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| So, here I am (kinda) back on WdC for the first time since January 2016. In the past two years, I have essentially started everything over from scratch, and the world at least appears to be on a promising track. So, here is a link to what I've been working on right here --> https://www.worldanvil.com/w/diateire-earcher1503 I'm potentially also looking for someone to shadow-write a story for me. So if you're good at prose and plot but generally find it hard to create characters and worldbuild, feel free to get in touch :) Reviewing-wise, I'm afraid school, work and my lab must be priorities. However, if you happen to remember me and enjoyed my reviews in the past, feel free to flick me a message to let me know you're still alive and well and I'll try to get back to you if not during the semester, in May after exams. |
| So I touched up Bren a bit (cleaned up his hair, tweaked his shading) and finally finished drawing Rhedd (full drawings here! http://erinarcherwriter.blogspot.ca/2017/07/drawings-again-part-ii.html). Onto Kilmer! Who else here likes to draw? |
| I didn't know you didn't usually draw your own characters (I pretty much only saw the drawing of Galwynne and another one, I think it was Sarfyn). What do you normally draw, then? |
Reply
Random people, usually musicians, who pose in a way that inspires me to lift my pencils. I drew a singer for my brother (http://fav.me/db5vplh), a punk for myself (http://fav.me/dbgif2z), and one of my recent novel's characters - Kais Aimé (http://fav.me/dbdnake). Pretty much sums up what I normally draw - if I can motivate myself to draw.  |
Reply| Wow! I especially like the punk one :O |
Reply| Hey guys! I need your wonderful minds for some nefarious ideas about covert murder! In other, less pompous terms, I want your ideas for how one of my characters in my fantasy story can systematically get rid of her rivals. Pretty much, my character is a lieutenant in a guild of mercenaries who gets demoted and arranges the "accidental" deaths of her successors. However, she can't be directly implicated in the crime and she isn't allowed to wield weapons, and she has no magical abilities whatsoever. Any ideas, my fair fellow conspirators? |
| I like where your idea is going, especially for when it comes to traps and accidents in brawls since that can really look like unfortunate accidents that just happen to plague the mercenary lieutenants. As it is, my merc character is trapped in a gladiatorial game of sorts and she managed to kill off the first lieutenant by tripping another character who ended up pushing the lieutenant to his death accidentally. I'm wondering if another lieutenant shouldn't just fall off a roof while sneaking about... all you need is loose tiles at the wrong spots... But will definitely do the "dies during a tavern brawl" one. I think I'd avoid poison, though, unless one of the characters has allergies, because that's too obvious that the person has been killed intentionally. Unless the lieutenant in question is a glutton and eats the food which is supposed to go to the chief... |
Antonia Ryder  's post about the rough draft made me think about how rough getting to actually finishing a draft is. I never seem to be able to write more than 70 or so Microsoft Word pages before binning the story line. So yeah. Rough is the word. For me it's never the characters or the story world or character motivation or that stuff. I always get stuck on plot. And that's not something I can have a vague idea of... otherwise I get stuck and my writing stagnates with characters spending ages in unimportant places doing unimportant stuff (*cough* my fourth to seventh chapters *cough*). All this to say that I need some opinions to help me get to writing again. Here are some of my main concerns: 1. Is it a good idea to write in three first person POV characters if I know I can pull off the different voices? 2. Is it better to have A) three interacting story arcs (which may or may not be antagonistic to each other), B) one general story arc with three character arcs or C) a story arc centric on one character (you can assume the central character would switch up) with the other two arcs as complimentary 3. I suck at giving my characters agency (they usually get tossed around by the story). Any tips on how to avoid this? |
| I personally do not believe there is a single, best way for a reader to experience a story. So long as every voice is different, then multiple view-points can be as good as a singular. On your third question, the reason all of your characters fall sway to the world and the story is because they're a bushel of pansies. Comedic wording aside, that is truth. The more powerful/commanding a character is, the more he/she will natively bend the world and events around themselves. A weaker character will follow the story. Think about any story you've ever read and consider who drove the plot and who followed. Take Wheel of Time for example. At the beginning, Rand is weak and inexperience and he can merely follow the plot as it drives forward, but as the story progresses and he gains both power and confidence he begins to shape the world until finally being in utter command of it at the end. Thus, if your characters can merely follow, it is because they lack mojo. To resolve this difficult, shake up you bottle of Badassifier and give them a hearty injection. To expand just a little bit more on the topic, the reason your characters feel powerless or listless is because they make no choices. Even a choice that is small in the grand scheme of your plot can make a huge difference. Take LOTR and Frodo. Frodo is weak and driven entirely by the plot, but he makes choices that have consequences (like choosing to leave the fellowship at the end of the first book/movie) and this gives him a semblance of "force" of control, of agency. This is often why character feel boring or cliche. For a character to truly live, they must make real choices. |
