Two Professional Writers React to CONTROVERSIAL Writing Advice
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- Опубликовано: 7 июн 2024
- Gus Zagarella and Henry Galley are professional writers known for their work on projects such as Less Is Morgue, The Kingmaker Histories, and Mayfair Watcher's Society.
You submitted your writing tips on Twitter and on RUclips and we're hear to separate the practical tips from the cringe ones. This time, that's going to include the oddly common writing bogeyman of "The Message" as propagated by one The Critical Drinker. The Critical Drinker whose broad sweeping statements on everything from movies to continents have gone unchallenged for too long.
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Here is my 100% completely serious writing tip
If you are writing bad, that’s bad writing. You don’t want bad writing in your work, because your audience will think its bad. It is much better to simply write good instead. If you are a writer, be sure to credit me if you use this tip.
Every writer needs to hear this. It'll be a game changer.
I too adhere to the "git gud" writing philosophy.
Best writing advice I’ve ever heard , EmeraldZoroark W
I used this when writing, my book got published
I put you as a co author, hope that’s sufficient credit for your godly wisdom.
honestly the only piece of advice you need. This literally changed my life
Also here’s a potentially fun writing prompt: a heist perfectly done undone by the robbers’ extreme paranoia and overcaution.
Sort of a "you guys wasted 4 hours trying to break down an unlocked door" kinda situation?
Scammers having way too much fun with their covers that they keep that, or become just entertainers.
Or they that, but their past catches up?!
Kinda leverage, but instead a redemption story, its about them transitioning into covers.
(Ok tere is the great imposter , in real lifewho did that in real life, going so far to manage sucessful complicated medical surgaries in the military) the axelbeats video covers him, or who else likely covered it.
So... The Telltale Heart by Poe? Except y'know, with TTH the narrator murders the old man, but yeah, his extreme paranoia and extreme causion is what causes his ability to murder and hide the old man's body so perfectly, but also causes him to think he hears the old man's beating heart, thus making him lose control and reveal his body to the officers.
@@Gloomdrake “well, what if there was a claymore set up right behind it?”
“… An old woman lives there…”
“You never know!”
Basically any Batman stories in the criminals POV.
Ravioli from the first tip here!
It's actually quite weird, that I found myself doing the precise opposite of the scenario you posed. As a gigachad who gets constant bitches, every single one of my characters is a fuckin loser who plays Minecraft and eats popsicles. Weird how that happens huh? Happy to be on the show :)
Ravioli Ravioli who ordered the Creeper-oli
Stan Lee was absolutely right on that one. One of the most memorable Spider-Man comics is him beating Juggernaut by grit, determination, and smarts. Normally, in a powerscaling vacuum, Juggernaut would crush Spider-Man. But in the story it makes sense how he does it, and it's narratively satisfying.
Jojo part 2 is literally built on this concept; Joseph is clearly physically weaker and/or less proficient in Hamon than every single opponent he fights (excluding that one racist guy at the beginning, he was just a jobber).
Excelsior!
People who beat the bad guys by outsmarting them is always more interesting to me
Thats the reason why dragon ball becomes boring after a while, in dragon ball they used strategy in the martial arts tournaments but after the demon king piccolo saga it was always about who had the most ki.
I'd say this but Josuke from Part 4 moreso. What makes him my favorite JoJo is that he's got insanely powerful healing abilities, but can do fuckall when it comes to direct combat. He wins against Kira not by overpowering him, but by acting quick on his feet, learning his skillset, and gradually outwitting him while also getting support from everyone else who he'd had an impact on from being a kinder soul. He's probably the biggest underdog out of any other JoJo protagonist with Joseph, Johnny, and Gappy right behind.
The problem with Spider-man fans is that they're waaaay too tunnel visioned on power scaling.
I know everyone's heard the phrase "kill your darlings" a million times before, but I've often found that it's more helpful to instead shelve your darlings, take out stuff that doesn't work and see if it'll work better in something else. I recently wrote and performed a solo theater show, initially pitching it as four pieces tied around a central theme. A couple weeks before it was set to open, I was getting frustrated with one of the pieces, struggling with it in rehearsals and going back and constantly rewriting it. I ended up scrapping it for that show, but I know that it's something I still want to do, it's just going to take a different form than I initially envisioned.
This isn't really mutually exclusive advice to "kill your darlings", but it might still be a more helpful way of phrasing it for some people.
"Nobody puts darling on a shelf"
A piece of advice I see around a lot that I personally find detrimental is that “you’re never truly done editing.” Please for the love of all that is unholy my fellow writers, learn when enough is enough. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH editing. That’s how my book became a mess and my editor told me to just rewrite it from scratch.
That's actually exactly what that piece of advice means, at least in the way I've heard it. There's always going to be more to edit, so you've gotta know when to call it quits and stop, or you'll be stuck forever.
This is something you have to learn as any kind of artist. Sometimes you can't just salvage a dumpster fire without burning yourself out and it is almost never worth it.
Isaac Gooch from the third tip here! (Yes, that is my real name, Henry.) Thanks for using my tip, and making me reconsider my Patreon subscription!(Kidding).
All jokes aside, I've given the initial tweet a fair bit of thought since sending it, and what you said is pretty much where I ended up on it. I tend have trouble with finding a character's voice, so I usually use an established setting so that I can just focus on them, then remove them from there once I find their 'soul', for lack of a better term. Thanks to you guys and your writing advice, I've actually managed to become a writer for audio dramas, and got a script picked up for production! Big thanks to everyone at Diregentleman! You guys are the best sleep paralysis demons I could ask for!
I'm so sorry
Poor Isaac Gooch
Holy shit, its The Isaac Gooch
Powerscaling is fun to do, but only because it leads to conclusions like ‘Shrek is stronger than the Grim Reaper’ or ‘Popeye could beat The Hulk’
Actual writing is about how you resolve those different stat levels
Peabody could effortlessly defeat Doctor Who
@@koboldcatgirlthat’s so true though
Your character does not have to be relatable or good to engage the audience. They can be mean and vile, but they have to be interesting or entertaining.
example: Light from death note. Is he the protagonist? Yes. Are we meant to relate to him and think he's in the right? BIG NO! But he's a compelling character because it's interesting seeing him go in a downward spiral, morals devolving throughout the series as he turns into a mass murderer. Sometimes seeing inside a horrible person's thought process can be very intriguing and thought provoking
this is what i hope to achieve
And they have to be a male too. 😉
Curiosity and empathy being essential to good art explains why most right wingers are bad at it.
true 💀
Agreed but if those count as believing everything you see on TV whether right or left wing, then you'd just be bad at art regardless. It isn't just the right wing, but the left wing as well. Everyone's bad at it nowadays
Yes, because right-wingers are human beings that are somehow less capable of curiosity or empathy. There is hypocrisy in this comment.
