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Time to say goodbye to having a life

So now that we have a creative corner, I figured I would try and contribute some my knowledge to the wonderful people around here. That and maybe I am just bored and done all of my assignments. I am still pretty new around here, but if I can help even one person with this, well… that is good enough I guess. So, as the title says, we will be talking about one of the main struggles almost every single writer will go through at least once during one of their projects. Whether that project be a novel, visual novel, heck even essays and translations to a much lesser extent; it will strike all of us eventually. It is more than likely that you, the reader, have already experienced Writer’s Block at some point, so you already understand the pains associated with it. Or maybe you are one of the lucky few who have never had to deal with such a thing, in which case I envy you entirely and completely. You could be going at breakneck speed through your manuscript, writing tens of thousands of words without having any issue, but sooner or later… you may find yourself smacking your head against a brick wall of blankness unable to figure out where to go from where you are. So first off, let’s talk about Writer’s Block and what it is. What is Writer’s Block? Writer’s Block, by definition, is when an author loses his ability to produce new work thus creating a block in his creative train of thought. This block can run you down for a few hours, to a much longer time over the span of years when in extreme cases. So looking at this as writers, this is not something we particularly want. We want to be able to avoid this sort of thing happening to us. But how do we do that? Well the tough answer to that is that we cannot just so easily prevent it. There are some ways that help keep our minds fresh and circulating new ideas, but there is no sure fire way to keep yourself safe from breaking against the Great Wall of Blanking Out. Writer’s Block can be entirely discouraging for an author, and for someone who is just getting used to writing larger works; can be absolutely catastrophic in terms of their will to keep writing. I know when I first started trying to write my first manuscript for the first… second… third… fourth… fifth… and sixth times. I honestly lost track after that, but my real problem was that I would get so far in, maybe about 2000 words and all of a sudden everything I had in my head would simply vanish. The Great Wall of Blanking Out would suddenly raise itself in front of my word count and would not allow it to progress any further. So let’s talk about ways to prevent Writer’s Block, even if it is in a small way. None of it is a guarantee, as everyone is different; but these are the ways that I have found to work and that have worked for the people I have helped through their own Writer’s Block issues. Preventing Writer’s Block: So as we know, Writer’s Block affects our ability to create new work. This does not mean that it only affects new project ideas, but rather it affects the entire creation process. You get so far in and all of a sudden your train of thought is just gone and you have nothing left you can put out because you have hit The Great Wall of Blanking Out. Some don’t even make it as far as the keyboard, thinking that they have not developed their idea enough, or that they just do not have time. So let’s get down to it: 1. Outlines Can Be Your Bible/Insert Religious Text One problem I have seen a lot of people run into is that they can go so far in, but all of a sudden lose everything they were about to write. When they just got an idea and started writing, they did not think ahead, and only knew the general plot outline of what they wanted. That is not to say you can't do this, but you run the risk of hitting a wall sooner or later if you don't really know where you are going. Kinda like wandering around the woods when you have never been inside those particular woods before. Go too far and you may end up a tad lost. Taking time and writing an outline of the events that take place in the story is an excellent idea. It provides you with a foundation to build upon when you go to sit down and write. This outline is merely just an outline, so just like your first draft (which I will get to next) you can spill your raw creativity into it and just let the ideas flow out on to the page. Your outline doesn't even have to make coherent sense, just so long as it gives you an idea of the direction you are heading. As long as you have a general idea of what you are doing, the risk of suddenly losing yourself and your story in the first 5-10k words can be greatly reduced. 2. Your First Draft is not Your Final Draft Here is another hang up that can easily discourage anyone who is writing. As writers, it makes sense that we have all read wonderful stories. Masterpieces in our own eyes. So obviously, when writing our own works, we want them to be just as good if not better if you are feeling really ambitious. So you sit down and you start writing. You get through the first chapter and you feel pretty darn satisfied, but you take a look through what you have written… and realize that it is not to the quality that you want it to be… so you start editing… but all of a sudden, you realize there is more wrong with it so you start editing that stuff too. Before you know it you have spent two hours editing the first chapter/portion of your work and you just feel absolutely drained from the ordeal. Most people I talk to end up losing their creative flair for the