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Funk In Shoe posted:Nobody here will probably remember me, but I figured I'd swing by anyway and give a shout out about the virtues of perseverance, when it comes to actually writing substantial amounts of fiction. I remember you, and thanks for posting this. It's exactly what I needed to hear today. I've been posting a lot less myself because I've been too busy applying nose to grindstone without coming up for air. Revising my novel has been the hardest thing I've done in my life so far, especially because at times it does feel unrewarding. There are days when I look at all the suck I've written and despair. There is no point in me looking for feedback with a novel half revised/half unraveled. I've been on my own with this a long time. I know where it has to go, but right now it feels like trying to file a chunk of copper into a perfect sphere.* Even as my novel takes on a shape I'm more pleased with, I still imagine no one else will give a drat. I don't let that stop me. I have to finish it for myself. *During my old jewellery teacher's apprenticeship in Germany, his master gave him a chunk of copper as big as his hand and told him to file it into a perfect cube. Every time he thought he'd gotten close, he'd hand it to his master, who would scrutinize it with callipers and tell him it wasn't good enough. After almost a year, he finally handed over the copper cube, less than a centimetre square. His master looked it over and said, "Yes, good. This will do." He then handed him another chunk of copper, as big as his fist, and said, "Now make me a perfect sphere." It took him two years of nothing but filing before his master would let him touch a real piece of jewellery. The moral of the story is: until you are willing to put that much effort into something, for that little reward, you have not found your true passion. I didn't have that much passion for jewellery, illustration, or graphic design, but found it in writing, so a writer I am. Stuporstar fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Aug 12, 2013 |
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Aug 11, 2013 23:49
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As a famous philosopher once said: "just do it". I believe it was Nikeletes? Thanks for the wall of text though, Funk In Shoe, was good to read.
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Aug 12, 2013 00:28
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This is me pointing out that, in an earlier time, Funk In Shoe was much, much more succinct than he is now. His advice back then, to me, as I languidly complained about some facet of writing or another was: "I think you are more in love with the idea of being a writer than actually being a writer." (paraphrasing) He went on to say, "If writing is not your life's purpose; if it is not the first thing you want to do when you get home from your day job, you should stop doing it." (paraphrasing again) And you know what? He was right, and I haven't written since. Not one story, not one poem. Nothing. Now there may be a few of you that remember me and might have read something I wrote here or there and be thinking I should have stuck with it. And you are right, too. Because you are both right. If my answer to his statement was: "But you're wrong! I do love it! I can't stand working in software and I just want to write write write all the time, endlessly!" But it wasn't. I was honest with him, and most importantly, I was honest with myself. So I quit. His advice, which used to be so much more succinct, has essentially remained unchanged. And I still read (not as much as I used to, of course) and I still follow some writers on twitter and poo poo like that, and they all give the exact same advice. So I don't think he's right. I know he is right. If you want to write, then write.
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Aug 12, 2013 01:50
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I started thinking seriously about writing a year ago. I've always loved reading, and various visual arts have been a part of my life from an early age, but writing is new. Since last August I've had the privilege of meeting talented, insightful people who do good work and love it, and they want to help others do the same. I've been reading, listening, thinking: novels, series, screenplays, comics, flash fiction, short fiction anthologies, literary, genre; on the web, traditional publishing, local zines. Things I wouldn't have explored otherwise. In the past year I've had a lot of fun, worked hard, learned more than I could have imagined, and as a result I'm engaging with media -- not just prose -- on a deeper level than I ever have before. It's been a tremendously rewarding experience, and I wish I'd gotten into it earlier. But I didn't, because I believed all the stories writers tell each other: "If writing is not your life's purpose; if it is not the first thing you want to do when you get home from your day job, you should stop doing it." I wasn't burning with passion from birth to tell stories. I had interests outside of writing, didn't want to quit my day job and become a full-time novelist. Writings wasn't something I simply couldn't live without. You know, all that stuff I was supposed to feel in my soul if I was a real writer. Thank God I realized it was horseshit, all of it. A bunch of horseshit. All circles of artists have a fetish for mysticizing their craft, but writers are probably the worst about this. A real writer writes in certain formats and avoids others, edits a certain way, feels a certain way about their work and others', measures success a certain way, and if you're not a real writer -- something no one can agree upon -- then get the hell out. There's no telling how many budding amateurs and veterans alike the Ivory Tower has destroyed. It's worse than useless, it's counterproductive and a lie. Underneath all the navel-gazing dithery, writing is just like any artistic endeavor: creativity plus craft. I'm happy for those of you who have found success in whatever measure you're looking for, but the only right way to do something is whatever way works, and we all know that is far from universal. The only requirement of a hobby is that you enjoy it. Period. If you want other people to enjoy it, and you would like to better yourself, then be honest about your goals and prepare to work hard. If you don't want to, fine, but for gently caress's sake, don't avoid something because you've made yourself completely insane with the idea of it.
