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Academy Board / Re: Writers' Corner
« Last post by LooNEY_DAC on May 18, 2024, 02:39:12 PM »
Resurrecting this thread to vomit out my thoughts on a specific story type that seems to me to be denigrated or disregarded entirely in modern "how to write" literature et al, sparked by the declaration at a panel at a conference for writers that "the hero must choose to commit to the story"; being a natural contrarian, I immediately thought, "when did Dorothy make any such 'choice' in the movie The Wizard of Oz?" So here's some less-than-coherent thought on the matter.

Narratives of necessity

Narratives of necessity: protagonist is thrust into the situation of having to act; if they chose something, the choice seemed innocuous until they were too far in to go back, or the choice wasn’t a choice; singular objective (usually “survive”); only way out is forward/through; important thing is: they are home at the end, whether original or made (why “horror twist” ending is unsatisfactory and unsatisfying); NOT Hero’s Journey for protagonist (maybe for side character(s))

Usual structure: prologue showing “normalcy”; disaster strikes/the gauntlet is thrown; alternating challenges and downtime; the last hurdle; ending (see below)

Variations include: multiple protagonists w/potential group problems; no bad guy; multiple bad guys; pick up allies on the way; pick up bad guys on the way; split group so intercut between plot lines

Ending 1: Back home: the protagonist has overcome everything thrown at him and returned to where he was at the beginning (probably improved circumstances).
Examples: the Wizard of Oz; Finding Nemo; Back to the Future; Forbidden Planet; Nothing but Trouble; TRON; Escape from NY/LA; XXX; Return from Witch Mountain; Minority Report; Star Trek (films); the Prisoner; Speed; Predator; Jurassic Park; Sean of the Dead; Commando; the Terminal; Krull; Hakon Hakonsen

Ending 2: Still trying: the protagonist has overcome the current obstacles, but still needs to make their way home.
Examples: Flash Gordon; Lost in Space; Sliders; ST:Voyager; Nowhere Man; the Lost Continent

Ending 3: Here to stay: see subtypes below.
A: the protagonist has overcome all the obstacles, but finds a compelling reason to stay/return.
Examples: Lone Star Planet; The Time Machine (film); Kindergarten Cop; American Dreamer
B: there was never any chance of returning, just surviving/building a new life for themselves.
Examples: Buck Rogers; Lord Kalvan; Planet of the Apes (film); Terminator franchise; Total Recall; the Running Man; Bourne franchise; Charade; most robinsonades
C: the whole point was to get away.
Examples: the Horse and His Boy; Escape to Witch Mountain; the Mysterious Island; Swiss Family Robinson

Ending 4: Everybody dies: Either the final obstacle requires a heroic sacrifice or there’s a twist ending (usually unsatisfying and unsatisfactory).
Examples: Impostor; Phantom of the Paradise; most zombie movies

Well, there's as much as I've articulated on the matter. Does anyone else have thoughts they wish to share?
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General Discussion Board / Re: Eurovision Song contest
« Last post by JoB on May 13, 2024, 03:48:45 PM »
I also note that I managed to correctly spell "machine" exactly once out of four times on these Bingos...
I don't know what you're talking about, "Maschine" is the correct German spelling ... 8)
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General Discussion Board / Re: Eurovision Song contest
« Last post by Mirasol on May 13, 2024, 07:58:12 AM »
Hm, I mean... not really, does it? :'D (I might have counted it though I don´t remember...)

I also note that I managed to correctly spell "machine" exactly once out of four times on these Bingos...
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General Discussion Board / Re: Eurovision Song contest
« Last post by JoB on May 11, 2024, 04:41:13 PM »
... does Finland's entry count for "getting undressed" ... ?  :-X
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General Discussion Board / Re: Eurovision Song contest
« Last post by Mirasol on May 11, 2024, 04:08:06 PM »
Well then let´s change that. I know it´s started by now, but in case anyone wants to join in?

My mom and I actually watched the semi-finals this year and noticed a few motives that kept popping up in the different entries.
So we made a Bingo-card out of them. (Plus some of the things that are always a classic at ESC).
Not supposed to be any sort of bad faith, just to have fun. :)

Bonuspoints if you get a Bingo on a single entry.

