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Thread: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

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    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default The Other End of the Quill Commentary


    The Other End of the Quill Commentary

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    Tigellinus's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    T Hat was a good blog post!

    It startled me that I can relate to that, I have quite a few ideas, all of which I originally think are great and want to do, and then I burn out after a few days and it never gets completed.

    I also realised that I may not be cut out for writing novels, I lose interest, I make promises that a little bit of me knows I will not be able to keep.

    All in all, that was a very insightful blog post, f0ma. Thank you.

    Thanks

    Tigellinus




    Proudly under the patronage of McScottish

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    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Thank you for taking the time to read and comment Alas we seem to suffer from the same curse. Let us not give up though my friend

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    Tigellinus's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    You're very welcome!

    Alas, we do indeed.

    Yet, writing is a passion I'm not going to give up!


    Thanks

    Tigellinus




    Proudly under the patronage of McScottish

  5. #5

    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    I feel I too can somewhat relate to some of the stuff you were saying though for me, novels and serials I feel are much more my forte. I have lost many hours planning out future instalments to my AAR, introducing new characters and I even kinda know how I'm going to end it. Either way, that was a very good blog post and was very thought provoking and insightful.

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    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Don't get me wrong, I love planning. I just love it too much. I have a huge Road to Kyoto family tree pinned up on my wall and I know exactly what's going to happen in future arcs. Yet that kinda spoils the fun for me. I don't know, I'm still thinking about what to do. Road to Kyoto is still a viable option, although I would definitely change the writing style if I continued it. I have a lot of other ideas as well for other AAR's, stories and projects. I'm going to take some time to think about my options. Starting a large project/serial is a large endeavor, which is something I didn't really grasp at first. I need to kind of find out what's manageable for me at the moment.

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    Axis Sunsoar's Avatar Domesticus
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Boom! You've found someone else who can relate to your first blog post! (me) I always like to plan out where my stories are going to go, and then when I settle down to write I realize that I have absolutely no motivation to develop plot. Instead, my story seems to be taking far too long to reach my intended point, and so I rush through, writing a bare-bones bit of literature to get my story where I want it, which leads to threadbare, unbelievable and poor dialogue, and weak plotlines. Often I think of myself skipping to the action of the story, which means that while I can often develop a story, I never develop the whole story. Take, for example, a story I wrote three years ago, which stretched to what I thought was a fairly impressive 32 pages. Later, I went back through and realized the entire plot was a series of battles with almost nothing linking them, and many characters inexplicably ending up halfway across the world from where they had been. In addition, my entire backstory for the narrative was summed up by about a paragraph of italicized text, which was spoken by a tribe "storyteller."

    This led to one of the listening children asking something along the lines of "did all that really happen?" and the elder storyteller responding with "Yes, I was asked you to tell you this tale because the mages in our magnificent capitol of have sensed that evil is returning, you are to begin training immediately."

    In response to the second blog post, I often find that it is much easier to distinguish who is performing what action in the first person, when you are referring to an "I" and a "he" instead of a "he" and a "he"

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    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    I can fully sympathize. It was only when I started work on my novel a year or two ago now that I actually finally got to grips with pacing. A lot of my previous work had the same rushed quality you described and it was only when I sat down and said 'each chapter has to be 8,000 words long' that I managed to produce something fully fleshed out. That doesn't tackle the issue of motivation though, so it's been gathering dust for a long time since.

    I don't actually struggle with the dynamics of pronouns. A lot of practice in third person writing has allowed me to work around those kind of situations. You can get really creative with your substitutes and it's very beneficial in furthering yourself as a writer. Writing in first person induces a severe lack of objectivity in terms of narration, which is something I'm ill-practiced in. Whilst I can describe a character's thought processes, describing how they perceive the actual world around them is difficult, since you're forced into an almost cumbersome subjective stance.

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    Tigellinus's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    f0ma! I always like reading your blog posts!

    First and foremost; I would actually be really interested in reading the post of how you approach protagonists! I believe that would be a very informative and helpful post!

    Secondly; are you studying to be a translator? Or are you studying to do something with Ancient Chinese, Japanese and the like history? Or both? Just curious!

    Thanks

    Tigellinus




    Proudly under the patronage of McScottish

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    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Hey Tig, thanks for reading!

    In regards to protagonists I was planning a kind of introspective thing on how my protagonists from different stories reflect different aspects of myself; generally just exploring that, because I'm not too sure myself! Not really a 'how to write protagonists', but I guess it all segues together.

    I study Mandarin Chinese at university Mainly language, but I do a lot of academic work too. I primarily focus on medieval Chinese poetry to that end. Not too interested in translation; my heart's kind of set on becoming a historian (potentially a historian of literature, if I get my way). I have some free credits to spare this coming year though, so I thought I'd study some Japanese on the side, 'cause why not?

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    Tigellinus's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Ha, very good!

    Chinese Literature sounds interesting indeed, and nobody can deny that their history is . . . astonishingly awesome.

    Their language, however, I look at it and dread ever having t learn it

    Never been too fond of learning languages.

    Thanks

    Tigellinus




    Proudly under the patronage of McScottish

  12. #12
    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    I've been in love with the history for years, whole reason I'm doing the degree

    I used to be the same way. Hated French and Spanish in school and was never too good at them. Chinese I don't find too bad though. I'm more motivated about it, so it's a lot easier to learn in some regards.

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    Tigellinus's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Very good!

    True, being motivated about something does help a lot more than most people realise

    I hope to see another blog post from you soon!