work after that, or if they get any further, end up losing it after subsequent bouts of this over editing process. So what is the problem here? Editing your first draft to look like a final draft before you have even written the whole thing is just bad news. The Writer and the Editor within you coexist, but they should not be working together at this early stage in the game. The first draft, just like outline, is where you can poor out your raw creativity and just roll with it. No author just sat down, puked out 100k+ words and created a masterpiece… and if they claim to have done so, I am going to call absolute bullshit. Writing a good work takes time, and one needs to force their inner Editor to just calm down and be patient. While the Editor is critical and meticulous, the Writer is freeform and creative. The critical side of the Editor can stifle the creativity of the Writer if they are working side by side at the same time. They do complement one another, just… not at the same time. 3. Keep Writing Another pitfall that one might want to avoid is not continuing. You may start with the intention of finishing, but maybe tomorrow you just “don’t feel like it”. But then, the next day after that… you find that you “don’t feel like it again”. Once you start making an excuse not to write like that, you are already on a road to pain when it comes to finishing your work. Writing a story is a time investment, and you are going to have to want it in order for you to even think about finishing it. “Not feeling like it” just isn't in the equation. The problem with this, is that after enough days of not feeling it, you might decide to come back to it. However, this is another lead in to allowing The Great Wall of Blanking Out to encroach on what you are trying to write. Writer’s Block will settle in and all of a sudden you have nothing for what you want to write. Even if you only write a single sentence, coming back and visiting your project each day is a good way to prevent it from fading in your mind. For one of the main things that Writer’s Block thrives off… is stagnation in the creative sense. _____________________________________________________________________________________ I struggled for years with Writer’s Block. I first started writing original works back in grade four. Until about four years ago, I had never finished anything. Writer’s Block would simply come over and snatch my ideas away from me. Once I hit Grade 9 and came up with a new story (where my Username originates), I just kept in my head, afraid of having development of that halted by another bout of Writer’s Block. These are just a few techniques you can use to prevent it. Curing Writer’s Block however, is a lot easier than one might think. It requires a lot of willpower, but it can be done. LinovaA’s Method for Working through Writer’s Block: Now while it is no guarantee, as with all of the things in this guide (oh gods this has become a guide?), it may help you if you find yourself in the middle of a particularly long bout of Writer’s Block. So what happens when you hit this Great Wall of Blanking Out? You run out of ideas. So where do you even go there? The best way to explain is to show an example of what I did. I sat down and looked at the paper and decided I needed to come up with something of my own creation. Doesn’t matter if it is cliché, but it needs to have a small level of originality to it. So the best bet was to just come up with a random scenario. However that is normally impossible with Writer’s Block. So here is a format I came up with <Adjective> <noun> <verb> <noun>. That is all. It’s best not to agonize over this. Seriously just pick any random adjective and any random noun that fits for the first two. Of course it ended up being this for me: Purple Elephants attack Earth. Not exactly the most elegant of scenarios, but we’ll work with it. So now that one has this completely strange scenario, you need to expand it somehow. So you simply need to add one detail at a time. Purple Elephants attack Earth and enslave humanity. Great. Just great. Add a few details, but after adding a few more details in this fashion… you take your pencil and scratch out something and edit the grammar of the sentence. I of course edited out Purple Elephants. Earth is attacked and humanity is enslaved by pseudo-Humans from Titan, enforcing a dystopian society. Voila. A scenario. This generally will not work the first time to fix your Writer’s Block. You need to do this over and over again until your brain starts easing up and those little details start coming to you much quicker. Or perhaps until you no longer need to use the simplistic format I laid out earlier. While a lot of people would say to go out and wait for the ideas to come to you, I believe and more proactive approach of force starting your creative engine to be the more efficient way when in a deep rooted bout of Writer’s Block. Of course, the less proactive approach may work with you more. I can't tell you if it is or not because everyone is different. The End: I do hope I have helped someone out here. I understand Writer’s Block being a huge challenge for a lot of people who are into writing like myself. Hopefully you come out of reading this learning something new, and if you didn’t… well thanks for giving me the time of day regardless. None of this is guaranteed to help, but hopefully I have helped give you some tools to help you keep writing and avoid Writer's Block, and perhaps even conquer it. So yeah, thanks for stopping by and giving this a read. Edit: I will be coming back to fix any typos when I get home.

