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  1. - Top - End - #61
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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    "Huh, Stardew Valley updated."

    FIVE DAYS LATER

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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    "Huh, Stardew Valley updated."

    FIVE DAYS LATER
    #FirstWorldProblems?

    I wish I had that issue. My free time gets taken up doing other people's work. Because not doing it is not an option.
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  3. - Top - End - #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    Okay, interesting, you do like 6 passes. Thank you for that, that does broaden my perspective.

    Day 1949: Cardinal

    I think this is the best sketch I've ever done.

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    If I may interject, long, confident lines are your friend. These are only sketches, of course, but getting in the habit is good for both your health and your art.
    I don't mean to brag - it just sort of happens.

  4. - Top - End - #64
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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    If I may interject, long, confident lines are your friend. These are only sketches, of course, but getting in the habit is good for both your health and your art.
    What do you mean when you say 'health' here?

    Day 1959: Sad-Emoji

    Sometimes the smallest things can send you into a brood.

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    Last edited by Thanqol; 2016-10-07 at 05:54 AM.

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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Quick, jerky movements with your wrists wear out your joints and what not.

    Also, your link doesn't seem to be working.
    I don't mean to brag - it just sort of happens.

  6. - Top - End - #66
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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Weird. Here's it linked again.

    Day 1961: 1000 Years Of Godless Liberal Darkness

    Praise Satan and all his machines.

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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Inspired by cybermen?
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  8. - Top - End - #68
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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Quote Originally Posted by DigoDragon View Post
    Inspired by cybermen?
    More by the silly Megaman helmets

    Day 1963: Like A Dream

    Evenings are getting crowded. Can't wait for the US election to be over so I can stop following all that political news.

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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    More by the silly Megaman helmets
    I can see that. You can even find some for sale if you want to sport the silly look. Even comes in hoodie flavor. :3

    You know what's a lost art? The old days of a game's stylized Box Art. Look at that classic awesomeness. Nowadays it's all digital renderings doctored screen captures, but back in my day they used to just scribble some funny looking styled version of the game's concept and we liked it. XD


    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    Evenings are getting crowded.
    Aye.


    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    I like those rectangular glasses. They just hug the nose and somehow stay on. Except for me.
    Pretty decently defined jaw-line. I seem to mess that part up a lot.
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  10. - Top - End - #70
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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Cripes I just do not seem to be able to get a reliable digital art schedule down. As usual art continues but finding uninterrupted hour-long breaks, which is about how long it takes to get into the zone, is just really hard. I only really have Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and those are usually brain recreation days. Sketching continues apace, no chance of falling off the wagon.

    However, this year for the first time I am doing NaNoWriMo! This thread is going to be repurposed into a words barf location for the next month.

    BLOODGATES STATUS: READY

    In order to make this a success I am going to be channeling the Archetype of the Tortured Artist. I'm going to withdraw from my friends and from the world, stop shaving, start drinking, sever myself from the internet, and allow myself to become a hollowed out shell animated by the passion of the story. The ritual and the character are going to be just as important to this process as the story. It is a process that will be fueled by arrogance and narcissistic pride.

    At the moment the plan is not to withdraw from any games, channeling that same arrogance, "I did all this while keeping up with 6PBPs, three tabletops a week, and a full time job". This is a less insane move than it first seems because of the sheer damn unreliability of all of those games but I absolutely might hit a burnout point. Hopefully the Archetype will allow me to channel that self destruction into additional words.

    It's intended to be as much experience and performance art as a work of creativity.

    The work itself I am going to be relentless on my focus on progress. I'm giving myself free reign to write garbage or placeholder scenes, incomprehensible footnotes and generally whatever mess captures my attention at the time. I've done a bit of a playtest with a character called Anja who writes in complex field report notes to get me used to the idea. Trying to create an entire coherent narrative first time around is a mug's game, I want to produce a mad architect's sculpture of a story. Words output is aimed at 2,000 a day, after which I stop dead even if I'm in the middle of a sentence.

