Writers' Study Chat and Feedback - Ask all your questions here!

[Gandalfus]

Well into my second chapter, screenshots this time too.

And I'll write up an AAR for that single post medieval II thread at some point, just debating on what mod I'm gonna do it on. With a new CRPG game likely starting this summer its nice to get back into creative writing again.

[Alwyn]

I look forward to seeing your second chapter and seeing how you'll use those excellent screenshots, Gandalfus.

It would be great to see more Single Post AARs in Medieval II, I wonder which mods you are considering using. Mad orc has begun a Single Post AARs for Non-Total War games, too, so I'll be interested to see what kind of one-post AARs people will write for non-TW games.

I noticed your poll for a new Community RPG, there are lots of good options!

[Alwyn]

Everyone is warmly invited to join us at the Writers' Study All-Seasons Fair, featuring games, music, dancing imps and a selection of the latest offerings of writers!

Writers' Study staff proudly present two new banners for our competitions which were designed by cedric37, you'll find them on the submissions/nominations threads for the MAARC LXXVI and the MCWC XVIII. While you are discovering the new banners, you are invited to enter your AARs and creative writing in the MAARC and MCWC. Entering competitions can be a good way to attract more readers (and writers who enter often comment on the other entries, so it can be a good way to get more comments, too).

Meanwhile, at the time of writing, there is just one hour left to vote in Tale of the Week 276 - thank you to everyone who voted already! (If you haven't voted, don't forget that you need to use two votes this time, because of the large number of entries).

[The Wandering Storyteller]

A question to you writers, is the POV-Omniscient debate damaging the basis of fantasy writing? What do you think? Is first person and omniscient that bad? And do you think that writing books will ever help a writer in improving their craft?

[Kilo11]

To take the questions one at a time...

I don't feel that any particular narrative style is by default better or worse. It really always depends on what you're going for, and what type of feel you want the writing to have. Personally, I don't ever even notice those broad narrative techniques/styles, cause I'm focused on the plot or characters or action as the story unfolds. I also find that it is sometimes cool to write a story in present tense (as opposed to the now rather standard practice of past tense) as it gives everything a bit more urgency and sense of "nowness". Then again, sometimes it is good for the story to feel like it already happened, and not like it is something that is happening now. Again, it's a question of whether this story needs or deserves this particular stylistic choice.

The final question I don't quite understand. Writing always improves writing, pure and simple. I work in academia which means I have to write more or less constantly, and I would very adamantly stress that writing is a skill and not a talent. If I don't write anything at all for a few months it is pretty obvious, simply because I have become weaker in that skill. To use a rather lame metaphor, you've got to "work out" your writing skills if you ever want to make them stronger. I think my general advice to anyone interested in doing writing would be to write a story and then read it out loud, and then improve the things that you don't like the sound of (I mean that literally, listen to the writing, and change what literally sounds wrong when spoken). Then do it again. Then do it again. Then...

At some point you will have something great, not because you worked at it and improved it bit by bit, but because you worked on your skills and improved them bit by bit.

Then again, I could be wrong...

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

First of all, a response to this request from Kilo11 on the Advertising Thread:

Also, if anyone would mind telling me how to make links look nicer, as in saying "Chapter 1 - Part I" rather than the long string for the address, I would love that!

You do that like this:
[url="http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?439012-Writers-Study-Chat-and-Feedback-Ask-all-your-questions-here!&p=15602733&viewfull=1#post15602733"]Kilo11's post just above this one[/url]

Which results in this:
Kilo11's post just above this one

Obviously, you can change the url and the words inside the tags to whatever you want. You can do this fairly easily by typing the tags, but there's also an even easier method - you can use the link button to do this. Type the text you want (in my case it was "Kilo11's post just above this one"), then copy the link you want, select your pre-typed text, click on the link button (the picture of a globe with chain links in front of it) and paste the link into the box that pops up.


