scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/2bk5to.md

Analysis Paralysis

• Author: u/TimTravel *

• URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2bk5to/analysis_paralysis/

• Score: 7

• Created: 2014-07-24T02:50:33

Post:

Maybe this isn't the right place for this, but I'm kind of getting analysis paralysis on License to Duel. I know most of the big events, the high level outline of the plot, but for the little things that don't matter I'm not sure what to do and when I think about it I just sort of can't think of anything and I end up either overdesigning other details that don't matter or just doing something else entirely. Does anyone else have any useful experience in overcoming this?

Comments:

u/alexanderwales [+6] Time flies like an arrow (an hour later)

It happens to me quite a bit - I have a large number of currently unfinished projects for that very reason. Getting over it ... well, the solution to the majority of writing problems is "just write", and the solution to most of what's left over is "fix it in post" - or to put it another way, "just edit".

So it depends on the natural of the analysis paralysis. I tend to steal relentlessly when I find myself stuck on details like names, which are always tricky (less so in fanfic), and I've gotten in the habit of grabbing the closest television show or movie and picking something from deep in the credits. I steal from my own life quite a bit, and model characters on people that I've known (or myself). If you just pick something at random, you can always fix it later on when you're editing if it ends up being stupid or not working - though the bigger the thing, the harder it will be to fix. Since you never have to go with the first draft, sometimes it just makes the most sense to stick in whatever the first dumb idea is. My other trick is to brainstorm solutions, number them, and then roll a die. If I don't like what the die says, that tells me something about what I should actually do.

If you've got some examples of the things you're trying to think up, I might be able to help more.

u/TimTravel [+3] (4 hours later)

First chapter outline from memory rather than overextensive notes:

• Yugi goes on Egypt excavation with grandfather (probably illegally).
• Somehow, Yugi gets separated in a way that is believable and doesn't make him look stupid.
• Yugi finds the Puzzle and touches it. Yami is inside it and challenges Yugi to a shadow game in exchange for the way out. If Yugi wins, Yami shows him the way out. If Yami wins, he kills Yugi and takes over his body.
• Yugi goes through some sort of shadow game / obstacle course with Yami's traps. No idea how that will work. I'm thinking physical traps and danger rather than magic stuff, but that sort of flashy thing might be better suited to a visual medium rather than text so I'm not sure. Also I have no idea how to design traps that last for thousands of years and still work.
• Yugi succeeds, Yami doesn't kill Yugi. Yami explains the basics of how the Puzzle works. Yugi is technically the owner of the puzzle from the moment he touched it, but he doesn't know that it's protecting him. By agreeing to the game he consented to the risk, so if he'd lost Yami could have killed him even if Yugi's body couldn't be physically damaged by the traps. If the terms of the game were slightly different, the traps also could have harmed him physically, but Yami didn't want to take over a mangled nearly-dead body.
• Yugi doesn't need to physically keep the Puzzle with him, and once claimed, Millennium Artifacts cannot be stolen. He leaves it in the tomb because he can teleport it to him any time he wants. For now he keeps it a secret that he's the owner. Follows Yami's honest instructions out of the tomb, finds his grandfather. They go home.

After that, miniarc involving school or local town tournament for some prize. Throwaway villains from the school, explain the card game, etc. Yami takes an interest in the game when he recognizes certain cards based on history that happened during his time. This miniarc will actually be very hard to write because it will focus proportionally more on the card game than characters and plot.

Pegasus throws a tournament and invites three students from Yugi's school to it (Bakura, Kaiba, Yugi). In the letter he subtly implies that he knows about Yami, which is surprising since Yami/Yugi haven't told anyone about that.

MI6 starts with the Millennium Key. The Key played a critical role in information gathering during the cold war, and MI6 recently learned of the existence of other similar tools and that Pegasus had some connection to them. M reviews Q's report on the Millennium Key, briefs Bond on the situation, sends him in undercover as a competitor in Pegasus's tournament. The real plot begins.

Problems:

• I dislike the obligatory OMG the magic related to the premise of the story is real freakout speech that I'm inevitably going to need a few times. Not sure how to believably minimize that. I don't want to go all out Death Note and have him just believe it unquestioningly, but I don't want to have him be annoyingly skeptical either, because while it would be rational given his knowledge, it would just slow down the plot. Maybe if Yami doesn't tell Yugi who he is at first and Yugi thinks he's an actual physical person. That would delay the problem.
• The shadow game has to be compelling. It has to be difficult, but not impossible.
• Yugi has to get separated in a believable way. I could just make his grandfather an asshole and run ahead and turn out the flashlight as a prank but I don't think I want to go that way.
• Depending on how that works, the dialogue when Yugi reunites with his grandfather could be awkward.