    Story itself is provisionally titled THE EARTH REGIMENT. The brief synopsis is that extremely powerful, extremely weird but deeply pacifistic aliens find themselves embroiled in a vast reality-bending cosmic war and need to turn to lesser species to fight on their behalf. To this end they hold a crash course of technological enlightenment for Early Modern humanity circa 1600 - which to the people on the ground looks a lot like being invaded by a fantasy setting. Future books in the series will be named after different planet types and biomes - THE TOMB REGIMENT for an irradiated post-apocalyptic wasteland for example.

    As far as writing style goes I am basically going to aim for a Trollslayer knockoff - limited third person. One of the protagonists is Idelle, a character borrowed from a forums PBP, who fits into the role of Reverse Grotek - weird, happy, perky, but carrying a dark secret and a supernatural power that allows her to survive any injury. Her companion, Mercia, is a Felix/lesser knight/protagonist-y/POV character - a French Knight who went to join the 30 Years War because the Germans of the time were very gender progressive (in fact, the idea at the time was that there was only one gender, and if you wore man clothes and did man things then you were a man and that was that). Mercia gives me an outsider's perspective to explain a bunch of weird Early Modern stuff that nobody in-setting would comment on and a reader might view as weird, like aforementioned monogender thing.

    The Earth Regiment is primarily set on earth and is about the collapse of society and reformation in the image of the new alien rulers. The ending is pretty much going to be the protagonists deciding to sign on as space mercenaries. I may jump ahead a lot to the Tomb Regiment if I get stuck so those two might be written simultaneously - the Tomb Regiment is going to steal an awful lot from Fallout Equestria. Format is intended to be short self-contained stories for the first book, gradually transitioning to longer stories if I feel like.

    I have a plan! And now I just need to barf forth a lot of words.
    Last edited by Thanqol; 2016-10-25 at 09:19 PM.

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    Words Barf: The third protagonist

    Beyond Idelle and Mercia I've been contemplating a third main character, an admiral/explorer named Ranubis. Serves on the Spanish Armada and is a bit of a genius/Wallenstein analogue. I admit that the primary draw of Ranubis is because I want to have awesome space battles and have played a lot of Battlefleet Gothic. He's a character who's tempting for a lot of very selfish reasons but I doubt if he has a place in this particular story.

    I'm currently pegging him as a secondary character, someone who the protagonists meet and travel with in one of the stories, who can get them from A to B. Do I go all the way and make him a Malakai Malakaisson? Engineer a situation where he'd get a whole novel to himself? Hmm. Maybe I can establish him like I was planning to establish Wallenstein; a weird distant mystic who's extremely important to the setting and interacts with the protagonists in a vague and perfunctory way before becoming incredibly important off camera, so that way when the story's primed to see him return he has a social in to the protagonists and might give them a completely inappropriate promotion or let them walk around on the bridge of his starship or something. Yeah, I think that's the way I might go with this.

  12. - Top - End - #72
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    Words Barf: Historical or not?

    Something that worries me a bit is that I kind of want to have my cake and eat it too - that is, I want to set the story 'in the real world' during the early 1600s but I don't want to be tied to the historical inevitabilities and figures of note of the time. I want the authenticity of alt-history while also wanting the freedom of writing fantasy! Can I adopt the politics of Bohemian succession wholesale without having to learn the name of the Bishop of Cassel? How can I bring in aliens and monsters into a setting I do not have a perfect understanding of? Do I really want to spend pagecount on early modern theological debate?

    I think the course of action I'm going to take is keep all the politics of the nations while completely wiping out all the individuals involved. So the Emperor still wants the Lutherans gone, Lutheranism, Catholicism and all those Christian denominations will be a thing, the Ottoman Empire will still be around and still called the Ottoman empire - but important figures mostly go in a box so I don't have to read a dozen biographies of 17th century power players. Which I'd do, and enjoy! But I do not have the time right now.

    That said I plan to make heavy use of the UNBELIEVABLY RAD 17TH CENTURY NAMING CONVENTIONS and use non-modern terminology where possible. I might refer to the Ottomans as the Sultans of Rum, maybe Spain is Aragon or Castile; technically one of their titles but the not one that people know about. Maybe THE HANGING DUKE or THE LION OF THE NORTH are around doing stuff but a reader unfamiliar with the topic (probably most) might mistake it for a fantasy setting.

