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Messages - WonderandAwe

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16
Author Craft / Re: Any comic/graphic novel writers?
« on: May 01, 2007, 04:36:38 PM »
You might have to pay someone for drawing something like that.  :(   I know I would have issues if some artist was like "I need you to write out dialogue for my comic."  "Oh no,  that's not right.  The main character is very angry at them.  Oh but he doesn't curse.  Ever.  And I want you to put in something about..."  I can do it, but it would get tiring after a while. 

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Author Craft / Re: Any comic/graphic novel writers?
« on: May 01, 2007, 03:14:04 PM »
I always found the best way to deal with artists is to give them a great deal of creative control over what the comic looks like.  Give them a plot line, dialogue, and a basic character description and let them have control over the rest.  If it looks well done, then tell them good job and try to get it published.  Only nitpick when it something that has to do with the plot.  (Well, So and So always wears gloves because it is a symbol of his emotional distance from society). 

Artists, like writers, are very creative people.  They probably have projects on the back burner that they would rather do then be a slave to your creative vision.  If you let them have great creative control over the part of the comic they are responsible for creating then they will be more likely to stick around. 

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Author Craft / Re: Is your character a Mary Sue?
« on: April 30, 2007, 07:49:52 PM »
My basic definition of a Mary Sue is a character that is basically worshiped by the other characters with little or no reason (except for maybe the random bad guy but no one likes him/her anyways). 

Mary Sue can do no wrong.  She has a lesson to teach everyone.  She understands everything because she has "been there" due to her "Tragic Past."

It's fun to be Mary Sue.  I'm sure everyone has a Mary Sue in the back of thier minds at one point in thier writing life.  Most Mary Sues never make it to paper, or if they do, they are chopped down and turned into a more realistic character (hopefully). 

Of course there are the opposite of Mary Sue (which I am guilty of creating).  Let's call him Bobby Sue.  They are the characters that are perfect but for some reason everyone hates them.  There really isn't a cause for that hate, except for some superficial quality.   

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Author Craft / Re: How powerful should a protagionist be?
« on: February 07, 2007, 04:42:31 PM »
You also much consider the situation that your protagionist is in.  Let's use Harry Dresden for an example.  In a magical battle (where he has had time to prepare), Harry is pretty hard to beat.  In the last battle of Summer Knight, he was able to take out one of the major Fae powers because he had time to plan.  However, in other areas, Harry is basically screwed.  The scene in Death Masks, where Harry has to defend his actions at Bianca's mansion to the White Council, he royally screwed that up.  Tactful Harry Dresden is not.  If it wasn't for Mab, he would have been boxed up and served to the Red Court.  Harry's strengths, outthinking and taking down bad guys, don't really work when the good guys are gunning for you.


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Author Craft / Re: Dialogue - Observations and Thoughts...
« on: February 02, 2007, 02:41:20 PM »
I see that issue with conveying information a lot in published books.  A lot of really decent authors do this too.  One such example would be Jean Auel's Earth's Children Series.  A good 60% of Ayla's dialogue is her explaining something. 

Some other tips (didn't add them yesterday because it was quiting time)

1.  Ride Public Transportation/Hang out in Public Places.  Since the invention of the cell phone, people all over the place are having private conversations in public.  I eavesdrop on them and get great ideas for dialogue.  For example, one girl was explaining something that happened with her roommates to her mother.  She was speaking very calmly and rationally, trying to convince her mother that nothing was wrong and that sort of thing was perfectly normal.  The only issue here is that you only hear one side of the conversation.

2. LARP.  If you can't afford acting classes, do some Live Action Roleplaying.  In someways this is better because then you have to improv some dialogue on the spot. 

One thing I always try to do is make my dialogue stand out from the prose.  It isn't you that is talking in the dialogue, it's your character.  Also make sure your characters sound different from each other.  Don't rely too much on accent to do this either.  One of the tricks I use is figuring out how a character reacts to a particular situation.  A freak out character's dialogue is much different than one that is calm and rational. 

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Author Craft / Dialogue - Observations and Thoughts...
« on: February 01, 2007, 09:50:56 PM »
I've been thinking a lot about dialogue lately.  Mostly about what separates good realistic dialogue from poorly written passages of dialogue.  Forgive my brainstorming here.  I sort of want to start a general discussion on the way dialogue is used in real life and in written form.  A lot of these ideas will be skeletal in nature.  Some of them will be more fleshed out. 

