September 2024's Writer Support Thread

Do you want me check your code?

I am old school but my code works

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I appreciate the offer but I couldn’t possibly take your attention away from your own projects, and besides with over 7k lines of code it’s a LOT, and I wouldn’t feel comfy asking you to do that.

I don’t usually, but in these sections I really need it to actually do a line-space between the thingies, and it wasn’t doing it when I tested it UNLESS I do it this way. soooo yeah

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so… you know how there’s tons of information that exists out there in the world and we can’t possibly encounter all of it, or even most of it, let alone know a respectable chunk of it? I’m having a bit of a crisis in content writing because of that inconvenient little fact that our brains are not capable of infinite, instantaneous knowledge of all things… You might ask how, exactly?

Simply put, I’m doing some research about a a temporally and regionally specific historical development in order to take inspiration from it for my story and make it my own; the only problem is that I completely lack confidence that I know ā€˜enough’ to successfully port over a concept from history and replicate it convincingly. I think the deeper frustration might be related to my OCD, but the origin of that compulsion comes out of the reality that even with research, as writers we can never be true experts in multiple different fields. We will always have to approximate, guess, mess around with reality and reshape it to fit our needs. How can we do that with enough confidence that we aren’t accidentally butchering the concepts that we’re drawing inspiration from?

I’ve always been terrified of writing Sci-Fi for that exact reason even though I personally love the genre. I’m not science-minded and I don’t really retain info about science all that well. Appropriating scientific concepts to shape worlds and stories feels so risky to me because I’m convinced I’ll do a poor job and end up embarrassing myself and frustrating readers. Even with history–a field I have a degree in–there is this fear that I cannot reasonably appropriate a concept for a story or setting unless I know the ins and outs to a really high level… which is not a timely method for creating stories… Am I just in need of doing my breathing exercises and trying to calm down the compulsive thoughts or is there a method out there that you all use to get ā€˜close enough’?

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Do they all follow the same pattern (as in, have all the number variations in the same order), or is there locations where only some numbers appear? I feel like some program code would ease up the first one considerably…

Oh, the amount of money I’ve spent over the years for research for a story I ended up scrapping completely and thus rendering that research irrelevant and the money wasted…

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Nah, 7k of code is not too much. You have the code you need.

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I write sci fi with zero searching and zero anything. I do low fi and nobody expects that Rat cyber human mobs had a very accurate xenobiology.

It all depends on the vibe of the tone you follow. If you have a clear low fi sarcastic tone with that scoundrel in space or Cyber runer people will follow that and in fact feel weird if you suddenly act 3 pages of quantum theory to a action pack game.

However, if you start with a serious philosophical debate over whether The first contact rule should be used in neutral space even though the tides of Frontal occupation of Romulan empire of several primitive worlds.

Then yes, people will demand and expect from writer hard facts and investigation.

Both games can be good or bad. Both can be successful. But audiences and requirements to write them are totally different.

I personally don’t give a damn to investigate because my stories are zero to do with reality and all that investigation would destroy the pace.

Each writer has to know their stile and what is their focus and follow it.

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Ahhh thank you so much, that’s really lovely! I’m so glad you enjoyed them.

Funnily enough, the fire wasn’t a conscious theme, more that I put it in when it felt right…? Which is perhaps equally worrying…? :laughing:

This sounds so much fun! I did this with Honor Bound (though in a much less organised fashion) and it’s lovely illuminating different character attitudes through it, even if they come up indirectly in the game.

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I can confirm I absolutely glaze over with parts in hard sci-fi books at times…

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Don’t worry too much about it. I have been writing Civil War stories based on general knowledge that I already have about the time period. I’m sure I am screwing up some minor details, but it’s close enough. You aren’t writing nonfiction, so the choices are up to you. Make it work for you and let the readers tell you if something doesn’t make sense. It’s not like you are writing the final draft right now, anyway.

It’s better to write something that nobody likes than to write nothing. It gives you practice, experience, and confidence in your abilities. Write it for yourself, not for anyone else. Then, if the whole world hates it, at least you can read it and enjoy it yourself!

Best of luck

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I’d say that depends on what the screw-up is though… some things can really pull certain readers out of the story (looking at you, Pixelberry and an unexistent war) if it hasn’t been established that the world in question is different in those regards, and doing that probably requires knowing something about the subject.

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If it makes you feel any better, I’m feeling the same way.

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I literally started a story about a space janitor wipe out the exterior of a gladiatorial arena of super heroes and finding the burn out head of one to blackmarket.

Absolutely no need of warning this is not true or is based on whatever. I really think if you have to directly affirm if your story is in reality or not. You are doing a terrible job.

Tolkien didn’t needed, Jules Verne either nor Pratchett. Nor Aristotle

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Sure, but if in your story’s world, say, gravity depends on the color of the object, that would need to be established. If you don’t want to intentionally annoy the readers who care about physics.

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Sure, there’s good and bad writing choices. If you have cars in a Medieval story it’s going to throw everything off. From reading the post, it sounds like sertrude has a lot of knowledge and just needs a little confidence boost to get over the obstacle they are running into.

Think of it this way, if you don’t start a story then you have nothing written. That’s more of a problem than a hypothetical scenario where you’ve written a story that has some defects. In this case, I advise you to forge ahead and get something written down, then decide if that writing has the defects you are concerned about. :slight_smile:

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By writing text in a clear plot and show organically into the text.

You can read first volume of Dune and had a very clear picture of the Empire pre Arrakis war. With absolutely no direct text from the writer.

Nowadays , it is too prevalent the I will put all in a codex of 100 pages and put no world building whatsoever in plot.

@Cataphrak and @Havenstone Both have created really complex games you could want read big Codex. But you can understand and appreciate the worlbuilding with only the plot in the game.

There is where the talent of both lies.

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I’m not saying you’ll need to make a codex or spend pages in exposition, just that the reader needs to be able to understand what rules the world operates on.

(I mean, please don’t make your story operating on an alternate history in a throwaway line that makes it look like ā€œnobody even knows where that country is, who caresā€.)

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I heard a great piece of advice when it comes to information and research for stories.

Will it affect the plot? Is it so important that the information will change the events? Research it now.

Is it something you want to research to add believability? Because it’s fun? To add in some more details? Put it in a folder to research later. After the first draft, if you still want to include it in the story, go for it.

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Thanks, everyone! It’s encouraging and relieving that I’m not alone in this struggle! I will be utilizing the advice you’ve all kindly offered. I have a challenge seeing the forest for the trees and can end up making every single challenge into a gigantic mountain… I’ll start analyzing these things under a more honest lens of importance to plot and treat them with a reasonable degree of dedication as they actually require.

Or maybe I’ll just wing it and let all the details just come to me in a dream! :imp:

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That is running a risk you won’t remember them when you wake up (literally happened to me last night) :slightly_frowning_face:

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fortunately I’m on a mighty prosac prescription so I remember ALL of my dreams and they’re weird AF lol

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