Jump to content

Creative Writing Section Improvement Discussion Thread


Aix

Recommended Posts

This section is more or less dead, so I suppose we should take some action to make things a bit more lively around here. Any and all suggestions are welcome.



Suggestion #1 to revive our creative spirits would be to hold another contest. Choosing the winner could work like the 1v1 section where you have to have a reason to back up your vote.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think in parts it's to do with the more dedicated reviewers/contributors have dissapered as of late. I mean, lack of feedback is one of the things that really stops the writing.

 

I mean, there's like two somewhat live threads in here (In that they are still going), and both of those are due to like two different dedicated readers to it. So I think if we want to bring the section back to life we need to find a way to get dedicated feedback a thing again. Since writing without feedback ends up causing you to lose motivation.

 

So rewards for feedback would be an idea. A contest is another one, given that it basically would allow people to at least try and get there writing seen, and draw attention. What could we do as a reward for it? Since I'd assume we'd need one.

 

I'm not sure though of what else to try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Organizing a group write thing(Look up Nanowrimo, great thing, got me to write 18k words before I decided to fuck it) might be a good idea. Not necessarily a competition, but something like what Pika said.

 

Also, I have this idea in which we all pitch in to create one big setting, in which we can write whatever we want to contribute into it. Er, not quite sure how to say it, but like, say, Touhou, it has pre-established characters and setting by ZUN, but due to the open-ended nature of the Touhou-verse, there's a lot of fandom work about the different aspects of the verse that at least kinda fit in with the material(I'm sure there's a lot of Touhou fanfiction around). Or for example, Nasu's Fate/stay night, which established a lot of rules about the world's system of magic and all. And then he allowed Urobuchi to write Fate/zero to fit into the Fate-verse as a prequel, as well as having several other works that is set in the same world, but aren't written by the same writers(Fate/extra, Fate/extra CCC, Fate/Apocrypha, Fate/strange fake, and then some). Not sure if I got it through, but yeah, I kinda always wanted to do something like that.....not really sure if what I'm saying is clear at all...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One idea I thought would be fun would be an "exquisite corpse" writing game. Each person writes X pages of a story and then gives their portion to be continued by the next person in line. The only catch is that the next person can only read the last ~200 words of the previous section. It's fun to see what unwinds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never liked the idea of that type of Exquisite Corpse myself. I like to have as complete a picture of everything that I become involved in as possible. Heck, I've never liked the idea of tandem writing in general very much, even if I do see the benefits of it as a viable method, especially in vertain venues, but I agree that the CW section needs to be jump-started again. I went away for a year only to come back to less than was here before, and it was pretty slow then. I'm more for what Pika and Michi are saying though, I think, a true tandem writing thread where each member contributes as much as they can and is involved in as much as they can be involved with. I'll even participate, but be warned that no one knows how long it will be before I disappear again ;)

 

Oh, by the way, I'm Legendhiro, and I'll be jumping into the middle of your conversation today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's not how exquisite corpse works, though. ;3


True, but then instead of ending up with a good/decent/at least logical story, you'd end up with a bunch of mostly unrelated text.

I mean, I know it's Creative Writing and the point of it is to get people to start writing, but there's no real chance for any kind of techniques of story telling if you don't know what's going on.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You review mine, I review yours.

Ah, obviously. Just me having a doi moment. Sounds like an interesting idea, and I'd be willing to give it a go. I've reviewed a few things before, like movies and TV, and a couple of novels. It might be interresting to review something where I know the people involved with it can respond.

 

I've got a few fics floating around. Anyone is free to review any of them that they want whenever, but I do have a new one coming up, and a newer one, the big sequel to my original fic, which has I think five or six chapters up. Either of those would probably be the best to review amongst my work, or maybe someone could review one of my individual books within my main fic?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone care to do a trade with me then? Say yes and I'll go write one. Don't feel like having any of the ones I've already written reviewed, want a new start instead. I'd rather not review fanfics though, as I tend not to know the setting and backstory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Other sections have improved, but this section has worsened over the past four years. By now, it's effectively dead and no one comes here anymore.

 

One idea I thought would be fun would be an "exquisite corpse" writing game. Each person writes X pages of a story and then gives their portion to be continued by the next person in line. The only catch is that the next person can only read the last ~200 words of the previous section. It's fun to see what unwinds.


I really really like this idea, and my class played something like this at school once during English (but that was very low-scale in terms of words, of course). But I do agree with the others that I'd rather know the entire story and then continue from there, and as much as I love the idea, I'm not sure how it's going to revive activity here in this section.

 

As for review trade, that's a cool idea as well, I guess. I still doubt it'll improve activity though, considering that it's dependent on people who are already here.

