Crimson Flag Comic Forums
Other Realms => Writer's Guild => Topic started by: Alias on February 03, 2010, 02:03:31 AM
-
Alright, so, in an effort to practice writing, and particularly practice thinking of peices of writing as a cohesive, complete though, I'm going to try writing some very short things, under 1000 words (although they could end up much shorter, depending.)
And so, I am opening what is sort of a requests thread. But I have no intention of doing every request, so really more of a suggestion thread. Feel free to throw out a whole bunch of suggestions and I'll pick ones I like, or maybe just make something up on my own. Creativity is strongly encouraged ^-^ . Making me read back-story is not >.<
I'll probably start out doing one a day until I lose momentum, then it'll just be whenever >.<
-
Hooray! Short stories are really fun to write.
How about....
Anthro; High School Setting.
Everyone is in a normal, human world. But gradually, one kid starts seeing all of his classmates and teachers becoming anthro representations of themselves.
((February must be request month. ]:)))
-
Hmmm...
How bought a sort of strip-poker but with TFs?
-
attack of ferret pirates, looting a settlement on a floating island in the sky, led by the Fennel.
-
Hmmm...
How bought a sort of strip-poker but with TFs?
Now that seems like a kind of cool idea. I'm thinking like, Jumangi as a card game ^-^
-
Hoohoo, that sounds great
-
eeehh. while strip poker but with TFs sounds interesting (and funny) I don't think Jumangi is a good match. When you play that game you play for your life. It'd be kind weird to have a game go from "This next turn might kill us" to "This next turn might give me weird ears".
-
true...
-
I am not really a funny writer. Although if someone gives me a really fun wacky scenario I might play it straight, but more likely I'm gonna put a darker twist on things. ^.^
Don't worry, there'll be more than ears at stake.
-
ah, righty then! good stuff then.
-
... It'd be kind weird to have a game go from "This next turn might kill us" to "This next turn might give me weird ears".
If I remember right, Jumanji was about as likely to do both, often at the same time. It would inflict just about anything from mildly uncomfortable to outright fatal. The only thing predictable about it was that it would nearly always be something bad. That... actually does sound like it would make a good story. Murphy's card game or something.
-
Finished the first one! It was a lot of fun, I think I'm going to want to keep Winter and Mortimer for future stories. Set in the same universe as Lonely Howling, a universe I really need to name sometime. Final word count: 1332.
Anyway, I need more suggestions, come one people ^-^
-
Maybe you'd be kind enough to write a story in which Kiba takes care of his son, Gary?
-
I refer you to my thing about not wanting to read backstory >.<
-
wait a minute, if Kiba is age-regressed then hows he able to have had children?
-
wait a minute, if Kiba is age-regressed then hows he able to have had children?
I believe that's only the Metamor Keep Kiba, where as the Overgrown Lands Kiba isn't.
-
wait a minute, if Kiba is age-regressed then hows he able to have had children?
I believe that's only the Metamor Keep Kiba, where as the Overgrown Lands Kiba isn't.
Overgrown Lands? wha?
It's a setting Donnie made and has written it, but he's never posted a story from it. I think this Kiba comes from RPs in the setting, but I could be wrong (and likely am).
-
Overgrown Lands? wha?
Donnie's own setting, and please, cut the offtopic.
Give ideas or don't post.
-
A wizard finds his way into a portal that takes him into a strange realm, and finds hes lookings rather...strange. Unfortunently, he can't remeber the exactly gate code to go back!
-
(23:46:21) Stormkit: A little boy discovers a doorway to an empty city in his basement.
(23:47:12) Stormkit: but the next day he can no longer find it and is left to wonder if it ever really happened
Keeping that one for possible later use, I think I'm gonna do Kenku's next though ^.^
-
Alias, great job on the wizard/card game story! And wow, all that written in a single day! *is envious* [;)
-
C'est fini!
As a bonus, I finally have a name for the world that contains Lonely Howling and most of my other stories; it is now called the Alibi verse.
-
Gah! It's like popcorn! Only a little bit by itself, and thus leaves you craving for more!/me twitches.
-
Finished Kit's story suggestion, need more suggestions!
-
(15:37:22) Tvorsk: Alias: A kid seeks a bit of peace and calmness from its unfair parents hiding on the home's roof. During one of these visits, he meets a cat there. Talks to him, ranting over the unfair life and all... then the cat begins answering back.
