RP Haven - Hall of Fame - Writer's Block

"Blank. That's how all stories start out, right? It all begins with just a blank piece of paper, and then... and then, something happens, and it starts turning into a story..." -thinks 18-year-old Allen MacGriffin as he stares at a blank sheet of paper. How will his story turn out? Written by CtrlAltDestroy from January 3, 2007, to January 30, 2007, this is his first fiction to make its way to the Hall of Fame!

Do you want to read the fiction? Come on, you know you do! You can download it here, and read it at your own leisure.

Feel free to comment on the story, and tell us what you liked, didn't like, and your overall opinion of the story! To comment, simply send me a private message. You'll have to register at the RP Haven forums to do so, but is that really a bad thing? Didn't think so.
You may also send me an e-mail with your comments, if you prefer.

Here we have an interview with the writer of Writer's Block, CtrlAltDestroy; questions were asked by GeminiSaint. Warning, there may be some spoilers here!

Interview with CtrlAltDestroy

Where and how did you come up with the idea for Writer's Block?
    The concept of Writer's Block was based upon something very simple. Contrary to what people might think at first glance at the story, it was not just the idea of writing about myself trying to write my Month of Words story due to lack of creativity... What I really wanted to do was to illustrate my own view of what Writer's Block is and why it happens. I like to ask rhetorical questions and teach lessons with my writing, you see.
    The "Story within a story" aspect also struck me as a good idea to inflate my word count for the Month of Words project, even though it turned out in the end to be the hardest part to execute correctly.
Well, what inspired you to sit down and write Writer's Block? (besides the MoW competition)
    Well, nothing much... When I first heard about MoW, I sat down and brainstormed for some ideas of what to do, and that particular concept looked like it would have the most potential.
What is your favorite genre? Why?
    Outside of RPHaven I don't read very much nowadays... but I guess that would have to be Fantasy, judging by how I've really enjoyed the Void of Illusions and Dragon-Speaker RPs and I'm enjoying the Harry Potter books right now. I guess sci-fi would also get an honorable mention, since I grew up on the Animorphs books and they heavily influenced my writing style.
I see. Do you have a favorite author?
    I don't think so, I haven't experienced enough authors' works to choose one as a favorite.
OK. Back to the fiction: Are any of the characters in Writer's Block based on anybody you know online or in real life?
    Julian is loosely based on my youngest sister Theresa. Allen is loosely based on myself, certain aspects of his life closely resemble mine. I think that's it.
Did you learn anything while writing Writer's Block?
    Yeah, that I can write 30,000 words in a month! :P I also learned that people seem to really like characters they can relate to, and that I can be good at describing my own experiences in a way that is interesting to read and write. Also, I learned that I'm awful at writing a story within a story.
Heh. Did you ever get writer's block while writing Writer's Block? (no pun intended) How did you overcome it?
    Oh, yeah. My biggest writer's block came with trying to emulate Allen's writing style and make it different than mine. Writing style was sarcastic and lighthearted, so I tried to make Allen's switch between serious or just plain crappy...
    Problem is, neither of those approaches to his style worked to make his story-in-progress interesting to read or write. It became a burden blocking me from getting to the fun parts in Chapters 4 and 5, and ultimately I overcame it by just spitting it out regardless of quality and moving on.
What was the hardest scene to write in Writer's Block?
    The hardest part was easily the week Allen spent trying to write his story through school. It was then that I really started to realize his story was becoming a burden and had to be dealt with quickly... or else I might have not gotten Writer's Block finished.
OK. What was your favorite scene to write in Writer's Block?
    The midnight walk was my favorite part, since it describes something which I like to do very often myself.
If you were to go back and rewrite Writer's Block, what would you change, if anything?
    There are typos everywhere, which is common with my writing. It needs to be proofread badly. Also, I'd try to seriously rework the story-within-the-story to expand it and make it more interesting to read. The dream sequence could also use some work.
Do you have serious plans to do that?
    Yes, but not right now. I'll revise it sometime in the future.
What other projects are you working on right now?
    Right now I'm working on Dragon-Speaker: Resurrection, which is a fiction I'm writing as a sequel to the RP. I'm also starting serious work on Adventure Zero Mission 2, which is a lot like a RP in many ways in that it requires a well thought-out storyline and scripting.
Anything else you'd like to say about Writer's Block?
    It was a satisfying accomplishment. It was also a lot of fun to describe some of the funnier aspects of a student's life in this way, and seeing that others could relate to it. I hope some people read it and comment on it.
Well, that'd be all. Thanks.

