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break Room / Re: The Status Of Our Fellow Raiders
« on: November 19, 2023, 04:04:02 PM »
MR will always be MR as long as old farts like me show up on occasion, lol
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2
break Room / Re: The Status Of Our Fellow Raiders
« on: October 25, 2023, 11:03:17 AM »
Nabe! Long time no see.
Glad you're still willing to write, even when life gets busy. How has the last near decade been?
Glad you're still willing to write, even when life gets busy. How has the last near decade been?
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break Room / Re: The Status Of Our Fellow Raiders
« on: October 23, 2023, 09:40:09 AM »
Glad your goals are going well Suuper (especially that running distance)!
I've been super busy working on the house myself. Been staining my deck and railings trying to get ahead of the rain that's about to hit us after so many months of drought. Funny how I'm still going to fall a little short, lol.
Jacked my ankle up a bit I'm afraid, so leg days and my running game have definitely suffered, but I'm making progress at the gym all the same. That and several kitchen projects of mine are moving along well (sourdough bread is definitely still a challenge, but it's edible now)!
Got some good writing done. Working up a Dune AITI game while laying out the skeleton of my next book. I also wrote a personal collection of thoughts while I was at it which I think I mentioned elsewhere.
All in all, life aint bad, just busy, lol. I am working to have a consistent reading schedule again though which always sets me in a good mindset.
I've been super busy working on the house myself. Been staining my deck and railings trying to get ahead of the rain that's about to hit us after so many months of drought. Funny how I'm still going to fall a little short, lol.
Jacked my ankle up a bit I'm afraid, so leg days and my running game have definitely suffered, but I'm making progress at the gym all the same. That and several kitchen projects of mine are moving along well (sourdough bread is definitely still a challenge, but it's edible now)!
Got some good writing done. Working up a Dune AITI game while laying out the skeleton of my next book. I also wrote a personal collection of thoughts while I was at it which I think I mentioned elsewhere.
All in all, life aint bad, just busy, lol. I am working to have a consistent reading schedule again though which always sets me in a good mindset.
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General Manga writer discussions / Re: Writing Log
« on: October 03, 2023, 11:52:42 AM »
A worthy goal Suuper. I hope it goes well for you.
I'm still doing outline stuff myself. I'm at a slight impasse, but I'm sticking to a piece of Neil Gaiman advice which is simply asking yourself "what happens next?". It's keeping me moving forward, so even if I don't know if what I'm saying happens will happen in the final product, it's giving me the drive to keep putting words on the page.
I also spent some time working on a non-fiction piece, so to speak. Sort of a pseudo-autobiographical listing of ideas and concepts which I adhere to in life, along with some personal practices. It's really only for me, but it was really helpful in expressing some ideas I've had floating in my head for years but never really put into words. It was an affirmational experience, and will never be shared outright, but it was a nice way to sort of clear the mind. And don't worry, it's far more personal journal than manifesto, lol. I'm not high on my own idea supply here.
I'm still doing outline stuff myself. I'm at a slight impasse, but I'm sticking to a piece of Neil Gaiman advice which is simply asking yourself "what happens next?". It's keeping me moving forward, so even if I don't know if what I'm saying happens will happen in the final product, it's giving me the drive to keep putting words on the page.
I also spent some time working on a non-fiction piece, so to speak. Sort of a pseudo-autobiographical listing of ideas and concepts which I adhere to in life, along with some personal practices. It's really only for me, but it was really helpful in expressing some ideas I've had floating in my head for years but never really put into words. It was an affirmational experience, and will never be shared outright, but it was a nice way to sort of clear the mind. And don't worry, it's far more personal journal than manifesto, lol. I'm not high on my own idea supply here.
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Develop Your Story / Re: Romantic Drama - First Time, Tips and Feedback are welcome!
« on: September 05, 2023, 12:46:34 PM »
Ah, grocery store, the meat manager thing makes more sense now, lol
As you said, it's the bones, and those aren't bad. The advice I will give though (and what I see lacking in your description), is that you need to make sure that both main love interests have agency in falling in love. You talk a lot about what Jin wants and what he's going through, but not a single word about Abigail's desires or perspective on the situation.
