Sorry for the delay · 8:26am Jul 9th, 2014
I am so close to finishing this damn tournament arc, but hit a speed bump when JBL pointed out something unforgiveably stupid in the last scene that pretty much would ruin the entire story. So I had to delete the final quarter of the chapter in order to rewrite it. The good news is I also have the next two chapters partially written as well, so I haven't been entirely unproductive.
I also have my own issues to get through and may need to take a break in the near future to re-read my own damn story so I can get a proper feel for it again. You know its bad when you are unsure about what your character is thinking at a certain point in time, and I should probably rectify that before plowing on. And to think, there I was bitching to myself, worried that this story would progress too fast along the timeline and here we are trapped over the course of a week in the story for nearly 50k words.
Shows that I need to shut the fuck up and get a move on.
So anyway, no, the story isn't on hiatus or otherwise abandoned, just the author be herpin' and derpin'. God, what I wouldn't give for a clear head. I will, however, be brutally honest with you guys, there have been points when I seriously did consider just stopping altogether with the story, honestly couldn't give you a reason why though. I mean, I love writing it, but its fucking exhausting.
Meh, I'll work something out, see you guys this weekend.
Wake up at 4 in the morning, and just start writing. Always helps.
2268801 4am is usually when I fall a sleep
I could never write on the scale that you do, but in my personal opinion you're doing great. Hell, I just open up a chapter and start writing randomly. Rarely ever do I successfully incorporate consequences into my story, which is what i'm trying to work on.
Keep up the great writing man!
2268833 I actually envy that about you, its how I used to write Bad Mondays, just opening up a chapter and letting the story happen, but it builds up.
Chekov's gun is an awesome writing tool, and I reccommend you study up on its use. Having consequences built into the story is an excellent way to make the world feel more alive, but speaking from experience, the hardest thing about it is knowing when not to use it and to overlook certain things.
2268856 Hm really? The funny thing is I've never heard of Cheknov's gun before. I literally just heard of Mary Sue's around a week ago. I guess the thing that really bugs me about my story is the fact it seems i don't put enough detail into them, or I don't write enough. A quick question though, is it better to write long chapters for a period of a week or two, or write several short chapters (four or six) over a week's time?
I've also been working on my character development, which is one of the main reasons I started mine. Your story is a big inspiration to mine, (it seems kinda obvious if you look hard enough at mine) and I try to write my main character as irrational as possible. He's basically just some dickhead who blames the world for all his problems and never realized how good he actually had it back home. It's sorta based off my brother, who always had options but never utilized them. I'm trying to make him to the point where no one feels bad about what happens to him, because there really isn't an excuse for the things he does and will do in the story.
Basically, all the bad sides of negative human emotion. Back on topic, the tool really does seem like it could help me out. Thanks for the advice.
2268964 To your question of which is better, I can only answer that it depends on the kind of story you want to write, but I do advise picking one method of updating and sticking with it for a particular story. Whichever you feel comfortable with.
Also, my personal advice for your story: if you are intentionally creating a dickish character who is routinely punished for what he does in the character, you need to be careful how you write it. Otherwise it'll just come off as misanthropic schlock to alot of readers. I advise making it evident in the narration that the audience is not supposed to feel sympathy for the character and, indeed, enjoy his suffering. To do this, I advise you make it as comedic as possible, a good example of this in show format is the Dan vrs series of cartoons, which is the exact setup of unsympathetic, dickish character who suffers alot, I'd advise watching that and pay attention to how the character is written and presented. Sure it takes some of the fun out of enjoying the show when you are making yourself sit down and pay attention to the technical aspect but its worth it.
I advise this because we have ALL seen the irrational, unlikeable human-in-equestria before in practically every aspect he could be presented in and almost all of them suck. If you go down this road, you may want to pay attention to why people don't generally like this particular HiE archtype. Characterising him is great, but it depends on what you are characterising him as, because if you write him as a dick we are not supposed to feel sympathetic for, don't give us a sympathetic backstory unless you want to inject drama into your comedy and all the consequences thereof.
2269042 I was planning to have him be an unlikable psychopath, not a dick. A complete heartless person who only looks out for himself. Not just a dick, a SUPER DICK. c:
Which, if you had the mindset of this person, then you would probably do some of the irrational things that he does. I mean, you have to admit anyone would be fucking pissed if someone left them for dead after saving their life. I know i would. I mean, I don't want him to be "whah whah my life iz turrible so this justifies the things i do whah whah" I want him to be angry, not teary. When ever something sad happens, he doesn't get depressed. He gets fucking pissed. He's not supposed to be felt bad for, but instead be related to. I agree with nearly everything you said, especially the fact that nearly every HiE fic has a person who has a dramatic back story and have nothing to live for but then they go to equestria, etc. rinse wash repeat.
I want him to be the bad side of humanity, the idol of selfishness, anger, fear, and hate. For the comedy part, I don't believe my story could count as comedy. I'm not exactly confident in my comedy skills, mainly because of the gore in the story. I make slight attempts here and there, but nothing deserving the tag.
2269073 Whats so bad about selfishness, anger, fear, and hate?
I feel them all the time, and its not that bad, except the fear from IRS. That sucks.
You shuld check out Humanity Fu*k yea! Reddit for ideas on how equestrians might see people. Its moistly about humans being superior to aliens. Avoid most of the longer series tho, they tend to be bad.
They take something usual that humans have, and taught the lack of it on alien side, make humans awesome.
Expect stuff like Lords of war. Gotta filter taught bad ones, but the ideas are good, if you are ever lacking.
Don't worry, you're doing a good job.
Now, if you excuse me, I'll go back to cry in a corner.
2269199 It's not necessarily bad per say, but for some people it's impossible to control. Like me, I blow up at the worst of moments, as i try to hold in my anger until I really need it. It's not a bad emotion, in fact arguably its more useful than love. Anger can be used for several different things, like making you more determined, neglecting pain, and increasing your strength.
As for selfishness and hate, hate is more useless. It can help you though, but most of the time it doesn't. As for selfishness, that's just looking out for yourself more often than looking out for others.
Fear on the other hand is... more neutral. It's made for flight, but not for fighting. For instance, take the 50's. People were afraid that the whole world was going to end because of nuclear fire. Arguably though, it kept the peace for fear of Mutually Assured Destruction. Those emotions are just commonly associated with bad things. Not to say love, comfort, and pleasure can't be associated with bad things, because most of the time they are. But you get the gist of it.
2269352 Hate is used for long term planing, and storage of anger. Helps with long term motivation way more than anger.
Fear is pretty great, too, tells you when to back off, and control others. Also prevents you from doing dumb shit. People always forget that fear is only reason why they have not jumped off cliffs, or drowned, or challenged a bear to a fist fight. Its really great in small doses, unlike anger, which is useless in small doses, and you need a lot of it for it to kick in. Fear in medium to large doses suck tho.
As a wise guy once said-
Fear is easy to exploit. As long as you are not feared (end exploited) into having morals by others, you can use other people's fear to a great effect. That's why governments have monopoly on violence. Fear of it works wonders.
2269510 Eh, I can see that. But hate can often lead to dumb decisions too, and more often than not it does. Same with anger. They both have their negatives and positives. Lets just leave it at that.