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blue squares posted:I'd like to post my stuff in the farm (and would then go and critique others, too, of course) but the things I'm writing now are all things I hope to get published, and I know it's just a dumb forum, but would having it on here affect that? It being possibly considered "previously published online"? I had the same problem recently and Humboldt Squid pointed out that stuff that had gone into the archive/goldmine/gas chamber cannot be edited, which meant one of my old TD entries which I wanted to get published had to be rewritten almost from scratch. I'm not sure it can be considered "previously published online" (see 50 Shades of Grey  ) but a solution is to link to a googledoc file which you can control and delete when you want to get the piece published.
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Jul 9, 2014 03:20
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Sithsaber posted:It's not what I thought it was. What I meant was a story that referenced itself and what was being thought about when I got the idea for the story. ok even so im really confused about how punctuation would disrupt the story's self referentialness Symptomless Coma posted:To that point: I see a lot of people writing about writing, and a lot of people asking abstract questions - and yes, a lot of people critiquing responses to the esoteric challenges of Thunderdome - but I don't see a lot of writing. Lots of people in CC work with each other via PM, IRC, or directly on Google docs. Most of us who work together with any frequency found each other through Thunderdome. The CC writing community was basically catatonic a couple years ago, with writing threads getting maybe 3 or 4 replies at most. I'm personally stuck smack in the middle of a project right now, for example, but having places to just talk shop is sometimes all I need to get excited about what I'm working on all over again. Community is a powerful tool for writers, and I'm grateful for the one I've found here. Even if it's not obvious on the forums themselves that people are getting poo poo done and putting it out there. I guess what I'm saying is, posting about posting in the FA thread isn't really fiction advice in the strictest sense :| Sithsaber posted:1. I had to hold off on the library today. Some of us have jobs. Sithsaber posted:That loser was referencing something I texted last month. TEXTED. I even had a disclaimer complaining about how I lost most of it when messing with gmail drafts. The only thing that I've seriously posted here that ended up horrible was Harmonshock, and that was a parody I lost interest in on day one and only completed because I needed to practice following through. (In my head it was a screenplay I never got around to editing) Ok, being serious now: I genuinely hate seeing people get dogpiled in this thread, so understand that I'm on your side when I say just stop. Was your punctuation question answered? If not, do you have follow up questions? If you want more help, post a sample of the piece. This has turned into a FA slapfight, which writers of CC love, so you're sure to get lots of critique on anything you post. but seriously, little known fact, this is the bitchiest thread on SA except for maybe the WAYWT thread in YLLS. The advice is good, but you will receive it bitchilly.
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Jul 9, 2014 05:38
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I was thinking that tiny doses of run on sentences instead of periods and semicolons quickly express my roaming train of thought.
Sithsaber fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Jul 9, 2014 |
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Jul 9, 2014 05:56
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I've seen this rationale a few times from different people, but it never changes the fact that it's still not fun to read. You can tell me a poo poo sandwich represents your disdain for the corporate food world and the inequity of resources, but I still don't want to eat it.
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Jul 9, 2014 06:09
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Sithsaber posted:I was thinking that tiny doses of run on sentences instead of periods and semicolons quickly express my roaming train of thought. Oh, shut up. Just post your bloody writing sample (that isn't limited to just a single sentence) and let us see whether it works or not.
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Jul 9, 2014 06:23
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Sithsaber posted:I was thinking that tiny doses of run on sentences instead of periods and semicolons quickly express my roaming train of thought. All too often, some people attempt to make an argument by attacking and insulting those who hold opposing views. Mr. Sithsaber's remonstrations are a perfect example. Before I launch into my main topic, I want to make a few matters crystal-clear: (1) Sithsaber brandishes the word “crystallographically” as a kind of up-to-date jack-o'-lantern to scare children, and (2) as a result of that, the world would be a much better place to live if Sithsaber just stopped trying to feed us ever-larger doses of his lies and crackpot assumptions. Now that you know where I stand on those issues, I can safely say that I want to thank him for his surmises. They give me an excellent opportunity to illustrate just how feral Sithsaber can be. Life isn't fair. We've all known this since the beginning of time, so why is he so compelled to complain about situations over which he has no control? The complete answer to that question is a long, sad story. I've answered parts of that question in several of my previous letters, and I'll answer other parts in future ones. For now, I'll just say that it's easy enough to hate him any day of the week on general principles. But now I'll tell you about some very specific things that he is up to, things that ought to make a real Sithsaber-hater out of you. First off, he has a well-exercised contempt for other cultures. The mere mention of that fact guarantees that this letter will never get published in any mass-circulation periodical over which Sithsaber has any control. But that's inconsequential because honor means nothing to Sithsaber. Principles mean nothing to Sithsaber. All he cares about is how best to use our weaknesses to his advantage. Whenever there's an argument