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Forum Index > Off-Topic Discussion > What Style of Writing do you Prefer?
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Enyo
Level 70
Nature Walker
Joined: 1/19/2016
Threads: 14
Posts: 1,713
Posted: 5/22/2017 at 8:00 AM Post #21
@Flute
Abording morally questionable choices and deep themes is really interesting!
I haven't seen the Purge because I heard bad reviews about it and it's mostly horror and I don't like horror and gore movies too much (even If I like horror novels), But I've read the synopsis, I think there is an interesting concept in it (Though I personally think some things are unrealistic, in a society with the purge the stronger people would survive, but the weaker, even if they are very intelligent would die, so I don't think it could create an ideal society for the rest of the year, there are good ideas in it.).
I always give my characters terrible decisions to take which are sure to result in a questionable choice, such as "should I kill my good friend/brother who trusts me and whom I know is not a fundamentally bad person, or should I let him take awful decisions that could ruin economy and the basis of our society and let him kill people?" or "Should I change the future to save an utopian society, my best friends and my lover who live in it, even if it means that the people who raised me and whom I love and everyone I consider as my beloved family and childhood friends would not exist in the new future?")

I would love to know what you can come up with, even if you don't write the story but only prompts/plot lines =)


If you create the geology and the biological ecosystem and all other "natural" aspects of a world, I think you don't need characters to do that.
But if you create a society (political structures, religion, economy...) of one or many nation, I think it's still interesting to think about the history of this world and some characters as well: not the protagonists of a novel, the foundators of the society (or religion): who were they, in what pre-existing society did they grow up, why did they decide to create something new to replace it. (That's I thought I have, feel free to think about it if you want or forget it ;) )
I love world-building, it allows to imagine and create so many things!

@99echosong99
I think you mix up Sci-fi and Social fiction. The Sci-fi genre (at least "hard" sc-fi) is about writing about scientific progress, while Social Fiction (which include the dystopian or utopian genres, and Orwell's books) is writing about writing about an invented society without necessarily abording science but mostly what the aspects of a society woud be like. It is true that the whole genre are often overlapping in low Sci-fi, but I really think she was speaking about hard sci-fi ;) not necessarily about everything taking place in the future (since she said she likes to create societies, and The Purge which she gave as an example for questionable choice is dystopian and taking place in a imaginary future) (Feel free to correct me if I wrong, Flute.)...
One could even imagine a society in the future who has lost the technology we have now and is back to the stone or the bronze age, but that is not really Sci-Fi but more Social Fiction (in my tongue we have the specific word for when a book is about the future but not the technology, we call that anticipation fiction)
Edited By Enyo on 5/22/2017 at 8:06 AM.
AtomicBomb354
Level 61
Joined: 2/17/2016
Threads: 4
Posts: 386
Posted: 5/22/2017 at 12:55 PM Post #22
A thread about writing? 0-0 *jumps in*

I tend to write in 1st person purely because it makes emotions and actions much easier to understand, and I think it immerses the reader quite well into the built world (though there's nothing to say that well-written 3rd person can achieve the same thing - my favourite book series 'A Song of Ice and Fire' is written that way). Something I like to do in 1st person is jump around perspectives, e.g have one chapter as one character, another as someone else, but it can get a little confusing at times lol.

As for genre, I do enjoy fiction and I don't touch non-fiction purely because there isn't really much space for creativity. Though my stories are usually quite realistic, purely because I am a George R. R. Martin wannabe it gets on my nerves a little if I read a story where characters magically heal after they break their arm or something like that, so I just don't write it myself. Oh, and many dark and mature themes, and basically round every corner there is plenty of death, characters who many people agree are just awful people, and, of course, tragedy.

Alternatively, I might write comedy, but it isn't really that great, and it's harder to write, especially as it often relies on completely stupid events, or perhaps even it's deliberately written badly (I have done something like that once - it took longer to deliberately misspell everything than it did to just write it).

