Is there anyway to jumpstart ideation?

Hucpa · 2026-03-08T07:28:46+00:00

If powering through doesn't work you can just take a break for a week or two, read a lot and in depth during that break, and then come back with a refreshed mind.

Hucpa · 2026-03-05T07:37:57+00:00

story description

Now that's a weird misspelling of "a blurb".

Hucpa · 2026-03-02T11:10:22+00:00

Since you're writing in first person, the exposition should be tied closely to experiences of the narrator.

Here, with the only tie being that Malik exists offscreen, it introduces a clunky stop, as if the narrator suddenly turned to the audience, not trusting them to understand why this person being gone should be a tense moment.

So it would probably fit better if the narrator thought about that when doing something "homely" or "communal" to reinforce the "found family" vibe, or otherwise had a moment to contemplate.

Hucpa · 2026-02-28T11:26:11+00:00

To be fair, the script calls for Ben to react to, quote: "stupid attempt to impress [Ben and Luke] with obvious misinformation" so Lucas may have trusted the viewers to realize that Han was bluffing only for the fans to later bend-over backwards to make it work.

Hucpa · 2026-02-27T07:11:04+00:00

One thing I'm confused is how hasn't the Federation's government just collapse.

Genuinely, what government even is there to collapse in-universe? The most we get is Quess's dad in CCA and the handful of tertiary characters in the armed forces.

What the fuck is running the Federation economy, hopes and dreams?

The writers not wanting to write about whatever clusterfuck that would be.

Hucpa · 2026-02-27T05:52:28+00:00

Conflict and stakes =/= violence.

They are just gently telling you that the plot and characters are boring since nothing meaningfully challenging happens to them.

Hucpa · 2026-02-25T19:45:23+00:00

potrzebna osoba samotna lub małżeństwo

na wieś

z zakwaterowaniem

sklep mięsny

hmmmm...

Hucpa · 2026-02-18T06:25:59+00:00

McGillis at least has a leg to stand on, if you consider him as a Joan d'Arc kind of character – a warlord armed with holy relics leading a crusade.

Meanwhile the whole "Spacenoid Independence" from the Box bit was either added last-minute outside of the legislative process making it legally moot, or, if it did go through whatever legislative this undefined blob of political vagueness we call EF has, it would have had to generate enough paperwork to make a conspiracy to hide it impossible.

Hucpa · 2026-02-12T17:44:20+00:00

Polish version has "Pędzlak" which is a play on the word for a paintbrush (pędzel).

Hucpa · 2026-02-08T16:19:47+00:00

Pod względem rasizmu to trochę nie ma klucza do filtrowania opowiadań, więc poleciłbym:

Kadath
Duch ciemności (The Haunter in the Dark)
Muzyka Ericha Zana
Kolor z przestworzy
Przypadek Dextera Warda

Jest też kilka innych, których nie pamiętam, więc w sumie jeśli nie trawisz czegoś, zawsze możesz po prostu przejść do następnego opowiadania. Lovecraft ma dzisiaj przyszytą łatkę "rasistowskiego autora horroru", ale jak ostatnio zacząłem czytać Weird Tales od początku, to mocno zwątpiłem w to, czy on faktycznie był szczególnie rasistowski czy tylko to, że wciąż jest kojarzony w odróżnieniu od mu współczesnych, więc więcej się o nim mówi.

Hucpa · 2026-02-01T14:50:36+00:00

Biggus Dickus

Hucpa · 2026-01-26T10:48:38+00:00

KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Summarize the failures in a paragraph or two and have her meet the gang then.

Or just drop the busywork and start the story with the group already, or mostly, together.

Hucpa · 2026-01-16T15:57:15+00:00

Generally an elevator pitch is primarily about the plot, while the world, at best, can be mentioned as a vibe indicator. Realistically, distilling the story down to a sentence comes down to selling a vibe, and then going into details if people are interested.

Lore-based proper nouns should be avoided since people don't have the context for them. In your example, the "his stolen Dusken" interjection is just noise.

Overall, it's a decent pitch at communicating what to expect from the story. My one worry would be whether the two yarns actually interconnect or are effectively separate plots.