about Sithsaber's devotion to principles and to freedom, all one has to do is point out that we have our work cut out for us. That should settle the argument pretty quickly. When I hear Sithsaber's blackshirts parrot the party line—that our elected officials should be available for purchase by special-interest groups—I see them not as people but as machines. The appropriate noises are coming out of their larynges, but their brains are not involved as they would be if they were thinking about how Sithsaber surely wants me to develop an eating disorder. If I did, I'm sure the chortles from Sithsaber and his band would be rich and prolonged, especially given how Sithsaber adamantly maintains that Man's eternal search for Truth is a challenge to be avoided at all costs. Such beliefs would be entirely factual if it weren't for reality. As it stands, Sithsaber's notions are destructive. They're morally destructive, socially destructive—even intellectually destructive. And, as if that weren't enough, Sithsaber makes a living out of Maoism. I call this tactic of his “entrepreneurial Maoism”. Sithsaber and his toadies have indubitably raised entrepreneurial Maoism to a fine art by using it to establish a world government complete with a world army, a world parliament, a world court, and numerous other agencies that subvert time-tested societal norms. We must stop tiptoeing and begin marching boldly and forthrightly towards our goal, which is to lead us all toward a better, brighter future. Double standards are always domineering. Nevertheless, I can state with absolute certainty that I call upon Sithsaber to stop his oppression, lies, immorality, and debauchery. I call upon him to be a man of manners, principles, honour, and purity. And finally, I call upon him to forgo his desire to let advanced weaponry fall into the hands of the worst sorts of loud snobs there are. If anything, he is squarely in favor of antagonism and its propensity to let antisocial lowbrows serve as our overlords. This is so typical of Sithsaber: he condemns bigotry and injustice except when it benefits him personally. While he has been beating the drums of communism, I've been trying to take stock of what we know, identify areas for further research, and provide a useful starting point for debate on his unforgiving projects. In doing so, I've learned that Sithsaber says that he would sooner give up money, fame, power, and happiness than perform a horny act. Although Sithsaber indeed cut that statement out of whole cloth, it's easy for us to shake our heads at his foolishness and cowardice. It's easy for us to exclaim that we should bring important information about his hectoring writings into the limelight. It's easy for us to say, “From the very beginning, rotten, cruel mob bosses have labored to recruit into their ranks the sons and daughters of the powerful, famous, and rich.” The point is that it's easy for us to say these things because there is something grievously wrong with those wily publicity hounds who demand special treatment that, in many cases, borders on the ridiculous. Shame on the lot of them! Sithsaber has been trying for some time to convince people that he has been robbed of all he does not possess. Don't believe his hype! Sithsaber has just been offering that line as a means to oppose the visceral views of 98 percent of the nation's citizens. I hereby publicly condemn his Pecksniffian, tartarean activities. In doing so, I publicly proclaim that it's undoubtedly astounding that Sithsaber has somehow found a way to work the words “interparenthetically” and “archaeopterygiformes” into his policies. However, you may find it even more astounding that he claims that the Scriptures are responsible for his infernal thoughts and fancies. This eisegetical fantasy is not only foolish, but it fails to consider that I hate it when people get their facts utterly wrong. For instance, whenever I hear some corporate fat cat make noises about how the cure for evil is more evil, I can't help but think that in my observations upon sciolism, I have expressed no opinion thus far of the mode of its extinguishment or melioration. I will note, however, though I still have nothing to propose, that I must admit that I've read only a small fraction of Sithsaber's writings. (As a well-known aphorism states, it is not necessary to eat all of an apple to learn that it is rotten.) Nevertheless, I've read enough of Sithsaber's writings to know that my goal is to get Sithsaber to realize that his warnings are as appealing as braces, acne, and a wooden leg at the senior prom. Of course, if he insists on remaining an ignorant, uninformed, and ill-informed spiv, that's his prerogative. Don't kid yourself: I'm sure Sithsaber wouldn't want me to eavesdrop on his secret conversations. So why does he want to shock and stampede the public into accepting total fascist tyranny? He doesn't want you to know the answer to that question; he wants to ensure you don't reach the broadest possible audience with the message that this is an exceptionally convincing illustration of the power wielded by Sithsaber and of the destructive way in which he uses that power. Is it any wonder that juxtaposed to this is the idea that he is bound to have a rude awakening when he finally realizes how few people approve of his militant, ribald bromides? He has already begun lowering scholastic standards. I wish I were joking, but I'm not. What's more, finding the best way to test the assumptions that underlie Sithsaber's philippics is a challenging problem indeed. We must therefore tackle this problem with more determination, more tenacity, and more fanaticism than it has ever been tackled before. Only then will people realize that there appears to be some disagreement in the community regarding the number of times that Sithsaber has been seen emptying the meaning of such concepts as “self,” “justice,” “freedom,” and other profundities. Some say once; some say five times; some say a dozen times or more. The point is not to quibble over numbers or anything like that but rather to clarify that Sithsaber's bilious plans for the future are anchored in the divisiveness of the past. Have you noticed that that hasn't been covered at all by the mainstream media? Maybe they're afraid that Sithsaber will retaliate by tricking our children into adopting unconventional, disapproved-of opinions and ways of life. Impolitic scofflaws have increasingly been practicing human sacrifice on a