    Yeah, I think that's the key. Just switch up what people use as their primary title. Rather than the Archduchy of Austria it's the Archduchy of Styria. Stuff like that. This is a great idea! It demonstrates that I understand the setting on a really deep level if I use everyone's secondary titles while also communicating that it's a bizarro version of the setting where things are different and weird. Thank you, Early Modern, for again being unbelievably radical.

  13. - Top - End - #73
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    Wordbarf: Tarot

    Idelle is the Fool, that's easy. Ranubis is the Chariot. Mercia I have to think about a bit, but I think that the correct answer is the Wheel of Fortune. She's drawing off my Luminark, Blueblood, Bon-Bon, high-strung aristocrat tradition of characters. She needs to cycle between being on top of the world and being on the bottom of it. I'm really glad that tarot cards have been on my mind right now because working this out helped figure out Mercia's personality and narrative arc exactly, and she's been the most troublesome character so far.

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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    You create in one day what I cannot create in a year.

  15. - Top - End - #75
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    Quote Originally Posted by goto124 View Post
    You create in one day what I cannot create in a year.
    Mmm, if this thread is a monument to anything, that's kind of bullcrap.


    Wordsbarf: Cramps

    What did early modern people think cramps were? I mean, you get them randomly in the middle of the night and they're the worst pain you ever experience and they linger all day afterwards. What would a culture so casually superstitious make of them? I don't even know how I'd find out. This is going to be on my mind.

    We take for granted the vocabulary, oh its just a cramp, stretch your muscles. But what if no one ever figured that out? That's a subtle little glimpse of linguistic technology in action.
    Last edited by Thanqol; 2016-10-29 at 07:44 PM.

  16. - Top - End - #76
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    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    Wordsbarf: Cramps

    What did early modern people think cramps were? I mean, you get them randomly in the middle of the night and they're the worst pain you ever experience and they linger all day afterwards. What would a culture so casually superstitious make of them? I don't even know how I'd find out. This is going to be on my mind.

    We take for granted the vocabulary, oh its just a cramp, stretch your muscles. But what if no one ever figured that out? That's a subtle little glimpse of linguistic technology in action.
    Damn, what kind of mad Australian Death Cramps do you have down there? The pain is debatable, especially because I don't believe I've ever had one linger for more than five minutes. The worst cramps I get are usually in my jaw, which might be characterized as utterly horrifying if they lasted more than a few seconds and didn't fade away completely after a minute of vigorous facial gymnastics. And that basically sums up cramps to me: peaks in a few seconds, then fades entirely after a few minutes of moving the affected muscles.

    As for your question, that's actually a good one. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find mention of cramps in old texts.

    *slinks back off into hiding*

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    I'm sure unexplained pain would be caused by evil spirits visiting in the night. Probably attracted by the individual's slovenly and unfaithful nature.
    Last edited by Anarion; 2016-10-30 at 02:29 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Giant View Post
    Anarion's right on the money here.
    Quotes

    "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadly View Post
    Damn, what kind of mad Australian Death Cramps do you have down there? The pain is debatable, especially because I don't believe I've ever had one linger for more than five minutes. The worst cramps I get are usually in my jaw, which might be characterized as utterly horrifying if they lasted more than a few seconds and didn't fade away completely after a minute of vigorous facial gymnastics. And that basically sums up cramps to me: peaks in a few seconds, then fades entirely after a few minutes of moving the affected muscles.

    As for your question, that's actually a good one. I wouldn't be surprised if you could find mention of cramps in old texts.

    *slinks back off into hiding*
    For me I just wake up with the vague sensation that something is wrong, shift my leg a bit, and then begin to experience blindingly agonizing pain. Through that pain and 3am wakeup-ness I have to remember to get out of my warm bed, go over to the wall and take on a full body stretch position immediately - or else the cramp sets in and hangs around for at least five minutes. During which time I get to contemplate that it's my fault for not reacting quick enough.

