This is a casual variation on a reading circle. There is no real obligation to read each others' stories (although many of us do read each others' work already anyway), and no structured weekly discussions. Just a simlit chit-chat thread for a group of friends to discuss topics like approaches to writing, story themes, character archetypes, and essential stuff such as undead gnome army world domination, all accompanied by a(n un)healthy side of pancakes.
I guess I can officiate :D If Dandy agrees to all this, tht is, obvs. He'd probably make L Faba his Best Man, err, Woman, though, so you'd have that to look forward to.
But... then I couldn't officiate! Also, I'd never marry Dandy, I feel like his mother <3
Still one big happy family.
Phew.. OKAY. I need some air. :astonished: :lol:
EDIT: lol I got censored.
Yup! or you can just marry two out of three. Problem solved! Also, I’ve decided. Between snog, marry and kill, I’ll marry everyone here. It’ll be like collect-them-all, sim edition. I have a huge writer’s crush on you lot, anyway.
Snog: Faith. I'm kinda liking everyone loving her, but also not liking it because I have to take a number :bawling: Marry: ...... Melinda's.. adoptive parents? :sweat_smile: Mel then. Kill: Caleb. He's actually not so bad in the recent chapters. But if I had to pick one out of the main cast, he bags the win. :)
Take a number? Sheesh... the girl stands on a street corner once and this is the reaction? :o Melinda's parents? Yes, I mean who wouldn't want to be Mrs. Chuck Bucket, right? It's OK, choose Caleb, he'd choose himself. :'(
I just read your update. Now Faith'scomment makes sense. Eek! :lol: But Mel's Parents make strange food! I want to try orange and blue stuff. :joy: Every day is an adventure (if I don't keel over first) Kay. I'm gonna go tear Will to pieces in your comments now. Looks like someone else besides Caleb is worthier of my toys. >:)
I just read your update. Now Faith's comment makes sense. Eek! :lol: But Mel's Parents make strange food! I want to try orange and blue stuff. :joy: Every day is an adventure (if I don't keel over first) Kay. I'm gonna go tear Will to pieces in your comments now. Looks like someone else besides Caleb is worthier of my toys. >:)
Yup! or you can just marry two out of three. Problem solved! Also, I’ve decided. Between snog, marry and kill, I’ll marry everyone here. It’ll be like collect-them-all, sim edition. I have a huge writer’s crush on you lot, anyway.
Yay, megamarriage! <3 Tricky living arrangements, mind. We'd have to borrow a wing of that palace that Yanzi lives in or something :D
Ah, I'm not on the forums for a couple of days and the place is a party. :D
My answers will probably be similar to what everyone else said, and indecisive. I wimped out on the kill part because even evil characters are sometimes just too awesome to kill. I'm also behind on everyone's stories for the week, so this might change once I'm caught up.
Snog: Faith, she's hot, but it looks like there's a line forming for her. She needs to open up a kissing booth. I'll also say April, just because Caleb won't. Marry: This one's a toss-up between Lilith and Mel. Lilith is smart, a doctor, and attractive, so I could definitely get on the marriage train. Although the mind-reading would be kinda weird. Mel is a sweetheart, and she likes cats. We could be crazy cat-ladies together. :D Kill: Will or the evil vampire lurking in the shadows.
Snog: Kirino, I always thought she was stunning. Curtis would come in second, and the only reason I don't consider him marriage material is because of his crime underground past. Marry: Kian, he is a good-natured guy, with a good sense of humor. Kill: This is hard, I would say Scorcher, but he's already dead. I like Masato too much, even though his motives are questionable. So I guess I'll go with Trevor.
Snog: Micah, he makes getting out of a coffin in his skivvies look good. Marry: Cordelia because she's a lost soul that needs some love and someone needs to keep her away from Morgyn after Dandy gets married off to Foamy and Yimi. Kill: This is hard, I would say Verena, but I love her as a villain. So maybe Alba? This makes me feel like a cruel person because she was blind and homeless. On the other hand, she seems a little too unpredictable. I like L Faba and Morgyn for how complicated they are, so not prepared to see them gone just yet. I'm so indecisive, lol.
Snog:There are way too many good looking characters to choose from, lol. Lancelot, Morgana, Arthur, Sarah, Merlin, I can't decide. I'd be happy with any of them. Marry: Merlin, Gawain or Muiri. All of them are kind-hearted souls, and Gawain loves animals, which I find very endearing. I suppose I could add Arthur or Morgana, but I wouldn't want to be part of the nobility, too many court politics. I'd be happy being a druid with Muiri or Merlin. :D Kill: Richard, he's pure evil.
I was going to do individual quotes for everyone's comments on Supernatural Misadventures, but that got too complicated for my technology-challenged brain and it's been a long week. So I'm just going to do a summary.
Snog: Three votes for Vern, and spoilers for story 2
one and a partial vote for Luke, and one vote for Willa.
I'm glad Luke is still attractive in his current state and Willa is hot, but the whole dead, vampire thing kind of gets in the way.
Maybe some snogging would be good for Vern, help her not be so angry, lol.
