Writefag Thread, New Year Edition

I'll start.

>started submitting stuff in June 2015
>ended the year with two published poems, three short pieces of experimental fiction, and a strip in a terrific small press anthology
>hopefully this year I'm gonna finally land a Future Shock at 2000 AD and get more small press strips out there
>hopefully by next year or the end of this one I'll be showing them to editors at US publishers like Dynamite and Boom

I also met a great artist at a signing, and wrote out a script that I thought hit his talents nicely. Hopefully we can work on that and self-publish it early this year.

Not too bad considering I'm eighteen.

Hope you guys had good years?

Shameless self-bump

I had this idea about a guy who is brainwashed to have split personality between upstanding suburban husband and superspy/assasin who isn't meant to remember other personality at all suddenly starting to retain both sets of memories, but I don't think anything would come out of it.

>rejected Millarworld submission
>every artist I speak to wants an absurd amount of money for drawings
>still putting off my 2000AD submission because I don't think the genre fits what they're looking for

Could be better I suppose.

File: 1451477523857.png (35KB, 351x472px) Image search: [Google]

35KB, 351x472px

>>78579599

I stopped writing a hell of a long time ago to pursue Maths, even though I was considered great by my English teachers. Then I watched Gravity Falls and came up with some headcanons I really wanted to explore, so I finally got back into doing it, and published two online on Fanfiction, which both got pretty good reception. So, here's to the New Year, and hopefully re-exploring those old dreams.

I obviously don't have all that much under my belt, so I'll wish the more experienced anons here (everyone) all the best of luck.

I finished my book last year so I guess I'll just write another and keep on sending query letters for the first

File: Game Face.png (244KB, 381x398px) Image search: [Google]

244KB, 381x398px

>Looking to be much more productive this year
>If things go well I should actually have a good amount of content online with the next few months
>Main goal after that is to finish my cartoon pitch for amazon Studios

This might just be a very busy year for me and you know what, I welcome it.

File: 1439159574314.png (459KB, 1221x702px) Image search: [Google]

459KB, 1221x702px

Another blog thread? Well OK.
Finally finished and self-published my young adult superhero deconstruction novel. Going to spend this year advertising it and writing the sequel.

File: co sad.png (173KB, 455x367px) Image search: [Google]

173KB, 455x367px

>>78580743
Jesus Christ I suck at spoilering.

Hopes are to try and actually do some serious writing got myself instead of fapfics even though those have been a lot of fun over the years. I've just been really worried now that since most if not all of my ideas were based off of other sources, none of the story or characters I'm working on are actually mine and so I shouldn't get too invested into it.

>>78580541
Don't worry, Millarworld was always a stretch. They got about 1300+ scripts. I've been rejected by 2000 AD twice but there are great small press places that'll consider scripts, like FutureQuake, which started off by publishing what 2000 AD rejected.

>>78580712
That sounds intense. Best of luck! I know there's a worry with intellectual property and all, but could you give us a logline for your cartoon?

>>78581019
Oh yeah also, 2000 AD give a sentence of feedback per rejection which, if used properly, can really feed the direction you take your next submission.

Also, an Andy Diggle tip, if you come up with your twist and then make it the premise (i.e., take it from the bottom of page 4 and put it at the bottom of page 1), your finished products will invariably be more interesting.

I'm working on a comic mini-series, it's called The All-Star Loser. The plot follows a guy (the titular Loser) and his girlfriend, Iris, who find themselves in the crossroads of a brutal gang war between the Giovanardi family and the Red Street Mafia whilst trying to outrun a hired killer who is one step behind them. I've taken influence from tonnes of movies, TV shows, comics, etc. I plan on including a lot of comic references, since the two leads are comic fans, for example, they use aliases from obscure comics to try and hide from the enemy pursuing them.

>>78581466
Do you have an artist attached?

>>78581503
3. My girlfriend, my brother, and one of my friends. I'm using three artists as a stylistic choice. I'm trying to work the script to about 6 issues (or chapters) so each artist can do two issues in their own different style.

>>78581657
That's cool; are you sending it to image or self-publishing?

>>78582014
Don't know yet, I'm going to wait until it's actually complete, I'm halfway through the story and my girlfriend has just started working on the first issue.

File: We Must Dissent.jpg (170KB, 518x1442px)

170KB, 518x1442px

Slowly chugging forward with a collaborative story I've been working on with a friend for some time. It's a pretty weebish fighter story set in a zombie apocalypse, with a big gimmick being that there's multiple unrelated groups of protagonists. Re-editing an early draft in hopes of getting something done for the year.

Besides that, thinking of writing a cartoon/comic pitch based around an incompetent Illuminati-ish group who're trying to manage the World Government while dealing with excessive paperwork, budget cuts, paranoid reporters, and rivalry from those damn lizard people. The main things holding me back are a lack of experience and a lack of focus; I think I should stick with short fiction and existing projects before trying something big.

In 2015, I wrote a lot of super-short fapfics, but I consider my main achievement to be a short story inspired by old Dirty Pair comics/anime/Light Novels. It spun off in its own original direction as time went on, the plot turned out solid even if it started as a stream of consciousness, and the main narrator/protagonist's voice came out very smoothly despite being different from my natural tone; I'm pleased with the result. Had a few false starts of trying to make a sequel, but I might give it a shot.

I don't know what I should be working on, I might pick up an old project but lately I have been stalling, I set up a date to get something big done by my next Birth day

>>78580607
Was it smut?

>>78583522

No, they were both about the level as what would happen on the show.

The first was about a school dance just before the show started where Dipper was anxious because he felt he was ugly and would never get a date. Mabel then proceeded to help him by convincing him to ask out his crush, and worked on helping him with date preparation until the night, when it turns out the crush had only said yes so she could publicly haze and humiliate him in front of everyone. Dipper runs away in tears, and then his sister comforts him, regaining his confidence, particularly after she says that he's her best friend, leading to Dipper affirming the same.

The second was an AU of the last episode where Dipper is taken on a tour of his deepest desires, after having made a bet that if he could endure all of them, Mabel would be released. He gives in when the Bubble shows him his parents, only now they love and appreciate him, but ultimately, he's so touched by their love that he wants to be the best son he can be, and ultimately finds the strength to leave.

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7319270/Inevitablemoving

They're both here in the off-chance you're interested.

>>78579650
That's really lucky. Not to demean your work.
Any chance you got something to share?

>>78583672
They're pretty good anon. I like your style.

>>78580497
Depends on the execution anon. It's not a very new concept but I'm sure you can do something interesting with it.

>>78580607
I know what that's like. Engineering got me completely out of writing. Getting back into it myself now.

>>78580743
What's it called? What's the deconstruction aspect?

>>78580824
Almost anything in this day and age can be traced back to something. Don't let that hold you back.

File: 1451337961071.png (28KB, 500x223px) Image search: [Google]

28KB, 500x223px

>>78583850

Th-thanks anon.

>>78583898
I've been writing fic too. Since I've been stuck at home, I write and read most of the time to keep away boredom.

http://pastebin.com/wWXd2da2

Here's one of them.

>>78583873
>Depends on the execution anon. It's not a very new concept but I'm sure you can do something interesting with it.
I mean I'm not sure I'd follow through with it, because I don't have much new to say. But I do find this an interesting double life plot.

>>78581019
>I know there's a worry with intellectual property and all, but could you give us a logline for your cartoon?

There's not really much I can say about at the moment.

I'll probably talk about it a couple times on /co/ as I get more done. We'll see.

>>78584002

I know nothing about the Star Wars EU, but your writing style is definitely engaging. Great work.

>>78583783
Two of my really short literary pieces are available here. My initials are J.O:
http://www.bostonliterarymagazine.com/fall15dribble.html

And the anthology with my one-page strip in is available digitally for about £1 here (I'd post it but copyright issues). It's a terrific comic, all in all, with some outstanding contributions -- well worth the asking price.
http://www.lulu.com/shop/paragon-comic/the-paragon-annual-2016-ebook/ebook/product-22484146.html

>>78584066
Off the top of my head, you made me think of how there's always an agency of some sort after the character just as soon as, or just before, they remember. It would be interesting to see it bleed through quite a while before the antagonists notice. You can probably come up with something more solid though.

>>78584125
>Off the top of my head, you made me think of how there's always an agency of some sort after the character just as soon as, or just before, they remember.
I don't understand this sentence.

File: 1416943438770.jpg (10KB, 125x117px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 125x117px

>>78584100
Thanks man, this is a start to a great year.

What books do you read to better understand Narrative structure?

>>78584144
Apologies. I meant, in stories where a character lives a double life they're unaware of, they fully realize the fact just as soon as someone starts chasing them. We rarely get to see them before that.

>>78584122
Those were somewhat painfully short examples. That make me want to read more. Good stuff.

>>78584185
Not him but Robert McKee's "Story" is really useful for that. Also, Stephen King's "On Writing" is really useful generally.
For comics, there's no better introduction than Bendis's "Words for Pictures".

>>78584261
My idea was that nobody chases him (At least at first), instead he remembers and tries to look normal.
His own employers serve as antagonists for the most part. SD6-like fellas.

>>78584185

To be honest not many.

I just really wrote a lot in school days, and was quick to pick up on how to economically tell a story with the sheer amount of work I did. I remember writing up stories as far back as when I was six. I would frequently ask my parents and teachers for advice as well. Those two stories I wrote were just me shaking off the cobwebs, I really have only re-started VERY recently.

