. For example, the famous cyclops bit gets redone to feature a colony controlled by a crude AI, and instead of "blinding" it, they hack a drone to disable it so they may escape.

I'd go into more detail, but I'm still trying to figure out if this idea is any good. I personally really like the idea, though I'm worried that my treatment of some scenes from the Odyssey would get criticized as "rip-off." I have no intention of hiding the influence the Odyssey has on it, but it also isn't just a sci-fi retelling of the Odyssey, it's taking elements of that classic tale that worked and twisting them to suit the tale I want to tell.

So what do you think? Should I rework it, or does it work from the super high level pitch I've given you? XD

I like it too. A fair bit, actually. Though I don't tend to enjoy grimdark scenarios, it's interesting enough that I would read it. Especially with the exploration added, which is something most grimdark universes ignore. Everything has already been seen.

And I think--and it sounds as if you do--if you like the idea this much, you should run with it and fart upon the metaphorical individuals who will claim that you've ripped a concept off. If I am writing a story, and I like it, and I want to see how it ends, it is much, much easier for me to continue writing it.

For that matter, there will always be a turd who looks at your writing and say's: "You pulled this from here." Even if you came up with a wholly original tale in a language you created; it's the way of things now. I plan to ignore those individuals. When I see a concept elsewhere and like it, but want to see it done differently, I have no qualms personally about creating off it it.

Like...the dog sidekick. It's a pretty common trope, especially in fantasy. Even in Sci-Fi though, there's usually a weird alien or a drone thing. Either way, I have one in Traveler because I love the idea. But I get utterly tired of authors killing off the dog to try and punch people in the feels, so I made mine invincible. XD She's actually less touchable than the main characters.

Is that ripping off stuff? I don't think so. If a painter can look at paintings and be inspired to use something in their own work, why not an author? *shrugs*

So I say run with it; sounds pretty dang sweet.

So did that song, by the way. :O I'd rank it as glorious, in fact.

[Chozon1]

Did you watch the inauguration?

Nah. I was busy sleeping.

A part of me wanted to watch it; cynic that I am though, most of me just wanted to laugh at all the backlash.

Which I am. XD

[Deepfreeze32]

I like it too. A fair bit, actually. Though I don't tend to enjoy grimdark scenarios, it's interesting enough that I would read it. Especially with the exploration added, which is something most grimdark universes ignore. Everything has already been seen.

Thanks! I prefer exploring unknown regions to known one, plus I think some of the grimmer, darker things are the unknown. That's why Lovecraft is so unsettling. Horror is not going to be a huge factor, but I like the sense of dread the 40k universe carries, as well as the visual aesthetic of the ships, buildings, and so-on.

I think the real test will be whether or not I can make it an interesting story.



Can't remember if I've shown you this or not...

Thoughts?

[Sstavix]

So, what are your thoughts when a supervisor goes on about how your job has a strict no-weapons policy, and a couple minutes later they give everyone box knives?

[RedPlums]

Doing your taxes to relax?

[Chozon1]

Thanks! I prefer exploring unknown regions to known one, plus I think some of the grimmer, darker things are the unknown. That's why Lovecraft is so unsettling. Horror is not going to be a huge factor, but I like the sense of dread the 40k universe carries, as well as the visual aesthetic of the ships, buildings, and so-on.

I think the real test will be whether or not I can make it an interesting story.

Can't remember if I've shown you this or not...

Thoughts?

I love the designs of the Imperium Battlefleet Gothic ships. 40K get's a tad too grotesque and depressing at times, but their graphic designers come up with some amazing model designs. Dangit, I need to buy me some spess mahrines.

I don't know. Good sounds, but I still find werewolves annoying. Even in a metaphorical sense.

So, what are your thoughts when a supervisor goes on about how your job has a strict no-weapons policy, and a couple minutes later they give everyone box knives?

There are many policies of Wal-Mart, I found, that it was better to simply nod and smile without questioning. Why, for example, did we have a parking spot for loaded stock carts that we were not supposed to leave carts in at the end of the night? Didn't matter which dark corner we shoved them in as long as they weren't inside the painted lines ostensibly marked off for them. -_-

If I am in the backroom for 97% of my day, why do I still have to follow a dress code which get's in my way half the time? It promotes team unity in that we all hate it, I guess. Much as I utilized the vest mentally, physically it was only a hindrance.

Won't even talk about the shoe policy; that's just there for legislative butt-covering. I can't wear my comfortable hiking shoes because they aren't technically closed-toe, but I can wear a pair of canvas sneakers without a problem? Neither one is going to help much if a pallet jack runs over my foot, boss.

Did they give you a real box cutter, or one of the child-safe box cutters, with the spring loaded handle and blunt nosed blade?

Doing your taxes to relax?

That kind of math and governmental legislation burns my skin. Literally. I reach out to grab a w-2, and my hand lights on fire.

[Deepfreeze32]

This one is a long one, but it's one of my favorites.



Thoughts?

[RedPlums]

Oh heaven's to Betsy what a travesty! To never be able to touch a governmental document in your life!

Elliptical machines?

[micah211]

Why do you refuse to watch Dr Who?