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Are the GH instruments compatible with Rock Band 2 for Wii? Logic says they aren't, as they weren't for RB1, but NP's RB2 review says yes. If they are I may get the RB game only for Christmas.

I started cracking up halfway through the second one, excellent :thumbup: I want to say more, escpecially about the first one since it's more serious, but I don't have the time right now. But remember that "it's" = "it is" and "its" is possessive, I saw you make that mistake a few times.

Ugh. NO. Completely irrelevant. As a general rule you should not publish your first ever peice of writing, as it is probably crap. Well, whaddya know. In addition, once you have by some miracle become published you're playing in the big leagues. There are no excuses. You're going to get criticism and that argument might as well be a toy shield: ineffective and laughed at. What do you think school is for?

They both utterly destroy the concept of vampires.

Welcome to the first official thread affiliated with The Coffee Shoppe! Here I will talk about several literary terms used to describe some very undesirable aspects of amateur writing, and even professional writing. Please, take the time to read through the terms and get a general idea of what they're about. That way you will recognize them if they're brought up in critique, and hopefully be able to prevent them coming up in the first place. Eliminate these from your writing, and you're well on your way to becoming the best writer you can be. IMPORTANT This guide is not the be-all end-all how-to-write list of commandments. It is an open discussion. No one is expected to follow this perfectly, nor is it absolutely required at any level. These are nothing more than general guidelines for any writing, and serious writing with a genuine attempt at true literary value should at least bear the points mentioned in mind. This thread is as much open for "review" as any posted work. So without further ado . . . Characterization: Mary-Sues (and Gary-Stus) Mary-Sue is a term derived from a character of that name who was, in short, perfect in every way. A Mary-Sue has no character flaws, is good-looking, is adored by every other character (except for the bad guy of course) and has multiple other characteristics that are more specific so I won't go into them. Mary-Sues are also called self-inserts quite often, because that is what they tend to be: an avatar for the author, as a way to live out his or her fantasies. Self-inserts are almost gauranteed to fall into the trap of Sue-ism, because be honest, you don't want to be in a story where you have to suffer actual hardship and deal with people you'd rather not. Instead, your self-insert is going to be all-powerful, beautiful, and well-loved. Mary-Sues and their male counterparts Gary-Stus are BAD. Nothing is more annoying to a reader who is actually invested in a good story than a main character, usually a POV (Point of View) character, who is glorified as the epitome of awesomeness. They don't make good stories, because you know they're going to win. And whatever conflict the character is fated to win is likely the only conflict, since no one ever disagrees with the main character. Hence you have a story revolving around a single point of conflict that the reader knows the ending to. Boring. On top of that, the reader can't connect to the character because no one is perfect. The author is living his or her own fantasies through this totally unrealistic and godlike character, and unless the reader is out for some cheap thrills of a similar vein he is excluded from the experience. Authors, always write for yourselves. But don't fall into this trap, which can be all to easy. Purple Prose If I critique your story and find purple prose, you had better find yourself a bullet-proof vest, a gas mask, and an underwater city. To put it shortly, purple prose is this: too many words. It is a common mistake of new authors to pack their writing full of large words in an effort to sound more mature and educated. Folks, this achieves neither. All that will result from a developing writer attempting this is purple prose, and purple prose is public enemy number one to the literary world. All of