>>78584261
Thanks! I'm from the Hemingway school of 'push everything you can out of every single word/panel'. It really forces depth out of me, and is helping me move on to stories of bigger scope.

Im going to attempt and write a good F4 film story that can fit in the MCU.

>>78584300
So you'll already be doing something most people don't.

>>78584353
I've had to try and train myself out of that. Years of writing like that threw my pacing out the window, so I can write short stories, but anything longer gets bogged down when I keep cutting out segments and it hinders developing detailed plots.

I tried writing interactive fiction about murder mystery in sci-fi setting, but realized I can't make it work the way I want, and without this element, it's just banal.

Maybe I still try and write it as linear fiction, those flowcharts can't go to waste.

>>78584262
>Stephen King's "On Writing"
This is good. Always been a fan of Stephen King.

>>78584303
That's me, really. I was always great in English and Literature from the time I was in grade school, high-school to community college. Never really did anything with it until I had to go back and take care of the homestead due to sick parents. The writing I do now is very recent too.

I mostly read Jack London, Brian Jacques, King, Zane Gray and Clarke.

>>78584452
What are you trying to do? How interactive is it?

>murder mystery in sci-fi setting
This sounds fun.

>>78584531
I wanted player to assume role of detective investigating a murder. But I couldn't figure how to make player follow clues neither leaving him in the dark, nor holding his hand.

>>78584569
I've read a lot of detective fiction over the years and I feel you'd run into two obstacles this way, though they're diametrically opposed in a narrative sense.
The first being that theres a disconnect between the character and the reader which is difficult to resolve. A reader can figure out who the killer is from tone and writing and clues but a detective needs time and sometimes more clues to connect the ones he has in character.
Second, sometimes the mystery resolution lies in a clue that means nothing to the reader but speaks volumes to the detective who exists in universe.

Most detective stories fall into one of these two camps, by the end. For your purposes, I feel you need to go for the first one, with a dash of getting some history on every character from the detective pov. So the one thing you can do here is have a lot of very shady suspects. More so than usual. And conflicting but very much linked goals, though some might seem linked but be red herrings.

>>78581042
>2000 AD give a sentence of feedback
>which, if used properly, can really feed the direction you take your next submission

That doesn't sound all that helpful, what sort of feedback is it? Story specific? Problems with the actual script?

>>78584569
How would you write this in the first place? Choosing different dialogue or scenarios for the clues to be found?

>>78584718
Yes, sort of. You aren't supposed to actually examine crime scene, you got clues, try to connect them to get more clues, interrogate people and move plot along with new reveals about the victim. But I can't make it in a way I would myself like.

>>78584698
Either, I suppose. I can only tell you what I've recieved: "Not exciting enough" and "Too exciting to be of substance". It's led me to try and split the difference.
I know a writer who got "Too much expositionary dialogue" too.

>>78583672
Yeah they are good, keep it up!

>>78584002
It's another good read!

>>78579599
I've written a lot of original stuff for /tg/ but aside from that nothing, not even fanfiction.

I find a lot of ideas I personally find interesting but can't stretch out into a proper plot.

So I've decided to just rip off what's popular and give it my own twist.

>>78584780
Hmm, I'm trying to understand it too, it sounds like a fun premise and sci-fi murder mysteries are pretty damn cool. Are there works of fiction that have this kind of structure, if so try and find them and dissect how they do it.

>>78584838
>"Too exciting to be of substance".
What sort of answer is that? How can something exciting not have substance?

>>78584838
Feel free to say no, but could you post your scripts so I can see what they mean?

>>78584879

Thanks, I'm buried under test revision, but I'll pick up the pace when I'm done. I'll probably do some light-hearted one about Dipper losing a bet, and having to join in and dress up for Mabel's Girls Night.

It's just nice to know that the praise I got from family for my writing wasn't just pandering.

>>78584932
They mean it's too shallow and fast-paced a story to be suitable for the four-page format.

>>78584987
I'll post the first one, but I want to see the second one for something else. Not at home atm so if this thread is still alive I'll post the "not exciting enough" one. It is pretty weak, and I'm not very proud of it.

>>78585240
>It's just nice to know that the praise I got from family for my writing wasn't just pandering.
That feeling can really hit hard if you're unsure of yourself.

>>78584880
And what exactly is popular these days?

File: books-for-writers.jpg (28KB, 500x321px) Image search: [Google]

28KB, 500x321px

>>78585418
Not that anon, but this quote stuck with me and my fears for writing.

My biggest problem is that I don't feel my writing style doesn't really fit any character over 20, which limits my opportunities.

They're more /a/ or /d/ stuff, but I did decent in 2015 with some of my more personal projects, and I intend on increasing my productivity with it this year.

>>78585597
That is so goddamn true

>>78585867
it can't be.

>>78584987
>>78585359
Okay, here's a link to the first script I sent to 2000 AD. It was early days, and in hindsight it isn't great, but I put my inexperienced heart and soul into it. It really showed me where my flaws as a scriptwriter lay, and I've been improving since.

Its a sci-fi slice of life about a cuck.
http://pastebin.com/aiFNcvWj

Note: if you want to submit to the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, stick to sci-fi action. They won't take risks on unusual material if its unsolicited.

>>78585456
Stuff like Sword Art Online and Ready Player One. Basically anything that tries to sell itself to the reader with a blank slate protagonist and is pandering to an audience of video game players by telling them it's a useful skill.

I think that's retarded as fuck however but if I borrow the aesthetics I can at least trick people into reading my shit.

>>78585947
>it can't be.
Sure it can. Everything's possible.

>>78585985
So what would your story actually be about then?

Because unless you are going to completely stick with the aesthetics you actually have to have a story.

>>78586177
So you're best at writing a certain type of character. Who the hell isn't?

>>78585985
>with a blank slate protagonist and is pandering to an audience of video game players by telling them it's a useful skill.

Look man, don't go with the flow. Forge your own path and don't become Author #255467 on a list, stick out and try to be you, not someone else.

> I can at least trick people into reading my shit.
Then no-one will read it, you would be trying to get the same audience that hundreds of others are trying to get.

>>78585985
Whenever I see "In the vein of Stephen King" or something like that on a dustcover, I just put the book down. Just write something you like, as honestly as you can, and chances are other people will like it too.

Nothing wrong with borrowing aesthetics, but if you're writing something specifically to engineer popularity, it may not go so well.

It's a toss up between my post-rapture noir comic, my super heroes traveling the universe after the Earth's destruction comic, and my series of adventure shorts in the irradiated post apocalypse.

I hope I actually finish something that isn't just incest smut for /gif/.

And my serious output was absolutely atrocious last year.

>>78586212
A series of violent murders are occuring across a city. Teenagers are being found beat,stabbed and shot to death and the cops are scrambling to find out why.

The protagonist does not care about any of that. He's trying to make a living at a shitty job while studying the material nesseccary to be allowed by the government to join the security force. His brother might be a VR addict and continually almost dies of starvation and not going to the bathroom.

His brother is then promptly beat to death and the MC while mourning is pestered by the girl who might have caused it. And that is where the story kicks off.

>>78586579
For some reason I'm thinking that theses stories of yours are going to be comedies

>>78586607
>His brother might be a VR addict and continually almost dies of starvation and not going to the bathroom.
Well that's disturbing.

Wouldn't someone step in? The government, school, their parents?

>>78586722
I'm not funny enough to do full on comedy. Though there'll be comedic moments in all of them that at least I think would be funny.

I've had a pretty decent year. The fanfic I'm writing to teach myself some discipline has a decent number of followers, only ever gotten one bad review, and I have at least one diehard fan.

I'm close to wrapping that up so I can dedicate myself to original work.

>>78586760
The mother enables it to a degree. She never liked violence and since the older brother would come home from his combat classes bruised to all hell she sees it as keeping him out of trouble and not violent.

The MC also kind of enables it. Although everytime he comes home he trashes his brothers VR rig he never tried to get him formal help out of the fear that the report could influence his posting when he joins the force.

It's all just unhealthy.
>>78586327
>>78586301
I think you guys are taking my exaggeration a bit too far. And the part where I called it retarded.

Id probably shoot myself if I tried to write something with that kind og protagonist.

>>78586919
That's pretty cool, what's your fic about and what are your plans for your original work?

>>78586827
Well in writing the best thing you want to do is to make the reader to smile.

>>78586943
>that the report could influence his posting when he joins the force.
Why would that hurt his chances? Is it illegal?

totally not /co/ related and its a fanfic, so not sure if i should post it, but anyway

its a fie emblem: awakening fanfic were lucina kills robin and later her daughter morgan
i know it has been done to no end but still, im trying to make it different
will most likely end up dropping it

>>78587497
No. But the force is very obsessed with its image due to the fact that it has powers that can be seen as a bit despotic.

So they try their best to give off the impression of being honourable and generally good men who can be trusted.

It's the Japanese version of quality over quantity. You ensure quality by getting rid of or hiding anything that might make you look bad.

>>78587551
The thing about writing fanfic and stories in general is a desire to actually write them. You need to ask yourself, "Why?"

Why are you writing this, what caused you to write about these characters?

What differences do you want to make in your story?

>>78587347

Fanfics about an Earth Avatar followup to Korra. Not one for self-promotion, so I'll leave it at that.

The original work, I've been working on for a long time. Some of you guys might even remember me, posted about it before. It's a crime drama set in the near future, centered around a violent criminal Triad that gets into a turf war with a rival gang. The working title is Tomorrow's Most Wanted.