 

Ah, how I miss the days when this was called the 'Fanfiction' section and there were wonderfully hilarious people such as Weather Report running about. If only all these new threads had a reliable reviewer to critique each story brutally yet honestly again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Other sections have improved, but this section has worsened over the past four years. By now, it's effectively dead and no one comes here anymore.

 


I really really like this idea, and my class played something like this at school once during English (but that was very low-scale in terms of words, of course). But I do agree with the others that I'd rather know the entire story and then continue from there, and as much as I love the idea, I'm not sure how it's going to revive activity here in this section.

 

As for review trade, that's a cool idea as well, I guess. I still doubt it'll improve activity though, considering that it's dependent on people who are already here.

 

Ah, how I miss the days when this was called the 'Fanfiction' section and there were wonderfully hilarious people such as Weather Report running about. If only all these new threads had a reliable reviewer to critique each story brutally yet honestly again.

I'd completely forgotten about Weather Report. I miss that guy.

 

You make some good points here. Any ideas we come up with here really are only ideas amongst us who already frequent this area already. Is there another part of this site that is general enough that we could relocate this thread to it and maybe draw in some other members?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone care to do a trade with me then? Say yes and I'll go write one. Don't feel like having any of the ones I've already written reviewed, want a new start instead. I'd rather not review fanfics though, as I tend not to know the setting and backstory.

I'll take a stab at reviewing something of yours. If you're worried about reviewing a fic, you don't have to review me back, but if you want to give it a go, then something from the first book of my fic, found in the opening post of this thread, is the easiest place to start. It's set more or less in the universe of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime/manga, but it has a separate story from it, and the first book is the least complex overall. Either way let me know when you're ready for the review and I'll set to work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I'll finally be getting around to releasing the sequel to the Fan-Fic I completed earlier this year, and once I get that going, I'm more than happy to offer reviews to anyone who's interested. Been an active member of the Creative Writing community for years now.

 

Anyone looking for some help to get themselves off the ground, shoot me a PM!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey all.

 

Just sticking my head in here having come back and found the section I love pretty... well, on life support. :(

 

Don't have any magic solutions to offer at all, but the only thing I can suggest is people have to comment on stuff more, especially on new members fics.

 

I was browsing the forum as a guest back in October and was encouraged to see a real surge of new material from more inexperienced members.

 

However all of said fics got none to one posts in terms of feedback, and the kids, completely understandable, got disheartened and jacked it in.

 

I know I'm not one to talk about review other fanfics as my record doing so isn't good, but I do intend to - when I get to my days off next week - get to a lot of these one chapter deaths and give some people some feedback on their work, because glancing over it all some of it, some of it, actually looked promising with a little polishing and encouragement. People just need that push of encouragement to feel good and want to continue. If people can't take critisism and jack it in any, well yeah, that's their decision. But if some can take the good and bad and decide to carry on/try again, then yeah, great. All some people need is the incentive.

 

Don't need anything gimmicky or owt because contests recently haven't been a success when I was last here, just need a supportive CW community that gives feedback and works together to help people.

 

*Now I need to be sick having used such a cutesy analogy at the end there. Excuse me...*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey all.

 

Just sticking my head in here having come back and found the section I love pretty... well, on life support. :(

 

Don't have any magic solutions to offer at all, but the only thing I can suggest is people have to comment on stuff more, especially on new members fics.

 

I was browsing the forum as a guest back in October and was encouraged to see a real surge of new material from more inexperienced members.

 

However all of said fics got none to one posts in terms of feedback, and the kids, completely understandable, got disheartened and jacked it in.

 

I know I'm not one to talk about review other fanfics as my record doing so isn't good, but I do intend to - when I get to my days off next week - get to a lot of these one chapter deaths and give some people some feedback on their work, because glancing over it all some of it, some of it, actually looked promising with a little polishing and encouragement. People just need that push of encouragement to feel good and want to continue. If people can't take critisism and jack it in any, well yeah, that's their decision. But if some can take the good and bad and decide to carry on/try again, then yeah, great. All some people need is the incentive.

 

Don't need anything gimmicky or owt because contests recently haven't been a success when I was last here, just need a supportive CW community that gives feedback and works together to help people.

 

*Now I need to be sick having used such a cutesy analogy at the end there. Excuse me...*

I'm with you on this. There was a new fic I read recently called Yu-Gi-Oh! Common Fates which I really enjoyed, all four chapters, but needed a little bit of work in one or two areas. The author, Kanokarob, really seemed to want to improve, and to have plans for his series going forward, and motivation to continue it, but he seems to have fallen off the edge of the internet, probably because I was the only one who commented. I really wish I could have done more to help him keep going, as the story showed a lot of potential.

