Lantz's Q and A thread

[lantzblades]

You aren't paying attention names. In the RP Satoshi was constantly building as his OCD compels him to do. It was only after leaving the castle that he stopped constantly fulfilling that need. In addition OCD is not something that is of one specific strength for everyone, if that were the case everyone with an Obsessive compulsive disorder would be unable to do anything but fix whatever it is that bothers them.

Satoshi is not sporadic in his disorder it simply comes in waves rather than being a hammer. It builds slowly until it becomes unavoidable.

Satoshi is not a self insert. The only self inserts I do are for humor and are blatantly named Lantz and are used to poke fun at things or establish meta premises.

heroes in general are wish fulfillment period. Lifes bites the big one, terrible people and things are rampant in the real world, heroes are supposed to be the guys that step above that and uphold the basic goodness that people are supposed to have to begin with.

the best of humanity, the ones who fight for the betterment of people. That's the extent of wish fulfillment in my writing. I wish for people to be the best they can.

and fyi names I never berated them for liking the game or the gundam series of their choice. I was simply stating my opinion and explaining it. I said before anyone can like what they want, I would never say otherwise. I just don't lie about what I see in a particular work. Gundam 00 sucks and the gundam franchises are basically incompatible due to ideals and histories. Like 00 if you like, ff13 is the same, like it, just don't try to make me like it. My opinions may be set and immovable, even a little clinical at times but they are not berating or angry.

[Arch-Magos Winter]

Still waiting on that update. Wow, for a story you've already typed out, you seem to take a long time in posting it.

[lantzblades]

I never said that

[Arch-Magos Winter]

You have said several times -

"It's all written out already"

"I don't edit anything after it's written"

and so on and so forth.

[lantzblades]

Not quite, I said it's finished, it's something different than written out. I stated quite a number of times that technical errors have forced me to retype things (not to mention the format change added recently which changes chapter one into chapter fifteen) and further given your obviously malicious interest in the project I fail to see the point in hurrying on your account.

I have a real life beyond the internet, I can't spend everyday writing and even if I could I can't neglect my other subjects beyond fan fiction. Deal with it or don't, either way you'll have to wait.

[Kat]

"I don't edit anything after it's written"

Editing and proofreading before publishing is one of things that every writer must do, so failing to do that means one is not giving a damn about writing, indeed.

[Cherry Lover]

Well, he does certainly send it for beta-reading at least. The version that he posts on the forum is after that point, though.

[lantzblades]

X you are, like Arch, ignoring the context and meaning of my statement. It does not refer to basic editing, it refers to altering the plot, intent, theme and purpose of the work. I will not edit or alter those, beta reading and proofreading I always do however.

[Arch-Magos Winter]

If the concept of a story is bad, no matter how good the writing is, it will be considered a bad story. Basic grammar helps but your formatting needs serious work.

Of Swords and Sorcery is one of those concepts that should have been strangled in its crib. It relies on too many deus ex machina's right from the get go (a trio of them), has a very horrid main character who seems to be unable to actually express emotion at all or understand the emotions of others, and the traits that he supposedly has never pop up when in reality they should. When a story from the get go is this crippled, it'd take a masterful author to raise it from "Needs to be deleted" to "Passable" and frankly Lantz, you are no where close to being a masterful author.

On the subject of theme, I can't see a single one in "Of Swords of Sorcery," aside from 'You should like Satoshi he is awesome guys,' which is also the intent apparently. When you write fanfiction centered around an OC, there's always this risk of something along these lines but this can be avoided by making the OC fit the universe and an actually likable character. Satoshi is neither of these two things, and in fact seems to be designed to do neither of those things. Satoshi is the main problem with 'Of Swords and Sorcery' and is the main reason the story doesn't work. If he was made less unbelieveable and less Gary Stu OC Donutsteel, he could work, but it'd involve some serious reworking of the character from the ground up.

By refusing to actually change anything about your story or characters you are committing the equivalent to taking a shotgun, blowing off both your feet, and kneecapping yourself, before blowing off a hand and then using the other hand to hack that arm off with a buzzsaw, then chaining yourself to a cinderblock and throwing yourself off a bridge into deep water. This is where your story could have seriously used outside feedback (though considering how stubborn you are I doubt you'd have actually even listened.) At this point, I'm questioning why I'm even bothering to point this all out.

[Andoriol]

While I feel Arch-Magos is a bit harsh, I can't disagree with his core point.

Swords and Sorcery would work better if both Satoshi and the plot had gotten some reworking from the ground up. While not extreme amounts of revision, the changes would be fundamental.

Hell, I've rewritten the basic outline of my own story from the ground up four times now based on input from others and I'm happier with the results so far.

[lantzblades]

Arch is simple ignorant and arrogant. He is free to have his opinion, and I am free to ignore it. Simply put I don't care what he thinks because as far as I am concerned he is wrong.

[YOLF]

Arrogance can go both ways, lantz. And disagreeing with an opinion is fine. Ignoring objective points because as far as you're concerned a certain person is always wrong for not sharing your view of things... is not, I'd say.

[Cherry Lover]

OK, as per Lantz's request (via Skype), I'm locking the thread.

[Arch-Magos Winter]

Locked? Really, Lantz is going out of his way to avoid getting any sort of constructive criticism.

[Cherry Lover]

Arch, the fact that we managed to fail at locking the thread due to doing it simultaneously doesn't mean we're OK with you posting in it. If someone says "thread locked", that kind-of means "don't post", even if you find that you somehow can.