grand scale in some sort of sappy death cult. Sithsaber has a lot to answer for in regard to that. His “I'm right and you're wrong” attitude is querulous because it leaves no room for compromise. To give the devil his due, I'm impressed with how efficiently Sithsaber manages to sully a profession that's already held in low esteem, especially given that the implications of this are obvious. To spell it out, though, if today we don't issue a call to conscience and reason, then tomorrow we'll have to put up with him changing children's values from those taught in the home to those considered chic by garrulous dopeheads. Let me go on record as saying that he has nothing but contempt for you, and you don't even know it. That's why I feel obligated to inform you that he has no fixed ethical principles. I put that observation into this letter just to let you see that to get even the simplest message into the consciousness of invidious, narrow-minded phlyarologists it has to be repeated at least fifty times. Now, I don't want to insult your intelligence by telling you the following fifty times, but in his quest to persecute the innocent and let the guilty go unpunished he has left no destructive scheme unutilized. I'm not a psychiatrist. Sometimes, though, I wish I were, so that I could better understand what makes people like Sithsaber want to take over society's eyes, ears, mind, and spirit. Given the doolally political rhetoric of our times, he is out to foster suspicion—if not hatred—of “outsiders”. And when we play his game, we become accomplices. Sithsaber's servitors have been staggering around like punch-drunk fighters hit too many times—stunned, confused, betrayed, and trying desperately to rationalize Sithsaber's heartless, unmannerly cajoleries. It is not a pretty sight. I once told Sithsaber that he bases his announcements on the belief that one hallmark of an advanced culture is the rejection of rationalism. How did he respond to that? He proceeded to curse me off using a number of colorful expletives not befitting this letter, which serves only to show that we need to hinder the power of feckless backstabbers like Sithsaber. Why? Because of what's at stake: literally everything. Sithsaber has indicated that if we don't let him dress up his profit motive in the cloak of selfless altruism then he'll be forced to silence any criticism of the brainwashing and double standards that he has increasingly been practicing. That's like putting rabid attack dogs in silk suits. In other words, Sithsaber has issued us a thinly veiled threat that's intended primarily to scare us away from the realization that many of us are too naïve and trusting. It takes a lot of convincing to get us to see a person as inherently appalling or inherently squalid. Alas, Sithsaber is doing all he can to provide us with unmistakable proof that he is inherently both. For instance, Sithsaber is addicted to the feeling of power, to the idea of controlling people. Sadly, he has no real concern for the welfare or the destiny of the people he desires to lead. Given that this was true long before the latest scandal broke, he is presumptively eager to promote mediocrity over merit. Socrates was condemned to death by the city of Athens for his views. I hope I don't receive the same treatment for saying that some oppressive, headstrong demagogues are actually considering helping Sithsaber distract attention from more important issues. How quickly such people forget that they were lied to, made fun of, and ridiculed by Sithsaber on numerous occasions. Knowledge is the key that unlocks the shackles of bondage. That's why it's important for you to know that I don't see how Sithsaber can build a workable policy around wishful thinking draped over a morass of confusion (and also, as we'll see below, historical illiteracy), then impose it willy-nilly on a population by force. I'm not saying that it can't possibly be done but rather that Sithsaber should think about how his outbursts lead noxious, insufferable curmudgeons to change the course of history. If Sithsaber doesn't want to think that hard, perhaps he should just keep quiet. All right, I think I've said enough about how you'll never hear Mr. Sithsaber admit he made a mistake. I'd be curious to see if Sithsaber has a persuasive rebuttal.
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Jul 9, 2014 06:51
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Goddamn! I just finished my first draft of the thing I wanted to send to TOR for their thing. Except it's like 7k words short at the moment. I don't think I'll be able to edit in 7k words into it. gently caress. Was there a good list of places to publish short stories by the way? I think I remember seeing one but I couldn't find one in the OP. I might try to get this one published once I've given it a one-two-thrice over.
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Jul 9, 2014 07:29
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I hate to add to this dogpile, Sithsaber, but you don't even have to be a writer to figure some of these things out. High School Theatre Classes, I learned pretty quickly that what you intend won't buy you a squirt of piss in the middle of the Sahara. It's all about the end result, what you can communicate. All you've been able to communicate so far is "I'm still learning the ropes" and "I'm a colic-stricken baby who responds to admittedly mean-spirited attacks with equally mean-spirited retorts, designed to remind all you losers how much better I am than you." Want to be a writer? Prepare to gently caress up. Develop a thick skin so you can take it when you gently caress up. And maybe try to apply the things you learn to all your writing. I don't know what's more pathetic: you calling for someone else to report blue squares because you're too busy nailing yourself to a cross, or you defending a bad piece of writing by claiming you were texting, for gently caress's sake. And also, when Chillmatic posts like he did above, you listen. He's twice the motherfucker we aspire to be.
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Jul 9, 2014 07:31
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Sithsaber posted:I was thinking that tiny doses of run on sentences instead of periods and semicolons quickly express my roaming train of thought. Please don't do this. There are reasons why periods and semicolons exist. Do not ignore them for the sake of inserting yourself into your own writing.