>>78587657
But why would it matter if his brother is doing it? If anything, him being not like his loser brother and trying to make a better name for himself and joining the Forces would be a quality they would like.

>>78579599
doing the last bit of editing on my second book before sending it to my editor. Gotta fix up the tense in the past couple chapters, trim a bunch of scenes that drag too long,reinforce the motifs a bit more, and spice up the prose

>>78587728
Because he's his brother which means his parents fucked up, which means they could have fucked up with him as well.

>>78587812
Why does the MC want this job at the security forces so badly, if the selection process makes him burn bridges with his family, does he even like his parents and brother?

>>78588424
Because he is not burning any bridges just keeping them out of sight.

And it's a good job. Better than anything else available.

>>78587812
>>78587657
So Japan?

>>78588663
Yes.

They have a very fucked up way of doing things. It's really fascinating.

File: I lost my supergirl image.png (618KB, 577x1300px) Image search: [Google]

618KB, 577x1300px

I should try a fin fic once

>>78579650

That's... pretty awesome brosepth. I'm proud of you!

>>78579650
>Same age as this guy
>Haven't accomplished shit
Ahh, what a wonderful world we live in.

Finished a book last year that I'm trying to sell. Going to ty and make some more comics this year, longer stuff than last year/the year before. Going to try and finish this other novel I'm working on and sell that.

If nothing sells I might try self-publishing.

im kinda stuck here, i have no idea how to write the ending of my story

i think the problem is that the original idea was to make a animated series and just like see how long it went
there is a point that can be considered a ending, but i just dont feel like using that one since it doesnt explains what happens to any of the other 4 characters that had a plot

so, should i just end it there or try and tie any loose endings?

>>78589679
Thank you!

>>78589798
Relax, I'm a borderline autist when it comes to submitting things for publication. I keep obsessive control of everything that's under consideration, review everything that gets rejected, and keep a significant enough backlog to submit a new story the moment one gets rejected.

It's early days yet, but comics are the dream. To write for DC or Marvel, I need to be published elsewhere. Fortunately, I live in the country with (in my opinion) the best small press and fanzine community in the world, the best sci-fi anthology ever, and the most consistently good output of comic book writers.

There's been a lot of rejections this year, but I like to think I'm a fast learner. Hopefully, now that I'm focused totally on comics, I'll have around six strips published by the end of the year.

I'm not a god. Literally any cunt can email an artist/editor or submit writing. Just have faith in yourself, and your dreams (be they /lit/ or /co/ or /a/) can come true.

>>78590806
Are you the guy who wrote the e-book?
Either way, how did you self publish?

>>78589930
Is the earlier ending point (aside from those four characters) better or worse than the one you had in mind? Details?

>>78589822
Self publishing is extremely difficult unless you have a fan base that can help you.
Do you have a following?

>>78590900
I haven't self-published anything yet, although I'm hoping to. All my printed work has gone through editors thus far.

There are literally a billion ways to self-publish, but the hottest are these.

If you want to self-publish prose/poetry, check this out: https://kdp.amazon.com/

If you want to self-publish comics, watch the video here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1001103761

Of course, there are also a number of 'print on demand' services and the like, but the above Amazon route is the most popular. With the right marketing you can really get some notice in the world of self-publishing (no fame or money in it, I'm afraid -- such is a writer's life).

>>78591026
>no fame or money it
Well luckily I'm not doing it for the money. No game though sucks.

>>78591169
I'm just stacking up publications so that when I approach American editors and they say "What have you written?" I can say, "All this."

Just having something to provide at the right time can work wonders. And maybe even get you fame. An exclusive maybe, with TV rights optioned and you on as executive producer, and a high-selling creator-owned series that guys are tripping over to get licensing for.

File: sweating spaghetti sam.jpg (132KB, 611x760px) Image search: [Google]

132KB, 611x760px

How do you move from concepts to writing a script/storyboard?
I'm nothing but a lowly ideaman, an backseat armchair writer.

>>78579599
Well, my output wasn't great, but I found some success. I got a handful of awards and the like, but things aren't so great right now. A pilot I'm passing around hasn't got as much as I wanted.

Hope to actually make somekine of work schedule for myself this year.

>>78591592
Write "Page 1" at the top of a word document. Then hit enter twice and write "1)". Then describe what happens in the first panel.

Keep going until your story is complete.

Earlier in the thread, I recommend "on writing", "story" and "words for pictures", which are all enormously helpful.

Mainly though just read and write and have fun. Shoot through a first draft, then edit into something tight as a gnat's asshole.

What board do I go to discuss Plays/playwriting? I started an absurdst piece about two dudes at the bottom of a swimming pool.

>>78591931
Also look up comic scripts online. Andy Diggle has some great ones on his site.

>>78591961
/lit/ is as close as you'll get.

>>78591979
yo, this is dope. ty for pointing me in this direction.

http://www.andydiggle.com/scripts.htm
I'mma post this for others to check out.

I think this resource would be best utilized by reading the script and then trying to draw the comic yourself, and then comparing it to the real thing. Though that really mostly benefits writefags.

File: image.jpg (31KB, 210x213px) Image search: [Google]

31KB, 210x213px

Why is the first sentence or paragraph so hard?

>>78590921
well the early ending is just the conclusion of the "main" arc of the main character (she is shit, gits gud, becomes better but remains kinda bad at what she does, and finally defeats the one "big bad" that stalked her family and is the reason she is on that situation), sure it also finish the story of other 2 characters, but i cant help but feel like it just leaves out some stuff

the actual real ending
well i dont actually know how i want it, i just want it to end like the actually defeat the real big bad and everything they did and happened actually had a reason of happening
kinda happy ending actually 2 characters didnt make it to the ending, but their plots were complete

>>78592123
either you have no idea what you want or dont know how you want it

File: an absolutely kind of disgusting.jpg (176KB, 854x859px)

176KB, 854x859px

I bet none of you can out-autism me: I can't ever finish much less release anything I'm working on because I'm an enormous faggot who wants to reference all of my works in all of my other works, and set them in the same timeline/universe.

>>78592119
Personally I just benefit from the format. Have the balls to just go ahead with your own stories.

>>78592357
I filled a 120 page notebook with world building for a space opera I never wrote.

>>78592475
Wow. Damn, I never thought I would get beaten so quickly.
I relinquish the golden tendies to you.

Did you make it all scientifically accurate?

>>78592357
jokes on you, i did that 5 years ago
no idea what happened to all those stories

>>78592475
im on that same train bro, feels weird knowing no one will ever see all that effort

OP here, thank you all for contributing and making this thread so interesting. I'm turning in for the night but hopefully I'll see some of you in the big leagues one day.

All the best, and a very happy new year!

>>78592647
It's about as accurate as Star Wars.
But it's all internally consistent.

I'm trying to tie together pieces of the /co/verse into a cognizable timeline.
Sifting through all of it and staying true to the continuity of these ideas is mind-numbing.

>>78590953
>Do you have a following?
Not really, but I'm building one on tumblr.

>>78580497

Watch the first season of Legends. It's kind of like that, you can get the ideas flowing.

>>78579599

>What are you working on?

Same ole, Same ole. Developing my own super hero universe to right comics and make games, shows, etc out of.

>What are your hopes for the new year?

Learn how to draw. Spend some time actually writing and fighting out what I need to do. Maybe learning to program too so I can start stuff for the game and get help from there.

>How was your output in 2015?

A few drawings and a lot of Evernote notes.

>>78580712

Do it.

>>78581466

Something similar happened in Catch Me if You Can. Leo's character was using the name Barry Allen for the longest time.

>>78579599
Writing a quest about a blind deer who gets a bionic arm.
Later on she will end up fighting terrorists to save her country.

>>78582114

If you're going to do anything with zombies you have to think of an original twist to them because they've been so overdone.

>>78584452

>those flowcharts can't go to waste.

I chuckled.

>>78592357
Nahhh

I've got a 13k Korra fanfiction that sucks dick with like 20 views. It's not done and I'm a loser.

>>78579599


If any of you still remember me, I'm that anon who's writing a 3000 page novel. The good news is that it's all plotted out for the most part, the problem is I'll likely finish it when I'm dead.

In terms of comics writing, I have a few ideas I'm workshopping.

>An ex-hitman with clinical anxiety decides to enter the corporate world, only to find he keeps getting into situations where people die.

>A mermaid noir involving the Deepwater Horizon explosion

>A sort of mix of Clone High and 999: 9 Hour 9 Persons 9 Doors

>This thing called "Love is the Devil" that I want to write that would piss a lot of /co/ off.

>>78586301

>Forge your own path and don't become Author #255467 on a list, stick out and try to be you, not someone else.

This.

High risk, high reward. Nothing wrong with starting out with some inspired by something else, but MAKE IT YOUR OWN.

I've found myself doing that lately. "But this character is based on this other character.... ah fuck it, he's gonna go do his own thing." It's refreshing.

>>78587708

That's a good title!

File: Slint - Propaneland.jpg (510KB, 1547x1547px) Image search: [Google]

510KB, 1547x1547px

Okay.

So, I've always loved Kids making their world more magical and fantastical than it seems. Stuff like KnD, E,E 'n' E, etc

I'm writing the chronicles of this small town full of legends and myths and things. It's about a boy and his group of friends traversing this town and growing up and all that. Thus far this is all I've got.

http://pastebin.com/VCVGwDRi

>>78587708
PLEASE share. I'd love to read it.

