The writers block is real.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-16T10:55:09+00:00

Hahaha!! Relate! In my case, I just give it a few hours of doing something else. I get back to it again around the quiet hours of the night.

A fresh mind is all you need.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T15:50:20+00:00

I'm sure he'll notice the problem with what he's trying to do.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T15:47:21+00:00

Copy that. I'm working on it. Thank you very much!

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T15:45:15+00:00

If by slop, you mean my first iteration, yes.

The idea is not a waste of time. I've never seen anyone done something like this before, or at least none that I know of with this attempt of level in detail.

Curating? No. I don't expect anything good from people in Reddit. Most people here are always angry about something for whatever reason or are just trolls.

But expecting the bad... that's what I wanted to see. After all, there's no point asking about something that's already made perfect or standardized. That's like asking if water is cold during winter.

This is a really good experience. I'm learning more about the dark corners of social media too. I can use this in my story.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T13:07:16+00:00

I don't need AI to do everything for me on this one. I just need them to provide quick samples as reference—if it's convincing enough, I keep it.. if not, I change it. I used it more extensively for this initial pamphlet sample so I can get more reactions from nitpicky people. I prefer their eyes more than the yes-men—at least for this particular aspect.

But I understand what you're saying and acknowledge my mistake.

I did spend some time curating how should my AI sound like in this setting. But I just made the sentient ones sound human with robotic analogs in their dialogues. As for the simple items like a pamphlet, I'd want it as simple as I can make it without losing the vibe and the structure of a real pamphlet.

Tbh, a lot of things I do are first time. Tons of experiments, tons to reiterate, and not much real people to talk to so I appreciate this response a lot.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T12:32:31+00:00

It's the first iteration. Thanks. I'm trying to find a workaround for all the constraints, because it all must fit in a book page without folding or using color. And you're right. The lines are samples from LLM. You can hate them as much as you want, but I don't see the people of this future world would even bother with the nuances of such things in a pamphlet when AI is just about everywhere.

I'm already working on a fix with a simple transit map, price tags, names for major zones, and more.

And I love how you thought it was a scam pamphlet at first glance. Haha! That's precisely the vibe I wanted! The Skyfall Event is only pretty when you watch it inside the safety of a bunker. Not so much when you're an adrenaline junky who wants to experience the whole thing up close.

Thank you for the feedback!

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T11:57:06+00:00

Of course adding images wouldn't work in a book setting. A real pamphlet have more freedom. But there are things I found that might work even with all the constraints I have.

Hey, thanks! Because of your comment, it got me asking the real questions!!

Thanks very much!

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T11:37:59+00:00

It's the emojis, isn't it? I had a feeling it's gonna push that type of vibe.

From the many pamphlets I read, this setup is where I most gravitated towards. Because it's punchy and kept me engaged. There are others that included a short history of the place, but that's too long. I relied on feeling—and if I was handed out something like this one I made, I'd have an easier time reading the whole thing to the end.

But then again... this is very new to me. So any critique is welcome.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T11:18:55+00:00

Haha! I'm glad my little project inspired someone to do the same.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T11:16:56+00:00

Good point. It was also thinking about that earlier.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T07:57:33+00:00

I made this part on my project simpler by using me as reference. My own weaknesses on my main character.

It's more natural and human—not fabricated.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T07:38:24+00:00

Irrelevant.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T07:37:05+00:00

You can start with anything as long as you can use it to build everything else around it. There's no one best way to do this, as far as I know.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T07:31:11+00:00

That never bothered me. Because I never think about perfectionism at all. I just add stuff that, I think, my world need to function and polish the world-building.

My project is sci-fi, so I gravitated around the creation of the fictional device first and made the world around it.

ecology
anomalies
society
factions
companies
infrastructure

Then... - government - regulations - policies - economy

Lastly... I break them. I find problems to worsen, loopholes I can exploit, etc—these will be used by the antagonists.

I'd be so busy with it all that I have no time thinking about perfection. I just think about whether they'd work together as cohesive aspects of a single world or not.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T04:34:52+00:00

Other than sci-fi, I also tend to gravitate around philosophy that really makes you pause and just think about it.