There will always be the handful of people who will oppose themselves to you for the sake of being deviant or harmful, but the general public is intelligent enough to listen to a well presented opinion if we respect their perception of reality and don't deny it by claiming they are somehow less capable of empathy. Just like how Daryl Davis talked with the Imperial wizard of that white hoodie clan and eventually changed his mind, and collected his hoodie like it was a chest plate in minecraft.
Right wing or left wing, don't we share love for telling stories about people and their experiences?
@@kevinjuarez9250 Exactly! I just want those stories to be good. Not sure about the guy who made the comment, however
Kevin, maybe instead of getting incensed and un-ironically invoking the tolerance paradox, you could point out examples of how conservative ideas are actually based in curiosity and empathy?
So far your only example is a klan member becoming more empathetic and curious and thus moving left of his initial position. Not a strong showing for the point you think you're making.
An important add-on to the Two Of Them Rule that Henry didn't include- make sure the second character you add from any group should be really different from the other one so that there's an element of contrast. Have one be male and one be female. One be a hero. the other be a villain, and so on and so forth.
On the topic of premature cancellation over representation: I did deal with often contradictory critiques and prescriptions when parsing my story through different writing groups and etc and my only real advice is to assess what the feedback is, who it is coming from, and understand that the people who you’re trying to represent get automatic precedence over random wine moms who just want to winge about something to seem smart
THIS SO HARD!!!
The fanfiction advice is especially helpful if you can get input from the original creator. They can outright tell you if they find your story believable with their characters.
Honestly, there's nothing wrong with sticking to fanfiction, if that's what you like writing for. For me, writing is a hobby, and though I have written one original fantasy short story in recent years, original works get very little attention compared to fanfiction. I often write for fandoms that have relatively little representation because I love those stories and want to explore the world further.
I doubt I'll ever become a "Professional" writer, or have the time to dedicate crafting a full-on fantasy novel. But if the short story I wrote for an upcoming anthology gets interest, I may consider writing more original shorts and self-publishing a compilation book.
This. I am a roleplayer, and fanfic writer. I struggle to finish my stories, but with fanfics half of the work is done for you. You can spend less time worried about world building and more time existing, and relishing that world.
It’s a good way to play to your strengths, and then steal ideas from other fandoms to build upon what’s already there.
Sometimes, fanfiction just makes it easier to tell the story you want to tell.
The controversy tip helps me a lot as somebody with a lot of anxiety. It’s more of just toughening up as opposed to avoiding being controversial, if you’re not making somebody mad, you ain’t doing it right.
Preferably you piss off the “anti-woke” crowd
I mean, it's entirely too easy to piss them off. Just don't buckle, and don't make anything that you wouldn't be publicly proud of.
I write my stories with the intent to piss both the left AND the right
As politics are a really fun thing to fuck around with
@@WeRNotAlive It's still more easy to piss off the "woke" crowd. I mean, these guys whine about literally anything. You can't have a female character who is too feminine because it's stereotypical, a masculine woman is sexist because it's against feminity. Killing a character that happens to be a woman? Fridging. Always. A woman with flaws? Sexist because you portray women in a negative light. No gay characters? Bad. One gay character? Token. A group of gay characters? Some of them are too sterotypical. jeez. There's literally no winning with them unless you openly declare that you, as a writer, are "on their side". The anti-woke are at least okay with a thing that is neutral enough. The woke crowd needs a super woke story otherwise you can be sure they WILL find something offensive in your work.
That's what Antone was talking about. Trying to make a character totally inoffensive to anyone just makes them bland but this is what a large group of radical "woke" people expect. Authors are then afraid to write minority characters with any interesting traits because they know they'll be attacked and accused of doing a terrible thing. Which is ultimately the polar opposite of the intended goal for better representation.
@@missAlice1990 you are profoundly stupid
Guy and yt channel: "it's easy to piss off the anti-woke people"
This mfer above me writing an entire ass paragraph about how the "woke people" are the ones that are actually offended (he is not offended at all guys):
Yeah, powerscaling that's too wonky can certainly impede suspension of disbelief, but some people treat the power scale as if it's the most important thing in the universe and... it really, really isn't. I blame Dragonball z. Like, I know it's not the patient zero of this fanboy obsession... but it was definitely the first to actively encourage turning its battles into math problems.
Specifically, it eminds me of those hardcore power scalers who genuinely believe that Akira Toriyama, famed poop-drawer who has tried to end dragonball at least a half dozen times in the past 30 years, cracked out his physics textbook and his notepad so he could precisely and perfectly plot out the exact power levels of every character and every form in dragonball z, and that it's all a puzzle that needs to be solved... when the truth of the matter is that Toriyama keeps pulling out "the strongest ever" characters because he keeps trying to end the series, and no one will let him. 🤣
It's one thing if you power scale for fun, going in with the knowledge that you're DEFINITELY overthinking it... but it's like a religion for a lot of fanboys.
Also ights ultimately work that the last man standing wins, not the technically better fighter. Through th protagoinist really needs eitht a lot o help or being smart or that gendurant or being a hell o a jobber or whatever earned through his own virtues, that makes him win, and earn it. It has to be earned somehow,. but doent have to be the better fighter winning. ights have a lot o luck nd trategy too. and psychology.
Other than how it deviated from the source material, I thought bullettrain not taking anything seriously was great in its own right. (Everyone is in danger of being brutally murdered by the head of the yakuza yet they all seem mildly annoyed. I just think its really funny.) I personally think there's a place in media for things which prioritize style over substance. It reminded me a lot of Scott Pilgrim (which funnily enough is also a terrible adaptation that stripped the sincerity from the comic that I love anyways for its ironic apathy in life or death scenarios)
The Scott Pilgrim movie's problem is more an issue of pacing one then anything. The editing, action, and much of the comedy writing was and still is incredibly solid. It also gets by because the heightened nature of its world is made evident by the pervasive video game and pop culture aesthetic. Style over substance can work, but only when the style is able to stand on its own and elevate the substance beneath. Bullet Train simply isn't in the same league of Scott Pilgrim even if it attempting similar things.
@@WeRNotAlive Scott Pilgrim needed a sequel without Scott. He was the weak link.
I used to watch the Critical Drinker because it was entertaining, but at some point the amount of vitriol wasn't worth the short-term entertainment anymore. Seeing everything in a negative light actually steals enjoyment from you for things you wouldn't have watched anyway.
At least you made a great choice!
