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Elinor



  • I have no idea what the context of this picture is but I am cackling #iykyk

    Spoiler! :
    Someone would 1000% make a sign like this for one of Cole's concerts but it also fits a scene in the book...


    Image


    Snoink OMG
    5 hours ago


    keystrings ahah since i’m a hockey fan, i have to give context. i’m going to assume that person means cole caufield who’s currently a member of the montreal canadien hockey team (the red jerseys). he’s quite popular as a good young player xD
    4 hours ago

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  • Literally me watching Single White Female this evening

    (I saw this article years ago and I remembered it as 40 minutes but when I clicked there was 50 minutes left in SWF when I clicked to see how much time was left which makes this article even funnier)

    Report: Holy Shit, There Still 50 Minutes Left In Movie

    Spoiler! :
    I emotionally checked out around the 30 minute mark. Bridget Fonda's character (the MC) is very unlikable. She is shallow, materialistic, and a straight up mean girl bitch at several point. She has no redeeming qualities and yet we're still expected to root for her. I almost feel more sympathy for Jennifer Jason Leigh's character (the crazy roommate) and she takes it too far but you could argue that Bridget Fonda leads her there. The movie is listed as a horror/thriller but it's also not scary and ridiculous and campy. It's also very mean-spirited and bullying to people with mental illness.

    I've seen people comparing this to Fatal Attraction, but Fatal Attraction is miles better than this garbage. The thing about Alex Forrest as a character is there are actually people like that in the world, and the movie imo does an excellent job of making you empathize with her even as she does terrible things.

    There's also a lot of unnecessary nudity and just... it is really quite bad on many levels. It honestly got hard to watch at points because the villain is more likable then our sorry excuses for protagonists.

    It's unfortunate because there's so much more that could have been done with the crazy roommate premise.


    I don't know what's with the last few movies I have watched having very unlikable characters with no one really to root for.

    I watched the Blair Witch Project last night and that movie was very good but holy moly I could not stand any of the characters. Heather (the girl in all of the posters/that one clip everyone has seen regardless of how much else you now about the movie, is awful and she would not stop talking. I got to around the 30 minute mark of that movie before I started rooting for The Blair Witch to take them out.

    I could rant more about how Heather is the worst. As a director, she shows a tremendous amount of irresponsibility throughout the events of the film. She endangers her crew on numerous occasions and because she is too blinded by her own ego and ambition. She is also very annoying, complaining about the conditions of the woods when she is supposedly an experienced hiker.

    Fair Play didn't bother me as much because everything had a point and it was very well done, but that movie's two leads were very unlikable and both bad people as well.

    I think I just need a palette cleanser with characters that aren't the worst. I'm trying to watch horror/thriller or otherwise dark movies in October and like... characters who do not suck would be cool.

    That's all.

  • 74 pages into the script of So Long, Farewell. I feel like this draft is a mess and tries to do too much... but we are almost there. The only thing about centering your script around the performance of a popular copyrighted musical is it becomes really difficult to completely write around performances of certain scenes without it being obvious you're writing around them. So I've included certain scenes specifically and I'll deal with the logistics of them later because I want this to be a thing I could feasibly shoot for a small budget.

    I really believe in the core idea of this script, and considering I've been writing about these characters in some sort way or another but never finished anything... to finally have put them in a finished, long form work is really exciting.

    We'll worry about revisions next. ;)

  • Nothing like popping off my phone case to clean/fix some water damage that rendered my touchscreen moot to discover the back of my phone is cracked.

    Good news is I fixed the touch screen issue, but jeez, why is my phone cracked? At least it's not the screen (because I do have a screen protector) and I think it's probably good that I only noticed now (the case is solid and undamaged... though I have to wonder how that works) but I do have to wonder how long it's been like this. I guess this is what you get when you buy cheapo cases on Amazon.

    Actually, now that I think about it, my case was on VERY strongly and I wonder if the pulling is what did it just now, but I've taken it off before and never had an issue. Oh well. I'll live.


