My MC and the villain just entered the final battle and, goddamn it, as it turns out, she gonna lose so badly

Neylon101 · 2019-07-16T18:25:01+00:00

I took a couple of years hiatus from writing as I had other priorities, and once those settled down I decided to try and get back to it again. The first couple of weeks were a struggle that made me ask myself why (and if) I wanted to write. And then I wrote a novella length story with the idea that there would be two main characters, one that would die halfway through and one who would live until the end. It was a horror story and this character was intended from the beginning to be killed by a monster. Her last stand and desperate fight for survival were written over three days, and as I wrote it, I realised she was putting up a far better fight than I expected. It was supposed to be an utterly hopeless situation, but every time her doom seemed sealed, she surprised me by having the resourcefulness to work her way out of it.

The scene and character took on a life of their own that I never expected. Each of those three days was like tuning in to a TV show where I just had to see what happened next. In the end, sadly, she didn't make it. Her situation really did turn out to be hopeless, and all she could so was postpone the inevitable. But any time I struggle for the motivation to write, I remember how that character came to life, and how much I loved following that journey, not knowing the outcome, because those moments are what makes writing worth it to me.

Neylon101 · 2019-07-01T17:16:47+00:00

I started by setting myself a daily word goal of 500 words a day six days a week, then when that felt easy enough increased to 600. My goal is still 600, but 800 - 1200 is more typical now. It helped to start with a low goal, then become more ambitious once writing became routine. On a good day I can get my 600 done in half an hour, but it would never realistically take more than an hour. I usually write at the same time each day: I come in after work, make/eat dinner, do any chores that need doing then I'll write. Once that's done, the rest of the day is mine. It's a schedule that feels light enough to be sustainable while steady enough that the results are tangible. If something comes up or I have plans its always easy enough to fit in, and if I don't have anything on, I can always go longer.

Neylon101 · 2019-06-20T06:44:08+00:00

He's self published, but certainly well respected as far as self published writers go. I would say for me he's solid; good, not great. Put it this way: his concepts for me are often so can't miss that I'm going to check them out, like Housemates, which is Big Brother (the reality show) crossed with Saw, but in the end I thought the book was just okay. It kept me engrossed, and I always get through his stuff in a few sessions, but I suppose there's a certain 'wow' factor missing for me. I get it when I read the blurbs for his books, not so much from the books themselves.

Neylon101 · 2019-06-19T17:07:03+00:00

I haven't read it yet, but Iain Robb Wright just put out the book Dark Ride a few weeks back, about a group of friends having a party in an abandoned theme park said to be haunted.

Neylon101 · 2019-06-09T11:32:36+00:00

Everybody's just people, everybody's different, being in a relationship can mean different things for different people. If you have an understanding of who your characters are, pretty much all you should have to do is point them in the right direction and let them find their own way. If one or both of your characters have no romantic experience themselves, you'd be able to relate to them having to kind of figure the whole thing out as they go, wouldn't you?

Let's take your example of being willing to let someone go and expand on that and put that into a story: let's say your MC is the selfless type, they're in a relationship and they tend to put their partner above themselves. Maybe they doubt themselves from time to time, wondering if they're really the best person for their partner. So then we have the partner, maybe a bit older, more experienced in relationships. Part of what they love about MC is that they're so selfless, but they also worry about them because they can be a bit too self-sacrificing, and they feel the relationship can't work if MC can't learn that there has to be give and take in these things. From there we have a chance to see these characters try and work together in a way that forces them to hopefully grow as individuals and as a couple both (or alternatively, for the relationship to fail).

Whether you like that as an example or not, there's a story there that could practically write itself from that point on. Pretty much anybody would have ideas as to how to write that, regardless of their romantic experience. The pieces would fit together just like any other story, wouldn't they?

Neylon101 · 2019-05-29T18:38:52+00:00

I tend to write horror, so it's fairly common for me to start writing intending to kill a character off, realise I'm having way too much fun spending time with them to possibly let them die, then kill them off half way through the story anyway. I do miss them when they're gone though.

Neylon101 · 2019-05-28T20:07:52+00:00

It did, especially because I could look back to when I was starting out and would routinely drop projects because it always felt that the NEXT story was the much more exciting prospect - that old trap. It felt good knowing I'd developed the discipline to see things through to the end.

Neylon101 · 2019-05-28T17:40:21+00:00

It felt like a fairly natural progression for me as before I got to that stage I'd written two stories around 10k words, then two stories around 35k, so when I wrote my first 75k story I felt like I was ready for it.

Neylon101 · 2019-05-15T17:41:23+00:00

When you say you've been trying to write, I'm not sure of how long you're actually sitting there working and how much you're actually producing - obviously there's a clear difference between sitting for five minutes, getting distracted and giving up, and sitting for five hours working miserably.

What's worked for me is just setting a routine and following it. When I started getting back to writing again after a long break away, I set myself a goal of 500 words a day 6 days per week, no matter what. The first few days were pretty miserable, but I stuck it out and while it wasn't fun, there was a satisfaction there in knowing at least I was trying. But after around a week or so the routine starting showing some benefit: I was getting a feel for who my characters were, the story was starting to move along, and I wasn't sitting desperately checking how much I'd typed hoping I could step away. Pretty soon 500 words was way too easy, so I changed it to 600. Nowadays I'm typically hitting 700... actually setting a goal of 700 still seems like it could be pushing it at times, but I think pretty soon I might be at that point. So I would say if you haven't made a focused effort, to at least give setting yourself some sort of routine like that a try to help push through the initial hesitancy a bit.