    Thanks

    Tigellinus




    Proudly under the patronage of McScottish

  14. #14

    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    I know how you feel about writing and planning new AARs and for me it was worse when I couldn't write my own AAR. I would often spend a lot my time when walking (I do quite a bit of walking) thinking about new AARs and I would even plan quite a far way into it. I guess sometimes you just have it stick with one. What I do is write short stories when I can't write my bigger AAR because I find I focus a lot of my creative juices on short stories instead of new AARS which are never going to happen.

    Good to see you've started back on thunder. Don't worry about character development considering you're only one chapter through. I find if I get too much information at one time about a character it's like too much information and I find it's better to drip feed information. Also character depth means intricate back stories and it's better to explore those back stories later on thing in the first chapter especially such an exciting first chapter. Also good to see you are liking writing Spring Morning because I'm loving reading it

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    McScottish's Avatar The Scribbling Scotsman
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Must say that I can empathise with you're motivation and so forth, as you probably could tell. Just keep going, good sir, just keep going...I have faith in you!

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    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Thanks for the support guys!

    I know what you mean. I always wanted to stick to one AAR, but various problems got in the way of that; from technical difficulties, to lack of inspiration, to just a general unhappiness with the work as a whole. Thunder therefore definitely wasn't a project I undertook lightly; the inspiration dated way back to when I penned Scions, which was intended to be the start of a Mongol AAR. The essence of the princess' character in that kind of made it into Spring Morning (they're all ultimately based on the same person in particular in one way or another anyway), but the idea for that kind of AAR didn't really die; it just took time to think up a new angle on it and find the time and courage to begin writing it. But I think just being able to tackle China as opposed to Japan gave/gives me so much more motivation to write; it actually took me a long time to realize that was something I could attempt. When I did I couldn't put my quill down! That's not to say I don't write about China in other stories, but being able to do it in a vanilla Total War game blew my mind to a certain degree. I guess I really enjoy writing things that go against the grain as it where; things we don't see here very often. That's the main reason I chose to write a RotS AAR in the first place and a big reason I chose to write an original Shogun AAR too.

    It's strange as well in a way, since many of the AARs I plan are all non-TW games that I've invested so many hours in; I know one of which I've definitely logged over double the 200 hours I've played of Shogun 2. The inspiration to write those AARs is always there, yet they just never really happen, even if I play the games all the time and never play Total War games anymore. Who knows though, maybe they'll appear one day!

  17. #17

    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Good to see another blog update,

    The stuff about chapter length interests me especially as I am having to contemplate whether I want more short chapters or less long chapters. I have found myself going down the longer chapter route with the last couple of chapters being like 5,000 words or so. I don't know if readers like this or not so id be glad for your opinion.

    Im in the same kinda position with my computer. I'm slightly ashamed to admit I run shogun 2 on my rather old mac and that's also why I tend to add less pictures because the graphics quality doesn't really do much for me. It runs really slowly as well and I hold out hope that I might one day be able to afford a gaming computer. Thats why I was thinking of doing a CK2 AAR as it runs much better and can run on Mac.

    As I have said quite a few times before i really hope you can continue Thunder as it looks to become a great story.

    Anyway, best wishes,

    Merchant of Venice
    Last edited by Merchant of Venice; August 15, 2014 at 04:26 AM.

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    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Thanks for commenting!

    Hmm, I prefer to read shorter updates - but then again I don't get much quality reading time. I still think 1,000 is a nice guideline. My problem was I went with it too rigidly and it kind of spoilt things. Keep it fluid and natural I say

    Yeah, I'm coming around to the minimalist screenshot approach myself - if only out of necessity. The style is growing on me though. Gaming rig wise, I used to have one, until I trashed it. When I got a replacement laptop I really couldn't tell the difference - hell, it might even have been a bit better. It was only a few months ago when it started to get a bit fried. Then again it probably wouldn't have coped with stuff like Rome 2 very well even it its better days. Depends what you want at the end of the day. I barely game that much these days anyway, so I don't have too huge a need for it. Still, having had one before, I wouldn't really know if it was worth the cost or not. It was a while ago admittedly and it did a great job whilst it was still going - nothing to complain about I guess.

    I remember you wanted to do a CK2 story. Still sounds interesting to me. I never got on much with the game myself, but I can see how it's an AAR goldmine.

    Thunder will continue, thank you for the encouragement As I say, nearly a quarter of the way through chapter two, but I don't have quite a clear idea of what I want to happen yet. It's all flowing naturally enough though, so hopefully the characters will figure it out for me I'd like to get an update out in September, before I have to go back to class, but we'll see what happens.

  19. #19

    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    Oh how I remember your wonderful screenshots and battle pics, they reminded me very much of Robin's in Takeda. Every time I visit that AAR for inspiration, I really wish my pics looked like those. I'm unsure whether he has a really good computer or just really good photoshopping skills.

    I wanted to do a CK2 story but since my AAR has picked up again that might go on the back burner for quite a bit. Also I had a bit of trouble trying to approach that as despite there not being any turns and just a date which goes forward, time seems to go quite fast and though I actually write quite a lot which isn't going on in game, I don't know how I would approach CK2. Also there isn't much to do in peace time which annoys me.

  20. #20
    Hitai de Bodemloze's Avatar 避世絕俗
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    Default Re: The Other End of the Quill Commentary

    You're too kind I didn't like half of them if I'm honest. Yeah robin was pretty good at editing, so his pictures always looked that little bit extra. I remember talking to him about that once somewhere, although I forget what was said. Something about spending a lot of time editing the really important ones or something.

    Yeah that's the exact impression I got from it. First of all you could spend ten chapters covering one in game week, but on the other hand you get stuck in this assassinate/marriage/inherit monotony. There's only so much narrative spin you can keep putting on that before it gets old.

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