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Aug 12, 2013 05:45
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Speaking of creativity + craft, a lot of people here have recommended the Writing Tools craft guide. I believe it discusses the importance of sentence variety, but let's go a little deeper. Let's talk about syntax versus diction. Diction: word choice. You can fool around with diction. There are some guidelines to follow -- avoid excessive modifiers, and try to be specific so your verbs and nouns can covey needed information without modifiers -- but you have a lot of room to wiggle around and create different tones: formal, colloquial, dry, historical, whimsical, concrete, abstract, and so forth. Diction influences style. Syntax: sentence structure. Don't fool around with syntax. You want to employ a variety of sentence structures: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Sure, you can alter the blend to create temporary effects -- after all, written language was devised as a record of spoken language, so in many ways it is aural as much as visual, and both senses influence the effect of the written word. Choppy sentences create a frantic effect, because that's how we speak when we're out of breath and frantic, while long, complex sentences are luxuries of a more languid, descriptive mood, and we can lean heavily on either sentence type to transfer this mood to the reader. But you cannot sustain that poo poo. Pages and pages of only choppy or only run-on sentences are unreadable. Unnatural, even. Good syntax is lyrical, musical, but usually invisible; poor syntax is so jarring and tin-eared that even a novice reader will notice. Here's a great example of syntax in action:What We Talk About When We Talk About Flow. The author supplies an opening paragraph by D.H. Lawrence, then he rewrites the first part using repetitive sentence structure. The content stays the same, the order of ideas is the same, he only changes the syntax. And it's just horrible. This is something we are able to recognize by instinct, but it's helpful to be able to consciously pin it down, especially since "flow" is one of the more nebulous reading/writing principles.
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Aug 12, 2013 06:25
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I saw Neil Gaiman give a presentation a few years back, and somebody asked him "how do you become a writer?" He said "you write stories." That's it. That's the secret. There's no quasi-mystical 'true calling' bull going on. Are you honestly saying you've never had a moment of doubt, never wondered whether it was worth it? Those thoughts are natural, dude. The important part is that even when you're thinking "oh christ I don't feel like writing today", you do it anyway. It's a destructive line of thought that says "you have to be super excited about writing every day" instead of "you have to write every day."
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Aug 12, 2013 06:49
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Funk In Shoe posted:Every time you're spending time polishing an "excerpt" from a work you haven't written yet, every time you're posting online in the CC "flash fiction" thread (horrible thread!), you are, essentially, killing off your own manuscript and your own work. I read through your post a few times and have distilled your theme down to this essential quote. This isn't at all to say that the rest of what you wrote wasn't incredibly insightful, but I wanted to draw attention to this particular line for a reason. I've tried to make the same point before, but usually botched my own message in the process, which can be blamed on the frustration of seeing writers making the same mistakes I did. (and sometimes still do) Praise is a drug, effecting warmth and safety--a habit with a high that is easy to obtain yet impossible to main-tain. So tempted is the writer who lacks the drive to exist outside the womb. How far he'll go to avoid that aching, indifferent light of day in which there exists no guarantee of love for every precious word, no promise of reaction for every tortured action. Thunderdome and its ilk are worthwhile as one grapples with the basics of structure, voice, and grammar. But after the achievement of these baseline skills, it can only damage the writer to stay. Addiction, after all, only feeds addiction. Fellow "writers" in an opium den seeking--and finding--no end of warmth, safety, and futility. Put even more simply: If you want to hit a home run, drat the strikeout and drat the crowd; practice--but then show up to the game and swing the loving bat.