  • TW: Sexual Harrassment/Assault

    Spoiler! :
    So, early this afternoon I get a text from one of the group leaders with a picture and the name of a guy, and they go "hey this isn't by chance the guy, is it?" Sure enough, it was. They asked me because apparently, he did this to two other girls who complained and were able to identify him.

    And he didn't just harass me, he was touching me inappropriately and maybe I should have been more adamant that I was uncomfortable and told him to stop but I'd had a couple of drinks at that point, everything was hazy, and I think it was the sudden switch of him seemingly normal to gross that had me in shock. "Assaulted" feels like a strong word to describe what actually happened, but my whole life nothing like this has ever happened to me.

    I'm pretty sure I'm okay, because the group leaders take stuff like this seriously. Unfortunately, he was collecting people's contact info on a note. I gave him my email (don't remember if I did phone number either) pre-realizing he was a creep. I feel like it's probably okay especially because he was drunk too and I unfortunately don't think he's remember this or me, today. His ass is going to get banned from the bar we were at. I'll tell my dad about what happened if I have to or if this dude dares to try and contact me.

    I don't understand what's wrong with people that they think they can treat other people like this. What kind of things have to happen in your life that you think it's okay behavior? Embarrassing for him.

    I'm just really grateful that Boy was there was to help me. I'm not kidding when he said he looked like he was ready to find this guy and fight him. I'm glad that didn't happen because... yeah that would have gotten messy.

    I'm trying not to let it eclipse the rest of the night, but hopefully it'll just be a chill weekend, and I'm glad the group leaders did their due diligence and figured this out.


    alliyah
    Spoiler! :
    Ugh sorry that happened to you! <3 Glad you had some good support / backup though, and hope that is the last you see of him!

    Sep 30, 2023

  • Man our monthly writer's mixers are always a time

    Spoiler! :
    Between this and the one I went to last night, I was starting to feel very socially tapped/overstimulated, but it ended up being okay.

    First of all, my friend is well and he was basically like "the story of why I delayed the move and went AWOL is for another day" and I told him not to worry about it. I'm just glad he made it out here.

    On the bad side of this I was sexually harassed. It wasn't severe, only the man combined gross comments with inappropriately touching me on my arm and shoulders. I think because I had a couple of drinks I didn't react to this as much as I should have, and I wish I'd remembered his name as I he left right after so I didn't have much to give our group leaders. But they both know and hopefully this guy doesn't show up again and try anything with other girls. Apparently a guy was being creepy to another girl and I have to wonder if it was the same one. I think I'm fine, honestly? It was just shocking, especially since the guy seemed normal at first.

    I told Boy what happened and he agreed to stay by my side for the rest of the night (bc we usually mingle and meet people), and I swear, when he I told him he looked like he was about ready to find this guy and fight him.

    At the last one of these things, I talked to an older guy that seemed nice and innocent enough (and honestly, I didn't get any vibes he was hitting on me whatsoever) then he asked me on instagram if I wanted to go for a drink. He was there tonight and I tried avoiding him but then we ended up talking for a little bit. This guy seems to mean well, I think he's just socially awkward. BUT when he was saying goodbye he came up to me when I was with Boy and was like "....Hey, I'm saying goodbye, if that offer for a drink's still up let me know."

    I gave a dismissive "Yeah, sure, will do" because I didn't want to embarrass him in front of Boy, but I hope this man just forgets because I really don't want to have to tell him no a second time and I thought I was clear as possible that I'm not interested in the random man so hopefully he doesn't take anything from it.

    In a possible(?) edition 2 of "Elinor is completely oblivious to when men flirt" another man came up to us, had an awkward conversation with us and after he left Boy goes "man, he was not subtle"

    Me: "???"
    Boy: "Never mind."

    I don't even think that was what happening, but, you a lil jealous there buddy? ;)

    Also, our friend that that confronted me about us last time was super awkward AGAIN when he had gone to ask me something and comically stopped when he saw that the two of us were talking and started walking in the other direction.

