questions for authors+ writing+ aff

hello friends

 many of you know of my fic, definition of blind, and even if you dont whatever hi

well my coauthor tillynilly and i talk about lots of things most often not related to writing but sometimes we do

ok where was i going with this

 

uhh i have a few questions for you guys (i bolded them incase tl;dr)

i was musing, and started wondering where exo authors came from.  you know, those authors who only write exo, but are amazing at doing it. like where were you before exo who did you like why didnt you write fics right

 

and also, ive not really been in a slump with my writing, but more of an uncertain state.  dob is my baby, and i want it to be as good as i can make it.  i dont know why i tried to make it amazing the first time i tried writing it.  i was obviously inexperienced at writing.  i still am.  anyway, i started reading more published books in my genre (action/drama) and i found out something.  the ancient proverb, show dont tell, isn't really all what people make it out to be.  the books im rereading are the lunar chronicles, battle royale, heroes of olympus, alex rider, percy jackson, those things you know, and while there is very little telling, not much is showing either.

brought it to tillynilly who said show dont tell is overrated.  

and i agree.  it depends on the genre you're writing.  if you're writing angst or fluff, and it's a oneshot or short story, you want to show a lot and be detailed.  like if it was an emotion-centric story.  however, if you're writing a plot driven story with lots of adventure and action, you might want to skimp out on the details and get to the important things.  description will usually just bog down the point you're trying to get across.  try to say everything in as little words as possible.

this is one mistake i made with dob.  i put in far too much description.  i tried to make it an emotion-driven/based story when instead it's a pure plot story.  sure, emotions and characters are very important, but i just dragged on and on and ew

what do you think?  or do you think that all authors should show not tell?

my goal is to find that perfect balance between storytelling, humor, drama, action, and romance. you get? like percy jackson.  riordan is good at writing basically all of that. like the humor part especially.  but then he can make it serious again.  and i need to learn how.

 

another question: i have been trying to find action stories on aff as to maybe reference.  but all the ones ive seen are supernatural or fantasy or gangs.  is there anything that's just action/drama and maybe scifi? if you have any recs please comment

 

also, do you guys have the gold badge on your profile page, or is it only people who bought karma or donated to the site before? because i havent bought any after the fundraiser started, but i did before.  did that count or does everyone have it?

 

 

 and in other news, ive been realerted to the grungier things in aff.  like karma harvesters.  the recently advertised and current featured fic, the sirens cry, is  good.  funny bc i started reading it a day before it was advertised.  anyway, its author, thecafewriter, and kpoppunks as well handles karma harvesters the right way.

 

-i checked and yeah, all the accounts were made on january 10th.  so obvious geez

so if you see a string of comments like

 

 

be fricking direct about it.  dont let it go or anything.  confront them.  

 

---

alright.  so i happened upon a case of plagarism this week.  i am not going to lie, im the one who reported so much closer, a recent myungjong fanfic.  the author was and is notably upset. however, it seems to me that she is unaware of what plagarism actually is.  i cant say it's her fault because she had a flawed view.  im not going to apoligize for reporting.  plagarism is plagarism, whether you're aware of it or not.

i dont hold anything personal against this author, although the way she said she wouldnt update if there weren't comments was a bit iffy.  that combined with the fact that she copied the book anyways :/

what she did was copy exact chapters from the book (i checked) but with her own little insertations here and there.  well and yeah she changed the names and pronouns duh.

she made a blog post about it and said 

"

Ok, I realize that it's my fault because some of the chapters, I'm copying all the words from the book. I think if I put and changes some few words, it's already enough and can be accepted but I never knew that I need to changes many things to satisfy everyone becausesome authors; they also wrote their story based on movies, drama, books and they just changed the main characs only but why aff didn't banned their story? Whatever I says right now won't changed anything aite? It's already happened.

"
you totally can base your fic off an existing book or movie.  however, you cant copy words.  you also might wanna twist up the plot a little to make it your own.  before, i mentioned the lunar chronicles, a perfect example. marrisa meyer, the author of this series, based all 4 of her books off fairy tales like snow white, cinderella, the little red riding hood, and rapunzel. but- she did a spin off.  instead of just changing the names and writing the story as is, she made her own characters that held a parallelism to the original story.  like cinder, the main character of the first book, was a mechanic with two sisters and an evil mother.  she had an android foot, along with other parts of her body. she meets a prince called kai (exo fans read this book you would love it) and gets invited to a ball she cant go to.  scarlet, the second book, is based off little red riding hood.  the main character has a grandmother and meets a boy called wolf.
 
you get the jist.

 

speaking of doing spin offs, for myungjong/infinite fans, im writing a new fic based off aladdin for a contest.  it's a modern/darker twist set in nyc, and it's going to be very fun.  should be out in a few weeks.

