The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[sirhugs]

Aren't Hamilton spoilers just...American history?

they are fake American history, modified to be politically correct (what the current regime calls "woke", but that's anopther forum)

 

[cw5523729]

Aren't Hamilton spoilers just...American history?

Hey, hey, I'm reading about the Civil War right now. Don't spoil the ending for me, it's riveting.

 

[iwatchus]

I started a thread about this, but apparently everyone is ignoring new bug threads.

The site has started misrendering stories. @onehitwanda reported this earlier today, but I've discovered at least three different issues with rendering that I believe are new in the last few days.

Wanda reported, and I have confirmed in my winter event story, that section breaks are randomly being dropped. This makes my story far less readable. I had two people report this to me (one via DM in AH and one in a comment) in the last few days but I didn't understand what they were telling me.

They also have stopped italicizing block quotes (although they still are indented).

I also have a random s appended to the name of chapter 1 in the story (not in the original and pretty sure I would have noticed when I opened the story when it first appeared).

I am seriously considering pulling all my stories down until the rendering is fixed.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Yeah I noticed that all my stories are missing their section breaks.

 

[iwatchus]

they are fake American history, modified to be politically correct (what the current regime calls "woke", but that's anopther forum)

I don't want to turn this into a politics discussion, but the musical is based on a well-regarded biography of Hamilton by Ron Cherrow. It did not take particularly more liberties with the history than any other musical ever does.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The problem for me with the original version of this song, Guns N Roses is that Axl Rose's voice is strained to the point it sounds painful to me. I actually like this one better.

Sexy polka battle. I'm in:

 

[TheRedLantern]

The problem for me with the original version of this song, Guns N Roses is that Axl Rose's voice is strained to the point it sounds painful to me.

Agree without qualification! It's a great song, thank you Guns N Roses for writing it, and it has been done very interestingly by other artists. This is an acoustic version by singer and guitarist Chloe Le Page. It's my favorite version of the song.

 

[TheLobster]

I started on my Valentine's Day story. I actually got the idea from some other thread here, where there was a talk about people being each other romantic "backups". But the details of the plot aren't too important for now (most of them don't exist anyway; outlining is outside of my kinks).

I also settled on trying out a (semi-)peripheral PoV, where the PoV character is not the main character, because I feel it will be the best perspective to tell this tale. But again, that's not too important for now.

What is the point is that I stumbled upon some writing advice video which discussed various PoVs, and which contained a fascinating idea about the third person present tense. I'm usually not a fan of narrating in the present, because reading I feel like I'm being hurried by the writer to go faster, but the video convinced me that it is qualitatively different from 3P past in meaningful ways. The present tense gives the story a vibe of being told without the characters' consent, maybe even against their will, as if they didn't have a say in whether it's gonna be told or not.

3P past definitely does not have that vibe, and so it got me intrigued. Such 'forcefulness' would fit my VD story, so I was eager to try it out and see how it flows.

....Yeah, no. I balked after like 200 words Present tense just doesn't jive with my style at all, or at least 3P present doesn't. The moment I had to veer into some background info and a smattering of exposition, I realized there is a tremendous value in how past tense narration allows you to blend the narrative "now" with the narrative "abstract". When you narrate in the present, you just don't have such freedom, because everything is either now or in the past. Maybe you can work around this limitation through a clever use of present perfect, but I haven't read enough present-tense fiction to be able to pull off such tricks.

Oh well... At least it was just 200 words, so the change to past tense wasn't too difficult

 

[Z_TheWriter]

I started on my Valentine's Day story. I actually got the idea from some other thread here, where there was a talk about people being each other romantic "backups". But the details of the plot aren't too important for now (most of them don't exist anyway; outlining is outside of my kinks).

I also settled on trying out a (semi-)peripheral PoV, where the PoV character is not the main character, because I feel it will be the best perspective to tell this tale. But again, that's not too important for now.

What is the point is that I stumbled upon some writing advice video which discussed various PoVs, and which contained a fascinating idea about the third person present tense. I'm usually not a fan of narrating in the present, because reading I feel like I'm being hurried by the writer to go faster, but the video convinced me that it is qualitatively different from 3P past in meaningful ways. The present tense gives the story a vibe of being told without the characters' consent, maybe even against their will, as if they didn't have a say in whether it's gonna be told or not.

3P past definitely does not have that vibe, and so it got me intrigued. Such 'forcefulness' would fit my VD story, so I was eager to try it out and see how it flows.

....Yeah, no. I balked after like 200 words Present tense just doesn't jive with my style at all, or at least 3P present doesn't. The moment I had to veer into some background info and a smattering of exposition, I realized there is a tremendous value in how past tense narration allows you to blend the narrative "now" with the narrative "abstract". When you narrate in the present, you just don't have such freedom, because everything is either now or in the past. Maybe you can work around this limitation through a clever use of present perfect, but I haven't read enough present-tense fiction to be able to pull off such tricks.

Oh well... At least it was just 200 words, so the change to past tense wasn't too difficult

Perspective/tense styles and preferences are interesting. Some writers seem to almost resist using the same one for two stories in a row, while others never ever diverge from their chosen combination.

As a reader, I've always found present tense a bit unreal. Like the entire story is sort of a dream sequence that isn't really happening. I can kinda see the idea of it feeling a bit invasive against the characters though.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I've grown fond of using present tense in either first or third person. But I switch around between past and present tense, and third and first person quite a bit. Not in a story, though.

