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Activity for Matthew Daveā€­

Type On... Excerpt Status Date
Edit Post #37055 Initial revision almost 5 years ago
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Answer A: What are some bad ways to subvert tropes?
If you're just doing it for its own sake to bask in your own 'cleverness', it stands out like neon in a windowless room (see: The recent fallout regarding the ever-'subversive' Season 8 of Game of Thrones). Intent is a lot more transparent than people think. If you're subverting tropes to discuss sa...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: Can we dialoguify sounds?
If you want special areas to denote onomatopoeia, I have a great new medium for you to discover: The comic book. Unfortunately, the narrative medium was not made for the purpose you're proposing. I'm all for breaking conventions, especially if there's a damn good reason, but this is a bridge too far...
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over 5 years ago
Question Should I include an appendix for inessential, yet related worldbuilding to my story?
I'm of the opinion that a story should stand on its own; any worldbuilding that is necessary for the plot and story to function should be part of the story. However, at the same time, the world I write in is an extensive, fully-realised world which has lots of little details which, if taken note of, ...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: Should mystery stories have resolutions?
A simple answer for a simple question. Yes, at the end. That's how mysteries work. Edit: I'll elaborate. Mystery, as a genre, revolves around building suspense around an unknown factor, and the plot is about uncovering said unknown factor through ingenuity/conflict. Resolving the mystery is paramou...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: When does something become "torture porn"?
Torture Porn has a certain revelling tone to it, it enjoys the specifics for no other reason than, as Amadeus put it, its own sake. Instead of using torture as a device to show, say, that someone is going above and beyond to acquire some information, or vice versa, enduring above and beyond to keep s...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: How to make the reader think that the *character's* logic is flawed instead of the author's?
My answer to this is quite simple: Show proof that they're wrong in-story. Doesn't have to be blatant, doesn't have to be screamed, but if you have a reader who is detail-oriented enough to pick up the flaws in a character's logic, they'll be detail-oriented enough to pick up on the tiny consequences...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: Anticlimactic ending as a surprise after climax?
I can recall a video game that did this in a very satisfying way; Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc. In the final boss, you have Reflux the Knaaren, essentially the Big Bad, Andre's muscle. He's souped-up on a MacGuffin to the point of mutilating/mutating himself with its power. By the time you fight him, he's...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: How do I write for the majority, without alienating my minority?
I find it somewhat problematic that people seem to desire fantasy books not merely about relatable protagonists, but them in particular. I personally shrug it off; I don't think there's ever gonna be a tale about a quarter-Brahmin Indian, three-quarters-British undergrad with a career completely unre...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: How do you show, through your narration, a hard and uncaring world?
While the other answers are great and focus on tangible assets of the world, I'll try and find an answer that focuses instead on stylistic elements. I would say that a good way to get across apathy and an inorganic, unfeeling world would be to describe things in a cold, technical, repetitive and clin...
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over 5 years ago
Answer A: Avoiding cliches when writing gods
I think my answer may be a tad tinted by my atheism, as I believe every faith and pantheon operates as a function of how a culture interacts with nature, the difficult-to-predict, and the unknown, but I would say a good starting point would be the environment your fictional society inhabits. For exa...
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over 5 years ago