What separates good romance from bad is just that. A woman is not a prize to be won from playing your cards right. The woman needs to have just as much character and say in how things progress. That being said, even if you're setting up Jin to be a deelpy flawed character who doesn't notice or care what Abigail wants, you still need the reader to know her feelings to we can put Jin's behavior in the proper context. And maybe you don't want Jin to be a flawed character in that way, but no matter how things play out, the love interest and the protagonist need to be on the same detail level, or else you fall into the old tropes where the other person is simply a prize give to the protagonist for no reason that would make sense in a real life context.
As you said, it's the bones, and those aren't bad. The advice I will give though (and what I see lacking in your description), is that you need to make sure that both main love interests have agency in falling in love. You talk a lot about what Jin wants and what he's going through, but not a single word about Abigail's desires or perspective on the situation.
What separates good romance from bad is just that. A woman is not a prize to be won from playing your cards right. The woman needs to have just as much character and say in how things progress. That being said, even if you're setting up Jin to be a deelpy flawed character who doesn't notice or care what Abigail wants, you still need the reader to know her feelings to we can put Jin's behavior in the proper context. And maybe you don't want Jin to be a flawed character in that way, but no matter how things play out, the love interest and the protagonist need to be on the same detail level, or else you fall into the old tropes where the other person is simply a prize give to the protagonist for no reason that would make sense in a real life context.
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MR Pub / Re: Manga Raiders Happy Hour Podcast
« on: September 05, 2023, 12:35:59 PM »
Well Midsummer, the MR Happy Hour officially ended with episode 200. We did go on to create a second podcast (Anime On Tap), but life has been so busy for all of us, with our abilities to record being stunted, that we can't keep a regular schedule with it. Although we'll be damned if a year goes by that we don't record the 12 days of Christmas specials, lol.
Anime On Tap is available on all your favorite podcast listening apps if you need more of us in your life.
Anime On Tap is available on all your favorite podcast listening apps if you need more of us in your life.
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MR Pub / Re: Chit Chat 2023
« on: September 05, 2023, 12:33:01 PM »
Says the guy who's good at art, lol.
Sliding scale, as you said, but remember everyone who you feel is better than you still sees all of their own flaws. Third party observers tend to look past them though.
Sliding scale, as you said, but remember everyone who you feel is better than you still sees all of their own flaws. Third party observers tend to look past them though.
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MR Pub / Re: Chit Chat 2023
« on: August 23, 2023, 10:53:34 AM »
As I've said before around here sometime, I do Aikido. There's a great story about the guy who created the art (who we normally refer to simply as O'Sensei).
Ikkyo is the first technique you learn in aikido. It's name literally means "first teaching". O'Sensei however practiced it every day of his life, believing he had never mastered the technique, despite being its creator.
I think that's something we can apply to any skill. There is no such thing as "mastery". We only get better with practice.
Ikkyo is the first technique you learn in aikido. It's name literally means "first teaching". O'Sensei however practiced it every day of his life, believing he had never mastered the technique, despite being its creator.
I think that's something we can apply to any skill. There is no such thing as "mastery". We only get better with practice.
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General Discussion / Re: Quantity vs. Quality
« on: August 23, 2023, 10:47:31 AM »
Suuper I think you came thiiiis close to making a certain point about creators. And that is that depending on the situation, the creator's wishes are made irrelevant by other forces. You get famous examples from all forms of creative media. David Bowie made a bunch of bad albums to escape a record contract. Akira Toriyama wanted to end DBZ with Frieza, but Shounen Jump basically forced his hand into making the Cell and Buu sagas. For a similar reason, the big bads all have half a dozens forms because his editor hated how most of them looked. So often times the creators create because they're raked over the coals by corporate entities.
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Develop Your Story / Re: Soul Instinct
« on: August 14, 2023, 12:51:14 PM »
I too have some questions on the logic of the universe here.
As Suuper asked, why time travel at all? Why specifically samurai era Japan? Are there not other times and places in history where valuable lessons could be learned? Did you pick this year and place because of actual story reasons, or because of your bias as an author? (And I'm not saying that last part as a dig against you, we all have biases we must work around).
My main question though is what exactly is the Night Soul accomplishing in the story? Teaching people to defend themselves doesn't need an extensive and complicated time travel gimick to accomplish. Given that weapons of mass destruction have been finally rendered useless, it seems like a good thing? Why is war brewing? How are governments planning to fight if they don't have any advanced weapons? It seems like if anything time travel should be used to fix the problems nations have with each other before they get out of hand.
