Of course, man. Take as much time as you need.
WZCW Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Prax
- Start date
Of course, man. Take as much time as you need.
On the subject of cutting work down, this weeks entry has clocked in at over 4000 words, and there isn't very much to cut. 
I was aiming for 2-3k, and missed the mark by a square mile. I'm going to have to take a hatchet to it somewhere... lord knows where.
I was aiming for 2-3k, and missed the mark by a square mile. I'm going to have to take a hatchet to it somewhere... lord knows where.
On the subject of cutting work down, this weeks entry has clocked in at over 4000 words, and there isn't very much to cut.
I was aiming for 2-3k, and missed the mark by a square mile. I'm going to have to take a hatchet to it somewhere... lord knows where.
I thought my RP was wordy this week. <_> I had it at around 2,300 and had me thinking if I can remove a bit or two. This looks like it's going to be a fun week of waiting for the Pay-Per-View.
Awesome_Miz
Proud LSN mentee
I have just finished my first RP. For my first ever WZCW match.
DirtyJosé
Best angle of all: retirement
Yo yo yo, what up guys!? I know I'm kinda scare these days, and likely will be until after the New Year, but after that I'm back to the day to day conversations and shit.
What's good in the hood, playas?
Also, you know...RP is up, n' shit.
What's good in the hood, playas?
Also, you know...RP is up, n' shit.
Johnny Scumm
InZayn In The Membrane
@RobL17
Awesome_Miz
Proud LSN mentee
@truewwefollower
Bernkastel
Reaper of Miracles
On the subject of cutting work down, this weeks entry has clocked in at over 4000 words, and there isn't very much to cut.
I was aiming for 2-3k, and missed the mark by a square mile. I'm going to have to take a hatchet to it somewhere... lord knows where.
You're a professional writer aren't you? Surely you can find a way to make it leaner and still get your points across.
I can, problem is that I already pretty much have. There's some purple prose to shave off, there always is, but I erased the bulk of it as I went. I'm trying to tell a complete narrative arc in a single piece, and there's a limit to how tight I can be without becoming didactic. Going to try my hand at a complete redraft this evening, but I'll consider myself to have done well if I can get down to under 3500.
Bernkastel
Reaper of Miracles
You written full length novels and stories haven't you? It's hard to just to limit yourself to 2000-3000 words.
Writing a full length novel has very little in common with producing a roleplay. Different objective, different theory, different structure.
In a novel your reader is expecting to be presented with 80,000 words and enters with an appropriate attention span. You have all the time in the world to tell the story you want to tell. Every scene can be fleshed out into an entire chapter if one so desires, and you can quite happily devote a thousand words to description without the reader batting an eyelid. Cutting down a novel is almost never challenging, since in even the tightest of texts large sections of the narrative are going to be ultimately gratuitous.
I present my submissions as chapters in a novel, but they really, really aren't. Nobody is going to sit down and read The Book of the Dragon like an actual novel, and as such I can't structure it as though it is. My chapters have more in common with a series of connected short stories, which brings about a considerably higher narrative burden. A good short story or RP (at least in my eyes) needs to contain a self contained character arc or plot development. It's all very well spacing these things about across multiple submissions (and I do quite a lot of this anyway just because it makes my penis hard) but the reader is not going to digest your work like that, so it's ultimately something of a waste.
What this means is that if, during a RP, you want to follow a particular plot or character arc or to explore a particular theme then it usually has to all happen at once. Half a narrative is of little use to anybody, and I suspect this is the reason that so many people elect to neglect a narrative component altogether. This is fine, except when you attempt to tell a story that is longer or more complex than the format demands.
RPs are very constrained in terms of subject material. There are certain topics that one has to touch on every week (although again I often endeavour not to for the aforementioned penis reason) and because submissions are intrinsically similar a shorter structure is beneficial. Once you cross 3,000 words you're in dangerous waters, and no matter how good your writing is people risk getting turned off by the length, since it is so much longer than they are anticipating.
The reason I'm so far over the line this week is simply due to an early error on my part. It was bad planning. When I create my narrative I ballpark how many words I am going to require to tell my story and plan accordingly. Usually I'm pretty spot on. This week I wasn't. Too many essential plot points, too many scene changes, in layman's terms I bit off more than I could chew.
I could chop then length in half, but that wouldn't involve tightening the writing or chopping out purple prose, it would involve completely retooling the narrative in order to be telling a different, less narrative consuming story. The narrative was written to be told as a whole, and as such I feel it would suffer more from being over pruned than it will from its somewhat bloated length.
So yeah... what was the question again?
In a novel your reader is expecting to be presented with 80,000 words and enters with an appropriate attention span. You have all the time in the world to tell the story you want to tell. Every scene can be fleshed out into an entire chapter if one so desires, and you can quite happily devote a thousand words to description without the reader batting an eyelid. Cutting down a novel is almost never challenging, since in even the tightest of texts large sections of the narrative are going to be ultimately gratuitous.
I present my submissions as chapters in a novel, but they really, really aren't. Nobody is going to sit down and read The Book of the Dragon like an actual novel, and as such I can't structure it as though it is. My chapters have more in common with a series of connected short stories, which brings about a considerably higher narrative burden. A good short story or RP (at least in my eyes) needs to contain a self contained character arc or plot development. It's all very well spacing these things about across multiple submissions (and I do quite a lot of this anyway just because it makes my penis hard) but the reader is not going to digest your work like that, so it's ultimately something of a waste.
What this means is that if, during a RP, you want to follow a particular plot or character arc or to explore a particular theme then it usually has to all happen at once. Half a narrative is of little use to anybody, and I suspect this is the reason that so many people elect to neglect a narrative component altogether. This is fine, except when you attempt to tell a story that is longer or more complex than the format demands.
RPs are very constrained in terms of subject material. There are certain topics that one has to touch on every week (although again I often endeavour not to for the aforementioned penis reason) and because submissions are intrinsically similar a shorter structure is beneficial. Once you cross 3,000 words you're in dangerous waters, and no matter how good your writing is people risk getting turned off by the length, since it is so much longer than they are anticipating.
The reason I'm so far over the line this week is simply due to an early error on my part. It was bad planning. When I create my narrative I ballpark how many words I am going to require to tell my story and plan accordingly. Usually I'm pretty spot on. This week I wasn't. Too many essential plot points, too many scene changes, in layman's terms I bit off more than I could chew.
I could chop then length in half, but that wouldn't involve tightening the writing or chopping out purple prose, it would involve completely retooling the narrative in order to be telling a different, less narrative consuming story. The narrative was written to be told as a whole, and as such I feel it would suffer more from being over pruned than it will from its somewhat bloated length.
So yeah... what was the question again?
FunKay the Inevitable
People Like Me, We Don't Play
As someone who is looking to go into creative writing, I'm going to completely and utterly ignore Gelgarin's post.
Bernkastel
Reaper of Miracles
You and me are a lot alike in our RP's. Have you been drawing from my older stuff?
