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qsmp-yaoi-island · 5 months

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Now that Purgatory (round 1??) is over I wanna do a more concise review on it. Warning for possible neg and long post, I just wanna talk about my personal opinion with it:

The event itself: I wanna say first that the most fun part of this event was the CCs. The event itself was... the least fun part. I understand the point of purgatory was to suffer, but from a content creator point you have to take your audience into account. To spend your limited time running back to your body for 30 minutes - 2 hours to get back to your body was just one part of the frustration and then pile people hunting you for points on top of that, it's bound to get people upset. People have already talked about how the biggest problem was the lack of testing for the event, so it they had to balance the event as it was ongoing. The constant changing rules made every victory feel less about skill and more about exploiting the rules/Who had the most people on that day.

Meta vs. Lore: This has been a problem with the qsmp for a while now, but it's never been more apparent with purgatory. All of the hints that were thrown around vague or not about the cursed team caused so much confusion. Cellbit said a really good point about it early on: "Why would they have an event where one team was bound to win? You're grinding for 10 hours each day just to give up and let one team win." <- paraphrased. So we were faced with a conundrum where we're unsure if we take the hints as something to consider in the competition of the game, or just play what the admins intended. And the balancing having to be done by the players for no enchants, lead to a lot of anger over disagreeing with that rule was in rp or not.

Was it worth it the reward?: First impressions, I want to say no. The coming days will probably change my mind but for now to justify two weeks of ten hours a day of grinding for a cliffhanger is pretty defeating. Multiple cc's have said they want a break after how intense this event has been and now they don't really get a reward for it, and will probably have to do it again. The drama was good, the emotions were high, but you cannot keep a story going on hopelessness forever. And now that they're going back to the island it's undetermined how this is gonna effect the characters in lore and feels like again, everything is put on hold for now.

I loved this event, the admins did so well despite it's flaws. My only hope is from here is that things start to get solved, the Eye being introduced at this point has really muddled with all the current mystery of the Fed and Resistance already had going on, and it's spreading out the focus far too much. We need answers not more villains.

That being said I'm excited to see where they take it from here. It really jumpstarted my love for the server all over again: it had tons of good interactions we wouldn't have gotten otherwise, intense gameplay, and tons of good character driven content. But man, I want off this wild ride.

#qsmp #qsmp liveblog #qsmp thoughts #qsmp analysis #qsmp purgatory #long post

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vorefluff · 5 months

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Heya! For your ask game thing- might as well start at the beginning! What was going through your head when you were writing the very first opening lines of BLOOD? Also, were the first lines of the story the first ones you wrote, or did you start somewhere else?

As someone who might want to write their own original stuff in the future, I’m interested in hearing about others’ points of view on starting a story and what their thought process were :)

SO!!!

To answer your first question directly -

The goal of the first chapter was to be an introduction. An introduction to the characters, an introduction to the dynamics, an introduction to the types of conflicts that may arise, an introduction to a glimpse of possible worldbuilding, an introduction to the writing style, pretty much everything. And well, now it's only half-cannon haha. I plan on rewriting it at some point in the future, but it's alright to stay as is right now anyway.

It's essentially the pilot episode - if people enjoyed the hints and snippets that they saw, the base concepts, and the potential for where it might go, then afterwards I'd devote a lot more time to actually planning things out properly. I wanted enough detail to hook people, but I didn't want to invest so much time that I'd be disappointed if people weren't interested.

Perfectionism - especially when starting - is a well known killer of stories. So it's intentionally raw and not perfect. There's a few places where I mix up past and present tense. I'm sure there's typos. And that's okay - this is the rough draft of the story!

Going through my head at the time of writing, the most important priority was the characters.

I wanted to establish Damien as a Menace that loves getting reactions out of people. I wanted to establish Yarrop as the chronically exhausted and chronically grumpy character. Also the Stabby Guy With Knives. I wanted to establish Co as someone very easily distracted by Watching and Observing with Cool Guy Vibes. The cool guy vibes aren't as accurate now, since I'm leaning much more into him being a very lovey and caring sort of guy. His speaking patterns in particular are very different now. I wanted to establish Ribbonsy as someone that knows exactly what they want, and is playfully teasing. Which also isn't exactly fitting anymore, but kinda close.

I also really really wanted to push just how different and unique they are as characters. Having the way Damien & Yarrop interact being contrasted against the way Co & Ribbonsy interact. The casual violence vs the casual love.

