Hey, this forums been dead for a while... let's get it moving again!!! I'm trying to get time to work, but I've been so busy lately...

I will (*attempt*) to have it done by the end of the week. I have nothing tomorrow. Yipee.

-Marty 8-)

Woohoo! Thats exactly the spirit I like to see, yeah!

It'll be a challenge though - Basic Mandarin Chinese is proving to be much, much, much, much toughter than I originally anticipated, although the general title of the class itself is a dead giveaway.

So, I think as we were....I think we were discussing the fine points of bulky-headed eight-year-olds and unusually slender-necked redheaded redheads.

Has anyone noticed that mac's head is actually 9 times his body mass?

And eduardo has pancake feet.

Nine times his body mass? Where does one bring up that kind of statistic?

Ha, mind you this is being asked entirely out of curiousity...there's no way I'm going to try and argue with you on the matter of everyone's favorite disproportionately-built eight-year-old.

It's not hard getting Mac's head perfect in PhotoShop, I'll give you that. Where Lucy gives me great difficulty, Charlie Brown with his round head and Mac are easy with the circle tool and "Rounded Rectangle" tool.

And that in its self is a great accomplishment in my book.

-Marty 8-)

Hey, despite all that the little guy has to put up with, at least Mac has a buddy who mostly likely knows of all the ups and downs of being a disproportionate child.....

http://www.fosters-home.com/screengrabs/3/37-0033.jpg

Honsety, has anyone taken a good look at Goo, recently? She's all limbs, has a head three times wider than her body, and absolutely no torso or anything of that sort. How can she stand up with so much weight on her neck compared to the rest of her?

No offense meant or anything - those too oddly-designed children can hang out with each other as much as they can, because honestly, I'm a massive fan of MacxGoo.

Look at mac's head. three of mac'storso/legs can fit in side by side. since his head is 3d or at least square from all angles i"VE seen, that means it's a 3x3 grid and that is 9.

Goo's got a torso, but yeat, it's teeny. I mean ,look at wilt!

As for your most recent story bit...

jeez, this is stuill going on? At least terrence redeems himself, i have to say. I'm glad he does. The manner in which he does so is... interesting... i wonder how Mac will react. After all ,terrence's future after his redemption will be rthe same as was presumed in the toehr stories, so it's not THAT much of a change.

sorry about spelling in this post, no time to correct!

Hello off topic!

I think discussion of head to body ratio should be somewhere else instead of in a discussion thread on a writer's fanfic series.

But that's just me.

Ack! Sorry! Sorry!

It's not just you, CG, as much as it is overhwelming true that we have wandered quite a distance from the original topic. Ugh, we gotta see what we can do about that.

Anyway, to answer Kzinistzerg, yup, it's still going on, and lucyrocks73 and I still have about two chapters left to go in it - although exactly when and how we're going to get to those we have yet to figure out. She's an overworked high school student, and I'm a currently overwhelmed college freshman - Basic Chinese I is taking up much, much more time then I originally planned on.

And as much as I'd also like to work on something else at the same time I'm co-authoring wit lucyrocks, not only is the extra time not there currently, but I also tend to get too many inquiries through both reviews and private messages inquiring simply why I haven't updated "Wishing Only Wounds the Heart" in a bit.

They have their right to be curious, I guess, but after a while of the same thing, it tends to get a bit irksome.

That cracked me up, because we both know it's the truth... I'm currently waiting for my ride to play practice, ha.

coughIsaidthatawhileagocoughcough...

Ha ha, just kidding.

So, any disscussion on the latest chapter?

Spoiler Below

-Marty 8-)

It wasn't all that off topic, actually, because we were kinda discussing the dynamics of frankie and mac hugging, which was in the fics. So yeah...

I don't particulaily go for spoiler tags, so i just write a response i nsuch a way that only soemne who has read the story wil lknow what i'm talking about.

Ha, true about the hugging versus Mac's head proportion - wait, so did we ever come up with a conclusion to that, or am I basically having them perform a paradox every time they embrace at all in anything that I write?

Ooooh.....Marty, how'd you make that effect with the spoiler tag? I'm not exactly a tech-savvy individual....or to be more precise, I'm as far away as such a thing as humanly possible.

(Ha, and I like the little Goo Go Gaga/Lucy Van Pelt thing you got going there...gah, it took me waaaaaaaay too long to figure out I was calling you "luckyrocks73, ack.)

I liked the latest chapter it's really getting dramatic.

Aw, thanks!

Ha....and I have no idea what else to say to that.

Apparently no one else does, either... c'mon, let's revive this thread!!!

Okay, who's irritated at me because I haven't finished chapter sixteen yet?

(*watches everyone raise their hands*)

Uh oh...

-Marty 8-)

Ha, who's here to raise their hands?

(A tumbleweed rolls by)

Yeah.....been a while since anything's happened in this thread.......

And not sure what else to say, except that I'm probably putting off my philosophy homework right now.

*picks up the tumbleweed and waves it i nthe air*

By the way, i think it's acceptable to show them hugging, becuase if you'll notice, they really have stretchy limbs. I mean, wilt is super-stretchy, but everyone else has the occasional stretchy arms or legs in order to show them doing somehting, like Mac climbing up the wall or hugging Mr. Herriman.