Strangely (and perhaps hilariously?) one of the most successful threads on the boards (referring to google presence) was an old (and closed) thread about whether or not H content is a good thing for VNs. I get an email every now and then about that thread, including this gem from "Anonimous" (I take no responsibility for the spelling): Yes, Anoni. Yes I would. I'd support it because it would make them easier to share and play in public, and because the RenPy already has this built-in and it works very well. Here's what I'm curious about: how would you feel if there was a H content toggle in VNs? Meaning you could freely turn it on or off. Thoughts? Feelings? Outrage?

Woah, what an amazing intro! 10/10 Welcome to Fuwa, hope to see you around. Extremely so, I guess.

A big congratulations to our friend astro, the current TL of Clover Day's and friend from the forums, who recently got hired to work for Sekai Project! Best of luck in your translating endeavors and godspeed.

​Please enjoy my own interpretation of a self introduction.. be sure to play the song that I linked. http://puu.sh/eKehf/4d9e060341.mp3 The night sky is beautiful.. infinitely expanding, ever so.. I feel a bit small when I think about it all.. *mumbling to self while admiring the beautiful Heavens above Hmm?.. .. Hello, who might you be? .. I see.. *smiles lightly I never thought anyone would find this place.. *continues gazing upon the starry night sky For all of my life.. this is a place that I can truly call my 'own'. *long silence .. So you were watching the night sky with me.. *heart flutter .. My name is Ayano.. nice to meet you.

Wow, everyone looks great ! All right guys B):

I took a shower AND shaved just to take this picture! So here's me and my allready baldingness. Gotta stay classy. My phone takes literally massive pictures, sorry about that.

As one of the frequenters of the Skype group that is neither insane nor pervy, I feel obliged to question the validity of the parenthesized part there. At least the nice part is true Instead of pervy, I'd prefer to say we're all normal people, except that the FSG is a place where we're all a bit more honest than you might expect people in everyday life to be.

what have I done EDIT: I'm interested for various reasons

Oh look a realistic vn.

Just thought it would be a interesting thing to research, for example: = Monmon = Yukko (Nichijou). Why? Unnecessary and unfunny puns all the time

Happy Birthday Major!

You may be on to something there. I've got a lot of material.

I for one embrace these anonymous, public shamings. You should start a Tay's Hatemail Corner, even. As for the question at hand, I'm not opposed to it as a feature. It's one I wouldn't use, but it don't care as long as it doesn't take away from me as a consumer. Down confirmed as a sexual deviant.

I think that as long as the H-content doesn't contain anything that's absolutely integral to the plot, then there's no problem with having an option to turn it off if you don't want to see it. It might even make more people play certain games. Obviously, this option is useless for something like the Nukige, which is 80% H-scenes, but for other eroge category VNs, it might be nice. I personally would like it because most H-scenes in VNs are very badly written, especially when it comes to knowledge about how vaginas work, which makes me a little mad to be honest. Anyway, having a toggle would be a good idea.

Damn, I might become a loli fan after all http://pururin.com/gallery/8222/a-meal-for-two.html that was just perfect in so many ways

Trinity Seven it's as awesome as it is stupid 11/10 anime of the year

Alicesoft Update: I'm too lazy to dig up the other thread. Anyway, seems like a new RPG is in development. Apparently, it will be using the setting of the Ranceverse. タイトル:イブニクル ブランド:アリスソフト ジャンル:RPG 発売日:4月24日 価格:8800円 原画:八重樫南、はぎやまさかげ、MIN-NARAKEN シナリオ:よーいちろー、ヨイドレ・ドラゴン、イマーム 公式サイト:http://www.alicesoft.com/ ・「ランス」「闘神都市」と設定を一部共有したアリスソフト初のフィールド型RPG ・一夫一妻が常識の世界で主人公が嫁を次から次に娶っていくストーリー ・ADVパートとRPGパートを交互に繰り返しながら冒険を進めていく ・アリス作品お馴染みのモンスターも登場 May the translation gods have mercy on this game as well. That's about it for now.