I am working on some things, like a collaborative story, one fan-fiction, and an actual story that's had about a thousand previous drafts at about 40 pages long. Apart from that, everything else on my laptop is abandoned stories from when I was 12, or world-building documents that take up a lot of space.

TLDR: I like writing tragic stuff in 1st person. I don't know why.
Echosing
Level 75
Trickster
Joined: 5/28/2013
Threads: 49
Posts: 2,249
Posted: 5/22/2017 at 5:57 PM Post #23
@Enyo
I see what you're saying ^^;
Haven't heard of the term social science used towards writing actually, tbh the definition I put towards science fiction is because of how my science fiction teacher defines it
She doesn't really like hard sci-fi and since the class agreed we moved more towards reading social science(?) then

@AtomicBomb354
Hell yeah a writing thread >:D

Realistic fiction is in my own opinion the best category for writing :)
It's not enjoyable for a character to become god-like without reason

I like tragedy in 1st person because you can portray how a character feels even if they cannot relate to any other characters in their story. The reader can still experience what they are feeling through them
It also feels more personal
Flute
Level 70
Enchanted Explorer
Joined: 1/12/2013
Threads: 340
Posts: 12,946
Posted: 5/23/2017 at 12:31 AM Post #24
Much to respond about!

Echo:
Ah no, didn't know about the wound stuff. Cauterizing wounds is such a thing in RPGs, so it's interesting trivia to know that!

I've read synopses of Orwell's stuff and 1984 in high school. Those themes are similar to what I like to explore. :)
Science fiction is cool, but Enyo is right, I'm talking more about 'social fiction' (which is a new term to me as well). I'm more focused on the hows and whys and what ifs in a fictional setting, rather than describing life within futuristic settings. o:
But yeah, it's also interesting to think about moral choices dependent on technology!

To answer your question, I mean both religions/races/languages/etc and environment/biology, but more the former. Brainstorming cultures is more interesting than flora and fauna to me right now (though I'm sure designing a world's geography and biology is equally interesting and fun!).

(I'd love to hold a contest but it's just a lot of work for the users that are active right now aha. Maybe a light-hearted one for no prizes someday.)

Enyo:
Ah yeah, "terrible choices" like those are EXACTLY what I wanna explore and delve into! :D
(I just don't know how to come up with those choices lol)
I actually read the same bad reviews, but my relatives watched it anyway, and it wasn't that bad for an average in-home viewing. I think I'm not a very critical movie person, so maybe I shouldn't rely on movie reviews too much lol.

(That second question you mentioned reminds me of a game that kinda mentions that type of decision at the end!)

I'd rather have a list of "terrible decisions" that I can design stories for to start haha. I can't come up with any at all...
(I made a lil storyline thinking about it, but it's longwinded and I don't think I'll do anything with it. Maybe I'll post it somewhere here later lol)

For society building, I'd first want to create the concepts of political structures, religion, economy multiple nations. I wanna practice painting the bigger picture (general concepts down to individual bodies), since I think I'm not too bad with starting from characters upwards to the bigger plot.
Founders of societies are main characters in their own right, but you're right, that's a good mindset to go by!
Enyo
Level 70
Nature Walker
Joined: 1/19/2016
Threads: 14
Posts: 1,713
Posted: 5/23/2017 at 10:49 AM Post #25
@AtomicBomb
George R.R. Martin is a guilty of using a kind of magical healing (well, not directly healing, but of resurecting deads, which is also a cliche that can is often annoying ) in his books! :p but in his books, there is a price the characters have to pay for it, that's why it annoys me a little bit less in ASOIAF ( and GOT) than in some other books.
(I'm myself guilty of using magical healing, please don't hurt me! It's in a probably abandonned story, and the healer who could do that had a price to pay each time he was healing someone, and he had to wait a long time before each healing if he didn't want to trully endanger himself, so he was NOT using his "power" lightly and NOT for minor or most non-lethal injuries... And he could not resurect an already dead person... Plus, it led him to have terrible choices to take, when he could save only one or two lifes but not all the dying people after a war... )
If you use those "awful people" as main characters and not only as antagonists, then it must be really interesting! =D

