Search options (Page 2 of 10)

You can go and Google Elmore Leonard's ten rules for writing well. I don't practice them myself (because I'm a self-indulgent clown) but they ARE undeniably succinct and practical guidelines, the best one being:

Leave out all the shit that readers tend to skim or skip altogether.

Whaddaya mean they don't stick in your mind, Rachel? Thomas Jefferson was the firstest and bestest Secretary of State we've ever had or will ever have. Wait... He WAS a bit of a slave-owning/agrarian douchebag, wasn't he? History is rarely kind and chock full of second guessing, but when it IS kind? Well, it still cuts like a knife. Kissinger and Clinton, for example, did their level best to promote peace and de-escalate international tensions but they will both be remembered for their diplomatic fuckups rather than...

Shit. This thread was initially about capitalization. Sorry. I'll find my way out and continue talking to myself...

After a week or two basking and barfing in the aftermathic glow of Game of Thrones...  I'm honestly struck dumb and disappointed by the dispassionate weakness displayed in this here particular forum thread. Game of Thrones, for chrissakes, was the biggest and most belligerent piece of fiction (fantasy or otherwise) to come down the pike in the past twenty years and yet; the response around here, on TNBW at least, leaves a lot to be desired. Leaves me concerned, too. Despite the abominable ending, you people do realize that GOT is the GOAT and the GOAL y'all oughta be aiming for. Right?

Jesus H. Christ, fellow writers. You gotta imbibe, interpret, and then integrate the lessons (in action, dialogue, comedy, gravitas, and germane narrative) taught to you by GOT. You gotta reckon what worked, and what didn't work, in order to rework your own work. If you know what I mean.

For everything is derivative to some extent. As GOT was derived from LOTR, you'd do well to divine your own path from something that demands discussion and movies made.

I dunno. Maybe I'm crazy, but... No matter the medium, I want the people informing the medium (all y'all next big writers, for instance) to be informed. Before you attempt to try and inform (or entertain) the rest of us.

Cheers

John

Yeah, they blew it. Plain and simple. I came and got stimulated, entertained, but ultimately left unsatisfied and full of regret when all was said and done. Kind of like having bad sex is still HAVING SEX and always worth a go, but...

Is it really? It's better to have loved and lost, they say, than to have never loved at all, but...

Well, I just don't know anymore. Eight years is a long time to be with, let alone in love with, someone. Only to be served divorce papers in the bitter end.

Anyway, about the pacing some of you have mentioned. Three more episodes, me thinks. Just three measly more hours of the exposition and skullduggery, dastardly brinkmanship and heroic compromises --the stuff that made the story so engrossing in the first place-- and that might've fixed it.

It was always gonna be a deadly/death-defying crash landing (how do you even begin to explain all that Three-Eyed Raven baloney, never mind the abrupt establishment of a quasi-democracy?) but they could've kept that dragon in the air a bit longer and (like Sully on the Hudson) brought it down over polluted waters. Instead of, say, headlong into a pure and solid wall of ice that serves no purpose anymore except to provoke fire and promote nihilism.

Okay, I'm getting carried away with the inside-baseball and whatnot but I don't even know if I wanna invest the time and money and energy into reading (and reading into) the last two books now. If Martin ever gets around to even giving me the opportunity, that is.

Bitter about the ending, I am, but still sweet on the memories. They're apparently gonna try and expand on the Westerosi universe with prequels and spinoffs and shit (like Star Wars) but I'll be girding my loins this next time around. Especially since a severe over-correction, in the face of all this vitriol, could actually spin around on them and wind up spelling utter damnation.

(P.S. As many quarrels and bones to pick I've got with the writers of Game of Thrones; I've got no time for, and will give no quarter to, the PC police who've been accusing them of neglecting modern social mores and glamorizing violence and sexual misconduct. They are under no obligation to be politically progressive. Period. It would only amount to lip service, anyway. Especially within the context of this universe. You wanna read or watch a story where women and minorities are given agency and the due process they deserve before getting down in the dirt before getting uplifted and more? Well, fuck off somewhere and write it yourself! Period.)

And this coming from a staunch liberal, mind you!

