Printable View
So far it's a slow week for writing on my part. Still in the process of editing my first novel. Which is a huge task (in my eyes) that I'm undergoing in minute, bitesize innings.
I need to get back into doing game reviews again. It's been a while and I need to keep loose...
My writing week has been going very well. It tends to go better when I stay away from the internet, regular jobs, drink, music and the shower.
On of my peculiarities and difficulties as a writer is that I won't discard anything. I have heard this is unprofessional and that it is a weakness of the amateur not to be able to tell when his stuff is not coming off. But I can't overlook the fact that I had a reason, a feeling, for starting to write it, and I'll be damned if I won't beat it.
Non-existant. I should put those paint brushes down and spend a day writing... I miss it.:cryin:
As you mature you'll toss it, eventually ;).Quote:
Originally Posted by MANICHAEAN
What the hell is this?:party: Beatniks died out in the 80's Admin, if or when you're lurking about... :)
I wrote nothing this week, but continued to absorb/read and reflect a bit. I find I'm getting like a battery being charged. I've got one of those contracts: two months work, then 18 days off. So I alternate between reading in the former during whatever little spare time I can attain & actually writing in the latter.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrotethat "Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life." So true.
Manichaean
Manichaean Have you ever been completely satisfied with the end result?
I got my short story out again. I have been 5 years writing a short story, ( not constantly, you understand:D) and I can't get the first paragraph right. So every couple of months I get it out and change it, then 2 months later change it back. I'm going for impact and explanation, can you do both at once?
Very good thanks, 4 poems and happy with all over them.
Confusing mostly, I didn't write much last week, but what I did write was just plain and uninteresting.
I am trying to write a story and I am having a writer's block... I hate those! :mad2:
I am also doing a prewrite to a story that I have been itching to do for quite some time. I am happy about that, but I am still getting the plotline all situated and filling plotholes... That keeps me buisy. Just another testament to how short my attention span is, working on another story when I hit a writer's block in the first one!!
:banana:
I haven't written any fiction at all this week. Although I've jotted down a few story ideas and made outlines and character bios for them. So hopefully I find the time to start. Do I really have to go to work and school?
But I've been busy writing for the paper. I wrote stories on guitarist (cool) and new PE classes at school (not so cool!).
What gets you guys going? I can sit in front of the computer for hours and come up with nothing, but the minute I go for a run or a hike or a bike-ride, the ideas start popping – experiential stuff, abstract stuff, all kinds of stuff. Unfortunately, by the time I get back to the computer, I’ve forgotten pretty much everything. Aye, yai, yai.
So anyway, I was out hiking in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge today. It’s a gorgeous little spot in southern Oklahoma, the kind of a place that doesn’t really come to mind when you think of Oklahoma. Well, I came around a bend in the trail and there, about twenty yards away, was a small herd of wild buffalo standing on the bank of a stream. I must have startled them because they bolted away from me and the water, but they only went 50 yards or so and then stopped and turned and stood there watching me. There were a few yearlings who stood close to their mamas, and there were a few adolescents who were more standoffish, and there was one big-ole badass bull who was standing closest to me.
This was one of the ideas I had: there must be a self-preservation instinct in buffalo that make them extra wary while drinking (I once saw a wildebeest get chomped by a crocodile at a watering hole on Animal Planet). Then I started thinking of the sign at the trail-head that said, “Buffalo are dangerous, keep your distance.” But I was mesmerized by these spectacular North American creatures, so I just stood there, admiring them. Then the big fella started shaking his head and it was at that moment I knew exactly what he was thinking: Hey, I’m still thirsty. And that little guy is in my way. And I have pointy-pointy horns while he only has a stick. I’m gonna paw the earth and snort some more, then I’m gonna gore his happyass. So I eased on out of there.
It was a glorious day.
I have the exact same problem. The creative ideas are few when I sit down to write, but when I'm doing other things the ideas quickly and often come.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho
My solution? I put notebooks, big and little, everywhere. I have them in my room, kitchen, car, backpack and one in the newsroom. Be sure to keep a writing utensil around too! Always having paper near has helped me a ton.
Hey Mariner,Quote:
Originally Posted by Mariner
That has got to be some of the best advice you could give to someone interested in writing. My local Bookstore sells these little Moleskin notepads and advertises them as: the notebooks that Bruce Chatwin and Ernest Hemingway used. I doubt buying one those pads will make me write like either of those guys any more than buying a pair of Air Jordans will help me play basketball like M.J. but the principle stands – ideas are fleeting and you need to write them when you have them or risk losing them. I went with the no-name 79 cent spiral-bound version rather than the fancy-pants $9.95 Moleskin notepad; that way I don’t feel so bad when I send one through the washing machine.
Here’s another question. When you guys set out on a writing project, do you know exactly what you’re going to write, then write it, then edit it, ensuring that it comes out exactly as you intended? Or do you go into it with a general idea of what you’re trying to accomplish and then just go with the flow. I mean, do you let your characters sort of chose their own course of action - as you’re writing? I’m thinking mostly of fiction-writing here but the question may apply to other genres as well.
As from Friday night I get home leave back in the Philippines for 20 days. I can sit on the porch looking at the coconut trees & invariably am in the mood to pick up on the stories I started before & hopefully get some new ideas.
I have a rough idea of beginning and end typically and I know my characters as well as though I'd spent a hazy night drinking with them. Gradually I acquire a more robust understanding of them after a successive series of ever less interesting dates until I am eventually bored and never speak to them again. And yes my characters frequently surprise me with what they are willing to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho
I'm pretty much the opposite - I often start with a very basic idea (character or location or situation) and then let the pen do the writing for me almost automatically. Sometimes it churns out junk, but other times it can really surprise me.....