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Aug 12, 2013 07:07
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:I saw Neil Gaiman give a presentation a few years back, and somebody asked him "how do you become a writer?" I hope everyone got that this is what I'm saying. When I use the term "true passion" I mean whatever keeps you writing on the days you don't want to.
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Aug 12, 2013 07:12
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Separate post because gently caress everything that's why. quote:All circles of artists have a fetish for mysticizing their craft, but writers are probably the worst about this. Not probably. Are. Are the worst. I fully believe this is because writing, as it turns out, is utterly unique among all the crafts in just one way: it's the only craft known to man where discussion and dissection of the thing can only be done by using the thing itself. Movie critics don't make movies to critique movies; they write. Music critics don't make songs to critique songs; they write. If your painting sucks, I won't let you know about it by painting my own; I'll write. If my sculpture is juvenile and pathetic, you won't sculpt a high-brow response made from clay; you'll write. But, when responding to or talking about writing we can hardly do anything else but...well, you know. As children, no one is forced to learn an art, but everyone is forced to learn to write. So if everyone writes, then who decides who gets to be a writer? This is why writers are vicious and bitter and terrible to each other. In what other medium can we show off our own chops while simultaneously devastating theirs? I believe this fact is the birth of the kinds of myths you talked about; the fetishizing of the Writer's Truth and the imperative "writing process." How dare anyone who is yet to open a vein over a typewriter claim the mantle of "writer", indeed. "Oh? You believe in outlining before you draft? Well then, dear idiot-child, allow me to *~dazzle*~ you with a tempestuous torrent of trumpery!! I believe it was William Faulkner--or was it Ayn Rand-- who said..." Everyone's guilty of it, but all it does it add to the growing body of "mystique" that surrounds the idea of writing, thus raising the craft's barrier to entry. Which I suppose is the point. 
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Aug 12, 2013 07:40
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Chillmatic posted:
I was coming here to grumble - because gently caress you Mr Shoe, I'm a better writer than I was after 40k words of Doming - but with Chillmatic's gloss I guess I agree.
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Aug 12, 2013 07:41
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Yep, there comes a time when you graduate from the Dome, and at that point it's better to move on.Crisco Kid posted:The only requirement of a hobby is that you enjoy it. Period. If you want other people to enjoy it, and you would like to better yourself, then be honest about your goals and prepare to work hard. If you don't want to, fine, but for gently caress's sake, don't avoid something because you've made yourself completely insane with the idea of it. This is also true. I didn't quit drawing just because I decided I didn't want to make a living at it. Not wanting it hard enough doesn't mean you can't do it at all. I have other hobbies too, like making game mods, even though I've never aspired to become a game developer because that would suck the fun out if it for me. You are allowed to do something just for fun.
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Aug 12, 2013 07:55
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Unless of course, and I'm just being lame rear end devil's advocate, this is just a hobby/passion and you have no interest in pursuing the publishing deal. I mean, sure, if SOMEBODY came to me and said "I'll publish your stuff for a bajillion dollars" then hells yes. But short of that, I kind of enjoy the craft more than the result. And I really seriously suck at the craft.
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Aug 12, 2013 23:09
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While telling somebody to stop obsessing over internet feedback and to just get writing on a daily basis is obviously good advice, I feel like its worth pointing out that not all writers aspire to be novelists. How about a bit of love for writing short stories? I'd also argue that if you're labouring month after month on a novel and you've never actually completed and polished a short piece of fiction then you might be getting the cart before the horse. Before sitting down to complete a 400 page manuscript surely its worthwhile to see if you can put together a compelling piece of writing that only runs 10 or 20 pages? I'd honestly be interested to know what other people think on that topic.
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Aug 12, 2013 23:20
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Helsing posted:While telling somebody to stop obsessing over internet feedback and to just get writing on a daily basis is obviously good advice, I feel like its worth pointing out that not all writers aspire to be novelists. How about a bit of love for writing short stories?