    Boy tries to tell him to come join our little circle but our friend was like "nah it can wait" and left.

    It's probably not helping the whispers about us that we were together for most of the night, but frankly I don't really care, I'm just grateful that Boy was there just to be by my side after all of that. He's about to go away for three weeks and then I'm going away for two weeks in November, so we'll probably catch each other again in our overlap. I feel like a lot of it with us right now is timing, and the the timing hasn't been great for one reason or another. Honestly, I'm keeping myself open to meet other people, but the dating apps have been really bad and the guys I've met have been... eh.

    So actually I was talking to a guy for a bit who I thought was kind of cute, but he got distracted by someone, I didn't see him again for the rest of the night, and who do I keep running into but Boy? Seeing him in person always quells any anxieties I have about us, but I don't know. Gut tells me it's not time yet, but will be soon. And yeah, I do really have feelings for him and I want to make sure everything is in its right place.

    eh... it was a good night overall, I'm honestly just feeling very overstimulated, and the crowd (there was A LOT of people there celebrating the end of the strike) and the beer and everything was a lot for my anxiety (and this was before I got sexually harassed).

    Hopefully it'll be a good October, work won't drive me too crazy and I'll stay involved with things. Every day that I'm here has been getting just a little better.

    Sleep first.

  • Michael Gambon, aka Dumbledore, passed away today, and I can't help between Alan Rickman, John Hurt, Robbie Coltrane, and now him, a piece of my childhood is dying each time one of those actors leaves us.

    I'd fallen out of love with Harry Potter long before JK Rowling showed us who she really is, mainly because I moved onto other stories that I felt were better told. As long ago as high school I was of the belief that "well, Harry Potter had its place when I was a kid". Still, if that series did anything for me, it was my training wheels into more complex stories and worlds. Taken completely on its own, I think a lot of aspects of the writing don't hold up, but certain things still do.

    It's hard to state how big of a deal Harry Potter was for my generation. I feel like it's one of those things that will always be timeless but it was one of those things you just had to be there for. (I had a long and very interesting conversation about Harry Potter and fantasy with one of my trans driving students who was also a fantasy writer... I very much appreciated his perspective on how the series itself isn't that inventive in the context of the genre)

    Still, I will never call the series bad. Nothing can take away from the many good memories I have of that series- my favorite is staying up for the midnight release party of Deathly Hallows the night before I left for camp. I spent every spare moment reading the book, and by the end of the week, I'd finished and was known was the "Harry Potter girl".

    And it's hard to put to words how much it feels that something that once meant to so much to you maybe never really existed in the first place.


    winterwolf0100 I’m definitely struggling with his death as well. As a trans person myself, it’s been difficult seeing many of my peers saying things like “if you still enjoy Harry Potter, you’re supporting JK Rowling!” When that isn’t how I feel at all. It was a monumental part of my childhood, one that I can’t just separate from myself because it really built who I am. Seeing that he passed was absolutely heartbreaking, and I still haven’t quite processed it. I just feel kind of empty right now.
    Sep 29, 2023


    Elinor <333
    Sep 29, 2023

  • In today's edition of "unexpected twists"

    A friend of mine that was going to move to LA at the same time as me became a complete ghost come June. We were talking pretty regularly before then about moving and and how excited we were and everything we needed to do to get ready. At the very least, I knew he was still alive because I'd see him be online on discord, but he'd otherwise completely vanished and was not connecting with either me or any of our mutual friends. Again... I'm just glad I had the confirmation that he was literally still alive otherwise that's where my mind would have gone because that's how abruptly he disappeared.

    Either way, I figured I'd let him figure stuff out and I would move on and move out here and not waste my time with people who don't follow through. It was disheartening and sad when it became clear he would not be moving here. Previous to this, he'd also read one of the earlier drafts of AoY and like... apparently finished it, and wrote his notes, but did not send them to me? I asked a few times before I finally gave up, and between that and not moving I figured he had larger commitment issues he needed to work on.

