Lessons from a Conference Call

Hey all!  How is everyone doing with the time change?

For having an hour of my life sucked away, I'm actually doing pretty good due to the fact that, last night, I had a beautiful Google+ hangout with 11 of my closest friends, concerning an RP blog of which we're all part.  We had the illustrious "Queen", AnnaKate herself, her fellow evil-genius Lauren, her younger brother, my older brother, my dearest Sam (I'm Frodo) who will rule the world someday with my elder padawon, the girl who stole my brain (Kristen), this girl who is a sister to this girl, the guy who had to call in because he lives in Georgarctica, and myself, of course.

No, I didn't distort AnnaKate's face on purpose.  With 11 people, you can figure that we had L-A-G, aaand, even my house's incredible internet was stumbling under the load of such a call.

Now, I did walk away with a few valuable lessons from the aforementioned conference call concerning RP writing, and I've listed them for you below:

1.) If you're RP-ing with a friend, DETERMINE IF YOU'RE WRITING FOR EACH OTHER OR FOR AN AUDIENCE.  This will eliminate a LOT of confusion, since people who write together for each other tend to keep secrets and search for surprising elements while people who write together for an audience look for the dramatic effects and climactic plots.  Unfortunately, in our blog, we had several people going both ways, and...yeah - confusion.  =_=

2.) If you're RP-ing with a friend, MAKE A SIMPLE PLOT.  I'm not talking about elaborate J.K. Rowling tie-ins or complicated webs with millions of minor Sherlock-esque details.  Just make a general direction for your characters; give them a little purpose, eh?

3.) If you're RP-ing with a friend, DON'T OVERCOMPLICATE YOUR CHARACTER.  Honestly, we have some players *cough cough* who decided to give their characters the most twisted, depressing back-stories EVER, then introduce them to several other well-meaning characters.  The dialogue that follows is something like this:

Normal Character: Hi, there.  The name's Jace.

Dead-serious Overcomplicated Character: Okay.

Normal Character: ...I did just save your life from a handful of hungry tigers.

Dead-serious Overcomplicated Character: Okay.

Normal Character: A thank-you wouldn't be out of place.

Dead-serious Overcomplicated Character: Okay.

Sarcastic Normal Character: (-.-)  Oh, and, by the way, I'm on drugs, about to shoot myself in the head, and living with your mom.

Dead-serious Overcomplicated Character: (^_~)  "Okay" to the first two, but you're not living with my mom.  I killed my mom.  And my dad.  Now leave me alone.

Yeah, so...the story tends to whittle off.  I'm not saying that backstory is wrong.  In fact, all characters should be impacted and molded into their present self by their past self, but I do NOT want to need to read a book before I can unearth a character's previous life.

4.) If you're RP-ing with a friend, KNOW YOUR CHARACTER LIKE THE BACK OF YOUR HAND BEFORE YOU BEGIN.  Know your character better than the back of your hand before you begin.  Other player will come to ask you about your character, and, trust me, they come with the CRAZIEST questions.  Be prepared to answer and eliminated the dreaded red tape!

5.) Finally and foremost, if you're RP-ing with a friend, RESPECT OTHER CHARACTERS.  *rant, rant, rant*

Now, let's say you're writing with three other people.  Believe it or not, you only own a FOURTH of the story!  (This is the vital distinction between RP-ing and co-writing.  Role-players own only so much of the tale with no definite plot and countless plot-twists; co-authors generally have one person who writes the entire story via detailed-outline, then delegates characters to people who then write according to the pre-written outline.)  Being the owner of a fourth of the story, you are NOT allowed to go killing other characters, maiming other characters, or making other characters forgive, hate, or fall in love with your character.  You cannot write as another character, and you should really only attempt impacting another character after you've received permission to do so.

(Rules, rules, I know.)

That being said, RP-ing is indescribably fun, especially if you're working with ten other snarky, sarcastic geniuses...and, speaking of which, I've got to go keep working on my section.  I'm due to publish soon.  ^.^

Write on!