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Aug 12, 2013 23:24
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magnificent7 posted:Unless of course, and I'm just being lame rear end devil's advocate, this is just a hobby/passion and you have no interest in pursuing the publishing deal. Definitely. I totally forgot to address that in my previous posts. Just as some people enjoy painting or making music for themselves, writing for yourself (or for a small audience) can be very rewarding if that's truly the end goal. I think the issue is that many artists seem to pine for something more than what they've currently got, yet are hesitant to break out of that comfort zone. Helsing posted:I'd also argue that if you're labouring month after month on a novel and you've never actually completed and polished a short piece of fiction then you might be getting the cart before the horse. This is a good point, too. Though I'd add that short story writing and novel writing are only about as similar as easel painting and mural painting. Or playing tuba in a garage band vs. playing it in an orchestra. The same, but different. But for sure I agree with you that it might be best to try short stories first, just to see if you have the discipline to both start and finish. It just seems to me that many writers who actually do want to write a full length MS seem to get stuck on the more immediate feedback loop of short story writing/presenting/feedback/writing/presenting/feedback.
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Aug 12, 2013 23:39
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On the topic at hand, I recently made a sort of informal decision to back off from the 'dome for a while, for some of the reasons being discussed this past page. For some reason, though, without the perpetual deadline looming (even if it is a bullshit deadline), I can't write anything. Even my 'real' writing seemed to benefit from the pressure of the weekly competitions, even if I didn't have as much time to get around to it as I liked. I mean I sit down, open up my documents, physically force my hands to depress the keys in some sort of sensible order, and I'm lucky to have a grand total of like, three additional words on my word count when I finally close my laptop in disgust and flee my house. I don't THINK I'm one of those people who ought to just give up and go be something else, largely because I love words more than anything, and even if I'm not a "novelist" or whatever, I can't help that the thing I want most of all is to put words in some order that moves someone to feel some emotion at all (I'm not picky). Every time an author moves me to laugh or cry or put down the book just to fully absorb a passage, I'm so profoundly grateful. The best thing in the world would be to cause someone else that same sense of empathy with a total stranger. ...Incidentally, my struggles lately have me looking for literally any way to back on track. One thing I noticed is that I don't really have a space to write anymore. I used to have a little window seat with a lovely view, but my living situation changed and due to Reasons, I no longer have a set spot to just dive in and work. Where do you guys do most of your writing? Does anyone have a particularly cool or inspiring setup that helps them get into the right space? How about while living in close proximity with a lot of people? Has anyone engineered noise-canceling privacy pods for introverted creative types yet???? It's just amazing to me that all of the media-consuming ingrates of the world will slobber and gnash their teeth over the next Song of Ice and Fire release date, but when it comes to my writing (or the writing of anyone they know personally) they don't understand why I can't be writing a book and also drinking beer and marathoning sitcoms with them at the same time. Fuckers.
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Aug 12, 2013 23:59
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As one of the few people I look forward to reading in TD, you better not stop writing  I write in my office/craft room. It's not really a writing space, but it's where my computer is and I'm used to doing stuff in here. One day I want to have like a lovely little shed with just a computer where I can go to write. I think that having a writing space would help me like having a room just for sleeping has helped my insomnia.
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Aug 13, 2013 00:17
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Sitting Here posted:On the topic at hand, I recently made a sort of informal decision to back off from the 'dome for a while, for some of the reasons being discussed this past page. This is me too. Without the 'Dome I wouldn't have written 40,000 words of novel; I'd have written 0 words of anything. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Aug 13, 2013 |
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Aug 13, 2013 00:38
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Sitting Here and sebmojo, you really should have joined our writing group which features fake deadlines  I think Thunderdome and flashfiction is very worthwhile especially when starting out. You really don't want to write a full novel in a vacuum and not know how bad you are. Ironing out your prose and craft with flashfiction and the non-hugchamber feedback of the Thunderdome gives you a good eye for what is awful writing and what is at least passable. The competitive nature really sets it apart from things like fanfiction sites where everyone just tells you how great you are. I have finally started a novel so I've not been posting in Thunderdome, but I still feel an urge and need to go back every so often to keep myself sharp at short fiction and to gauge any improvement I may have made in my prose.
