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Desiderius Price

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Posts posted by Desiderius Price

  8. Chekov's Gun: Does Anyone Still Use It?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    On 7/5/2017 at 8:57 AM, PenStoryTeller said:

    But back to the matter of Chekov’s Gun. Remember, it is a tool. but like any tool the reader shouldonly be aware of it’s usage in hindsight if at all.Chekov’s gun, much like the red herring and the McGuffin are all elements of plot and plot is to a story what the skeleton is to a body. Just remember, the more others can see of your skeleton, the worse off you are.

    11 hours ago, PenStoryTeller said:

    PWP?

    PWP – porn without plot, or as I prefer, “Plot, what Plot?” 

    I suggested that as a PWP has no plot, it would have no skeleton to seen :P

     

  9. Chekov's Gun: Does Anyone Still Use It?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Anesor said:

    That’s why I’m careful with my guns, I’ve seen too many in text and video where the hun was not only there but balloons and blinking lights were there.   I prefer the stage magician where a detail is there but unimportant. with red herrings added sometimes.

    Dunno, it’s more fun playing with my gun.   :)

    I like to strike a balance, I don’t every detail to be unimportant, but I don’t want every detail to be important either.  So, a blue herring in a bunch of red herrings might be very significant, or it might just be that the packer is color blind.

  16. Chekov's Gun: Does Anyone Still Use It?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, Anesor said:

     I’ve got several idea files: original, one for each fandom, and a few for particular AU’s. the biggest issue iis never gettng back. A 30 day challenge is waiting for a chapter 16/16. If I start that one, one of the other two will be abandoned, I’ve learned how fickle my muse is. Showers?? and it’s gone.

    All of my original stories on here, including the halloween/holiday oneshots, are from the same universe, most characters are connected in some fashion.  So, for me, writing down a plot bunny has a good chance of being usable, even if it’s a spinoff story.  But yep, recording them helps retain them and you can go back, even with a fickle muse … may be a challenge.  :)

    And sometimes, those ideas are rejected, not because they’re lousy, but because it’ll distract too much from the major thrust to the story, or simply overwhelm it.  (I recently pruned what would’ve been chapter 16 from Dale’s Game because it was too much, even though the underlying premise was sound in terms of what the characters needed in skill improvements.  Sad to remove 5kwords and start the chapter over….not really removed, I do save them off into a separate file, just in case.)

  17. Chekov's Gun: Does Anyone Still Use It?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Anesor said:

    I have a bunch on hiatus because I had too many cool ideas I could not resist starting. Sometimes i get a little cornered moving between two sections, and can’t go forward. right now my laptop keyboard needs replaced and it will be weeks until the part comes in. There just isn’t room for my storyor comment window AND an on screen keyboard. One stopped as no one read it. I’m toying with a summary postscript, as all that was left was lots of battle and onle a few small char things.  jst don’t have the time to finish them, especially as I want to get back to original stuff.

    I’ve gotten disciplined enough to jot the idea down, or put it into my database.  (Which is useful, came in handy for Dale’s game, turning the situation from food poisoning into an allergy, allowing me to create an interesting trait for his character.)  Even with original, if you’re developing a universe/world-building, after a while, you’ve got the same level of constraints; again, I ran into that with Dale’s Game, where the end point of the story is fixed, very fixed, within the universe, and the story was developing fast, so it was easier to make it a year later than to completely rewrite and slow it down w/o any benefit.

  21. Chekov's Gun: Does Anyone Still Use It?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    13 minutes ago, mastershakeme said:

    I understand what you're saying… I guess I didn’t take the fanfic aspect of your abandoned work. I’m glad your focusing on your original stuff ^_^ Yay!!

    Have you read it yet? :P

    17 minutes ago, mastershakeme said:

    I don’t have an ending planned for my story ^_^ It just gets longer and longer ^_^ Like its almost 200,000k at this point with no end in sight. Lol It’s getting ridiculous and I’m using the smiley faces to show how delirious I feel lol. I wish I could restrain myself and find the perfect last sentence long before I get there. That’s why my endings sound so rushed! They are! 

    I can’t expect anyone to beta for me anymore either with a story length like that… I’m all on my own!!! fuck, fuck, fuck!!! Ships going down guys!!! lol, I'm mostly joking btw ^_^ 

    Several stories (Dolbourne & Jefferey), I’m writing more episodic, because they’re less in terms of overall plot but in more small stories tied together by the same main character(s).  So, having micro starts/ends is actually helpful in terms of practice, and tightly scoping the plot because I need it to resolve by the end of the episode.  I might split up those two stories, just because they’re spanning many years.

    My potter fanfic (the one on more or less permanent hiatus) was over 600kwords before I went and edited it down … it’s now at a more modest 500kwords.  Its prequel (complete) is almost 180k.   Though, my average is lower because I’ve also got two really short ones (~200 words each).

     

  23. Chekov's Gun: Does Anyone Still Use It?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    2 hours ago, mastershakeme said:

    Aww, that makes me sad… I just put a story on hiatus and I’m hoping to god I won’t abandon it… I just got busy on another story. That’s why I did it!!!

     

    This made me ROFL!!!

    I really like your take on first and last lines… I’ve had a lot more first lines than last… And either way, I was so exhausted by my story at the end, I really flubbed it IMO. That story is no longer up because I wanted to remedy that…

    But if Bilbo had woken up to realize the Hobbit was a dream…? That’s hysterical!!! ^_^ I didn’t do anything stupid like that...

    Given that we’re mostly amateurs on these sites, it’s understandable if stories aren’t finished.  Sometimes, the author realizes it won’t work out, or, they lose interest due to a new book getting released (Lots of Harry Potter fics were like that when I started into fanfic), RL death/disease/stress (understandable), or many other reasons.  I do want to finish my potter fic, but the draw/lure of my own stories is stronger – and my potter fic’s been stuck on a plot point for ages (how to portray something w/o being considered deus ex).  In my originals, the main culprits have been plot bunnies!  I’ve got WIPs because I decided to split the original story (it held too many competing plot threads, and was better to tell several separate stories than to try to stuff it all under one title).  So, I’ve got Fiends (the most direct lineage from the first story), Alaska Trekkers (backstory, complete), Dolbourne Chronicles (backstory, WIP), Jefferey (backstory to a character appearing in the backstory, WIP), and Dale’s Game (backstory that was sparked by a holiday fic, WIP).  And, I’ve got some sequels to fiends planned. 

    Of course, once a story hits the printing press, it had better be complete!  :P

    Even if I haven’t truly written the last sentence, I do like to have a good idea early on what that scene will be like, or the general conditions.  I try to worry about start/end to each chapter as I write, so that’s a good way to practice, IMO.  Frequently, I’ll stumble across the last sentence as I write, not always what I had in mind, but my typing will reach it and it becomes, “damn, that’s a good one – cut!”

     

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