Here's a good example of what I mean by 'half-cannon'

“I don’t have a clue. If you ever dumped milk on my head like that, I’d kick you out of the house,” Ribbonsy says bluntly.

1- There's already the idea that Ribbonsy doesn't understand Damien & Yarrop, which will later have more weight when it's revealed that they're a counselor/therapist.

2- This implies that Ribbonsy is the one that owns or otherwise has power over the current housing situation. That was the intent at the time, however I've since decided to change it. Co is the one that owns the house, not Ribbonsy.

3- Ribbonsy speaking bluntly in a casual situation, and the more whining tone. I've tweaked their general behavior and speaking patterns a bit. The bluntness is still something they do frequently, however now they take great care to avoid having a whining tone. They also tend to try and reserve the bluntness for situations where they may be under some sort of pressure, but is still comfortable/confident.

Overall, I think that Ribbonsy & Co are the ones that have changed the most between the Pilot and the rest of the story. Very outwardly small changes, but quite a few behind-the-scenes bigger changes to who they are as I found their place in the story. Yarrop & Damien in the pilot is still pretty accurate.

Ribbonsy complaining about being cold as the first lines is also a subtle nod to one of my favorite protective vore tropes. The whole - "If you're cold, they're cold - Put Them In Your Mouth" haha.

The line -

"[...]probably die of heatstroke or something when summer comes.” Co whines.

is a very subtle nod to what was later revealed as Co's Power. Which is - creating ice / freezing things, at the cost of internally overheating. In trying to create ice to cool himself off in the summer, he would instead hasten his demise by overheating.

There's a lot of details in it, despite being half-cannon. It's just very tricky to interpret anything from it currently, because it's hard to tell what details are still relevant and what details have been discarded or changed.

If you're ever curious about whether any specific detail in chapter 1 is still cannon, feel free to ask! I am happy to answer!

As a more in depth answer that may help a lot more in terms of learning & seeing behind the curtain -

Before BLOOD, I've tried to write a number of other stories. I have hundreds of characters, half a dozen elaborate worldbuilding projects, dozens of rp servers, many hundreds of pages of disjointed writing (not necessarily good writing, it's a very steep hill of fucking around and experimenting. Everyone has to start from somewhere!)

Creative Writing in general is something I've been passionate about for a long time, but all my projects have always... fallen flat. The idea was too big, or I just lost motivation. I've found that I write the most, and write the best, when I have people enjoying my work and encouraging me. People are my main motivation - probably not a good thing, but it is what it is haha. My original creative worlds are great and all, but trying to get anyone interested is Incredibly Hard. I've tried dozens of times.

In terms of writing my first lines of BLOOD, to put it simply, I had people interested in the idea beforehand. This is a niche community, with demand for a specific type of story that I am happy to write.

I blame @luckyshotwrites and @vore-toast for kicking it off - they did the hard work of gathering the fanbase for this type of story, and I'm just mooching off of it /lighthearted. Genuinely though - I would not have started writing the story without them.

The first chapter was an experiment / interest check. Once I determined my experiment was successful, that's when I really started to actually plan things out.

On the more Story side of things, there were 3 main things -

I wanted the story to be smaller in scale, so I wouldn't make the same mistakes as I have in the past by biting off more than I can chew. It's absolutely still a decent sized story, but it has a clear beginning, middle, and end. A few plot points are fixed. There's certainly some things that're still open to improv and flexibility, to let the story breathe more, but it's not just a "fuck around and whatever happens, happens." like most of my stories in the past have been.

I wanted the characters to have depth and life to them. And well, most New Characters I write need to have time to develop to have nuance and actually feel like a person. So, the majority of the characters are ones I've borrowed from other stories I've written. Echos of their original stories, echos of their previous relationships, echos of their habits, all in a new light. I mostly picked my favorites out of the ones I've written over the years, but I have a few lesser-developed ones as well to give them a chance to grow too. So far, I beliiiieve every character had their very first origin from 5+ years ago. Although, they've been in various stories since then. For example, Co was most recently a My Hero Academia character in an roleplay server, haha. If you trace his origins alllllll the way back, he was an Undertale AU character I made. Same with Arasi, Marduke, and half of what went into Roxi too. Roxi is sorta a blend of 2 characters I had. (unfortunately, I have recently realized that most of them have Something Fucked Up with their eyes, because a lot of them had their first origins as something edgy & 'cringe' from me Being A Teenager back then. Which uhhhhh oops. time to figure out how to change that plothole into A Totally Intentional Story Telling Device. Probably. Something like - physical representation of lacking foresight, 'an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind', or 'it's all fun and games until someone looses and eye' or something else idk. Peek behind the curtains.)