your ideas are conveyed through your prose, and when the reader is forced to ingest ungainly sentences containing obscure words that aren't used in their correct connotations, you will not manage to get your ideas and stories across. This is why purple prose takes the number one postition on any list of "how not to write." No matter what the quality of your characters or world or plot, the reader needs a crisp and flowing medium through which to get at them. Best thing to do to avoid purple prose: put away the thesarus. That's right, your friend Mr. Thesarus needs to take a vacation back to Oxford. No large word should be used where a smaller one would suffice, and the first word that comes to your mind is often the best. Once you've started hunting through the thesarus for a synonym of a perfectly applicable word that you think doesn't have enough spice, you have failed. Retake the test. An Aside: The Word "Said" One small, four-letter word. This word is one of the most used in fiction, as it recounts speech. Do not think that because it is used so much, you shouldn't use it. Oh, no. Another extremely common error for new writers is to purge their work of every occurence of "said" in favor of more descriptive words. Uh-uh. "Said" is your friend. It is invisible. Instead of distracting the reader with words like "enunciated," "proclaimed," "dictated," "barked," etc., use said. It's simple, and often all you need. You don't need to say, 'Get back here!' screamed Matt, purple in the face." We get that he's screaming. His face is purple and there is an exclamation point. "Said" is fine to use. Especially if there is an argument or a bunch of people yelling. Using every variation of "screamed" you and Mr. Thesarus can think of is not the way to handle that. Don't Be Derivative You may have heard the phrase, "all fantasy is derivative." This does not apply only to fantasy, so writers of other kinds, read on. This statement can be argued either way, but that is not my purpose. My purpose is to make sure you avoid being derivative to the best of your ability. The world is full enough of stories about a colossal evil trying to take over the world, with a fortress behind a wall of mountains in a land of doom and gloom and one wekaness that the hero miraculously possesses or knows about. Don't write a story like this. Originality is hard to come by, but you can do better. The plot is not the center of a good story in any case. The characters drive the story. Avoid stereotypes. There are enough Aragorn, Gandalf, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Daphne from Scooby-Doo clones. A good cast of characters can help alleviate a derivate plot or setting if they can't be avoided. An Aside: Slaves to the Plot This will be brief. Do not, under any circumstances, let the plot take priority over your characters. Your characters are of the utmost importance, and the only reason anything happens in your story is as a result of the characters' actions and decisions. A believable character becomes unbelievable when you force him into the plot against his will. Get the Facts Straight In writing any piece of fiction, you must make it believable. Fanstasy requires a suspension of disbelief if you're going to have dragons and magic and such, but it is consequently the worst offender of this rule as writers try to justify gross inaccuracies with "it's fantasy." But to keep this on a general level: research. In order for the reader to have any kind of involvement in your story, it must be fully grounded in reality. Therefore, you have to do your homework and educate yourself as much as you possibly can on anything you're going to use fictionally. Need a biological explanation for a creature you made up? Make sure it's actually plausible, instead of breaking every law of chemistry and biology. Using some medieval warfare? Look it up, study tactics, study weapons. Doing a crime fiction? Great. Research how a forensics team actually works (watching CSI doesn't count.) In Conclusion . . . I really do hope you enjoyed the first of many threads to come from The Coffee Shoppe. Please, use this thread for any questions you have, suggestions to add, or general discussion of the points I brought up. Keep this idea alive.