Clove

P.S. NO, NO, NO.  I have NOT forgotten about my other story, and I'm NOT leaving it half-finished.  My editors are still working, and I'm reworking some concepts (i.e. redoing two or three of the chapters that I had "finished" and "made ready to publish").  Chapter 5 will hopefully be here within a fortnight, but I do have some sneak-peaks for you all meanwhile.  Stay tuned and don't lose heart!  This author may be a writing slug, but she is a living slug, and she traverses the pavement of novel-dom at the mighty speed of two centimeters a week!  Muahahaha, brace yourselves, oh readers and writers!  :)

Writing challenge #4

Well, guys, I'm happy to report that I've been on a writing streak.  After getting clogged up in sheer lack of creativity through all of February, I've broken through at last, and, hoo-wee, is the poetic air nice.  (Funny thing is, a lot of other my fellows authors got stuck in writing oblivion last month too...I guess the return of flu-season brought along an anti-author virus as well...  ;))

Unfortunately, the ideas that I'm spawning are spewing absolutely everywhere and making a mess of my frantic life.  I've actually taken to carrying around my mom's iPhone because I get inspired to write huge blocks of text in the most random of places (e.g. while blow-drying my hair, in a half-way translated Latin sentence, and, of course, at night in bed), and a notebook and pen just aren't mobile enough.

All that to say, my writing life has been excellent!

Now, what about you guys?

In case if you haven't had any success with your own writing businesses, I've got a writing challenge for you, to loosen up all the stiff, creativity ground...so, without further ado:

What elements would you put in a jail-break scene?

Suspense?  How would you build up suspense?  Would you include a battle between the guards and the prisoners?  Would the prisoners be successful?  What would be necessary to escape from a locked cell?  Would there be preparation involved, or would the escape be spontaneous?

Write the scene and copy it to the comment box below, or just comment with a few ideas.  :)  Any and all thoughts are winners.  ^.^

Write on!
Clove

A Poem in the style of Emily Dickinson/Edgar Allen Poe

I am marooned here in a Crowd

whose nagging rays--blindly--

beat down.

Warm fodder--please--

can I devour--hungry as I’m?

No--

Of course not.

They’re dour.

Their food is sour.

Then--to speak to the birds--

hello!  no more--

I’ll pay well--be sure--

for a single word.

A shame--then!

I am to die in this Crowd.

No hope for 

Penelope’s shroud.

~ ~ ~

Explanation: The first line, "I am marooned in a Crowd", refers to an individual who lives in the midst of many people and cannot find anyone with to relate.  The individual of the poem feels outshone by the Crowd and minuscule within it.

In the second stanza, the individual seeks to find the "warm fodder" of encouragement in other people but cannot do so because his friends are too "dour", making their so-called food (aka. conversation) "sour".

Losing hope, the individual then wishes to greet birds but, obviously, doesn't speak the language of animals.  So, in the end, the poor individual is resolved to die while in a "Crowd" of so many, all of whom are nearby and able to help but refusing.  Lastly, a final allusion is made to the Odyssey written by Homer, where Penelope, Odysseus' faithful wife, promises that she'll marry one of many suitors when she finishes making her father's death shroud.  According to the Odyssey, Penelope would cleverly unwind the shroud at the night, however, and thus avoid her promise.  So, in other words, the individual of the poem is saying that there is no hope for delay - death is imminent.

~ ~ ~

And voila~!

So what do you all think?  Did I do Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe justice, or were my symbols too confusing?  (Poetry is haaard, y'all, much harder than writing stories in my opinion.)  I await your response in the comment box below!  :)

Write on!

Clove

Old joking habits are still old joking habits...

Hey-yo!  How farest th'all?  (It's like "y'all" just with "thou" instead of "you"...don't get it?  Blame the Shakespeare.)

This week has been sorta poor for me.  While suffering from a 72 hour-long (and still going) headache, I was assigned two of my least favorite violin exercises: scales and double-stops, I was supposed to attend a party but wasn't able to, and I finished the Harry Potter series for the first time in my life, so I'm kind of going through reading withdrawals despite the fact that I'm trying to finish A Hole in Our Holiness, Pundit's Folly, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Dante's Inferno within a month.

Yes, yes, I'm still writing, and Chapter 5 is still being edited.  I apologize for the delays.  :\

...but, anyway, I sat down and said, "Well, I have to blog something."  This is what I came up with:

Welcome...to...my life.

...and what's even more sad is that I sort of create the characters that I want to marry.  Oh well, at least I know what to look for forty-fifty years down the road.  ;)

Meanwhile, the New Oxford American Dictionary says that writer's block is, "The condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing."  Whoever wrote the NOAD was obviously not an fictional author.  ^_^

I just save my paragraphs and put 'em in other stories.  Just goes to say: DON'T DELETE YOUR WORK!  Save it and reuse it!