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Aug 13, 2013 01:52
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Sitting Here posted:...Incidentally, my struggles lately have me looking for literally any way to back on track. One thing I noticed is that I don't really have a space to write anymore. I used to have a little window seat with a lovely view, but my living situation changed and due to Reasons, I no longer have a set spot to just dive in and work. Lately I've done most of my writing on a laptop in my book room, but sometimes I get antsy there. I've used that computer too much for unproductive fun for it to feel like a writing space. So I keep a spiral notebook too, and I take that outside or to the library when I feel like I can't get anything done if I don't go somewhere different. I'd recommend having a book like that; it frustrates me that I can't polish every sentence as I go, but it's useful for the same reason--the choice between filling a page with ugly scratch-outs or pressing on is no choice worth the name. Regarding Thunderdome: If you want to be published, you'll have to start finishing projects and submitting them eventually. As long as you're doing that, participating in TD on the side is more productive than vacuuming cats.
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Aug 13, 2013 02:28
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I had the same "without TD my other writing suffers" thing going on, then I realised the problem: TD has deadlines and consequences. Get together with a bunch of writer friends and work on your novels together: set deadlines and make sure to enforce them. Then, you'll be able to work on your novel without using TD as a crutch.
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Aug 13, 2013 03:05
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To chime in with my own handy dandy productivity tip: no matter what you do one day you WILL die. Get going. As I lie in bed at night, the darkness kept at bay only by the red light of my digital alarm clock noting the early hours, I mourn the loss of each precious minute as it seems to hurtle like a steam train gone wild counting down the seconds to my personal doomsday. Every change of the clock is an acknowledgment of my insignificance and worthlessness, a marker of my inability to complete anything or do anything with my life. I grab a bedside pen, hastily scribble down a few illegible notes on some sort of surface, gorge myself on leftover cold chili and drink down a stale tasting whiskey remaining from some day prior. Eventually, I collapse on my sheets, hoping upon hope my brief delirium will result in a dreamless night so as to not be subjected to the inescapable fear in the traps of my traitorous mind. But if that doesn't work for you, you could also draw up a schedule to write a bit a day I guess.
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Aug 13, 2013 03:41
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PoshAlligator posted:To chime in with my own handy dandy productivity tip: no matter what you do one day you WILL die. Get going. Trust me man if there is one person who does not ever need to think even more about how they're going to die and probably take all their words with them unuttered to the grave, it's me.
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Aug 13, 2013 04:09
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systran posted:Sitting Here and sebmojo, you really should have joined our writing group which features fake deadlines Haha, theoretically I did. But then I never posted, so I've sidestepped that whole thing. Feel free to flick me anything you want a critique on - I read some stuff for the muffin before.
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Aug 13, 2013 05:19
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I've been reading Bullies, Bastards & Bitches lately, which is a Writer's Digest book on writing "bad guys" in fiction. I haven't read a whole lot of it yet, but the author of the book does give good advice at the beginning that will keep me reading it. Unlike the other book I read on characterization a few weeks ago, this book doesn't embrace and encourage the use of archetypes for everything. It just talks about how interesting characters that are "bad rear end" can be whether they're protagonists or antagonists, and it mentioned how important it is to use fresh characters that can't be so easily categorized instead of sticking with safe, cookie-cutter characters. There's even a well-put example: "if your vampire brings Dracula to mind, you've failed." The author also argues how characters are what make fiction interesting rather than the bare plot itself because we see the characters interact in complex ways.
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Aug 13, 2013 08:02
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Sitting Here posted:Where do you guys do most of your writing? Does anyone have a particularly cool or inspiring setup that helps them get into the right space? How about while living in close proximity with a lot of people? Has anyone engineered noise-canceling privacy pods for introverted creative types yet???? Goddamn, I wish. I want it to be like one of those 60s egg chairs, and I'd be all like, "Do not disturb the sanctity of the writing pod," and then swivel the chair so whoever is trying to bug me gets a face full of 60s motherfucking egg chair, so there.