I think the best way to describe how I view him is as “a right-wing reactionary gateway during” like the guy associate with a lot of vitriolic, and just generally unpleasant people that post a ton of garbage reactionary content, but he himself toned back stuff like that enough to where the genre public doesn’t notice that he pretty much endorses the same things as people like quarterguy and nerdotic he just dilutes it with funny bits and decent general criticisms
If he "steals enjoyment" from you there wasn't much you had going on anyway. I watch drinker for entertainment purposes only yeah I disagree with his takes sometimes but otherwise he's spot on. Pick and choose what you like stop dwelling like the rest of the sheep.
He was a guy blabbering on the internet ...
You can get at any bar and hear pepole saying the exact same things ...
@@grimsonforce7504 How surprising it is that a person who refers to people as 'sheep' wouldn't see any danger in becoming excessively cynical!
Something that I like about this series particularly is that it gets me thinking about not only the works I want to create but also my own habits regarding how I create stories, which is just as important I think, i like having that “hm that’s sounds familiar, oh shit I do that!” Moment both negative and positive
I never really "got" representation in media until I actually found something that actually represented me. Which required a bit of a deep dive into fanfics, as mainstream media never really did it.
Im honestly curious about what said representation is
@@gunjfur8633 Autism spectrum disorder. Generally in mass media ASD is written by allistics for allistics, and relies heavily on misguided stereotypes. Either the character is some awkward super genius or the butt of jokes.
@@boldandbrash9447
Gotcha 👍
@@boldandbrash9447 as another autistic person absolutely! good autistic representation is a pain to find and when i do find it its always the highlight of the story for me
My counterargument on Bullet Train: it was genuinely hilarious that Channing Tatum's character was just a guy really hoping for some gay shit.
TLDR: Allow writers to fail, and they will experiment more. Encourage the attempt so that they’ll try again instead of giving up.
When writing things like diversity, darker subjects, or real world problems in your story. There’s always that lurking fear of failure.
You can’t please everyone. This is true, but you can help the ones trying their hand at something new.
I remember writing my very first character who was trans.
I frequently use roleplay between friends to test out characters.
My idea was simply based on the fun idea of a shapeshifter who didn’t remember what gender they started as.
Yet, until recently this character never found their way into one of my real fan fictions because I continuously saw people in that communicate saying that people who aren’t X shouldn’t write for X so I felt like I wasn’t allowed to publish Kogoe in fear of hurting the community I wanted to represent.
The moral of this is, if you see someone trying something new. Encourage them, and offer constructive criticism where you can.
Tough love is fine, but make sure they understand it as love instead of a reprimand.
Finding a supportive community is good, yes. But you must also overcome you own fear and allow yourself to fail if you truly want to improve.
I would not care about the words "if you aren't x you can't write x" because that is an anti-diversity stance. If that is what you encountered, it must then track than the people in that "communicate" only write mono-identity stories or exclusively collaborate with multiple writers to create diverse stories. If that isn't the case, perhaps what you encountered wasn't actually an enforced rule and there was more leniency than your anxiety would imply.
Again, external validation is always good, but if you need an indefinite amount of it to include a character in a public work, you're giving in to doubts and not actually putting yourself out there. I can be hard to that, believe me, every writer knows, but fortune favors the brave.
Itsprobably, for gods sake, if you make anything public listen to people familiar , not to not try.
Have a sensitive test audience?!
And people should go out of their comfort zone,it would be silly,to sayyou cant, there are cis male writers who are great, plus empathy can be build .
Like as questionable player number ones sequel is, any empathy for transpeople is good.
Us it, have a testreader, or more sus out yikes?! Or make it less yikes. Probably?
Lily Orchard, who’s here now i guess: yOure a hUge *T U R D*
Dear Two Professional Writers, I would like to know what I did to you to deserve such an insult. Out of the more than 1000 tips you got over 2 different social media platforms, you leave out my amazing writing advice. How dare Two Professional Writers, with years of experience ignore a media student who has written 3 short films.
However, I could have lived with this insult, knowing that at the end of the day, you two didn't want to admit that you had seen a tip, which changed the very way you think as a writer. But, then you had to take it one step further, by insulting not just me, but my favourite film of 2022, Bullet Train. How dear you point out reasonable flaws with the film I had not seen before, making me rethink the film as a whole.
I do not watch analysis videos, to help me better understand and see different opinions on content I love, while also learning ways to improve as a writer, but to have my opinion told back to me. So I know I'm right and not have to see outside of my limited perspective. You two will regret the day you dared to Overlook the genius which is Silver Wing Warlock.
We'll be doing more of these where we comb through audience submitted tips, so don't worry, yours is probably in the mix somewhere! I realize this comment is semi-joking but I wanted to let you know anyway.
I promise I just got those on my username cause I don't want minors on my account 😭😭😭
But tysm for your guys' feedback!!! Was anxious about it for a while lmao, but its definitely advice I've taken from other poc and its helped me a lot! 👍
hell yeah!
A small one, but something I run into every day with my friends.
If what you're writing ever starts to feel like a grind. Take a break, go do or write something else. A big non-writing skill of a writer, is Burn-out management.
My advice as someone currently going through rejections on my work (short stories/novels/screenplays). It is okay for rejections to hurt. Those will be part of the process for a lot of writers. The important thing isn't to focus on how much it sucks (because it does), but it's to keep writing. Your writing will always get better when you put more time into it, and your next draft/project will be better for working on the skill.
To kind of combine the fanfic and unique voice section: a good way to crafy a unique voice is to take good pieces of work with memorable characters and try to figure out why their voice works the way it does.
Walter White: hes a scientist whos had to deal with crappy teenagers while being unnapreciated so his "voice" and mannerisms are short, direct, communicate effectively without regard for how its recieved. Information is information is information.
Twilight sparkle? A magical princess who literally knows being mean can give people evil powers, so shes sweet supportive and kind, she talks empathetically. But shes excitable so she also does it quickly and can stumble over her words sometimes in a rush to gush about something she loves.
Jessie? He's a suburbanite who hates his parents and everything that life represents, he talks in such an agressively over-exagerated gangster way because that's how he wants to be perceived. Hed rather be dead than assumed to be weak or dainty.
By finding these reasonings for mannerisms, it helps you go the other way and disipher mannerisms from experiences you've written into your characters.
Themes can be so useful for planning your plot and characters! Sure some things happen due to consequences of earlier scenes but if I’m stuck, the themes can give inspiration and help me decide character traits.
Controversial writing advice for everyone in the comments: Use oxford commas where they are not needed, and not where they are needed most. Confuse your readers.
Even better use semi-colons on run-on statements especially when it's full of emotion.
@@ExeErdna TRUE!!!