Deliberately mispelling words is very hard for me as well!
Mispelled words hurt my eyes... I even don't mispell words and use abbreviations in texts messages XD


You probably like writing tragic stuff in the 1st person because tragedy written from an internal point of view is very powerful, you can transmit all the thought of the character, and it gives much stronger emotions than when it's written from an external point of view! ;)


@Flute
I don't know the game Soma, I will check what it's about =)
It's quite easy to think about "terrible choices" at least for me.
I love to put my character in situations when HAVE to make one. i gave another example just before, when I spoke about this character I had who is capable of magical healing with a lot of restriction, and who had be confronted to situations where he was unnable to save everybody and had to decide who he should save (and by deciding who he should save, he was also deciding who was condamned to dye)...
The same situation could exist in a non-magical word, ex:
- A doctor/nurse is with two dying people and can save only one, either because the two of them are severly injured and he/she doesn't have enough time to save the two or them, or because they have the same mortal disease and he/she has only medicines to cure one person...
- A mother sees his two childs drowning into cold-water, and has the physical capacity to only one at the time... The one she doesn't save first is sure to die, either because of the cold or because he was unable to breath for too long...


An other examples of 'terrible choices" some people of my family really had to take during World War II: two of my great-grandfather had to join the German army because the region in which they were born and where they lived had been conquered and annexed into Germany, even though they did not considered themselves to be German, and they would have to fight against the Allies, aka the side they wanted to win the war. The Germans where using families as a way to pressure people to join their army: when someone refused to join the army and run away, their children and family were sent into camps (not exterminations camp, but work camps or propaganda camps for children)
Both those great-grandfathers of mine had a wife and children. One of them joined the army because he wanted his family to be safe. The other decided to run away, refusing to fight for the Germans, and two of his sons including my grandfather were imprisoned into one of those propaganda camps before they managed to escape and where sent into safety. (It ended well at the end of the war for both of great-grandfather fortunately).
I think this story really could serve as an inspiration for people who want to make their character have to make a bad choice.

Otherway, to put it in a more funny light, imagine your in a fantasy world and your being chased by a giant dragon. You arrive in a cross road. The road in the right goes into a desert where you can already see the skulls or dead animals. The road in the middles goes in the direction of an exploding volcano. The road on your left goes into a swamp where you see huge alligators. The dragon is right behind you. What do you do? Go right into the desert, continue strait in the direction of the volcano, go left into the swamp, or fight against the dragon?
That's how I see the situations in which I put my characters in =)

Maybe all those example can inspire you =)

(BTW, creating societies in all their aspect is really fun and I like to read about created society, but just, ( unless your a linguist, or you really take a lot of time to create it and to make it sounds credible), pleaaaase don't create conlangs, I've read so many fantasy with badly constructed and stupid soundings conlangs that I'm tired of them. I rather read "He saluted me in what-ever-tongue, and I returned his salute, than " he said "-Blark ak syno" and I replied "Blark Tlymarkista!" XD... Only one or two sentence in a book is Ok, but with more; people will realize that the language is just nonsense and sometimes the story can loose credibility because of that. I give this advice not only to you but to everybody who wants to create worlds and societies.)



