Fanfiction Lounge Page 390

Started by ^^NICK^^ v.2.0 September 6th, 2003 7:57 PM
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Age 36
Seen 27 Minutes Ago
Posted 3 Days Ago
That's what's funny. See, the fic is just a small moment in time. (It's one character thinking that divorce is a possible outcome in his life.) So it's just the character thinking "This could happen, this is why." And I just can't get it shorter.

Then again, it is canon fact that when this character thinks about his problems, he doesn't shut up about them. x3 (That was the longest chapter introduction I have ever read.)

Like I said, I'll keep trying, and maybe with another character. The one I write about the most though? He doesn't shut up. (But he's my woobie little baby, and I luv him.)

Then again, I'm just in a "write longer pieces" mood. My chapters for my first fic struggled to reach seven pages. My chapters now are fifteen pages on average. (Nothing will ever beat the unfinished chapter I had, which was up to thirty-one pages, and still going!)

I'm going to go stalk the AP now.

Avatar credit: Fairy
Age 40
Clearlake, CA
Seen May 25th, 2009
Posted April 24th, 2009
340 posts
18.2 Years
The key to good drabbles is compacting your ideas. Drabbles should focus around one small point in time, small emotion or small incident, and don't go into much detail with them - simplicity is the key. .
I am pretty good at drabbles since my writing seems to want to be shorter by nature :). My trouble is finding a word program that actually counts 100 words exactly. So many of them count over or under so I have to hand count just to be sure :P.

Vampiric pokémorphs and the Nurse Joy who must love them.
the depths of darkness
Seen May 6th, 2009
Posted April 24th, 2009
209 posts
15.5 Years
I use OpenOffice for all of my writing, as my computer didn't come with Word. As far as I know the word counter works fine on it, and now that it's been upgraded to 3.0 it runs a lot faster. I used to use WordPad, but OpenOffice works much better (especially because of the spellchecker).
Age 32
Finland
Seen January 27th, 2013
Posted January 28th, 2012
642 posts
14.8 Years
I really only use WordPad because it's light, it's easy to use (no useless functions that come unasked), it has all the functions I need and files in the .rtf format can be opened with virtually any program, save for NotePad. I has everything I need, so I see no reason to use Open Office. I do have it installed to my computer, though, and I sometimes write my school assingments with it.

I've never noticed anything wrong with WordPad's word count. How exactly does a program miscount the amount of words?

As a side note, the girl I told you about before *****ed to me today. I decided I don't like her after all.

I had a response to An-chan's question, but I found I couldn't answer it without swearing, and teaching you all (with the possible exception of those who are as vicious as I am) how colorful the English language can be.
I'm very interested in seeing exactly how colourful this language can be... Plz to be showing me? They don't teach us to swear in school, so it might be useful :laugh: </excuse>

Fanfiction:Mama's Boy|World Saviour Sora-chan (parody)|
One shots: The Elevator|Once in a Forest Fire|

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Negrek

Am I more than you bargained for yet?

Lurking
Seen January 13th, 2017
Posted December 5th, 2016
339 posts
17.8 Years
I've never noticed anything wrong with WordPad's word count. How exactly does a program miscount the amount of words?
Different programs count words in different ways. For example, the typing program that I used in middle school called a "word" five characters (in order to calculate WPM). As for actual word processing programs, there tend to be differences in the way that they calculate things that are hyphenated (some would count one word, some two) or divided by a virgule; for all I know, there might be some that discount words under three letters or something like that. It just depends on the algorithm the program counts with.
Age 32
Finland
Seen January 27th, 2013
Posted January 28th, 2012
642 posts
14.8 Years
Different programs count words in different ways. For example, the typing program that I used in middle school called a "word" five characters (in order to calculate WPM). As for actual word processing programs, there tend to be differences in the way that they calculate things that are hyphenated (some would count one word, some two) or divided by a virgule; for all I know, there might be some that discount words under three letters or something like that. It just depends on the algorithm the program counts with.
Huh, I didn't realize English has words with apostrophes that are in fact two separate words. Or, well, I didn't think of it, because in Finnish you can easily define one word to be something that has spaces on the both sides of it. We have no apostrophes and almost no hyphens (and when we do, it counts as a single word anyway) or anything. Now that you mentioned it, I realized it actually isn't that easy to count words with a program in English... So, thanks.

