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Post by The Scrac that Smiles Back on Mar 31, 2013 22:37:46 GMT -5
Yeah, it seems to be hard to come up with something truly original. IMO the trick is more to come up with a number of unoriginal things and put them in an original combination, or at least have the storytelling skills to make up for the rest. Makes me wonder if there is anything I can do that hasn't been done before :c
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Post by Gelquie on Mar 31, 2013 22:48:59 GMT -5
Yeah, it seems to be hard to come up with something truly original. IMO the trick is more to come up with a number of unoriginal things and put them in an original combination, or at least have the storytelling skills to make up for the rest. Makes me wonder if there is anything I can do that hasn't been done before :c It's very likely that most things people have come up with have been done before, if you think of it purely in concepts, although especially if you consider how long humans have been around writing things. But you also have to consider the narrative, dialogue, characters, etc. It's a good guideline to try not to have too many cliches (unless you're intentionally making fun of them), but it may not always be possible. I think what matters more is the quality of the writing. One thing I like to do is take some enormous cliches and try to find ways to tweak them and write them in a way that they're still interesting. For instance: "A princess is captured by a dragon! The prince goes off to save his true love!" It can still be interesting if you throw little twists in it. Like what if the dragon is the good guy and the prince is the bad guy? What if the princess and dragon are long-time friends and the dragon just saved the princess from a horrible situation? Things like that. Heck, the story that Starla comes from is full of massive cliches. I was worried about the sheer amount of cliches for a while before I just decided to work with what I have.
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Post by The Scrac that Smiles Back on Mar 31, 2013 22:57:25 GMT -5
Makes me wonder if there is anything I can do that hasn't been done before :c It's very likely that most things people have come up with have been done before, if you think of it purely in concepts, although especially if you consider how long humans have been around writing things. But you also have to consider the narrative, dialogue, characters, etc. It's a good guideline to try not to have too many cliches (unless you're intentionally making fun of them), but it may not always be possible. I think what matters more is the quality of the writing. One thing I like to do is take some enormous cliches and try to find ways to tweak them and write them in a way that they're still interesting. For instance: "A princess is captured by a dragon! The prince goes off to save his true love!" It can still be interesting if you throw little twists in it. Like what if the dragon is the good guy and the prince is the bad guy? What if the princess and dragon are long-time friends and the dragon just saved the princess from a horrible situation? Things like that. Heck, the story that Starla comes from is full of massive cliches. I was worried about the sheer amount of cliches for a while before I just decided to work with what I have. And aren't there only like, 7 possible plots in literature?
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Post by PFA on Mar 31, 2013 22:59:38 GMT -5
It's very likely that most things people have come up with have been done before, if you think of it purely in concepts, although especially if you consider how long humans have been around writing things. But you also have to consider the narrative, dialogue, characters, etc. It's a good guideline to try not to have too many cliches (unless you're intentionally making fun of them), but it may not always be possible. I think what matters more is the quality of the writing. One thing I like to do is take some enormous cliches and try to find ways to tweak them and write them in a way that they're still interesting. For instance: "A princess is captured by a dragon! The prince goes off to save his true love!" It can still be interesting if you throw little twists in it. Like what if the dragon is the good guy and the prince is the bad guy? What if the princess and dragon are long-time friends and the dragon just saved the princess from a horrible situation? Things like that. Heck, the story that Starla comes from is full of massive cliches. I was worried about the sheer amount of cliches for a while before I just decided to work with what I have. And aren't there only like, 7 possible plots in literature? I don't know about that, maybe if you simplified the plot down to the barest of bones ?_?
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Post by The Scrac that Smiles Back on Mar 31, 2013 23:45:29 GMT -5
And aren't there only like, 7 possible plots in literature? I don't know about that, maybe if you simplified the plot down to the barest of bones ?_? [wo]man vs. nature [wo]man vs. [wo]man [wo]man vs. the environment [wo]man vs. machines/technology [wo]man vs. the supernatural [wo]man vs. self [wo]man vs. god/religion
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Post by Omni on Mar 31, 2013 23:56:18 GMT -5
I don't know about that, maybe if you simplified the plot down to the barest of bones ?_? [wo]man vs. nature [wo]man vs. [wo]man [wo]man vs. the environment [wo]man vs. machines/technology [wo]man vs. the supernatural [wo]man vs. self [wo]man vs. god/religion Not really. There are a number of stories out there that don't use a 'vs.' theme, and not necessarily kids' stories, either. This is setting aside the fact that there are also stories that technically don't involve man (though granted, you can generally substitute 'man' with the species primarily focussed on).
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Post by PFA on Apr 1, 2013 0:01:44 GMT -5
I don't know about that, maybe if you simplified the plot down to the barest of bones ?_? [wo]man vs. nature [wo]man vs. [wo]man [wo]man vs. the environment [wo]man vs. machines/technology [wo]man vs. the supernatural [wo]man vs. self [wo]man vs. god/religion ...maybe if you get reeeeaaally out there about things like "[wo]man vs. self"
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Post by The Scrac that Smiles Back on Apr 1, 2013 0:05:27 GMT -5
[wo]man vs. nature [wo]man vs. [wo]man [wo]man vs. the environment [wo]man vs. machines/technology [wo]man vs. the supernatural [wo]man vs. self [wo]man vs. god/religion Not really. There are a number of stories out there that don't use a 'vs.' theme, and not necessarily kids' stories, either. This is setting aside the fact that there are also stories that technically don't involve man (though granted, you can generally substitute 'man' with the species primarily focussed on). All the stories I can think of involve some sort of conflict. Which ones are you thinking of?
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Post by PFA on Apr 1, 2013 0:11:05 GMT -5
Not really. There are a number of stories out there that don't use a 'vs.' theme, and not necessarily kids' stories, either. This is setting aside the fact that there are also stories that technically don't involve man (though granted, you can generally substitute 'man' with the species primarily focussed on). All the stories I can think of involve some sort of conflict. Which ones are you thinking of? It's pretty much required for a story to have conflict, but there's a very broad spectrum of what is considered "conflict," so it depends how technical you want to get. XD;
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Post by Omni on Apr 1, 2013 0:19:09 GMT -5
Not really. There are a number of stories out there that don't use a 'vs.' theme, and not necessarily kids' stories, either. This is setting aside the fact that there are also stories that technically don't involve man (though granted, you can generally substitute 'man' with the species primarily focussed on). All the stories I can think of involve some sort of conflict. Which ones are you thinking of? Maybe, but 'conflict' doesn't necessarily equal 'something vs. something.' - The Mirror Lied - I suppose you could say there's a bit of 'vs.' conflict near the end, but... well, it's hard to explain. You'd pretty much need to play it (or see a play-through on YouTube) to be able to see what I mean.
- To The Moon (by the same person who made The Mirror Lied) - Technically a couple of the characters argue a lot, and there is a point or two with sort of a loose/almost-'vs.' but they do not effect the main plot and are mostly there for comedy purposes. As for the main plot, you'd really have to stretch your definition of 'vs.'
- It's also hard to pin a 'vs.' on the Kokoro story.
Those are just the ones off the top of my head. I could probably find other, better examples if I looked. I'd also like to note that sometimes a conflict is one-sided (directed toward something which doesn't give conflict in return), which I don't believe counts as a 'vs.' Anyway, I'm heading to bed. Night!
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Post by PFA on Apr 1, 2013 12:41:42 GMT -5
oh yeah, it's new Taco time, isn't it *goes to make one, if that's alright with all y'all*
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Post by Gelquie on Apr 2, 2013 15:36:38 GMT -5
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