Am I the only one who has no desire to write fan fiction?

Maybe I have before in some different form. But I would just rather be original and work on things I think up of my own.

>>78600792
I'll write whatever. Anything to get better.

Well, I lost focus, as I tend to do, and shit unravelled a bit.
Yesterday, on the first day of the year, I decided to start from scratch, using the original idea that got lost in my unfocused mess.
So I'm back at square one, but I feel fine about it.

>>78600878

Sometimes that could be for the best. Just throw the whole thing out. I used to think I was going to write a bunch of fantasy novels in this big fantasy universe...

Then one day I just sort of thought "I'm probably not going to do this." And let it go, mentally trashed the project. I think about it sometimes, but it feels good not to feel self-pressure about it.

File: 1451594634218.jpg (168KB, 464x761px) Image search: [Google]

168KB, 464x761px

Working on the fourth issue script for a story that's basically Demon's Souls meets Silent Hill, about a group of knights serving as the last bastion of hope for a dying kingdom. Had written a bunch for it before hand, but decided to start doing rewrites after coming across what I thought was a better narrative. It's dark, grimy, and as the story goes on, a brutal deconstruction of Campbellian hero archetypes. I'm wanting to get at least a trade worth of work done on it, but with having scripts for some shorts and one offs, I might start hunting for an artist after I wrap up the next script.

In my off time, I'm also working on a fantasy/mecha series that's sort of a mix of things like Escaflowne, Xenogears, and all the weird fantasy that came out of Japan and Europe in the 80's. A lot of the finer details are nebulous, but I got the first draft of the plot in broad strokes all worked out, now its down to nitty gritty, and getting the characters to a more concrete point.

My main hang up is finding artists. Due to monetary constraints, I don't have a lot of expendable income to blow hundreds to thousands of dollars getting a pitch made, and it seems skeevy to just go to an artist and be all "Hey draw my shit for free or back end, I'm good for it man." since I don't know a lot of artists that aren't already working on their own shit.

File: Sketch010115.jpg (161KB, 1600x960px) Image search: [Google]

161KB, 1600x960px

>>78602222
Im an amateur artist with no deviant/fb (because im a shut in neet). As neet i could draw for nearly starvation peanuts (but never for free as /ic says). Here is a sample of my drawing (sorry for bad pic quality). I mainly draw realistically. So if you would be interested reply and post your mail.

>>78603012
I'm not him, but I love your style! I'd love to work on something with you. You can reach me at
[email protected]

>>78603012
That's marvellous. And you have impeccable timing. I might have something for you.
[email protected]

File: 1325375163894.jpg (46KB, 400x456px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 400x456px

Keep (ME) a fuckwit writer company.

I'm finishing the final draft of what will assuredly be IMAGE Comic's best début of 2016.

Remember there is no I in delusional!

But seriously lets talk, keep me from watching youtube videos so I can actually get shit done.
I'm writing, today, all day, all fucking day.

File: 1328298253729.jpg (75KB, 484x464px) Image search: [Google]

75KB, 484x464px

>>78603389
>>78603389
>>78603389

I AM A SEXUAL TYRANNOSAURUS!

>>78603389
What's your main line going to be?

Give me the elevator pitch.

File: 1326852589519.jpg (58KB, 259x274px) Image search: [Google]

58KB, 259x274px

>>78603450
This is why I wish I was an illustrator and could just show you.
Shit is a fairly inventive premise.
So the elevator pitch/logline is classified.
Unfortunately.
This annoys me more than anyone.

Some might call it horror science fiction.
Some might call it a space cowboy others might call it a gangster of love.

>>78603549
Steve Miller band sucks balls.

File: 2010-07-16-181417.png (306KB, 294x415px)

306KB, 294x415px

>>78603576
Yes.
But you gotta love those lyrics.

>>78603549
grimdark space dandy/cowboy bebop crossover fic. got it.

File: 1276481116959.jpg (28KB, 366x338px)

28KB, 366x338px

>>78603608
The Steve Miller band astro/gangster lyrics were just a random joke. The actual thing despite being sci-fi doesn't even involve spac---

I mean yes, YES that is exactly it.

What kind of questions could I answer without going into the premise?

>>78603651
Not much.

I don't understand your paranoia about throwing out a logline.

File: 2010-07-16-183304.png (2MB, 1260x871px)

2MB, 1260x871px

>>78603668
The story is in the vein of a Phillip K Dick short story.

It would be like telling you the premise of a joke is;
"It's about two guys who walk into a bar".

Nothing interesting about that.

It's the punchline that's the thing.
And I'll obviously not want to tell anyone the punchline.
The brain scrambler.

I know people love to talk about their universe building and their beloved characters. But I'm not interested in any of that. I like plot architecture.

>>78603730
Are you by chance Australian?

>>78603012
I'm interested for sure. Good looking work here. You can email me at [email protected]

My output for 2015 saw me producing a webcomic that people seem to like well enough. Only been running a few weeks or so. I'm hoping this year will see it finding a bit more of a following.

I also cold-called some publishers and was able to get some people interested. Currently working with the artist of the webcomic on trying to get a pitch ready for at least one of the publishers.

Lot of other things brewing too but they're less concrete at the moment.

File: Detective-Chimp.jpg (853KB, 1024x768px) Image search: [Google]

853KB, 1024x768px

>>78603754
Without answering yes or no.

Why do you ask?

File: 1450379172587.jpg (30KB, 615x409px) Image search: [Google]

30KB, 615x409px

So how do you guys stay motivated, how do you get through the wall?

>>78604074
I find the publication or artist I want to work with, then write something that suits them. Never the other way around.

I'm a bricklayer, not a sensitive artíst.

>>78603835
You remind me of a writer I know.

>>78603824
Gunwild, right?

>>78604115
Nah. But we're acquaintances and travel in the same circles.

My output in 2015 wasn't up to some invisible standard I'd set for myself and because of that I feel annoyed. I'm hoping to step it up for 2016, find some kind of art person to maybe start up a web comic with or some such.

Wrote a lot of sequential stories in a setting I've been working on. Big picture version; Superheroes stopped the Mayan Apocalypse and are now the ultra celebrity and no longer have to hide, news outlets specifically catering to these new super-humans and their hyper-real lives spring up and we follow some of those reporters, both super human and normal.

Central character is basically, for lack of a better term, Franklin Richards with a lust for the Sex Pistols who sort of fucked up reality one too many times and got put in a coma. Wants to not be put back in a coma by shadowy cabal so he works at the paper for parole with a severe power limiter on him.

Mystery ensues.

Hope for the new year is to work on something with an art buddy or get something published somewhere.

File: 1313877037221.jpg (38KB, 528x440px)

38KB, 528x440px

>>78604102
Probably not in a good way then?

Not him however, never been to the great land of Oz.

>>78604169
He's a bit of a tosser.

File: ScreenClip.png (169KB, 284x266px)

169KB, 284x266px

>>78604095
Mfw I must then be a "sensitive" artist.

>>78604074
I kept pushing and networking until I made it through. I had told myself I was giving up so many times. But I knew that my life would turn very bleak without this struggle to sustain me.

It sort of kept me alive.

>>78604207
Nothing wrong with that, as long as it works for you. That's what Stephen King is, and look where it's got him.

Plenty of other successful writers do it my way though. Shakespeare deliberately wrote his plays to be compatible with theatres he knew, and created characters to play to the strengths of actors in his troop.

Essentially, our odds of producing a mega-hit (or numerous semi-hits), are more or less the same. Also, I am of course comparing myself to Shakespeare in terms of business and work ethic. He is the better writer.

File: 2010-07-16-182922.png (106KB, 175x241px) Image search: [Google]

106KB, 175x241px

>>78604194
I'm okay with that label.

I used to be an unhappy wanker.. still sort of am.

But I'm working towards being a happy tosser.

I am what I am. I've come to terms with that.

>>78604242
Are you a pro?

File: 1307394040426.jpg (104KB, 325x435px) Image search: [Google]

104KB, 325x435px

>>78604249
I'm okay with it. I just wish I had realized it as a teenager instead of midway through law school. Kinda wasted much energy and garnered much anguish fighting my own nature... if that makes any sense.

>>78604074
caffeine and good reading and not being afraid to half-ass what I can come back and fix later

>>78604249

But sir, you too can write wincest rape fanfiction with a delicious amount of murders and traitor spins.

>>78604293
It's okay. Just bring that conflict out in your writing. Make it honest.

>>78604342
Too busy putting together Encyclopedia Memetica: From Ayy to Zyzz. Available at all good book stores later this year for just $29.99!

>>78604261
I wouldn't go that far. I get paid to write & edit but I don't currently work for any of the major publishers and my name is still mostly unknown.

I think I could potentially call myself a pro by next year though

>>78604417
Good luck. I really hope you land a terrific gig.

File: 1332439778811.jpg (54KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

54KB, 640x480px

>>78604323
>not being afraid to half-ass what I can come back and fix later

That's the fucking key right there.

I just can't seem to silence the inner critic.
One should never edit WHILST you write. But I can't fucking help it.

File: W-Neil-Gaiman-alan-moore-1003551_1600_1136.jpg (297KB, 1600x1136px) Image search: [Google]

297KB, 1600x1136px

Wizarding is hard.

>>78605315
>you will never be as effortlessly cool as the British Invasion writers

Why even live?