    So, this morning, I get a novel from from him about how he had to delay his move to deal with a consecutive series of family emergencies, but he's here now and I will be seeing him tonight at a social event. I figured something like that might be the case, but I wasn't about to hold my breath. I honestly don't want him to feel like he needs to explain himself, and he can tell me as much as he wants to. I can only imagine the scope of whatever it was that caused him to delay his move and drop off the face of the earth. Apparently he and his girlfriend have been here a few weeks, but he's been on the DL because of the aftershocks of his family emergencies. I just told him "hey, you're here now, that's what matters".

    And yeah, the fact that he didn't send me his notes was annoying, but I'm just going to let that go because that's the least of everything else going on. I empathize with him and everything he went through and the fact that he made it out here in spite of the setbacks. I think I'm just going to not swap anything with him in the future until I can gain a little bit more trust back in that aspect.

    It will be interesting to see how tonight goes. Either way, I'm feeling a lot because this definitely wasn't what I was expecting. I consider myself a fairly forgiving and understanding person, so as long as you try to make things better it will be okay.

    I guess the other thing is it goes to show how easy it is to make assumptions (especially with anxiety) and assume things are personal when they're really not. I've just had so many people drop off the face of the earth and or have a conflict and there's never any follow-up or resolution, and I guess it's nice to be reminded that people do care enough to make the effort to maintain their relationships.


    Snoink I am one of those people who occasionally drop off the map because of anxiety. I just... can't even deal so I just go radio silent. It's a problem. Anyway, if he reached out afterward, he probably does care about maintaining your friendship. Try not to take it too personally. ^^
    Sep 28, 2023

  • I don't want to come across as mean, but --

    I've read enough bad scripts as a coverage analyst, enough so that I've noticed patterns, and I'm sure a lot of this applies to novels too.

    There's one script that has a really interesting idea (a 30 minute short about a couple is going to hike at a sketchy place) but it's completely ruined by the dialogue in the ENTIRE SCRIPT being the "As You Know" trope. A lot of these scripts are BAD. The coverage company knows this because they constantly shade the writers in their emails to us, this was one gem:

    We are seeing some on the team scoring almost every script at the 8-9 range. We only wish those were accurate scores...but most of the time it’s obvious that you’re being far too generous with material that is seriously flawed. Yes, we actually read those high-scoring scripts and we often scratch our heads wondering what you were thinking by assigning such high scores.


    I have to say, unrealistic dialogue and people saying exactly what they think at all times. I have to wonder what people are thinking when they're writing such scenes.

    There was another script I read where the protagonist and her boyfriend are driving around looking for parking in the city, they park three blocks away (which is not terrible for that kind of situation), the boyfriend makes a rude asf comment about how far away they are and the protagonist JUST ACCEPTS IT. Then, at the restaurant, <she> apologizes because they couldn't park closer! The boyfriend's meant to be a good guy, too. I just didn't buy it.

    Again, this sounds rude, and that's not my intention, but I have to wonder how adults think "this is completely how people act" or if some people don't care about authenticity or verisimilitude. I got into an argument with another writer who did tell me they don't care about these things, especially in genre pieces, but eh... whatever.

    I'll always be for emotional truth in all fiction but especially in the most genre of genre pieces.


    winterwolf0100 Totally agree, realistic dialogue is so important, ESPECIALLY in a script! It’s crazy how many I’ve read where the concept is really interesting, but the execution is lacking.
    Sep 29, 2023

  • um so

    I was at a mixer tonight, I met a literary agent and we to to talking about what she does and my novel and she discouraged me from self-publishing and told me to send her AoY?

    And now I'm freaking out? I'm going to do my best to get my hopes up for expectations for anything because I still have severe hesitations about following the traditional publishing path, but this is the second time someone in the industry has told me to trad publish actually in the last week and putting the doubt back in my head about self-pub.