I have a passion for Breaking Tropes and Breaking Stereotypes. Non-linear and non-standard paths to healing, a wide variety of relationship dynamics. The guy that gives stoner vibes has been clean & sober for several years. The Therapist Character having a lot of personal development and isn't just a tool to progress others. Everyone Is Autistic (because I'm autistic) and it fits none of the popular sterotypes. The guy that experiences hallucinations is Just A Guy and very humanized. A weird guy, but that's not really related to the hallucination part.

I think I had more to say but it's getting kinda late, and I gotta get up early tomorrow wups. But anyway yes!!! If you read this far and you're still interested, please send more asks! I will go feral over them like a Creature.

#Breathe Life #rambling time #ask

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lets-get-fictional · 7 years

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Hello! So I was scouring the Internet for advice today but I couldn't find any on this topic. My problem isn't that I don't have any ideas (I probably have too many) but the problem is that I don't LOVE any of my ideas. I like them. I think they're all fine ideas. But liking them isn't going to motivate me long enough to finish a novel. How can I give my ideas that extra uumph to make me love them? How can I figure out what's missing or why I don't feel this way about any of my ideas?

Hello, nonny! What a challenging question… This one’s been in my inbox a couple days, just because it’s such a bigquestion. But I’ve thought it over and I think I have some ideas for you:)

The Thrill Is Gone – How to Find It Again

So generally, there’s no one answer orcure-all to this problem. I’ve had this issue multiple times, withdifferent causes. My first novel didn’t have enough meat to the plot; mysecond novel had been over-planned in my head to the point that it no longerexcited me. My third novel had way too much plot, sothat by the time I got ¾ the way through, I’d written over 200K words andfelt sick of the idea. I started my fourth novel way too soon, and am nowgoing back and planning it more! So there are obviously many differentreasons that a story doesn’t take off (or dries up eventually).

The first step is to figure out what’s missing, like yousaid. There are a few aspects of your story to assess…

1. Plot

I’m discussing plot first because, to me, it’s the most importantpart of fiction. Plot, conflict, and stakes are foremost to my stories. You could have the most complex and sympathetic characters, but withoutplot, they’re static and become boring. But for some reason, this is thepart of story ideas that new authors neglect most!

So if your story has great characters and an immersivesetting, but you can’t get into it, try asking a few questions about your plot:

What is the point of the plot? What’s the message you’re conveying in the story? Even if your story isn’t an allegory or a metaphor or the next Chronicles of Narnia, there should always be a conclusion to which all plots arrive – otherwise, the story can feel aimless. The best way to find your message is to look at the conflicts involved (e.g. Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, etc.) and find the “winner”. What worldview, belief, or concept “defeats” the other concepts? It can be as simple as Good vs. Evil, or more complex, like Loving the Sincere Drug Addict vs. Settling for the Selfish Dentist (provokes the question “Is love worth danger in relationships?”).

Does the plot have ups and downs? And really consider both ends of the spectrum here. Stories become dull if they are made up of victory after victory – or if they’re made up of nothing but loss and tragedy. No matter the genre, you have to strike some sort of balance, lest the story become predictable and emotionally non-engaging. Find victories and failures, even in unassuming places, to keep readers invested and hopeful.

Do you have a satisfactory ending? Or do you have the ending planned yet? I’ve found that I can’t really commit to an idea unless I see a resolution – otherwise I feel too nervous to start. If you do have an ending planned, make sure it’s the right ending. It can feel like there’s one possible conclusion, and once you’ve found it, you stick to it – but question it, brainstorm it. It may not be a happy ending every time, but when you find the right one, you’ll know it.

Do you have the right plot at all? Look at your story as a whole. Does it start too early or too late, relative to the real meat, the real action? Is it told from the most impactful POV? Does the plot cover too much ground for one book, or is it not enough to fill the pages? Consider all the characters, backstories, and subplots you have, and ask yourself if any of them are more interesting than the main plot. If so, shift your focus. Use them instead.

2. Characters

Maybe it’s not your plot that’s going sideways. Maybeyou have it all worked out – the head, the tail, the whole damn thing – butit still doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel like it’s coming tolife, somehow. It feels flat.