Why wouldn't words under three letters count as words? Isn't "or" a word, too..? Then again, "a" and "the" might not really classify as actual words. Ah, why is your language so difficult? *sulk*

Fanfiction:Mama's Boy|World Saviour Sora-chan (parody)|
One shots: The Elevator|Once in a Forest Fire|

I'm currently more reachable at The BBS.
You should come, too. We have cookies. No, seriously!

txteclipse

The Last

Age 32
Riverside
Seen March 23rd, 2023
Posted November 2nd, 2016
2,322 posts
15.7 Years
Huh, I didn't realize English has words with apostrophes that are in fact two separate words. Or, well, I didn't think of it, because in Finnish you can easily define one word to be something that has spaces on the both sides of it. We have no apostrophes and almost no hyphens (and when we do, it counts as a single word anyway) or anything. Now that you mentioned it, I realized it actually isn't that easy to count words with a program in English... So, thanks.

Why wouldn't words under three letters count as words? Isn't "or" a word, too..? Then again, "a" and "the" might not really classify as actual words. Ah, why is your language so difficult? *sulk*
I think words like "what's" are considered to be one word. Things like racecar are also considered one word, but they're really two words smashed together. When it comes to things with a hyphen, like "yellow-green," I would consider them two words.

The shorter things like "the" and "a" I still consider words.

Negrek

Am I more than you bargained for yet?

Lurking
Seen January 13th, 2017
Posted December 5th, 2016
339 posts
17.8 Years
Huh, I didn't realize English has words with apostrophes that are in fact two separate words. Or, well, I didn't think of it, because in Finnish you can easily define one word to be something that has spaces on the both sides of it. We have no apostrophes and almost no hyphens (and when we do, it counts as a single word anyway) or anything. Now that you mentioned it, I realized it actually isn't that easy to count words with a program in English... So, thanks.

Why wouldn't words under three letters count as words? Isn't "or" a word, too..? Then again, "a" and "the" might not really classify as actual words. Ah, why is your language so difficult? *sulk*
Well, almost all words with apostrophes are actually two or more words (contractions), but I don't think they're ever counted as two.

As for short words not counting, that would be for counts by number of letters, rather than groups of characters delineated by spaces (for example, every five letters = 1 word, so "I had a" is one word instead of three). I doubt there are any major software programs that actually work like that, outside of typing ones, but I could see where there would be a problem just going by spaces... after all, then you could end up with stuff like E. B. White. Would that register as three words, or just one proper name? Is the algorithm set to exclude single letters followed by a period, or to discount any single letter that isn't "a" or "i"? Obviously, undercounting because of short words would be far more common, so it's likely that this sort of error would be considered "acceptable," unless there were some way to get around it without writing hideous amounts of code.

Similarly, there are genuine problems with hyphenated words. For example, you could have a sentence reading, "He was ten years old" versus "He was a ten-year-old." Obviously the hyphen is only joining three individual words in this case. But what about "cul-de-sac" or "pince-nez?" Those don't stand on their own if you take the hyphen away.

So yeah. I think it's pretty interesting how programmers are able to deal with the human language; I complain as much as anyone when Word does something inane, but considering that they have to try to assess things about a language as messy with English using precise computer language, I can understand what a task it must be to come up with a word-counter or grammar-checker that provides the least error.

txteclipse

The Last

Age 32
Riverside
Seen March 23rd, 2023
Posted November 2nd, 2016
2,322 posts
15.7 Years
This lounge better get more active or I'm going to start talking to myself here.

Anyway, I've actually decided to be on-topic for once. I wrote this line in the Eon Chronicles a while back:

Darkness. It permeated everything, concealing all, revealing nothing. It was all that existed to Latios in his egg, all that he knew; and yet, it was somewhat comforting.
Someone was reading that recently, and thought that I should replace the word "permeated" with "permeates." I immediately told them "no" on account of the story being in past-tense, but then they said that darkness still does those things and therefore I should refer to it in present-tense.

Now I'm not so sure what to do. Thoughts?

JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord

Female
Harassing Bill
Seen August 19th, 2020
Posted December 8th, 2012
3,276 posts
19 Years
Someone was reading that recently, and thought that I should replace the word "permeated" with "permeates." I immediately told them "no" on account of the story being in past-tense, but then they said that darkness still does those things and therefore I should refer to it in present-tense.
The quality of darkness you're talking about -- and, in fact, that particular moment of darkness -- doesn't exist anymore. (Logically, Latios would not be able to experience the kind of darkness he saw only while he was in the egg. Unless he's got some seriously messed up fetishes.) Therefore, past tense.

As a side note, have you tried taking "and" out of that excerpt? Having two conjunctions there seems a little redundant to me, but maybe it's just me here.
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txteclipse

The Last

Age 32
Riverside
Seen March 23rd, 2023
Posted November 2nd, 2016
2,322 posts
15.7 Years
The quality of darkness you're talking about -- and, in fact, that particular moment of darkness -- doesn't exist anymore. (Logically, Latios would not be able to experience the kind of darkness he saw only while he was in the egg. Unless he's got some seriously messed up fetishes.) Therefore, past tense.

As a side note, have you tried taking "and" out of that excerpt? Having two conjunctions there seems a little redundant to me, but maybe it's just me here.
That's kinda what I was thinking, but I didn't understand exactly why. I write on instinct for the most part: I actually don't have a ton of knowledge about the English language (origins of words, syntax norms, etc.) but I can tell when something "sounds right," so to speak.

As for the second bit, you mean taking out "and" and leaving "yet?" It hasn't even crossed my mind. I always thought "and yet" was a substitute for "however" or "regardless."

JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord

Female
Harassing Bill
Seen August 19th, 2020
Posted December 8th, 2012
3,276 posts
19 Years
That's kinda what I was thinking, but I didn't understand exactly why. I write on instinct for the most part: I actually don't have a ton of knowledge about the English language (origins of words, syntax norms, etc.) but I can tell when something "sounds right," so to speak.
Fair 'nough. A lot of people do, really, hence why beta-readers have a job. So, it's completely okay to write by instinct so long as it sounds good to you (and you have a beta-reader to verify that it does [/advertising]).

As for the second bit, you mean taking out "and" and leaving "yet?"
Yep.

It hasn't even crossed my mind. I always thought "and yet" was a substitute for "however" or "regardless."
As far as I know, "yet" by itself is the substitute, so you're saying "and regardless." Only not so much that because "yet" pretty much means "nonetheless." (So... you're more saying "and nonetheless" there.)
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txteclipse

The Last

Age 32
Riverside
Seen March 23rd, 2023
Posted November 2nd, 2016
2,322 posts
15.7 Years
As far as I know, "yet" by itself is the substitute, so you're saying "and regardless." Only not so much that because "yet" pretty much means "nonetheless." (So... you're more saying "and nonetheless" there.)
Weird. I guess I'll have to fix that then. o_O
Age 36
Seen 27 Minutes Ago
Posted 3 Days Ago
Sorry about the lack of activity in this thread. I've been blehish and ugh and unable to come up with a way to turn this back into a spampit. Or, at least a way to do so without mentioning a certain red-head who reminds me of another red-head. Oh Walter. Or what he calls himself, but I don't want to say because then it would be more obvious who I'm talking about.

And I don't want that to happen.

Sorry, txteclipse about the lack o' activity. =(

so you're saying "and regardless."
IRREGARDLESS!

Teeheeheeheeheeeeeeee...

Avatar credit: Fairy
Age 34
Female
Karnac (in RL, The UK)
Seen March 14th, 2010
Posted February 8th, 2010
761 posts
14.7 Years
Oh, Walter!
Welcome to my world.

I have a question for yous:-

When you write something for the first time (slash, action, romance etc), how do you go about doing it? Do you spend a lot of time researching the subject, how other writers handle it, or do you just dive right in and give it a go?




Friend Code

A Darker Day

Team Destiny



Theme

Age 36
Seen 27 Minutes Ago
Posted 3 Days Ago
Welcome to my world.
He's going to be the death of my hard drive. Every time I see a picture of him, I just have to save it. But not his actor, nor of Rorschach. It has to be movie version.

