What did you blog about today?

[thaddeus6th]

[In the right thread this time...]

To read more gems like "I have the combat prowess of a drunk in a cat flap" and "Archaeology involves quite a lot of murdering. Apparently." do read my review of Rise of the Tomb Raider. It's got pictures and everything:
Thaddeus the Sixth: Review: Rise of the Tomb Raider (20th Anniversary Edition) - PS4

Been a bit lax on the old blogging front, but I've also just finished Thucydides' history, so that should be next week's thingummyjig and then there are exciting things on the horizon shortly thereafter.

 

[Toby Frost]

Not exactly a blog post, but a related question. Is there room for another how-to-write blog, namely one written by me? I can’t imagine there being much for me to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere, but there are a few things I’d add to what’s already been said.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I'm not the God Emperor of Didcot, but I'd say so. Even if such things have been written before, you may well have a new perspective or point to make [particularly given you write comedy, which is a slightly rarer form of SFF that only the most daring, intelligent and modest of men dare to write].

I'd be intrigued to know, for example, whether you suffer the same problem as me when it comes to struggling to remember how to write comedy every time you start a new story.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

If you write it well and entertain people there's always room for another

 

[Toby Frost]

I’m always a bit wary of being entertaining in how-to posts, but you’re right. I find that some blogs for aspiring writers exaggerate too much for comic potential.

I'd be intrigued to know, for example, whether you suffer the same problem as me when it comes to struggling to remember how to write comedy every time you start a new story.

Writing comedy is difficult and yes, I do have to remember how to do it each time I start a new story. It’s much harder than writing conventionally, because you have to keep telling jokes. If your jokes are good, you can get away with more mistakes in terms of plotting or logic, but they still begin to show. There’s a real sense of “How can I get the most out of this without it becoming forced?”. I really ought to write a proper long piece about writing comedy, as it’s a strange experience and (I think) generally rather underrated as a form of writing.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I don't think you have to be funny to entertain - being thought provoking or having an unusual slant are also entertaining. Basically so long as it's interesting enough to engage people to keep reading to the end.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Not exactly a blog post, but a related question. Is there room for another how-to-write blog, namely one written by me? I can’t imagine there being much for me to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere, but there are a few things I’d add to what’s already been said.

I swore I was never going to write a how to write post. But I did do one - Give Yourself Permission to Write Badly (figured I could say I was qualified to write that one)

It remains a particularly popular post.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I'd add that comedy has a problem with killing characters that serious stuff doesn't have. If you have a slapstick character that you've built up, then kill, you either lose that particular aspect (or it's diminished, at least) or you introduce Slappy 2. But Slappy 2 will always be the Diet Coke option, defined by who he isn't as much as who he is. He'll always be an imitation of the original.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

"I have the combat prowess of a drunk in a cat flap"

Well, how could I not read it after that teaser?

Is there room for another how-to-write blog, namely one written by me? I can’t imagine there being much for me to say that hasn’t been said elsewhere, but there are a few things I’d add to what’s already been said.

Sure, why not? And the humourous SFF of yourself and @thaddeus6th isn't quite as mainstream as, say, another book about elves/dragons/badgers, so there's likely to be more interest, I would think.

Plus, if you think of how many books are out there in any given genre (i.e. more than any one person can read), there's still room for more whether they're similar to what already exists, have a different voice, or different perspective. I think blogging is kind of similar in that regard (always room for more, as @Jo Zebedee said) - the same principles, just a different format/medium; and one thing I've noticed from Chrons is that everyone has a slightly different perspective and can offer something different. Plus, there's the whole building a platform* thing that blogging could help to further.

Or building upon an already existing platform in your case

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Welcome to Womanhood

Steph is up on time - rearranging the days of everything is really helping.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I spent most of the weekend schlepping up and downstairs from my workshop, where my bench and crosscut saws are, and the attic where the boxbed I was building for my son is.

So my Sunday night comic post is a quick and simple one:
GoshWowComics

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Nice one, @JunkMonkey !