Anyway... Thank y'all for commiserating with me in this forum. On to the next pop culture sensation. Hopefully one that's been created, and curated, right here in this digital crucible. You never know. Could be YOU. Right?

Cheers and Godspeed, fellow fictioneers

John

I actually think Arya might have actually died in this episode (in fact, I thought she must've died at least three times amidst that nuclear fallout) and that the white horse represented a kind of transition to the afterlife. One in which her little brother (Bran, the three-eyed wheelchair-bound weirdo) might guide her into the Lord of Light's arms and bring her back to life to save the world from fire-breathing dragons and the hell hath no fury feminine tyranny Danerys hath done wrought upon the world, and...

Jesus... Just shoot me, already. Make me stop!

Cheers

John

We're all being humorous here about some serious shit --I happen to reside right across the PUGET SOUND from Max Boyce, for instance; so there must be something in the water up here, right, buddy?-- because irreverence is sometimes the only way to face a tragedy like the ruination of your favorite soap opera. Game of Thrones had always been such an ingenious and superior blend of tragicomic sex and swords and sorcery and politics and psychology, though. A baroque marriage of batshit brave heroism and batshit depraved villainy. Which is why, once the show carried on beyond the books, the seams started parting and the bloom fell off the thing and suddenly this season is a tragic travesty I can't quite cope with.

After years (literally YEARS) of painstakingly careful character development, they've all been given short shrift leading up to this apocalypse we all probably shoulda seen coming. Then again, I'm of the mind that MORE of our favorite characters should've died along the way on this epic highway to hell. So I dunno. This is why I, myself, am tragically only capable of writing beginnings and middles. The "ends" of stories don't interest me as much as the origin stories, I guess. For I'm one of the proud few who really liked how shows like The Sopranos and The Shield and The Wire "ended". As opposed to the way Breaking Bad ended, for instance. Although, I really liked how Breaking Bad ended, too. So go figure.

Which brings me to the big send-offs Kdot alluded to. The Starks were all murdered in spectacular fashion, Mance Rayder went out like a mensch, Ygritte like a boy-crazy dumbstruck lover, Drogo like a big dumb rapey badass, Ramsay Bolton like a rapey Napoleonic bastard, Oberyn Martell like a righteous moron, Olenna Tyrell like a boss, Hodor like a hero, Tywin Lannister on a toilet... The list goes on. So much of that death and destruction was EARNED, though. Up until this season, that is. To see the writers let the Night King be taken out like a clown by a little girl, Rhaegal the dragon taken out like an innocent bystander by a psycopathic clown, Brienne of Tarth taken out like a jilted rom-com mallrat by a redeemed asshole, and the once fierce but now feeble Cersei Lannister taken out like a lamb led to a slaughter by the very same, but suddenly irredeemable, asshole...

Well, fuckit. There's just too much to unpack. I think my grievance with Dany's heel turn is less severe. I saw it coming because they really did "show" it coming. For all this time, and if you think about it, the only thing that ever held the Khaleesi in check (and NOT go all burn-em-all bastshit crazy) were her trusted advisers. If it seemed like her descent into madness came too fast (kinda like Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader came way too fast) it's because the writers messed up when they killed Rhaegal the way they did in the preceding episode. If they'd simply waited until THIS episode, the penultimate episode, to bring him down... Well, I would've wholeheartedly bought her genetically-compromised/God-complexed Targaryen pride overtaking her humanistic and pragmatic sensiblility.  She'd already lost Drogo and Beric and Viserion, Jorah, and Missandei and then the romantic love and affection of Jon Snow on top of it. She'd been betrayed by Sansa and Varys, let down by Tyrion and the people of Westeros, and so... If one of Cersei's scorpions had killed her second to last "child" (as the people of King's Landing cheered as he fell from the sky) well, forget the "bells." That probably would have sufficed as a last straw back-snapping justification to go on a kill-crazy genocidal rampage.

(In the context of the show, that is. I'm not condoning indiscriminate mass murder, by any means.)

Easy narrative fix, in my mind, anyhow, but... Then again, what do I know? I'm sitting here, worn out by the whole thing already. And yet, despite my angst,  I would still encourage the lot of y'all who have somehow managed to avoid this goddamned water-cooler soap opera for the past ten years to: GET IN ON IT!