    She also seemed a bit standoffish and kind of had this Regina George attitude but I don't know if that's just her personality and I don't know if she'd just tell me that if she didn't mean it? Man I don't know.

    We'll see. No expectations but whatever comes of this I feel like she's going to be a good resource! Meeting people! Making things happen!


    BluesClues Without knowing who it was or anything else, I will say that literary agents get so many queries that she definitely would NOT have told you to send it if she didn't mean it! Even a new agent could get upwards of 500 queries a week, so they definitely do not solicit queries just to be polite. If you do decide to query her, be sure to mention in the first line of your query that you met her in person - personalization doesn't guarantee anything, but it definitely doesn't hurt, especially when it's an in-person connection like that!
    Sep 28, 2023


    Elinor ahhh. I told her I wouldn't reach out for a month at the very earliest and she said that was fine.

    There's a part of me that wonders if I didn't want to trad publish because I didn't like the odds, but the main thing is making sure I retain control over my work.

    It's just an invitation to query, so anything could happen yet and I have plenty of time to look into this more.

    Sep 28, 2023

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  • Does anyone interact with Ennegrams at all? I'm reading about them and I think I can fit almost of all my characters into the nine types. Either way, it's fun to recognize these patterns in our work -- and it shows us we're creating authentic people

    I also think it's interesting that most my protagonists are Type 4s...

    I don't think I have any characters that are type 8s or 9s but this will be fun to come back too - these are just the ones off the top of my head that jumped out at me as soon as I read the descriptions.

    Type 1: The Reformer

    Jake

    Type 2: The Helper

    Ann

    Type 3: The Achiever

    Cole
    Karen

    Type 4: The Individualist

    Alex
    Charlotte
    Marcy

    Type 5: The Investigator

    Dorothy

    Type 6: The Loyalist

    Laura

    Type 7: The Enthusiast

    Eileen
    Madison
    Olive


    alliyah (I love enneagram, I am type one through and through - which number do you resonate most with?)
    Sep 27, 2023


    Elinor I think I'm a mix of type 3/4 - I'd be interesting to see what I got if I did a quiz, but it's definitely interesting that most of my protagonists are Type 4!
    Sep 27, 2023

  • oh hi I wrote that script

    The End of the World

    Elinor wrote:For a bit, I've been wanting to write a short script inspired by Chandler Halderson and Cat Mellender, from the perspective of a girlfriend who realizes her boyfriend is a killer. There is a... lot to unpack with that case that I won't get into now, and it hits so close partially because it happened about an hour west of where I live. It's also hard to believe that such an unassuming person could be so evil. And poor Cat changes and not for the better between this video and the trial.

    (People are giving her shit for calling Chandler when he was in prison, but imho, seems like a case of extreme denial that probably didn't hit her until the trial)

    Between Eagle Rock and Time in a Bottle, my work has been pigeonholed as "innocent girl, conniving man" and I think that's part of the reason I've been hesitating on this, especially since I'm telling people about All Our Yesterdays and people think Cole is going to turn out to be the sam type of character.

    These days, I'm more interested in telling stories about the nuanced ways in which people treat each other, and what I've recently been defining as "good people who do bad things" vs "bad people".

    If any of you take the time to watch this video, you should understand pretty quickly why I'm invested in this story, beyond the fact that it happened so close to where I live.

    I also don't think Shadow of a Doubt did as much with the "person I love is a serial killer" as it could have, and maybe I want to try.

    Plus, I was ready to type out this whole rant about how I've been feeling and struggling with the desire of wanting taking the joy out of writing. There's a video I revisit when I'm feeling this way, and it talks about writing for the sake of writing.

    So, maybe I need to do this short film, and maybe something will come of it, maybe it won't. The point is to get it written.

    More to come...

    phpBB [media]

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  • I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and it's going to be one of those days



Oh no, I’m sorry, you’re under the impression that here on YWS we *help* writers instead of just feeding their gremlin tendencies.
— winterwolf0100