 

[JunkMonkey]

Writing comedy is difficult and yes, I do have to remember how to do it each time I start a new story. It’s much harder than writing conventionally, because you have to keep telling jokes. If your jokes are good, you can get away with more mistakes in terms of plotting or logic, but they still begin to show. There’s a real sense of “How can I get the most out of this without it becoming forced?”. I really ought to write a proper long piece about writing comedy, as it’s a strange experience and (I think) generally rather underrated as a form of writing.

Writing comedy is hard but if find writing anything else even harder. I don't find it a strange experience at all. The comedic is nearer to everyone's everyday reality after all than the machinations of kings, the fall of galactic empires, or the decent into madness that follows the discovery that hamsters rule the world. We all makes jokes to make our daily life bearable.

The only tricks I have to make writing funny easy are

1: Leave characters hanging until something funny happens to them. Don't force it. But then I write short comics and don't (often) have to further a plot for more than eight or so panels. Often, when I'm not feeling funny or particularly creative (those days when the juices aren't flowing), I'll draw starts of comics with characters in situations and let them stew. Sometimes the next time I pick up my sketchbook they know what they're doing and get my pencil to finish it for them. Ferinstance, last night I picked up a wordless doodle I started days ago of one of my Astro-Amazon space women fixing something complicated on the outside of her spaceship and realised that her second officer, inside the ship, reading the insanely complex instruction manual out to her, had just come across the line, "The next bit is a little tricky, so you might want to get a grown up to help you."

2: Steal other people's lines. Many of my funniest strips have come from transcriptions of things my kids have said.

 

[Stewart Hotston]

I've mainly been blogging about this: The Fox’s Hope

 

[thaddeus6th]

Rarer than a rare thing: a modern fiction review, by me:
Thaddeus the Sixth: Review: Abendau’s Legacy, by Jo Zebedee

 

[JunkMonkey]

I finished the strip I was wittering on about a couple of posts ago: GoshWowComics

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Rarer than a rare thing: a modern fiction review, by me:
Thaddeus the Sixth: Review: Abendau’s Legacy, by Jo Zebedee

Thanks, Thad. You rock.

This week I'm sharing a blog by Dion Winton-Polak about This Twisted Earth, the shared world anthology he edited (which is awesome, with some great stories by the likes of Adrian Tchaikovsky), including details on how to get involved in future stories in that world.

JoZebwrites: Collaborative working - Weaving This Twisted Earth

 

[Juliana]

Have been trying to catch up with all of your blogging! Everyone's been busy!!

do read my review of Rise of the Tomb Raider. It's got pictures and everything:

Nice review, Thad. Are you planning on watching the Assassin's Creed movie? I was thinking of going with my son... I don't play video games, but enjoy watching other people do, and I've always loved the concept of AC.

Also, good review of Jo's book. It's on my to-read pile and I probably won't manage to get to it for a while... Liked 'Hobb meets Abercrombie in space'!

I've mainly been blogging about this: The Fox’s Hope

Congratulations!!

shared world anthology

Very interesting. The sheer logistics of organizing anything that's shared world sound incredibly hard. I know @ratsy pulled it off for Lake Manor and Explorations, but wow, tough!

 

[thaddeus6th]

Thanks, Juliana.

I've only played one Assassin's Creed game (the second, which lots of people rate). I thought it was pretty rubbish. Lovely setting, nice graphics, utterly repetitive fetch quests, tedious modern day segments and combat about as enthralling as a Gordon Brown Budget speech. Historically, videogame films have been terrible (there'll be a good one someday, and the Street Fighter film had an excellent performance by Raul Julia).

And I tend not to go to the cinema much. The last film I saw was Star Wars VII, at which I noticed they'd changed the carpets. And the lighting. And the seats. And the sound system. And that you couldn't go out the back any more. To be honest, the currency was the only common feature... [I might go see Rogue One. Don't know. Hmm].

Sorry, you asked a one line question and I rambled like a man with work to do but who is procrastinating.

 

[Juliana]

Sorry, you asked a one line question and I rambled like a man with work to do but who is procrastinating.