    When the cramp stops aching it sort of sets into a low, painful knot in my calf that makes me half-limp everywhere for the rest of the day. I still have it now 36 hours later. And again, if somehow I'm disciplined and ready enough and can leap majestically out of bed and stretch in the first microsecond I feel the pain it'll basically be solved instantly and I won't have to worry.

    Hmm, thinking about it there are a few recurring biological problems I have that require me to be a focused, disciplined and chill person to deal with. Would I be as good at meditation if getting physically worked up didn't cause me to bleed from the nose?

    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    I'm sure unexplained pain would be caused by evil spirits visiting in the night. Probably attracted by the individual's slovenly and unfaithful nature.
    D:<

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    For me I just wake up with the vague sensation that something is wrong, shift my leg a bit, and then begin to experience blindingly agonizing pain. Through that pain and 3am wakeup-ness I have to remember to get out of my warm bed, go over to the wall and take on a full body stretch position immediately - or else the cramp sets in and hangs around for at least five minutes. During which time I get to contemplate that it's my fault for not reacting quick enough.

    When the cramp stops aching it sort of sets into a low, painful knot in my calf that makes me half-limp everywhere for the rest of the day. I still have it now 36 hours later. And again, if somehow I'm disciplined and ready enough and can leap majestically out of bed and stretch in the first microsecond I feel the pain it'll basically be solved instantly and I won't have to worry.

    Hmm, thinking about it there are a few recurring biological problems I have that require me to be a focused, disciplined and chill person to deal with. Would I be as good at meditation if getting physically worked up didn't cause me to bleed from the nose?
    There are apparently a lot of different types of cramps. I didn't know that before.

    I don't think I've ever had night cramps. It's always during the day for me. I have woken up a few times and found my arm completely dead, just a big dumb rubber-like thing that flops around without any sensation or control (seriously seems like there are no bones in it). That's terrifying, especially the first time (I was doing my very best not to have a total freakout, I admit). The pain as it slowly returns to life is quite bad too. Hasn't happened in several years, at least.
    Last edited by Deadly; 2016-10-30 at 03:24 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadly View Post
    There are apparently a lot of different types of cramps. I didn't know that before.

    I don't think I've ever had night cramps. It's always during the day for me. I have woken up a few times and found my arm completely dead, just a big dumb rubber-like thing that flops around without any sensation or control (seriously seems like there are no bones in it). That's terrifying, especially the first time (I was doing my very best not to have a total freakout, I admit). The pain as it slowly returns to life is quite bad too. Hasn't happened in several years, at least.
    Oh yeah, that is no-fooling nightmarish. I mean, urgh.

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    Wordsbarf: oh my god its terrible what is this

    So I got my write on! The bad news is that it's abysmal. I mean, urgh, what? I totally bungled this. It's not as easy as a PBP.

    Good thing I'm committed to this 50,000 words thing or it'd be really easy to retreat back to the drawing board. My commitment is always forwards, never back; once I finish a paragraph I can't backspace it but I can make footnotes indicating what I think is wrong to fix later. And the more words I get out the better grasp I'll have of what works and what doesn't.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadly View Post
    I have woken up a few times and found my arm completely dead, just a big dumb rubber-like thing that flops around without any sensation or control (seriously seems like there are no bones in it). That's terrifying, especially the first time (I was doing my very best not to have a total freakout, I admit). The pain as it slowly returns to life is quite bad too. Hasn't happened in several years, at least.
    They make braces you can wear for that, if you're interested. A lot of people have trouble with sleeping on an arm or sometimes a wrist, which cuts off the blood flow and leads to the numbness you're describing, but you can wear an arm brace to keep it straight and make it unlikely to get cut off (they're not uncomfortable either, I've used a wrist one).
    School Fox by Atlur

    Quote Originally Posted by The Giant View Post
    Anarion's right on the money here.
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    "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
    Oscar Wilde Writer & Poet (1891)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    Wordsbarf: oh my god its terrible what is this

    So I got my write on! The bad news is that it's abysmal. I mean, urgh, what? I totally bungled this. It's not as easy as a PBP.

