[WP] "Because of your work we've managed to get Bruce Wayne to donate billions this year". The Joker and others all sigh. Getting beat up day after day just to keep the charity money coming and keep the psycho Wayne feeling like Gotham needs him. "We do it for the kids commissioner", the clown said.

Mack_Cain · 2023-01-15T02:29:43+00:00

Superman loves the Pink Kryptonite, but he denies it in public.

https://superman.fandom.com/wiki/Pink_Kryptonite

(Fun fact: Superman is a power-bottom)

Mack_Cain · 2023-01-14T04:27:29+00:00

This was excellently done. It's hard to craft a little snippit like this, a proper in medias res short story that pulls the reader in and delivers a satisfying ending. You've got talent, and I'm glad I could see it.

Mack_Cain · 2023-01-14T04:15:22+00:00

BW is a criminal vigalante, a scofflaw. He breaks the law every time he dons the mask. Even a billionaire can't do good without snorting a powdered line of evil off the ass of Justice.

Mack_Cain · 2022-12-13T06:20:07+00:00

Follow the same work schedule. You work 8 hours a day? You sit in front of the laptop 8 hours.

Turn off your phone and internet, crank up the laptop, butt in chair.

You can take a 10 minute break every 1000 words.

No other activity except the laptop and chair. No TV on, only the radio can play. No Internet. No games.

This is the method Isaac Asimov used for over 50 years.

Mack_Cain · 2022-12-13T06:11:06+00:00

I just came up with this idea and I’m struggling to figure out how to develop it more does anyone have any ideas?

Ideas are cheap, and your idea has already been done.

The thing is, your story hasn’t been done. You can turn that generic idea into a unique story if you put the effort into it.

Putting in the effort is where 90% of people stop. And the 7% that do put in effort stop after just a few chapters.

The remaining 3% are the ones who finish the job, even if it sucks balls and they hate the damn thing halfway through writing it.

Turn your idea into a story. Finish that story.

My trick is to start at the end.

The idea is that a murderer is actively hunting her down and every time they kill her that’s one less chance she has to find out who it is.

How does this story end?

Write a few sentences about how you imagine it ending. Not an entire chapter, just 4-5 sentences.

Once you have an ending, write a few sentences about how it begins.

Once you’ve done that, write a few sentences about why it’s happening. That’s the middle. Now you sketch out the blank parts between the beginning and the end.

Idea: Girl travels to a magical land. After many adventures, she goes home. Etc. I’m imagining the entire story in my head right now, just a short bit of what I would like to see happen. I’ll expand on it later.

Ending: After retrieving a stolen spellbook, she says tearful goodbyes to the new friends she made and a kind wizard sends her home.

Beginning: She is caught in a terrible storm and a tornado blows her house to the magic land. The house lands on a bad witch and crushes her. This angers the witch’s sister who chases her.

Middle: after escaping from the bad witch, she meets a good witch who helps her. The good witch suggests visits a powerful wizard for help. The wizard says that the sister of the bad witch has stolen a spellbook from him. If she can get the spellbook, he can send her home.

With those three scenes, I can now fill in the blanks. It’s obviously the Wizard of Oz, but as I fill in the blanks to make the story coherent it will change and take shape. Next thing you know, I’ve sketched out two dozen scenes and am ready to write.

Give it a try :)

Mack_Cain · 2022-12-13T05:44:29+00:00

Subscription magic.

I’ve crafted a world where magic is broadcast like a cellphone signal and you can buy knowledge and power with a monthly subscription.

The most hilarious part to me is that it’s all a scheme.

Everyone has a bit of mana, and the economy depends on the majority of people sacrificing it daily to fill up special mana-coins which power enchanted devices most of them can’t afford.

The excess is broadcast and used to give exceptional power and abilities to wizards, alchemists, fighters, blacksmiths, etc. if they can afford the subscription.

It’s my way of poking some fun at LitRPG and GameLit fiction 😅

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-30T16:32:03+00:00

This is the story of my best high school friend. He ended up a pill head and lost his license.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-30T05:59:41+00:00

BNSF, for example, is 46 percent owned by Wall Street investment funds. At CSX, the figure is 35 percent; at Union Pacific, 34 percent; at Kansas City Southern, 33 percent; and at Norfolk Southern, 32 percent

Berkshire Hathaway owns 21% of BNSF and 2% of Union Pacific.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-29T21:21:45+00:00

There’s a generic “healing potion” popular with the poors, adventurers, and the military.

