Tutorial Writers' Wretreat or Crytics' Crypt? (love needed)

New topik.

How do you counter Writer's Block?

Personally, i like to divide a short story, or a chapter of an on going saga, into sections. If said sections are incredibly comprehensive, i like to divide the comprehensive sections into smaller sub-sections, and finish one of them a day.

Also music.

 

Alrighty, kewl.

I normally try to to listen to music that houses the same tone i'm trying to create, and then try to translate it into writing.

nothing
in
particular

Also, i have the the same first name as that last guy o.0

Hmm. I tried reading other peoples' stuff for indirect inspiration (being inspired from other peoples' work, but creating something entirely different).

Also, as of now at least, I don't fully plan everything in a story, but rather create one-two liner summaries for each chapter (or part of a story if it's a short story). It allows me to know what to do next, while at the same time, not wither away my interest in writing it. If everything's too much planned, i find that it saps away creative juices, and inspiration once you finally reach that plot point or whatever that has been carefully planned.

 

That can apply for warhammer for sure (infact i do like those type villains more), but a villain doesn't have to be that at all. Honestly, in my opinion, memorable villains need to be very motivated in their causes whether they be heroic or not. Let's contrast and compare orgres and dark elves as an example.

Ogres are purely motivated by a nihilistic shtick that only the strong should have everything their environments provide them with, and the weak should have absolutely nothing/ serve as food for the strong. This belief intensified/originated (not actually sure) when a huge mahrlect off comet crashed down onto their homelands, killing 2/3rds of their population right away, and destroying their natural habitat which left them with no food and a barren waste land to live off of. This immediately caused the Ogres to come down into complete cannibalistic anarchy right away, and formed the basis of their nihilistic psyche.

Dark elves have pretty much the same villainous psyche (very nihilistic, only the strong should thrive, etc), BUT, they're not as motivated, or rather, there's not as much motivation for such nihilistic beliefs. There's no reason for them to be pirating, enslaving, etc, except for the fact that they perceive themselves as superior to everything else and fit to rule the world.

In my opinion, this is hardly enough to justify their psyche.

So yeah, i think this is a problem also for a lot of the other warhammer factions as well too (skaven, orcs, etc). There needs to be more personal motivations for their causes, but i'm not an expert on warhammer lore, so idk

 

I also really like the archetype of the indifferent villain. So confident in their power that any efforts to oppose them are boring. Their motivation can be mundane even. "This planet needs to be destroyed for the cosmic bypass" or the like.

Which doesn't really make them the hero of their own story. And to be fair this might be more prevalent in sci-fi than fantasy. But really it works whenever you have two cultures sufficiently foreign from each other.

 

I like that a lot too.

like for an example, a story could be based around a mortal protagonist facing off against super over powered chaos villeins whom wouldn't care whether or not said protagonist dies off.

This can also work for a certain trope where the villain is the greater evil or the hidden evil.

 

Also one small note: If said taboo or despicable action helps you survive, you would most likely do it just for survival. It's just human/animalistic instincts.

In the siege of Leningrad for an example, one of the most deadliest sieges in human history, many people reluctantly did cannibalism just to survive, since there was no other way to find food.

 

Cliches and also the dialogue tag "Said", Aren't so bad as long as they're used in moderation, imo.

 

I was about to say those are fine in moderation too...

They can make interesting one-off character names if done very rarely, i guess.

 

I am in no way properly acquainted with the warhammer world when it comes to lore and the stereotypical behaviour of species, so although I am obviously a genius and perhaps Devine intervention (I can sign autographs later), it’s probably best to ignore everything I’m about to say...

Another thing to consider with villians is whether they have a faceless horde at their back or if they’re alone. The latter, based on more recent movies and books, tends to evolve into the former as the story progresses, often by raising an army of the dead that for some reason will support the villain (Thor ragnorok) or by persuading a ready and waiting smelly/evil army (like Saruman in the two towers*). However, getting an army might purely be to seemingly raise the stakes so that the hero has to do stuff other than slay the villian, (eg. Come out of exile, make some friends, persuade some random royal to join their cause and acquire their army, have a big army vs army punch out while the hero does protagonist stuff). However even if a villians army is an undead force, highly trained ninja assassins or Uruk-hai, somehow your bag of misfits/untrained army will make it through with minimal losses.

Demon possessed? We just found a lake full of holy water! Undead? Try decapitation! (Cause that makes sense...) Ninja assassins? Don’t worry, they’re probably afraid of kittens!

Regardless of armies and kittens, however, as mentioned several times (and I can’t be bothered to quote them) how effective a villian is can rely on motivation and attitude. The villian could be completely indifferent to the situation, think they’re in the right or just be really really mean. In warhammer, it depends on whether these factors are based on emotional or intellectual... things... and would therefore depend on which race or specific character you’re dealing with. For example, all puppies love chocolate so let’s destroy the earth because we love it! Vs all cats are intellectual so let’s destroy the world because humans are hazourdess to the atmosphere! Both of these can be prevented once all the dogs die from eating chocolate and the cats come to one of those “but humans deserve to learn” moments. (I realise I’m rambling so quick! Let’s jump to another example to distract the reader from the rambliness!)

Your character might think they’re in the right for the betterment of the (not so human)race or for they’re family etc. (or side note: THEY MIGHT ACTUALLY BE RIGHT) but sacrifices have to be made, I guess...? A villian could just be going about the task of saving they’re people/family/dog and consequently destroy a few galaxies. But what could alter how effective a villian this is is whether they care or not.

What if they think they’re doing right so they just do it and nothing can persuade them because that is ‘illogical’, OR they’re doing what they think is right and they’re an emotional mess (haha... yay... I’m not alone...) because they care about the people they hurt and it’s a struggle for them, but they have to keep going.

Gees that was a mess... good luck trying to analyse that!






*i cannot for the life of me remember how much of that is in the non extended edition... oh well...

 

I think its the eyebrows. Get those right and you have a memorable villain.

 

Quick question. Is it normal to cringe or find difficulty in reading what you've written in the past even though you thought it was alright when you wrote it? I do this all the time

 

I find that reading what you've written on a word processor document or somewhere else kept away from public eyes helps overcome the incessant cringing.

Does that work for anyone else?

I'm guessing author cringe primarily comes from the nervous perception on what the readers' thoughts on your story could be.