In response to San Felipe's first question: I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you asking whether particular styles of writing are inherently better or worse? Or are you suggesting that there's an argument going on about which style to use, and that argument is damaging fantasy writing?

On your second question, I agree with Kilo11. As far as I know, the only way to get better at writing is to write. That isn't enough on it's own - you also have to pay attention to what's good in your writing and what needs improving, and you almost certainly need to read a lot and pay attention to how other authors do the things you want to do - but without writing, you're going to struggle to improve, I think. If you want to get better at running, you need to run. If you want to learn to play the violin, you have to put in lots of practice. Writing's the same.

[Alwyn]

Kilo11 and Caillagh make good points. As Kilo11 said, it's good to experiment with different styles. First person can be personal and engaging, for example Caillagh's A Long Way From Home uses a first-person narrator and this works well. Using first-person creates additional challenges, such as explaining how your first-person narrator knows about something which they didn't witness.

San Felipe asked whether writing books will help writers improve; I agree with Kilo11 and Caillagh. I heard a talk by an author who said that he needed to write an unpublished book, to learn how to write well enough to get a book published. Maybe, for some writers here who would like to be published authors in future, your AAR or your creative writing is your 'unpublished' book, or a step on the road to writing that book? As Caillagh said, to improve we need to pay attention to what works and we could be done better in our own writing and in other people's writing. Commenting on other AARs and Creative Writing can be a way to improve our own writing. Critic's Quill articles might help, too.

Meanwhile, thank you to mad orc, Basileos Leandros I, San Felipe and Kilo11 for entering the MCWC XVIII. We now have enough entries to run a competition. If anyone would like to enter, this is a 'final call' for any more entries before we start the poll.

Also, for people who use the image hosting site postimage.org (and whose images have disappeared), Maltacus has just posted a useful tip on his AAR An Orcs Tale, in this post.

[Edit to add]

Voting has begun in MCWC XVIII and Tale of the Week 278: Fencing, everyone is invited to vote!

[Kilo11]

So Caesar16 had all those cool maps in his AAR (check it out here), and I urged him to post it with the tag [resource] so that other AAR writers could find it easily. He now has, which will surely prove to be useful for everyone, but the entire exchange between him and I got me thinking about the value of adding a new forum in the Writer's Study dedicated to resources for writers, in the same way that there are tutorial/resource fora for the modders working here on TWC. So, I put it to the community: would it be worthwhile/feasible(easy) to add a forum specifically for writers to put up resources, in the form of maps, templates, maybe useful historical overviews for the more historically informed AARs, and maybe even just general resources about writing? Any thoughts?

[Hitai de Bodemloze]

So Caesar16 had all those cool maps in his AAR (check it out here), and I urged him to post it with the tag [resource] so that other AAR writers could find it easily. He now has, which will surely prove to be useful for everyone, but the entire exchange between him and I got me thinking about the value of adding a new forum in the Writer's Study dedicated to resources for writers, in the same way that there are tutorial/resource fora for the modders working here on TWC. So, I put it to the community: would it be worthwhile/feasible(easy) to add a forum specifically for writers to put up resources, in the form of maps, templates, maybe useful historical overviews for the more historically informed AARs, and maybe even just general resources about writing? Any thoughts?

I don't speak on behalf of staff, but the admin and tech guys usually don't like to add new subforums unless they're needed. Although it would be a cool to have such a dedicated subforum, between the Lounge, the Scriptorium, University and the Critic's Quill, I think we have plenty of bases covered for hosting any writing resources and tutorials. Radzeer once upon a time had a thread for this kind of stuff, although it ended up mainly just being Quill articles. Having a similar master index thread might be an easier solution to collect these resources together, since they can be kind of scattered about.

That being said, we do have the Vergil's Challenge subforum sitting around not doing anything. Folks have tried to repurpose that over the years (last time was for a collaborative writing subforum, back when that was in vogue), but nothing ever happened with it. But that could be renamed and repurposed for something, although you'd have to take it up with Alwyn and the gang.

