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Category: Grimdark

Editing Fanfiction Trash into Treasure – Writing Stream Recap

Editing Fanfiction Trash into Treasure – Writing Stream Recap

Published by Scott on March 14, 2018

For the last stream’s exercise, we did something that we haven’t done in a while: edit auto-generated fanfiction.

To do that, we went to the website Fanfic Maker, put in some parameters, and then auto-generated an entire story. We read the whole thing, and then rewrote the beginning, trying to stay as true to the original intent/spirit as possible.

The original was very… unique. (You can read it here, just prepare yourself mentally first.) But it did have some interesting ideas, and a couple hilarious lines. So we did our best to incorporate them into the rewrite.

Here’s what we came up with:

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Alone at the Carnival – Writing Stream Recap

Alone at the Carnival – Writing Stream Recap

Published by Scott on March 3, 2018

For the last stream, we decided to try out a new exercise: writing about one small action in excruciating detail.

To do this, we picked a simple action (ie: paying for groceries, shaving a beard, etc.) and then described it using at least 500 words. Doing so forces you to go into extreme detail and show off lots of visuals, sounds, and smells that you might otherwise leave out. Plus it’s also good to practice slowing down the pacing in writing.

Together with chat we came up with a bunch of ideas, and then this one is what was voted for: sitting alone at a carnival.

Here’s the 500 words of crazy detail that we wrote about for it:

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Rubbish to Published: Writing chapter one – Writing Stream Recap

Rubbish to Published: Writing chapter one – Writing Stream Recap

Published by Scott on February 3, 2018

Last stream we continued our Rubbish to Published series, where we start from absolutely nothing and create something “publishable.”

We picked our tense and POV in the previous stream, so it was finally time for our last step: writing chapter one.

When most people imagine writing a book, they think writers just get an idea and then start writing from the beginning to the end. But through this series, we’ve shown that isn’t the case at all. We’ve have ten steps before we were ready to write chapter one! So if you have an idea that you want to write, but you’re having trouble starting chapter one, no worries. There’s plenty of stuff you can do to get the juices flowing.

Since we’d done so much already, starting our chapter one was pretty easy. Chat voted for the opening sentence they liked best, and then we came up with this:

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Rubbish to Published: Picking tense and POV – Writing Stream Recap

Rubbish to Published: Picking tense and POV – Writing Stream Recap

Published by Scott on January 31, 2018

Last stream we continued our Rubbish to Published series, where we start from absolutely nothing and create something “publishable.”

We did our chapter-by-chapter plotting in the previous stream, so this time we took the next step: picking our tense and POV.

Choosing whether you tell your story in the past or present tense, and whether in the first or third person, is a big decision. A lot of time writers don’t give it the attention it deserves, since choosing the right combination can enhance your story.

We went over the pros and cons of each tense and POV combination, giving examples from real books and stories too. There was a lot of information, but here’s what we came up with:

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Rubbish to Published: Worldbuilding made easy – Writing Stream Recap

Rubbish to Published: Worldbuilding made easy – Writing Stream Recap

Published by Scott on January 24, 2018

Last stream we continued our Rubbish to Published series, where we start from absolutely nothing and create something “publishable.”

We created an outline in the previous stream, so this time we took the next step: worldbuilding.

One of my favorite quotes is: “The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.” This was said by author Tom Clancy, and it’s so true. In reality, whatever happens, happens; you don’t need to convince anyone. But when creating a fictional world, you need to make sure that it makes sense, otherwise your readers will reject it.

The way we do that is by worldbuilding. We make sure the world we’re writing about has an internal logic to it.

My favorite way to worldbuild is to start at the macro level, then go down to the micro level, coming up with cool details along the way. And always asking two important questions: (1) how did it get like this? and (2) why does it matter to the story?

You can see what we came up with for our worldbuilding here:

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Writing Stream Recap: Karate-chopping writer’s block

Writing Stream Recap: Karate-chopping writer’s block

Published by Scott on December 20, 2017

For our latest stream, I wanted to induce something that most people try to avoid: writer’s block. After chat voted on a random sentence to start our writing exercise, I went with it and wrote half of a story, not knowing where I was going with it.

Then, just when I got to the point where I didn’t know what to write next, I stopped. That was my self-induced writer’s block. I couldn’t figure out what should happen next, and I could probably spend all day sitting there staring at the screen.

But instead of doing that, chat voted between three new random sentences, and the winning sentence immediately became the next sentence in our story. It was like taking a wrecking ball against a writer’s block wall, or de-clogging a writer’s block pipe… whichever metaphor you prefer.

Here’s the story I wrote, with the randomly-chosen first sentence and writer’s-block-destroying sentences in bold:

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