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At 6/2/11 10:59 PM, Deathcon7 wrote: So I've changed my direction with my submission, even though the idea I passed you guys' way was provisionally approved. I'm between two ideas: the first is a prequel to my novel, yet a standalone novella. The other is the last in a trilogy of stories, but can be told to be standalone, or the other stories can be included as well (a combined 15k?) to provide an overarching experience, but also the exclusive content. The previous two stories were used as an MWC submission and Robot Day submission, respectively. I'll be working on both. Once I have a more solid foundation, I'll send over a treatment for you guys' approval.

We would like everything in the anthology to be 100% exclusive if possible (which is becoming more likely as the story pool becomes stronger every week.

At 6/14/11 02:20 AM, Hycran wrote: Ah just as you post i finish up la noire and get the platinum along with the dlc trophies. Damn game has a lot of trophies!
im at 12-96, so almost 13, but then again i dont go for quantity so much as quality. I have only one chime super deluxe trophy before my account is perfect again

I was going to say. It's almost as if you're trying not to go up on the leaderboard. 14 plats? You should at least be in the top ten.

I will have everyone notice I have been in the top 5 for the past 2 updates. Watch your backs.

At 6/2/11 11:55 PM, Travis wrote:

At 6/2/11 11:52 PM, POTaTOS wrote: I'd rather wait for "From Dust"

Link would be nice...

Your sig is still awful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfKQCAxiz rA

Though frankly, I don't see why there's a comparison being made at all. From Dust is a God simulation game, and thus by definition is a game about achieving something through power, while Journey is about isolation and powerlessness, heading towards what seems an unattainable goal.

There's definitely still time. Go for it!

At 5/31/11 03:19 AM, narf wrote: According to ign, sonys officially stated they're going to miss the may 31st deadline by a few days.

I have a list of all the discounted games I can get my hands in the 30 day period. I'm guessing I'll be able to finish one free game before it expires so I'll go with Sam and max which is priced at $35 regularly. Yes I am determined to make a steal from Sony on this one.

I think flower is 4.99 now. I might be wrong on that though.

I'll bring it up the next time Adam and I chat.

One can only assume the US is mere days away from getting its store back up.

The PSN is back up in Japan

Stay on your toes writers.

Summer's coming on. You know what that means! Prime writing time. Time to take out your flora-pattern ledgers or slate or whatever you fancy, and get to writing.

More importantly, now that school is out of the way for me, I'll be able to really massage these stories and see what kind of creepy pus I can wrangle out of 'em.

I use all of my voting power (~6 votes) against the decision to rename the "Flash Portal". It's like you're trying to rename Fenway Park or Wrigley Field

At 4/21/11 11:54 PM, rainyxnightshade wrote: Obama is by far the worst president this country has had. Numbers can prove this as well. He has the lowest approval rating of any president. Not to mention the fact that he is a complete moron to boot. The fact that he wasn't even born in this country just adds to him being a moron. Not to mention that his parents were communists and he studied communism. I just hope for everyones sake in this country that this moron is not elected for a second term. Once was enough with his crap.

You know, some people argue with the truth.

People I have two simple answers for you.

FactCheck

PolitiFact

These two websites should be mandatory viewing for every person who even thinks about letting their political opinions be known. These guys weed out lies (see above) and tell the unbiased truth. Even in cases where it is necessary for them to form an opinion, they only do so after consulting the most relevant experts, while working with the facts and numbers released either by the government or by well-known, trusted sources that have a history of showing non-bias.

The faster everyone grows up and actively seeks out the truth, the sooner we will be able get past the lies that bring our national morale down.

In case you are at all interested in my opinion, I firmly believe that Obama has done a tremendous job in keeping his campaign promises (See Politifact for an actual "Promise Scorecard") when you consider the resistance many of his more controversials pushes has been. Signing the bill to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell, signing a Universal Healthcare bill. In my opinion, that sort of thing can only be achieved by a tireless man. One who wants to see our country succeed.

At 4/11/11 09:20 PM, Yokumashu wrote:

At 4/11/11 02:12 PM, EKublai wrote: I've had to swear off video games for school and life.

casual.

How... How dare you.

I'll have you know that I downloaded Linger in Shadows specifically because it's interactive art and not a game. After getting its 16 trophies.... Oh, hello Level 11!

At 4/11/11 04:39 PM, DeftAndEvil wrote:

At 4/11/11 02:38 PM, EKublai wrote: Show, don't tell.

The big one. Pretty much it is the difference between your reader actively engaging the text and just reading it.

Reread that explanation. What is does it mean for reader to actively engage the text? Show, don't tell is about allowing the story to "happen" in the text and not letting the text become a summary of events.
Example: Colleen hated the look Ralph was giving her. She hoped their relationship would survive this unpleasant turn.
More Effective: Ralph stared daggers at Colleen, forcing her to look away. "I'll-I'll leave you alone now," Colleen said. "If I knock on your door tomorrow, will you answer?"

Two sentences of approximately the same length, yet delivering two very different effects. One is summary, the other is plot.

Be cold in your writing.

Never heard that one. What does this mean? I guess if you are writing an analytical essay it is better to shy away from emotion and personal opinions and get down to the details.

Chekov said this. Or something like it. Basically, Chekov's advice is that drama is heightened during passages of markedly tighter writing, and therefore if one wants to punctuate the tension of a moment one should describe it "cooly", using as few descriptors as possible. If you have written a good story the sentence "There's a kid out there; he's big, and he's mean, and he's kind of scared." is more powerful than "Through the window you can see a kid. He's a hulking figure, has a reputation for a short fuse. Yet, I can't help feeling that inside he's just a scared little boy.