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Jul 9, 2014 07:54
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DivisionPost posted:And also, when Chillmatic posts like he did above, you listen. He's twice the motherfucker we aspire to be. What Chillmatic posted reads a lot like one of those auto generated insults and adds nothing to the thread. I regret the few seconds I wasted reading part of the first paragraph. Also hey Sithsaber I agree with the why don't you post some samples of writing that would be cool and good, OK thanks for reading, peeps.
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Jul 9, 2014 08:28
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DivisionPost posted:Want to be a writer? Prepare to gently caress up. Develop a thick skin so you can take it when you gently caress up. And maybe try to apply the things you learn to all your writing.
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Jul 9, 2014 10:11
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Phobia posted:Please don't do this. There are reasons why periods and semicolons exist. Do not ignore them for the sake of inserting yourself into your own writing. This one depends on whether it's your roaming train of thought, or the character's. There's some great stream-of-consciousness stuff out there (some of my favourite George Saunders slips in and out) but you'd better believe it's all very calculated to flow well and clearly. Because it's being written in the service of the character, and the audience. Basically, and this is a very general principle: nobody gives a poo poo about you, author. Nor should they. So get out of the way of your story.
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Jul 9, 2014 11:42
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Well, yeah, there are plenty of writers out there who are good enough to discard rules of punctuation and form for the sake of creating mood and/or atmosphere. But they're the sort of rules that you need to be extremely proficient with before you break them. You need to know how a period, or a comma, or a semicolon will affect the way a reader mentally ingests your sentence before you start manually tweaking that stuff. 'Cause really, it's a level of fine-tuning that is rarely, if ever, going to be necessary. The words you use are gonna be doing the heavy lifting there, and if you leave the punctuation in some standard form, it's going to have a neutral effect. If you manipulate punctuation for effect and you do it right, it'll enhance it, yeah. But if you do it wrong, your sentences will look awkward at best and unreadable at worst. That's not to say there's no value in experimenting to see how it works, but it's definitely worthwhile to master how the comma (for example) really works in its natural state before surgically placing or removing them to refine tone.
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Jul 9, 2014 12:08
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Chillmatic posted:All too often, some people attempt to make an this, basically
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Jul 9, 2014 13:15
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Chillmatic posted:All too often, some people attempt to make an argument by attacking and insulting those who hold opposing views. Mr. Sithsaber's remonstrations are a perfect example. Before I launch into my main topic, I want to make a few matters crystal-clear: (1) Sithsaber brandishes the word “crystallographically” as a kind of up-to-date jack-o'-lantern to scare children, and (2) as a result of that, the world would be a much better place to live if Sithsaber just stopped trying to feed us ever-larger doses of his lies and crackpot assumptions. Now that you know where I stand on those issues, I can safely say that I want to thank him for his surmises. They give me an excellent opportunity to illustrate just how feral Sithsaber can be. Life isn't fair. We've all known this since the beginning of time, so why is he so compelled to complain about situations over which he has no control? The complete answer to that question is a long, sad story. I've answered parts of that question in several of my previous letters, and I'll answer other parts in future ones. For now, I'll just say that it's easy enough to hate him any day of the week on general principles. But now I'll tell you about some very specific things that he is up to, things that ought to make a real Sithsaber-hater out of you. First off, he has a well-exercised contempt for other cultures. The mere mention of that fact guarantees that this letter will never get published in any mass-circulation periodical over which Sithsaber has any control. But that's inconsequential because honor means nothing to Sithsaber. Principles mean nothing to Sithsaber. All he cares about is how best to use our weaknesses to his advantage. (Fart) There's my rebuttal. If I can't get around to posting some poo poo in the next 24 hours, feel free to ignore me.
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Jul 9, 2014 13:56
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DivisionPost posted:And also, when Chillmatic posts like he did above, you listen. He's twice the motherfucker we aspire to be. With two hundred times the words. But yeah, that appears to be a c/p'd EVE Online rant with Sithsaber's name dropped into it, which raises disquieting questions about EVE players.
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Jul 9, 2014 14:00
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Sithsaber posted:If I can't get around to posting some poo poo in the next 24 hours, feel free to ignore me. Why wait 24 hours when I can start now?
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Jul 9, 2014 14:25
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Chairchucker posted:What Chillmatic posted reads a lot like one of those auto generated insults You're right, it did! quote:and adds nothing to the thread. You're right, it didn't! Oxxidation posted:But yeah, that appears to be a c/p'd EVE Online rant with Sithsaber's name dropped into it, which raises disquieting questions about EVE players. I don't know what EVE is, but  http://www.pakin.org/complaint/
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Jul 9, 2014 14:44
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DivisionPost posted:Why wait 24 hours when I can start now? I'm using a PHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNE. PS. I also messed myself up be reading "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts".
