New rules of cerebral warfare:
Point the cognitohazard towards your enemy, not towards your own position.
If you encounter a cognitohazard facing you, the one who placed it there is not your friend.
Clearly label the cognitohazard for storage and transport, e.g. "Do Not Believe."
You don't know how to do a thing -- skill issue.
You asked A.I. how to do a thing -- swill issue.
Four-panel cartoon from Sarah C. Andersen: Puny Fantasy and Sci-Fi Authors struggling to lift a weight labeled "tension." Huge, bulky Romance Author lifting giant weight one-handed. "That's cute, you guys."
Respect.
black and white graphic, black banner across the top saying Said Is Dead, gray tombstone in the middle saying RIP with Said Is Dead across the base, surrounded by synonyms. “Have you heard? Said is dead! Instead of using said, try these words! explained asked declared replied groaned shouted hollered blurted whined yelped added cried yelled called barked mumbled roared spoke opposed squeaked grumbled screeched interrupted complained screamed described whispered exclaimed answered”
here you go
Examples:
Honest, but insecure
Loving, but damaged
Brave, but easily overwhelmed
Talented, but creatively blocked
Warm-hearted, but easily taken in
etc. See how you go.
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 320:
Writing complex characters is great in principle, but in practice often results in messy, difficult characterization. If that's you, try choosing just TWO main characteristics to start off with - one positive, one negative - and build on those as you progress.
I think it is all a matter of perspective. The first is from your own, the second is from someone else's.
I'm pretty sure I have never taken a hot long shower.
why are long hot shower and hot long shower two different things
you know what I mean
Collating a hoard of loose screenwriting advice/rules/etc, from index cards I'd keep on my corkboard while breaking a TV episode or film, by copying them into a page of my new Big Writing Notebook and...
...over 50% of them could be summarized as PEOPLE CARE ABOUT CHARACTERS ABOVE ALL ELSE, STUPID.
One fun thing about the Japanese is we love the FUCK out of Christmas and have only the loosest concept of what is going on
The devil will give you a bargain for your hearts desire.
The fairy queen offers you a feast when you are famished.
The AI will help you with that codebase.
Tried that, bought two boxes, ate both.
Am considering next logical step... three boxes.
I keep bringing home little boxes of chocolates for Christmas for the family but I keep eating them. One of these days the store will be out (they do run out) and I'll be in trouble.
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
Jeff lies like politician.
Ralph lies like a dead man.
If you mention blood duels are a thing in the first act you damned well better have one happen in the third.
Whole month. I am practicing style and also persistence. To make it easier each day has to be different but doesn't have to be good. I guess that also makes it training in turning off that inner critic!
It's simple really. I didn't like the very first scene in the WIP. Been reading books on style, here's a new month--
So every day take the same setup (characters, setting, initial emotions, news, reaction, button) and write it different. Shorter. More loquacious. More internal. More sensory. Etc.
I wonder how you are approaching this exercise. Would love to hear any rules and restrictions.
Day 16 of writing the same scene over from scratch, as an exercise. I'm calling it #scenetober. Starting to have to get creative, which is the point.
"the flute is older than the wheel"
a successful dramatic scene is one that the audience enters because of plot and leaves because of character.
*gasp* I feel this
Story is not what you have instead of reality. It is how you explain the reality you care about to people who don’t.
the word “sloppycat” just popped into my head for people who try to ape actual specific human work using slop generators
please feel free to use it
Age verification
I had to move my finger in a circle to dial for the computer
There is no joy like learning how to do it. There is no joy like solving the problems in a story, figuring them out, fucking with them. There's no joy, really, like making up something flawed and messy, and then learning how to make it better.
Watching the Audra Winter drama unfold (from as great a distance as possible), and puts me in mind I was just talking about a lot of the shit that underpins this a couple months away (see quoted thread).
There's another seeming layer of hubris/delusions of grandeur at work there. But basics follow.
At the end of of a long presentation at a proofreader's conference someone takes the mike and says:
This is more of a comma than a question mark--
I saw this video years ago and have never lived without a gigantic jar of gigi paste in my fridge since... (I live in an Indian and Pakistani neighbourhood, which helps).
youtu.be/U4zVQxPJmnY?...
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics changed to Handbook of Novel Writing and Physics
Chapter 2