 

ok

please answer my questions if you have comments guys 

 

anyways talk to me

 

 

 

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thecafewriter #1
I realize this was posted a while ago, but here I am...answering questions :) anyways: (1) I was a ravenous reader, and still am. Started writing Percy Jackson fics when I was 13 or 14, was nominated for the Veritas Award (PJatO fanfic award thingy) for best Nico/OC, then I switched to original stories and writing plays for a while, then got into SHINee fics, and now EXO. Trying to switch back to original stories, too XD (2) the "show vs. tell" rule doesn't necessarily count when you're talking about writing action sequences. It mostly applies to sections of writing that deal with description. For example, writing about a character who is poor, or has a cold. It's much more fun to read about the conditions of his poverty or descriptions of the symptoms of his cold rather than simply reading "Halifax Wordsworth is poor, and he has a cold". So, you're right, it probably would have less importance in an action-packed, fast-paced story. But it shouldn't be completely neglected, either. The point of fiction writing is to get the readers to see your story unfold the way it unfolds in your imagination. If the story is fast and riveting and ain't nobody got time for showing, then by all means, go TELL instead. Ya feel? (3) I don't know of any good action fics, sorry :/ and tbh, action and action sequences are my weakest point in terms of writing. I admire writers who can write action sequences well; my action writing always ends up sounding like "This guy...hit the other guy. And it hurt." My advice would be to just find action-y books and emulate the styles of those writers. If you haven't read Alison Goodman's "Eon" series, I dare say you ought to give it a try. (4) I think you get the gold badge by donating to the site. (5) On Plagiarism: it's hard to write anything truly original nowadays, but I agree that copying someone's work word-for-word is inexcusable plagiarism.
dream_keeper88 #2
I just stumbled upon your post and let's see if I remember everything to give you an appropriate response:
1. I have been here since September 26, 2010 and I write Donghae-centered fics. Mostly. But I also write other groups/artists: Jaejoong, Thunder, G-Dragon, Kikwang, Kwangmin and Youngmin, Minho, etc. My first EXO fic was written on April 2012.
2. I believe in balance. You don't have to show everything, esp scenes that are irrelevant to plot development. Like you won't show in detail your morning routine unless you are showing that your character is obsessive compulsive or you want to establish your character's habits or routines. Likewise, you don't tell an action scene. You show and tell. Choose which scenes are important because you don't want to bore your readers with 1000 words about the bathroom.
3. Sci-fi has action and drama. I am sure there are sci-fis here.
4. If you bought karma before, you get a gold badge. If you donated for the aff mobile app fundraiser (buy gold), you get three badges.
5. Ah! Simply: if you didn't come up with the idea, don't touch it. If you want to touch it, make sure you take only less than 10% of the idea and transform it so that readers will be able to distinguish your story from the inspiration. To be safe, add "inspired by" or "inspired from". But adding those phrases don't get you off the hook if you plagiarized. Merely changing some things here and there is not how to do it.
LollipopFille #3
Hey so I saw this blog late at night but I happen to commenting now... I am not a keen writer myself so it's kind of hard to understand the authors feelings... But to some extent I do realize your concern. You are not alone on the constant dilemma of showing or telling! But I totally agree that it depends on the genre of the story... From my perspective action should have a good balance of show and tell... It shouldn't be too show that it involves skimming through the paragraphs. There aren't many fanfics on AFF that are action related, so I am not sure of a good format that can be emulated. There is that supernatural fanfic called Revolution... It was that turned me off but I liked the premises and the well written action bits were worth reading for. Other than that I think the fanfiction you desire to write— a good mix and balance of emotions— I would recommend emulating The Mortal Instruments (because it has the right balance of everything) and perhaps the Darren Shan series? That it probably the only good action/sci-fi books that I read or so I remember... You should try reading "The Arena" if you ever have some time as well. It is a short story with a mix of action and science fiction, and I hope it could inspire you a bit with how you want to write.

Well I hope you a good luck and that you find a comfortable writing style!
annawhimsy #4
I think that for action fics telling is necessary... However, in places where there's less action, showing can be pretty freaking awesome. There was this one fic called When the Hour Hand is Up by kyu5671 that does a really good job at showing instead of telling.
swabluu #5
hmm i used to be in the super junior fandom and i wrote a lot for them but then i wrote one exo oneshot for my friend bc she liked kris and then things just went downhill from there and i've never gotten back from writing about exo 24/7 LOL

i think authors should show, not tell! you can show character and emotions without telling either, and i think that sort of writing is the best because instead of saying "he was angry" i get to read "his face heated up, and something seemed to curl up in his stomach and snake up into his throat" etc. etc. which i find much more interesting

uhh not sure about recs because i don't read fics anymore that much huhuhu and i usually stick to lj and i can't really remember anything off the top of my head right now i am sorry T__T

no idea what the gold badge is e__e

yeahhh plagiarism sigh plagiarism ugh but good thing it wasn't plagiarizing off your own story ;__;
babyblueunicorn #6
Well... before EXO I only read. I used to read Bigbang (because of the gangs and action) and I LIVED for Jongkey. <3 Then EXO came and I read and didn't like the stories and I wrote because I thought I could do better than most... LOL
jaecomponents #7
sometimes the exo authors scare me
like
where did you come from
where did you go
how do you even
why why why
stop
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