I'm working on a cover of Frankenstein in the music studio. Yeah, it's on GH1, but who plays that. It's going to be awesome.

I'm laughing at this thread. Does that count?

Naw,Star-Wars-y one is hot. I meant the real metal one they used in Star Wars lol. Speaking of which, they [bleep]ing killed her. Agh. I guess her character won't have time to be ruined though. Not as much screen time didn't give the writers a chance to make her start acting weird and out of character like half the others right now. I dunno, I didn't really like that episode . . . for some reason it felt like nothing really happened. I mean, Hiro and Claire go back in time and spend the whole episode there, only for Arthur to get the catalyst anyway making their whole escapade pointless except to leave Hiro stuck there (although his meeting his mom was cool and well done, and he did get his memory back.) And one of the first scenes was Angela giving Peter the gun, then he and the Haitian finally show up again in the last five minutes and kill Arthur. The rest just felt like filler.

She should get the real bikini.

Except Tom Petty didn't sue, because there is almost zero chance it was intentional and they aren't nearly as similar as this. This is pretty blatant. Reminds me of All Summer Long by Kid Rock. Apparently he has Skynyrd's permission, because that song is so ripped from Sweet Home Alabama and a bit of Werewolves of London he'd lose in court instantly. Also always thought that the intro to Sublime's What I Got sounds way too much like Lady Madonna by the Beatles. And the intro to Santeria sounds like the intro to Under the Bridge by RHCP.

Bumping this because I don't feel like digging it up after tonight's episode. Which will be awesome. Kirsten Bell is too hot. Please don't let Elle die lol.

Why the hell is this thread so big. I've never seen any of you people before.

I fail at GH3 now. Why can't they keep a consistent formula throughout all the games? I get used to the nuances of one and it screws me over when I try to play the other. Failed TTFAF halfway through the solos . . .

Etiquette issues? I call it roguish charm.

You need it to save the game. It was a common problem with several silver cartridges that the battery died after so long. Yeah, I turned on my game after a few months without playing and it was all "New Game." I cried.

No problem. My connection was being uncooperative and I forgot to add that you did a good job with the atmosphere and the word choice generally made the scene unpleasant, which incites sympathy for the prisoner. Even if he turns out to be an arrogant uber-power.

Prose is rather jerky due to it being for the most part a conglomeration of simple sentences with a clause or phrase thrown in. You need to break them up more with commas (don't abuse them though) so that the reader doesn't fly through the sentence and run smack into this thing: . The prose also gets a bit purple in places: His ankles were tied. That's all you need to say. The way this is worded makes it innefective. It assumes we already know what an angel of death is and looks like. It's also incredibly cliche. I could let this go, but there are myriad ways you could have worded it to make it sound better and more flowing. The use of 'fetid' is totally superfluous and doesn't make a whole lot of sense besides. Since you already established that he was speaking, this is unneeded. If you must keep it, use 'said.' Nothing wrong with the word 'said.' You need to work on action scenes. The previously mentioned jerky prose made this whole paragraph feel awkward and lent a really boring atmosphere to a scene that should be exciting and dynamic. Shorter sentences should be employed, and active voice should be prevalent. One last thing: Parallelism. This should read: "The prisoner noticed that the mud was quickly accumulating on his worn boots and that his legs were becoming heavier with each step taken by the guards." Better yet, make it two sentences and work on wording, but for a gramatically correct sntence that is how it should read.

^This. Also, you can't be selective about the kind of advice you get. If there is something wrong, people are going to critique it whether you like it or not, and saying that it wasn't what you were looking for is just lame. There has been a ton of good advice posted here, and if I were you I would even learn from the more off-topic posts, because yes you are going to get harsh criticism from some people and you need to learn to take it. Honestly, this thread is above and beyond good as far as c/c goes and you should be thrilled to get this level of feedback. You can learn from nearly every post, not just the ones that deal directly with the narrow areas you specifically wanted feedback in.

Besides Runescape . . . Probably Pokemon Silver. I think I was approaching 100 hours before the internal battery died. RIP best game of my childhood.

It's used up when they excercise and not replaced when they stop eating poorly :| Have fun becoming fuel for a fat person doing finger presses.

I don't think I even cracked a smile at any of those. Not really funny in the slightest :|

CeLbPoij0yM Developer walkthrough. Pretty old so hopefully it will be even better when it's released in March. And they're aiming for 16 player online too.

Sure doesn't sound like it was anything more than a fling to the guy. I find it hard to believe that no one else thinks that a girl throwing herself off a cliff because some boy cheated on her disturbing. Or whatever he did; I just threw down the most likely and most devastating instance. Note that I use 'devastating' lightly. So yes, I am going to assume she has some sort of emotional or mental disorder, because no girl I know is going to kill herself over something as stupid as a high school relationship. Hence why the attempt at suspense through lack of info falls flat, a) because what is going on is incredibly obvious, and B) because the obvious explanation makes no sense.

^This man knows. Bow to Frankenstein!

The Conduit looks godly. Hopefully the story won't end up being too much like GoW though, which is what it looks like at the moment . . .