File: 1309372050915.jpg (95KB, 500x500px)

95KB, 500x500px

>>78605478
So that I may feed off your soul and use the energy to smite the ultrademons from out of space.

>>78605640
Why ARE so many of them occultists and weirdos? I hope being British and writing comics doesn't do that to me, although it probably will.

>>78605754
They're mostly poseurs cultivating an image.

Compare to Ennis, a plain old potato munching Irish lad.

>>78605754
>Why ARE so many of them occultists and weirdos?
Because drugs.

>>78605779

Ah, but is Ennis image not exactly that of an unflappable, normal, salt of the earth sorta fellow.
When in reality he is as much a perverted artistic type as the rest of them.

-Sent from Warren Ellis wearable-smartwatch-pod at a trendy bar in Berlin.

File: 681.png (1MB, 2920x792px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 2920x792px

>>78605871
>Sent from Warren Ellis wearable-smartwatch-pod at a trendy bar in Berlin.

>>78605871
>When in reality he is as much a perverted artistic type as the rest of them.
None of the 'artists' are as perverted as they claim to be. It's half an act. Same with the artsy look. It's meant to impose a sense of importance to the whole thing. There's a reason artists most often go on about the fundamental importance of art. They have a vested, livelihood stake in it.

All art and all storytelling is essentially a con run on the intellectual and semi-intellectual. A way to make a bit of a living without having to do real hard work. Tricking people into thinking what they do has some meaning to it.

Artists and priests, cut from the same cloth, but the artist is just trying to enrich himself.

Well I had a dream last night where I was a gunslinger in an urban city who was in a relationship with a psychic girl. There's got to be a story somewhere in that premise, right?

File: by jove..png (239KB, 375x446px) Image search: [Google]

239KB, 375x446px

>>78605976

>So edgy that when he cuts himself, the razors start bleeding. :D

>money in art..

>He thinks all of the artist who do make money didn't first spend a decade in squalor convinced they would never make a dime off of their work but still kept doing it because they loved it, thought it was important or could not help themselves.

>He thinks its not hard work. Of course telling a story might not be, but telling one that is better than the 10.000 other stories being told by the 10.000 other story tellers is. And that's what you have to do to make a living doing it.

File: 1313613737402.jpg (271KB, 500x843px) Image search: [Google]

271KB, 500x843px

>>78605946
I enjoyed making you laugh.

>>78606354
>He thinks all of the artist who do make money didn't first spend a decade in squalor convinced they would never make a dime off of their work
Actually the majority come from middle-class backgrounds and moved into art from a financially secure profession. I can't thin of many that came from impoverished backgrounds or lived in squalor. Not true squalor where you either worked or starved.

It's not hard work. If you think it is, you haven't really had to work for your food.

Art glorifies art as an act of conflated self-importance. It's all narcissism and ego, two things required to be a professional artist in the first place (likewise, a politician). Most folks just aren't able to recognise when their own narcissism and ego is at play.

Submitted to the Oni Press open submission a few months back. I submitted two short series to Dark Horse and did the Millarworld thing, a Starlight story about the Goblin Prince. I'm gonna work on a Future shock since i got the Tharg collection, and I've got a short horror story idea that I think could work as a one or two issue comic or short story.

What other places are accepting submissions?

>>78606501
That's because squalor is not an adequate launchpad for creative vision. Or anything.

Why do you think central Africa has produced so little? No one gives a fuck for literature, art or the sciences because they won't give you money or food immediately.

Also, narcissism and ego are requirements for success in just about any field.

>>78579599

I have a challenge.

Create an idea for a comic centered around your fetish that doesn't feel contrived. The fetish must be integrated naturally to the point where it's not completely obvious.

>>78606749
My fetishes are all boring.

>>78606749
It's essentially about a group of huge titty ballbusters, but it's subtle because it plays up the SJW angle.

File: 1325363309286.jpg (43KB, 233x306px) Image search: [Google]

43KB, 233x306px

>>78606501

Oh right..
This is why I stopped visiting 4chan.

If you do not have an artistic impulse that's fine. But I don't assume that people who like sports or sucking dicks are lying about it. We are all different, assuming that everyone only needs what you need is lacking empathy and creativity. Some people, need insulin, some need art and some juggle gees.

Son. listen up. If those artists (those that actually make it and can do it for a living) didn't earn have an audience and didn't make a dime doing it they would still do it for themselves.

They would still do it.

The proof is that they, all of them, already had to for years next to their jobs or family or education before they ever got "anything" from it other than it's own satisfaction or relief. No matter if they were impoverished or advertising execs who did it in their spare time.

Either they did it against the odds, doing it anyway because the reward at the end wasn't the point, but a bonus. Or if they were set and secure they still spent an enormous amount of time and probably had to take a pay cut when they could quit their day job.

>>78606837

So basically you'd go so far into it that it would seem completely ridiculous and played for laughs, but secretly it's your fetish? Huh, I forgot that comedy is a pretty good way to mask things.

ha ha.

File: 1312837660902.jpg (20KB, 493x387px)

20KB, 493x387px

>>78605976
Why is he on this board and in this thread?
Troll or did a film student start fucking his mom?

File: 1330880782038.gif (46KB, 504x300px) Image search: [Google]

46KB, 504x300px

Who's the best new writer from the last 5 years?

Al Ewing?

>>78606890
>Some people, need insulin, some need art
Please don't compare art to a medical necessity.

Art belongs to the same class of 'need' as religion, not a thing you need to inject to make your blood work properly.

There in is demonstrated the conceitedness of the artist.

> But I don't assume that people who like sports or sucking dicks are lying about it.

I never claimed artists were 'lying', only that the image of the artist was a lie and the importance of art is overblown by artists. It has been since day one, a marketing trick to generate more interest and lend a sense of validity about why you should read/watch/listen to their shit, because they're 'different' and 'special'.

Art is like stage magic. It's all sleight of hand and illusion. Which are other words for 'bullshitting someone'. Every good magician, conman, priest, and artist knows is that people actually want to be bullshitted. Offered distraction in return for a penny. And elaborate costumes, distinct style of dress, and affected mannerisms lend into the bullshitting that gets people to buy into it.

A huckster and an artist are in the same trade at the end of the day.

>>78607101
If you feel offended by what I've been saying, that's your ego and self-image talking.

>>78607096
Jim Zub and Brandon Montclare are pretty good for Americans. It's either Al Ewing or Rob Williams for me.

>>78606930
It was all I could think of. That was pretty challenging aha

>>78606749
A dramatic tale of dorky babysitter being blackmailed by bratty kid into providing sexual favours?
I already wrote porn like this once, can just cut of sex and add more victimization.

I did it. I writefagged some more today!

>>78607480
Good. Now stop fagging and start writing.

File: 1278833539022.jpg (364KB, 718x677px) Image search: [Google]

364KB, 718x677px

>>78607101
>Please don't compare art to a medical necessity.

I wasn't as far as importance, just thought it would showcase how different people have different requirements. Like your need for expressing your opinion online. Also why I added in juggling geese. Context is important you know.

Before artists became producers of art they were just consumers of it. I wouldn't be surprised if most artists hadn't had their lives changed by art at some point. When they gush, it often really IS important to them. And if they are lying then it doesn't matter since nobody listens to someone without any readers/viewers (and neither do you) and if they do have a platform (and you see the on TV) then they do have readers/viewers who this thing IS important to.

So if you think you are hearing it too much you may be underestimating how many people need the "insulin". This goes for everything. If a large amount of people think something is important then it is .. because it is to that large amount of people.

You know the whole.. power resides where men think it resides..thing.

>I never claimed artists were 'lying', only that the image of the artist was a lie and the importance of art is overblown by artists.

Right. So yeah.. That's true. But that's not.. worth noting. That's not a deep truth.
Horseback riding is hyped by people who like horses.
The importance of brushing your teeth is hyped by dentists.

We all yell about the things important to us and thus we equalize the other people's yelling.

But you seem like a cool cat that doesn't buy into bullshit so I won't want to dissuade you from that in general. The world very much needs that. But I'm heading out the door so I won't be here to read a response so don't waste your time if you want to write a response (I know you will, because you are me and I am you). But you should write a blog or something though if you don't already do that.. No bullshit. I ended up enjoying this.

>>78607642
1k words desu. I'd ask for a critique but I need to edit it myself.

The premise is basically kids making the world seem more amazing and magical than it is in one summery town.

Does anybody have any tips for doing whodunit/detective mystery style stories?

I started from the scene of the crime and am trying to work my way backwards in order to figure out what the players and their motivations are. But what I'm coming up with just isn't very inspired so far.

It's also very important to me that the reader be able to figure out the mystery on their own, but obviously not until the pieces are all laid out.

>>78608108
I'm here more as a reader, not a writer, but you probably should start with your cast and motivations first. All sorts of wacky deaths can ensure, you can always implement it last.

File: bold and brash.png (244KB, 500x375px) Image search: [Google]

244KB, 500x375px

you like fanfiction? well i got some autistic as fuck fanfiction about steven universe to throw at you.

this is planned to be a multi-chapter story, tens of thousands words in length.

i dont think i can write a story without smut anymore. it also does wonders for the ratings.

>https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gwlk3cUOzXtc8LsFTJygwUtzT-ZnXfkyp9-FwkMGxiU/edit?usp=sharing

>>78604601
You have my most sincere thanks, anon

How the fuck do you display melancholy without looking like a smug asshole? Because everything I do reads like I'm just I'm just being a dick for dickness sake.

