Writing help.

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Kframe, May 4, 2015.

  1. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Just start writing and don't worry about it.

    Lots of good books are made in the edit, like carving a piece of stone.

    Be prepared to lose big chunks of stuff you've grown really attached to. "In writing, you must kill your darlings.” --William Faulkner

    Even if you only end up using a partial sentence of what you write, it's still good practice, and creating a world is as much about what you decide isn't fitting as much as what is.

    On a note about Alien and the Ripley character - it was written in the script as a male character. Which is interesting as that film is so often seen as a high point in three-dimensional heroic female movie characters.
     
  2. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    The development of Alien is one of the most fascinating stories I've ever heard.

    For example, Sigourney Weaver was not originally cast as the heroine - that was altered after the other woman lost her nerve during the chestburster scene. See, they didn't tell the cast what was going to happen and, even though she was sprayed with cow blood, Weaver didn't react like a nutcase, so they decided that she made a more likely heroine.

    Dan O'Bannon wrote Alien after he and John Carpenter worked together on a massive flop; it ran out of money halfway through and instead of having a monster they decided to throw a painted beach ball at the victims. Critics were so harsh that O'Bannon said he wanted to rape them. Working together with H.R. Giger they developed a plan to do nearly exactly that. The alien is a human skull with a penis attached. Ripley is nearly murdered with pornography. Etc. Anyway, O'Bannon never wrote Ash and resented his introduction to the movie. In my opinion though, without Ash you HAVE NO MOVIE.
     
  3. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Definitely, Ash is the beginning of the "these aliens are bad, but humans are worse" trope in the franchise.

    And how dare you call Dark Star a flop! Cult classic, thank you ;)
    It was also one of the most succesful student films in history. They had to steal it from the USC film dept. because all student movies were legal property of the university.
     
  4. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    The story makes no sense without Ash. The characters become terminally stupid. With Ash you have answers to questions like "Why would they let a man with a face sized parasite attached to his face sized face into the ship?" I think it also introduces the idea of biomechanics and biosynthesis being viable and common fields - the human ship looks totally unlike humans, but their created human looks pretty much like people on the inside. But with more alfredo sauce.

    Hey, I love ALL of Carpenter's work. :L
     
  5. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    I mean… really.

    [​IMG]
     
  6. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    That's actually a great example of what I was saying to kframe.

    One little idea in Dark Star became the kernel for a totally different movie. All O'Bannon kept was the "truckers in space" dirty sci-fi theme and an alien on the loose.
     
  7. Kframe

    Kframe Valued Member

    Love the backstory on alien. I have a link open with a bunch of behind the scenes stuff in it.

    Ok ill spill the beans. My fan fic is set in the Aliens universe. You can probably guess what my female lead is. I want to explore some ideas that were not at all explored in the movies. Ill admit my story is inspired by Astral link but will be far different and darker then that.
     
  8. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    I think Alien is a great film to explore in fan fiction! Especially given the disappointing nature of its sequels and even Prometheus. I think it's also a great universe to explore gender relations in.
     
  9. Kframe

    Kframe Valued Member

    I loved the fact that Astral link touched on the nature of a xeno/human pairing and the way it would flip gender roles. However while i love the story, having read it 3 times and its follow ups, i think it could go deeper into the relationship side of the story. Not to mention that Kyle the male lead was more on the effeminate side of the spectrum.

    I know the thought of a human/xeno pairing may squick some people out but their is a beauty to their form. I think it could work, as any relationship born from it would have to be on a deep emotional level.
     
  10. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Sounds like you've got some really interesting themes to explore :)
     
  11. blindside

    blindside Valued Member

    I think I'm pretty good at suspending my disbelief for a story, don't care how FTL happens to make a universe work as a setting. I can ignore my biology training to see how a human vulcan hybrid can happen, I don't care that movies show lasers making sounds in space.

    But you've got a human (presumably) falling into a romantic relationship with a bug. Just the idea of it has tripped by suspension of disbelief, I think you have a high hurdle with this idea. Good luck with it.
     
  12. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    That's interesting though, isn't it?

    All of those things you can suspend disbelief of are not just hard to believe - they're impossible. Yet, you have the hardest time believing the one possible event you list.

    I guess willing suspension of disbelief is sometimes more about what you want to believe than the liklihood of something happening.
     
  13. Kframe

    Kframe Valued Member

    Blind, isnt that the point of a scifi? If we only wrote possible things, that could actually happen then it would be boring. Besides, not all romantic relationships have to based on sex.

    I lol at the point that your having trouble with the romantic entanglement of these two very different people. Especially when morons in the UK and else where are marrying their dogs and Mating with dolphins. I find that to be wholly unbelievable.

    Either way, im not doing this for anything other then my own edification tbh. Its a fanfic, im just wanting to explore questions not asked in the movies. Romance is one of them.
     
  14. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    I kind of see his point though - it's not so much the likelihood of it happening or not, it's a question of internal consistency. The alien creatures are totally well, alien. Having them go into something so human as a romantic relationship is pretty different from what they have been portrayed as being in the past. I might encourage KFrame to invent his own alien race - it sounds like he's mostly done that anyway.
     
  15. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Actually, I think it has been kind of touched upon. The mad scientist in Resurrection springs to mind, and I have a vague memory of something in an Aliens comic, but it's been a couple of decades since I read any so I can't recall what.

    Also, people are stranger than fiction: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/animal-rights/germany-tries-ban-sex-animals-zoophiles-upset
     
  16. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    "Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities" - Aristotle
     
  17. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    I definitely don't want to believe that ZETA actually exist!
     
  18. blindside

    blindside Valued Member

    You are writing this for yourself, you don't have to answer to anyone on this. However, what sci fi offers us is the opportunity to suggest a story with fantastical elements to show us some mirror of ourselves. If we don't identify with the characters then we lose that mirror and the meaning of the story is lost.

    So I could see a story that showed how a human and an alien became partners, though the snappy patter of the buddy movie would be a bit stilted though. :D Well written, it could show the translation of team mates to friends, and maybe the fraternal love that can go along with that. But romantic love, again that may be a step to far for me. Prove me wrong though. :D I am curious about your story.

    I think it would be fun to set it up as a dual view piece with his and her perspectives.
     
  19. philosoraptor

    philosoraptor carnivore in a top hat Supporter

    Let's not talk about Resurrection. How that movie turned out so poorly boggles the mind.
     
  20. Dean Winchester

    Dean Winchester Valued Member

    Yeah it's my least favourite now.
     

Share This Page