@99echosong99
It seems that the teacher you have are a lot less annoying that the litterature teacher I've had! ^^ They all wanted us to use the very specific names of each genre of fictions, and where upsed when we were confusing the litterary genres! If someone said Fantasy for Fantastic, they could make a one hour rant about how it was wrong!!! XD
(But I like the term "anticipation" we use in my language is great, because it groups everything set in an imaginary future and helps to show that not everything set in the future has to speak about space and science...)
Edited By Enyo on 5/23/2017 at 11:02 AM.
Flute
Level 70
Enchanted Explorer
Joined: 1/12/2013
Threads: 340
Posts: 12,946
Posted: 5/23/2017 at 11:13 AM Post #26
Those really are 'terrible decisions.' O: Reminds me of the trolley problem: if you had to make a decision, would you kill 1 or kill multiple aha.
The newest Resident Evil also has a similar dilemma: MC goes to save his wife, gets into peril and is guided along by another lady, and it gets to a point where both are infected with a disease and he only has 1 cure to use on 1 lady. Whether you pick either his wife or the other lady gives different endings. Though, it was strongly implied that one choice is canonical, and the other choice just gave more backstory regarding the events of the game aha.

What's a conlang? I briefly read Wikipedia's description, but I feel like you have a better definition for it aha.

Making languages is too deep into the culture for me LOL. I'd just create them in my native language (English). No need reinventing the wheel when I just wanna get right into it!
(I remember that I would write Pokemon fanfiction when I was younger, and my Pokemon would say things like "Pika pii!" and I wouldn't offer any explanation for what they said unless I felt like it. Ah man, I'm ashamed of my middle school writing days, but I wouldn't be the writer I am now without em LOL)
AtomicBomb354
Level 61
Joined: 2/17/2016
Threads: 4
Posts: 386
Posted: 5/23/2017 at 11:40 AM Post #27
@Echosong

I completely agree. It does prevent you from going a little bit crazy though, for example, things that would otherwise make no sense, but to be honest that's not really much of a bad thing. If I have to do something weird, I have to explain it with loosely justified science rubbish (or, alternatively, and my preferred method, I look it up and try and try learn something as complex as Quantum Mechanics in a few minutes lol).

Again. yeah. Emotions are always easier to portray in 1st person, though a good writer can make 3rd person equally as effective. But overall, I find it much easier to try and make something tragic through 1st person.

@Enyo

Ah, yes, you're right, it does happen. I probably just forgot because of the whole 'you can't be magically healed without something bad happening' thing, and perhaps because of all of the other times that other characters are injured and they don't have this help. I also haven't read anything but ASOIAF by him; I would start reading others, but I have Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and several other books to finish first.

Magic is a part of my stories (even though they're sci-fi... yeah, my story worlds are strange blends of sci-fi and fantasy, it's really weird), but basically no-one uses it because technology is far more effective. And there's nothing wrong with using healing magic, especially when there is a downside/ limit for it.

Yeah, I'm like that too, to a certain extent (I don't use the full range of abbreviations, and all of my texts have proper grammar if it's sent to my parents or someone else - with my friends, I don't bother lol). I've read many things in the past where the writer has misspelled a word one way, then in the next paragraph spell it a completely different way, and that's what really bugs me.

Probably. I was more referring to why I seem to do such terrible things to all of my characters, even the ones that I like. I suppose it makes the story more unpredictable, since it isn't obvious as to which characters are going to die. Or maybe it's just a reflection of my inner self and my overly cynical view of the current state of society *puts on tin foil hat*.
Edited By AtomicBomb354 on 5/23/2017 at 11:41 AM.
Enyo
Level 70
Nature Walker
Joined: 1/19/2016
Threads: 14
Posts: 1,713
Posted: 5/23/2017 at 4:29 PM Post #28
@Flute
I haven't seen the last Resident Evil yet, but yes that sounds very similar to the example I gave! It seems once again like ALL things I can think of have been done before, it annoys me! x) :p
Yes the Trolley problem is a good example of hard decisions you could have to take!
I know another famous one, where you have the choice between saving a child or saving a remedy which could hypothetically save one thousand lives (but only hypothetically, if an epidemy happens, while you would be sure to save one life if you save the child).

Conlang means constructed language, The term can apply to any language which didn't appear naturally but has been constructed by men, weither the language has been fully invented or is inspired by existing languages. (I haven't read the wikipedia articles about it, but yes it seems quite complicated to explain something simple!)