Even I don't get pizzas.... T__T

Happy birthday to the major and juniper. Have a great one !!

Whelp. I don't really use Steam and all, but I'll drop this off. Why isn't there a Year of the Sexy Cats?

Jesus christ, The Major also donated his Key to the giveaway There are now four total keys to win I can't even.

Can't believe I'm doing this. But sign me up. Let us shed manly tears

I'm in~

Amazing, I was hoping there was something like this. Bought, already downloading.

I'm playing NBA 2k since 2009 and would say the 2k15 career mode ist the best so far. They made a big step from last year (PC)... For me it's by far the best Sport Sim out there (well I really love Basketball so I'm a little bit biased )... The FIFA career mode never made me care that much, so i wouldn't recommend that. But if you're willing to try NBA 2k, start with the current one 2k15, it's totally worth it..

Confession: Whenever, for whatever reason, I talk to people who I know speak Russian in English I speak with a Russian accent, and I do this completely subconsciously.

Wait a minute that trap isn't in the game >.>

Yes. The H scenes are also being translated because most of them are relatively important to the story (as in, they contribute to the content of the story). It'd actually be pretty crazy if they were left out of the translation. :/

its the eyes i think they are kinda moe....

I think I've seen you in an anime...

I cleared my first EX song. So proud of myself.

The only recent picture of me, and its almost a year old...I don't like pictures.

I saw the name, went into the thread and automatically had my tears. Curse you and your happiness theory.... ...welcome to the forums.... baka onee-chan.... you don't have to shoulder everything T_T

haha, nice! You look like you just saw something slightly disturbing Anyways, here's me

It only works if you have a copy of the full edition. If you do have it, should be fine. Also, you shouldn't say a patch from about year ago is "new". Awfully confusing. EDIT: Adding it to fuwa would be kinda weird. It's only partially translated.... I'd rather wait until a full tl came out. Also, you can't find a damn download of the full thing anywhere around the internet (well, I'm sure someone can, but the usual sources don't have it, as far as I could tell). I actually had to go as far as buying rose guns days to read the 4 seasons.

Story: 1/10 2.) Until the end: For the first part, nothing happens. Literally, NOTHING happens. I don't think I've ever been more bored in my life. Anything that did happen was extremely predictable. For the second half, it was equally boring but since I had grown to hate every character, I hated their actions so much that I just went into a rage. Characters: 1/10 Soundtrack: 3/10 Animation: 5/10 Enjoyment: 0/10 Overall: 2/10 That's the mathematical equivalent. Overall, I find this anime to be:

i would recommend juniper's knot.

I approve of Yandere Emi But she's more like this =

=

Purchased my first couple of figures, this one came in first!

I'm curious to see a picture of Tay. We should get a cult going on here demanding Tay's picture. ;P

Wow! Everybody looks really good. And I do mean that. Even though none of you know me yet, I guess I'll post my picture too.

Speaking of H-scenes, here's my evolutionizing playthroughs of them in my VN career 1) Skip them entirely 2) Read the beginning and ending dialogue only 3) Read the beginning/ending dialogue and skim through backlog for the middle 4) Read through everything quickly 5) (Nekopara) Use autoplay

Hence why I prefer the term "Programmer."

I think you're misunderstanding the position of "hacker". The hacker is part of the group and does tech stuff like patching and extracting the script from the game for the translators. There is no malicious hacking involved

http://traumendes-madchen.com/blog/?p=1142

Miss the beard, 0/10 totally not the same. I'm trying very hard to reallocate my mental images of everyone to all this new data, my mind is boiling >_>