To the point about "the East" eastern cinema can arguably include the USSR, or at the very least the production companies in the Central Asian SSRs. Soviet directors being HUGE inspirations to specific western ones, particularly in France, Italy, and Switzerland goes back to fucking Eisenstein.
I'm sooo glad you guys mentioned Medaka box by Nisio Isin. No one talks about this gem! It is indeed one the best deconstructions of modern shonen/school manga but it still manages to have a great cast of characters who are deeply sympathetic and whose stories you want to follow. Come to think of it, a lot of Nisio Isin's work to some degree has this subversive quality. I wish you guys would talk a little more about this manga and maybe some other Nisio Isin's works if you have read/seen them.
It takes a bit to find its footing, and honestly kumawaga is so fun and the best, but the show even manages to be so meta yet humanize her, humanizing herself, is even her arc.
Truely a gem.
@@marocat4749 Kumagava is one love. He is the purest embodiment of all the losers and underdogs ever. All of us gave been Kumagava at some point.
1. The story is just a framework for the characters. Most intricate, complex intrigue will be boring if it is enacted by cardboard cutouts whose every line sounds like writer trying to get quoted on tvtropes. Meanwhile the most random, nonsensical string of events happenning to cast of interesting, well-developed characters is going to resonate with readers, as long as they beleive it is all consequences of characters' own decisions and actions.
2. Characters cannot grow and develop without an unifying theme guiding them. Every form of character arc deals with a "truth". In a change arc the character rejects a lie they beleive in for a truth, which is either liberating (positive arc) or tragic (disillusionment arc). In negative arc the character either starts beliving a lie and rejects the truth, often embracing a bigger lie (the fall) or believes the truth but is swayed away by a lie (corruption). In flat arc they know the truth and hold to it even when their beleif is tested. The theme of your story and its message defines what the truth in question is.
3. Good story consists of situations and events that explore the theme in a meaningful way, making points for or against the message. That means no matter how good your theme is or how pivotal the message is, it will feel flat if the story does not incorporate it properly. And nonsensical plot will completely distract from a theme that isn't properly incorproated into the events.
Short version: There is no story withotu characters, there are no characters without a theme and there is no theme without a story.
"Write someone who gets bitches!" That's when you get people like the author of Empire for a Vampire or whatever that book is called
Really appreciated the tips on how to not second-guess yourself too much. That's probably been my biggest issue as someone who's been trying to get into writing as a hobby.
I consider myself to be a pretty neurotic person by nature since I've been particularly grade conscious my entire life- you guys being upfront in criticizing overthinking and endless draft revisions was a pretty great wake-up call for me! Thank you.
look up "writer's room" stories about your favourite media. i find them to be a great piece of advice and inspiration. for example learning that avatar was originally supposed to a post-apocalyptic show made me feel better about constantly changing the genre/worlds of my WiPs (i felt that i was going around in circles and other writers don't experience this). and the breaking bad writer's room taught me that sometimes to get ideas you just have to wing it and write without a plan (i am good at coming up with plot points A and B but not how to get to them).
11:26 The heist movie analogy IS SOOOO GOOD. It's so physical. You can just pass that idea to someone and they can turn it over in their hands and hold it and go "Ohh yeaah... well, there's the problem."
Lady Baconator's comment, and your response, is interesting, especially bringing up Evangelion because Anno himself doesn't like the idea of Anime Otakus getting into making anime - not because he dislikes Otakus, but because he thinks, to be a good artist, you need a wide breadth of interests. Like Evangelion pulls not just from Super and Real Robot genres, but Freud for just one example, and probably more.
Naturally, something inspired by EVA and a bunch of other media doesn’t have to literally be anime. After all, the goal is not to make the same story again but to synthesize multiple influences and your own experience into a new story which is more than the sum of its parts.
It's also interesting to point out that many old-school anime took insipiration from western media. Without Mad Max we probably wouldn't have Fist of the North Star, without Bladerunner and the cyberpunk genre we probably wouldn't have Ghost in the Shell and Akira, Howl's Moving Castle is a adaptation of a british novel (the first one in a series by the way), and the list goes on... Also, Japan didn't invented Isekai. Labyrinth, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, The NeverEnding Story, and even Army of Darkness (even though it involves time travel instead of another world) were already drinking from that fountain.
It also reminds me of a pet peeve that I have with western pieces of media that are inspired by anime: They basically see it a genre rather than a medium that has it's own genres and just copy many of it's tropes and clichés without extra thought because "anime". Ok, I have to admit that not every "animesque" work is like that, but it's a very easy trap to fall, especially if you are a hack and/or a average weeb. RWBY to me is the worst offender.
I think that Isabella's point about "The Message", and more generally "When did we decide theme was the enemy of the story" is a pretty recent thing, because... Recently, a lot of writers (Especially Hollywood) have been trying extremely hard to use their message or other, quote-unquote "Political" aspects of their stories as selling points, most often citing Diversity. (Now, I feel like I should say. I am ALL FOR diversity, strong female characters, representation for all sorts of minorities, but I think this still has an effect on peoples' perceptions)
And media that pushes its themes, messages, or politics and then do it poorly often seem preachy, and so we see a lot of people overcompensating by saying that themes and messaging itself is the problem.
Addition to that, another aspect might be traumatized ex-high-schoolers forced to sit through lessons and get TOLD by their teacher what a text means without any chance to have their own creative input on the literary analysis process.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of people got the wrong lesson from that. The message should be part of the story and emerge from it, not be something that only exists in the marketing and that the audience has to be told about.
@@antonioscendrategattico2302 Exactly. The problem is more the capitalist cynicism of a bunch of old white men trying to seem "hip" to the new generation by shoving themes/representation they don't actually understand or believe in into stories to get peoples' money.
Two Professional Writers react to William Strunk JR and E.B. White’s writing advice.
When I saw The Critical Drinker in the thumbnail I groaned
30:10 I’m not sure if I necessarily agree with this point because people like Stanley Kubrick, who is considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived, was definitely not empathic, at least not to his actors. He mistreated Shelly Duvall, but still made one of the most iconic horror films ever made.
Being empathetic doesn't necessarily make you caring, you can wonder how it feels to go thru what another person is going thru, and then turn around and not give a shit, idk I think this makes sense?
@@HectorialInfectionSure, but my point is that they are saying that you need to be empathetic to make good art. I say that you don’t.
Hey, this was great! Also nice Nisio Isin recommendation! (Nisio is a good writer and I've read most of his stuff, but he tends to get a little too far up his own ass sometimes, Medaka Box included, though I guess sometimes being unsubtle is what's needed for a given story).