^_^
-
Hm.....very surreal. Very Surreal. I don't really know if any other word works here. A lot of talk of the "between" world and such and such an idea, which is very nice. But I don't seem to be connecting with the characters all that much. In fact, this concept of the "between" seems to be the main character in both these stories, rather than the characters you pretend to follow. I see this a little bit in the first story, and a lot more in the second. So, I might recommend either giving us more about the characters we can relate to, or simply making the concept of "between" the main character. (I know its a bit abstract, but you can handle it right? How's that for a recommendation of a story? Make a CONCEPT the main character of a story. ]:)I think you can handle it.)
-
Did Tvorsk's, need more suggestions.
-
A young boy adventures through a mostly unexplored part of the woods behind his house. To his surprise, the woods aren't exactly uninhabitied, as the boy runs into one of the more smart residents of the woods.
-
Someone seeks wisdom and knowledge, and so makes the discovery of a lifetime, but perhaps some things are best left unknown.
Take this where you will, the reason this thing perhaps shouldn't have been discovered has many possibilities. Maybe there is a guardian of some sort, maybe the truth is horrific in some way, or perhaps the knowledge is just too tempting a path to percieved power.
-
Wow. I'm really speechless. I was going to bring in a quote from that story to show a point or something, but I would just use the entire story as a quote. ]:)
This story is powerful because it connects with a common problem in modern society. Rather than being about fanciful worlds, it's about a very REAL kid with a very REAL problem. He's frustrated by his parents, and by how apart they are, (they might be divorced soon, due to their differences,) so he goes up on the roof to draw as an escape from their conflicts.
He has drawn the mountains, not as they are, but as he wishes they were
Nice.
Um, back to my point.
He turns back east, to the lights of downtown. He has never drawn this view before; has felt it would be somehow wrong to mix his mother’s art with his father’s.
“Don’t you think they need to mix a little more?”
The cat on the roof represents the character's unconscious mind, ( obviously, ]:)) and what he's been avoiding for all this time. He has this idea in his head that the world would be better if his parents were just SEPARATE, rather than fighting all the time.
But, he comes to realize that his parents' fighting is actually.....(wait, you're going a different direction with this.)
Er....ending, conclusion, what? You end with him drawing his "mother's and father's styles" together, and the cat (his unconscious!) departing. But what does this tell him to do? Stop trying to separate his parents? He seems to still dislike his parents' arguments.
Hm.....
Great story. The emotional content didn't feel at all weighed down by the imagery and scenery. ]:)
((As for your next story, my recommendation: He's a normal kid, but without warning he starts doing UNSPEAKABLE behaviors, such as doing his chores, finishing his homework, and SHARING WITH HIS SIBLINGS. How will these acts of ANARCHY stand in his household? ]:O))
-
Um, back to my point.
The cat on the roof represents the character's unconscious mind, ( obviously, ]:)) and what he's been avoiding for all this time. He has this idea in his head that the world would be better if his parents were just SEPARATE, rather than fighting all the time.
But, he comes to realize that his parents' fighting is actually.....(wait, you're going a different direction with this.)
Er....ending, conclusion, what? You end with him drawing his "mother's and father's styles" together, and the cat (his unconscious!) departing. But what does this tell him to do? Stop trying to separate his parents? He seems to still dislike his parents' arguments.
/me can't really see the point you're making here Lopez. You recount they story... then kinda drop off..
The main story isn't about resolving the conflict between the parents, nor is it the boy learning to deal with their rift, The story is actually about the boy in trying to win his parents approval or more likely the lack of approval from his mom.
The boy is simply trying to impress his mom by painting the mountains and trying to be original about it, adding the trees and the snow in an attempt to enhance whats already there, hoping that she would slowly come around. The cat as says he is trying too hard, not as you suggest to somehow resolve the parental conflict, but in fact to just stop emulating her style and changing a few things here and there.
This is supported by the fact that when he produces the city scape... he makes a masterpiece, thats the mixing that alias means. The mixing of Mom's painting talent, with the subject matter being the buildings his dad has designed downtown. Once we've gotten to this point, the cat is actually the representation of the realization that shouldn't worry so much about what his mom (and dad thinks) and by extension not to worry so much about his parents fights.
One can even extend this further and hope.. that possibly the Boys art would help in reuniting his parents.
TL;DR: Its not about the boy coming to terms with his parents fights, but actually him coming to term with and realizing he shouldn't care so much at what his mom (and dad) thinks and do things his own way combining both their talents. ]:)
-
Lopez, Lopez >.<
Did you read the whole thing? Maybe reread the paragraph that starts "His mother has a wonderful painting of these mountains..." once or twice? Anyway, his parents aren't that different. They're both artists in their own way.
