Sanderson's "Write About Dragons" Creative Writing Course

[Robinski he/him]

'Seeds' is back!! Yay!!! This WAD thing just gets better and better. Origon and Rilan - the early years - brilliant.

 

@Endurant: When I say types, I'm possibly thinking more of RPG stereotypes of character classes. I don't want to say too much, as I want to assess the impact on you, my willing test subjects (Muah, ha, ha.). But I'm trying to take character roles and bring something unexpected to them. As one example, I'm thinking of a mage whose ability is questionable. As I type this, I realise that thought might have come (subconsciously) from 'A Memory of Light'. You might also point to Pratchett's Rincewind - but this is not a comedy - although hopefully there will be a lightness of tone in places.

 

I'm fine with Google Docs. I'll probably go the other way and write in Docs and paste into Word - each to their own.

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

@Robinski got it. I'll be paying attention. I've never read Pratchett. Might look it up. Might not. One of those "Do you really have time to look up something interesting? Or should you just read what you already have to read?" moments.

 

@Mandamon Ahhhhh! Exciting, another universe builder! I'm definitely looking forward to that. How did you start building your universe? We need to be talk more about this

[Sunshine she/her]

Oh gosh. I haven't picked one yet!

I was thinking this afternoon about some sort of experiment in the distant future involving people cloned from the Stone Age and a researcher that struggles with the ethics of the experiment.

Or a post-apocalyptic heist, with benevolent crime lords in Vegas.

Or a magician that gets sucked back to her home realm because there's a prophecy that says she'll bring peace (she's not having any part of that nonsense).

[Robinski he/him]

@Sunshine: Nice ideas - how the heck do you write benevolent crime lords?! Could be a Robin Hood angle, I suppose. Very interesting.

 

T minus 5 days, people!!!

[Mandamon he/him]

@ Sunshine - they all sound good!  Go for the one where you can put your characters through the most grief!

 

@Endurant - I've had this universe bouncing around in my brain for almost 20 years, from when I was a young teenager.  Seeds of Dissolution went through about 5 complete rewrites (as in none of the words are the same) before getting to the newest version.  Lots of things got cut away before the whole gelled together.  I have one other short story in the universe written, an outline for book 2, and have been wanting to do some backstories for a while.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Mandamon

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Well me and my friend are in. Though as I told Endurant Archivist my friend and I are not at all techno savvy, so this will be fun.

 

The story that we will be writing will be a write up of a D&D game we will play. We will use the D&D 3.5 basic system but will be using our own world. Not too sure what the overall plot will be, but we will come up with that later.

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

@sunshine the post-apocalyptic heist sounds like fun. Though I'm wondering how benevolent crime lords work too lol.

@Mandamon that's how universes seem to go. Mine was bouncing around for about five years, then two years ago I really solidified it with my first novel. Now I've got two more written in it, this novella will be the third. As I write more, it really starts to flesh out and grow.

@Smurf(for short) glad to have you on board. Sounds like the start of a good idea, you have the rules in place. Let us know when you come up with a story.

So, with a larger group, I say we attempt to comment on everyone's submissions the first week, to see if we can handle it. We'll break into smaller groups from there if we need to.

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Wicked sweet man. My friend and I, his names Bob, mines Kevin, will start to really develop the world and characters over the weekend. I will then put up what we come up with on Sunday.

I tested the Google Doc and let me tell you I had no idea what I was doing but I managed to fumble through it. I think, maybe?

Edited July 17, 2014 by SmurfAquamarineBodies

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

T-Minus 4 Days!

[WriteNowDave he/him]

is there still room?

 

can i play?

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

There's still room, but I may divide us up into two smaller critique groups so everyone can participate. Shoot me your email!

[WriteNowDave he/him]

done

 

It came to me in the shower.

The story idea I mean... (shakes head in disgust)

 

So here goes something....

 

 

This is the story of Doug. Doug is a good ol boy who works in the automotive department at the local wallsmart. He lives from paycheck to paycheck with a fiance that doesn’t appreciate him. Neither do the kids, some of which are even his own. The only thing that brings enjoyment to him is watching rastling, bashing liberals and their gimee attitudes, and reloading his guns. Then one night while out camping with his friends their site gets visited by aliens. He awakens as a captive only to discover they have him tied up and are performing numerous invasive experiments. They try to come up with a way of escaping as hilarity ensues.

 

 

Its a prototype of a story. Very basic. I am shooting for comedy "get-r-dun" type stuff.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Rubix
Please don't double post. Use the edit button instead.

[WriteNowDave he/him]

I never double posted? It looks like Rubix merged my post from yesterday with the one I made tonight

 

Oh well

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

@WriteNowDave a comedy would be a different take on the Sci-Fi genre. I'll be curious to see where it goes. What is "rastling"? Will this be poking fun at some stereotypes in the genre, like little green men from outer space?

 

T-Minus 2 days everyone! Any last minute concepts for your novella ideas? 

[Robinski he/him]

I reckon we are 8 now - you gonna split us into 2 x 4? Or not, no pressure either way.