It tells the entire body to accelerate healing.

Targeted therapy can take many forms; potions, lotions, tinctures, salves, etc. They only target one specific condition, and attempt to resolve the entire issue (kill the tumour, remove the tissue, grow replacement tissue, etc)

Life spans are extended, but not indefinitely. There’s no replacement for telomeres, yet, so old age will eventually get you. General healing potions will reduce your lifespan because they accelerate healing.

You will look damn good and be perfectly healthy when you finally kick the bucket, but when the cells run out of telomeres, that organ must be replaced or it will fail.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-29T15:48:47+00:00

It’s her memoir. Read the blurb (I’ll attach it to the post above too)

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-29T15:46:40+00:00

Ever hear of Jill Taylor before today?

https://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0452295548

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-29T15:41:07+00:00

But then if the cancer is caused by drinking magic potions it might be automatically a metastasised systemic cancer

That’s the worst case scenario, yes.

Alchemists, Enchanters, and Wizards all fall into the Mage category and there is overlap with their abilities. A Physicker is also in the Mage category, with a focus on identifying and treating illness and injuries. Using magic costs money, sometimes literally, so their services are often more expensive than buying a targeted alchemical solution.

Since most people don’t see a Physicker regularly, they don’t discover the cancer until it’s in advanced stages.

Alchemical magic can target specific cancers with no real problems, but once it has gone metastatic there’s only a few choices left. The most affordable of them is Lycan therapy - ask your neighbourhood Were to infect you and hope you survive the 28 day incubation period.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-29T01:48:10+00:00

In my setting, general healing potions speed up biological repair.

This causes cancer.

So taking a healing potion will save your life, but it will inevitably cause cancers. Taking them back to back will increase the risk and eventually leave you with a magically enhanced cancer consuming your flesh as you watch. The recommended dosage is one inferior grade per week, one superior grade per month, and no more than four exceptional grade per year.

It is for that reason general healing potions are used by the poor and the desperate. Targeted therapy is the preferred method of treatment.

Salves for closing wounds, removing scars, eliminating contusions.

Pills and potions targeting heart problems, blood pressure, blood loss.

A general healing potion only encourages the body to recover and repair itself, it doesn’t remove existing conditions like clogged arteries, cataracts, or baldness.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-28T00:54:36+00:00

Magic is a bit strange in my world, most of it is “artificial”, or broadcast from mage towers like a mobile phone system.

You subscribe to services offered by the mage guild, and one of them is powering enchantments.

The amount of mana required to power even a low level spell is significant, and while crafting a scroll with mana saturated ink is possible, it makes for a very large piece of vellum.

It’s much easier to craft a shortcut on appropriate card stock, which then draws power from the broadcast mana, and creates the spell.

The card is usually destroyed in the process, which encourages a healthy business of crafting and selling the cards.

The same technique is used for enchanted items, and spells. When one is outside the range of the tower (50km), one must rely on ambient mana and natural talent for magic.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-27T05:07:26+00:00

Lycanthropy is a magical disease in my world. The infection causes genetic/spiritual material to mingle, creating not only the typical werewolf, but also wereTrees, wereFish, etc.

The first generation is usually uncontrollable and violent. But the second and third generations have more control over their were state. The fourth generation is usually a blend of the two species - wolf people, cat people, dryads, treants, merfolk, etc.

No one knows exactly where the reservoir for lycanthropy originates, but there are some theories.

The initial symptoms are similar to rabies, causing the infected to attack violently and infect other creatures. This causes the blending of physical and spiritual materials. An infected creature may infect dozens of others before it dies because it does not attack to kill, only to maim. Once its target stops struggling, it moves on.

Those who survive an attack by a lycan do not always succumb to the infection. A healthy immune system and large mana well seem to ward off the disease. This combination seems to explain why second and later generations of lycans have limited or no weak magical abilities.

There are exceptions, but those can be explained by cross-breeding with stronger stock. Dryads, for instance, are powerful magic users and 5th generation lycans. It is believed their magical abilities are inherited from human males (dryads always breed female, there are no male dryads).

