on the verge of something wonderful...

[harpergrey]

This was gonna be a comment in response to a post totchipanda made, but it started to get more introspective than comment-y (and also super long), so I figured I'd post it all here instead

Comments

[harpergrey]

I'm with you 100%. I love to cook, but I don't ever want to get a job that involves cooking either. And there's something to be said for creative people having a day (or evening, haha!) job and spending time in that world, because it's too easy to get lost inside your own head. I've seen it happen to people -- I lived it myself for a while -- and it really isn't okay. If you don't ever challenge yourself, take a risk, do something that isn't comfortable, you don't ever learn anything about yourself. And then your characters don't come across as real people, because you don't have any idea what real people look or act like. Which gives us a completely different perspective from those writers who've never done anything but write. I think our writing is better for it, but of course I'm going to be biased. ;)

And as for the RP, all you can do is keep on trying and see if they come back. Which is so much more painful than it sounds like it should be. :(

[harpergrey]

Yeah, it's pretty much that girl I used to hang out with all the time as well. And I'm with your RP partner on trying new things -- partly so that I know whether or not I like them, and partly so that either way, I can write about them.

I've had times where I agonize about not writing as much as I used to (and not RP-ing at all), but I don't think I'll ever really lose my characters either. (Ask Nikki about my quality freak-outs on that score sometime, haha.)

[foolishcurse]

A-men to that! (and I'm not religious XD)

I'm actually of the opinion that [generalizing] the more money something makes the less creative it really is. Using video games as an example it's actually ridiculous how many male protagonists in existence are gruff, dark haired and stubbly. The big companies think that in order to appeal to a large audience they have to only draw from a tiny pool of inspiration and thus it stagnates.

Sorry, got a bit carried away :)

[harpergrey]

I think that you're right. Absolutely.

Those who market creativity (not to be confused with those who actually generate creativity) are working under the assumption that audiences like a pattern. Look at the recent massive booms in first-person supernatural-romance fiction, or bands that are exactly like Nickelback. You get a few innovators, then a whole bunch more who are just following the trend and being marketed for it because those first couple of innovators eventually caught on and sold well. And because the market is glutted with all of these carbon-copies, people think that they're being given a choice. Except that there's a difference between the choice of a black cat or a grey cat, and the choice of a black cat or a snowy owl. Or a turnip. Or a box of sand. Which doesn't sound as though it makes sense, but it makes sense to me. I just can't explain how.

I see this pseudo-emphasis on innovation everywhere, but it's innovation-within-a-framework. Which is more like "how can we repackage this so it looks different" rather

[foolishcurse]

I think I'll have to go with the turnip here. But only if it's blue ;)

Rambling is awesome! Keep it up!

[dobbin477]

Exactly! :)