My one writing advice is at one point you need to *stop writing.* If you keep re-writing and re-writing and never sharing the work you've poured your efforts on, you'll never get anywhere. Even if you bomb, that experience of posting/submitting/sharing something you wrote (fanfic, the draft of a novel, a short story, a treatment, a spec script, etc) and getting feedback for it will make you a better writer down the road.
The sub-tip is that you will probably need to develop a bit of thicker skin when it comes to hearing feedback about your written output.
Nisio Isin is such a maniac. Monogatari is something of a guilty pleasure, and unironically I think Juni Taisen is one of the most unique and well-executed death game anime in terms of character and structure.
@@WeRNotAlive I actually kind of agree with Juuni Taisen and I know there’s a sequel to the original light novel that brings back the original characters for a scenario where it’s the Eastern Zodiac Warriors vs the Western Zodiac War Criminals. It’s only in Japanese but I’ve read that it seems to focus more on war then it did in the original but doesn’t follow the exact same death cycle
This is mostly comedy advice but i think it can be helpful when dealing with cliches:
When approaching overused concepts (tropes or stock jokes) there are three directions to go:
1. Do it sincerely
2. Subvert it completely
3. Go one step further with it. Assume the obvious direction is the default - the audience has taken that step for you- and build upon that.
Say you're interested in doing the typical "cool guy with glasses and trenchcoat who duel wields guns" who's surrounded by four guys.
You can have him take them all out easily, maybe with one shot or something (sincerity). But it's been done a lot and can seem uninteresting
You can have him confidently take a step and slip and fall (total subversion). But that can seem very mean spirited and not match the rest of the story
Or you can have him open his coat and bring out two additional arms, with which he's holding TWO MORE guns (building atop of it). This helps you do the trope and reap the benefits of using it, but still somewhat stand out
not sure if you're gonna see this, but I love hearing you guys do this while I write for nanowrimo. It's been pushing me to my limits and you guys are a comforting voice to help me push through.
Just watched The Menu for the first time and now this dropped. Perfect.
I’m very happy you shouted out Medaka Box, that’s one of my favorite stories
Not exactly writing advice, but there's an episode of Arthur (yes, I'm citing the PBS show) where Arthur has to write about how he got his dog, Pal. But because Arthur is insecure about his own narrative voice and whether the story is interesting or not, the thing goes from a grounded story about getting his first dog to being a musical, sci fi story about adopting a baby elephant from another planet. In other words, a mess. But in the end, Arthur chooses to go with the original story because ultimately, it's the story he wants to tell. I think it's not only a good episode for kids who want to be creative, but also for those of us who have lost our way creatively.
The part when you mention micro celebs, there is a good chance if their You're "Cancelled" got many upvotes or likes, they might have bought fake accounts
Busy with some fantasy world building personally, and I must say I'm more concerned with how to best research the cultures I take inspiration from than getting cancelled.
I'm not afraid to give each nation flaws, but be respectful and don't make their flaws their only defining trait or make on the symbol of virtue and the others pits of pure evil that have no interesting traits.
I think a lot of people watching this video, in the comments, and people who enjoy RUclips media criticism in general should really take to heart what our boys said at Isabella Maillet's advice.
The nature of RUclips and it's incentive structure makes creators try to create all sorts of new dichotomies and typologies and terms in their media criticism that has zero historical or living real world basis. And because their audiences don't consume media criticism from anywhere else, their audiences adopt a very warped and unproductive way of understanding art that's based around creating content.
All media criticism should be experienced skeptically, but RUclips shit more than anything else, and if you do enjoy RUclips content you should do your best to experience media criticism in books and lectures at the same time.
Yep. I consume most of my media critique through youtube, but I have also had some priming on media criticism from actual academic material, and the difference can be staggering. I do believe there are some media critics on youtube that do at least aspire to that standard (Dan Olson of Folding Ideas is the most obvious example) but because the barrier to entry is very low and high production value and controversial opinions are what mostly draws in audiences, and the terrain was prepared by people like Doug Walker, MatPat, CinemaSins and "10 interesting facts" channels, the vast majority of the audience just has no reference for what ACTUAL media critique is, so a lot of shit flies around the ecosystem, and if you don't have anything to compare it to, most people aren't going to understand the difference.
34:20 oh shit, it's me! I think you guys got to the point better than I could phrase it on twitter- It's good to create things with an honesty and sincerity to them. There's a line to draw somewhere between 'influenced' by a work and just borrowing things whole cloth from them, of course.
Yea, good art still takes aspects of other art and/or the world but puts a unique spin on them. That's just how humans mentally function with everything.
On one hand, I kinda liked Bullet Train. On the other hand, having Gus and Henry verbally degrade me is mildly pleasant.
I really disagree with the "good powerscaling = good writing" point. Though like most things it obviously depends on the writer. As a writer, and former powerscaler, trying incorporate consistent scaling is a nightmare that escalates dramaticly the more characters you involve in a story. Especially since powerscalers will just take whatever interpretation they want, especially the ones that make zero sense. so any consistency you would get is utterly pointless.
To really emphasize that last point, it's why I no longer consider myself one. People I respected made some of the worst research possible for the hobby, involving a series i know fairly well. They contradicted their own conclusions so hard I'm surprised i didnt get a migraine reading it. Not to mention sources of theirs outright saying the opposite of what they claimed, which happened like 6 or 7 times. It was so bad that when I made a doc covering just the lore mistakes it was 20 extensively sourced pages long, and that was the short version! It was the longest of 3 docs, I had too much free time.
The reason so much of it was wrong was they definitely just plagiarized the fan-wiki and other powerscalers. Including some of their own fans. After posting the doc I was just laughed at. I was told I was just a hater, despite being incredibly gentle in the doc, even praising most of the people who worked on the thing it was refuting. I regret ever getting into the hobby.
Anyway yeah if that's the crowd you want to please, don't fucking bother. Powerscaling is like worldbuilding, it's nice when done well but you can absolutely over do it and hurt the story for different reasons.
Find a method of writing that works best for you, and be willing to change if you feel like something isnt working. For a while, I had one routine that I thought worked, but then I would constantly be switching between projects, making very little progress in any of them. Then, I changed the way I wrote and I've gotten more progress on the project I'm currently working on than I have with any other. If you find yourself frustrated with your writing and you feel you're not going anywhere, it might be your method that needs to change (though that may not always be the case).
This is my favorite piece of advice.
Personally I work backwards and make my way to the begining. It sounds weird but it honestly works for me, although I personally couldn't recommend anyone try out that method the first time in a new project or anything for that matter.
Just a point of contention, the author of the book Bullet Train was built on, Maria Beetle, has said that while he set the setting and characters in japan for the book, them being Japanese and it being in japan is not apart of or integral to any of the characters or the general story itself, and they could be universally malleable to anyone from any race.