I tend to think that planning too much detail in advance kills spontaineity. But..... each to their own.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rores28
You know, I’m starting to figure that out. I’ve been an avid reader my whole life, but I’ve only recently written a few shorts. As a reader, I was under the impression that writers had total and deliberate control over their characters, so I was surprised when my stories started taking off in their own directions.Quote:
Originally Posted by hillwalker
I’m thinking there must be some happy median between autocratic authorial rule and character anarchy. I mean, if I cut my guys too much slack they wind up running around, boozing it up, getting in fights, crashing their cars, and making a general nuisance of themselves.
Really good... I wrote two poems that I was completely happy with. First time in years, that I have been completely happy with my work.
Will you post them Mary?Quote:
Originally Posted by Maryd.
Surprisingly, it's picked up in recent days. I went for a walk down by a stream the other day and ended up completely lost in my own thoughts; mulling over my own sense of mild dispair at the future of my career and the career and qualification centric society as a whole. I then returned and wrote a thousand words on the protagonist of my embryonic novel embarking on an aimless amble down by a stream and mulling over his own mild dispair at the future of his career and the career and qualification centric society as a whole.
So there you have it, some certified RaoulDuke advice. If you've hit a wall of procrastination creative block then go for a ramble, take a pen and paper and see what happens.
I am very happy this week as I have written 4 poems for a very special friend of mine, who's birthday is nearing.
One of the items I was hoping to announce in the next few weeks under happier auspices was that I had landed a publishing contract with a midlist house, which would be a nice break after nearly four years of significant disruption and even threats to my independence in my daily living. The contract is prospective, as of this writing, without being actual--however, given my health, age, and the strength needed to change the kitty litter, and my battles with a significantly contracted support network that I have depended on most of my life as a disabled woman, it is with regret that I withdraw from any further specific discussions on individual literary texts in the forums, and despite no small degree of affection for my time here, I need to focus my energies on keeping myself afloat as long as I am able, and need to move on to communities more suited to my needs.
Hence this is a reluctant goodbye to my LN friends, for the time being. If my pressures ease within the next two years or so, perhaps I will stop back in to say hello.
With no further ado, Farewell. :wave:
Every good wish for success and happiness in your ventures, Jozanny. If you can spare the time, maybe you could pop in now and then to let us know how you are getting on?
Once in a while, my friend :); this is more about me than anything else, though at this point, and where I am, I am looking for communities with more specific focus, like the Henry James newsletter I have been on for about ten years. I may be the dummy in the group, but I learn a lot from these scholars, and I'd like more of the same on other topics even if I have to eat humble pie--and maybe there is an online community for midlist freelancers, or my blog can become one. We will see, but I know my time has come, and I need to free myself of faux pas bickering when I am truly busy, and not expending that emotional energy is my responsibility.Quote:
Originally Posted by kasie
Be well dear lady!
Jozy, sorry to see you go but I understand the need to put your work first. I hope it all works out for you. All the best, Fifth :)
Pity to see such a wonderful poster like Jozy leaving. Whatever you do, may the force be with you Jozy... or the light... or whatever's brighter http://smiles.kolobok.us/personal/hi.gif
Has been rather a slow week with my young fellow sick. But I am back in action. This is going to be a great writing week.
What's wrong with your young fellow?:angel: Hope this will be a better writing week for you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maryd.
As for me, there are 6 years since I didn't write anything. Maybe it is the time to start it again?
Yes my love he has been pretty ill... Gave me quite a scare... But he's back to school tomorrow. So I can get back to writing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lacra
You see my love I write all day every day... Without fail, but last week I put a hold on everything. My family comes first then my writing. :)
My writing week has been slow as far as actual writing goes. I am working on a story in my head and it may be a week or more before I get it all worked out. I wrote three stories over a period of about a month, and I have ideas for two more stories. So the actual wrtiting has been zero, but it has been really productive.
I started something that doesn't totally repulse me at two days distance. I think I'll finish this one. So it's a good writing week.
I wrote what I would like to call a poem, or a humble poem, if there's such a thing. I guess it's not bad, considering that writing isn't my regular activity.
Hey Maxi... Congrats on your succes on writing a poem... You should share. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Maximilianus
It was a terrible week
I've been pushing myself too hard and not hard enough, one and the same time. I just asked Arianna Huffington for employment as if I had the perfect right to ask her. My rage is rather frightening, and maybe it pushed me back to the forum so I could remember that I have a civil and mollifying side, and I am perversely bothered that the novelist Susanna dropped me like a hot potato--but those reasons are more toward getting the Suburban Woman to pay attention to how poverty has fostered the creature I came to be, more than any real interest in her satiric talent. I don't know how much energy I will spend on this, but I am probably going to pick on the scab, and in an almost Jamesian fashion, build a foundation of brick on the quicksilver of twitter networking.
I hate twitter, though I can see it for what it is. I should go to bed, but fear not getting enough done.
Almost finished my short story so it has been pretty good.
Might even get it finished tonight if I can think of the right ending.
I actually think I am going to start a personal essay about this, which illustrates why my cracks are more readily perceived than Madame Merle's. No publication would take it--and yet, and yet, I don't understand the antipathies that seem to wedge between me and married suburban women authors, and Susanna's cessation of interaction with me has opened some old wounds. If I tell her it hurt that would just widen the fissure; yet Laurel Speer never minded, within our communications, that I may have been socially inappropriate, but that may be because she understood better what I was up against. Speer is old school small press a little ahead of me, and her corrections toward my views were perceptive, but, if I have to take this journey, then I have to copy this post to draft file....Quote:
Originally Posted by Jozanny
Absolutely terrible.