General Writing

[beekee]

[beekee]

Also .

[noodles]

[beekee]

hi, ravioli c:

[Optional Boss]

[SirthOsiris]

OK.

Bear with me on this.

A year or so back, I came up with this initial concept out of the blue. I hadn't really developed it since then, though I thought about it occasionally. However, Thursday night on the bus, I ran through it in my head again, and came up with an interesting way to end either a short story or introduction.
This isn't fully developed, so its very rough; I'll probably think on it more over the summer. Who knows; might turn into a story for my fiction-writing class.
No names or anything right now. It's just a basic idea on what happens.

[spoiler]The story so far:
It takes place primarily in a castle. This was the seat of power of a lord's family, which was taken over by a minor duke a decade prior to the story. The entire land is chaotic, with lord's taking the lands of other lords, and dukes vying for power within. The entire family of the lord was killed, save the youngest daughter; our protagonist.
Our heroine wakes up every morning, knowing she exists now to exist, and nothing more. She is kept only as a prisoner. She is still treated like a princess, minus the respect. The only warmth she ever gets is from a kobold(anthro-fox) shaman the family keeps around.
She woke this particular morning regretting her entire existence. She wanders the hallways of the castle with the shaman, recollecting what happened during the 'rebellion.' She remembers her father being killed, and the general of the usurpers killing all her brothers and mother, stopping short at her. She did not know why.
Later in the evening, a cry gives out. The castle is under attack by another lord's army. The heroine laments that even this family wasn't good enough for the country. Not knowing whether she would be safe or not, the heroine and the shaman escape or fight their way to the throne room.
There, she meets a last stand being held by the usurper's son. The lord had joined his army and died for it, and now the last of the guards, knights, servants and son stayed here. The now-lord attempted to save face by belittling the former lord's daughter. She throws it back at him, telling him he has lost, and to truly save face, he needed to leave. She announces there is a secret escape behind the throne, and any member of the usurper's people were welcome to join her.
The last person the heroine expected to follow was her family's murderer, who was the first to step forward and pledge himself to her. He and several knights helped her locate the escape and help people into it. A few guards pledged themselves to hold off as many as they could to buy time, whether it helped or not. The lordling also remains, refusing to join them. The group makes their way through as the door pounds, and finally leave.
The guards stand away from the door, ready to die heroicly. The lordling, however, has another plan, and kills all of them. The doors burst open, revealing the invading lord, allowing him an eyeful of the carnage.
At this point, two endings are likely:
-This remains a short story. The invading lord decides he needs to finish the job, and kills the lordling. He never discovers the hidden entrance, nor the lady that escaped. His rule is just, and the heroine present herself as a duchess. He is none the wiser, or she tells him the truth, and he accepts it. Peace.
-In the second version, when the invading lord sits on the throne, the lordling lifts his sword and stabs him in the neck. He retakes his throne, and begins his rule that prompts the heroine's hand in retaking it.[/spoiler]

[beekee]

[fauxsquared]

[noodles]

[Kinokokao]

Take a physical pad of paper and pen to bed with you. Use a bedside lamp or small reading light.

Write for at least 20 minutes -- even if it's just character sketches, ideas, snippets of a scene -- until you run out of steam or fall asleep, whichever comes first. Try to get at least 20 minutes in before you stop.

Spelling doesn't matter, grammar doesn't matter, coherency doesn't matter. Nobody has to read it, you can always re-write it in the morning or later or never.

[Maxine MagicFox]

[beekee]

[Maxine MagicFox]

I, too, have a REALLY hard time with 'distractions'. I really can never find any easy way to cope, though I do have one or two things that I do to try to stave off certain impulses.

The internet: just disconnect the bloody thing. I double click the icon and disconnect from my wifi so the temptation is a little harder to give in to (doesn't always work, mind you...)

Take a drink with you - but ONLY your favorite drink that does not take time to brew and is just quick and easy. Dear god, no food. If you are hungry, eat and get it out of your system, you're not going to be able to focus otherwise

Then there is also the 30min policy I will sometimes implement. "Get on the internet - 30 mins, get it out of your system, log off and then WRITE WRITE WRITE WRITE!!"

Always keep your story document open and when you get off make sure that it is open to the document so that it's the first thing you see when you jump onto the computer. This works the best for me. There is something alluring about the white screen when I jump on with the cursor already on the next line for me to type and my quick bracket notes* telling me what goes next. "Oh, yes... that's right. I was about to write that scene."
*(I leave myself notes throughout my story telling me what goes where and a general plan. Usually I write these at the beginning of the chapter, but I will sometimes write them in the middle of an action scene. More importantly I write at least one or two quick lines before I leave so it cuts down on the "what was I doing again?" moment when I return. I call them "bracket notes" because they are in between [] which I NEVER use elsewhere in a story and makes for quick and easy clean up later. I also put "old paragraphs" in brackets in case I feel something needs rewritten but I don't feel comfortable deleting the section just yet. My stories are always littered with bracket notes)


... none of these are full proof. As I said, I, too, have serious problems with this. I'm still a work in progress.

[Drathi]

[Skele Von Mann]