Name	Comment	Date
GeminiSaint	Well, now this puts me in a rough spot, and all because of my policy of commenting on every RP/fiction I read for their corresponding HoF entry. That, and the fact that I'm friends with CAD. As you might have already guessed, I didn't like this story very much. Actually, I have not even once felt compelled to read it all through to the end. Instead, I had to force myself into reading at least one page a day (and even then I'd often put the story aside for several days). I guess you could say this fiction didn't appeal to me. I only read it because it was CAD's (CtrlAltDestroy). First and foremost, I couldn't "connect" with the main character (Allen). I felt there was nothing in common between Allen and me, plus there was so much of his life style that I just couldn't relate with. Cultural stuff, to be more exact. Many times I encountered situations that were too "unreal" for me, and therefore seeemed detached from reality. Ar at least detached from MY reality. You see, I'm talking about minor things such as Allen's friend taking his notepad and holding onto it so that he would sit down and study for his school exams; or the more obvious "Chinese (food) night" thing, which is presented like simple, everyday routine stuff; and I'm completely sure eating Chinese food IS quite an unremarkable thing in the USA (the opposite is true for my country). But it's little cultural details like these that prevented me from relating to the characters in this story. Now, the story was written to be as realistic as possible. It's supposed to happen in present times, in today's USA. That much is obvious with all the time and geographic references. Then, with all this realism and stuff, why introducing this video-game-loving grandma character and ruin it all? Seriously, that character is so unreal it's just completely out of place. In fact, I think that one character singlehandedly killed my suspension of disbelief for the rest of the story, at least for me. Yep, that did it. Grandmas and video games are just not compatible, at least not in my world. On a similar note, that reference to Ricky's "Gatekeeper's Diary" being a best-seller and all also contributed to terminate the story's intended sense of realism. Nods like that don't always work. A reference to any well-known real best-seller would have worked worlds better. As for the whole "writer's block" theme, I think it would have worked much better as an essay or something along those lines. As a story... it just didn't work all that well. It came out as forced and unnatural, and ended up being just boring to read. That's just my opinion, of course. Also, that's quite an anti-climactic ending there. Like I said, it should all have been just an essay. After all, what CtrlAltDestroy tried to present to us were his musings regarding the writer's block phenomenom. Allen was an excuse, one that didn't turn out so well. As a final note, there's just too much Nintendo stuff all over the place. It's shoved down your throat, and it becomes annoying after a while. I'd rather not name specific video game systems or software in a serious fiction. Not only there's a risk it may come out as propaganda, but it's also unfair to people who own and play the competitor's systems and games. (also, I couldn't help but notice how Allen also skipped the Nintendo 64 generation. Allen is CtrlAltDestroy!) Ah, yes, before I forget, the ring in Allen's fiction = TAS'ing life. :P	April 10, 2007
Trauma Advocate	Before I even started Writer's Block, I knew it was going to be a very unorthodox read. Having finished it, I'd call it half essay, half realistic fiction. I didn't get any "drama" out of it at all. But coming into it expecting an essay, I actually was able to get into this story. Sure, there were lots of points that made me roll my eyes, and CAD left us with several loose ends, such as the grandparents which were just beginning to become developed (why did that grandma like video games so much?), but altogether it was very interesting. Writer's Block left me with one or two things to really think about. Just go easy on the Nintendo junk next time. ;)	April 20, 2007
Ricky	I actually enjoyed this quite a bit, but, despite it being a Month of Words entry (and thus focused more on length, not quality), there are a few things I feel compelled to point out. 1) The grandmother and her love for video games. While this is a cute idea and all, it is very out-of-place in the realistic story you have here. It might have worked if all of Allen's family was weird, but here she's the odd one out of everybody. Personally, I think a better route would have been to give Allen an uncle no more than six years older than him (grandparents had their kids decades apart sort of deal- hey, I was sixteen when my youngest sister was born, and if I have kids anytime in the next five years, they'll have a ten-year-old for an aunt, so it can happen! :P ), and the "needs to get a life" uncle still lives with his parents. This would provide the gaming confidant (since games are clearly a large part of Allen's writing problem) and keep the grandparents' wisdom intact. The current situation makes it kinda hard to take Grandma seriously. 2) While Allen's character is very lifelike and relatively easy to connect to (as a writer myself), all of the other characters are two-dimensional and almost robotic, each focused on fulfilling a particular role and showing off a particular trait. This hurts the quality of the story, and the ending takes a really big hit when Allen is inspired by his love for his sisters, which was something that wasn't even hinted at in the story (granted, it's a "yeah, duh" concept, but still...). 3) "Product placement" is used far too much here. "Soda" works just as well as "Pepsi". "Fast food joint" works just as well as "McDonalds". And, one thing I myself have learned (because I did this too)- you should avoid listing game consoles or games by name, especially if it's going to be continuous. A brief mention is okay, in my opinion, but the repeated mentions can be a bit hard to swallow. remembers when he decided to stop doing that himself, and, as a work-around, changed the names. Legend of Zelda became Saga of the Stars... ah, sweet youth. >_> 4) Allen's attempt at the story, with Max at school with the ring, while intended to be boring and poor, is also uncomfortable and perhaps inappropriate. That might be because I'm reading this ten days after the Virginia Tech shootings, but reading about Max beating up his principal, Allen being excited by the possibilities here, and then Liz criticizing not the idea but the description... it all kinda shot down the likeability factor for any of these characters, including Allen himself. To be honest, I didn't really see this as an essay. It's definitely a story, and it definitely has potential. While the Month of Words doesn't allow that potential to be reached, you now have a foundation to build off of (Grandpa's ever-important rough draft), and I think you should definitely look into doing that. As a rough draft, it naturally has its flaws, but it's done well enough, and the writing is good, and it was actually kinda thought-provoking for me. Good job. :)	April 25, 2007

· This fiction was CtrlAltDestroy's entry for the Month of Words 2007 event, which took place in January, and had contestants write a complete fiction from scratch within that month, and it had to be at least 30,000 words long.
· This fiction was the second to be completed in the above-mentioned contest.

Some general information regarding Writer's Block
This fiction was written by CtrlAltDestroy.	The story is a drama.
This fiction was started on Wednesday, January 3, 2007	This fiction was finished on Tuesday, January 30, 2007
This fiction was 15 posts long.	The story is 30,125 words long.
This story took 28 days to complete.	On average, 1076 words were written per day.