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Post by Zer0Winds on Aug 31, 2016 19:50:12 GMT -5
Could be flatter. Mine's flatter than a... something flatter than a pancake... paper? I don't know.
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Post by xdesperado on Aug 31, 2016 20:04:14 GMT -5
Characters in stories need character.
Doesn't really matter how much or little they will be seen on the pages of final work, unless they are simple window dressing like the hot dog vendor your hero buys lunch from, the guy getting caught in an explosion coming out of a building, then you need to consider who and what they are, motives, job, life experience whatever. Especially important if they are going to be engaged in any meaningful conversations.
You want your world and the people in it to come alive for the reader, giving personality to even those characters that only appear on a single page will go a long way towards making that happen.
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Post by LordofSyn on Aug 31, 2016 23:36:12 GMT -5
That's why I have found making a character sheet (lol) with Dos and Don'ts and strengths and weaknesses a valuable thing. It fleshes them out and allows me to keep as consistent to them as possible.
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Post by Officer Genious on Sept 1, 2016 9:21:40 GMT -5
Characters in stories need character. Doesn't really matter how much or little they will be seen on the pages of final work, unless they are simple window dressing like the hot dog vendor your hero buys lunch from, the guy getting caught in an explosion coming out of a building, then you need to consider who and what they are, motives, job, life experience whatever. Especially important if they are going to be engaged in any meaningful conversations. You want your world and the people in it to come alive for the reader, giving personality to even those characters that only appear on a single page will go a long way towards making that happen. I needed to get across his cruelty and intimidation ahead of time, and that required adding more to his character. I still have work to do with him, but the conversations are all ready flowing better. |
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Post by resistor on Sept 1, 2016 21:59:32 GMT -5
...http://www.seventhsanctum.com --This one in particular is especially valuable to me, and has been the source of more than one name for The Dark of Day, as well as a few other projects I have in mind. --Also on this website are concept generators that can randomize plot lines, weapons, alien races, back stories, and a plethora of other highly useful tools you may find helpful... Very interesting website. It generated a fantasy race of snail-people, who are famed for their postal service. And apparently they only exist as slaves, and play an important role in the world.  |
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Post by Zer0Winds on Sept 1, 2016 22:04:46 GMT -5
Ever heard of the Sisterhood of Gentlemen? And the Explorers of Nowhere? The Confederacy of Spheres (also known as a solar system)? The Damned Blade (pirate ship)? Or even, the Ogrororororgo (very threatening... evil... God...)?
However snails as famed postmen... that's different.
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Post by resistor on Sept 1, 2016 22:44:20 GMT -5
In the history scrambler it generated "Benjamin Franklin - Space Marine".
That actually seems really awesome. Hollywood made a movie about Abraham Lincoln being a vampire hunter, so why isn't this a movie or video game? Benjamin Franklin is a very interesting character. It might be challenging to adapt his character into a space marine role, but I would certainly buy it if they could get it right.
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Post by Zer0Winds on Sept 1, 2016 22:50:48 GMT -5
Space Marine as in Warhammer 40k Space Marine?
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Post by resistor on Sept 1, 2016 23:21:14 GMT -5
Space Marine as in Warhammer 40k Space Marine? I know little about the Warhammer 40k universe, but I'd be interested regardless of the particular universe it was set in. |
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Post by wascalwywabbit on Sept 1, 2016 23:37:23 GMT -5
In the history scrambler it generated "Benjamin Franklin - Space Marine". That actually seems really awesome. Hollywood made a movie about Abraham Lincoln being a vampire hunter, so why isn't this a movie or video game? Benjamin Franklin is a very interesting character. It might be challenging to adapt his character into a space marine role, but I would certainly buy it if they could get it right. That could be super awesome actually, as long as it didn't take itself too seriously. |
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Post by LordofSyn on Sept 2, 2016 2:44:08 GMT -5
In the history scrambler it generated "Benjamin Franklin - Space Marine". That actually seems really awesome. Hollywood made a movie about Abraham Lincoln being a vampire hunter, so why isn't this a movie or video game? Benjamin Franklin is a very interesting character. It might be challenging to adapt his character into a space marine role, but I would certainly buy it if they could get it right. I could see a clash between steampunk Jules Verne with a dash of Transhumanist future tech where Ben postulates a theory of electromagnetism after his famous kite experiment leads him to cross space-time from an earlier rocketship that launched from Romania. He could also end up running into Tesla and Einstein but also exploring Titan or Europa. It would have to be a campy mishmash with just enough science to almost seem plausible...but only in a Victorian sense. That was just off the top of my head. Or maybe he and Jefferson modified Monticello to be a covert launchpad. |
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Post by Officer Genious on Sept 2, 2016 10:12:46 GMT -5
In the history scrambler it generated "Benjamin Franklin - Space Marine". That actually seems really awesome. Hollywood made a movie about Abraham Lincoln being a vampire hunter, so why isn't this a movie or video game? Benjamin Franklin is a very interesting character. It might be challenging to adapt his character into a space marine role, but I would certainly buy it if they could get it right. I could see a clash between steampunk Jules Verne with a dash of Transhumanist future tech where Ben postulates a theory of electromagnetism after his famous kite experiment leads him to cross space-time from an earlier rocketship that launched from Romania. He could also end up running into Tesla and Einstein but also exploring Titan or Europa. It would have to be a campy mishmash with just enough science to almost seem plausible...but only in a Victorian sense. That was just off the top of my head. Or maybe he and Jefferson modified Monticello to be a covert launchpad. Less talking, more writing! Chop chop!! |
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Post by ntsheep on Sept 2, 2016 11:23:29 GMT -5
I've never really been sure where this story begins. I thought it started with the bomb that went off at the train station, but perhaps it started back on November 29 1978 at 3:58 pm. Maybe it started back even further, during WWII, when scientists were creating the first computer that would lead to the modern age we have now. I don't know where it began, but I do know when I became a part of it.