Don't worry I'm a very paitent girl lol

(To Bloofanatic) Thank you! We need more like you out there.

(To Kzinistzerg) Hmmmm.......to be honest, I have yet to factor in a stretchy limb aspect, which is a welcome argument for our hypothesis, "Can a redhead hug an eight-year-old with a massive head?"

So far, I think our answer is yes, but it's not exactly easy.

:frankiesmile: :macwor: - Yikes, even here, his head just dwarfs her entirely, making for very awkward embrace-related logistics.

:cheese: That is great.:cheese:

Ack, unfortunately, it's true both there and the show - not that I have nothign against Mac of course, I love the litle guy to death - but unfortunately, he just has a bit of a disproportionatly-sized skull to deal with.

Ugh, methinks once more we may be rambling a bit off-topic once again, unless anyone has something new they'd like to add to this "intellectual discussion" of ours.

I made a thread for us to discuss this...

Here's the link:
http://www.fosters-home.com/forum/sh...=9039#post9039

Somehow I doubt it'll get many replies though, because things jut work that way.

-Marty 8-)

Woohoo! Glad that we have all fixed!

Though now methinks this thread is going to be abandoned entirely, as that discussion formed the foundation of all talk that went on here.

Um.....anyone has any comments for me on anything I've written ever or for lucyrocks on our joint story "Wishing Only Wounds the Heart", feel more than free to speak up, we'll always be ready to listen to hear what you have to say!

But if you're here to only discuss disproportionality in the character's heads and bodies - then as of now, unfortunately you're in the wrong thread.

I've been wanting to ask this for a while: do you not like Eduardo and Coco as much as the other characters, or something? Because they almost NEVER appear in your stories.

Ha, finally, something to make this thread actually be on topic for once....

Wow, and that's actually a really, really good question. To begin with, it's not that I have anything against them, not at all. Now that I think about it, maybe it is because simply put, I prefer the standard set of characters I use most of the time in my stories.

Then again, I'll be honest when I see this is the first time I've actually had to stop and think about it - yikes, and I've been writing Foster's fanfics for over a year too, ack, shame on me.

Maybe it's because in all the story ideas I've come with, their prescense was just never necessary for anything, thus their complete lack of appearances. Also, I'll be honest, personally I find that it's nearly impossible to write Coco into anything because zany and lovable as she is, a lot of my stories can tend to be very dialogue-driven, and unfortuantely, her vocabulary is extremely limited. That of course brings up the whole subject of how to let readers know what she's saying, whether that's clues given by the other characters, flat out translations (not really a fan of that method), etc. It gets difficult with her.

Unfortunately, I have no such excuse with poor Ed. He has an accent, yes, but that's hardly a problem. Ack, that's more or less an enigma why he's barely made any appearances.

So at the moment, I think mainly it's because yes, I probably do prefer the others above those two (sadly enough) and thus every story idea I come up with is designed specifically to involve all the others.

Now I feel kind of bad for excluding them, ugh....

Honestly though, that was a really good point you brought up there. If there's anythign else you want to ask (or if I did a lousy job of answering this question) feel more than free to ask.

I think you covered it well, Dude13...

Edaurdo is actually one of my favorite characters. I've never really found a good plot line in my head that has to do with him, so that's my excuse. The accent is very fun to write...

The thing is, comedy really isn't my specialty- I couldn't write it to save my life. I stink at it. The ocasional comedy I use is intertwined with drama. And what does this have to do with Eduardo and Coco, you may ask??

Well, like many people cannot see some characters in an dramatic light, I can't really see them as anything other than comic relief. I'm not saying that they aren't important characters, because they are. I'm just saying that I see them more in a comedic act, like some people don't want to see Goo or some other characters in an angsty light.

And there are a lot of lights that are and aren't on in that last paragraph.

So that would be why I, personally, have not written them very much. Although, in the next story I'm writing, Coco is included for some of it.

That was a really crappy explaination. But it's there.

-Marty 8-)
P.S.- I hope it was okay, Dude13, that I posted that in your thread...

Haha - Marty, you were the one who started the thread to discuss our story, "Wishing Only Wounds the Heart."

Honestly, you of all people deserve to post as much as you want in here.

Yeah, but I agree with you one hundred percent, it gets a bit difficult to use them fot drama or anything of that sort - then again most of my works are comedic, so that I think now I just flat-out don't have an excuse for not including them. For my more serious ones yes, but for the others....eh, my bad...

I love Ed- he's so much fun to write (and yes, I've written pieces that will never be seen, posted, or e-mailed to anyone, because they embarass me).

I can't write comedy. I physically can't. I LOVE reading it. My brain just isn't quick with humor like that. If I come up with something, someone has probably heard it a million ways in different context somewhere.

Sarcasm, though- I can do sarcasm.

Dude13, you are really talented, because you can write exceptionally in BOTH drama AND comedy.