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

I'll make sure Alwyn and the rest of my fellow WS staff have all seen your suggestion, Kilo11. Thank you for making it.

Until Alwyn has made an official decision, though, let me encourage everyone to carry on posting useful resources in the Lounge. At the moment, this forum is exactly the right place to do that!

[Zeus Almighty]

So I am attempting to return after a bit of an absence! I just started reading some work, commented on a few, but don’t really know where to start. I am deciding if I want to start something new, revisit shadows and dust, or Smith and Keeper. Anyone have any particular suggestions?

[Alwyn]

Thanks for the suggestion, Kilo11. The Writers' Lounge is the place for writers to ask and answer questions about writing ('writing' in the broad sense, including for example posting a screenshot or creating a map for an AAR). A resource is a way of answering questions about writing. My view is that, as Caillagh said, the Writers' Lounge is the right place for resources about writing. At the moment, I don't believe that there's a need for a new sub-forum for writing resources, because we already have one - the Writers' Lounge itself.

Welcome back, Zeus Almighty! I enjoyed your previous tales and look forward to anything that you write, whether it's a revival or a new tale. I wonder which option you would enjoy more.

Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who has voted in the MCWC XVIII. If you haven't voted, everyone is invited to vote for your two favourite stories.

Everyone who has an AAR which qualifies is invited to enter the MAARC LXXVI. (If you don't know whether your AAR is eligible, the eligibility rules are on the submissions thread.)

Thanks to all who voted in Tale of the Week 278: Fencing - at the time of posting this, there is still a bit of time left to vote for anyone who hasn't voted yet. I'm looking forward to seeing how writers will add a twist to the old idea of a story about a magic sword in Tale of the Week 279.

[Kilo11]

Hey Alwyn,

I noticed that on your page MadOrc asked you the following question:

Hey man, i wish to use screenshots from some other person's AAR's .The problem is that, even after repeated PM's requesting permission to do so, this person refuses to answer at all !

What can i do ?
Since what everyone here posts is technically internet freeware, can i use them right away(I would give the proper quotations of the author) .

I was wondering if you'd be able to share that answer here, as it is something that might be relevant for more people.

[theSilentKiller]

If someone doesn't explicitly say that you can use his/her screenshots from an AAR, you shouldn't use them. If they don't answer -well- they haven't given you permission. The ToS aren't entirely clear in this regard but simply saying that it is "internet freeware" is not correct.

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

Just to be clear about this, until Alwyn has made an official post about this question, the correct approach is the one set out by theSilentKiller, but there will be an official post clarifying the exact position in due course.

[Zeus Almighty]

I am considering doing some origin kind of work in order to sort Shadows and Dust— well, rather mold it. Make sure I have it’s histories in order and flesh out some of my characters. Thoughts from anyone who’s read? Or a character you’d be more interested in as far as history?

[Kilo11]

I am considering doing some origin kind of work in order to sort Shadows and Dust— well, rather mold it. Make sure I have it’s histories in order and flesh out some of my characters. Thoughts from anyone who’s read? Or a character you’d be more interested in as far as history?

I'd be happy to give some thoughts, but am not sure what exactly you're talking about. Any links to the material so that I could have a look?

[Zeus Almighty]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14732298

Hello Kilo,

Its called Shadows and Dust, it’s a project I started on a long time ago. Because of one interruption or another I continue to let the ball drop on it. I feel the most connected to its components however and I always go back to it when I want to write again.

I want to start writing again but I don’t know if I should renew myself with something fresh or continue on with my beloved. Doing some prelude work could provide a little bit of both I suppose. Any feedback/insight is always appreciated of course.

[Kilo11]

Hmm. Four chapters so far, but they don't appear to be too terribly long. Tomorrow I was gonna take care of some work, so naturally I will instead take that time to read through what you've got and drop a line of feedback for you. Anything to keep me from my own duties! Until then, you take it easy!

[Zeus Almighty]

You too Kilo, I have some extra time today and I see you’ve some things posted so I’ll do some homework myself