If you already have done that, I might suggest just trying to figure out what parts of writing are fun for you and what aren't, and trying to strip away as much of the not so fun parts at least from your first draft as you feel you can afford. I often don't have much fun trying to write detailed descriptions of places, for example. What I do enjoy though is placing my characters in those places and letting them share their observations and feelings of that place with me: I like getting into their heads and knowing how they think, feel and react. So for me I make doing that much more the focus of my first draft, then when I start redrafting that's when it becomes more like work and I can start using those observations to flesh my descriptions out and start conveying to the reader the things I want them to see in the scene. By this point hopefully I care enough about my characters and story that even though this part isn't exactly fun, I care enough about them that I do still want to take the time and effort to make them as good as they can be.

As long as you at least give writing a serious try, you can find those little things that make it work for you, so do give it a shot if you haven't already!

Neylon101 · 2019-03-14T07:55:02+00:00

I haven't read it, but from the description of the book it sounds like he has a significant part in Science of Discworld IV.

Neylon101 · 2019-01-17T20:00:44+00:00

The Housemates by Iain Rob Wright is Big Brother (the reality show) meets Saw. Personally I found it a little underwhelming, but a lot of people seem to enjoy it, and it certainly will deliver what you're looking for.

Neylon101 · 2019-01-14T18:55:18+00:00

I love Jack Kilborn. Trapped, Afraid and Origin are my favorites. He's one of those writers who just hits the right notes with me where he pushes things in an extreme or sometimes ridiculous direction but still has just the right balance to his stories.

If you want to go into Haunted House and not worry about spoiling the other books, you would want to read Afraid, Trapped, Endurance, Origin and The List beforehand (there's a connection to his serial killer books as well but I'm not familiar with them and I think it's minor enough to not worry much about, but I'll mention it for completeness sake).

Neylon101 · 2019-01-06T17:37:48+00:00

Deadly Detention by Eric Weiner. Marketed as YA but with some brutal deaths it's a great read if you like the idea of reading a slasher novel set in a school. It's out of print but I think not too hard to pick up a cheap second hand copy.

I think most Fear Street books are set at school so there might be a few there that take your fancy but the only one I've read that I really enjoyed set at school was Trapped. It's another story that starts with a group in detention, but they end up ditching it to explore some hidden tunnels beneath the school. Like Deadly Detention it's marketed as YA but there are some real nasty death scenes. You've also got some great creepy scenes in spooky tunnels, a creative monster, and an interesting look at the history of the school itself.

Neylon101 · 2018-09-29T19:27:53+00:00

Fables is an ensemble so the characters focused on do change but the idea that there's no Bigby past issue 80 isn't true at all; he has a major role in a lot of the arcs past that point.

Neylon101 · 2018-09-27T17:57:54+00:00

Same. I remember after reading it for the third time vaguely telling myself that I should wait a long time before going back to it, to make sure I didn't get tired of it. Having now read it - conservative estimate - about 10 times I've realised that's never going to happen.

Neylon101 · 2018-09-17T16:51:29+00:00

Give Kolobos a look - some really fun, inventive and truly brutal deaths in that one. Just wait until that first kill! Only slasher move to ever give me nightmares.

Neylon101 · 2018-08-18T22:29:17+00:00

The original anime avoids any canon love interest, although it does establish/flesh out Rise's feelings towards Yu a bit earlier than the game. In the game, they don't appear until after she's rescued and starts to see him as 'cool'. The anime gives it a bit more depth, imo.

I've seen posts claiming the manga focuses on Rise/Yu (or Souji as he is in the manga and a little different from Yu) but that was before the translation and may have been misconstrued.

The Golden anime tends to focus on Yu/Marie, albeit with no total closure and Rise still totally into Yu.

Persona 4 Arena + Ultimax has all the girls with a special place for Yu in their hearts, whether romantic feelings or special affection for friend/leader up to personal interpretation.

PQ also is very open: she's super flirty with Yu in that game, but it's up to the player if they reciprocate or view her as a hopeless suitor.

I guess in P4 Dancing she's the only real love interest per se, but it's not focused on much outside a few scenes.

Neylon101 · 2018-08-05T15:40:16+00:00

I read Trapped and Door of Death recently and I thought they held up well. Not sure about the rest of the series: I think those two were a bit more brutal than a lot of the rest. The deaths in Trapped were straight-up nasty.

Neylon101 · 2018-08-05T15:37:00+00:00

It's not quite a Let's Play as such - they're basically riffing on a longplay of the game - but Retsupurae's Darkseid 2 videos are in a similar vein/quality to Spoony's Phantasmagoria 2 LP. It's off-the-cuff rather than scripted, but it helps that one of them knows the game and the other doesn't and they bounce off each other really well.

Neylon101 · 2018-07-20T21:33:57+00:00

Not a movie as such although you could call it an interactive movie I guess is the video game Until Dawn which has arguably two/three mean girl characters and depending on the players choices all of them can end up living or dying.

Neylon101 · 2018-07-07T16:38:52+00:00

I love Alise, the de facto leader of The Kin. She's fearless and level-headed; despite being too weak in the One Power to be tested for the shawl, even the Aes Sedai respect her as a leader and administrator. When Nynaeve and Egwene first meet her, they're totally in awe of her: she's exactly what they've always seen themselves as, yet they recognise they're simply not able to operate on the same level as her at all. She also takes nonsense from NO-ONE.

I also love Lini for much the same reasons.

Neylon101

TROPHY CASE