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Aug 13, 2013 09:29
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Sitting Here posted:Where do you guys do most of your writing? Does anyone have a particularly cool or inspiring setup that helps them get into the right space? How about while living in close proximity with a lot of people? Has anyone engineered noise-canceling privacy pods for introverted creative types yet???? It varies; when I'm at home, I spread out on the couch or snuggle into my giant Reading Chair with a laptop and notepad and pen. If it's nice out, I'll drag a lovely folding chair and table onto the unswept, sooty balcony and write there. For a while, I skipped writing if I was traveling. Then on one particularly long trip, I couldn't stand it any longer and, after waking up at 4 AM with jet-lag, I just sat down and cracked out prose for two hours in my hotel room. Then I wrote some more on the train to the office I was visiting. After struggling through a terrible 10k word short story that way, I've found location less important - in the past half-year, I've composed TD entries in an airline seat, in a waiting room, on a train, in a taxi, on the veranda set on a Spanish hillside (great view, terrible productivity), hunched over a postcard-sized desk in a hotel room no larger than my suitcase, and sprawled on a beanbag in a quiet corner of an office. Many of these remote spots were quite productive, because I had no internet access and fewer distractions - more importantly, the daily worries you have while at home (did I take out the trash, is there laundry to be done, maybe I should call such and such friend I haven't seen in weeks) melt away because you cannot do anything about them. If you have a laptop, perhaps you could seek out somewhere public? A corner of a library, a park bench, the atrium of a business center, something like that.
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Aug 13, 2013 10:27
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There's a lot in what Beef says. Much as I hate Charles Bukowski's manner sometimes, he has a point with this: http://zenpencils.com/comic/97-charles-bukowski-air-and-light-and-time-and-space/ That said, there's one thing I know helps me: working where other people are working tends to fuel the herd instinct. It's easier to go with the flow than be the one person slacking off in a crowd. Then again, spaces where that's actually happening are rare.
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Aug 13, 2013 13:08
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Stuporstar posted:Goddamn, I wish. I want it to be like one of those 60s egg chairs, and I'd be all like, "Do not disturb the sanctity of the writing pod," and then swivel the chair so whoever is trying to bug me gets a face full of 60s motherfucking egg chair, so there.
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Aug 13, 2013 16:57
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I tap into my inner Buddha nature to find the tranquility to write even in a mighty conflagration. You lesser writers, with your sweet egg chairs and peaceful, sun-dappled windowsills, ugh. 
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Aug 13, 2013 18:37
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Symptomless Coma posted:There's a lot in what Beef says. Much as I hate Charles Bukowski's manner sometimes, he has a point with this: http://zenpencils.com/comic/97-charles-bukowski-air-and-light-and-time-and-space/ I really hate the sentiment that desiring a writing space is excuse making (as per that comic). I work better alone in my home office space. This isn't just writing, it includes the creative parts of my actual job (product spec writing and some UI/Web design). I work faster and of higher quality by myself, in a quiet, familiar place with light music. Noise distracts me and I can't pace to consider a difficult problem without looking weird. I liken it to reading. You can read anywhere. I read on the bus every day, clinging to a strap while my thumb throbs because I am reading one-handed, while homeless people expound their gripes about the universe, and the bus lurches and screeches like some stygian beast. It's not as thorough, satisfying, or close of a read as laying in bed and (for me) the same goes for writing.
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Aug 13, 2013 19:46
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I think that if you create more efficiently in your happy space that's cool. But I bet if that was taken away you'd still get stuff done, maybe you just wouldn't enjoy it as much. It's just people who don't create and bitch that they need a happy space in order to create. Even if they get one they probably still won't, because it's just another excuse. But there probably does have to be a certain level of stability in your own brain in order to do it anyway. In chaotic times, it'd be really hard. But the place is probably less important than the mindset. There's always headphones.
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Aug 13, 2013 20:13
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Just to chime in, I kind of disagree with the "only write if you feel like you were born for writing and nothing else and god help you if you don't spend every waking moment wanting to spew words from your fingertips" stuff. I think some people are like that, and some are the opposite. There are a lot of authors whose creative process seems almost like torture to them, but I don't think of them as lesser authors. Harper Lee wrote one thing in her entire life, and I don't think anyone would say she isn't a great novelist just because she never picked up a pen again. I dunno, I just think trying to define what makes someone an author or qualifying degrees of "author-ness" ends up being just another attempt to mystify onlookers. If you write, you are a writer. I don't think it matters whether it feels like pulling teeth or whether it's the greatest feeling of all time. I've certainly experienced both, and I've gone through periods where I didn't write a single word for weeks because I just...didn't feel like it. I'm betting most people have. I think as long as you don't quit then there is obviously something of intrinsic worth to you somewhere in the entire process, and that's what really matters. I don't think I've ever seen anyone who wasn't writing for themselves stick with it (not that money / fame / just having people read your words can't be a worthy or powerful motivator as well) but I think everyone comes at it differently. To be honest writing probably makes me feel bad more often than it makes me feel good, but I keep writing because I love it all the same. Maybe I'm just crazy or not a "real" writer or something, I dunno, but I think the only real ironclad rule is "If you want to be a writer, then write."
