Fanfiction Lounge

I'm so random... I'm in this 'ere Fanfiction Lounge, writing this random-as post to say that nearly all my posts have been posted in here and that I feel so ashamed that my fics are so unfinished that they never end up getting posted and trail off like so...
My head is foggy and I should probably wait until morning to post all this. But by then I will have decided that it's crap and should not see daylight (or LED for that matter).

On another note, I first started writing stories at the age of five. An example?
"person went fishing anp fall off" scrawled into the first page of my old exercise book. In blue/green crayon. Yep, that was it. I recall that this person was on a wharf in Raglan Harbour, but I don't remember any more than that.
The most writing that I'd done before English was to make feasible backstories for my Lego Star Wars creations to be able to fit into that universe... I still write them.
Last year in English we were told to write a Quest Narrative, or Hero Journey. It had to conform to 12 steps, which I will not list here. It had to be at least 650 words long.
I, unlike my fellow students, turned in a 23-page masterpiece that had taken me most of the holidays about two planets named North and South and something about how George Bush's distant descendants tried to steal them from us Kiwis.
I'd just finished writing a parody of "Jingle Bells" on the Junta in Burma and the fact that they demolished my Nana's old house and another (also of Jingle Bells) which outlined how Aphrodite was born.
I lost them both, which is probably a good thing.

I am now going to completely insult my intelligence by asking a random question:

Do you punctuate with/around/beside/above/after smileys? Is it grammatically correct to do so?

*Sticks "Kick me" sign on SD*

So what are the strangest substitutions for a punctuation you have seen or used yourself?
Well, it's not really strange but I think I've seen this before.

<Hmmm, what should I do next?> thought anonymous.

Do you punctuate with/around/beside/above/after smileys? Is it grammatically correct to do so?
I don't think smileys are grammatically correct to begin with but sometimes I punctuate them. Sometimes. XD

Sparkling Dragon said:

And Mixan, I didn't know that.

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I think my name was Mizan last time I checked. But if you were going for the phonetic pronunciation, I think Mixan would sound just the same as Mizan. XD. <-- Hey look, punctuation after 'XD'

So what are the strangest substitutions for a punctuation you have seen or used yourself?

I use the |vertical lineamabobs| for Pokémon speech in human-priority roleplaying - I didn't have to in Metal Coat because the main characters understood what they were saying (it's a long story and no, it doesn't involve complex translation machinery or learning it in school).

Redstar said:

I wasn't talking about essays or papers. I was talking about casual conversations. (Though I can understand your confusion; I consider my casual conversations writing and label them fiction or non-fiction accordingly)

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Chat conversations aren't writing in the same sense, though. That's like saying every post you've ever made on a forum is comparable to a short story.

That being said...

So what are the strangest substitutions for a punctuation you have seen or used yourself?

In one of my earlier chaptered fanfics, I use { and } to indicate Pokémon speech. As for what other people have done, I've seen the quotation marks Sparky mentioned. I've always wondered why that happened.

Do you punctuate with/around/beside/above/after smileys? Is it grammatically correct to do so?

After. I don't consider it part of the sentence, personally. Either way, though, I'm not sure if smileys themselves can be considered grammatically correct any way you look at them. I mean, technically, you're abusing punctuation and certain characters in order to get a certain effect.

So, yeah. Anything goes, I'd say.


Also, Shrike! *tackle-glomps* Hello, dear. I'm sorry to hear that you were stressed out and that you were feeling insignificant. If it makes you feel at all better, we all have those moments. Personally, though, it's an unfortunate truth in this fandom that popularity doesn't always mean quality anyway (Because how else could Pokémon MASTER be so well-known?), so if you're not popular, that doesn't always mean you don't know what you're doing.

But in any case, it's good to hear you're setting goals for yourself. Good luck on it and stick with it. It's a good way to get back into the groove of things.

