The Limyaael Rants Archive

[Nidotamer]

Found this little thing a while ago but now I'm trying to get into writing, I think this is worth a share!
https://curiosityquills.com/limyaael/
Well, it seems more like advice than rants most of the time but still, some of these are pretty helpful looking and on a lot of topics!

Probably oughta spend more time on there myself.

[c_nordlander]

I've read a couple of those, probably should read more.

What I have seen is very good so far. Thanks for linking them!

[SirMustapha]

That's a huge wealth of material. It's unfortunate that I don't write fantasy, but many of those are useful nonetheless.

[Nidotamer]

That's a huge wealth of material. It's unfortunate that I don't write fantasy, but many of those are useful nonetheless.

It is true that it's mostly about fantasy but a fair few lessons can apply to anything really! Especially stuff that's not so much about settings.

[c_nordlander]

Well said, May. I particularly like the stuff about writing conflict, and that's something applicable to any genre.

[SirMustapha]

Maybe this is an extremely obvious thing to say, but I still find it relevant: these kinds of advices shouldn't be entirely taken to heart and followed by the letter at all times. More important than reading material like that is having the ability to evaluate and judge them rationally. Indeed much of these articles are useful for any writer, but some of them are highly dependent not only on genre, but also on style. On the "Dialogue" article, when talking about hesitations, she writes: "In a story, this is excruciatingly boring to read, and no amount of commitment to realism can justify it."

... yeah, no. Whether it's boring or not depends on many factors. Personally, when I'm reading the story, I like to be able to hear the characters' voices in my head, and when the written text mimics speech patters, this can help a whole lot; and I think the time spent reading a couple of ums and ahs and likes and I-means usually compensates the potentially shattering feeling of "why do these characters speak like machines??". But again: this depends a lot on genre and style. I suppose that, in a short story, or in a fantasy novel that's heavily focused on action, the priorities may be inverted. But in a drama, for example, this can be a fascinating literary style to read, and one I try to imitate myself (*COUGH*treasurehunt*COUGH*) with wildly varying degrees of success.

Then, in the very next sentence, she writes: "Dialogue should answer at least one of four purposes: characterization, information, moving the story forward, or contextualizing a scene."

Oh, really? Even in a gag-driven comedy, or in a surrealist work? Yeah, I guessed not. I would rather say that dialogue should answer its own purpose, whatever it is, as long as said purpose is well defined by the author and can be distinguished by the reader (again, depending on the story).

Yeah, I guess you can see I'm quite irked by these shoulds-and-should-nots when it comes to art, but it's not that I think that everything is 200% subjective and open to interpretation. They can be used as a general guideline, but any author, as they mature, realises that every "rule" can and will be broken.

[c_nordlander]

No, I think you were right to point this out. People who give writing advice have a tendency to act as if they're dispensing objective laws that must never be broken. In reality, it's probably more like a guideline that should be followed 9 times out of 10.

The late Terry Pratchett once ended a book with a literal cliffhanger. Does that make him a sucky writer? In my opinion, hell no!

[Nidotamer]

I think it's also good for little considerations one might now have thought of before. Even simple things like "Give your bully character a life outside of the protagonist". Yeah not 100% necessary everytime but it does inspire a few good ideas.