>>78610071
I don't think we agree on definition of melancholy.

File: Death Star.png (1MB, 941x1267px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 941x1267px

I do say, would anyone be willing to read this short paragraph and say if my prose/use of language is appropriate and works?

http://pastebin.com/vswsYPDf

The idea is magical realism and a summer experienced by a boy named Douglas and his friends. The world around him is made more fantastical than it seems. Inspo from KnD, EEnE, Recess, Southpark, and of course SHIT LOADS of books (I can name them if you'd like, but for /co/ purposes I'll stick to related topics)

>>78608793
Gave you some edits Anon. Never seen the show though, so I can't tell you what is good or what isn't.

>>78610071
How does Melancholy make you appear like a smug asshole?

I'd just have short wispy responses and long drawn out scenes where what's going on around the speaker tells a lot about the speakers mood (his reaction to the respective scene)

>>78610772

Your works good but the phrase "soft wet breath" makes me feel like I've just been bad-touched by Steve Buscemi.

>>78610818

I know. I did some editing but left that as a way to describe humid weather and to subsequently make it "unnatural".

What should I use in place of it? I feel like I've got some good stuff going on here

>implying you don't want Steve to fondle your ass

File: 1371255233350.jpg (104KB, 599x521px)

104KB, 599x521px

>>78610772
Damn. This is REALLY good.

>tfw will only ever be able to write shitty fanfics

>>78603012
I'm actually the writer from last night, email's [email protected] if the offer to kick ideas back and forth still stands!

>>78611102
Thanks man. But I need to edit it. And who cares if you write fanfic? Any creative expression is a good thing.

>>78600440
>Nothing wrong with starting out with some inspired by something else, but MAKE IT YOUR OWN.
That's important, there is nothing wrong with using ideas and concepts that aren't your own, but you have to make it different in YOUR own way and bring in new concepts and ideas into the picture too.

>>78613084
>>78600440
Did you guys happen to read the idea that was posted in relation to that or do you just want to keep repeating feel good messages?

>>78613084

Yeah I'm struggling with that now and I realized it's more liberating than trying to keep it in line with whatever you're sort of copying off of.

Sometimes I start off with something original and then all the sudden, when "zoom out" it looks like something that's been done before. I have one character, one of my first super heroes, whose theme is pushing the limits of his own body and mind without actually having powers. He's a chemist and an Olympic gymnastic competitor. Chemist just because his family owns this huge chemical company. His siblings actually runs the company, he only got the degree in chemistry to please his father and use the scholarship to pursue his gymnastics career.

However, he loses several close people to super-crime. He realizes that he can use his skills and resources to be a better super hero, better than the aging Golden Age ones that failed him. So he secretly develops all sorts of gadgets and drugs that enhance various parts of him. Chemistry is really diverse. He makes adhesives to he can stick to things, climb up buildings, develops these pully cable things he deploys from his belt that pull him around as he swings from building to building, like he's used to with gymnastic training. His "mask" enhances his vision and sense of smell and these Wolverine looking cones around his ears that enhance his hearing. The pills and drugs he develops enhance his mind and body, given super strength and intelligence.

I even drew him up. Then I realized I just invented another version of Spider-Man in a way.

But fuck it, it's original enough and if he's like Spidey, then he's FAMILIAR enough to the audience. But that got me thinking how in ASM Ozcorp was like a super villain factory and that inspired an idea for one of this guys villains, a villain who makes other villains, experiments, he sees them as "projects" and uses his business as a front to supply the world with the latest, greatest super-powered henchmen!

>>78614837

This thread is full of dudes who need a lot of motivation, so yes, naturally feel good messages get overdone.

>>78610772
Right off the bat: huge issue with your first two sentences ending with "the___of Elmsen."
It's like you're either trying to go with some type of thematic pattern that you immediately drop or you rambled too much writing the second sentence, making it flowery, and forgot how the previous one ended.

File: 1259305912452.jpg (67KB, 753x648px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 753x648px

>>78614837

You want my serious opinion of >>78585985

I don't have one because I have no idea what Sword Art Online or Ready Player One are.

>>78615217
Good catch. I thought I'd caught that!

It's undergoing more heavy editing right now. This is a more recent copy with that repetition still in there- the repetition that needs to be fixed

http://pastebin.com/W6Gnd7Zx

>>78615198

Yeah I dial down my shitposting when it comes to people's personal projects and dreams. No one needs anonymous assholes on the Internet for something they care about the most.

This is one of the few threads on this site where people are genuinely nice too each other. We can have one of those. It's okay.

>>78615220
The person that posted that thing about stealing the aesthetics of Sword Art Online and RPO later posted his own idea long before you posted in response.
>>78615198
Thing is however motivation will never be as useful as critique.

Since not a lot of people posted actual writing all I could do was ask for more details to see what their story was like.

>>78615551

You mean this? >>78584880 There isn't an idea there, just Anon saying he used to post ideas on /tg/. That started that comment thread.

>>78579599
Challenge for ya'h people.

You have just been placed in charge of your stereotypical secret government project .

Your job is to come up with semi-plausible powers / conditions that could realistically work in the real world. (Cyclops of the xmn would make his own head explode if he had to deal with real world physics).

What can you come up with?

File: 016a.jpg (57KB, 447x479px) Image search: [Google]

57KB, 447x479px

Don't you die on me yet!

>>78617216
Being a robot would work

Is being a robot a super power?

>>78617216
The power of suggestion, as in you cab easily influence the thoughts and actions of others, buy you have to be in a one mile radius of that person or small group of people.

>>78616210
>>78586607

>>78619995
>cab
Can

File: 1251847288313.jpg (15KB, 241x239px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 241x239px

>>78620006
>>78586607
>>78586943

For starters do YOU know why they're being killed? Are you going to reveal that to the audience and not to the MC or lets them figure it out at the same time?

My guess is that perhaps it's related to the VR community? Someone's trying to get this people to keep in touch with reality, by killing them and scaring them away?

The brothers are opposite here. One uses violence in real life, the other virtually. That's a good contrasting angle to play off of. The MC brother in the "force" can be painted as a bit of hypocrite without realizing it. Maybe he realizes when his brother dies and he becomes more sympathetic to all the people using VR that are being killed off?

He has to go into a world he's not comfortable with. That's a good setting and theme.

Perhaps the brother was onto something too. Maybe the VR companies are using it to brainwash people and make them do things, the ones being killed off were getting to close to the truth?

You can get a real Blade Runner/Ghost In the Shell vibe going on here. Dealing with the differences between reality and fantasy and when those lines blur. Is there really a conspiracy going on here or is it all part of the role playing games?

>>78620649
To answer these questions I'm going to have to spoil a lot of the planned plot but since my prose is still utter shit, and I have only a bunch of disjointed scenes from the first chapter of a hopeful thirty, by the time I'm ready to publish anything we're all probably going to be dead so spoilers won't matter.

Basically the reason the murders are happening is that something or someone is selling to the hardcore VR addicts the fantasy of being permanently able to enter the VR world and never leave. The issue is, that the offer is supposedly only going to be awarded to a few of them, to be decided in a two years.

The murders themselves are being committed by the people who have been told of the entrance into the world, and it is their attempts to up their odds of entry by cutting down the competition.

I'm a bit worried that people will take this as being an attack on gamers, to paint them as all being delusional fucks but I like the idea so fuck it.

The brother that was killed may have or may have not been responsible for a couple of the murders himself. There's a couple of hints, like him being mentioned as being a bit more muscular than normal and only slightly pasty but nothing is concretely said. He was participating in the hunting as someone who uncovered people's real names but that is the only sin of his that is confirmed concretely.

As to whether or not the promise is actually true that's also left in the air. The MC has a conversation with something on a wired computer that he cuts off from the net. It passes a shittly done Turning Test given by the MC and begs to be allowed back online but whether or not it was a person or something else is not answered.

My plan so far is to flip a coin for each possibility and not tell a soul. Since it will come out when I'm about eighty you can probably get the answers from my grandkids if you still care.

As for the questions about the MC that'll take up another post.

>>78579599
I know an old friend who worked for Marvel sketching designs for their collectors statues who does really beautiful work and works as a graphic designer right now, finishing a comic script I'll send along to him and see if he's interested. Very simple idea, something he might do in his spare time and complete over 1-2 years. I can't draw for shit, and concept really needs that professional Comic Book art look at minimum to sell it.

>>78621423
The MC's influence on these circumstances is about shit and all. He ends nothing and ends up a lot more scared and confused at the end than he was in the beginning.

He's smart and he's brave and he's tough but really he has no idea what to do beyond going after the trailing leg.

It's not acknowledged in universe but his training was focused mostly on keeping the boot down on people, specifically the citizens of the state.

A lot of his character is also open to interpretation or I hope it will be when i get to those chapters.

The big question about him is centered around a girl he becomes close to over the course of the story.

She killed his brother, because he gave out her sisters name and instead of taking vengeance or turning her in he negotiates for her safety, kills someone to ensure it and abandons his dream of entering the force to get the fuck out of dodge with her to live like the Amish.

The two interpretations you can take away from that, is that either after what happened to his brother he decides to value his loved ones more than his future or that he just didn't care enough about his brother to throw his career prospects away.

I know it seems like I'm leaving a lot of this open to interpretation but this is all off a rough outline and it might be answered in the prose, if I can't find an artist in the sixty years it will take me to finish it.