Obviously, the characters in the stories that I want to marry all have pristine writing capabilities.  Duh.  xD

This would be true except for the top right square...because all of my friends are authors as well.  :P

...join the Dark Side.  x)

ALAS.

And there you have it!

Write on!
Clove

Romance!

AUTHOR/EDITOR'S NOTE:
This blog post idea is attributed to Scarlett, who, at the end of a recent post, asked, "I also need help because, unfortunately, I have no love life, so romance is a foreigner to me.  Any suggestions?"  Go check out her blog.  :)

~ ~ ~

Well, guys, it's Valentine's Day (...or Single's Awareness Day).  Unfortunately (or lack thereof), I've no Valentine today, and, to be honest, none of my friends do either, so the concept of ooey-gooey romance is foreign to me.  Obviously, this poses quite a problem when I want to include romance into my writing.
However, for those of you who are like me, I come bearing good news!

YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A SIGNIFICANT OTHER TO ADD ROMANTIC ELEMENTS INTO YOUR STORY.

In fact, if you seek to write a certain something, you don't ever need to possess that certain something in real life.  All that is required is a healthy pair of eyes and ears, an analytical mind, and literacy.
For example, with romance, adults all around you are in love, your parents are in love, some of your classmates may be in love.  Study them!  Then write down what you have studied - when they kiss, when they hold hands, when they fight, what they talk about, what they whisper, what they shout, the sacrifices they make, the chivalry, the rude physical thieveries and violations, the roses, the sunsets, etc.  Throw in a little plot and voila!

Romance.

...but let's open up this topic a little more:

In order to add romance, you have to understand what level of romance your characters are committed to.  If they just want to kiss and have late night adventures, they're going to face some serious character development needs when they realize that *gasp* humans have flaws!  (If you write about two characters who are "in love" and without differences, I promise I will hunt you down and delete/burn the document mercilessly.  x))  However, if they are loyal and faithful, they will have to make the painful decisions necessary to keep such a noble, chivalrous status quo.

Lastly, let's be clear: romance is fairly awkward.  Don't believe me?
   --If guy likes girl and girl likes guy but they don't know about their mutual feelings, they will be awkward around each other.  Plus, they'll spend all their time questioning their own identities and the other's identity until they finally spit those three words out in the air.  "I. love. you."
   --If girl doesn't really like guy but has friends who are totally shipping the relationship, the end result will be awkward, and the girl will probably end up hating said boy.  Vice versa applies.
   --If guy likes girl and the relationship is clear, the BRO CODE APPLIES.  No other guys are allowed to interfere with the girl, and, if they do, the end result will be awkward in what you call an unhappy "love triangle".  (What does a love triangle look like?  Think of Edward, Jacob, Bella - Leia, Luke, Han Solo - Peeta, Gale, Katniss - and the list goes on forever.)
   --If girl is a player and the guy is stupid, the guy should not be your protagonist.  Trust me.  He ends up sounding like a dweeb, and awkwardness ensures.  Vice versa applies.
   --If girl and guy have a clear relationship but are restricted from contact, they will do anything, literally EH-NEE-THEENG to be in each other's presence, including being awkward.  Don't underestimate the stupidity involved in this sort of scenario.
   --If guy breaks up with girl, girl will go on a rampage and tell all her friends and attempt to exact revenge and will frequently seek love in another guy.  Enter, awkwardness.

This list of relationship options could go on forever, but, as it is, I'm off to go gorge myself on a box of chocolates...all...by...my...self.  ^_^

Write on!
Clove

One-liners

As a homeschooled Asian teen, I can't promise to be the wittiest person in the world.  Generally, I think public-schoolers are the funniest people, and movies like Ocean's 11 leave me sitting in the dust, imitating Gru's minions:

"Whaaa...?"

So I'm at something of a setback when it comes to sharp writing.  Every so often, I feel like a good one-liner would enhance a semi-tense scene, but...nope.  Nothing comes.  (Obviously, in real life when confronted by a semi-tense scene, I'm the sort of person who calmly debates to the root of the problem.  Thank the classical education.  x))

As a result, I've taken to copying one liners from various movies and sites.  With a little bit of creative tweaking, you can mimic what someone else has set down without plagiarizing word-for-word.  Here are some of my favourite cocky one-liners and retorts:

~ ~ ~

A: "Somewhere in the world, you're depriving a small, needy village of an idiot."

A: "If I wanted to kill myself I'd climb your ego and jump to your IQ."

A: "Hey, you have something on your chin... no, the third one down."

Daniel: "You know what your problem is?"

Tess: "I only have one?"