    Good thing I'm committed to this 50,000 words thing or it'd be really easy to retreat back to the drawing board. My commitment is always forwards, never back; once I finish a paragraph I can't backspace it but I can make footnotes indicating what I think is wrong to fix later. And the more words I get out the better grasp I'll have of what works and what doesn't.
    And remember, you're not alone. Everyone is writing crap.

    Personally, I like to go back and edit constantly because I find it hard to continue if I'm not happy with what goes before. Sometimes I just cut and paste the whole thing into a "Scraps" section of the document, then rewrite it, other times I gray out bits of text here and there instead of deleting it and then just write my edits next to it. Looks like a terrible mess, but at least no words are wasted.

    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    They make braces you can wear for that, if you're interested. A lot of people have trouble with sleeping on an arm or sometimes a wrist, which cuts off the blood flow and leads to the numbness you're describing, but you can wear an arm brace to keep it straight and make it unlikely to get cut off (they're not uncomfortable either, I've used a wrist one).
    It's happened maybe three times in my life, so it's hardly enough to be a nuisance. But thanks, I didn't know you could get that.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadly View Post
    And remember, you're not alone. Everyone is writing crap.
    Thank you, is reassuring.

    Personally, I like to go back and edit constantly because I find it hard to continue if I'm not happy with what goes before. Sometimes I just cut and paste the whole thing into a "Scraps" section of the document, then rewrite it, other times I gray out bits of text here and there instead of deleting it and then just write my edits next to it. Looks like a terrible mess, but at least no words are wasted.
    I think I figured out the problem; I had somehow selected a style that precluded the writing of long dialogue exchanges - forgetting that kind of banter is my favourite thing to write. I think I was acting out of a misguided attempt to be professional or something? Either way, switching up the style, turning Mercia's personality up to the maximum and Idelle's down one or two notches gave me a much more convincing scene. I'm feeling a lot more keen about this new approach, there's now some humor but there's also the dark edge I want to capture.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    I think I figured out the problem; I had somehow selected a style that precluded the writing of long dialogue exchanges - forgetting that kind of banter is my favourite thing to write. I think I was acting out of a misguided attempt to be professional or something? Either way, switching up the style, turning Mercia's personality up to the maximum and Idelle's down one or two notches gave me a much more convincing scene. I'm feeling a lot more keen about this new approach, there's now some humor but there's also the dark edge I want to capture.
    Oh yeah, I constantly struggle because I want to hit some exact level of seriousness or humor that I've set as my goal, and every time I just let the words flow freely I get frustrated because it doesn't sound serious enough, or dark enough, or whatever enough. The characters are far too lighthearted, or superficial, or whatever. If I could just turn that inner voice off and just write, and to hell with how it sounds (for now), I could surely get a truly impressive output going.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadly View Post
    Oh yeah, I constantly struggle because I want to hit some exact level of seriousness or humor that I've set as my goal, and every time I just let the words flow freely I get frustrated because it doesn't sound serious enough, or dark enough, or whatever enough. The characters are far too lighthearted, or superficial, or whatever. If I could just turn that inner voice off and just write, and to hell with how it sounds (for now), I could surely get a truly impressive output going.
    The #1 thing I've been doing with PBPs over the past year or so has been experimenting with different writing styles and it's been an immense help. As just one example, Kirillov and Rickard were both slightly different first person approaches which contrasting against each other really showed me the limitations of the technique, which lead to the synth-fusion of Anja which I think is the much stronger technique. I've got loads of little cases like that, it's been an extremely successful process and it's made all my games feel extremely different. Totes recommend it.
    Last edited by Thanqol; 2016-11-02 at 04:44 PM.

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    You know, the fact that this is such a disaster is actually surprisingly encouraging. I'm so used to PBPs where I select a couple of characters and some vague directions for the story that writing a novel just turns instantly into a spectacular unplanned morass. Key skills have atrophied and I am having to work out a bunch of stuff from scratch.

    I'm totally seat-of-my-pants wordsbarfing at this point, laying down facts and unwieldly unworkable plotlines awkwardly welded together. But the more concrete stuff I put out there the better idea I get for what the story actually needs to be. It's like learning through freefall.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    You know, the fact that this is such a disaster is actually surprisingly encouraging. I'm so used to PBPs where I select a couple of characters and some vague directions for the story that writing a novel just turns instantly into a spectacular unplanned morass. Key skills have atrophied and I am having to work out a bunch of stuff from scratch.

