Resource Fanfic Writer's Desk: Your Place for Writing Discussion, Questions, and Advice

Any suggestions on how to transpose the phrase "nickel and dime tour" to the SW universe?

 

Re: Corellian accent, I always assumed Han's was the standard. I don't think all the core worlds are varying degrees of "British" just Coruscant. But then Mace Windu spent most of his life there I presume and doesn't have a Coruscanti accent. I've been thinking about accents a lot lately. How exactly do you signify anaccent in fic without straight up saying they have a "Coruscanti accent" or "Corellian accent" or whatever?

taramidala - "two credit tour"?

 

Spelling. Use the english (Great Britain) spelling for Core accent, the other english spelling chooses for other accents.

You can also use phonetic accent in some cases, for example Bram Stocker used 'v' for 'w' and if words begun with a ‘h’ he removed it to represent cockney (I also think he did some other things but those two are the one I remember right now).

 

This is perfect. Thanks!

 

Other ways that could be used/combined is having the characters use a slightly different grammar*, use non standard words, or words in a nonstandard way and/or unusual sayings.

* don’t use this to much because then it can seems like your character speaks creole instead of with an accent.

 

Those are good ideas, thanks. I'm not a fan of phonetic dialogue, but I do try match the vernacular to the accent (Mum/Mom etc)

 

So I've been having an issue with copy/pasting from Google docs to these forums in which spacing between paragraphs I put into the Google Docs simply vanish from the forum post. It occurs frequently and near as I can tell, randomly. Anybody know why this is happening and what I can do to not have to manually search out every instance of its occurrence and double tapping my return button to fix it? It's quite annoying.

 

Make sure that you use paragraph breaks (Enter/Return key) and not line breaks (Shift + Enter/Return). The latter will be ignored by the boards. If you're typing fast, it's easy to accidentally depress the Shift key a split second too early and catch the Enter key along with the first letter of the next paragraph, and this error is invisible unless you are using an offline word processor such as Microsoft Word or Apache OpenOffice that has the capability to display non-printing characters (Google Drive can't do that).

 

And just like that I find myself hating Google at a level not seen since Google+ was forced upon youtube.

 

Offline word processors will have the same problem with paragraph versus line breaks; the only difference is that they generally have an option to display those characters so you can check that you've used the right ones.

Google Docs are great for collaborating on simple, informal stuff, or working on more serious stuff from multiple devices, but they're neither designed nor suitable for being the final point of processing for serious work. For fanfic and other serious work, it's important to export it to your favorite offline word processor for cleanup before you paste it in here.

 

I use OpenOffice, and I've had some odd issues with font sizing. I've learned to stick to using only the fonts that the boards use to make pasting easier, but...it's kind of annoying to me aesthetically that I have to make my document font HUGE in order for it to appear at least medium-sized over here. For short stories I can just use whatever size I want until I'm done writing, then highlight and blow up the whole text right before I paste it. But for longer stuff I don't want to have to do that. (Oy, for my very first fic post here, I wound up having to switch to plain text mode and manually resize every single paragraph in bbcode. Nightmare.)

I know that if I'm using one of the available fonts installed here, I should technically be able to paste any size font I've been using in OpenOffice and then select the appropriate size over here, but it still acts a little wonky. Meh.

 

Would a Word document posted into Google Docs maintain its formatting? I've been planning to use Google Docs as the storage place for an easily-linked list of characters, but I'm somewhat unfamiliar with how all the Google stuff works.

 

I use OpenOffice as well. What I do is write it up in OpenOffice using BBCode instead of the native text formatting (it's actually not that hard once you get the hang of it, since in fanfic most of it will be [i], [/i], [hr][/hr], and the occasional [b] and [/b]). When I'm ready to copy it into the forums, I paste directly into the BBCode editor, then switch the the rich text editor for the final check-over. That way, it will automatically show up in the boards' default font and font size; if I want a different font or size, I can then hit Ctrl+A to select all and choose the font and size I want from the editor. Never had a problem with doing it that way.

 

(Double posting because editing is currently a pain in the *** on Firefox)

Basic formatting should be preserved just fine; it's the more specialized and advanced stuff that could be lost. But your simple bold/italics/underlining, font/size, and probably paragraph/line spacing should be okay. I recommend uploading the Word file directly (choosing in the process to convert it to Google Doc format), rather than copying and pasting. The former will ensure that everything is converted properly, whereas the latter is likely to lose formatting.

 

jcgoble3, Thank you so much! That's very useful to know.

 

Hmm. I shall have to test-drive that on a really short fic to see if I can pull it off correctly. Thanks for the tip!

 

I write BBCode in my hand-written drafts.

I'm just that insane.

 

Two questions: first, does anyone know of a good word processing program for the iPad? I'm currently working in Google Drive.

Second: any pointers on handling a scene that's almost all dialogue? The one I'm working on now is like that. Luke is eating breakfast, Leia comes in, they have a conversation. Pretty much no action except chewing. As I've been editing my old stories, I find I rely too much on facial expressions and adverbs to convey the characters' emotions. Once I get rid of them, it turns into Luke said/ Leia said. How do you write (or what do you prefer to read) in these types of scenes? I'm really trying to let the dialogue show how the charzcters are feeling, but it still seems like the scene needs something.

 

Well, in that situation, I'd forgo "[He] said/[she] said" altogether for periodic stretches and just make extra effort on really nailing a "voice" for each character, so that as you read, even if you look away and lose your place - thus, possibly losing track of who is saying what - you can still easily tell the characters apart. I always want dialogue to sound as if it could plausibly come out of the mouths of the actors. If there are significant changes in tones of voice or emotions, you can sprinkle in a "Leia snapped" or "Luke drawled," etc. once in a while for variety, instead of just "said" or "replied."

EDIT: Found this on the Tim Zahn Reddit AMA:

Typically, I try to mold the dialog to fit the specific person speaking. More importantly, dialog has to move the story along, either giving information, enhancing character, or enhancing relationships. Ideally, it does two or more of those at the same time.

 

For dialogue I also like to intersperse actions with lines, such as:

 

I would try and include character stuff and action to break up the dialogue even in a mundane situation as eating breakfast - what they're eating, how they're eating, etc. Who plays with their food, who shovels it in, who takes delicate bites, who talks with their mouth full - all of that can inform character and support the dialogue without having the describe facial expressions.

 

Not sure if this is the right place for this but: what would it feel like to have a chunk of hair, the width of a padawan braid, yanked out of your head quickly? (Like if someone yanked it out on purpose).

Sorry for the imagery :-(




Sent from a device using Tapatalk

 

Very, very painful. When I was a kid, another kid ripped out that much hair while fighting with me on the bus. I had a bald spot for a while.

The thing about hair is it's held in there good. You'd have to put a lot of strength into that yank to rip it out. Depending on how it's ripped out, it could draw blood. Usually, you'll end up with a red, raw bald patch.

Pluck one hair. It's painful. Now magnify that pain to encompass the width of a padawan braid. That padawan would scream.

 

Thank you. That does not sound like fun. I feel bad for my main character.

But not really because I still have a story to write.

 

It's a mix of a severely burning sensation, and having a thousand barbed fish hooks stabbing in and pulled right out at the same time.

It is very unpleasant to say the least.