Gathering Of Dedicated Scribblers discussion
Archives
>
Random awkward chat
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Andres, Thaumaturge
(new)
Aug 04, 2020 08:17AM
This is just a random chat created for those that needs to randomly chat. Feel free to talk about anything just be respectful of others please.
reply
|
flag
Is it possible to get a link to this group? I know some writers who may be interested in joining
There ya go! Invite away. The more the merrier!
Do you guys ever have the problem where you need to introduce a vital character or some information is important to the plot, but don't really know how to write it in an interesting way? Like for example, you need a particular event to occur that will be needed later in the story, but that event seems a bit boring to u. I was wondering if it's just a me problem or if such difficulties also arise sometimes for u? And any advice on what can be done in a situation like that?
S. wrote: "Do you guys ever have the problem where you need to introduce a vital character or some information is important to the plot, but don't really know how to write it in an interesting way? Like for e..."S.
Yes, we all run into this problem. I know two ways you can handle it. One is to include the information in the action of a scene.
For instance, say you got two guys going to rob a bank and you need to show a witness who will pop up later and point the robbers out. So as they drive, they nearly hit a guy on a bike, they swerve and move on to the job, no big deal. Boom, the bike rider shows up later as the witness.
Or what if a newspaper flies out of nowhere and hits the car, they flip off a paperboy and roll on. Later the paperboy turns them in.
Another way is to add something interesting to the "boring" event. It's a trick called "The Pope in the Pool" It's from the book "Save the cat."
A writer had a bunch of boring information that needed to be known for the story to make sense. It involved the pope and his cardinals. Instead of having them talk about it in an office they had the talk while the Pope was swimming in his pool. Did you know the Vatican had an indoor pool? I didn't.
So you read the scene going wow, that's kinda interesting, but at the same time you're getting important story info.
Hope this helps. If you have a question about something specific in your story post it up.
Thank you for the tips! I hadn't heard of them before so they were very enlightening. I will try to use these methods now
@Dominga, Absolutely, whatever works best for you.JointheGods.slack.com
Please feel free to use it and invite your own Coursera group there. Some might like using both, some might prefer one or the other. At least this gives you options. Feel free to not have to check into this site until you've completed a chapter and would like some feedback.
@ S.I'm having that problem right now. I'm retelling the Arthurian legend and I have to find a way to incorporate the sword in the stone, sir lancelot, etc. Sometimes I write the chapter and i'm not entirely happy with it however, when writing the next chapter I come across a way to incorporate that information in a much nicer way. This is why having a good reviewer or two comes in handy. You could email us a few different approaches and see which we like better and maybe someone will even recommend you a way that you hadn't thought of. There are a lot of possibilities if we build this writing community correct. Especially if we can establish a few people with trust, this is after all everyone's precious masterpiece.
@Andres thank you for your suggestions. It feels good to know that we can help each other out here. For now, I've figured out how to get past that part. I'm doing something similar to yours where I will incorporate it in another chapter.
@S. I'm glad something helped, I often feel like I'm simply rambling lol.
Andres wrote: "This is just a random chat created for those that needs to randomly chat. Feel free to talk about anything just be respectful of others please."Andres, shoot me an email some time, mlrodriguez@protonmail.com I have a few questions about the group. No rush.
Gigi wrote: "How do I post a story/ where?"Click on "writers groups", select which genre your story belongs to, then click "add a comment." Or scroll to the bottom and add your pages in the comment box.
Andres might know another way as well. But this is what I've been doing.
What do you do when you just can’t see the setting for a scene? It’s like everything is happening in vacuum and instead of offering useful information or potentially interesting twists the setting is just... there.
Are there things the characters can touch? They can lean on a counter, table, etc. You can show the setting through the characters interacting with it. Maybe it's a familiar place to your character. They could think about the time x happened there and have interaction in that reverie. What do they hear or smell there if there's not much to see? What's the weather? Can they feel wind or sun? Hope this helps you think through it a bit.
@ M.L. Gotcha, I'll send you an email today after work.@Maria Can you not see it as the author or as the character?
@ Gigi In the folder you wish to add your story, click 'New Topic'
@Monica thank you for the advise, it did really help to think of setting in terms of the sensory descroptions
How do you guys feel about flashbacks in novels? How do you feel about changes in POV? Changes of POV in flashbacks?
Flashbacks work if they give out new information that is vital to the story. One or two is fine, just remember every time you do it, the story stops moving forward for a bit. It's like a pause.Changes of POV are awesome because you see the story from a different perspective . Now a change of POV in a flashback sounds tricky. Is there a good twist provided by that change of perspective? If not, why not just let that other POV character have their own flashback?