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Aug 13, 2013 22:36
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Full Fathoms Five posted:Just to chime in, I kind of disagree with the "only write if you feel like you were born for writing and nothing else and god help you if you don't spend every waking moment wanting to spew words from your fingertips" stuff. I think some people are like that, and some are the opposite. There are a lot of authors whose creative process seems almost like torture to them, but I don't think of them as lesser authors. Harper Lee wrote one thing in her entire life, and I don't think anyone would say she isn't a great novelist just because she never picked up a pen again. Exactly. Who cares if you're 'a writer'? What matters are the words you write. Because they can always be better. sebmojo fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Aug 13, 2013 |
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Aug 13, 2013 23:48
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sebmojo posted:Exactly. Who cares if you're 'a writer'? What matters are the words you write. Because they can always be better.
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Aug 14, 2013 00:43
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Sitting Here posted:Where do you guys do most of your writing? Does anyone have a particularly cool or inspiring setup that helps them get into the right space? How about while living in close proximity with a lot of people? Has anyone engineered noise-canceling privacy pods for introverted creative types yet???? I tend to do a lot more writing out in a coffee shop than when I'm at home, even though I'm also extremely introverted. Watching the interactions of people from afar can give me inspiration for the interactions of people in my own work, and there's a calming sort of atmosphere to most coffee shops that makes it easier to get the words out. I just have to make sure I pick a good corner space so I don't feel like people are meticulously watching my every word. v  v
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Aug 14, 2013 02:17
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I'm going to sound silly for asking this, as I jumped into the current Thunderdome prompt, but what actually makes a story a "story of intrigue"? When I think about intrigue, I think about secrets, of backroom deals or secret agreements. It's the sentiment that something is going on and that you, as a reader, want to get to the bottom of it. Is this correct? I'm just afraid of missing the prompt by a mile.
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Aug 15, 2013 15:12
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Vermain posted:I tend to do a lot more writing out in a coffee shop than when I'm at home, even though I'm also extremely introverted. Watching the interactions of people from afar can give me inspiration for the interactions of people in my own work, and there's a calming sort of atmosphere to most coffee shops that makes it easier to get the words out. I just have to make sure I pick a good corner space so I don't feel like people are meticulously watching my every word. v I honestly can't recall the last time I wrote anything other than work at home. 99% of everything I have ever written, I wrote in a coffee shop/pub/outside. I can't write in my own home. This makes writing a more expensive hobby than it probably should be  As for the whole work on novel and work on flash fiction thing I just missed the boat about, personally I have had time intermittently to work on both. I like TD because I use it as a creative arena where I can throw out something a bit different. It pushes me down creative avenues I would be unlikely to try myself, thus allowing me to identify what I enjoy writing and my boundaries. I'm about to go out and write some stream of consciousness which I am quite excited about. I would never have written it under my own steam.
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Aug 15, 2013 15:43
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Schneider Heim posted:I'm going to sound silly for asking this, as I jumped into the current Thunderdome prompt, but what actually makes a story a "story of intrigue"? When I think about intrigue, I think about secrets, of backroom deals or secret agreements. It's the sentiment that something is going on and that you, as a reader, want to get to the bottom of it. Is this correct? I'm just afraid of missing the prompt by a mile. Yep, you've got it. An intrigue s basically a plot or a scheme, with a suggestion that it's basically internal- so courtiers plotting against each other, or a middle manager plotting to get his rival's corner office.
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Aug 16, 2013 02:04
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Is there a good iPad substitute for Scrivener? Storyist looks good, but the lack of a PC version to sync with seems like it would get annoying.
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Aug 20, 2013 17:56
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