| This is personal, but I'm not a huge fan of multiple POV characters in a first person story (I'm not saying you can't do it, but it is more difficult as it lends itself to confusion). As for the other questions, it sounds to me as though you're a plotter who is trying to 'pants'. Writing without plotting first drafts works fine for some people (like me), but not everyone. Did you try writing out your plot in a notebook or on your computer so you don't get side-tracked every couple of chapters? |
| Hey everyone! I know I have this knack for disappearing, but I'm back (again) until August (again) feeling really bad because I seem to remember promising reviews to a bunch of really helpful peeps and never getting around to actually doing them. As I'm still on a writing hiatus as I'm attempting to actually plan out my story this time around, I'd like to offer you guys some reviews that I'll actually complete this time. So, please feel free to ask for a review via PM (not review request). Anyway, happy writing! |
| New Year's Resolution #1: Stop starting to read book series which have not yet reached completion. New Year's Resolution #2: Stop binge-reading. |
| So, I haven't been writing anything lately because I shoved my story on the back burner for the next few months (probably until May) waiting for details to work themselves out and for me to find how to write a good opening chapter for Rogues of Andellion v. 2.0. I'm thinking starting with a prologue of Bren's misfortunes and swearing of vengeance, and then opening up Chapter 1 five-or-so years later with Bren who basically says "yeah, so it didn't take very long for me to realize that vengeance isn't an easy feat to pull off. Life isn't a story." or something of the type. Anyway, so I haven't been writing, but I have been drawing... there's a better, full-body drawing of Rhedd (God, I need to introduce her in the story already) right here : http://erinarcherwriter.blogspot.ca/2017/01/rhedd.html I wanted to draw in the outer edge of a ship or a house or something, but I felt too lazy. I'll have to do it at some point. Currently working on another drawing of Bren, but it's a bit harder because I need to experiment with drawing men with wider shoulders. Also, I need to put him in a position which doesn't make him look stiff like the last drawing of him I did. Preferably a nice action position like Rhedd here. Maybe I'll actually draw in a background for him. |
| Hi all, Due to very good constructive criticism from many people, I have decided to make the chapters of Rogues of Andellion down for rewrites. I'm thinking that maybe if I end up writing something that's at least professional it'll probably be better for the plot and characters. Who knows, I might end up ditching Bren in favour for Rhedd, the female pirate in Chapters 6 and 7. Anyway, thanks to all people who helped. I'll finish up my reviews and probably disappear for a while. |
| I agree with grainnemhaol please don't stay away too long. You're a writer I can't wait to see published. Your work is that good! |
| Thanks all :) Being forced into re-writes by circumstances actually ended up yielding almost perfect ideas (for the story, which obviously won't be perfect) which manage to get rid of a bunch of plot holes and boring parts all while keeping the good parts. Of course, there are still kinks that need to be worked out of my budding idea, the main one being "what makes Bren the most qualified for the job" (which is not saving Twitch anymore. Rather it's about saving a man he hates from assassination--hm. I wonder whether I should make Bren spiteful enough to take the job so he can make sure the man dies...) In the same line of thought, I just love how complicated human beings can be. If I go according to my idea, there'll be a nice conflict between duty, honour, revenge, Bren's values, hate, and self-preservation... A nice unhealthy mix that is bound to be interesting to write... Bwahahahaha |
| Well, my computer is broken and keeps freezing for some reason... Bother. |
| WolvesDenning you guessed wrong, I'm Canadian (even though I do sometimes speak like a brit... don't know how that happened though) And Red_Lesia, I love having notebooks, too! I'm mainly using mine (appropriately called "plans for world domination") to plan RoA v.2, keeping the best of v.1 and re-planning the rest. It's quite fun. |
"Invalid Item"  is online, a nice, short chapter by my standards (6 pages 1.5 spacing on MS Word vs 10+ pages for the other chapters). I'm currently working on a past-tense novella on the side I might or might not include as interludes in my book; I'll see whether it's necessary or not once my first draft of the novel and of the novella are done (who knows, if I keep writing at this rate I might finish Rogues of Andellion by 2018... And finally be able to find a good title for the book. Who knows? I just wanted to mention that the continuity for "Invalid Item" is "Invalid Item" , after all. I initially said that Chapter 6 was to be an interlude chapter, but I decided against it. Anyway, I'm going to take a break from writing and focus more on reviewing. Hopefully Chapter 8 will still manage to come out before school starts. |
| So "Invalid Item" is online, the next chronological chapter after Chapter 5 (Chapter 6 is an interlude short story I am currently working on). As usual, the item awards 2250 GPs until I run out :) |
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