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Post by En1gma on Sept 2, 2016 11:49:08 GMT -5
Writing Challenge!! I was on Seventh Sanctum yet again, looking through their Writing Prompt generator, and I liked this one in particular. Not to use for myself, mind you, but it was interesting nonetheless.
Come up with an explanation or backstory for the following:
The mountain is the bane of my existence.
What happened on the mountain? Tragedy? A failure of some sort? How did it come to be the bane of someones entire existence?
*************
I sit here on my rock by the lake. Time has become unwound for me and I lose track of days, weeks at a time. Its contours are simple yet maddening, this mountain mocks me. Without words or even cruel intent, it mocks me. I was once a man who had traveled the untamed countryside, and a simple hill such as this was merely a half day's exertion, a minor inconvenience. Now it has become the bane of my existence.
I do not know what it was that I saw roaming its side some weeks ago, or was it months? Anyway, I do not know what this beast was, only that it saw me as I was ascending a washed out section by what had surely been an old stream. I had been following this stream's ancient path as it wound upward, stopping to drink from the pitiful trickle that still wandered helplessly, yearning to find its former strength. I happened upon a small pool, enough to wet my hat and wash the day's filth from my face. It was cool and refreshing, and in the heat of the day, a welcome repast. I lay against the mountain, looking through the trees at the valley below, when I saw it.
At first I thought it to be another traveler, and I raised my hand to call out to it, but when I went to speak, it saw me. I have seen men slip from my grasp and fall to their deaths on the rocks below. I have brought babies into this world, and I have taken the lives of those who would cause me or my friends harm. I am a learned man, and what I saw this day shook me to my core and made me question my very sanity. This was a human, or once was, but it was nearly seven feet tall, and devoid of any skin. Muscles and sinew moved visibly in turn and its visage came to face me. It had no lips with which to smile, but if one could smile with only posture and intent, this monster grinned at me like an earnest child.
A horrid mouthful of jagged teeth, needle shaped and with a wicked curve, this beast turned to me and let out a howl which turned my blood to ice and my senses upside down. Its shriek reminded me of a cat with its tail caught under a rocker, one of desperation and panic, but tinged with the threat of death. I do not remember how I got down that wicked mountain, only that I tore myself bloody in the process. I may have broken an ankle, I do not know-- the pain subsided some days ago, or was it weeks.
Here I sit, flintlock in hand, with my back to my rock. I dare not turn it to the mountain, lest the skinless one return unannounced. There is nowhere left to run, nowhere else to go but over that mountain, yet to set one foot in front of another, I cannot. Call me a coward, call me whatever the hell you want, it doesn't matter. What that terrible mountain harbors has become the bane of my existence.
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Post by LordofSyn on Sept 2, 2016 18:39:55 GMT -5
I could see a clash between steampunk Jules Verne with a dash of Transhumanist future tech where Ben postulates a theory of electromagnetism after his famous kite experiment leads him to cross space-time from an earlier rocketship that launched from Romania. He could also end up running into Tesla and Einstein but also exploring Titan or Europa. It would have to be a campy mishmash with just enough science to almost seem plausible...but only in a Victorian sense. That was just off the top of my head. Or maybe he and Jefferson modified Monticello to be a covert launchpad. Less talking, more writing! Chop chop!! Nah...I thought I'd leave that there with small snippets to see if anyone else would take it on.  :thumbup: |
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