Marry: Two votes for Ian, two for Hailey, and one for Barnes (if only he had eyes for the ladies :p ). Haha, I find it interesting that my main love interests have votes divided between them. My lips are sealed about Ian being a good marriage candidate or not. I'm leaving that up for interpretation. ;)
Kill: Two votes for the author (he's done some pretty questionable things). One vote for Ian (I'm finding that Ian is a pretty divisive character, either people like him or they don't). One vote for a spoiler for Story 2.
Marry: Cordelia because she's a lost soul that needs some love and someone needs to keep her away from Morgyn after Dandy gets married off to Foamy and Yimi.
That is so thoughtful and sweet and hilarious at the same time! Yes, you keep Cordelia right in case Morgyn tries to cheat on Snuffy :D
So maybe Alba? This makes me feel like a cruel person because she was blind and homeless. On the other hand, she seems a little too unpredictable.
Don't feel cruel. She was blind and homeless, but that was centuries ago. Can't play that card forever. She is not the nicest of people, that's for sure.
Marry: Two votes for Ian, two for Hailey, and one for Barnes (if only he had eyes for the ladies :p ). Haha, I find it interesting that my main love interests have votes divided between them. My lips are sealed about Ian being a good marriage candidate or not. I'm leaving that up for interpretation. ;)
I did consider Barnes too, but indeed the fact he's not into women would be a problem :D And I do love Hailey, but then I want to be the clumsy dork in the relationship. Though I'm not sure if marrying Ian would solve that for me haha.
Right! Hi, guys. It’s 10 minutes before work starts and I cannot for the life of me find the motivation, so I have a topic I want to throw in the group. Specifically, the concept of “Killing your Darlings”.
There’s plenty of explanations online for those who have never heard of it, but for a short summary: it’s the act of getting rid of unneeded storylines, characters, dialogue, scenes, sentences or descriptions in your writing. Especially if it’s a bit of writing that you’re very passionate/enthusiastic about, or have worked very hard to bring into existence. Often it’s the bits that you are the most proud of, and also the bits that your readers sometimes can’t connect with. It might be an inspirational quote from a character that readers don’t understand. Or a super-detailed description of a structure, or culture, or magic phenomenon, or a bit of world building - something that you loved making, but that has no direct influence on the story and your readers might dislike, skim or even skip entirely. Experienced writers often give the advice that you need to “kill” these “darlings” and leave them on the cutting room floor in order to improve the story for your readers.
So my question is: What do you think about this advice? Have you used the concept of “killing your darlings” in your writing before? If so, what did you remove (if you can answer that without spoilers)?
Let's see... I have heard about killing your darlings before, though more so in relation to streamlining/making sure that the plot doesn't get too convoluted more so than because readers don't connect with it.
Generally speaking, I don't really do this. Kind of. I do try to make sure that everything I include does either move the plot, develop the characters or build on lore, though you can justify most things with one of the three, and sometimes I do fail on that front anyway - which is mostly to do with simlit being a "live" process. By which I mean, if this was a book, once I got to the end I probably would go and cut some of the bits to tidy it up a little, but since I don't fully know what the end will look like yet, that's not really possible. (I doubt the season 1 ending I have in mind will change at this point, but the way I get to it might differ slightly from what I thought at the start, for instance).
In any case, I try to account for that in the planning process rather than with something I've already put work into. I don't think I'd ever cut an entire chapter I already wrote, for instance. Probably (hello, flaky Plumbob). I have dialogue I wrote that I didn't use, but that's not because I was trying to kill my darlings, it was simply because I often get character conversations popping up in my head way ahead of "their" time, but by the time I get to the the conversation, the tone might not be right for them to discuss it so I go with the flow.
For example - Spoilers for the last two chapters I've published (38 & 39):
There was another subject Morgyn and Micah were supposed to discuss during their date, but the conversation took a different turn and it didn't make sense. Or in the latest chapter, my original plan was for Cordelia to say more about how she got her scar, but when I got there it didn't seem like something she would really reveal to Micah. Things like that.
But that's more to do with flow than anything. What might qualify a bit more as what you're describing - the other day somebody that's currently reading the earlier chapters asked how Darrel and Emilia ended up together (not tagging this as spoiler given that they're a premade couple anyway). I do have some headcannon for that, but I don't think it would ever make sense to include in the story. So maybe that's more along those lines, but then again, calling Darrel and Emilia my darlings would be a bit of a stretch. It's also something that's only in my head, not something I actually have written up.
I think if it was a matter of something I was particularly enthusiastic/passionate about, I would definitely include it regardless of whether I think my readers will care or not. a) I mostly write for myself and b) I am terrible at predicting who and what my readers will connect with, so if I went by that alone, I doubt my assumptions would be right anyway.
I do often have issues with dripping in lore that exists in my head, has some relevance but does not make sense in the context of what's happening, i.e. the characters are unlikely to suddenly burst into a presentation on a particular subject. But I think that's slightly different from what you mean, because it actually is stuff that is relevant in the context of the story, I just can't find good places to shove it in.
So, to sum up... I think about the flow a lot, about the readers not so much (sorry), and if I have a whim, I usually try to find a way to make it happen (I am a little bit Morgyn that way, heh).
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