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Post by James on May 11, 2015 22:33:15 GMT -5
I took an Anthro course on Mesoamerican civilizations and archaeology, and it inspired a whole, fairly massive region in my fantasy setting. That was the first step I took in pushing my setting out of European Medieval fantasy and into the plethora it is now, actually. There's such a rich culture to be inspired by in that area, and in other areas not generally thought of as core cultures (like southeast Asia or subsaharan Africa). All I'm saying Mr I Don't Like Urban Fantasy Man, is that urban fantasy has been way better at incorporating a wider set of cultural influences than high fantasy which is nearly always inspired by European or Asian history. |
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Post by Kaez on May 11, 2015 23:33:47 GMT -5
I took an Anthro course on Mesoamerican civilizations and archaeology, and it inspired a whole, fairly massive region in my fantasy setting. That was the first step I took in pushing my setting out of European Medieval fantasy and into the plethora it is now, actually. There's such a rich culture to be inspired by in that area, and in other areas not generally thought of as core cultures (like southeast Asia or subsaharan Africa). All I'm saying Mr I Don't Like Urban Fantasy Man, is that urban fantasy has been way better at incorporating a wider set of cultural influences than high fantasy which is nearly always inspired by European or Asian history. You got me there. |
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Post by James on May 12, 2015 18:14:31 GMT -5
So I just had a crazy idea. Maybe, a genuinely crazy and stupid idea.
What if we had an editing competition? Say, someone wrote a short scene (1,500 words or so) but wrote it in a deliberately bad way (poor sentence structure, word repetition, rigid dialogue, whatever) and then the competition was to edit that scene into the best it could be?
I'm just thinking about ways to make editing more "fun". It really is an important part of the writing process.
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Post by Injin on May 12, 2015 18:18:04 GMT -5
So I just had a crazy idea. Maybe, a genuinely crazy and stupid idea. What if we had an editing competition? Say, someone wrote a short scene (1,500 words or so) but wrote it in a deliberately bad way (poor sentence structure, word repetition, rigid dialogue, whatever) and then the competition was to edit that scene into the best it could be? I'm just thinking about ways to make editing more "fun". It really is an important part of the writing process. The issue with that is, well, most people can't edit their own work very well, so this would just be an exercise in editing. Potentially a good idea for those of us who enjoy editing, but overall an idea that, while sounds good, could potentially instead be used to do the following: If one of us is writing a story, we can totally, as a group, edit their stuff. |
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Post by Sekot on May 12, 2015 18:21:04 GMT -5
So I just had a crazy idea. Maybe, a genuinely crazy and stupid idea. What if we had an editing competition? Say, someone wrote a short scene (1,500 words or so) but wrote it in a deliberately bad way (poor sentence structure, word repetition, rigid dialogue, whatever) and then the competition was to edit that scene into the best it could be? I'm just thinking about ways to make editing more "fun". It really is an important part of the writing process. To me, this just comes off as rewriting a piece. Which isn't really editing in the way I think of it. Yeah parts can be rewritten, but those rewritten parts should always be taken with a grain of salt. |
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Post by James on May 12, 2015 18:32:05 GMT -5
So I just had a crazy idea. Maybe, a genuinely crazy and stupid idea. What if we had an editing competition? Say, someone wrote a short scene (1,500 words or so) but wrote it in a deliberately bad way (poor sentence structure, word repetition, rigid dialogue, whatever) and then the competition was to edit that scene into the best it could be? I'm just thinking about ways to make editing more "fun". It really is an important part of the writing process. To me, this just comes off as rewriting a piece. Which isn't really editing in the way I think of it. Yeah parts can be rewritten, but those rewritten parts should always be taken with a grain of salt. I think it would be hard to work a way to take into account the broader aspects of editing: plot consistency, pacing, characterisation and so on. Unless we use a much longer piece and then suddenly that might put people off. I'm basically trying to think of an "ease your way" in approach since a few people recently have commented how much they dislike editing. But yeah, I agree, it's quite a narrow part of editing (though definitely more than just a copy edit). The issue with that is, well, most people can't edit their own work very well, so this would just be an exercise in editing. That's kind of the idea. Competitions on AWR are exercises in writing foremost, and competitive as an afterthought to trick you guys into writing... I'm not sure about this. First of all, that's kind of like Inklings with the exception that Inklings is more about reviewing and feedback than actual editing. General comments, pointers, direction for change and so on for the writer to think about to get a stronger story. And secondly, there's a reason why we don't actually -edit- properly someone's story as a giant group during Inklings. Too many chefs in the kitchen. |
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Post by ASGetty ((Zovo)) on May 12, 2015 18:32:42 GMT -5
So I just had a crazy idea. Maybe, a genuinely crazy and stupid idea. What if we had an editing competition? Say, someone wrote a short scene (1,500 words or so) but wrote it in a deliberately bad way (poor sentence structure, word repetition, rigid dialogue, whatever) and then the competition was to edit that scene into the best it could be? I'm just thinking about ways to make editing more "fun". It really is an important part of the writing process. I like the idea, though as Sekot said, that's more of a re-writing/revising exercise than editing. If it were purely editing, the end result would be basically the same from everyone since it'd be all about grammar and sentence structure and such. If you want to do something more like re-write/revise competition, then you can get into things like word choice, and flow and such. I'd be down for giving it a shot, since I tend to re-write everything in my head anyway, though there's not a chance in hell you could get me to judge that. |