He did not consider it white washing and he in fact said, "who is to say that many of the characters in the books are actually a Japanese?"
That's all well and good for Maria Beetle. The casting is one of the lesser of Bullet Train's problems as a film, but it is undeniably indicative of an attempt to smooth it down into as conventional a generic action story as possible.
@@WeRNotAlive Yeah but who cares? The film was financially successful, and it has a genuine big audience score on multiple metic croc signs from IMDB to rotten tomatoes and etc
it doesn’t seem like most people care if it’s generic, they just liked the film.
"Other people liked it, so you should."
People don't have to like it if they don't like it,
it just feels the criteria for why it's bad is a bit unsupported, subjective, and misses the point.
Art criticism being subjective? Never happened before.
Usually agree with you guys on most things but i loved Bullet Train 😭
I didn't expect my tip to make in the video at 43:13 - 47:18 but thanks for featuring it anyway. I forgot I even put it. I do think your rebuttal is fair since my advice was a bit too general.
I think we agreed with the tip in spirit and at the very least it got us talking about writing research and the balance between familiarity and overspecialization.
@@WeRNotAlive And I like what you guys said since it brought more nuance. That nuance is why I love your Professional Writers series in general.
If I had the opportunity to share another tip for a video, it would be this:
There are actually a lot of great skills that you can pull from writing non-fiction that are, interestingly, great for writing fiction!
In writing my own short stories, I like to start coming up with a main theme/message first, and I think of it as a thesis statement.
Then, I treat my characters as if they were the arguments/bullet points for that thesis. I've found that it's a great way to rationalize how to go about a story in the most coherent, and interesting way possible. I find myself worrying less about whether or not to axe a character with this thought process, since I know what their purpose in the story is right from the get-go. (Just don't forget to dress them up with recognizably human quirks and personal backgrounds. They aren't just bullet points, after all.)
Using this process in sci-fi and fantasy genres especially has helped me come up with story premises and gimmicks much faster too. "What's the funniest way I can go about this message?" "What's a fun and intriguing premise that will not only entertain others, but can get people to listen to what I'm trying to say?"
MEDAKA BOX MY BELOVED!! i get so excited whenever i hear other people mention it. a friend showed it to me when i was first starting high school and i have not been able to shut up about it since lol.
A already typed like 2 paragraphs of random stuff so here's some actual potential writing advice to hopefully actually help you out.
1. If you are struggling to come up with interesting powers/magics or power/magic systems sometimes it can help you to try to ask how they emphasize or supplement the themes of the story or to take a more metaphorical approach with them. Is creativity a major part of your story? The power of human intellect? Courage? Dare I even say, friendship(the holy grail of all powers)? The best example of this is probably Fullmetal Alchemist and its relationship between alchemy/science and the human soul among other things/ JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is probably one of the ultimate examples even if it can play fast and loose with some of its abilities. Josuke's Crazy Diamond can restore things because despite how violent he can be he is a truly kindhearted person. However, how powerful his stand can be and how it can distort things instead of restoring them properly when he's upset is a pretty good representation of how he's not a pushover. What I'm saying is sometimes it helps to try to turn themes or metaphors into a power(which is a pretty basic advice I guess). Yes, it is possible to worldbuild too much but sometimes where the worldbuilding ends and where say the character arcs or even characters themselves as well as the rest of the story start can become blurred, and it is possible to use that to your advantage if you know what you are doing. I should mention this advice is mostly for if you find yourself struggling or stuck on coming up with powers specifically and I just find it helps me personally. Also, sometimes the answer will be tied to more story or narrative needs as opposed to this tip if you have already started writing.
2. Also, for me personally having long detailed character or world bibles is extraordinarily helpful because it helps keep me consistent and prevent me from contradicting myself as well as give me a better feel for what I'm writing to let everything connect better(with a lot of interesting details." But this tip isn't saying "make a story bible" what this tip is actually saying is that if you are someone who makes/uses these things you don't need to include all of it in the actual story. It's sort of like how just because you can't see all the parts of a computer doesn't mean it's not there or not doing its job, the same goes for story bibles and stuff sometimes. The audience doesn't need to see the wiki's worth of information for it to be aiding the story or to be a cool detail/reference on later viewings. Something can be there just for you(as the writer) to use. Araki's "Manga in Theory and Practice" does a pretty good job of explaining this in its own way. It's important to remember that just because something doesn't make it onto the page, whether due to being for something else or because it was scrapped, doesn't mean it wasn't useful, had no impact, or can't be used later.
3. Also, when it comes to power scaling not every fight needs to represent power scaling since not every fight is fair. There are who knows how many different factors and who knows how many ways to win. Someone might say "they only won because the other person didn't sleep that night" or they were sick or something and that's not necessarily a bad thing and it can really add to the story. It is totally possible for a writer to say A is technically more powerful/better than B and still have B win a fight without conflicting with that statement. Whether that win came from a personality flaw or some external factor. You don't need to hold yourself to a rigid tier list where anyone who is below someone on the list can never beat them. Just because someone is #1 at chess does not mean they have never or cannot be beaten. It just means they are more likely to win than everyone else. That's also why at the end of the day the person who wins is who the writer says will win according to Stan Lee. You can beat someone without being better than or more powerful than them. If Krillin ever beat Goku that doesn't necessarily mean that Krillin is stronger than Goku just that he beat him in that instance. Things like this are not a zero-sum game.
holyy shitt it's the bois that... uh they did the thing! my favourite thing doing bois!
I know that I’m putting an apple on my chest when I say this. But I’ll say it anyway. Every time I hear someone complains about the presence of messages/themes in a story is either a) a rightwing reactionary who thinks that a story’s theme is an equivalent to an agenda, b) an illiterate and inexperienced idiot who hijacks literary criticism and warps it into a shallow, strictly binary way of thinking, or c) the usual convergence, both. There’s a large difference between a story that explores themes of friendship, love, and loss, and *name any project by Ayn Rand that wasn’t driven by agenda.*
One observation I have (not nessacerily advice) if you only like one piece within a genre then consider what makes that one piece different from it's genre, it might just be sentimentality that sets it apart but if it's possible that that in examining what you enjoy in a genre you don't that you can identify a core component of your own preferance and writing style. If you've only ever enjoyed one from com in your life for example then find out what made that rom com subversive. Generally if something seems unique among it's piers then it's for a reason
i would only say one problem with the 2 people rule is that with works that have smaller casts of characters (& shorter works in which smaller casts are sometimes a better idea) it does get harder to implement the 2 person rule. epsecially since sometimes i think the villain/antagonist/etc being a more priviliged group may be beneficial to ur theme. but in that case maybe be more specific with your representation and try to represent a few groups well in your work and center that a little more instead of trying to cover a lot of different identities and such that you may not fall under in your work. idk
It works to avoid bloat the biggest example is basically Marvel/DC comics there are a lot of unused characters. Yet the freshest one in people's minds is basically Naruto. One Piece kinda has this yet is willing to give a lot of characters their flowers. Back to Naruto when you have a side cast more interesting than the main cast you might have a problem. When a lot of female characters just show up get a peekaboo at their coolness then either killed off or shelved it sucks
I feel like in this case it might be best to come up with the two characters then condense and reconcile their disparate traits into one. people are multitudes, after all lol
@@smidlem1117 also a very good point, i agree
Little sad I never got to share. Are you ever going to do this again?
