http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ Web Fiction Guide Forums » Tag: problem - Recent Topics en Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:01:56 +0000 http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/do-writers-have-societal-obligations#post-6909 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:41:48 +0000 Gavin Williams 6909@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>An interesting conversation happened in the comments on Jim Zoetewey's "Legion of Nothing" this week when someone mentioned the superhero trope "Woman in Refrigerator," which is an idea with its own website that women in comic books are frequently victimized (killed, hurt, raped) to up the stakes on storylines. Different comments on the Women in Refrigerators website (WIC from here on) and comments on JZ's actual story summarized this trend as the result of a largely white, male, heterosexual writing class wanting strong masculine heroes to have emotional reactions to damsels in distress because that's their culture.</p> <p>So, parallel to that, most comics are white hetero-normative (I think that's the phrase I want to use). There's not a lot of cultural, racial, sexual or gender diversity. There are sometimes "token" gay or racial characters. (There are also some comics that deal with diversity well - I think of X-Men, which addresses oppression, discrimination and diversity all the time).</p> <p>Anyway, what I was wondering, was where do writers here weigh in? Do we have a social responsibility to try to incorporate different voices, perspectives and cultures in our writing, or just go with what we know? Do you write to be entertaining or educate? (This isn't an either/or thing, just want to see people comment).</p> <p>Me personally, I have a lot of multi-cultural experience, but because of plots I've decided to do in my stories, I just realized that the majority of my characters are white, and they're all heterosexual (so far as I know, I haven't really asked most of my characters about their sex lives). I found it funny that a kid that had black, white, Asian, Christian, Muslim, straight, gay, agnostic friends and studied world religions grew up to write primarily white fiction. My own writing doesn't reflect my experiences and while I know my plots have a lot of planning (like in NMAI the main characters are rural Canadian white kids from the same small town, not much room for a gay kid from Hong Kong to join them) I wonder if I'm perpetuating stereotypes. Does anyone else think about stuff like this? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/switching-times-or-locations-how-to-make-it-clear#post-5081 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 08:09:22 +0000 Wilf 5081@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Hi all - I'm about to launch into a major eight-part storyline within Dead Heroes but I have a bit of a problem... The storyline is made up of three separate stories, each set at a different point in time. There's the present (i.e. the continuing main story) as well as a story from the past and one from the future.</p> <p>Each story has issues and points that complement / juxtapose with points and issues from the other stories. This necessitates quite frequent switching. While this wouldn't be so much of a problem in a visual medium such as TV, movies or comics (where you have various visual cues such as colours that can immediately differentiate which time-period you're in), I'm struggling to come up with a way to do it in a text-format.</p> <p>I know that the quality of writing should make it clear to the reader which time-period they're in but if you switch quickly, I don't know if that will be immediately clear enough. The only other idea I've had so far is to have different fonts but I thought that might look messy..? I just wondered if anyone has ever had a similar problem?</p> <p>Cheers!<br /> Wilf </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/how-to-freak-out-friends-and-influence-people#post-4576 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:53:31 +0000 Wysteria 4576@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>The point of this thread: to tell this story to some folks who might have had the same problem, at some point. </p> <p>This is going to be slightly incoherent, I think. I write this story called Tapestry, over here: <a href="http://wsteria.livejournal.com" rel="nofollow">http://wsteria.livejournal.com</a> and last night, I wrote up a segment that'd been holding me up for months. In it, the main character and her husband have a knock-down, drag-out fight. Without the knocking down or dragging out - no physical confrontation. Just a lot of shouting. </p> <p>Anyway, the problem that came up is that a friend of mine found it a mite (more than a mite) triggering. It was their break point, at which point they just didn't like the main character's husband anymore. He had Gone Too Far. It was Not On. </p> <p>I don't even disagree - he said a good many things that were absolutely horrific. It's just startling, because it didn't change my opinion of him one jot - I expected it of him, and thought that it was fine. Sev, the husband, and Suki, the narrator, live in a medieval/feudal setting where it is to be expected that they both grew up with certain expectations of what a husband and wife act like. For their time period / country / whatnot, he's