4x4 version:


5x5 version:
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General Discussion Board / Re: Eurovision Song contest
« Last post by JoB on May 11, 2024, 01:49:42 PM »
... I note that, less than 1.5h before the finale starts, the forum is unusually(?) silent about the event ... ?
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Writing Board / Re: The Forum's Scriptorium
« Last post by Grade E cat on May 08, 2024, 04:37:05 AM »
Poking my head on this forum after a long absence to inform anyone interested that I finally joined Archive of Our Own and started publishing there:
Maomao_the_cat's works
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Worlds & Stories Discussion Board / Re: Comic of the Month
« Last post by lwise on May 05, 2024, 07:07:05 PM »
If anyone is interested in landscape rendering -- this is computer assisted art but without any AI -- E-onsoftware's Vue and PlantFactory are now totally free with a perpetual license!  https://www.bentley.com/software/e-on-software-downloads/
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Worlds & Stories Discussion Board / Re: Comic of the Month
« Last post by Jitter on May 05, 2024, 03:13:12 PM »
Thanks Linebyline, I knew I could count on you!
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Worlds & Stories Discussion Board / Re: Comic of the Month
« Last post by Linebyline on May 05, 2024, 12:11:15 PM »
Wow, I've been slacking on keeping up with this thread. Barely scratched the surface of the Witch Door. Still need to finish Chirault. Sadly (but fortunately, for backlog purposes) I think I'll have to pass on Root and Branch for NSFW reasons. It sounds interesting, though!

I don't think I have any pitches ready to go, but I'll double check. If not, I'm sure I can come up with something, but the writeup may take a little while.

Meanwhile, Rising Sand is updating again. Vainglorious and Phantomarine are going strong. Suihira's still on indefinite mental-health hiatus. Widdershins is too, as of January.

EDIT: Okay, that didn't take as long as I thought.

Inner Space is a completed comic by Renee LeCompte. The homepage is the cover; click through to see the first page.

Our heroine is Mag, a wingless gryphon-like creature with a lot of fear and not a lot of patience. In her defense, she just woke up with amnesia in an environment filled with danger. She's probably handling it better than I would. But she spends a lot of time in the gray area between terrified and exasperated.

Well, really, all the areas are gray. The comic is pencil-shaded. It's quite lovely in my opinion, even if it could stand a little digital post-processing to improve the contrast. Also, it's kind of an old comic, so you might want to zoom in to read it comfortably at modern screen resolutions. (120% is nice and comfy on my 1080p laptop screen.) But the characters' faces and body language are clear and expressive. Environments vary widely from whimisical to perilous, to whimsical and perilous, to cozy, to oppressive. You may run into the occasional action scene that's difficult to parse, or lettering that's too small and blurry and gray to read comfortably, but if you can get past that, your eyes are in for a treat.

I still don't have a good place to post excerpts, but here are a few representative pages: 25, 179, 95, 15.

The story follows Mag as she tries to piece together who she is, where she is, and how she got into this mess. And also not die. Helping (and/or "helping") her is the adorable and only slightly obnoxious Id, a hyper little kid who knows her way aroud (somewhat; more than Mag does, at any rate) and has all the confidence Mag lacks, while lacking most of the self-preservation instinct that Mag has.

This has all the makings of a fantasy road-trip buddy comedy, and that is a big part of teh story. But be warned, it also goes to some dark places. This is ultimately a story about Mag's mental health. The worst of it is, as we learn fairly late:
Spoiler: show
the reason she's in this situation is because of a failed(?) suicide attempt.


There are scenes of peril that won't faze SSSS readers, but definitely read it through once before handing it to the youg'uns. There's no gore, but I hesitate to say there's no violence given the amount of time Mag and Id spend getting chased by monsters. At least one character gets swallowed whole. There's a case of significant head trauma toward the end, though we don't see anything graphic. No sex or nudity. Well, okay, there's pretty much constant nudity, but it's the no-pants-funny-animal kind, so probably considered SFW in most jurisdictions.
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