Fic Talk > General Discussion
Questions to ponder part 11
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: Sakabelle on July 28, 2014, 11:02:55 PM ---Though, the hardest piece of writing advice for me to follow has actually come from Stephen King's On Writing book. He says not to use adverbs and instead to use a stronger verb. My works are littered with adverbs so yeah... difficult.
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I've read this book too, and it's good, and I love Stephen King, but I don't think adverbs are so bad. Obviously, strong verbs are great, but I don't think adverbs are terrible unless you structure every sentence exactly the same way, always subject verb adverb. J.K. Rowling has been criticized for overusing adverbs, as well as overusing dialogue tags like "said," which Mare mentioned earlier, and I think she's a brilliant writer.
I think the main thing is to vary your sentence structure so it's not repetitive. Use dialogue tags when you need them, but not after every line of dialogue, and change them up, so it's not always just "said." But I think "said" is okay sometimes. It's simple, and simple can be good. It sounds silly when you go out of your way to find alternate words, when "said" would suffice.
(And when I say "your," I don't mean YOU specifically, Steph, but anyone reading this. Just general advice!)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on July 28, 2014, 11:13:57 PM ---I did the same thing Reb did at first. I really didn't want anyone to know what I looked like and what my real name was and any real information, that's why I called myself Mare. It took me a really long time to share pictures of myself. I think once I realized that none of you were ax murderers I started to feel more comfortable. Back then there was a real stigma with just talking to people online without really knowing them. I may have told a few white lies when I first started out in this fandom which I never bothered to correct. But when I went into this forever ago, I never expected to forge real bonds with people. Who knew, right? LOL
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Same here. I was obviously still a minor when I started posting my fanfic, as many of you were, and I was paranoid about talking to strangers online. There was definitely more of a stigma to it than there is now that social media is a thing. Back then, it was just email and IM. I made up a fake name and fake birthday and fake names for my family. I think I may have even had a fake dog at one point? LOL That was more me being 14 and silly than me being paranoid, but I am glad I at least kept the pen name now that I'm a teacher because it keeps my kiddos from finding me. But it made it really awkward when I did start making actual friends online and then had to find some way to tell them I had lied to them about my name and so on. Luckily, they all understood, and some of them had done the same thing too. But for real, who knew we would end up making such good, lifelong friendships out of this silly fanfic thing? LOL
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: Rose on July 28, 2014, 11:30:40 PM ---LOL awww.
Yeah I know a lot of the stuff I/we say or joke about might get people wondering wtf is wrong with us and we don't need that. I've gotten better over the years but I used to be shy in person as well. It's funny, cause like just before we first met in person I was scared LOL. Because I wasn't sure how we'd vibe in real life or if I could still be like my random crazy self. Obviously that wasn't a problem but it's funny how online you can just be you without any issues because there's less consequences.
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Yeah, meeting online friends in person for the first time is always an interesting experience. It doesn't really faze me anymore, but the first couple of times, I was definitely nervous. It's weird because you feel like you've known this person for a long time, you talk every night, and yet, you've never actually been in the same room before. And sometimes people are different from how you imagine them when you're just typing back and forth. I'm glad we clicked in real life too; it would have been sad if we hadn't!
RokofAges75:
Have you guys met online/fanfic friends in real life? If so, who was the first one you met, and what was it like?
Rose:
--- Quote from: RokofAges75 on July 28, 2014, 11:59:43 PM ---Yeah, meeting online friends in person for the first time is always an interesting experience. It doesn't really faze me anymore, but the first couple of times, I was definitely nervous. It's weird because you feel like you've known this person for a long time, you talk every night, and yet, you've never actually been in the same room before. And sometimes people are different from how you imagine them when you're just typing back and forth. I'm glad we clicked in real life too; it would have been sad if we hadn't!
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I know! And yes, it would've been very sad. But it did so hooray!
:wave:
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