It's a weakness I have for red-headed, blue eyed, wounded men. XD

There is nothing wrong with it either.[/truth]

I have a question for yous:-

When you write something for the first time (slash, action, romance etc), how do you go about doing it? Do you spend a lot of time researching the subject, how other writers handle it, or do you just dive right in and give it a go?
Depends on what it is. For instance, when I started writing slash, I just leaped (that just sounds wrong =x) right in and wrote my first story. I never did much research on it, just reading various other slash fics and continuing to write my own. Over time, I got better at them. And watch gay porn. >3

On the flip side, for my fic that takes place in Japan, I've done, and am still doing, research on the Japanese culture and language, and the city the story takes place in, plus whatever else I may need. It takes a long time to actually write this fic, because I want to make sure that it's all correct, so I'm always double-checking myself.

So for me, it depends on the subject.

Avatar credit: Fairy
Age 34
Female
Karnac (in RL, The UK)
Seen March 14th, 2010
Posted February 8th, 2010
761 posts
14.7 Years
He's going to be the death of my hard drive. Every time I see a picture of him, I just have to save it. But not his actor, nor of Rorschach. It has to be movie version.

It's a weakness I have for red-headed, blue eyed, wounded men. XD

There is nothing wrong with it either.[/truth]
I have the exact same problem, except with Ozymandias. Though I'd take Matthew Goode pictures just as much as Adrian/Ozy pictures.




Friend Code

A Darker Day

Team Destiny



Theme

Female
i iz ina mufin
Seen March 31st, 2013
Posted March 19th, 2012
1,748 posts
14.5 Years
Kind of random question, but...
What kind of technology do you think that they'd have in the 1800's? Around the time where there would be trains but (probably) no electricity? Or do you think they would have electricity at that point?
*is confused*
Everyone has an inner Magikarp. The sooner yours dies, the better.



JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord

Female
Harassing Bill
Seen August 19th, 2020
Posted December 8th, 2012
3,276 posts
19 Years
When you write something for the first time (slash, action, romance etc), how do you go about doing it? Do you spend a lot of time researching the subject, how other writers handle it, or do you just dive right in and give it a go?
Also depends. Usually, I spend a lot of time playing with the idea, researching stuff if I need to know something for the sake of realism (or because it's science-fiction), and studying how other authors do it. But if I have an idea of what I'm doing already and don't need that extra research, I dive in.

What kind of technology do you think that they'd have in the 1800's? Around the time where there would be trains but (probably) no electricity? Or do you think they would have electricity at that point?
If you're thinking an American-esque or European-esque setting (i.e., you're taking the Pokémon world and transplanting it into 1800's Europe or US), then you're probably looking at the early nineteenth century. Steam-powered trains became a mainstream mode of transportation around 1820 to 1830, and the telegraph (the mode of communication most associated with trains -- which, yes, uses electricity) came shortly thereafter. At the exact same time as the opening of the first steam-powered passenger train line, however, scientists were already experimenting with electricity to the point that an electric motor was actually invented in the 1820's (by Michael Faraday), although I'm not entirely sure if this was actually used outside the laboratory.

For the most part, in the early 1800's of American history, you're talking about very limited electrical technology. (At least, compared to the late 1800's, where electricity became so much of a marvel that people started using it everywhere as a sort of side-show attraction.) For the home, that means manual power, and for certain larger machines, you might have steam. But even then, that depends on where in the US you're looking at. In rural areas (that includes the western frontier), larger machines aside from maybe trains were a bit of a marvel for obvious reasons. In cities... probably not so much.

My advice to you, though, is to look up the kinds of devices you're trying to use or the kinds you don't think exist via Google before saying outright they do or don't. You'll be surprised by how much history about anything has been recorded on the internet, and you'll probably be even more surprised by what was actually invented and in mainstream use early on.
Professional ninja. May or may not actually be back. Here for the snark and banter at most.

Need some light reading?
Anima Ex Machina (Chapter 20 now available)
The Leaf Green Incident (SWC 2012 winner)
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Bay

She/They
Dani California
Seen 7 Hours Ago
Posted 8 Hours Ago
6,347 posts
17 Years
When you write something for the first time (slash, action, romance etc), how do you go about doing it? Do you spend a lot of time researching the subject, how other writers handle it, or do you just dive right in and give it a go?
I would usually check out how other writers do it and do a bit of research. For NE, I watched the news on some police cases and also would ask my dad a lot about the police process. Heck, I even ask him how serve some injuries can be since I had planned for some characters to get hurt.
Miles Edgeworth
Foul Play [On Hiatus]

txteclipse

The Last

Age 32
Riverside
Seen March 23rd, 2023
Posted November 2nd, 2016
2,322 posts
15.7 Years
Speaking of technology, I'd like to ask your opinions about a certain thing I'm thinking of doing in the Eon Chronicles.

