So I joined the Divine Order of Isune recently, thanks to Fania. And to my understanding, one of the tenets of belonging in the Order is that you gotta do lotsa artsy stuff. And for me, my artsy stuff will mostly be in the form of writing, since I love to write. With that said...

I'm a big fan of this Monty Python sketch - the Gumby Brain Specialist. And for some reason, I thought, recently...you know, this could be really funny (and cool) if it was adapted to the Lusternian setting. Not copied exactly, of course, but perhaps if I could do something similar to it, I was thinking, for the purposes of making an in-game book it might be a cool idea. Perhaps I could adapt it as a Lusternian fable, with the moral of "don't trust just anyone with brain surgery" or something like that, hehe.

So, I was just wondering - is it okay to make in-game writing (like books and such) that's inspired by stuff like the Monty Python Gumby Brain Specialist sketch? I won't copy it exactly by any stretch. I'm just really inspired by that sketch to create something funny, and I just wanted to see if it would fly first. So please, let me know what you think!

I too have an idea inspired by real-life work. I wanted to do a theater performance based on John Cage's "4'33". I'm still stuck at the Idea! stage, but I'd like to know how to credit real-life people.

What do people find so funny about that skit? It's the one monty python skit I could never find funny.

Same here Dags

"it is rumored that some insane people would say that this was done by John Cage, but he doesn't exist, so we will ignore that insanity"

Thats how

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of 'When I was in my soul meditation, I saw a man who did...'.

that's just crazy talk you must be a geomancer!

btw, I seriously want someone to explain what I'm missing about the gumby skit which makes it funny. Cause to me, it's not making fun of anything, it's just annoying.

I would be very, very careful about "inspired by..." items. They can easily, if you are not cautious, become plagiarism very quickly.

Hard not to plagarism john cage. however being that this is a mud, it will be very hard TO plagarise john cage.

Any RL concepts that I have to bring in-game (like evolution when Vio's debunking it, or that time I used an analogy of rust overtaking a sword under the sea, which obviously doesn't happen in-game but was the only way I could make something make sense...) I tend to attribute to "ancient human mythology."

There's in-game support for it: see: how dwarves got their name.

From what I understand, the Gumbies are supposed to be parodying the British working class, more specifically those from Yorkshire. At least, that's the impression I get from this Wikipedia article on Gumbies.

Okay, well, I've decided to drop the idea mentioned in the first post in this thread, because I don't want to be accused of plagiarism by accident. I want to avoid that accusation entirely, so I'm trying to avoid basing any Lusternian writing on something else.

The problem is, now...I'm completely stumped. My muse is depleted. I'm creatively dry.

I just have no idea what to do next in terms of writing something. I mean, I have a direction I want to take it in - I designed a Tahtetso prayer scroll and made one for myself, so I want to write something that can fit on a scroll (i.e. probably somewhere between 1000-1500 words) and have a Tahtetso and/or Kepheran theme. Maybe a parable or short fable of some kind. But that's as much as I have to go on, and that's not enough.

I dunno...I need help sparking my creative muse here. Anyone have any suggestions?

If you describe the lack of things happening, you won't get accused of plagarism.

ok great... now how does it mock yorkshire people? oh well I guess this is like asking how many licks to the center of a tootsie pop.

Oh sorry, I'm mixing up Caerulo and you.

I tried to do that for a science fair project one year.

Ack, I had replied to this but I closed the browser before I clicked send! Grrr

Anyways you are putting too much pressure on yourself Parabollus. I think this is partially my fault. Don't think of writing for Lady Isune's Order as something you have to do. There are many creative ways that you can serve Her without killing yourself trying to write a story you aren't comfortable in writing.

As for writing for Lusternia:

First you should read some Lusternian works. The Bardic contests are a great place to start (BTW Bardics are considered IC things, so it's okay to talk about them as long as you don't bring any obvious reference to non-Lusternian things into talking about them). You can also look at books in the library. The best books to look at are probably the prestige winners (although there are a lot of good books beyond that of the winners).

You should write what you know about above all else. Make sure you are comfortable with the setting and situations in your story. You can write about big events such as the Ascension events, or something smaller like your struggle to find a family. Make sure that you have some conflict in your story no matter how big or small.

I am not in Lusternia during the day for the most part because I work during the week. If you want writing tips, or just a friendly person to talk to you can always send me a PM here. I'll reply as soon as I'm able. I've taken several writing/English courses, so I know a bit about what I'm talking about. Plus, I saw something about writing once on TV, so I'm an expert.