I guess the basic way to break down dialogue is in two groups:  Informational and Persuasive. 

1.  Informational Dialogue:  This dialogue conveys facts and observations.  The person speaking wants to make sure thier target audience understands what they are trying to convey. 

2.  Persuasive Dialogue:  This dialogue is meant to encourage the target audience to agree with the speaker.  I'm not sure if a command should fall under this catagory or be its own.

Another way to break down dialogue is into target audiences (for lack of better word).  Three ways to do this: Speaking to an authority figure, Speaking with an equal, and Speaking with someone you have authority over.  Languages other than English have this built into them.  For example, the Spanish words for "You".

1.  Speaking to an Authority Figure:  From what I observed, when you speak to authority figures, you do so in a very formal tone.  Most people would be more likely to take time to think before they speak.  They are also less likely to curse, lose their temper or openly bad mouth others.  Of course there are exceptions to this.

2.  Speaking to an Equal:  Freinds and co-workers fall under this catagory.  I mostly hear very informal speech when people talk among themselves.  Slang is more common.

3. Speaking to someone under you:  I find that this is somewhat similar to speaking to an authority figure.  However, there are usually more commanding in thier tone.

Education and Slang:  Why did I put these two under the same topic?  I feel that both have much to do with vocabulary and Grammer and less to do with tone.  An highly educated person will have a larger vocabulary and better grammer than someone that barely finished grade school.  Also keep in mind that just because a person KNOWS a word doesn't mean that it will be used in thier everyday speech.  A person will probably be more likely to use the word punishment instead of retribution in spoken language.  I also think the gap between what a person says and what a person writes widens with education, but that is just a pet theory of mine.

Slang is interesting as you can make up all kinds of neat phrases in a fantasy setting.  Don't get too carried away though.  :)


Making better Dialogue:  I found that I write better dialogue when I actually interact with people face to face.  For a while I got sucked into World of Warcraft.  I tried to write something after that and discovered I lost the knack I had for making believable Dialogue.  While you have hours to look at a line and re edit it, your character came up with it during a course of conversation.  Not to say you should edit your dialogue to make it sound right, but just keep that in mind. 

Feel free to add, argue, and discuss. 

22
Author Craft / Re: Ending a chapter
« on: January 31, 2007, 03:18:19 PM »
I usually end the chapter when the a group of connected scenes are over.  For example, Chapter 1 in my novel involves a zombie hunting, killing, and eating his prey.  It ends when he decided to return home.  The next chapter involving that character (A few chapters later.  I am writing my novel in third person limited.  Each chapter is written from one character's point of view), he is back to caves he hides out in and what he finds what he gets there.  This chapter ends when he returns what he find to the place where it belongs. 

I also break chapters when if there is a change of tone.  Chapter 2 is written from the point of view of an apprintence necromancer.  He doesn't really care for what he is doing or how other people react to him due to his profession.  Chapter 3 is still written from the same character's point of veiw, but it shows him raising the dead.  He has to put all of his doubts out of his mind if he is to do this properly.  It also has him bring up some questions about the nature of necromancy. 

You just have to look for a good breaking place.  I hate leaving readers hanging on story too often.  When that happens in a book I read, I usually just skip ahead to see what happens.  Though I too have been known to end a chapter with a character being knock unconcious, but usually the next chapter is the same scene from different point of view. 

23
Author Craft / Re: How likeable does a main character have to be.
« on: January 25, 2007, 03:39:50 PM »
Your reader has to be at least sympathetic to the main character.  You might hate what they do, but you should at least understand where they are coming from. 

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Author Craft / Re: Unrealism In Books
« on: January 25, 2007, 03:34:14 PM »
It really depends on the medium.  For example in anime and video games, I am pretty forgiving if it looks cool.  In those mediums, plot usually takes second place when compared to the look and feel.  For a live action movie or a novel, that sword should be reasonable length for the creature holding it. 

The Half issue.  I am sort of bias agaisnt such stories.  Hypocritical of me considering that most of my early fan fic work was Half-*blank*.  I think it is because there are so many of them and most of them go into either sugarly anime mode or cardboard cut out mode. 