Spoiler:
The story takes place in medieval times in the pokémon world, but I'm thinking of putting in some things that didn't exist back then tech-wise. I figure that electric and fire pokémon would be able to power machines running off of their respective elements, so things would develop a lot faster in the pokémon realm than ours. It wouldn't be ridiculous stuff like cell phones: I was thinking of including this hidden city that has crude elevators and maybe something like a telegraph system, along with a couple of security devices or something. Very primitive stuff that wouldn't be to hard to come up with if you had a ready source of electricity. I may also do some primitive steam engines or whatnot, but I'm not really sure I want or need that.

Does this sound at all plausible, or does it seem too much like a forced merging of two time periods?

Venia Silente

Inspectious. Good for napping.

Male
on the second floor's nest
Seen 1 Day Ago
Posted 2 Days Ago
1,177 posts
14.6 Years
When you write something for the first time (slash, action, romance etc), how do you go about doing it? Do you spend a lot of time researching the subject, how other writers handle it, or do you just dive right in and give it a go?
I spend some time researching. Maybe too much. Depending on how close I am to the experience (like, zero in romance or +inf in suspense), I then try to give it a try hands-on, without thinking it too much, simply letting my writing be.

Then I shun myself and begin to rewrite stuff... :D

As for txteclipse's question...

Merging time periods is usually fine when one does their homework and tries to preserve the "naturality" of the chronological period after all. That's the entire base of steampunk. With regards to electricity, anything that has do to with Direct Current is something that could have been come up with, had the storage technology been available before. In the case of the Pokémon world, this "technology" is simply available in a different manner. As long as the people of that world did the adequate research, it should be fine. I do not see any problem with telegraph systems, speaker/megaphone systems, nor with conductive surfaces for house heating if you get to need that.

Just take into consideration how much "expensive", and therefore how easily available to the common folk, would that impmementation of technology be. Not only in regards of the number of Pokémon you'll need to feed an intercity emergency telegraph system (to put something up), but also wheteher your world's Pokémon and PETA-equivalent would allow for them to be used this way.

The idea of security devices sounds interesting... what things are you thinking of?
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txteclipse

The Last

Age 32
Riverside
Seen March 23rd, 2023
Posted November 2nd, 2016
2,322 posts
15.7 Years
Just take into consideration how much "expensive", and therefore how easily available to the common folk, would that impmementation of technology be. Not only in regards of the number of Pokémon you'll need to feed an intercity emergency telegraph system (to put something up), but also wheteher your world's Pokémon and PETA-equivalent would allow for them to be used this way.

The idea of security devices sounds interesting... what things are you thinking of?
Spoiler:
Well, the idea is that this city is very secluded (underground, for that matter), and very secretive. Almost everyone has an electric-type pokemon, which allows them to maneuver throughout the city (get on an elevator, your pokémon charges it up for you). It's similar to the way China isolated itself before it began to trade with Europe: there's a lot of technology there that is not found elsewhere, and vice-versa.

In terms of city-wide electricity needs, I'm planning on the lord of the city having a Zapdos or something equivalent that can power lots of things at once for short periods of time.

Traps will probably be things like electrified wires strung across key areas and explosives triggered by electric charges, but I haven't really developed that part yet. The weapon of choice for the locals might be electrified blades and/or some form of primitive drill, and I may have incredibly primitive vehicles of some kind that use DC motors (we're talking mine carts and the like here).
Age 27
Male
Seen August 19th, 2020
Posted August 12th, 2017
2,535 posts
15.5 Years
If your fanfiction would become a series or movie, would you change something?

Just made the topic up. For me, I'd dump mostly everything, except Neo, Sarina, most of the other characters, and other areas that I made. I'd add in a soundtrack from Pokemon, Mario, and Tales of Symphonia. Also, I'd give them all weapons like swords.
I've been on this forum for about 10 years now. You guys wanna see a rare badge? I got some rare badges.