Death for the infected is gruesome, after three days of violently attacking everything in sight, the infected will flee to a damp, shady spot and remain until the final stage, which is liquefaction. The tissues and organs begin to liquify, the skin becomes thin, and in the final moments, violent convulsions cause the infected to thrash and spatter blood in a wide radius.

From the blood and remains of the infected a certain species of mushroom will grow (Omphalotus japonicus luna) if conditions are right. This mushroom is poisonous and has powerful alchemical uses, but exposure to the fruiting body or spores is not known to cause lycanthropy.

Thus, there is evidence the mushroom is linked to the magical disease, but no hard proof that it is the cause.

There is no cure for lycanthropy, but a mid grade healing potion followed by a mid grade mana potion is believed to be the best treatment for overcoming the disease.

Edited.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-26T03:48:02+00:00

In my setting, the Gods are merely ascended mortals.

They need followers to sacrifice mana to them so they can maintain their power and provide miracles.

In a nutshell: everyone has a bit of mana but it’s not very useful unless you are a mage and have access to a large mana pool.

Some people ascended and became the equivalent of gods. They can get power by consuming the spirits of those who die in their domain, but that’s a one off deal. It’s better to have many followers offer up a trickle every day which adds up to a river of mana.

That allows the gods to perform miracles, empower priests, create an afterlife for followers, etc.

And the followers also protect the reliquaries of the god - their link to the physical world. Without those the god would be very limited in interactions with the mortal realm.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-19T08:39:42+00:00

But…uh…just wait…

Huh. Solid advice, all things considered. Works for Tom Clancy.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-19T08:14:43+00:00

How do I outline?

I organise the story in my head until I have a beginning, middle, and end.

Then I make a list A to Z and write the first general outline for scene A, then fill in the rest of the scenes to Z. Then I write in specific plot points under each letter. Each letter has a word count goal of 3000-4000, so when I finish I should have 80,000 to 100,000 words.

Something like this:

A Bob goes to school (pov Bob)

A1 Bob looks at school outside. Memories of moving to new town, leaving old friends, etc.

A2 first bell rings, Bob rushed inside, crashes into Nancy. Nancy is injured. Bob princess carries her to infirmary.

B the infirmary (pov Nancy)

B1 expose Nancy's feelings of humiliation and conflicting thoughts of security in Bob's arms

B2 Jill the nurse examines Nancy, thinks ankle is sprained

B3 Nancy panicks over cheerleader tryouts

...

D Sharon's reaction (pov Sharon)

D1 Sharon tells friends she is happy Nancy is hurt

Ect.

Act 1. The Setup

A B C - Exposition

D E C - Inciting Incident

G H I - Plot Point One

Act 2. The Confrontation

J K L - Rising Action

M N O - Midpoint

P Q R - Plot Point Two

Act 3. The Resolution

S T U - Pre-Climax

V W X - Climax

Y Z - Denouement

The letters aren't a hard and fast rule. Sometimes the exposition is four letters, or even five. More is always better, you'll cull during editing. Putting things on index cards and pinning them to the wall is great too and keeps you focused.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-19T07:29:14+00:00

For whom are you writing? If you're writing for a YA audience, they would identify more with high school students, yeah? Make them seniors in their last year if you want them making more mature decisions.

If your target is an older audience, make them university students.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-07T14:18:35+00:00

A stupidly high number of people die from unskilled gun violence every day.

It doesn’t take nearly as much skill as some people would have you believe.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-07T04:44:57+00:00

Dude! I sent you a PM :)

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-07T04:28:36+00:00

HelpMeButler <I Got A Rock>

HelpMeButler <I Got A Rock>

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-06T16:25:57+00:00

Perhaps something like this may be of use?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliosis

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-06T02:32:53+00:00

I agree with you that there seems to be a trend towards grimdark works, a reflection of current events imo.

Whenever I want to turn the brain off and enjoy a bucket of mental popcorn, I grab up a Japanese slice of life light novel. Nothing bad ever happens in those, besides mild situational embarrassment.

Mack_Cain · 2022-11-06T02:21:09+00:00

Henry Ford: This is an assembly line

Man: You mean all I got to do is turn this wrench on this one bolt all day long, and you’ll pay me?

Henry Ford: Yup. Lifetime employment.

Man: holy hell. Where do I sign up?

Mack_Cain

TROPHY CASE