That can be a character problem. It would be likesitting by the campfire and hearing the most fascinating, horrifying story,except it’s told by a man with The Most Boring Voice Who Talks So IncrediblySlowly and Takes All the Fun Out of Everything. An example: TheHunger Games. Those books bored the crap out of me. Unless someone was being killed or Haymitch and Effie were interacting, Ijust didn’t care. And those books had a great plot behind them!

So here’s what you need for a good cast of characters:

A solid protagonist. Solid = three-dimensional,empathetic, and relatable; having a goal, an internal conflict, a self-image,and fears or shame. They should have different facets of themselves –their head and their heart, their desires and doubts, and that little voice intheir head that says, “Give up on that. Be realistic.” Givethem strengths, weaknesses, and a couple of bad habits, for kicks.

A variety of supporting characters. You don’thave to have thirty characters + six secret characters stuffed under yourtrench coat; but with however many characters you have, make them as differentfrom each other as possible. Give them some similarities, of course, sothat they can relate to each other – but never make them so close togetherthat you have to decide, “Who should say this line? Character A orCharacter B?” Make them unique enough that the words come out of their mouths,instead of you having to decide where to put the words, yourself.

Relationships, relationships, relationships. AndI’m not talking about romantic relationships. I mean, sure, those too –but there are many different kinds of relationships to explore. Friendships, enemy-ships (?), parent relationships, sibling-ships, silentalliances, “annoying friend-of-a-friend”-ships, “my-ex’s-little-sister”-ships, “you’re-the-ruler-of-the-galaxy-and-a-Sith-lord-but-also-my-dad-please-stop-being-evil”-ships… You get the idea. Make them unique, make them strong, and allowthem to evolve over the course of the story.

Diverse morals, interests, and personalities. My first short stories focused on white middle-class people who were culturallyand politically identical. They lived in one house, usually, and watchedthe same TV shows and made the same references. They had the same senseof humor. They rarely disagreed on anything that wasn’t clear-cut(e.g. “You drank the last Pepsi!” “I was thirsty!”). So doyourself a favor and don’t make my mistakes. Give your characters uniqueethics, cultures, backgrounds, personalities, goals, appearances, andconflicts. You’ll be more invested by then, I’m sure.

3. Setting

Lastly, I’d like to add that while your characters and plot could be well-developed, there’s always a chance that they’re placed in the wrong setting. This is why many story ideas can seem great, but won’t get off the ground – maybe they’re set in a pre-made universe like Middle Earth or Panem when they could be their own story. Maybe your tragic romance is set in the middle of apocalyptic war, when instead, it should be drained down to a period piece. Maybe your story is perfect, except you’re writing it too close to home – in the real world, in the present year. There are a million factors to picking the right setting, including:

Applicable history and culture. If you’re writing a story about someone who’s oppressed, or someone who’s a politician, or someone who’s a witch, you’re going to need to back that up with history. Develop a history for the oppression or politics or witchcraft – where these things began, how they developed over time – and a culture for them now – how oppressed people survive and how witches in your world interact, etc.

Imaginative scenery, influenced by the characters. Even if your story takes place in New York City in 2017, allow your characters’ living spaces and workplaces to have a unique touch – colors and quirks that your readers can see in their mind. If even you can’t see what you’re writing, inspiration is going to be difficult to find.

A lifelike background. Just because the plot focuses on your characters does not mean everything going on behind it should be quiet and dead. Anyone who looks out a window in a city building can see other people living – people on the highway will see other cars taking other people other places. Everyone who has a friend will hear a little something about their friend’s siblings, their friend’s friends, their friend’s neighbors. Life and stories exist outside of your plot; make sure you’re not writing about a ship in a bottle.

An aesthetic. That sounds gross and teen-tumblr-y, but let me tell you personally: I don’t feel truly ready to write (and love) my story until I can hear the music for the future movie adaptation – until I can see the kind of clothes the people wear, the games they play, the places they eat and shop. I think of the colors and themes in my scenes (e.g. my first novel was set primarily at night in a grunge/city setting; my current novel is very green and outdoorsy and gives me that feeling of bonfires just after sunset). Once you get that “feeling” from your story, you’ll know it.

Anyway, this reply took me like three days to write because I really wanted to get into it. I hope some of this helps you to fall in love with one of your ideas, so you can get started :) If you have any more questions, be sure to send them in!

(I have 26 questions in the inbox, though, so be patient with me…)

If you need advice on writing, fanfiction, or NaNoWriMo, you should maybe ask me!

#writing #writeblr #writing blog #writing tips #writing advice #inspiration #novels #my post #ask #anon ask

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