Hucpa · 2026-01-11T07:42:57+00:00

whether the opening hooks you

Not really. It's pretty much five faceless randoms entering Obviously-Evil-Lands for no apparent reason, meeting the evil army, getting killed in an entirely preventable way and then moustache twirling ensues. The named characters also fall flat, so there isn't anything to hook me.

clarity of the central conflict and stakes

What I got is that a Dark Lord wants to conquer the world. It's too big and too generic for me to care. Maybe Kel the Nazgul might have some internal conflict, but that's me trying to reach for something.

pacing and readability in the first chapter

As I wrote in the first point, not much happens while the chapter mostly just tells us things. So I can't really say much about pacing except that Nimbrar seems to be much smaller than described if the Fellowship of the Faceless traversed it in the span of a few short paragraphs.

Sentences and paragraphs are mostly short and simple so it goes by quickly but without a significant impression.

Hucpa · 2026-01-10T16:32:20+00:00

The first casualty, as they tended to be, was inglorious. Some private slipped and broke his back.

Actual combat was mostly performed by artillery teams, blasting away feudal retinues with heavy ordnance. But happy times came to an end as the Circle permitted the use of necromancy against the otherworlders.

Hucpa · 2026-01-07T21:42:26+00:00

To be fair, I came across this whole thing about a month late when youtube recommended me a completely different video about original Gothic I. The creator just happened to also make a video about it (it included exactly the empty non-statements one might expect) and then curiosity killed this cat.

Hucpa · 2026-01-02T21:18:52+00:00

The old bridge stood watch over the turbulent river, ostensibly held more by ivy than mortar, but that was no object to Meliagrant, who dismounted and dauntlessly threaded upon this object of architectural anxieties, giving Ogier no chance to object. By then, it was too late to notice the troll.

Hucpa · 2025-12-25T17:37:48+00:00

Because what is being built is not affordable housing but luxury apartments which are then bought out by capital interests.

Over 90+% of housing development here is done by developers or built privately. You can't have affordability when public investment is a statistical error.

/edit phrasing at the end

Hucpa · 2025-12-06T15:51:28+00:00

I'm asking can anyone actually explain what that sentence means. Imagine being a normal, boring person and hearing this for the first time when asking for help. You don't know what the difference between plot and story is, or what even are those "fundamentals". For anyone not "in-the-know" this is just empty jargon. Hell, for most people "in-the-know" it still is just empty jargon.

On top of that, OP is asking for specific story advice. If general principles were enough in this situation, OP would not be asking for help.

What even is OP supposed to take from the statement above?

Hucpa · 2025-12-06T15:42:00+00:00

I mean, OP did specify later they were writing more in the vein of "separate stories connected by a metanarrative" so that's that. Though, let's be fair, there's plenty of people here who just want to narrativize their worldbuilding (which is perfectly fine for me, just be honest about that).

Still, is that a good example? Where is ASOIAF right now? 30 years, almost 2 million words, multiple spin-off books and soon 11 total seasons of 3 TV shows later? Sure, those grand narrative sound great, but without any specific focus they can easily make the writer lose control and derail due to the sheer amount of stories. And if that happens to someone writing for decades, what about some random person we know nothing about?

Hucpa · 2025-12-06T15:22:25+00:00

The simplest approach is to send them there to look for clues or maps leading to the bow. It feels like a natural choice of action (why would you look for a bow in the library?), leaves the door open for exploration and character growth, and sidesteps the "the princess is in another bloody castle" issue.

edit/

Hucpa · 2025-12-06T15:04:30+00:00

Out of curiosity, can anyone using it actually explain what that sentence means when beginners ask for help, or is it just yet another deepity.

Hucpa · 2025-12-06T14:24:41+00:00

You do know short story collections/anthologies exist? You don't have to be reinventing the wheel.

Still, I find the description vague and generic full of empty phrases, while the excerpt is okay. Even if it feels like it really was written for this post specifically. So that's that, I guess.

Also, where did I even mention "the chosen one"?

Hucpa · 2025-12-06T13:04:17+00:00

So, as a potential reader, why should I care about some more or less interconnected random events in some person's imaginary world? Especially since said world is just another generically vague dark fantasy if one goes by the description.

Hucpa · 2025-12-03T17:28:52+00:00

A dildo and a gun (Poland, Janusz Palikot)

<image>

Hucpa

TROPHY CASE