I do think this would be better off as a comic. I think a large part of the reason I'm having some issues writing it is that I keep picturing everything in my head like panels with moments that look nice drawn or filmed but not described by myself.

The last line of the outline is basically a line from a comic script.

>>78621925
>The last line of the outline is basically a line from a comic script.
Can you post it?

>>78622125
It's handwritten but copying it quickly.
>[MC] and Daph are sitting on the floor of an empty room. It's completely empty of electronics and really anything with the exception of a small lamp. Daph is on top of [MC]. They both looked tired. [MC] looks scared. He has his hand on his shotgun. Daph's is on her club. .
>Dialogue about leaving the next day.
>[MC]'s leg rears up over their source of light.
>[MC]'s leg smashes it plunging them into darkness.

I've been looking at comic scripts online but for some reason the archive and McDuffy's site seem to be down for me.

File: black man scared.jpg (166KB, 590x449px)

166KB, 590x449px

I'm getting a bit burnt out lads

I just finished a 450k manuscript. Split that shit into three parts, sent the first part out to agents

Haven't heard jackshit back.

I'm getting kinda restless. Like, I can write. I can write so much, I'm non-fucking stop with my writing, but I just never get opportunities. I don't even get fucking rejections I just get radio silence.

I think I need a different angle lads. A visual novel or some shit. Something with a hook that I can do on my own that people might get interested in.

>>78622514
Porn.

>>78622535
Smut just leads to more smut.

I refuse to thrust my glistening manhood into that sacred garden.

>>78622633
Rewrite a notoriously shitty book everyone loves.

>>78622486
He doesn't have a name?

>>78622714
He's had several but nothing that has clicked you know?

I got fired from my writing job and apparently the Dr. Mcninja guy blew a pitch I had for Marvel with fucking Gwenpool.

I did a lot of stuff in 2015 that might actually get published but holy shit did that knock the wind out of my sails.

>>78622885
Fuck Marvel man.

It is the company that gets you attention but unless you're trying to make it your full time job you'd probably be more fulfilled working on the edges.

>>78622824

If you want my advice, pick your favorite placeholder name and start writing with it until you can't imagine calling them anything else. That's how nearly half my characters get their permanent names.

>>78622967
Yeah, I know. Just. What they asked me to pitch for was the thing I wanted to write forever, and I had just lost my job with [not gonna say] so bluh.

I've got this kinda-sorta-pitch I'm working on for Oni. I'm worried I'm going too hipster with it, but considering what's popular outside of cape books maybe that's not a problem. tl;dr cyborg kids with problems.

>>78623130
It's Oni.

They live off hipster bullshit

>>78623130
Yeah, what >>78623182 said. Oni's all about that hip shit. It sounds like you're gonna land on your feet well enough. Keep that nose to the grind stone!

>>78623013
I'm just going to close my eyes and pick one of the names.

If it's a reference to a fighter I'll just muck it up a bit to make it work.

>>78623236
>>78623182
Okay I guess there's no NDA on the pitch so here's the tl;dr

>It's the future. Like, Ghost in the Shell but I'm not gonna say that because I don't want them to think I'm a weeb future. Either postcyberpunk or cyberpunk going on in manhattan instead of Harlem. Clean. Gentrifieed. Support group for teenagers given robot bodies, so you have an ensemble cast and "how did they get here" and so on.
The two I have developed are
>Rich white girl, self-driving car injured her fatally to avoid a huge accident. The usual rich white girl storyline, her friends reject her, etc etc, except she doesn't at all want to start hanging out with losers and I don't plan on her having some revelation that changes how she feels
>Guy that just wants to fuck an electrical socket, whoops. It's set up so you want to be like check your privilege cis scum, and he's weird and a dick and once it comes out that he wanted to be a robot nobody likes him but he's not some evil prick.

I'm not happy with how they seem like the polar opposite of the characters tumblr would write, like it doesn't fit the cyberhipster aesthetic or something, but I also don't want them to just be THIS IS WHAT 4CHAN ACTUALLY BELIEVES

I have a month, so, working on it.

>>78621423

>The murders themselves are being committed by the people who have been told of the entrance into the world, and it is their attempts to up their odds of entry by cutting down the competition.

Damn that was a better idea than I came up with. See, that's the thing dude, the idea is YOURS you own it and you know what fits with it. You know what originally inspired it, had the emotions that provoke it.

That's why it's safe to share your ideas like this because no one's going to do it better than you, because only you have the idea.

>>78620649

This is me too I didn't wear my trip-hat.

>>78623680
I'd read it.

>>78623130
I'm curious, how do you get all these opportunities? Do you do your own art as well? Most companies I know don't really take a whole lot of submissions from writers. And even the ones that do seem to only really do so as a formality.

>>78624103
My job with [shhh] wasn't in comics, so they actually needed people writing this shit.

The thing I was writing is kind of popular so I suddenly had friends that could make connections for me.

>>78624221
Oooh, well that'll do it. That's still pretty rad man! I hope things work out! I'll be rooting for ya while I chisel away at my own stuff.

>>78624408
Thanks. Keep at it.

>Want to get into creating my own stories, worlds, characters etc
>realize I cant come up with anything even remotely original
>its all rehashed ideas from my favorite movies, shows, games, comics etc

How are people ever original with this stuff?

>>78624586
You basically take all the things you like, throw it in to a blender, and that generally does the trick.

The thing I'm working on now is just Berserk, Demon's Souls, Silent Hill and the film Black Death all stitched together and diced up, but it's not like the story is about anything in those roots. Hell I even had an acquaintance say they were writing something described in the same way, but when we compared notes the stories were barely recognizable as being influenced by the same works, and had little similarities past fantasy genre tropes everything has.

Your story might come from an unoriginal place, but unless you are just bland ass white bread mcnobody, the way you view things and the world is going to create something different.

>>78623707
>Damn that was a better idea than I came up with. See, that's the thing dude, the idea is YOURS you own it and you know what fits with it. You know what originally inspired it, had the emotions that provoke it.
And?

>>78622486
>>78621925
>>78621423
So how is this remotely similar to Ready Player One or Sword Art Online?

>>78625930
Aesthetics.

>>78624586
>>78624793
Best advice I ever heard of is when trying to make original content is "good writers borrow great ones steal"

Now you can remove the word "writer" and replace with almost anything else but the idea is still the same. You see something that can be great and use the shit out of it.

File: 1371499751981.png (192KB, 500x375px) Image search: [Google]

192KB, 500x375px

>He wants to write
>He doesn't read

Literally what

>>78631742
Nobody has said that so far I believe.

>>78631742
Yeah, that is pretty dumb and I've never know anyone that can actually write a good story without reading novels.

>>78631742
>Nah man I'll just watch anime and movies instead

I've dealt with too many people like this. Reading is more important than writing, if you're a writer. Comics do not count and are not the same. Graphic novels barely.

>>78631817
Now, it depends. If you're writing for comics, I'd partially agree with you. If you're writing for cartoons, then watching cartoons definitely helps.

>>78631833
I guess I'm just uploading my frustration. Kids who haven't read books since like high school and then make me edit their shit. Fuck em. God damnit read you little bastards. Your anime inspired shonen "novel" is gonna suck because 1) you NEVER write it like you say you will and 2) you have no clue how to write.

>>78579599
>How was your output in 2015?
Wrote an animated pilot, an animated short (both on spec), and a BoJack Horseman spec script.

This year I'm gonna try polishing what I've finished in years past as well as write a new pilot.

>coming up with an epic fantasy world
>want to make it into a series pitch

I'm never going to do anything with this, am I?

>>78579650

>>78633456
What do you personally want to do with this, what are your goals for this venture?

Huh, I'm surprised to see this thread is still going. Can I get some extra feedback for this? >>78581466

>>78633456
Coming up with epic fantasy world is easy. I can do it in my sleep.

>>78636048
Sounds interesting, is it like a Romeo and Juliet plot story? Why are they running from those two factions.

File: image.png (143KB, 800x800px) Image search: [Google]

143KB, 800x800px

I'm writing something that I think will end up being a YA novel about a girl with superpowers working for the government as a spy. Her family gave her up at a young age to have her properly trained by the MACG (Mutant Affairs and Control Group); because of this she's kind of estranged from them at age 19/20 now. But, he hears from her mother that her sister (who's now also developed superpowers) has gone missing, she decides to investigate her disappearence and help find her.

I was thinking about kinda subverting the whole "super hero" thing by doing a fish out of water story? Her working for the government makes her unsure how to act outside her job, doesn't really know how to live a normal civilian life, etc. Her friend and assistant helps sneak her out to investigate her sister, leading to some humor and such. Unsure about that, but it's an idea.

>>78633456
Don't think like that! We're all gonna make it.
>I really need to finish my pitch bible for a D&D cartoon.

>>78636649
The Loser and Iris are simply just caught in the middle of something much bigger than the both of them, members of the Giovanardi family make a drug deal at the beginning of the story, but their client cracks a joke about about the shell shocked patriarch of the family, leading the youngest of the Giovanardi family (we'll call him Jack for just now) to steal the money but from the client in anger, which leads the client to send a hitman to retrieve the lost money. Iris and the Loser come into the crossroads when they accidentally crash into Jack when he's trying to escape, leaving him unconscious. They take him into their car, and go back to their home, as the roads to the hospital are closed off due to snow. Just before they are able to call a doctor, Jack regains consciousness and ends up attacking Iris and the Loser, and then the couple end up killing him in self defense and they find his stolen money. So with Jack dead, the hired killer is still after the money, and the Giovanardi family are investigating into Jack's disappearance, so it's mainly the hitman and the family they are running from, the Red Street Mafia were already at war with the Giovanardi when Jack killed the Mafia Don's daughter.

