It is no big surprise when I'd say that writing is one of my passions. Journalism (Journalist, etc.), Media-Journalism (TV presentator, Radio DJ, etc.) and novelist are three parts of the writing part. I enjoy all three of them. I am intending to study journalism (and if it is of the same level, preferrable Media-Journalism), but because of a school-system out here, I won't be able to for at least... 3 to 7 years. But that's a price I am more than willing to pay. In the mean time, I continue to write... in English.
As some may perhaps know, I am a member of several forums to write stories. The most successful story I've posted on the Warcraft forums is If, and only if, a story about the history of someone in a fantasy world I created. That person is called 'Lince,' which to those who know me longer is also the last name of my nickname (Fladian Lince, red.). The story is heavily unfinished and even though Winged spoiled that I finished a new part of it, it is still not even close to being finished. The source of inspiration to write it has been long gone too, which is causing the slow progress.
However, If and only if is only the most successful story on the Warcraft forums, not necessarily at other places too. There are better stories from me at other places, but it is true that If and only if is the longest.
In all honestly, I've never taken the contests on the Warcraft forums too seriously. Mostly because the people around are not really dedicated to it (which is not meant as an offense), which is only logical because it is a Warcraft forum. Therefore, I concentrate mostly on two specific other contests (one monthly). Even though I would love to say that I usually end up high and I am one of the better writers, I am (by far) not. I got lucky once and won second price at a contest, but I am not sure if that was luck or pure quality. I've been trying to search in that story what exactly made me win that price (despite the explanation; I am not a real good jury). All in all, I remain happy with it.
I enjoy reading their stories as well, especially of one person in particular. His story, Tomboy (School / Romance / Humor; it's about a guy that falls in love on a girl who's gay) which is about five times the size of If, and only if (maybe a bit exxagerated, but it can't be much less), is my favorite amateur story and I've joined several contests before he joined as well. I never really got any honors in those; I am quite annoyed by that too, to be honest.
Anyway, a little while ago (right before my writer's block) I noticed an increasement in critique on my stories. Not just the average kind which I am used to, but obvious mistakes and an overdose of useless information which all became clear to me when it was pointed out. Because of that, I tried a new style of writing and a completely different genre. But before I got a start with that, I experienced yet another writer's block which seemed to last an eternity. When I (finally) broke it, I managed to get a little work done; but I was mostly busy with school work. The work I got done though, If I am not mistaking, I posted several (new) stories out here too. Soldier's Love and another one was out here. Both were (eventually) not as successful as I hoped it to be. Those on other forums were even worse. Soldier's Love might be the best attempt of them all, unfortunately.
Monster (Dr. Tenma)
Out of pure desperation, I stopped writing and reading for a little while a bit wondering what I was doing wrong as the ideas, or concepts never really seemed flawed to me, so it has to be the writing style itself. A year ago, or at least something in that range, I started watching the anime series called Monster (http://anidb.info/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=1539) at my brother's place. I am the last person that recommends movies, books, stories or anime. I like all four I just mentioned, but I am not someone who points it to it. Monster is definitely a recommendation from me to just about everyone who writes and is (preferrable) above the age of 18 (no, it isn't adult). The story of Monster is completely based in Germany and Czech Slovakia. Those who are immediately ticked off because it's anime, I can nearly guarantee that you'd easily be fooled as it has only two things in common with the anime itself. The only relation to anime the series has is the fact that it is Japanese spoken and the main character (Dr. Kenzo Tenma) is Japanese. All other characters are usually German, Czech or Turkish. There are a few (minor) exceptions. I often heard complains of people that anime usually let "children/teenagers having the main lead," which is not really the case in Monster. There are in total of 3 (supporting/main characters/single appearance) characters in the series that are in their teenage years. Most characters are 30+ with a few exceptions, ut even then they're still older than I am. The story of Monster makes use of the fear of the mind and is praised by many experienced reviewers.
These are fragments of experienced review writers (which one of them is professional), and three of those fragments written by an anime-basher, which makes me snicker on his reaction about Monster.
As can be seen on the picture above, Monster makes use of a different animation, losing every connection to its original anime. Anime is based on manga, but manga (comic) is usually based on nothing. Monster-anime is based on manga, but that manga is based on a book. According to a few sources I tend to listen carefully to, the English version isn't released yet. I'll be one of the first to buy when it is though, as it is bloody brilliant.
The thing that makes the series that brilliant is the fact that they explore the fears of human beings and the 'villain' of the series is trying something similar as what Hitler was trying to do - and maybe even a step further as he is a result of Hitler's actions.
Monster, Inspector Lunge/Runge (left), Mr. Grimmer (right)
Regardless, that is enough praise from my side. The fact is, Monster made me stop writing. The story is excellent and I couldn't imagine a better one than that (I am afraid of clowns, so I don't really dare to watch the movie 'It' after the two times I've seen it) and it is by far the best what I could name under movies, anime, stories and most likely the book. It is also the first which scared the living shit out of me, next to It and a few other movies (anime and books never really got me that far, though I never read the book of It by Stephen King, my favorite author). But then the question comes: How did that stop me from writing? Quite simple, actually. Let me explain.