Sorry, Mizan. x and z are right next to each other on the keyboard, so. As for Pich_u's question, I vary. Sometimes I punctuate before, sometimes after, sometimes both, sometimes neither. I'm fickle. And I don't think I'll need Pokemon speech in Shattered. They hardly play a big enough part to have a speaking role! XD XD XD

So what are the strangest substitutions for a punctuation you have seen or used yourself?
When writing by hand, I used slash marks to indicate when there's a written message in the story being read silently. But when typed, that becomes italics. I don't underline it originally because I underline while hand-writing for emphasis, which then also gets turned to italics when typed.

Shrike, I also commend you for your promise to write everyday. It's one that I picked up myself recently, and so far, it's been working quite well.

So what are the strangest substitutions for a punctuation you have seen or used yourself?
I've never used unorthodox punctuation. Hell, even my very first Pokémon fanfic, which got just about everything else hilariously wrong, managed to punctuate quotes correctly (you know, "Something," he said). People have numerous times suggested to me that I ought to be using <> or something instead of quotation marks for Pokémon speech, however.

I remember seeing a fanfic by some Swedish guy who tried to punctuate dialogue like this:

--Something, he said.
--Really? she replied. That's weird.
--Yeah.

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Which is a perfectly legitimate way to punctuate speech in some languages (though I've always disliked it), but looks decidedly odd in English.

Do you punctuate with/around/beside/above/after smileys? Is it grammatically correct to do so?
As far as I'm concerned, smilies are usually images and the fact the images happen to be made with text is irrelevant. You don't punctuate images; thus you don't punctuate smilies. Additionally, they are not part of the sentence that precedes them, and therefore should not be used before a punctuation mark to close that sentence. Thus:

Sentence! XD is valid
Sentence XD! is not
Sentence! XD! is not

Occasionally a smilie may be used alone instead of a sentence and have a question mark or exclamation mark attached to it for their semantic significance:

:D! is valid
:D? is valid
:D. is not
Sentence :D! is, again, not

-In Spanish, we punctuate quotes like this,- said Pedro.
"I always thought that was weird," said Bob.

Sparkling Dragon said:

Sorry, Mizan. x and z are right next to each other on the keyboard, so. As for Pich_u's question, I vary. Sometimes I punctuate before, sometimes after, sometimes both, sometimes neither. I'm fickle. And I don't think I'll need Pokemon speech in Shattered. They hardly play a big enough part to have a speaking role! XD XD XD

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It's fine, I noticed that too by the way. Just after I posted. Lulz
Pokemon speech does come into play somewhere in TCNG though.

Okay, new question...
What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?

EDIT:Hey look, 300th post. (Yeaa, I know it's low in comparison to you guys but still...)

The 300 said:

THIS IS SPARTA!

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What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?

I come here and lurk around PFF&P. No, really, I do. Seeing other people's work helps me!

So what are the strangest substitutions for a punctuation you have seen or used yourself?

Actually saw this via Alter. Apparently overseas, some people have a punctuation for 'single quote' sorts of things that is neither " . " or ' . ' if that makes sense. XD; Apparently it's all slanted and stuff and it's on European keyboards [friend in Norway has one too] but not ours. XD; It's very strange to me so I think it counts for this clause...? Not altogether sure. o3o

Edit: D: I fail so hardcore nyaaaa

What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?

I read books, I read my old fiction novels or I read fanfiction or I read nonfiction. And I play music. Or I play a video game or watch a movie. For me, I need either music to get the wheels going or a decent storyline to oil the wheels to get them started to then subsequently keep them going. :3 AND STUFF.

What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?
I have many methods. I re-read the chapter I'm writing or brainstorm in exact detail at what I'm going to write. Sometimes, I'll go to the NaNoWriMo forums to be inspired, but usually, I'll just give up on writing for the time being and try again a few hours later.

Thanks for the support guys. So far I've managed to keep up with writing both yesterday and today, and don't feel like stopping soon. My goal is to get TFC chapter 5 out before I go back to school next Tuesday, and if I do manage to write everyday then I just may be able to do that. I've got the first scene done now in three and a half pages, with at least two more scenes being needed. Problem is that one of those scenes has a battle in it, which I tend to hate writing. And then the next chapter will likely have another battle. ;_;

*Still has nightmares about the 25 page gym battle he wrote in the old version.*

So what are the strangest substitutions for a punctuation you have seen or used yourself?
Inherited from my love for Animorphs, I still use < and > in some contexts. In TFCv2, they're used for my new chat format where they surround the message. In TRINITY they're used for wireless neural communications, which is notable as being Havoc's primary mode of speech due to personal preferences.

