McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

A new (at least to me) type of writers block

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KevinEvans:
Gack!

I have a short story almost finished, and I have had a lot of fun writing it - Except, now the plot demands the bloody dismemberment of over 200 of the players. (it is a Napoleonic war era sea battle, the hero has to kill the whole crew of a galley before the board and swamp the crew of his sloop)

Gack! Pthoo! Ick!!
I never have run in to such a distasteful mental sludge before. The meme requires a very up close detail description too.

I can and will do it but, it is like diveing into a pool of ice-water.

Later,
Kevin

blgarver:
Large battle scenes are a blunder for me as well.  I have one such scene in the novel I just finished over the weekend, in which the whole of the town's populace is possessed by the main baddie and ordered to attack two of the heroes.  I limped my way through that scene and was only mildly satisfied. 

I've got nothing in the way of advice for you, as I'm at a loss about my own writing, but I do feel your pain.  Good luck with it.

warbossgrat:
Sounds interesting.  Possiblity of multiple weapon usage, powder keg, the classic people knocked off the rail maybe with a twist, funnel the poor victims so that sheer numbers won't be a problem.  Take groups separtely, break the chain of command if possible, the Hero has his work cut out for him especially if he is alone.   Sorry for the lack of depth with these just throwing out possible options.

WBG

Starbeam:
It might possibly be a problem because it means looking into a part of yourself that most people prefer not to acknowledge.  Just a guess, anyway.  Could possibly also be an unconscious acknowledgment that there are readers who think that if you write it, you're capable of doing it.  Kinda difficult to give any advice without knowing what the exact problem with the block is, if it's with the actual writing, or with how to go about getting the battle done, or something else.

KevinEvans:
(Sigh),

It's not that I can't write it, I was 14 years in the military, with four of them up close and personal in an SF unit.  Beyond that I spent 36 years to date in the SCA or my favorite absolute activity is to be chest deep in thousands of opponents.  (And watching them run)

Now I think it's more like Starbeam states, there is a place inside of me that is just a little bit grim.  Added to that, it's kind hard to destroy a lot of your world building, even if you are just pushing a lot walk ons into the pike.

Lastly the genre is one of my favorites, Jack Albury, Richard Bothiello, Horatio Hornblower, Honor Harrington, Long John Silver, and even Captain Jack Sparrow have all been literary heroes of mine.  And here I have a short story with a four gun Sloop squaring off against two galleys with 250 or more Barbary pirates each.  In the period the favorite weapon of the Pirates was the fire pot, that is a ceramic pot filled with burning pitch mixed with a little bit of sulfur that they would whirl over their heads and toss onto the opposing ship.  The battle is already plotted out, one galley finds out that keeping the powder magazine next to the canons is a really bad idea, and the other galley has its T crossed and finds out what's 64 pounds of shattered granite does when it goes from stem to stern of their little rowboat.

It's just that I've got a little more peaceful than the days that I used to shop radios out to massed artillery batteries.  (Grin)

Thanks for the encouragement everyone,
Kevin

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