60499
I need some opinions.
I'm making a series of creations for the PCG involving how we're setting up our stories. Basically, it a combination of a meeting room for authors to make sure our plots don't step on each other combined with the knowledge I've gained about writing, lessons that many of the budding writers on the lab would do well to heed. However, for these I need names for these "series". Here's the ideas I have so far:
Overall series title:
Authors' Saving Throws/The Writer's Workshop/The Story Spot/Writing the Universe/The Writers' Roundtable
The series titles of each subsection is a pun off of one of the three great challenges faced by any author. The image would show an imposing obelisk with the name of the obstacle on it, with some letters crossed off and new ones added as if with a bucket of paint or a red editor's pen.
*Writer's Block-->Writers Rock!/Writer's Blocks (this topic would be a place for writers to throw around ideas for stories they'd like to see but don't have time to write, as well as little plot hooks in their own stories that other authors could weave into their stories, to unify all the stories into one world, where events in each story affect the others.)
*The Plot Hole-->The Plot, Whole (this topic would be for authors to list major events that would affect the PCG-verse and other authors' stories, allowing discussions to take place before people get upset. It would also help to patch up plot holes generated by conflicting narratives, and would also be an ideal launching point for the PCG's long-discussed efforts to list a concrete PCG chronology.)
*The Empty Page-->
I don't have a good title for this. This topic would be a spot for sharing tips with other authors. Specifically, I would break my own contributions into the following sub-sub-categories:
-#Trekniques: Tips for writing a story with that unique "Star Trek" flavor. Would include explanations of the more common tropes, as well as brief summaries of the major events of the Trek universe that all characters (and thus, authors) should know.
-#Mellow Drama: Tips for creating tension (a vital ingredient in any story) through character interaction, rather than tired cliches (i.e. "The Giant Space Monster appeared! Go, [insert
pokemon starship here]!"). This would also cover why excessive angst is not a substitute for genuine tension between character (this would also overlap with Fail or Stale below).
-#Fail or Stale: Why characters must fail for a story to be interesting, and how they should fail. A very complex topic that a LOT of authors miss. This would also cover why characters' choice should have consequences (and some of them bad), and why excessive angst over a success with bad consequences is not a substitute for having characters fail outright.
-#Straw, Paper, Plastic, Granite: Four ways to write a bad character; these are things you want to
avoid. (The name is a pun on "Straw Man," a discredited characterization technique (at least in drama), and the other substances represent other characterization flaws (two-dimensional, too flexible [lack of characterization], and too hard [lack of character development/sticks too close to an established personality]).)
These are all WIP names, and I need better suggestions. Also, a nice image (one that also ties into LEGO) would be much appreciated.