Perspective/tense styles and preferences are interesting. Some writers seem to almost resist using the same one for two stories in a row, while others never ever diverge from their chosen combination.

As a reader, I've always found present tense a bit unreal. Like the entire story is sort of a dream sequence that isn't really happening. I can kinda see the idea of it feeling a bit invasive against the characters though.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Perspective/tense styles and preferences are interesting. Some writers seem to almost resist using the same one for two stories in a row, while others never ever diverge from their chosen combination.

As a reader, I've always found present tense a bit unreal. Like the entire story is sort of a dream sequence that isn't really happening. I can kinda see the idea of it feeling a bit invasive against the characters though.

Invasive against the characters? Like....good for an E/V type story?

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Invasive against the characters? Like....good for an E/V type story?

That's kind of what Lobster was saying, or at least how I read it.
For 3rd person present:

The present tense gives the story a vibe of being told without the characters' consent, maybe even against their will, as if they didn't have a say in whether it's gonna be told or not.

 

[TheLobster]

Here's the video in question. She articulates it much better than I did.

The whole channel seems pretty good overall.

 

[TheRedLantern]

I'm a huge nerd about POV, and I will usually spend a couple of hours turning over in my head whether it's going to be first person present, or third person limited past. Even after I start, sometimes I switch tense and rewrite.

First person present is my default, and I like it because i want the character to get in the reader's face. The character knows if they did a good deed but for selfish reasons, and the reader knows, too. The character's going to have those honest moments where they realize they've been getting in their own way, and it's going to happen while they're naked (sometimes literally) in front of the reader.

Third person is one that I'm starting to develop a new appreciation for. You can get really close to a character, but let them keep that innermost layer secret from the reader. The reader has to guess what's really in their heart. Are they an altrustic person acting for the greater good, or collecting chits that they'll call in later? Either way, the action they take is the same but the character gets to keep their motive hidden.

I'm starting to really use third person for iconic characters whom I want to keep a bit mysterious from the reader, as opposed to my first person characters who pour out their soul in every chapter.

 

[TheRedLantern]

The whole channel seems pretty good overall.

ShaelinWrites is the queen, in my opinion. I found her way way way before I found Brandon Sanderson, and her advice over the years is top notch and practical. And she's always so calm and relaxing to listen to. In general I'd recommend her over even Brandon Sanderson because she's hit just about every topic in writing multiple times and has noted the differences over time. She's been going for so long that she's got something to say to writers at lots of different places in their careers.

 

[TheLobster]

ShaelinWrites is the queen, in my opinion. I found her way way way before I found Brandon Sanderson, and her advice over the years is top notch and practical. And she's always so calm and relaxing to listen to. In general I'd recommend her over even Brandon Sanderson because she's hit just about every topic in writing multiple times and has noted the differences over time. She's been going for so long that she's got something to say to writers at lots of different places in their careers.

She resonates with me because her writing process is very similar to my own. I try not to listen to too much writing advice, but hers and Carl Duncan's are the two channels I subscribe to and can recommend.

 

[sirhugs]

I don't want to turn this into a politics discussion, but the musical is based on a well-regarded biography of Hamilton by Ron Cherrow. It did not take particularly more liberties with the history than any other musical ever does.

what about the racially blind casting?
There's probably a whole generation plus of people outn there thinking that Hamilton was several shades darker then white.

 

[TheRedLantern]

She resonates with me because her writing process is very similar to my own. I try not to listen to too much writing advice, but hers and Carl Duncan's are the two channels I subscribe to and can recommend.

Because of her, I get snobby too and like the term "discovery writer." It makes it feel like it's a real process that you've experimented with, and that you know where to trust yourself.

 

[ColtonWrites]

what about the racially blind casting?
There's probably a whole generation plus of people outn there thinking that Hamilton was several shades darker then white.

If you got so much of your early American history from musicals that you arent aware that Hamilton was a white man, you either didnt go to an American school or something else has gone very, very wrong.

 

[iwatchus]

what about the racially blind casting?
There's probably a whole generation plus of people outn there thinking that Hamilton was several shades darker then white.

Hamilton was mixed race by the standards of the day and not accepted by parts of society. That part is 100% true.

 

[iwatchus]

If you got so much of your early American history from musicals that you arent aware that Hamilton was a white man, you either didnt go to an American school or something else has gone very, very wrong.

Um, he wasn't.

 

[Duleigh]

Today's Craftiness:


A hurricane lantern whipped up on a 3d printer. I made a few changes from the original, it was all supposed to be black, but the Hurricane lanterns I've seen were almost always red. I printed the chimney in transparent filament, and the handles in gray, I think I'm going to give it a wash of matte medium to eliminate the plastic gloss (even though it's matte plastic it still has that gloss) and maybe paint the filler cap a slightly different shade of red to make it stand out. When that's done I'll wrap the tank in pine garland and add a few baubles to add some holiday spirit.

I've got a box full of LED tea lights, I'll print up almost anything I can put those tea lights in.

 

[ColtonWrites]

Um, he wasn't.

White-passing, then.

 

[iwatchus]

White-passing, then.

He was considered Mulatto (from mixed grandparent in Bahamas) He wrote letters to people complaining about facing racism.

EDIT: He was whitewashed by mainstream american history for two centuries.

 

[NotWise]

The Christmas tree's up, the wreath is on the door, and the nutcracker doll is on the coffee table. The tree won't be decorated until tomorrow when the kids come over to do the job.