Monster made an exceptional use of characters. The characters that are introduced in the second episode (Chapter II) made a reappearance extremely late again, which I didn't recognize if they didn't give a fragment about the past. The use of characters is superb and I've never experienced something similar in my life, and I've read and seen a lot - I'd have to, considering where I am aiming my future for. In all stories I wrote, (serious stories) you could relate it to the title of a song of Panic! At the disco, I write sins, not tragedies, however, for me it's the opposite. I write the tragedies, not necessarily the sins. Human tragedy, that is. But no matter how to achieve that tragedy, I usually aim for the same thing, which is the human mind and choices that a person has to make (the intention was to use it all at once at the story: Whatever walks here... walks alone). Monster beat me to it and actually took a step further than I did. Manipulating the human mind, seeding a plant of fear in by just using words, creating or finding the most important thing for someone and then take it and slowly destroy it and even making perfect use of the trust of people to each other. The last twelve episodes (and chapters) of Monster is about the trust of the human and instinct and finally getting everything and everyone together for a final climax, which is quite simple when thought of it. I will be writing my own part of that some day, as the idea can be used quite easily because it is (honestly) quite a simple chain reaction, but probably the worst scenario chain reaction, which I am convinced what might happen some day in the U.S.A. and a few other places.
However, when I watched the series, I noticed that a lot of what I wrote was connected to each other. I also started to see what those forum members mentioned about my writing style. It is not necessarily the style which is the problem, it is mostly the fact that ideas are being used over and over again until they are dry and yet they keep being used. Yes, that is possible and can be very successful, but not when you are as inexperienced as myself. True, it remains possible then too, but that will requires years of thinking and possibly debating with people who have more knowledge of it.
Panic! At the disco
As the title of the thread says: 'Fladian goes back to basics,' which is exactly what I am going to do. I am going to construct my entire writing style from scratch and I already started with it. Since two days I have been working (nearly non-stop) on a story which seems to be as a very successful one with a completely different style and a completely different subject than I am used to. I won't be able to show it here though, nor or many other forums I am a member of as. You see, I am writing in my home language (Dutch) now to get everything straight. My vocabulary is bigger in Dutch, but my grammar is better in English (there are a few annoying systems in Dutch which I never really controlled, "I have a perfect score for nearly every class, but I nearly failed on the 'd' 't' and 'dt' at Dutch, how stupid is that?" - Erik, a friend), which is not really producing any unexpected problems. I am very satisfied about this story, but I am not even halfway. I am aiming for the length of If, and only if, but I have no title for it yet. I am thinking of 'Sister Love' or something like that, but I really have no real idea just yet.
Fiction Factor (one of the books that are for sale)
A mistake I made a lot in all previous stories was my use of characters (or people, if you prefer). I introduced a high number of characters which I plan to use at the start of the story, but as my brother used to say: "I let the story live it's own life," which is a mistake and I think that he made a similar mistake in his own book, which I have yet to read. A lot of other characters are introduced later in the story and there keep coming more and more until I lose complete track of it. FictionFactor (Story Basics) warned for it too, but I was completely convinced that I was able to handle the high use of characters, but oh, I was so wrong. I kept introducing, but I ignored a lot of characters that were earlier introduced. Monster pointed out the perfect use of characters, which is a similar way that FictionFactor tried to describe.
However, there is a story (excluding the short ones) I've written that was successful with an over-dosis of use of characters. That's If, and only if, simple because all characters that are introduced also play a role in that world. All characters that are introduced already have a finished history, so it doesn't really matter if they get much screen time or not, they have everything pointed out already anyway. Not to mention that If, and only if made a use of many different main characters (Lince, Dale, Price, Collins, Herasiel, etc.) and even more supporting characters (Edgardo, Alex, Caitlin, Dir Bridge, etc.), which is obviousely an overkill to remember. FictionFactor mentioned that "at the end of the story, the reader should be able to remember all, or at least most characters." It is no big secret that I am terrible with names, but I remember all names of the characters of Monster (The magnificent Steiner, I wonder if that (German) show existed, hm? Wolfgang Grimmer?) and was surprised when I recognized a few characters who later made a reappearance. ("Oh, Dr. Becker.") I recognized former patients of Dr. Tenma who made a reappearance about 50 Chapters later. I shocked myself that I recognized them both by name (which rarely happens in real life) and face (which rarely happens in movies and anime, as I never bother to remember the non-important supporting cast).
So, what am I going to do now. I am going to study several (very) successful stories of mine, including If, and only if, Hospital Crisis and Who says you can't say no?, which are three of my most successful stories and see if I can increase characters usefulness and possibly decrease the number of people used. Besides that, I am going to study several related subjects to it. There is little to research about If, and only if because it a fantasy story, but Hospital Crisis takes place in a hospital and I know next to nothing about hospital... or at least, not much besides the ordinary. You can come far with common sense, but just common sense is not enough. The story I am currently writing is combined with the advice of three helpful young ladies (*grin*), a girls-forum (don't ask), a girl magazine and a relation-whatever-it-is. I must admit that I like the first and last one I mentioned. Before anyone is going to ask if this is personal interest, no, the story I am currently writing is revolving the life of a young girl (below 18, or teenaged for that matter), and I am a bit stumped about their interests. Not only were my interests different because I'm a guy, I'm also a small ten years older than the main character and I also had other interests when younger than the average guy too. Writing was a passion at quite an early age for me.
I will, however, post new stories from time to time when I feel like it - or whenever it is necessary. And I'll probably write a new one once in a while out of pure boredom.
Writing in English is a lot more fun than in Dutch.So, as I said: You can get far with common sense and logics, but you'll reach limits. I reached it.
Thank you for your time.
-Fladian Lince