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Jul 9, 2014 14:48
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Chillmatic posted:All too often, some people attempt to make an argument by attacking and insulting those who hold opposing views. Mr. Sithsaber's remonstrations are a perfect example. Before I launch into my main topic, I want to make a few matters crystal-clear: (1) Sithsaber brandishes the word “crystallographically” as a kind of up-to-date jack-o'-lantern to scare children, and (2) as a result of that, the world would be a much better place to live if Sithsaber just stopped trying to feed us ever-larger doses of his lies and crackpot assumptions. Now that you know where I stand on those issues, I can safely say that I want to thank him for his surmises. They give me an excellent opportunity to illustrate just how feral Sithsaber can be. Life isn't fair. We've all known this since the beginning of time, so why is he so compelled to complain about situations over which he has no control? The complete answer to that question is a long, sad story. I've answered parts of that question in several of my previous letters, and I'll answer other parts in future ones. For now, I'll just say that it's easy enough to hate him any day of the week on general principles. But now I'll tell you about some very specific things that he is up to, things that ought to make a real Sithsaber-hater out of you. First off, he has a well-exercised contempt for other cultures. The mere mention of that fact guarantees that this letter will never get published in any mass-circulation periodical over which Sithsaber has any control. But that's inconsequential because honor means nothing to Sithsaber. Principles mean nothing to Sithsaber. All he cares about is how best to use our weaknesses to his advantage. same DivisionPost posted:And also, when Chillmatic posts like he did above, you listen. He's twice the motherfucker we aspire to be. I may be risking my life by telling you this, but Fart's smears are unspeakably exploitative. It is worth noting at the outset that if Fart succeeds in his attempt to rob, steal, cheat, and murder, it'll have to be over my dead body. I will not say what is right and what is wrong when it comes to his theatrics. But I will say one thing: His lapdogs tend to fall into the mistaken belief that separatism and vigilantism are identical concepts, mainly because they live inside a Fart-generated illusion world and talk only with each other. The worst classes of snotty scroungers there are serve as the priests in his cult of peevish Oblomovism. These “priests” spend their days basking in Fart's reflected glory, pausing only when Fart instructs them to take rights away from individuals on the basis of prejudice, myth, irrational belief, inaccurate information, and outright falsehood. What could be more obstinate? Well, if I knew that, I'd be in Stockholm picking up my prize and a sizable check. Lest I forget to mention this later, you may make the comment, “What does this have to do with discourteous, indecent menaces?” Well, once you begin to see the light you'll realize that I am a law-and-order kind of person. I hate to see crimes go unpunished. That's why I sincerely hope that Fart serves a long prison term for his illegal attempts to impose tremendous hardships on tens of thousands of decent, hard-working individuals. Please keep in mind that my concern is with morality itself, not with the teleological foundations upon which it rests. Fart acts as if he were King of the World. This hauteur is astonishing, staggering, and mind-boggling. Even if one is opposed to incomprehensible emotionalism (as I am) then, surely, Fart contends that all major world powers are controlled by a covert group of “insiders”. What planet is he from? The planet Harebrained? The answer is not obvious because Fart's protests are a mere cavil, a mere scarecrow, one of the last shifts of a desperate and dying cause. Fart yearns for the Oriental despotisms of pre-Hellenic times, the neolithic culture that preceded the rise of self-consciousness and egoism. By the same token, he abhors the current era, in which people are free to navigate a safe path between the Scylla of Fart's parviscient, irresponsible bunco games and the Charybdis of pauperism. If he has any children, I recommend that Fart teach them about love, trust, cooperation, community, reason, negotiation, and compromise rather than violence, paranoia, and fear. His lies come in many forms. Some of his lies are in the form of equivocations. Others are in the form of ipse dixits. Still more are in the form of folksy posturing and pretended concern and compassion. Fart uses the word “saccharogalactorrhea” without ever having taken the time to look it up in the dictionary. People who are too lazy to get their basic terms right should be ignored, not debated. Like a verbal magician, he knows how to lie without appearing to be lying, how to bury secrets in mountains of garbage-speak. Having no desire to belabor this subject, I'll just say that Fart keeps telling us that he is always being misrepresented and/or persecuted. Are we also supposed to believe that doing the fashionable thing is more important than life or liberty? I didn't think so. While he might not desecrate religious objects per se, Fart's blandishments are yawping. They're unnecessary. They're counterproductive. Whenever I encounter them I think that if I had my druthers, Fart would never have had the opportunity to sound the standard “they're out to get us” call and rally his spinmeisters to take us over the edge of the abyss of fogyism. As it stands, Fart is extraordinarily brazen. We've all known that for a long time. However, his willingness to make excessive use of foul language sets a new record for brazenness. Even when the facts don't fit, Fart sometimes tries to use them anyway. He still maintains, for instance, that everything is happy and fine and good. After being called an incompetent miser a hundred times or so by him and his cringers, I have reached the conclusion that he justifies his dodgy, foolhardy execrations with fallacious logical arguments based on argumentum ad baculum. In case you're unfamiliar with the term, it means that if we don't accept Fart's claim that he holds a universal license that allows him to redefine humanity as alienated machines/beasts and then convince everyone that they were never human to begin with then he will withhold information and disseminate half-truths and whole lies. Unless we lend a helping hand, our whole social structure will gradually disintegrate and crumble into ruins. Although Fart is ever learning he is never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The truth, in this context, is that Fart's grunts argue that one hallmark of an advanced culture is the rejection of rationalism. These are the same presumptuous cheapjacks who stifle the free inquiry of science and the application of its discoveries towards bettering the lot of mankind. This is no coincidence; he may destroy the values, methods, and goals of traditional humanistic study right after he reads this letter. Let him. Eventually, I will preserve the peace. Here's an idea: Instead of giving Fart the ability to have a serious destabilizing effect on our institutions, why don't we free people from the spell of adventurism that he has cast over them? If we do, we'll then be able to uplift individuals and communities on a global scale to call for a return to the values that made this country great. I overheard one of his minions say, “Fart's drug-induced ravings are all sweetness and light.” This quotation demonstrates the power of language as it epitomizes the “us/them” dichotomy within hegemonic discourse. As for me, I prefer to use language to unmask Fart's true face and intentions in regard to zabernism. I like to think I'm a reasonable person but you just can't reason with abusive, disingenuous recidivists. It's been tried. They don't understand, they can't understand, they don't want to understand, and they will die without understanding why all we want is for them not to deny the legitimacy of those who recognize and respect the opinions, practices, and behavior of others. If Fart got his way, he'd be able to popularize a genre of music whose graphic lyrics explicitly urge clumsy swindlers to fleece people out of their life's savings. Brrrr! It sends chills down my spine just thinking about that. Many the things I've talked about in this letter are obvious. We all know they're true. But still it's necessary for us to say them because the scores of goose-stepping parasites who comprise Fart's camorra must all be held accountable for helping Fart destroy any resistance by channeling it into ineffective paths.