Some of the most famous in pop-culture from Fantasy / Sci-Fi are Tolkien's Elvish languages, Klingon from Star Trek, and now maybe Dothraki and Valyrian from Games of Thrones (in an other domain, Esperanto, a language which has been created by people who wanted to make an "universal" language which could be spoken in the whole world is also a conlang).
It's very popular since Tolkien for authors (especially Fantasy authors) to create conlangs. I think some Fantasy writers even think they HAVE to create a language Main problems: it has become cliche, when people do that, I feel that they are just imitating Tolkien or other Fantasy writers. Also Tolkien was a LINGUIST who knew about the formations of languages, while most wannabe Fantasy writers are NOT linguists and doesn't know anything about how languages are constructed, and their invented languages often sounds stupids or sounds like bad imitations of Elvish.
I don't have specific example because when writers do that I usually don't read their books or tend to forget them x)
(This critic is not targetting people like GRR Martin at all, since he gave thought to his language, plus he admits Tolkien is one of his inspirations but he didn't copy him at all...)


@AtomicBomb

I see, it's not magical healing that annoys you but when people use it too much (like when ALL small injuries are healed and characters don't even have scars *sick*).
Well I've mostly read ASOIAF from GRR Martin.

I also combine magic and technology in some of my story. I have one where magic used to be the more powerful of the two during a long time, but magic users mostly didn't care about technology and non-magic users, until the time when non-magic users have been capable of doing things they never could do with magic and technology has become more powerful than magic.

As I said in a previous post, my all times favorite characters had to go through a lot of hardships and at the end died / had a horrific destiny. (I think it's really what made the difference between characters I like or even love and characters I find unforgettable). So that's great :)
Edited By Enyo on 5/23/2017 at 5:36 PM.
AtomicBomb354
Level 61
Joined: 2/17/2016
Threads: 4
Posts: 386
Posted: 5/25/2017 at 10:45 AM Post #29
@Enyo

Definitely lol. Or not even magical healing at all - there are many stories that I've read where the author seems to completely forget that their character has broken their arm or something like that, and I'm sat there like "You should not be able to do all of that with a sword when your wrist is in several pieces (or, at least it was five minutes ago)!"

I think the only other one I've heard of is called 'Hedge Knight', I think...? I'm going to have a look now. Oml has he has written so much than I originally realised lol. Well, it's time for me to do a lot of reading.

Yeah, I have basically the same sort of thing. It's mainly based off of the fact that it would take longer to perfect a spell (as only one person would know the spell) than to have a test that more than one person is capable of repeating. But magic in my story universe is still capable of doing more than science (since the technological advancement is roughly that of today), such as necromancy (which is outlawed for obvious reasons), and various illusion-type spells that can hide objects. It's just down to who can and can't learn it, and since science is something that anyone can do, magic is just generally not used because it's impractical in that sense. Also, anyone who exceeds their limits has a habit of dying horrifically in any story I write.

Personally, I find characters that go through hardships a lot more likeable too. Characters that just get their powers without working for them, or just get the easy route because their the main character are just... eh. Though if it steps into the 'heroic sacrifice' territory, that can really make or break a character for me. There's nothing wrong with a character doing so - in fact, it can be quite an emotional scene - but sometimes writers try and shove it in with a character whose personality isn't outstandingly courageous or honourable, and then it just ruins everything that's been built up. However, if that sacrifice doesn't immediately end an event (like it does in most books for some reason), and the story keeps going with the struggles of the others, then sometimes something like that can although it pushes down that one character a bit, boost the others in terms of whether they are likeable or not. It's all really just about balance.
Jade07
Level 50
The Artistic
Joined: 3/3/2016
Threads: 219
Posts: 4,191
Posted: 5/25/2017 at 5:48 PM Post #30
i like to write fanfiction that's meant to be more funny and has no real plan when i write its a fact that i try to avoid giving the story sad moments or replace sad with funny [you'd be surprised how funny something could be if i wrote it]the main character is ushaly modeled after myself or a animal
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