>>78637575
Hmm, sounds like a fun read.
What kind of artstyle are you trying to go for the comic, a noire type?

>>78637378
Imagine if, in the 2020s, we're the big-shot writers at Marvel and DC. I wonder if there's a Bendis II among us.

>>78617216
>Challenge for ya'h people.
>You have just been placed in charge of your stereotypical secret government project .
>Your job is to come up with semi-plausible powers / conditions that could realistically work in the real world. (Cyclops of the xmn would make his own head explode if he had to deal with real world physics).
>What can you come up with?
Amphibian adaptions.

We still have the latent genes for gills in us and the planet is covered by 76 percent of water.

Add sonar and....

File: quote (12).png (743KB, 1440x900px) Image search: [Google]

743KB, 1440x900px

>>78624586

>>78643821
Nice.

>>78617216
Superspeed.
Okay maybe 'faster than light' is unreasonable but fster than a car is still plausible right?

I accidently wrote a novel that's roughly 500,000 words long. I don't know if I should sell it off of Amazon or delete it.

Just for reference, the first sentence is: "Charles took a big dump in the toilet, it was a good dump."

>>78644881
What is it about?

>>78644936
It's Everybody Poops, but it examines the existential crisis that pooping brings with it.

>>78645059
You managed to write a 500,000 word long novel solely about people taking shits? I'm impressed. Sell it to Amazon.

>>78637288
Going along with this, I was thinking of her maybe getting a superpowered partner, someone that she has to teach about going on missions and properly using their powers; what power would be a good compliment to hers, super elasticity/malleability?

>>78645126
"I stare down at my stool... and I know it stares back at me."

File: megan violent vibrating.gif (769KB, 585x430px) Image search: [Google]

769KB, 585x430px

How do I get my scripts longer than 10 pages?

>>78649384
Write stories that require more than ten pages to tell?

>>78650430
My stories are crazy-long, I just like to break apart issues by themed miniarcs. I'm happy with the result from the standpoint of a storyteller, but its not a standard-length comic book. I mean, its not like I'm ever going ot publish it anywhere but the internet so it doesn't matter.

>>78631742

Or only from a certain genre. He wants to write fantasy and only reads fantasy... It just ends up copying everything.

So in all honestly what do you guys think was the best idea here?

>>78650892

I personally liked >>78586607

>>78650892
I think that >>78644881 might be the Great American Novel of our time.

bump?

>>78651727
It does seem like it.

>>78637575
How is this guy a loser?

File: crappy work in progress map.png (68KB, 1128x742px) Image search: [Google]

68KB, 1128x742px

>>78635857
To write an animated-fantasy pilot (half-hour), and for it to be, eh, good. Also to write a mini-bible for it.

>>78636204
Exactly. Writing it all down and having it all make sense with believable/interesting characters is what's hard.

>>78637378
Thanks anon! D&D / fantasy cartoons have such awesome potential.

>>78643821
I love that so much also holy shit this is still here

>>78654560
From his days in high school, generally he's also a bit clumsy. The character has no actual name given to him and is called a loser by the hitman and one of the Giovanardi's due to his situation increasingly getting worse, despite his best intentions. He's a smart character too, along with Iris, but that doesn't prove to be useful as most of the characters they are up (save a few, like the hitman) against are crazy and dumb and more likely to do anything less predictable against them.

>>78656214
I know right? Most writefag threads 404 after a couple of hours.

File: absoass2.jpg (527KB, 2575x3873px) Image search: [Google]

527KB, 2575x3873px

OP here, true believers. Thanks for an awesome thread and for sharing such fantastic ideas. Always believe in yourselves, network, finish what you start, and MAKE GOOD WRITING.

All the best. You can do it.

Life bump

>Wrote 137 page bible for fantasy novel
>Have enough backstory for everyone
>Can't think of names for shit

So does anyone listen to any type of music while they write?

My story just got rejected, now I feel bad. What does it mean when they say it's too slow paced?

>>78660593
I often listen to film scores. They seem to stimulate a lot of the kind of thinking I need when writing.

I tend to plot according to music I'm listening to.

>>78661919
Then there is probably too much and you need to cut down on it.

>>78660593
I listen to some film score and SOMETIMES video game soundtracks, but I usually just have my iTunes on shuffle and listen to whatever. No matter what though I DO listen to music.

>>78660593
I tend to listen to alot of crap pop. Works pretty well though probably not for everyone. Last 3 songs I listened to while writing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H202k7KfZL0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3OPox7MBqs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adGVpCsf9N4

File: 5186917068_5586abe14f1.jpg (102KB, 500x403px)

102KB, 500x403px

Quick,

Describe your villain, their plan, and their motivation.

>>78663440
He became a cop to prove his father that he was wrong for getting rid of him, then decided to kill him instead because he had enough of his shit and ended up on his own case.

He ended up being on his own case and is now trying to eliminate anything and anyone who can expose him.

>>78663440
>>78663440
Two main villains.

>A mercenary who inherits the Purple and begins a war to conquer the world. Reason for this is because turns out the love of his life is destined to kill him in order to bring peace to the world so he figures if he conquers the world and brings his own peace then they can be together.

Second one

> The First, for description sake, Angel created by the pantheon of Gods. Ends up betraying them for reasons and now helping the first villain conquer the world

File: 1451780621297.gif (2MB, 500x280px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 500x280px

>>78663440

He was fascinated by the concept of the angel and the devil on his shoulder, so when he was a child, he recorded every time he did a good deed. He would include every thank you and please. By the time he hits adulthood, he has a lot more good than bad, so he decides to "Cash in" his goodness, and commit horrific acts of violence, feeling entitled to do so for being so "good." He wants to feel alive, and is very strict with keeping to his allowance.

>>78660425
Try to look at the characters strongest traits and then go to a baby naming website and look for the word that describes them that you like. Then make some variations on it depending on the setting and bam, you got character names.

>>78660593
Tron Legacy Soundtrack. It works great.

>>78664238
An arrogant man looking to take my MC's place at his job, the Arrogant Man going to find out soon enough that you should look before you leap and is going to find out why my main MC hates his job.

>>78663440
I haven't gotten that far. Right now i've just got an evil cult who has subverted the agents of two powers in a semi-cold war, and has done something to the magical ruler of the city, in order to steal his pact with an ancient leyline elemental/diety. I figure i'll think of some actual motivation as I go along. Because we're EEEEEVIIIIIIL is kind of boring, but it's low fantasy, so i don't think anyone is going to complain

>>78663440
A dying god that for centuries has been clinging to life, and is using the last vestiges of his power to take vengeance on the descendants and non-believers he believes are responsible for his sorry state.

>>78664394
>>78664548
>>78670703
And these villians are from which ideas?

>>78663440
>Season 1 main villain
A hunter, intent on killing the last sapient creature of his kind in order to obtain his priceless pelt. He is enlisted by the big bad to kill both the creature and the royalty that he is traveling with.

>>78660593
Bob Dylan, The Tallest Man on Earth, and Daft Punk
Why?
Reasons that's why!

>>78663440
My villain is a big old worm wooly guy, think chewbacca but with a worm hard. He's world is being swallow whole by a living darkness and he's racing the clock to save his people.

>>78579599

I want to write a story about space mining, but I haven't figured out exactly what they're mining.

Best I figure is they mine shit to make their future tech work. Like fuel for the machine that powers their ability to travel through space is the most obvious one, but is that enough? Is me just saying "My unobtanium powers this future tech." enough? Sure, it's alien, and I guess the average joe doesn't really know the specifics of half the shit we mine here on earth, and WHY it works. But, I don't know -- shit it's for a short story anyway, maybe I focus more on the mining process than what they're actually mining.

>>78680740
There's water and metal.

Use one of those.

>>78680678
Have you ever actually written anything?

>>78681494
Yes I have but I'm lazy and I barely check for my own errors which irks my readers.

>>78682234
And all the different ideas?

So I'm working on a space opera/space fantasy set in the far future. I'm planning on opening with the big twist being that humanity was the standard precursor race in this universe that died out a couple thousand years before the current intergalactic civilization took root. But since one main character happens to be the sole surviving human who happened to be in some kind of stasis device until being discovered by a plucky band of salvagers, I've written two introductions. One from the salvagers' point of view, keeping their physical identities vague, and one from the human girl's perspective as she's thawed out.
Which would ger a bigger "whaaaat?" from the audience?

>>78685349
Why a human girl?

>>78685349
Honestly I don't think either of those would produce a big what.

The best thing I could think of would be from the salvager's point of perspective, and have one of them listing off trivia about the 'precursors' cribbed from HFY stuff, framed in a way that makes it less obvious. So talk up our endurance, ability to survive what would be fatal to other races (breaking a limb, over X% of blood loss, recreational use of lethal toxins, tendency to just stick metal into our bodies to fix defects, etc) that is all true but most people don't think about.

Also why is this one the only human preserved via stasis? Why did no one else survive that way? That's a question that will need an answer, even if it never comes up.

>>78680740
even the basic elements would be worth mining if the civilization isn't post-scarcity.

for stuff like that, the more mundane the more audiences will like how 'grounded' the premise is.

If you want something a little out there, maybe just some exotic but naturally occurring (in certain rare environments) material that is used to make superconductors.