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pezGtalk can stop being annoying now. Am I online, busy or invisible?
D1 fanchat details here. Don't forget!
.......PoT finals vol.1 just came out. Why did I agree to go out with people tonight? I WANT TO BE HOME WATCHING THIS.
I am writing! \o/ And I'm having lots of fun and already thinking way too far ahead about what's going to happen to the characters and the words they'll say and the plot twist and all that. Writing it all down so that I will not forget.
I do wonder, although it's always said - and I'm sure it's true - that reading helps with writing, maybe sometimes it actually works against you, in terms of 1) "oh I've got this idea - wait, somebody's done it before :(" or 2) one gets into the mindset of "it has to be done THIS way because that's how it is for this genre"... that sort of thing. And really, just because it's been done before it doesn't mean you are only reinventing the wheel. I've said this on various occasions before, but there must be so many stories of ordinary-child-discovers-(magical-powers-and-goes-to)-a-different-word. But no one would say LotR, Narnia and Harry Potter are in any way similar. But just because it *has* been done, it might scare other people into writing it in case they get called copy-cats. Who knows, the end result of their writing might be completely different, but they stop before they start because it feels unoriginal...
For 2), I suppose it's particularly true for sci-fi/fantasy, which I hardly read, actually, so it's difficult to give an example... say, someone writing spaceship wars might write about energy shields that protects the ship, and how the protection goes down by % as they are attacked. But why? Because that's how it's done in StarTrek? Because it's logical? But in sci-fi, logic is how you play it, really. Do people get too influenced by existing ideas? Why can't the spaceship dodge? What do you mean, it's too big to move quickly? It's space! It's sci-fi! Why are you applying the law of physics to it? Why aren't you making up your own physics for it?
Okay, lousy example, but I hope I get my point across. Must vampires be afraid of / killed by garlic, stake through the heart, sunlight, dismemberment or fire? Can't they be preyed upon (yes, it's been done in Trinity Blood, but can't you do it too and make it different? Why should it stop you?) or... they can suffer normal deaths? All that's different is that they drink blood rather than eat food? (Which has probably already been done, also. But it's still more unconventional. You see the general point I'm getting at.)
Last night I told Liz I really liked one of the stories in Fragile Things because a spaceship does damage to planets/other ships by FLINGING LARGE ROCKS. Who said it has to be missiles/lasers/bombs?
Sometimes I wonder if the crazy ideas I come up with (just ask Liz**) is because I don't read so much/enough. I know some of it comes from having different cultural backgrounds and access to a wider range of literature because of it. Some of it is because I'm just generally mad. But, still.
Remember the bit in The Matrix where Morpheus teaches Neo how the Matrix works, that getting hit doesn't mean it has to hurt, that he can jump from building to building if he ditches the normal rules of the world from his mind? "Free your mind" - I think I like that idea.
**She didn't like the one with the rollerskate disco. Goddamn elitist! XD
D1 fanchat details here. Don't forget!
.......PoT finals vol.1 just came out. Why did I agree to go out with people tonight? I WANT TO BE HOME WATCHING THIS.
I am writing! \o/ And I'm having lots of fun and already thinking way too far ahead about what's going to happen to the characters and the words they'll say and the plot twist and all that. Writing it all down so that I will not forget.
I do wonder, although it's always said - and I'm sure it's true - that reading helps with writing, maybe sometimes it actually works against you, in terms of 1) "oh I've got this idea - wait, somebody's done it before :(" or 2) one gets into the mindset of "it has to be done THIS way because that's how it is for this genre"... that sort of thing. And really, just because it's been done before it doesn't mean you are only reinventing the wheel. I've said this on various occasions before, but there must be so many stories of ordinary-child-discovers-(magical-powers-and-goes-to)-a-different-word. But no one would say LotR, Narnia and Harry Potter are in any way similar. But just because it *has* been done, it might scare other people into writing it in case they get called copy-cats. Who knows, the end result of their writing might be completely different, but they stop before they start because it feels unoriginal...
For 2), I suppose it's particularly true for sci-fi/fantasy, which I hardly read, actually, so it's difficult to give an example... say, someone writing spaceship wars might write about energy shields that protects the ship, and how the protection goes down by % as they are attacked. But why? Because that's how it's done in StarTrek? Because it's logical? But in sci-fi, logic is how you play it, really. Do people get too influenced by existing ideas? Why can't the spaceship dodge? What do you mean, it's too big to move quickly? It's space! It's sci-fi! Why are you applying the law of physics to it? Why aren't you making up your own physics for it?
Okay, lousy example, but I hope I get my point across. Must vampires be afraid of / killed by garlic, stake through the heart, sunlight, dismemberment or fire? Can't they be preyed upon (yes, it's been done in Trinity Blood, but can't you do it too and make it different? Why should it stop you?) or... they can suffer normal deaths? All that's different is that they drink blood rather than eat food? (Which has probably already been done, also. But it's still more unconventional. You see the general point I'm getting at.)
Last night I told Liz I really liked one of the stories in Fragile Things because a spaceship does damage to planets/other ships by FLINGING LARGE ROCKS. Who said it has to be missiles/lasers/bombs?
Sometimes I wonder if the crazy ideas I come up with (just ask Liz**) is because I don't read so much/enough. I know some of it comes from having different cultural backgrounds and access to a wider range of literature because of it. Some of it is because I'm just generally mad. But, still.
Remember the bit in The Matrix where Morpheus teaches Neo how the Matrix works, that getting hit doesn't mean it has to hurt, that he can jump from building to building if he ditches the normal rules of the world from his mind? "Free your mind" - I think I like that idea.
**She didn't like the one with the rollerskate disco. Goddamn elitist! XD
