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Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

I'm still in the process of working on Pokemon: A Marvelous Journey...and changing a lot of plot threads so I can explore them earlier in the series rather than in future sequels. I want to make chapter 14 really long so I can put in some ideas I'm dying to get out, as I've written long chapters before (The first chapter of my Pretty Cure fan fic was 36 pages long according to GoogleDocs). But I wonder how others will receive it? I want to deeply explore some things and not rush anything as some have said that I have been, but at the same time, I don't want to deter my readers with a ridiculously long chapter.

I think that some of my best work has come from being naturally in the mood to write. That said, writing that exists is infinitely better than writing that doesn't exist.
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The same with me! And exactly!
 
Welp. When I started writing a few years ago, I never thought I'd be writing about something that involves male strippers. (No, it's not for Storm Island, for those who are worried I went off the rails)

What kinds of strange and bizarre things have you guys and gals written about that you never thought you would?
 
Kimberly Prescott said:
Welp. When I started writing a few years ago, I never thought I'd be writing about something that involves male strippers. (No, it's not for Storm Island, for those who are worried I went off the rails)

What kinds of strange and bizarre things have you guys and gals written about that you never thought you would?
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Well, I don't think I ever expected to do quite so much research on breasts and bras, put it that way
 
In a school exam, I had to write a fairy tale based on a picture of a guy riding a snail... and that didn't work quite well to be honest.
 
Tophat Dragoneye said:
In a school exam, I had to write a fairy tale based on a picture of a guy riding a snail... and that didn't work quite well to be honest.
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He could've been a paraplegic musing about how he should've gotten something faster. Like, I don't know, a ​wheelchair.
 
I like my job aboard the ship, but there are some times that just absolutely boggle the mind, and I have to stop and think "What the ever loving F--- are some of these people smoking?!" This is one of those times, and I have to vent.

Let me begin by saying how astonishingly rare it is that actions taken/decisions made/things said by other people will genuinely make me angry, how I generally have an ungodly patience and tolerance for things many people consider bullshit. This really is bullshit, and I am pissed the hell off about it.

As you know, I do backstage theater work aboard a cruise ship, and as an oceangoing vessel we of course have strict maritime safety standards that we adhere to. Every so often we get special auditors from the USCG (Coast Guard) who's job it is to check up on those standards to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to do. Yesterday was one such inspection day.

During showtimes and rehearsals with large casts, we have to keep certain firescreen doors (they're pretty much like a normal door, just heavy and steel and stops smoke/fire) open to allow for cast and crew traffic during performances. Most of these firescreen doors have handy magnetic doorstops that can be released manually or from the bridge: two of these doors that we need to keep open do not have these magnetic doorstops and must be propped open manually. We normally aren't supposed to have those doors propped open at all, but we have an agreement with our safety officers and USCG that these doors without magnetic doorstops can remain manually propped open so long as there are technicians present backstage who can unprop them in case of emergency.

This is understandable, as fire is a bitch to deal with aboard a ship, and a ship by law must conform to these standards. We in the backstage tech department have been conforming to these standards as per our agreement with safety personnel and USCG.

So yesterday, apparently, some of these auditors came backstage and cited us in violation of our propped door agreement. This was during our technical rehearsal when we most absolutely have technicians backstage. They claim they did not see any technicians, whereas I and all the techs did not ever once see a USCG auditor backstage (we know what they look like, they have obvious Coast Guard uniforms). Furthermore, they claim that this is our third citation in recent history, and I know for a fact that the previous two citations were made under equally bullshit circumstances. Even furthermore, because this is bullshit citation number three, we have the Captian, Staff Captain, Safety officers all on our asses claiming that we're fucking shit up to the point that another violation gets disciplinary action for the entire tech department and the Cruise Director (boss above my boss), even though we are doing exactly what they have asked us to do, and whoever is knocking us on these citations is either grossly negligent or of malicious intent.

This is bar-none the most fucked up work situation I have ever been apart of. Sure, punish us when we fuck up, threaten us when we do wrong, but for fucks sake DO NOT shit on us for doing EXACTLY what you say we are supposed to do in the first place!
 
So I'm currently working on a short story featuring something vaguely akin to a proper ensemble cast (as opposed to a singular protagonist, or something like that), currently planned to consist of five characters. But I'm wondering, really, do I need five characters? I have four basically worked out, and the fifth is in the works. But considering I'm not expecting to write many, if indeed any, more than five chapters, I'm wondering if five characters might be too much to work with. So, uh, any thoughts, anyone?
 
Beth Pavell said:
Five chapters of what, six thousand words? You'll have trouble fleshing out five characters in that space, even to the standards of a short story character, I should think
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When you put it that way, it does seem rather ambitious, yeah. So I'll stick with four - that gives me all I need, and shouldn't be too much to work with, I hope. We'll see.
 
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Anyone ever had a situation where they've had several different storylines written out for the next chapter, but had difficulty choosing which one to go with and finalize? Right now, I have five chapters I've been working on for almost a month, and four of them are probably going to be dumped. I am so inefficient as a writer :(
 
Kimberly Prescott said:
Anyone ever had a situation where they've had several different storylines written out for the next chapter, but had difficulty choosing which one to go with and finalize? Right now, I have five chapters I've been working on for almost a month, and four of them are probably going to be dumped. I am so inefficient as a writer :(
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Just like good ol' George Martin.
 
Lugion said:
Kimberly Prescott said:
Anyone ever had a situation where they've had several different storylines written out for the next chapter, but had difficulty choosing which one to go with and finalize? Right now, I have five chapters I've been working on for almost a month, and four of them are probably going to be dumped. I am so inefficient as a writer :(
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Just like good ol' George Martin.
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Bless him, yes. He is a master at plotting though, so we can forgive that
 
Beth Pavell said:
Lugion said:
Kimberly Prescott said:
Anyone ever had a situation where they've had several different storylines written out for the next chapter, but had difficulty choosing which one to go with and finalize? Right now, I have five chapters I've been working on for almost a month, and four of them are probably going to be dumped. I am so inefficient as a writer :(
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Just like good ol' George Martin.
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Bless him, yes. He is a master at plotting though, so we can forgive that
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That's the truth. And with so many plot threads, I can forgive him having to write three different versions of a certain Quentyn Martell chapter in ADWD to make sure it fit the timeline properly.
 
Oh look, a wild Caitlin appears! What I miss, besides Kim totally ruining Storm Island?
 
Guys, I have a problem. I know exactly ​what I wanna do for my next one-shot (in short, Winona fires Revy), but I just... don't have the motivation to write it. Any ideas?
 
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