That ended up even more detailed than my notes, but whatever.

u/Nepene [+2] (11 hours later)

You could tweak the story to make it believable.

For example with point A if you want him to be more believing make him somewhat religious, worshipping Kami and believing in Kotodama, and as such somewhat open to some of the premises of magic. You can delay his awakening while he handles that.

Point B, since you're wondering how things lasted that long have some degree of decay. Have Yami set up an unstoppable combo of death, explain it clearly to Yugi, and then have elements... fail, melt into dust.

Point C, since presumably Yami is planning this, have a card monster do it. Maybe the wizard. Have him set off a trap, causing part of the ceiling to fall in, and then charge in to push Yugi to safety. A moment's recognition, eye staring, then he runs off.

u/TimTravel [+1] (21 hours later)

The Dark Magician is reserved for later in the plot, but I'll consider the rest of that.

u/Nepene [+2] (21 hours later)

You don't necessarily have to say "The dark magician then saved Yugioh." Just something like "He felt a thud as the stones fell and then was slammed to the floor. His vision blurred and his head pounded. Above him he saw intense blue eyes. Then, in a flash of purple, the person was gone." Foreshadowing, like with pokemon and Ho-Oh in the first episode.

Unless Yami doesn't have access to him or whatever. Or you really don't want to use him.

u/TimTravel [+1] (23 hours later)

I meant that it is likely to be inconsistent with later plot points. I've done too much planning already but I'm not going to throw away what I have.

u/Nepene [+2] (23 hours later)

Ah ok then. Well, he has many other fun monsters to use.

u/TimTravel [+1] (23 hours later)

Indeed. Bringing monsters into it will also be a good way to introduce the card game - history connection early.

u/eaglejarl [+1] (3 days later)

If Yugi is supposed to be rational, then the "magic is real" speech only needs to happen once. Look at HPMOR -- Harry did one experiment (McGonagal floating Dad), updated, and then we're to the races.

u/TimTravel [+1] (4 days later)

I know it has to happen, it's just sort of...overdone. It has to be there but it doesn't give any actual value to the reader. Maybe I'll just have the majority of it happen off camera.

u/None [+2] (an hour later)

Definetly the right place, though you should have added [Q][D] in the title.

Have you written the rough draft for a whole chapter? You might get a better idea on what it needs if you do. You can then go back filling in and removing details as needed.

Also, don't stress out too much. If you're posting to a fanfic site, you can get immediate feedback from us on how you can improve. You can then revise the chapter if you want, and you'll better know what to do for the next one. Right now the most important thing is to get stuff out there to start up a feedback loop.

u/eaglejarl [+2] (3 days later)

Couple of suggestions for you based on how I do things. Obviously, YMMV:

• Write something. No matter how blank you are, you can write a sentence. Even if it's intensely stupid, just putting words on the page will help you keep going.
• Don't worry about writing chronologically. I had a particular scene that just would not come out. So, I skipped it and wrote the bit that came after it, figuring I'd go back and write the hard scene later. Turns out I never did and it didn't matter.
• Set yourself a tight deadline and stick to it. I publish a new chapter of 2YE every Saturday, period. The discipline really helps prevent analysis paralysis; you know you have to write something, so you do.
• Don't worry about outlining and planning too much. I've been doing 2YE almost entirely through discovery writing -- I have an overarching plot arc in mind and I have specific events I want to work in, but I have no idea how I'm going to get from point A to point B. It means I enjoy writing it because I'm really just taking dictation from my hindbrain.

The discovery writing has had some really interesting effects. Loki was never intended to be part of the story. He just wandered in and made himself at home, and he's gradually taken up a larger and larger role. He's now probably my favorite character.

Also, sometimes my characters surprise me. I had this big war planned, lots of battles and drama, and then without talking to me about it.

u/TimTravel [+1] (7 days later)

I guess I'll just start writing, but not in order. I do want to design it all from the start to avoid pointless plotlines and filler (and plotholes) but just doing plans instead of actual text is slowing it down to essentially stopped.

On the other hand I just wrote the last scene...of the sequel. This is going to take a while.

u/qznc [+1] Chaos Legion (11 hours later)

You could try the Snowflake Method.

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