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Post by James on May 12, 2015 18:34:26 GMT -5
So I just had a crazy idea. Maybe, a genuinely crazy and stupid idea. What if we had an editing competition? Say, someone wrote a short scene (1,500 words or so) but wrote it in a deliberately bad way (poor sentence structure, word repetition, rigid dialogue, whatever) and then the competition was to edit that scene into the best it could be? I'm just thinking about ways to make editing more "fun". It really is an important part of the writing process. I like the idea, though as Sekot said, that's more of a re-writing/revising exercise than editing. If it were purely editing, the end result would be basically the same from everyone since it'd be all about grammar and sentence structure and such. If you want to do something more like re-write/revise competition, then you can get into things like word choice, and flow and such. I'd be down for giving it a shot, since I tend to re-write everything in my head anyway, though there's not a chance in hell you could get me to judge that. I guess I lump "editing" as the broader process that -includes- a line-by-line grammar edit but also includes rewriting, revising and so on. It's semantics. |
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Post by Sekot on May 12, 2015 18:39:18 GMT -5
I like the idea, though as Sekot said, that's more of a re-writing/revising exercise than editing. If it were purely editing, the end result would be basically the same from everyone since it'd be all about grammar and sentence structure and such. If you want to do something more like re-write/revise competition, then you can get into things like word choice, and flow and such. I'd be down for giving it a shot, since I tend to re-write everything in my head anyway, though there's not a chance in hell you could get me to judge that. I guess I lump "editing" as the broader process that -includes- a line-by-line grammar edit but also includes rewriting, revising and so on. It's semantics. How do you even judge this, though? Since editing is largely subjective, would reviewing a review/edit even be more of a clusterfuck? Like I'm willing to volunteer as a judge just to see the madness, but I don't think a competition style would make much sense. And if we were to do it, then having a longer story (like 2-3k words) would make editing easier because you can pick out problem sections or parts that do and don't work. A 5k word story is pushing it. 1.5k words just doesn't leave much room for interpretation. |
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Post by James on May 12, 2015 18:42:23 GMT -5
I guess I lump "editing" as the broader process that -includes- a line-by-line grammar edit but also includes rewriting, revising and so on. It's semantics. How do you even judge this, though? Since editing is largely subjective, would reviewing a review/edit even be more of a clusterfuck? Like I'm willing to volunteer as a judge just to see the madness, but I don't think a competition style would make much sense. And if we were to do it, then having a longer story (like 2-3k words) would make editing easier because you can pick out problem sections or parts that do and don't work. A 5k word story is pushing it. 1.5k words just doesn't leave much room for interpretation. I would totally drop the competition element if people would still have the motivation to do it. Heck, a more collegiate thing where people discuss the process could work amazingly well (because in the end, the final product is actually irrelevant. Whereas if the final product was relevant, a group approach would probably fail), if people took part. Maybe something to save for our July Writing Festival. |
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Post by Sekot on May 12, 2015 18:51:35 GMT -5
I'm down for talking about editing. Maybe revisit this current Ryder competition and have people edit theirs or others pieces. That sounds a lot like an Inklings discussion, but I don't know how else to go about it.
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Post by Kaez on May 12, 2015 19:32:00 GMT -5
How do you even judge this, though? Since editing is largely subjective, would reviewing a review/edit even be more of a clusterfuck? Like I'm willing to volunteer as a judge just to see the madness, but I don't think a competition style would make much sense. And if we were to do it, then having a longer story (like 2-3k words) would make editing easier because you can pick out problem sections or parts that do and don't work. A 5k word story is pushing it. 1.5k words just doesn't leave much room for interpretation. I would totally drop the competition element if people would still have the motivation to do it. Heck, a more collegiate thing where people discuss the process could work amazingly well (because in the end, the final product is actually irrelevant. Whereas if the final product was relevant, a group approach would probably fail), if people took part. Maybe something to save for our July Writing Festival. Not a great idea for a full-fledged competition. Perfect idea for a July festival mini-event. That way it's "competitive" only in the sense that, perhaps the organizers' favorite few get some of the festival currency for it, or whatever we end up doing. |
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Post by James on May 13, 2015 4:59:11 GMT -5
Really, really, really early heads up.
I'm going to do NaNoWriMo this year (-unless- I'm swamped with potential masters stuff, it depends if I can get my arse into gear and actually hunt down certain professors).
As many people as possible should join me. I'm saying this now so you can all start thinking about future novels, rather than getting to 30 October and then picking the nearest idea.
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Post by Kaez on May 13, 2015 8:03:16 GMT -5
Really, really, really early heads up. I'm going to do NaNoWriMo this year (-unless- I'm swamped with potential masters stuff, it depends if I can get my arse into gear and actually hunt down certain professors). As many people as possible should join me. I'm saying this now so you can all start thinking about future novels, rather than getting to 30 October and then picking the nearest idea. As I've said before, I have every intention on doing NaNo this year. |
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Post by James on May 15, 2015 21:02:14 GMT -5
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