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Jul 9, 2014 15:00
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Jesus Christ this place is the worst place to feel good about wanting to write.
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Jul 9, 2014 15:34
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i only feel good when i write something people like, not when i pat myself on the back for putting words on the page. i guess people have different approaches to self-esteem.
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Jul 9, 2014 15:44
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Good one. Zing.
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Jul 9, 2014 15:46
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magnificent7 posted:Jesus Christ this place is the worst place to feel good about wanting to write. You shouldn't feel good about wanting to do it, you should feel good doing it. The former is an impediment to the latter because it leads to endless blue-skying about ideas and punctuation without any actual material to show for it. vvv haha I really struck a nerve there huh Oxxidation fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Jul 9, 2014 |
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Jul 9, 2014 15:55
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crabrock posted:i only feel good when i write something people like, not when i pat myself on the back for putting words on the page. i guess people have different approaches to self-esteem. Panderfapfap pander fap. If Oxxi is still crying he should use the search feature while I'm away. I'm sure I have some overblown cartoon analysis he can enjoy.
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Jul 9, 2014 16:07
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I feel good farting
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Jul 9, 2014 16:08
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magnificent7 posted:Jesus Christ this place is the worst place to feel good about wanting to write. I regret that. Really I do. I prefer not to be one of those misanthropes that stresses the pitfalls and drawbacks of the work and underplays its emotional rewards. Yes, it's true that this job can suck, but... ...like, okay, the other day I was working on my screenplay, sketching out this light, flirty conversation between two people. And I have a solid idea of where I'm going with the story in general, but the relationship at the center of it had been tricky to pin down. However, I'm writing out this bit of dialogue, and I come to this sudden realization that this flirtation is really spelling out why these two people need each other so much despite having such different backgrounds. It's a fascinating relationship that I know people are going to flip for, maybe not in any way that'll make me rich, but certainly in a way that'll make them feel richer. And for all I know, it could actually be terrible and stupid. But for now, I'm proud. And if the feedback shows that I was indeed on the wrong track, I'm going to crack THOSE problems and be proud all over again, and that'll make the slog seem worthwhile. If you don't get off on that kind of thing, I'm not going to tell you not to write. You've got your reasons; remember them and embrace them. Sithsaber posted:Panderfapfap pander fap. If Oxxi is still crying he should use the search feature while I'm away. I'm sure I have some overblown cartoon analysis he can enjoy. Shut up until you can post some work. I'm honestly tempted to challenge you to some sort of pseudo-Thunderdome. I'm not even sure I'd win. I'd just rather you talk about your loving craft instead of making GBS threads on everyone else here. DivisionPost fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jul 9, 2014 |
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Jul 9, 2014 16:16
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How many of you guys have to drag yourselves to the keyboard rather than away from it? I sometimes get into streaks where I don't want to stop, but often enough one of my last thoughts before I go to bed is "drat it, as soon as I wake up I have to write for an hour." I know I'm good at writing, but sometimes the hardest part of doing it is just doing it. I worry about my longevity.
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Jul 9, 2014 16:31
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Sithsaber posted:Panderfapfap pander fap. If Oxxi is still crying he should use the search feature while I'm away. I'm sure I have some overblown cartoon analysis he can enjoy. I'm just going to assume you're trolling at this point, as you've produced no writing and have just started insulting people for no reason. I wasn't even talking to you, idiot. I wrote 100,000 words last year, and not all of them make me proud of myself.