Henry exposed me for being a Meduka Meguca fan help!!! 🗿
ok not to sound like a physics major (which i am) but my advice for anyone looking for ideas while writing sci-fi is to learn about actual science because some really cool and new story ideas have come to me during class. For example, you would not realize that you passed the event horizon of a black hole (point of no return to get sucked in) and an observer watching something go into a black hole would see its colour shift red and become dimmer before disappearing, but most importantly time would slow down for the object falling into the black hole. You could combine this into an agonizing death scene where the crew of one ship has to watch the last moments of their sister ship for an extended period of time while the other crew seems unaware of their fate before the whole ship fades away like a dying candle.
i would also reccomend researching science history too. because science is way more prone to change than the general public gives it credit for and we got a lot of things wrong (somethings are probably wrong now). Some cool ideas can come from taking dubunked theories to their natural conclusion. we have alternate history why not alternate science? For example, there was a theory that there was a planet named Vulcan (i am also an astronomy major) which had an orbit to the Sun that was closer than Mercury. and that is rad as hell and i would totally read about vulcan the inferno planet.
That's honestly how I work my magic/power system by looking into sciences to then twist them in a way that makes sense. It's always better to break something once you understand how it works.
4:57 This used to be an issue for me a lot. I just don't have the sort of time or energy I need to really properly give all the feedback I promise my friends, but i often found I was still asking them to look at mine. I had to admit that I wasn't in a good enough place to ask for what I couldn't reciprocate, and asked less. Now I mostly try to give feedback instead of ask for it, and will maybe steadily build up some credit that way for the future.
As soon as I get a job, I'm going to join the Patreon, because I LOVE Killer Bean.
Remember, they are beans.
@@etharchildres3976actually coffee beans are more like the pits of the fruit.
don't be afraid to experiment with your inspirations. a ton of great ideas come from what fufilling what you feel you are missing when you consume media. if you have an idea mid-writing of a direction to take your plot which differs from popular tropes, explore it! if your story feels innovative, fresh, and interesting to you then others may feel the same way.
Around the point when you are talking about Critcial Drinker and how he mentions the message, It does sound silly even if Hollywood is in America would there be "The Message" in Bollywood?
Looking back I have commented about the west before, and have made attempts to narrow it down to America mainly, since Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand etc have their differences and similarities.
I think what Critical Drinker is doing is summing everything up as "The message" which involves hating on White, straight and Christians. By no means a CD Stan, youtubers do have their subjective and objective views based on Experiance or what they see happening.
A unrelated video idea: I'd like to see your take on a youtuber who made a video about Millenial Writing.
Christians in American and the UK seem to have a hate boner for trans people enough that they're punishing them for existing lately so maybe they have a point. CD still whines about The Last Jedi to this very day.
@@falconeshield
Because it's a very bad movie and Hollywood media suck these days.
@@falconeshield The irony is it breaks down into two factions of white people hating each other and themselves. All the while dragging everybody else into the pyre they built. It gets REALLY lame just seeing these idiots take shots at each other and then look at other people for their approval.
15:03 he has a Podcast, what do you guys think about that? I’m curious to know.
Oh hey that's my friend Sanban! 22:11 also fun fact that's my art in the pfp, I made it for their birthday.
Small internet!
Honestly, Will Jordan (Critical Drinker) fails for much of the same reason a lot of other terminally online critics fail (i.e. your Jonathan Rozanskis, your Lily Orchards, your Bob Chipmen, etc.); it’s because they all dedicate way too much of their time to petty social media fighting, which invariably takes the conversation away from the work at hand and places it on their egos. It’s nigh-impossible to take a given assessment seriously knowing that they were formed with the goal of trying to get the last word in some trivial internet argument.
If you dedicate your artistic portfolio to that kind of squabbling, you’ll probably end up with something that is invariably dated to the exact second you release it, making it incomprehensible to anyone who didn’t see the drama play out in real time (which will end up being most people in the grand scheme of things).
That and coquetting with an audience that does not want critical engagement, just anger( regarding critical drink)
Writing sentences everyday until can see how to improve output like professional writers do.
Would appreciate your stances on this.
22:47 Now I normally would agree with this point and I do agree most of the time people who think like this are failing to realize they aren't the only ones releasing their art into the world...but at the same time, I don't think it's wrong for a marganilized group to be fearful of writing about their own stories or wanting to explore something they have experienced and fearing pushback that has already happened to someone else is unreasonable. With what happened to Isabel Fall or Zoey Quinn, I would never be able to fault a trans woman for maybe wanting to step away from the game due to how horrificially they both have been treated with barely any empathy oncesoever.
I made this comment already but I think it disappeared, so here we go again.
A good example for not consuming to much of the stuff you want to write about is the current isekai trend where every year there are a couple that are trying to be different because they are just repeating the same trips in a self referential way instead of actually doing something new and innovative or even interesting.
I also want to add, that there can be a big difference between a singular message and a text having meaning.
I love the isekai/transmigration/reincarnation genre, but it is so saturated with crap that sorting through is a pain in the tush. Then again, it follows the old rule that 90% of everything is crap. I've also run into many that had a very interesting start concept, but the author falls into the hole of copying all the same tropes in the genre, making it uninteresting and cliché.
I plan on writing a few stories that use isekai/transmigration as a background trope instead of the overarching genre. The trope should be tool for the writer to create an interesting story, and the author should be encouraged to explore the more absurd possibilities of different worlds.
My advice regarding redemption arcs: They aren't a bad thing and having multiple in one story ALSO isn't bad. A wealth of redemption arcs in other people's stories isn't a reason to not have one in your own. Do you need to redeem villains? No. Do you need to punish them? Still no. You can do both, but you don't need to. People can change and grow in real life, and villains don't always suffer the fate they probably deserve. You can write that into your story, but the real mistake would be to not do anything interesting with it. Obviously, some characters may be upset that these reformed villains aren't being punished, and the villains will likely struggle with learning how to be better and developing better habits. Just think about how your (hopefully well-defined) characters would handle a situation like that and you're golden
This goes for all tropes and writing tools, don't be afraid to use it in your story, just use it with purpose.
