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Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024

11:23am EST

Members: 809

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Writing Blog Number 2

by S

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #2311764

This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC

This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario.

An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"

Feel free to comment and interact.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Kåre เลียม Enga

19 minutes ago
In response to "20241228 Messages In Writing"

It's the same with setting. There's no need to dump everything on the first page. Or describing the main character in minute details ad nauseum.

Is Narnia Christian? If it's a great story well told, does it matter?

Kåre เลียม Enga

Dec 21, 2024 at 12:34am
In response to "20241221 Kudzu Plotting"

IMO Anne McCaffrey does this well with the parallel Dragonriders of Pern and Harper Hall trilogies. Adults-with-dragons; youth with fire-dragons. Memorable world building. Wonderful characters.

Kudzu the plant... only a curse for those who don't know its uses: forage, food, fiber.

Dec 19, 2024 at 7:09pm
In response to "20241219 'Misogyny' In Writing"

🐕GeminiGem🎁 - I chose Grease because it is so egregious and goes against everything Sandy had demonstrated up to that point. Dirty Dancing was set a few years later (early 60s), and, though Baby changes, it is gradual and is more a change of growing up, being true to herself. So, I think the time period can be used effectively without being so demeaning. As I see it.

🐕GeminiGem🎁

Dec 19, 2024 at 6:58pm
In response to "20241219 'Misogyny' In Writing"

I agree that when a woman changes herself to attract a man shows misogyny and is annoying...but...using the movie Grease as an example it an interesting choice. Yes, the lead female changes her appearance to appeal to the male. I think it was more because of peer pressure, but the peer pressure happened because of the pervasive misogyny of the peers. Interestingly, the male character does the exact same thing for the same reasons.

The movie is set in the 1950's, a time where the misogyny we see now is even waaaay worse. So, here is a thought. If you are writing about a time period like that and are showing social interactions of the characters, something like the pervasive misogyny is going to be true to the time and place the story takes place. Does that excuse it? No, of course not, but having present-day sensibilities in an era like that would make the story seem really off.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Dec 19, 2024 at 3:57am
In response to "20241219 'Misogyny' In Writing"

In my travels I try to connect with most everyone. I wonder what my stats would be... but many contacts have names whether human or not, whether the boss or 'servant' or guest.

In my writings...

thinking.

I do have characters without names.

SAD Holiday Potato

Dec 18, 2024 at 3:54pm
In response to "20241218 Children Characters"

As someone who is an Aunt to two children who have an age difference of four years, I can definitely tell you that they act completely different. Even though one of them is neurodivergent, the older one definitely acts more mature than the younger one.(also the older one has never tried to lick my feet.)

With very few exceptions, I've never had to tell an adult "stop eating my dress," "please don't lick me" or "stop pulling my hair," to anyone over the age of six. Yet within the last year or so I've had to tell my five year old niece these things repeatedly. She thinks this is hilarious.

Anyways, thanks for pointing out that kids aren't just miniature adults! I'll try to keep that in mind while writing.

Dec 18, 2024 at 6:44am
In response to "20241218 Children Characters"

Elisa: Snowman Stik - Writing about those who are neurodivergent is not something I feel I can talk about comfortably. I am trained as a teacher of those on the spectrum, and so I would not write a character in that regard because I do not feel it is my story to tell. But, yes, that last point may not apply to a child with developmental issues.

1 Like

Elisa: Snowman Stik

Dec 18, 2024 at 6:28am
In response to "20241218 Children Characters"

I am curious if there is wiggle room for the last point for child characters with developmental disabilities. (I do recognize this kind of character presents its own set of development pitfalls in terms of depicting the disability without stereotyping. That said, I think this can be a reasonable exception to the rule when done with care.)

1 Like

Dave Ryan

Dec 16, 2024 at 1:26am
In response to "20241216 Poor Characterisation"

There was once a variation of "compressed vice" in an original episode of Star Trek ("Who Mourns for Adonais?"), where a landing party of the usual suspects + one random never-seen-before-or-since female crew member are captured by the god Apollo and they turn the usually gruff Scotty into a simpering, love-struck puppy to try to introduce some conflict when Apollo puts the moves on her. Why they didn't just have Kirk horndogging it as usual I do not know - at least then everybody would have remained consistently in character. It looks like Scotty, it sounds like Scotty, but WTF?

1 Like

SAD Holiday Potato

Dec 14, 2024 at 3:41pm
In response to "20241214 Punk Genres"

This is interesting yet confusing. So basically it's like world building but with the word "punk" in there to make it sound cooler.
Maybe I misunderstand.

February 8, 2024 at 2:04am

#1063751

20240208 Using Fantastic Realism Settings

Fantastic Realism Settings

Continuing with the settings theme, this one is a little obscure and does follow on from the last post.

Fantastic realism Settings are those where a really out-of-place thing is set in the real world. More than just another town or suburb, this is taking something that really does not exist and placing it in our world. For example, a castle in Ireland is hardly fantastic; a castle in New Zealand is really out there. Or it could be a cave system underneath Rhode Island, a eucalyptus grove in Germany, etc. Or, going further, a magic school in England, an Egyptian temple in South Australia, etc. In these cases, the magic place has to react with the realistic setting which surrounds it.

This is really hard to do. Even something as well thought-out and created as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter universe is somewhere that is hidden by magic and somehow Muggles don’t see or notice magic trains or kids running into walls.

First, you have to work out how things could be there. What created the caves? Underground rivers, lava, limestone erosion, a subterranean civilisation? If they are just caves, then that makes no sense. Fantasy or not, the setting you have chosen is still our world and these things need to make sense in our world. In my own cave-based book, the caves were dug by a lizard-man civilisation. That was it. In another book I read, the writer set the caves in the side of a mountain, and the indication they were the results of an old volcano. Makes sense. Another classic example is that castles were built for defence; placing one in the middle of a field or a town that is not a capital of some sort makes no sense. Even Harry Potter gets this right – Hogwarts is on top of a mountain, protected by water on some sides. That’s where an old stronghold would have been built. Even in horror, these things need to make sense. That two storey run-down house in the bad end of town that is haunted indicates that, at some time, it was a rich area, and so the world should reflect that past glory.

So, while you have this fantastical place in our world, its placement does need to make sense if you want it to exist in our world.

Now, a personal opinion and a tangent (and one I have seen reflected in "what we don't want" lists in publisher websites). Special fantasy schools in young adult fiction are becoming cliché, and I can see why the publishers are rejecting these sorts of stories more and more. Since Harry Potter, they are being done to death in fantasy. Magic schools, fighting schools, schools to read language, rune schools – I have read so many of them. I do understand that many YA novels have a majority of action at schools nowadays, not out of the school system, as it was in my day. I think this is because a lot of youngsters only interact face to face with others at school (the out of school interactions are online), and that is fine, and publishers don't seem to mind normal schools, but these specialised fantasy schools have been overdone.

4 Like • Comment

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