~Ocean's 11

A: "If your brain exploded, it wouldn't even mess up your hair."

A: "Does that dress make me look fat?"

B: "No, your fat makes you look fat."

A: "I could agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong."

Student A: "I smell pizza..."

Student B: "It was a teacher's appreciation lunch."

Student A: "What?!  Why?!  We're doing all the work!"

Will: "Are you awake?"

Halt: "No."

~The Ranger's Apprentice

A: "I think I pulled a muscle."

B: "You have a muscle to pull?"

Halt: "You know, Horace, you used to be a most agreeable young man.  Whatever happened to you?"

Horace: "I've spent to much time around you, I suppose." 

~The Ranger's Apprentice

A: "Am I getting smart with you?  How would you know?"

~ ~ ~

Write on!

Clove

My Top Five Technical Writing Pet-Peeves

Well, while I haven't had much time for the actual further creation of my stories, I've been editing papers and other stories (and I learned that other college students will pay to get their stories edited, which made me super happy - $_$).  As I've been spilling copious amounts of red ink on beautiful, crisp, unmarked papers, I realized that I have some serious technical writing pet-peeves.  If I listed them all, we'd be here forever, so I'll just do My Top Five Technical Writing Pet-Peeves.

Number 5: Starting every sentence with 'the', a pronoun, or a subject

   Students who have little writing practice tend to violate this pet-peeve.  They tend to forget that they can open a sentence with a clause or prepositional phrase.  They try to find complete sentence to put down.  The end result is that they all sound like mechanical robots.  The sentences that they write blur together without cadence or rhythm.  Readers quickly get lost.  They could read their papers out-loud to get rid of this problem.  They could also hire a paid editor...like me.
   (See what I just did there?)

Number 4: "OK"

   Please.  Guys.  Just spell it out, okay?

Number 3: Lack of an Oxford comma
   Of pet peeves 5, 4, (COMMA) and 3, this one is of greatest importance to me.  x)  (For those of you who don't know, an Oxford comma is the comma that you put in between the second and third items when you're listing three items.  For example: We went to buy glass-bottled root beer, fresh-churched vanilla ice cream, (<--- that's your Oxford comma) and pretty cups for our root beer floats.  Some people will say that the Oxford comma is not necessary, but...just...just...does it take that much more effort to press another key on your keyboard?

Number 2: !? instead of ?!
   I've seen plenty of non-professional authors use "!?", but, if you pick up your nearest adventure book where some angry stepmother is shrieking, you'll always see "?!"  Of course, if you don't want to bother about that question mark, I have also seen professional authors ask questions like: "WHY WERE YOU  OUT WITH STEVE!  I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!"
   Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the inconsistencies of the English language.  Why don't we all just switch to Latin, eh?

Number 1: Anything wrong with quotation marks
   "Why is this a pet-peeve, Clove"?
   Clove sighs.  "Punctuation goes inside of the quotation marks, dear reader."
   "Is this better?" You ask with a short laugh.
   "Yes, except that now you need to un-capitalize your 'you'.  If the phrase outside of your dialogue is an action tag (versus a dialogue tag such as 'said', 'asked', or 'mumbled'), then you capitalize the first word of the phrase outside of dialogue.  Any other time (excepting proper nouns), the first word of the phrase outside of dialogue is un-capitalized."  Clove begins an action tag, closes her dialogue with a period, and glances at her confused reader.
    You nod hesitantly and say, "I think I got it.  Is this right?"
   "Yep!"
   "Phew..." you sigh.
   "Oh, and that's another confusing thing.  "Sigh" can be either an action tag or a dialogue tag."
   "Yeah, I could speak with a sigh," you sigh, "And I could sigh after I speak."  You sigh.
   "Exactly," Clove says, happy that you're catching on, "Except that now you have a new problem.  Anytime an action or dialogue tag interrupts dialogue," Clove says knowingly, "then the first word of the re-opened dialogue is not capitalized unless if it begins a new sentence.  For example, I have sentence one." Clove paused to interrupt her own speaking.  "Then I have sentence two.  The first word of sentence two is capitalized because it is...a new sentence."
   You give a roar of frustration.  "I GIVE UP!  This is ridiculous!"
   Clove shrugs.  "Agreed."  She cracks a grin and adds, "If you have a question, just pick up the book nearest to you and look for a dialogue piece that is like yours.  Match your punctuation to that of the book's, and, 99% of the time, you'll be writing technically correct."

Write on!
Clove