28:06 Anyone know the name of the rest he's talking about? Sounds really helpful.
represntation CAN be forced. it all depends on your setting. however most settings are more diverse than people think and if there can be a minority represnted, there should be. for example for a story set in london it makes sense for there to be poc, because 46% of london's population is not white and there are plenty of reasons why a poc would be in london, however for a story set in rural estonia there are less reasons for poc to be there. of course there could be, but it might come off as forced because even the only big town here is whiter than our winter.
You guys should make a writing advice advice video, advice about giving writing advice
MEDAKA BOX MENTIONED?!?!
It's so rare to see. Amazing...
Thank God, not everyone has forgotten about Medaka Box
As a fellow writer, I understand the importance of having knowledge of music theory. While it may not directly benefit those who don't write music, it does make a valid point. It can be frustrating when collaborating with fellow musicians who have limited understanding of music theory. Taking the time to learn the basics and familiarize oneself with the terminology can greatly improve communication and facilitate the creative process. It can be challenging to decipher instructions like "play three notes up from the 5th fret, then wait a few seconds before playing that specific riff." Clear and precise communication regarding musical elements enhances collaboration and ensures everyone is on the same page. And also "do it with less suck" is not helpful criticism!
I say it's good to take some inspiration from reality. Weather it be from Sociology, Phycology, History or even the the people you interact with.
this writing advice is more for hobbyist like me than ppl who want to write as a job. but you don't have to show anyone your writing. if something is your baby or it's a collection of your controversial fave tropes (my current WIP) or you're just not yet confident enough for critism in any capacity, don't feel pressured to share. it can just be for you to read. and any writing is practice, so you will be building on your skills for when you DO want to share your writing.
19:39 Martin Scorcese is actually reediting his next movie for this very reason, as hes been consulting members of a native american group on what they dont wanna see in their representation.
I saw the tip about power scaling, and I just want to say that seven deadly sins should not have introduced numerical power level thing. king explaining the influence of the weapon by comparing it to a lake was such a cool scene. that way of explaining strength was so interesting and immersive. the pig getting the thingamajig and starting to see numerical power level of each character completely fucked up my immersion and it got worse when melodias got 10x power boost after an episode of trying to get it. first season of SDS is good, stuff after ain't it.
One issue I've noticed about writing about other cultures is that you may aim to represent a specific country well, but then the Diaspora take it poorly, and vice versa. Like, Kamala Khan is popular with Pakistani Americans, but much less so in Pakistan itself, to my knowledge. If TV Tropes is to be believed - take it with a grain of salt. Ghost of Tsushima is popular in Japan but I have seen Japanese Americans that dislike it. Crazy Rich Asians also had its detractors in Singapore where it failed to show just how diverse it was - because it was meant to be a film that appealed to Asian Americans first and foremost.
I think there's nuance to this of course. Just because a country likes a thing doesn't invalidate the criticisms of the diaspora and vice versa. And there's so many reasons for that that I must resist getting into it now, or I'll be here for another hour.
I will also say, I hold people today to a higher standard than people even a hundred years ago when it comes to representation because we've had so long to talk about it and the internet that there's much less excuse to heck up and be stereotypical and misrepresent people. Like there's stuff in the past from well meaning people that is cringe but it's hard to hold it against them given the context and limitations of the time.
Bruh theme is literally the whole point of telling a story at a fundamental level 🙄
goated series
do not mention goat on this channel or else
the wendig.
The wendig. He horngers.
East vs West is a cool theme for a season of Death Battle, not a good world view.
This will be a fun yet specific writing tip: If you are planning on creating an ARG/unfiction project and you want to complete it, you might need an outline or a lore Bible for the project. The only exception will come in the form of Easter eggs for those pesky ARG fans.
Signed,
An ARG fan that wants to make an ARG 😅
Here's my attempt at more writing advice, here goes. (Again sorry I work in multiple mediums besides just writing, so forgive me if these aren't 100% about writing, and more about general creative practices)
Good comedy requires that you respect the intelligence of your audience. That's why the quickest way to ruin a joke is by explaining it, and cliche or overused jokes can be so patronizing for a discerning audience.
Creativity, like it or not, is still work. That's why so many animators took issue with Corridor's AI animation campaign. They want to make animation "accessible to anyone" when it's already been that way for fucking ages now. Free high-quality animation software exists, just look at Krita, and the same is true for every other creative medium under the sun. Literally anybody can make life-changing works of art, just just need to put in the fucking work to get there.
(sidebar I think the funniest meme to come out of the CD AI debacle is the Puss in Boots "pick it up", but replacing the sword with a Wacom pen)
Also fuck anyone who gives you shit for analyzing the form and themes of a comedy/entertainment piece. *All* enduring forms of media, even our entertainment, will have something meaningful to say about the human condition, even when it isn't shoving its message in your dumbass face.
Two Professon Writers react to David Lynchs writing advice when?
I like listening to the two profesional writes playlist ocasionaly cause it's great background noise for gaming and you two are genuinely very cool and funny guys but I booted up minecraft just as you gus said ''if you're somebody who plays minecraft all day and eats popsicles'' I emmiatelly felt the psychic backlash I slammed my head against my RGB keyboard as my face was hit by rainbow lightning and cut to pieces with the fury of the keys, and my soul was shook, I am only left with a feeling of emptiness sadness and regret, no bitches I am stacking no paper and now, I've been told.
15:38 shoutout to Henry for referencing the greatest tiktok of all time.
I thought the Thumbnail was Ethan Becker for a second and I thought
"Why would the two professional writers talk about an animator"
37:59 - This advice reminds me of the big reason why I hated playing Sacred 3.
On the surface, the plot summary sounds like a typical fantasy story were we have heroes trying to save their world from evil forces, and even the visuals and some of the overall feel of the game reflects that. But them you hear the characters talk and it's a non-stop barrage of bad jokes that I imagine even the characters from the MCU would cringe. And it also doesn't help that you can choose a spirit to enhance your weapon, and the very first you get specialises in doing the worst sex jokes I've ever heard ever. It was so bad that I barely started the game and decided to drop it instantly. If they decided to play the generic "good vs. evil" trope straight, I don't think I would've had that problem ironically enough. (and there's also the fact that the game is a bastardized version of the older games, which were more like Diablo in gameplay, but I didn't mentioned that because I've never played the older games, and I'm judging it by it's own merits)
wonderful video. i am now inspired to write my naruto fanfiction