As Suuper asked, why time travel at all? Why specifically samurai era Japan? Are there not other times and places in history where valuable lessons could be learned? Did you pick this year and place because of actual story reasons, or because of your bias as an author? (And I'm not saying that last part as a dig against you, we all have biases we must work around).
My main question though is what exactly is the Night Soul accomplishing in the story? Teaching people to defend themselves doesn't need an extensive and complicated time travel gimick to accomplish. Given that weapons of mass destruction have been finally rendered useless, it seems like a good thing? Why is war brewing? How are governments planning to fight if they don't have any advanced weapons? It seems like if anything time travel should be used to fix the problems nations have with each other before they get out of hand.
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Develop Your Story / Re: Romantic story - stuck on resolution
« on: August 14, 2023, 12:43:14 PM »
I think fundamentally your problem isn't specifically how to resolve this situation, but how to make your characters experience growth. The guy has an arc he's supposed to follow. That arc is to grow from his emotionally stunted starting version into someone who can let love back into his life. So it's a full story process. He needs to over time let that barrier break down, little by little.
So the first step is to establish the boundaries he's not willing to cross, and then after being pushed, he crosses one of the minor ones. Once he can do that (perhaps it's trusting the girl with a secret she discovers), then he can start to break down those meatier barriers in his mind.
Romance works on the slow build. There can be a big dramatic moment at the end, but you need to lay all of the groundwork before hand. He needs to be convinced he is capable of change before he allows himself to change.
So the first step is to establish the boundaries he's not willing to cross, and then after being pushed, he crosses one of the minor ones. Once he can do that (perhaps it's trusting the girl with a secret she discovers), then he can start to break down those meatier barriers in his mind.
Romance works on the slow build. There can be a big dramatic moment at the end, but you need to lay all of the groundwork before hand. He needs to be convinced he is capable of change before he allows himself to change.
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General Discussion / Re: Quantity vs. Quality
« on: August 14, 2023, 12:36:11 PM »
I think it’s our duty as consumers too to seek out quality when we decide what our media diet is going to look like. That thing about stories that are ended already rings true. Ending a story is hard, not just intellectually as a writer, but emotionally. So if your media property is a money printing machine, why end it at all? But that robs the consumer of catharsis. We need stories to end to feel a sense of finality. Nothing matters if there's always another trilogy on the horizon.
In general my advice becomes to only consume "complete" works, and give yourself more time back to actually create worthwhile stories yourself. Garbage in garbage out as they say. A fully realized and finished story is like a well constructed dinner menu. Whereass the story that never ends is a $5 buffet where the steak looks suspiciously like chicken.
In general my advice becomes to only consume "complete" works, and give yourself more time back to actually create worthwhile stories yourself. Garbage in garbage out as they say. A fully realized and finished story is like a well constructed dinner menu. Whereass the story that never ends is a $5 buffet where the steak looks suspiciously like chicken.
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break Room / Re: The Status Of Our Fellow Raiders
« on: August 14, 2023, 12:28:38 PM »
I feel that exercise slack off >.< I put in a fair amount of weight the first half of this year thanks to the immense amount of stress I was under. I stopped counting calories, working out, or considering my diet. And because I stress eat and I drink to relax, consumtion went up across the board.
I'm back on the right track, and I've already noticed a visual improvement just because my diet isn't leaving me so bloated all the time, but it's a decent walk back I need to take.
My one saving grace is that of the 14 lbs I put on in the last 8 months, about 4.5 of those were muscle. Which should make it easier to burn the fat back off.
I'm back on the right track, and I've already noticed a visual improvement just because my diet isn't leaving me so bloated all the time, but it's a decent walk back I need to take.
My one saving grace is that of the 14 lbs I put on in the last 8 months, about 4.5 of those were muscle. Which should make it easier to burn the fat back off.
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General Discussion / Re: Quantity vs. Quality
« on: August 04, 2023, 11:01:12 AM »
Glad you feel that way Wild!
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Members Workshops / Re: SKETCH SURVIVAL!!!!!!!!
« on: August 04, 2023, 11:00:24 AM »
You're really on an impressive run Suuper! 12 more and you will have hit half a year!