Avoid adverbs and adjectives

I'd say avoid unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. They can become annoying. However, a sentence without descriptive writing is boring. Balance is key as usual.

Again, knowing what is necessary is the challenge. Every word counts and a good writer knows which words shouldn't count. Most of the time, they are sentences of description. "I laughed jovially" is an obvious example.

If you've ever taken a writing class, a lot of these pieces of advice on what good writing is should sound familiar. Have you ever of heard of for instance:

Show, don't tell.
Be cold in your writing.
Avoid adverbs and adjectives
Avoid "begins" "began"
Avoid "Suddenly" "almost"

There are countless variations of these that teachers often throw at you but don't explain. Basically, I wanted to use this thread to address some of the more formal aspects of writing that sometimes doesn't come across that well in "Can you read this and help me threads".

So please post your questions here. Haven't heard of the ones I listed, go ahead and ask about those. they're important things to know, but as with all things in writing, there is no rule, only suggestion.

I've had to swear off video games for school and life. So until the summer don't expect alot of trophies (I let my gf win me some through Hoard and ME2). Glad I got my fourth platinum before that. So at least I'll move up in the rankins a bitsy.

At 4/5/11 09:41 AM, Specialk137 wrote: As a... younger writer, I was wondering if there was a minimum age limit for this anthology?

I know that only being 14 would certainly give reason to doubt, but I'd at least like to see what kind of experience I can gain from other writers' opinions.

If I'm given "Good Country People" I don't care if you're seventy or seven.... I'm still going to report you for copyright infringement of Flannery O' Connor's great work.

At 4/4/11 02:33 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 4/4/11 02:26 PM, knugen wrote: How many page views did you get on april fool's compared to normal? :D

The amount fluctuates so much that it didn't really stand out - maybe an extra 100,000 pageviews. The ads are largely results-driven so they weren't noticeably impacted.

To top of all off, all these bug reports were for a codebase that is getting replaced soon. :P

I kind of feel cheated since my answer to the april fool's was that this was largely a trick to get us to report bugs.

Just a reminder. If you guys are working on a story. It's not a bad idea to contact either of us, even if you don't have anything to show for it at the moment. Once we start nearing that threshold amount of submissions, we won't keep coming back to this thread to make the effort to contact new talent. So just some advice, which can also be applied to many aspects of life in writing and beyond, is to make sure you stay on the radar.

april fools

the account friday.newgrounds was created just yesterday? Coincidence.

Found it.

At 4/1/11 05:03 AM, toygreen88 wrote: Hi guys can anyone help me?

My ps3 has shut down and everytime i boot up and automiatically shuts down with a red flashing light??

i am on cfw 3.55 Kameaw i was playing nfs hot pursuits in the middle of a race my ps3 just shut down on its own.

i tried to boot up it goes green for 1 second then goes back to a red (off) flashing light? what does this mean?

i have a launch ps3, hardly every used untill i modded it to cfw 3.55 kameaw??

anyone please help?? suggestions?

Sounds like yellow light of death without the yellow light. I'd say that it's overheated. Cool it off, try again. If it's still not working then you have to get it replaced buddy.

At 3/25/11 04:12 AM, darknature85 wrote: I have been trying to find a flash film that you guys might think I am pretty sick while I am describing it the best I can. I can not remember the title for the life of me so please bare with me.
Description: The first video is a boy on a train (or subway) and all of a sudden a woman dress in black with the black plague raven mask. She chases after him to get away from her and the end of the video she captures the boy with a claw that seemed to come from her vagina ( I dunno it comes under her robe) Now the reason I am trying to find this video is because I remember a song that is in russian or german I dunno which that played on the second film the user made. If anyone knows what I am talking please point me in the right direction to find such film. Thanks

Wrong Forum

But think about some identifying features of the flash. Did it win a daily prize? Was it on the front-page? If either is true then newgrounds has it archived somewhere.

I think the inability to format correctly is a factor. How am I supposed to read something without indentation or paragraph breaks?

Hi, guys. So my dorm has been having issues with theft lately (little things like cereal and milk in the communal kitchen). Emails trying to get the offender(s) to stop have been ineffective. So I've decided to figure out who's been doing this.

My idea is to plant a bug inside a box of cereal that I can set off with a remote control (like something that can make a really piercing, blaring sound that I can hear coming into the hallway.)

Does anyone know of a device like this? (ipod touches can do this with apps but I don't want to risk losing my ipod for this).

At 3/17/11 08:08 AM, tally1989 wrote:

At 3/15/11 08:29 AM, narf wrote: Didnt know that was a rule and frankly think that's a stupid rule anyway. Its better then having someone that has worse stats that never update or post on here. Chances are if he isn't active he'll be bumped any way.

Well the rule was made so the leaderboard was for newgrounds regulars only. So random people with 5000 trophies wouldn't join the leaderboard, leave newgrounds and never come back. Since that would be kind of unfair to the regulars.

Im my opinion, it doesn't really matter if the guy has a high trophy count. The point of being on a leaderboard is to constantly be in competition with the person one rank above you and one rank below you.

At 3/15/11 12:32 AM, RDSchley wrote:

At 3/6/11 03:16 PM, darkrchaos wrote: I never buy anything from EA games since they always rip me off in the end.

I'm with this guy; he's smart

Yeah, games like Mass Effect 2 are clear examples of half-assed development.

This argument is hilarious. Travis, stay on topic or go to another thread. Rightwinggamer, just.. you know... chill.

IMO, a good story doesn't have to be long, the only thing it should affect is price. For instance, I like Flower's story for what it was. A great $5 story. I'm liking ME2's story for what it is, a fantastic $60 story.

awesome first time in top 5 achievers. I'm one away from platinuming Uncharted so close.