There are good stories out there.  Barb and JC Hendee's Noble Dead series is damn good.  And that has a Half Vampire AND a Half-Elf for main characters.  I put off reading it because I though the concept was kind of hokey. 

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Author Craft / Re: Unintentional Plagiarism
« on: January 25, 2007, 03:22:26 PM »
Of course you get a bit of leyway for influencial works such as Lord of the Rings, Asimov, the Bible, Hemingway, etc.  At that point, you are treading in that happy place called Allusions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allusions

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Author Craft / Re: Unintentional Plagiarism
« on: January 24, 2007, 09:41:44 PM »
When I do a homage to another's work, I usually make it something not related to the main plot or characters.  Just enough to give the readers a "Oh, Neat!"  For example, say your characters stop in at a local bar.  A few of the background people could be based on the hobbits in Lord of the Rings.  Some small for the readers that pay attention. :)

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Author Craft / Published on the Web?
« on: January 18, 2007, 07:23:06 PM »
I post a lot of my poetry on my live journal.  I would like to get it published some day but I have read that since I posted it on the web it is considered published.  Is this true, even though it is on live journal?  If so, can I "retract" (read delete it) from the site?

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Author Craft / Re: "First Chapters" writing contest
« on: January 16, 2007, 07:54:52 PM »
Thanks for the link!  I read though a bit of the blog.  However, http://agentobscura.livejournal.com/ link at the bottom caught my eye.  It's a great blog! :)

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Author Craft / Re: Magic use in contemporary fantasy
« on: January 10, 2007, 05:35:10 PM »
I always pictured it like a video game with three energy bars.  The first one refills immediately upon the spell being cast or when the spell is no longer being sustained.  The next refills slowly until you sit down and catch your breath, refilling completely within 10 minutes to an hour or so.  The last refills very slowly and doesn't refill at all while energy is being channeled.

I had to stop and stare at the screen at reading that because of how much sense it makes.

I don't know.  I've never liked books where whenever anyone casts a spell you can almost hear the dice rolling, and that model feels unfortunately close to such.

Same.  Game models were designed to make the "real world" idea of magic easier to convert to numbers and balance out with other forms of combat.  Limitations that are used in games to balance out people's characters (mostly to prevent power gamers from abusing thier characters power) don't make sense half the time in the "real world." 

I always found stories that take game models and try to convert them back into the "real world" model to be quite dry.  I don't really want a blow by blow account of HOW and WHY the character won.  Just give me a pretty description of the fight. 

The best example I can come up with the Fade/Adrick fight at the end of CF.  It wasn't all "Adrick back stepped after Fade parried his blow. Fade renewed his attack and Adrick barely dodged the next attack. "  It was a general description of the tone of the fight.  How Fade's attacks were very fluid next to Adrick.  How Adrick was basically freaking out by the fact that Fade was there. 

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Author Craft / Re: Magic use in contemporary fantasy
« on: January 09, 2007, 12:04:44 AM »
In the world I am currently working on, magic is not really taxing, but rather limited.  You won't find wizards throwing fireballs here.  Rather magic is based on human life energies and influencing such energies.  Another limitation is that you can only influence human energies.  Animal energies are very difficult to alter; difficulty increase as you move further away from humans.  Mammals are comparatively easier to work with than say reptiles.  Plants and micro-organisms are impossible to work with. 

Most people can at least sense the energy.  It is the feeling that you get when you are being watching.  More preceptive individuals can sense changes in this energy (empaths).  Those who are strongly gifted basically have a second sight.  They see the real world and life energy as a overlay.  This is useful for seeing internal injuring or diagnosing diseases.  Cancer, for example, is seen as a blinding light. 

The ability to influence such energies, however is more rare.  It really isn't all that taxing, but it takes discipline. 

Healing is the most common use of this energy.  You can't really cure disease; you can only help boost an individual's energies and repair the damage caused by the disease.  Broken bones, cuts, etc are easy to heal as long as you clean them out first. 

You can also alter people's perceptions.  Limited use of this is you can make people more or less favorable to your suggestions.  A greater use would be to draw attention away from yourself or confuse your appearance. 

And of course there is necromancy.  How one raises the dead is that you take the residual life energy left in the body and add part of your own to it.  Thus you have a walking animated puppet.  Most healers are given a basic lesson in raising the dead (to raise murder victims mostly for trials).  However there are those that learn enough about necromancy to raise armies. 

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