(*claps*)

-Marty 8-)

You can actually write Ed into stories? My hat is off to you, because after a year of barely using him, I honestly doubt my ability to actually do a decent job of writing the poor guy into anything, much as I love him.

And Coco....poor Coco, I can't do a thing with her.....

Thank you so much for your extrarodinarily generous comliment, but my comedy pieces aren't exactly ingenius bits of humor. Heck, I'll be the first one to admit that they can go extremely over the top and cross the line like it's their job, whcih is odd seeing as how basic the plotlines can be, including -

- Four characters jammed inside a laundry chute
-Fear of turkeys
-A bad flu bug being mistaken for demon possession
-Someone's cursing far too much
-Cross-dressing

My standards aren't exactly high for the humor ideas - some people might see a turkey and think "bird", I look at it and see "instant story idea."

Oh, don't you see?? That is why they are so ingenious. You take the smallest thing and make it funny. Your stories are things that are so believable, yet so not because of the setting.

Craig McCracken once used an example somewhere of this same type thing (an interview I once read somewhere...). He imagined a group of brightly-colored imaginary friends on a background of a Victorian mansion. Tat clash- the odd and unordinary with the ordinary and simple (yet ornate, when are talking about the mansion)- is exactly what your humor stories have- something simple that everyone sees and walks right by on a regular basis, but can have humor to it that only people like you can see.

You see, the true nature of a writer is to look at something and say to themselves, "What if..."

You do that with things people might not think of- while using already estabilshed characters, which is quite a feat (you know how hard it is to keep them in character).

Not many people can come up with a plot around turkey, or a laundry chute, or any of the things you listed. I sure couldn't.

You ARE a genius, whether you realize it or not...

-Marty 8-)

Haha, know it, and STILL having plenty of trouble getting it down

Ack, ack, ack, CRAP! Totally sent that post WAY too early. Yuck!

Ack, the first part was originally meant to point out the difficulty of keeping someone in character, of whcih none of us can get that down perfectly.

But also, I wanted to bring up this - I mean, so maybe I can see "laundry chute" and get an idea for a short humor piece.

But WHO was it who worked out the entire plot of a particular story (ha, how about we codename it "WWOTH") all by herself, while I was absolutely coming up with jack squat and had actually begun to panic because I honestly thought we had no ending?

Plus, as just proven here, and by the plethora of spelling and grammar errors one can see in anything I write, I'm far from computer savvy.

Well, I'm okay at coming up with the general plot lines of entire stories (as if I haven't had to diagram a plot THOUSANDS of times in English class), but how many times, when dealing with individual chapters have I asked you for help??

It's like knowing what's going to happen in a movie, and watching how it unfolds.

I'm REALLY bad at the tiny things. I detail unimportant things, and other crap.

YOU can truly write.

-Marty 8-)

I'm far from any Ernest Hemmingway of William Shakespheare, I'm just a guy who enjoys writing Foster's fanfiction in his spare time - something we both have much, much less of now that the new school year is up in full swing.

I think however that you're fantastic when it comes to the big picture - the basic idea and plot that is absolutely essential to every story. I don't just automatically come up with good story ideas - what I do is I come up with three or four horrifically bad ideas until I can come up with anything remotely reasonable.

And in some instances, I actually mistake those horrendously atrocious plots for legitimate story lines and start to write them until I need to realize how God-awful that story is.

Every writer has their strengths and weaknesses. I have them, you have them, we all have them.

And more specifically, I have them.

In the words of my English teacher last year: "You are one of the best writers in this class," (*snorts*- yeah right), "but you 'tell' and don't 'show'."

After a few weeks, I started describing everything in sight.

But now my problem is that I don't use enough indirect characterization- the characters tell too much about themselves. They never shut up.

Which is why, I've found, that first person is the best point of view for me to write in. Why? Because I apparently (or so my English teacher put it THIS year) relate to the characters more when I am putting myself in their position.

So, (and this could be why my writing is taking forever) I started writing EVERYTHING in first-person, and then switching it to third person.

And although I think I'm improving a little (read my eariler fanfiction and you'll see), I still think I suck.

-Marty 8-)

It probably can't compare to the grade-A garbage I wrote on my first FF.net account.

I actually had one about four years ago before my current one, and believe me, every single piece I wrote was cliched, God-awful trash, to say the very least. No lie, I actually deleted all remnants of that particular period in my writing history long ago, everything I wrote then was simply just that terrible.

It took me a while to get where I am now. Trust me, you're already doing infinitely better than the total hack I used to be. You are a good writer.

Hell ,you guys are BOTH good.

Writers progress over time. My early stuff is really really bad, but I think i've improved.

Cross-dressing? CROSS DRESSING? when was THAT in a fanfic?

Ack, I KNEW I shouldn't have used THAT as an example.

It was one of my much weirder, stories, "Slight Misunderstanding."

Well, I jsut read the two new short stories you have up, and, yay! Except for the one with goo. That was not Yay. It is, however, an interesting story.

Ha, thank you for the blunt honesty, it always helps out.

Yeah, it's always a bit risky using Goo in anything....people either seem to love her or hate her in most cases. Nevertheless, thank you so much for the sincerity!