I am tech and computer challenged but I have managed fine so far, now trying to submit my assignment chapter 2 and it doesn't work. The page just goes blank with occasional blue circle in middle. Anyone else had this issue what is going on??
@Maria I don't feel any particular way about any of those. I've read authors whom have linked past experiences and flashbacks and POV's in many different ways. Some I have liked, some I have not. Currently I am writing in a manner that changes the POV between 3 separate characters. This is kind of tricky because I am rotating them POV 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, so they have to link and continue on while maintaining the same fluidity through the story.
I do enjoy a past experience being the first 25% of the chapter, for each chapter and somewhere towards the middle the past and present link. That seems tricky but it always provides this type of 'aha' moment. Otherwise dialog seems to help with the better flash backs.
"Do you remember back when Ma made that knife?"
I sit back and think to myself for a moment. I do remember. I was approximately 9 years old at the time. Father had a small forge...
@Liavali I'm sorry that's happening. It might be the page not loading properly. You can try to push refresh or F5 and see if it helps. If not, it might be a cookie setting. Try going to the forums first and then to your chapter submission and see if it opens then.
I just went on a spreading spree, hoping if there are more active members we get more to review and more people reviewing our work. I posted link to group all the way to week 12Fingers crossed it works!
That's great! The more the merrier. Everyone needs to review 5 works and it's so much easier to review 5 stories you have been following along with than just randomness. At the end of each submission I have been posting the GoodReads link, mostly in hopes that if someone enjoys my work they would want to continue reading it. There is no way to friend or link profiles on coursera.
My submissions still not working but I now actually have reported bug, finally worked out how to do that and when I can, will post link to GODS also
I just now lost almost three thousand words I wrote last night and this morning. Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrereegh
Liavali wrote: "I just now lost almost three thousand words I wrote last night and this morning. Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrereegh"
Sorry to hear this. I often hit 'save' at least three times per page, because I once lost a hundred rows in a database for my school project.
I've done this a few times. You'll write it back better. You'll be writing from memory and remember the problems you had the first time you wrote it and now can avoid falling into those traps.
ugh, I hate those moments. You'd think I'd have better saving techniques by now but I still forget to hold reset before power.
I have managed to write it again, but write honestly not sure it is better. Just same scene at least!I am technologically challenged, I did something much more stupid then that, my thingymadjig saves automatically every few minutes, but what I did was put it inot an usb, as a back up copy, and instead of putting the file from laptop to usb I mistakenly did from usb to laptop and it asked me if I wanted to replace the old item with new AND I SAID YES! Did not notice till I re opened computer version and it had reverted to the one from day before...
Liavali wrote: "I have managed to write it again, but write honestly not sure it is better. Just same scene at least!I am technologically challenged, I did something much more stupid then that, my thingymadjig s..."
I use Grammarly for writing and I find it cool that it automatically saves my writing. You could try it on your browser
I may look into that, thanks @Rufaida!!
What are people doing to get around the table read at the end of chapter 7? Brazil is still in crisis with Covid, so getting together with my friends isn't possible.Are you guys just ignoring this step or has anyone had an ingenious idea for a workaround?
Eleanor wrote: "What are people doing to get around the table read at the end of chapter 7? Brazil is still in crisis with Covid, so getting together with my friends isn't possible.Are you guys just ignoring thi..."
Andres, Liavali and I exchanged our scripts up to chapter 7 and gave notes on the pages as a whole. It didn't take as long as I thought to read them and I got two sets of really good notes. You may want to post here somewhere and see if you can find two other people (or more) that are about up to chapter 7 and see if they want to trade reads.
M.L. wrote: "Eleanor wrote: "What are people doing to get around the table read at the end of chapter 7? Brazil is still in crisis with Covid, so getting together with my friends isn't possible.Are you guys j..."
Ok, I'll try that. I'm also going to ask some friends and family to read it.
Hey Eleanor, I'd like to team up with you during the reading (give each other's notes from Ch1 to 7). But I'd have to catch up to you first, I'm still working on my chapter 6 😅
Arlu wrote: "Hey Eleanor, I'd like to team up with you during the reading (give each other's notes from Ch1 to 7). But I'd have to catch up to you first, I'm still working on my chapter 6 😅"No problem. I'm assuming it will take a couple of week to gather a reasonable amount of feedback from people anyway. I think I'll start chap 8 next week, but I'll still be open to feedback on the previous chapters.
I'm almost done with my Beta read for Robert J. Power. Next week I should be able to help you two with a 7 chapter review if you do not find any others that wish to participate.