progressive as all get out for never hitting her. Still, I can't use that as an excuse with someone who's viewing it from a modern standpoint - 'well, he did tell her to go die on the streets like a whore, but he didn't hit her.' That does /not/ make it all better, man. </p> <p>What makes it better, in my head, is that back when they were first married, Sev and Suki worked really hard to figure out how they were going to relate to each other, given that he wanted to rebel against the man and be decent to his wife, and she wanted to be feminine (by her standards). So they worked out, in their way, what amounts to a dominant/submissive framework. And she did not safeword out during their fight, and could have. By both their standards, all is cool (well, kinda touchy because they just had a fight, but cool). </p> <p>But on the other hand, I freaked a close friend right out with something I wrote, after being pretty happy to have started writing again after a long hiatus. That sucks pretty hard, right there. </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/how-do-you-stick-to-your-schedule#post-3078 Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:45:31 +0000 Wysteria 3078@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Sticking to a schedule is one of the things I most respect in a web author, and one of the things I'm worst about. <a href="http://wsteria.livejournal.com/">Tapestry</a> is, as of this writing, approximately nine months behind where I would like it to be. I don't even pretend to have a schedule for it aside from 'when I can find the time' but I'd really, really like one. </p> <p>So I come to y'all, to ask how you do it. How do you find the time for one update a week, three updates a week, an update a day, or however much you do update? How did you decide on your schedule to start with? What do you do when life throws you a curve ball and you get behind? </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/slowness#post-446 Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:17:07 +0000 Ryan Span 446@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>Over the last week or so I've experienced major slowdowns on the WFG site and forums. Is everything okay?</p> <p>If you guys ever need more bandwidth, my blanket offer for free hosting counts for the WFG as well, and anything else you need a home for.</p> <p>Regards,<br /> Ryan </p> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/choose-your-own-narrative#post-320 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:08:34 +0000 Drew Daniels 320@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>So, at some point I'm going to start a Choose Your Own Adventure story and I've run into the dilemma of deciding the particular style and tense. So below I have three two-paragraph segments written in different styles and/or tenses. What I'd like is WFG's help in deciding what would would be more pleasing to see in a CYOA. Also, if anyone has a suggestion for a different style or tense, I'd be more than happy to post a sample in said style. On with the samples!</p> <p>---</p> <blockquote><p> You are standing to the west of a white house. There is a mailbox here. As you walk around the outside of the house, you find that all of the windows and doors are boarded up. After finding no way in, you decide to follow a path into the surrounding woods.</p> <p>Eventually you come across a large ravine. There is a rickety bridge here, which leads all the way across. There's also a set of stairs that look a lot safer heading to the ground. Do you take the quicker path over the bridge? Or the safer path down the stairs.</p> </blockquote> <p>---<br /> <blockquote> <p>I found myself standing on the west side of a white house in front of a mailbox. After walking around the perimeter, I realized that all of the doors and windows were boarded up. Since there was no way for me to get inside, I decided to take a small path that lead into the surrounding woods.</p> <p>Eventually I ran into a large ravine. There was a rickety bridge that lead all the way across. I also noticed that there was a set of stairs leading down that looked like a much safer way of getting across. So I had to wonder, take the quick way across the bridge, or the safer way down the stairs.</p> </blockquote> ---<br /> <blockquote> <p>I'm standing on the west side of a of a white house in front of a mailbox. I realize that there's no way in as walk around. All the doors and windows are boarded up so I start down a little path that leads into the surrounding woods.</p> <p>I doesn't take long, and soon I'm at the edge of a large ravine. A rickety bridge leading across swings lazily in a breeze. I look around, noticing the set of stairs that leads to the bottom of the ravine. Now I have a choice. Move quickly across the bridge, or safely down the stairs.</p></blockquote> http://forums.webfictionguide.com/topic/so-i-wrote-a-review#post-306 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:02:49 +0000 Airship 306@http://forums.webfictionguide.com/ <p>...and forgot to give it a title :x</p> <p>I've read a lot of reviews where people said they would edit them later if something happened with an unfinished story, so I shrugged at my error, before trying to edit it. Then I found that either I'm too dumb to see it, or one can't edit the reviews at all.</p> <p>A little help would be appreciated :P</p> <p>Regards<br /> -T </p>