chrisschallertideaengine

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Dialogue with the Dudes

I was thinking over the problem of non-diverse dialogue. As in, “All my characters sound the same.” This came to my mind. And I think it does a good bit to help out. Let me know what you think, or how this would be helpful. — Are your characters all “chill dudes?” Do me a favor. They’re all sitting at the beach, chilling like dudes. You throw a grenade in the midst of them.  What do they…

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Practice: Two-Sentence Stories

Going through a book of short essays on dialogue (review to come soon), I saw an exercise that said to write two lines of dialogue, but in such a way that they change the story. — “Is that the police chasing us?” “If it were, I would slow down.” — It has to be punchy. Pithy. Using no more than necessary to achieve the desired result. Most of all, it has to start in one place, and end in…

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Different People Differing

Ah, I’m a busy boi much of the year, but during winter, my wife and I choose a video game to play. This year, it’s “Tales of Xillia.” I’ve played most of “Tales of Vesperia” in the past, and I greatly respect and love how the character interactions are done. In trying to make something of that same warmth in my own writing (sometimes, when I’m not expounding on abject tragedy that the characters…

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The Best Tech You Need! (A brief guide to save you money, time, and pride)

The question gets as basic as “Do you guys type on Scrivener or Word?” and as complex as you can imagine over-eager and under-experienced writers get. “What should I use?” Well, let ol’ Uncle Hats save your pocketbook a little concern, eh? (pours a whiskey sour) Because for a lot of beginner writers, it is a question of what is affordable, not just what is ‘best.’ — Only the Best? Yeah, no…

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Punctuation: Advice from Grade School

Alright, here are some solid things you can take to the bank and cash for actual prizes (like gumdrops or suckers or something) Elipses! …. means you trailed off, or trailed in. Don’t use them for pauses mid-speech. For that, you can use– Commas! In prose/narrative, they let you split your sentence apart. In dialogue, they mean a pause in speaking. “Can you, say, give me an example?” Stephen…

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Villain or Hero?

(pours a shot of vodka) I miss the days when evil villains were evil villains, and heroes were the ones who stopped them. Nowadays, all the popular writing advice tells you to up your game. “Make your heroes grey-moral, make your villains sympathetic.” As though that’s an ironclad rule. (sips the vodka) Allow a man to muse, eh? — The Lion King Sympathetic villain? Not Scar. I had no…

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2 Lines to Escalate

“But I’m wanted for murder!” “No, we are wanted for murder now.” — “Mother–“ “I’m not your mother anymore!” — “Pfft, can you believe that driver?” “I believe they’re– yep, there’s the cop now.” — Perhaps it’s the one game skill my family didn’t know would benefit me here. “One-ups-manship.” Taking it a step farther than before. Escalate. The problem is, you can only escalate so far.…

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Staying One Step Ahead

You don’t have to do much. Just some. A few words. Ten minutes. One practice exercise in that one skill. “Write a two-line dialogue that elevates the tension.” Do. Just. A. Little. But do it. One step ahead of failure is a type of success.

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The Perks of Printing the Draft

I can take notes more easily. Grab a pen, write. Don’t have to search for the ‘make a note’ or ‘comment’ function, then forget to press [enter] to save it. “Wait, I made a relevant note somewhere…” is easier when you have a physical pile of papers. Something where you don’t just link a memory of a note to a paragraph, but to a thickness of a paper stack. Arrows. Arrows everywhere. Lines through…

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DND Memes I Made Myself

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My Editing To-Do List

Everyone’s goals are different. For example, I don’t need to refresh myself on legal matters and reference that one case from that one time because I’m not writing a legal drama. If this list works out for me, I may put it down on paper somewhere for my permanent records. In the meantime, here’s to the draft! All the names have to be consistent. If they aren’t, then someone has to have died. If…

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Things to Account For When Writing

Not all writing time is equally spent. I might have two hours of space to write: I spend the first forty minutes like a boxer spends the first forty seconds of a bout, testing areas, looking for a place to insert my pen. Twenty minutes later, I have written about fifty words. I need a break and a glass of water. After another half hour, the characters are comfortable enough with my presence to…

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Science, Theology, and a Black Cat

I think it was the artist of the “Cyanide and Happiness” comics who made a little Instagram clip. It went a-like so: — “Theology is looking for a black cat in a black room and shouting, ‘I found it!'” “Science is looking for a black cat in a black room AND USING A F—-ING FLASHLIGHT!” “The end.” — Allow a nobody from nowhere a brief rebuttal. — “Science is looking for a black cat in a…

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The Hard Questions with Drafting

Here’s my list of questions. They are culled from the advice of many different teachers, instructors, instructional books, memes, articles, videos, tapes, books, authors, etc. And while there are more to add, I only use these. It’s my tool kit. Hope it can help you. — Does this word/sentence/paragraph deserve to be here? If not, can it be downgraded/simplified, or upgraded/made a little…

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Nat1 Adventures: The Pirates of Penzance!

I found this one in my backlog while I was trying to find a different email. There isn’t much here, but you might get a chuckle or two. Also, if you haven’t watched “The Pirates of Penzance” or listened to it or performed in it, I recommend all three. — DM: Alright, you are sneaking up on General Stanley’s mansion. Roll Stealth. Pirates: (roll 1,4,2,4,13,4) DM: (deep breath) Pirates: We’re…

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Rewriting "Kraven the Hunter"

Apparently that movie didn’t do so hot. “Missed the mark,” as it were. (crickets chirp as I pour a shot of whiskey) Eh, it was a stretch. The Spiderman-less Spiderverse is falling flat, with poor showing after poor showing in the releases. Being interested in the actors, but not in the movie, I checked out a plot synopsis and a few reviews to get a gist of whether it was actually worth…

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You Want Sepuku In Your World?

I’ve been taking writing notes from the show Shogun lately. I’ve also been reading The Book of Five Rings and other stories of Japan. And I’m trying to wrap my head around a tradition that can be simultaneously so violent and value life so highly that sepuku is a powerful action. In case the nomenclature is a little beyond the bounds of the familiar, “sepuku” is ritual suicide, where the…