 

I've watched the intro (cheater!!) and Brandon talks about them submitting 1,000 words, or maybe 2,000. I think you said 1,000 for us, doesn't sound like a lot for critiquing - 7 x 2,000 is only 3 Reading Excuses critiques (at up to 5,000).

 

As to progress, I now got 11 pages of notes - I was a discovery writer for many, many years until last NaNo when I tried outlining and couldn't stop writing notes. It seems to have stuck. I still have loads of scope, all I've written are character portraits, setting, magic, plot concept and plot outline (skeleton), so still plenty of room for me to discover things as I go!

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

@Robinski cheating! It's ok, I did too, it's helpful. We'll all be watching it soon anyway. For me, I didn't want people to feel pressured to submit more work then necessary. I want to help people really grab a hold of their style and conflict with some specifics. Sometimes, longer reviews can become tedious to use and implement. With only 30,000 words to work with, we'll need to make adjustments quickly, being flexible. 

 

Having said that, 2000 words isn't bad and if we want to do that, let's do it. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

 

For the first two weeks we'll keep it as one group. If we find it's overwhelming, we'll divide it up into two.

 

I've got my basic outline still, but I'm fleshing out the internal conflict for my main character and the external conflict that he finds himself on the wrong side of morally. Basically, what starts for him as the right pragmatic decision becomes a moral issue when someone dies and his loyalty to his word is brought into question. 

This is all to the backdrop to one of the greatest discoveries of the century in the universe that I've built.

[Robinski he/him]

I like your thinking about seeing how it goes (suck-it-and-see, as we say in these parts).

 

Intrigued to read about the "greatest discover of the century"!! Some big themes going on there.

 

In addition to trying to incorporate Brandon's sound advice through the WaD course, I'm also trying to build in some writing prompts that I've been stacking up from previous Writing Excuses casts. This afternoon I ticked off Season 5, Episode 22 - "Come up with an eight-word tagline for your novel or short story. It needs to be pithy, punchy, memorable and easily comprehensible.". My response:

 

"The greatest threat to success is their friends."

[Mandamon he/him]

"The greatest threat to success is their friends."

I like it.  

...ok one quibble (since it's me).  Is this one person or multiple?  "HIs/her" vs "their"

 

I was thinking about the 1000 words a week this morning.  I'll write more than that on good day, but this also gives me a chance to do reworks, as well as watching the videos.  I think I'm going to start with a goal of 1000 words, and if I go over, then I'll spend a little more time on outlining or editing before I submit.

 

I did write a couple sentences just to find the into to my story, but that's it, I promise!  

Going to watch the intro now (secretly!)

 

 

--Edit: ok, now I'm confused about the math.  We're not writing 1000 words a week, we're writing 3000 a week to have 30k in 10 weeks.  Are we only submitting 1000 of the 3000 per week, or all 3000?

Edited July 20, 2014 by Mandamon

[Robinski he/him]

...ok one quibble (since it's me).  Is this one person or multiple?  "His/her" vs "their"

 

Oh, you quibbler you ;o)   Yes, I had a few goes at this. It's multiple people, which does lead to the problem you highlight. It doesn't help that you don't know that when reading that first version - where I do, of course - although it shouldn't matter. Here's an alternative.

 

"The greatest threat to success is each other."

 

I toiled a bit with the submission numbers too - I'm not sure how good I'll be a cutting 1,000 words out of the 3,000 (or whatever), that I've written. This said, I think we are now onto 2,000 word submissions, per Endurant's email above.

[Mandamon he/him]

I like that tagline better...

 

I guess we'll see how it works after the first week.  I'll probably want to read all of everyone's work, just so I get the whole story.

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

T-Minus 1 day for the East Coast of America. For the rest of you, enjoy the future while you're ahead. 

 

I can't wait! A few more hours, then it's starting. I nearly started watching tonight, but my wife stopped me...bummer.

 

Submissions should be 1000-2000 words, whichever you want. This idea (I think) it to just get concepts and ideas evaluated by the group, not do an entire read-through of the book. Now, if you want to read the whole thing, that's not a bad idea. I'll know more once I get through the first few videos.

[Robinski he/him]

Yes, I should be up and running, but have a bit of a headache this morning (literal). Must, fight, through, pain. Must, put, words, on, page.

 

So when is out submission day? Is it next Monday, life Ready Excuses, that would at least be easy for some of us to remember!!

 

(Oh man, biggest submission roster on RE for weeks - three submissions - arrgghh!!)

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

Next Monday.

 

Just got to work. 8-5 then the night classes begin!  

 

How do you guys plan to watch through the videos? All at once, or over the course of the week? For the sake of family and other commitments, I'll probably watch half tonight, half another night, with a few hours for writing.

[Robinski he/him]

I'm going to spread them out over the week, so I can gradually assimilate the guidance and try to apply bits here and there as I write.

 

I don't have work today (score!) - it's a quaint little local holiday called the Glasgow Fair.

[WriteNowDave he/him]

So I got about 800 words written on my light rail ride to work

I have already watched the lesson one on youtube, a few weeks ago, but am left wondering if I should watch it again?

 

So once I finish with my thousand where do I put it again?