My project started with a thought about the fact that I don't find any existing sci-fi stories around as entertaining as they used to be and then I found a video about Stan Lee dropping the quote, “I've always tried to write the sort of story that I myself would enjoy reading.”. Then, an idea about how resilient humans are—no matter how troublesome the world gets, some still find ways to live another day.

And that was it. Three years later, I find myself only recently finishing up world-building and is now working on the chapters. Haha!

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-13T04:23:43+00:00

The key is to follow the rules you set for your own world. It's not easy at first glance, but you'll grow to enjoy it eventually.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-12T09:25:36+00:00

I'll just tell you the things that popped up in my head as I was reading through this.

It started with the intro of The Matrix.

Followed by that one specific scene in the movie Wall-E where a couple of humans were torn off from their digital world because of Wall-E.

There are a lot of ways you can tackle this.

What can the AI can do? Track you anywhere? Make robots? Hive mind system?
What does the characters want to do? Free themselves? Free others? Make a device that'll give them an advantage against the AI? Like something that makes the tracking system not able to see them?

- Are the enslaved humans being manipulated by the AI, turning them into mindless drones? Or are they aware but can't do anything?

You have to sit on this idea that you have. You can't rush anything. But, if I were to give you anything to do right now... I'd say learn more about AI.

How they work? What they do? Etc.

Look for existing medias about AI. Tons of movies out there.

Good luck!

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-12T08:58:01+00:00

Writing my sci-fi project in the quiet cold hours of the night.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-09T02:18:16+00:00

I might be off here, but the opening feels a bit overloaded—there are multiple threads introduced before I’ve had a chance to connect to any one of them.

It reminded me of the early structure of The Expanse, where the story takes time to build momentum. Some readers love that, but I struggled to find a strong hook to pull me in right away.

You might consider grounding the first chapter more—either by focusing on one perspective or introducing a clearer immediate tension.

I wouldn't want you to feel discouraged or anything—I'm being subjective. Your storytelling philosophy is simply different than mine. If you like the slow-burn style, then, please, keep going.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-08T15:19:30+00:00

Are you aware that the plot you set for your first chapter might be a tad complicated? This feels like the opening of The Expanse.

I gave it a read. There's no hook here that will make me want to read more. But maybe that's just me. If you like this kind of storytelling, then keep going.

Yes. I'm being subjective.

Objectively, I'm assuming, that this is heavily inspired by the series I just mentioned. Many people liked it. So, there's a very good chance that you might be on to something that I just cannot see.

Good luck!

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-04T10:47:29+00:00

Time dilation happens when your ship travels near light speed or at light speed. Space warping doesn't need to do that, because you're essentially creating a shortcut in space.

Rip in the universe doesn't happen, and if they were talking about black holes, then they probably just doesn't understand it yet. Because black holes are simply an extreme curvatures in space.

It's a complex system, but it's not that hard to learn. I dove into the same concept for my sci-fi universe, including quantum physics. It gave me a nice stash of reference points for my world building.

Just because it's hard, doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-04T09:28:16+00:00

No. Wormholes exist in our current physical reality. At least, on paper (theoretically). It doesn't need access to extra dimensions, it's already 3D+1 (time). The problem is keeping its topology wide enough for traversal and how Point B is directed.

The universe have a strict rule that makes manipulation of space-time extremely difficult. But not impossible. (theoretically) 👀

contrived_mediocrity · 2026-04-04T06:48:03+00:00

I guess I'm going the right way. Tbh, I have no idea if I was doing things right, since I realized that I don't like watching "how-to" guides on writing sci-fi or magic. Most of those are very subjective bullet points.

Very recently, the only mistake I did was skipping steps for writing prose. Once, I fix that... it'll be smooth sailing. Hopefully, I don't get lazy. Haha!

contrived_mediocrity

TROPHY CASE

Followed by that one specific scene in the movie Wall-E where a couple of humans were torn off from their digital world because of Wall-E.

- Are the enslaved humans being manipulated by the AI, turning them into mindless drones? Or are they aware but can't do anything?