Also, this is still Alibi, so talking cat does not automatically equal unconscious. Also I've never known an unconscious to be so helpful. Not everything is about psychology ^.^ The cat is actually meant to be Seer, one of the mythic figures from the Alibi universe, but if that were important in any way her name would be in the story. The essential thing is that the cat sort of nudges him towards resolving something.
Kai, you've got it for the most part, except for a few unimportant things I can't really make clear in a story this short. My english teacher once suggested that to seriously analyze a book, we should consider drawing a picture of it, that was part of my inspiration for this; to tell a story that has a very clear sort of a structure.
West East
Mountains------------------------------------Roof------------------------------------City
Mother Son Father
I think this young man's family deserves further exploration, so I might come back to this story and do a longer piece after I've had more time to think about it.
Kenku I like your suggestion, but I'm gonna do Kit's first because I see a way to write a fun story about it and the last couple have been all serious. Also, I might work more on the GUIDE before getting to those.
-
It appears that my 3 AM musings are a slight bit off from my usual performance. ]:( I'll wait a day next time so the story can sink in better.
However, there were some points that I wanted to bring up.
One can even extend this further and hope.. that possibly the Boys art would help in reuniting his parents.
BAM. This is the argument that I was trying to make. The problem is that there just aren't any major threads in the story that lead to this point.
And yes, Kai, looking back on it, he does seem to like his mom a lot more than he likes his dad. He's trying to impress his mom in this story. In fact, a couple lines even suggest that he dislikes his father:
Odd, that a man with so little ambition could rise to greater heights than such a driven woman.
I'll avoid describing his repressed oedipal complex towards his mother in favor of a more valid argument; he likes his mother more. Therefore...
The boy is simply trying to impress his mom
I agree with this. Let's move on.
by painting the mountains and trying to be original about it, adding the trees and the snow in an attempt to enhance whats already there, hoping that she would slowly come around.
I disagree with this. See quote:He has darkened them and added imagined snow and trees in an effort to salvage his vision, but it has only shattered the realism of the image,
so doesn't this imply that he is using the snow and trees to HIDE his errors, (and it is the reason why he thinks the painting is worthless? Because he can't capture the exact object, he tries to repress his errors but ends up just failing at drawing?
*Reads through that long paragraph twice. Again.*
Yeah, his parents aren't that different. But they're fighting. Hense, conflict. They're definitely not the same. And he is DEFINITELY leaning towards his mother's side. I don't hear much about how he respects his father and wants his attention. So his relation to both parents certainly isn't equal.
Lastly, end quote:
That is certainly true. His parents, he feels, would be much happier if they ever talked to one another about anything that really mattered. They are like strangers in the same house.
He begins to draw by the light of the streetlights, carefully marking out every sparkling piece of stolen starlight, catching the barely-visible variations of light and dark and taking hold of them, making a city that stands out vividly against the darkness, holding the night at bay with its thousands of tiny artificial suns.
As the drawing takes shape, the cat departs, unnoticed, satisfied that her task is complete.
The conclusion that Kai makes "he makes a masterpiece" shows in the second paragraph here. This is what you both paid the most attention to. My problem was that I was reaaaallly hung up on the first paragraph.
My problem was with the idea that the story was about the painting. In my opinion, it's not ABOUT the painting. Yes, "realizations" involving artistic talent are noteworthy, but if his realizations remain confined in an artistic sphere, this kid might live a pretty sorry existence. He can be the greatest artist in the world, but he'll still be up on the roof away from the rest of his family.
Instead, I decided to focus on what the painting would DO, namely, stop the parents from fighting. But the boy doesn't even seem to CARE about his parents by the end of the story. It was all him, HIS work, ME ME ME.
By the end of the story, I wanted him to come down, say nothing to his parents, and simply hang up his drawing outside his room for his parents to see, eventually. Instead, at this point it seems like he's going to keep his achievements for himself.
Again:
His parents, he feels, would be much happier if they ever talked to one another about anything that really mattered. They are like strangers in the same house.
That's the only interaction he plans with his parents by the end. Thanks, you're a great kid!
GRRRRRRR... ]fox[
....lol, I tend to want other people's stories to conform to my standards a lot of the time. I apologize for that. ];)
...I also apologize for this absurdly long post. I'm still trying to come to grips with your story, so thank you for your comments and time. ]:)
-
Alright, I think that's enough for now. I'm going to finish Kit's suggestion, then next I'm planning to do a medium-length story about Alibi, although still with a somewhat limited length (I'm thinking around 5000 words.) I'm planning to work Kenku's suggestion into the longer story, which I think will be called "Days without Nights", though that might change.
-
Just read Alibi (plus the accompanying world info/ mini-stories). Great stuff! Also enjoyed the cat story. Love what you're doing here. Keep it up!