 

I will admit that my motives were a teensie little bit selfish, as I was hoping he would submit characters to my Epic Battles thread at some point, but that doesn't change the fact that his story was good, and that if he'd had more feedback, he might have continued. Maybe he'll be back, I don't know, but if he never returns it'll be a real bummer. However, I'm also with you on the fact that I don't really see that there's all that much we can do ourselves at this point. Puting ideas into this thread doesn't help bring people back to this section.

 

I miss a lot of my old readers. There were some really cool guys amongst them, and I enjoyed the conversations we'd have, not just about my stories, but just in general. I want that kind of stuff back, not just for me, but for all of the content creators here, but I don't see how this thread will accomplish this. I think I said it further up somewhere, but we really need to open a thread like this one somewhere else on the site, if that's possible. Somewhere more general, maybe, where we can attract more people to this section. I don't know where that would be, since I only ever came here, to Realistic Cards, or to Clubs (like, forever ago), but I'm sure someone does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with you on this. There was a new fic I read recently called Yu-Gi-Oh! Common Fates which I really enjoyed, all four chapters, but needed a little bit of work in one or two areas. The author, Kanokarob, really seemed to want to improve, and to have plans for his series going forward, and motivation to continue it, but he seems to have fallen off the edge of the internet, probably because I was the only one who commented. I really wish I could have done more to help him keep going, as the story showed a lot of potential.

 

I will admit that my motives were a teensie little bit selfish, as I was hoping he would submit characters to my Epic Battles thread at some point, but that doesn't change the fact that his story was good, and that if he'd had more feedback, he might have continued. Maybe he'll be back, I don't know, but if he never returns it'll be a real bummer. However, I'm also with you on the fact that I don't really see that there's all that much we can do ourselves at this point. Puting ideas into this thread doesn't help bring people back to this section.

 

I miss a lot of my old readers. There were some really cool guys amongst them, and I enjoyed the conversations we'd have, not just about my stories, but just in general. I want that kind of stuff back, not just for me, but for all of the content creators here, but I don't see how this thread will accomplish this. I think I said it further up somewhere, but we really need to open a thread like this one somewhere else on the site, if that's possible. Somewhere more general, maybe, where we can attract more people to this section. I don't know where that would be, since I only ever came here, to Realistic Cards, or to Clubs (like, forever ago), but I'm sure someone does.

 

I think that was one of the ones I saw. The other ones I remember where Limitless by Faytl and... something else that escapes my memory right now.

 

That guy is still about, I was speaking to him yesterday in TCG Deck section.

 

Writing is a very bipolic past-time though; there's no getting away from the fact it require a lot of hard work and dedication, and often - certainly at this level - for little reward. I think to do well you have to do it for yourself in the first place and consider readers and reviews as a nice bonus, but people need that bonus as a reward. Otherwise why not just stick COD or FIFA on? Yeah we're all selfish like that in a 'I'll read yours if you read mine' kinda way, but why not? Helps everyone develop doing that.

 

It would be hard to attract new people to from other sections, especially when they look in this section and go "um..." But worth a go. An active CW club might help, but every attempt at one of them I've seen hasn't been successful :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that was one of the ones I saw. The other ones I remember where Limitless by Faytl and... something else that escapes my memory right now.

 

That guy is still about, I was speaking to him yesterday in TCG Deck section.

 

Writing is a very bipolic past-time though; there's no getting away from the fact it require a lot of hard work and dedication, and often - certainly at this level - for little reward. I think to do well you have to do it for yourself in the first place and consider readers and reviews as a nice bonus, but people need that bonus as a reward. Otherwise why not just stick COD or FIFA on? Yeah we're all selfish like that in a 'I'll read yours if you read mine' kinda way, but why not? Helps everyone develop doing that.

 

It would be hard to attract new people to from other sections, especially when they look in this section and go "um..." But worth a go. An active CW club might help, but every attempt at one of them I've seen hasn't been successful :(

Couldn't agree more. Also, I never really thought of a club, though I do remember there was one I heard about at some point. Might be worth another go, though I really don't know how well the clubs section has been doing lately. What I was thinking is maybe a story idea thread somewhere in General where a few of us can invite general visitors from the site to offer input on what kind of stories they'd like to see, or to create themselves. It's a very underdeveloped idea at this point, but you get the gist.

 

It's good to hear that Kano is still around. It gives me hope that he'll be back here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to put this post. I am wondering how I can get more views and commentors on my story, because getting views and responses is always hard for me online, not just for writing stories. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy what I have. I just sometimes wished I got more feedback, even if it is negative. Because I really want to publish my story but I need to know how people react to it.

 

If this post should not be in this thread, please be so kind and move it to an appropriate thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...