    I'm totally seat-of-my-pants wordsbarfing at this point, laying down facts and unwieldly unworkable plotlines awkwardly welded together. But the more concrete stuff I put out there the better idea I get for what the story actually needs to be. It's like learning through freefall.
    I'm following a fairly solid outline, at least for the first ten-ish chapters. After that I'm not sure what will happen, but I hope it will be spectacular.

    I've also got a "Random/Unrelated Wordbarf" section that I can always retreat to if I feel uninspired about the main story, or just want to suddenly try out some random scene that pops into my head. Or, like, suddenly get an irresistible urge to write about ponies for a while instead. I believe it's always good to have an outlet for that sort of thing, even if you're a super serious planner. And who knows, maybe some of that wordbarf will turn out pretty good.

  29. - Top - End - #89
    Colossus in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Quote Originally Posted by Deadly View Post
    I'm following a fairly solid outline, at least for the first ten-ish chapters. After that I'm not sure what will happen, but I hope it will be spectacular.

    I've also got a "Random/Unrelated Wordbarf" section that I can always retreat to if I feel uninspired about the main story, or just want to suddenly try out some random scene that pops into my head. Or, like, suddenly get an irresistible urge to write about ponies for a while instead. I believe it's always good to have an outlet for that sort of thing, even if you're a super serious planner. And who knows, maybe some of that wordbarf will turn out pretty good.
    I think I'm absolutely going to take advantage of that because I'm suddenly bombarded with ideas for totally unrelated stories born in response to the difficulties with this one. I think I need to accept that and let the words take me where they want to go, philosophy and history each demand it.

    Ideas fundamentally change states when they go from being just a thing in your head to a physical sentence on paper, which is why I'm very invested in explaining my thought processes and posting ideas on forums and such. Doing that to the swirling story-nexus in my head is pushing me in very unexpected directions. I think I've already ceded the idea of producing a coherent story but this process might well teach me what the story is. I'm really glad I'm doing this.

  30. - Top - End - #90
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    Default Re: Thanqol Learns To Draw Six: Stealing Time

    Quote Originally Posted by Thanqol View Post
    I think I'm absolutely going to take advantage of that because I'm suddenly bombarded with ideas for totally unrelated stories born in response to the difficulties with this one. I think I need to accept that and let the words take me where they want to go, philosophy and history each demand it.

    Ideas fundamentally change states when they go from being just a thing in your head to a physical sentence on paper, which is why I'm very invested in explaining my thought processes and posting ideas on forums and such. Doing that to the swirling story-nexus in my head is pushing me in very unexpected directions. I think I've already ceded the idea of producing a coherent story but this process might well teach me what the story is. I'm really glad I'm doing this.
    I think I'm coming around to the idea that it's a trap to let a story linger in your mind for too long without writing it.

    I'm writing this story that I've wanted to write for three years or something now. At this point, it's not just a neat idea that I want to write, it's a parasite demanding absolute creative control and oversight. Like, it's not just about writing a story based on some premise I liked, it has to be this exact story that I thought of years ago, this exact way, or I won't be happy. Consequently it will take me forever to write it.

    I get lots of half-formed ideas and random premises for stories that I'd love to just sit down and write, spur-of-the-moment. But I can't, because this parasite of a story has taken over my mind and won't let go of me until I've labored to produce it exactly to specification. If not for this old and gnarled story spreading its roots in my brain, I could take some simple premise like ... idk, "fairies fighting an apocalyptic war against dwarves" and just write some awesome adventure story with nothing but that as my seed, without worrying about producing some specific idealized vision. It would just be whatever story came out of that premise, and maybe it would be awesome, maybe not.

    Stories should not be allowed to linger. They need to be written as soon as possible, because every day they aren't written, they become more and more unattainable. They become sort of ideals of the perfect story, because you've had so much time to imagine them in perfect splendor instead of just writing them and accepting them however they turn out.

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