For it's never too late to drink up, eat well, and be entertained. Nevermind the biting hangover... Game of Thrones, as it is and as a whole, is like a seven-course dinner-theater meal for the heart and mind. And well worth the bitter aftertaste.

Cheers
John

Yeah, I hear you, Temple. But I've read all of the books, too. Game of Thrones really is a brilliant piece de resistance of hand-wringing, heart-rendering, hamstringing drama. And I'm not saying I'm surprised by the rather rash turn of events on the television adaptation; I'm just dissatisfied. By the execution of the narrative, I guess. Sitting here with delusions of grandeur that I could've written it better myself. For the scope of George RR Martin's story is beyond abstinence, I'm afraid. It's a microcosm of the world we reside in. Despite the inclusion of religious magic and dragons and zombie armies and seasons that last for years and whatnot...

It's IMPORTANT to understand this shit, is what I'm saying. As wannabe "Next Big" writers, that is.

For I'm not even speaking as a consumer of mindless entertainment, but rather as a thoughtful person provoked by thoughtfully-rendered entertainment. I believe that it's essential that we, as a community of storytellers, reckon the pop-culture relevance of this controversial pop-culture phenomenon and learn from it. Period.

John

I love that you're being so open (and vulnerable) about your self-doubt, QW. Because that's something every writer MUST struggle with. By which I mean... It's a struggle. Period. If it ain't a struggle (a compelling one, I mean) then yes... There ARE better things you could probably spend your energy on. But will they make you as happy? I've been "struggling" here for ten years already, pouring it out with no profit to show for it, but that's the point and the "ladder to climb" all in one and all at once. Being artistic WILL cleanse your soul. Even if your soul is already clean.

Merry Christmas
John

Oh, no! Please... Don't close the "thread." Whatever the fuck it's supposed to be about, I forgot already. For I used to be THAT GUY, you see. (Like Charles Bell is nowl) but I've been demoted to THAT GUY who TRIES TOO HARD to be PROVOCATIVE. It sucks getting old and playing second fiddle to the new guy stirring the pot. Fuck.

Seriously, though... I dunno if Charles is just fucking with y'all or sincerely trying to stir the boiling pot from the noble position of Devil's Advocate, but... Argue with him. For chrissakes, he's falling on his sword and doing y'all a service. There to provide y'all a sounding board upon which you can improve your writing. Seriously... Utilize your ANTAGONY towards him (subtle plug) to debate your points and sharpen your rhetoric. Or, if you haven't got time for all that... Just go ahead and grab memes off the internet in order to antagonize him. That's fun, too.

I'm not sure what kind of overhead is involved when self-publishing/promoting your book, but... If you ain't concerned with the prestige or cache that comes with "having an agent", then it seems to me (nowadays, anyway) that if you've got the upfront capital to invest in yourself --why NOT cut out the middle men?

Then again, if you can and do land an agent and a publisher but you're concerned about being tied down and summarily forsaken... Maybe you can insist on including a clause in the contract that returns to you all intellectual rights to the book after a certain period of time? Or something along them lines. I'm not a lawyer, you see.  I don't even play one on the internet.

Godspeed, Gacela
John

Wait... How exactly did I inspire you, Rhia? Not that I don't wanna be an inspirational figure, but...

HOW THE HECK @ Twitter? Am I right?

Seriously, though... I've recently been inspired by a YOUTUBE trend where people react to popular music. The twist being that it's black people listening to hard rock and heavy metal for the first time/white people listening to rap and R&B for the first time. Honest reactions, they call it. And so... I thought it might be a nice writing exercise (perhaps even a contest) where me and my fellow TNBW'ers react to an unfamiliar song or musical genre in a "literary" way. In a way using narrative competence, that is. In order to argue the reasons why you, and other people, should or should not enjoy it.

For instance: If you love jazz, take a listen to Master of Puppets by Metallica and then write about the experience of hearing it. If you already love Metallica, take a listen to Take Five by Dave Brubeck and do the same. The possibilities are endless, actually. And fun. I think. Then again, I dunno.

Cheers

John