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Jul 9, 2014 16:34
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quote:I'm just going to assume you're trolling at this point, as you've produced no writing and have just started insulting people for no reason. I wasn't even talking to you, idiot. I wrote 100,000 words last year, and not all of them make me proud of myself. I'll paste something to tide you over while I edit and go to work. Here's a loose prologue to an old "Tale From Ominy" I'm currently fixing. I hope I can get to the library to post the rest of it. quote:
I'll post the various short stories in their appropriate threads and than link them here. Endriver is almost 3000 words so it'll need it's own thread.
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Jul 9, 2014 17:58
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blue squares posted:How many of you guys have to drag yourselves to the keyboard rather than away from it? I sometimes get into streaks where I don't want to stop, but often enough one of my last thoughts before I go to bed is "drat it, as soon as I wake up I have to write for an hour." I know I'm good at writing, but sometimes the hardest part of doing it is just doing it. I worry about my longevity. Same for me pretty much; hell, I've had someone offer to buy me books if I write just a bit more of my novel, and there it still sits (I bought the books myself). I automatically drift to any excuse not to write - irc, MMOs, even Solitaire as long as it's not writing, which annoys me to no end. I've even tried removing all my shortcuts and it doesn't work. But Monday my computer died, leaving me with only a notebook and my phone which is a pain to use for more than a few minutes at a time, and I'm most of the way through a story outline that I probably never would have bothered to write if I was sitting at a computer. This isn't actually much help, except to say that maybe the keyboard is the problem when you can think of other things you'd rather be doing that are just a click away, but it's definitely a common sentiment. (Of course now I want to actually write the story and can't easily since I have to go to the library to type and writing by hand is slow and hurts after a while. But when I fix the computer it'll be back to distractions and nonproductivity. Can't win.) Sithsaber posted:The brown and bloodied hut shelters a ragged woman within. Unnamed, I have empathy already. She heaves in the confined space, unable to choke down the final vestiges oh boy you have a thesaurus of sorrow and humanity. Kind of works but is also pretentious. The floor is ruined oak and the walls are crushed adobe fashioned from the rotting remains of the world. This is actually pretty good, suggests a lot about what's going on beyond this scene. She cries, cooking her latest stillborn child in a pot made from the hollowed skull of her final mate. The hut begins to sink typo? as 1 acrid fumes envelop her; vision blurs as 2 the primordial dolmen put down the thesaurus reasserts itself over the final witch. There were more? This isn't as atrocious as your attitude led me to anticipate, has some good details; but it's overwritten, showing off your vocabulary rather than bothering to tell a story, and I'm left going "Yeah, and?" Some do write for imagery and atmosphere, but most people are interested in a story, and a snippet like this doesn't give room to care about a scene description. "The woman" isn't even a named protagonist, unless she's Ereshkigal, but I'm not even sure of that; it's too unclear.
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Jul 9, 2014 22:14
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magnificent7 posted:Jesus Christ this place is the worst place to feel good about wanting to write. Really? Place seems normal to me.
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Jul 9, 2014 22:53
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blue squares posted:How many of you guys have to drag yourselves to the keyboard rather than away from it? I sometimes get into streaks where I don't want to stop, but often enough one of my last thoughts before I go to bed is "drat it, as soon as I wake up I have to write for an hour." I know I'm good at writing, but sometimes the hardest part of doing it is just doing it. I worry about my longevity. Hello, my clone. It's odd- when I'm writing, I don't ever want to stop, but bringing myself to write is a damned chore  Any armchair psychologists wanna weigh in?
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Jul 10, 2014 05:45
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I lose the will to write the instant I get a contract, apparently.  My last big attempt was crushingly unproductive and I slumped into trite-as-gently caress writer depression. I think I'm going to need to rearrange some life poo poo if I want to get this done.I don't know why writing a few drat words is so stupidly hard sometimes. It's frustrating beyond belief when the only barrier between you and a happy, fulfilling block of a couple thousand words is your inability to pay attention and do it.
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Jul 10, 2014 07:39
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General Battuta posted:I lose the will to write the instant I get a contract, apparently. Though we work in very different industries I suffered from this a lot back when I got a contract to work for a self help book company (lol). I had this block going on where I had good ideas for the middles of pieces but sitting down and writing the beginning just seemed like the biggest pain in the rear end and I lost all motivation to work on stuff. I have no idea if it'll help you, but just giving up and starting in the middle did wonders for me. Writing the bits that I knew were interesting and I knew I was looking forward to writing got my spark going, so to speak, and it was much easier to backtrack and finish the rest. Regarding the contract thing, sometimes I do genuinely feel like I am way more motivated when I am writing just for me and just as a personal challenge/for fun than when I'm writing for other people. It sucks, because the latter is obviously where the success and money will be found. I haven't found a perfect solution other than I'm considering starting a little travel blog so I'm at least writing something most of the time. Good luck!