I'm considering perhaps using < and > for Pokemon speech in TFCv2 after Shrike gets the translator from Zack. (Don't worry people, that is a spoiler but it's so minor it's nothing to worry about. It'll likely happen in chapter 6 or 7 anyway, so it's not far off.) However, the translator means that he can hear Pokemon speech naturally just like anything else and retaining normal quotes would be consistent with TRINITY since the translators function the same between them. In most stories where Pokemon speech has special quotes, I'm guessing it's so the reader understands that the humans can't actually understand that dialogue which is not the case in TFC.

Do you punctuate with/around/beside/above/after smileys? Is it grammatically correct to do so?
Whatever I feel like at the time, since I never use them in fics and that's the only place I'm anal about my grammar. I swear I remember Astinus or someone telling me that they go after the sentence, outside its punctuation and everything though which does make sense...

Valentine said:

That's like saying every post you've ever made on a forum is comparable to a short story.

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Some of mine are long enough they might as well be <_<

And if you'll notice I have already used two different placements of smilies in this post so far. At the beginning it went after the punctuation, and just now I did the completely incorrect thing of replacing the punctuation with the smilie. Don't hurt me, people! I was just, uh, making an example. To show the incorrect usage. Yeah.

Valentine said:

Because how else could Pokémon MASTER be so well-known?

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The same way Twilight is so loved: the mass public just eats that crap up. Sad, and sickening...

Goddamn you guys ninja'D me bad there. A whole new question and even answers to it?! Fine, I'll respond to it...

What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?
I sit around, bored, hating myself and staring at the document as I wonder what to write. After a while I give up and close the document, but by that point I'm so bored I can't even think of anything else to do. I'll then waste away hours doing little more than staring at my desktop and madly clicking between bookmarks wondering why people don't post things every fraction of a second.

What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?

Music. Music, music, music. I will run around YouTube or iTunes, finding a cool song that might somehow help me. Or, another method: think about what is about to happen next in the story. Just thinking all of it over again is sometimes motivating enough to get someone back to where they should probably be at the time: in front of a word processor, typing their fingers off. |3

What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?

Like Giratina of Never-Turn-Back, I listen to music. Though, I don't randomly scroll around right off the bat. I'll either search for a playlist, or search an artist on YouTube and just keep clicking links that will have a song by whatever artist I chose. After a little while of that, ideas begin to pop into my head. I keep the music going while I write, too. Makes me more aware.

Another method I do is take a little break, usually two-three days. Of course I listen to music while I do this, seeing as I spend most of the day listening to music. So, it's not much different :p

I'm going to go so crazy during school. I won't have music for six solid hours ;_;

What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?
I find a short story and read it. If it doesn't inspire me, I find a different one. XP

What do you do when/if you get writer's block. How would you generate new ideas?
I used to stop writing completely and sit around waiting for the story to come back to me. This lead to many weeks of me sitting around reading all sorts of random things on the Internet.

What I do now is keep several projects in the works, depending on what fandom I'm writing in. For instance, right now I'm focusing on my Digimon works. I have Long Twilight Struggle as my main project, its possible sequel as a small plan forming in my head that I'm starting to do research for, and then there's a Frontier fic that I'm rewriting from scratch because I was stupid and threw out all 300 pages of it.

So when I get stuck in one project, I have another to keep me busy and to keep the idea of writing constant. This way, I don't worry about one particular project or stop writing completely.

Y-you wrote a 300-page fic? And then threw it all out? Ohhhhhh . . . . . .

EDIT: There's now an ad at the bottom of the page for free grammar correction. I just find that odd . . .

Yowza. >_o; I'd feel terrible at throwing out my 76 page fic. I couldn't imagine losing 300. >_<

76? >:0 What size and font are you writing in, dude? I'm in size 11 Arial and I've only done 40 pages. I know you've done more than me, but not that much more, surely?