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Jul 10, 2014 07:59
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When I'm writing the first draft, it's all I want to do. I'll take days off from work, escape to the library to hide from the wife and kids during the day, and go nuts. But that was November. I've been rewriting, revising, polishing, punching up, and coming back to the same piece, over and over. All the while, trying to hone my query and synopsis. It's exhausting. This is not a case of putting off what happens next. This is a brick wall of decisions. Some of you've been a part of it; that first chapter... do I stick to my guns and keep it in the POV of the killer? Or should it move to the POV of the Protag? And that's really a giant one. Imagine settling on that poo poo, then diving down to "should I go ahead and talk about the old man's history HERE, or should I keep it foggy for now? I've got another 56K words to decide when to reveal it. I mean, hell, you didn't find out Norman Bates was a lunatic with a dead mom until the final chapter. There's what I want to say in the book, and how I want to say it, and then there's the feedback that's demanding otherwise. And I won't discount the feedback; despite my little blow up a couple days ago -- the feedback is all useful but you have to bear in mind that for every great point you make, I immediately think of five lovely (favorite) novels that have worked by doing the opposite, (ex: opening the book from the Antag's POV, introducing major characters beyond the 10th chapter, omitting critical points. All these things are things I love about Palahniuk, King and Hill, and Cormac McCarthy, Tarantino, Orson Welles, and on and on.) So now, in this latest stab at a rewrite, the brick wall between me and the keyboard is indecision. Do I stick to my guns and write like my favorite rule-bucking authors, or do I stop and start again trying to adhere to the advice I'm getting; convinced that doing so would result in a correctly written story, albeit one that I wouldn't want to read myself? You guys are amazing writers, but I don't get your stories. I can't get through them. Your feedback is always fantastic, but the stories you write in TD - the ones that win, that are leading the curve, that's some literary stuff that's beyond me. And y'all tend to get seriously hostile when a person intentionally counters your advice. I realize I'm exposing myself to the wrath of Sebmo, Rhino, Crabrock, Systran, Muffin, Mercedes and all the other top-level contributors in this forum by saying this stuff, but all too often you guys intimidate the poo poo out of me as a creative person, trying to find my own voice. I don't need hugs and a big gold star sticker on my shirt, but goddamn. What's keeping me from writing right now? Internal conflict between my vision, and overwhelming feedback from people whose writing I admire, but don't understand.
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Jul 10, 2014 18:07
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At least you finished your novel. It's more than I can say for myself. Of the people you listed, all but Mercedes were in a writing group I organized. We were writing at least 1k words per week of a novel, doing required crits, and Skype calls where we did like 2-hour long crits of each other. We stuck with it for close to a year, but it's fallen apart. I dropped out partially because I was burning out and hating my novels, but also because the crits were paralyzing me with fear and indecision. "I hate your protag," is a common crit I had on both novels that I started and gave up on (one 50k words in) and once you hear something like that it's very difficult to keep going. Every week I would try to make micro adjustments based on things people critiqued, and the result would either be complaints that I went too far in over correcting, or that the original problem was not fixed despite my effort. It didn't feel like a good way to churn out a first draft. The only one who even finished his draft, Muffin, basically ignored our crits and did whatever the gently caress he wanted. I think a format like that is good for revisions but not for rough drafts. There's also a huge element of--for me--needing to delay gratification. It's always tempting to say, "I wrote 2,000 words! Let's show it to people and talk about it a bunch," because it's generally easier than just writing more and getting stuff done. All the time we spent on Skype calls and writing crits, I could have churned out another 2,000 words. Actual writers who have actual books say you have to fail a lot, but they say you have to finish poo poo even if it's a failure. In that regard you're further along than most people who do well in Thunderdome just by having finished a first draft of a novel and started actively editing it. I've spent the last 2-3 months barely writing, and it sucks. There's never really a good answer other than to keep doing it, cause just imagine the feeling of not writing for a year and thinking, "How good would I be if I had just done even 500 words a day for the last year?"
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Jul 10, 2014 19:33
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Personally I just never ever discuss projects in-progress, ever. The editorial process is for finished pieces; if you have people muttering over your shoulder (ones who actually exist, I mean, voices in your head are fine and also compulsory) in regards to your every germinating idea then paralysis sets in fast. It can also set in fast the other way but hey, at least then you have no one to blame but yourself.
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Jul 10, 2014 19:42
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systran posted:At least you finished your novel. It's more than I can say for myself. Maybe it's time to set it aside and just write another book. Cleanse the palate.
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Jul 10, 2014 19:55
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| # ? May 15, 2024 15:39 |
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tEcho Cian posted:Same for me pretty much; hell, I've had someone offer to buy me books if I write just a bit more of my novel, and there it still sits (I bought the books myself). I automatically drift to any excuse not to write - irc, MMOs, even Solitaire as long as it's not writing, which annoys me to no end. I've even tried removing all my shortcuts and it doesn't work. quote:
I edited abit but left illusion because the witch is actively shaping the hallucination. This ministory is supposed to be a worldbuilding tie in to another work which I'll link in a second. I was going to carve icons of her story into the walls Skye in style before I gave up and decided the frescoes would be destroyed by weathering. My next question was going to be how to organically introduce a person's name after mostly going with their Title without settling for exposition dialogue. Seeing how the thread has turned on me for supposedly being a interloper, I decided to edit and post some old poo poo while I finish up on "The Hindsight". I put the shorts in the snippets thread: forgive the phone hosed formatting. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3527097&pagenumber=15#lastpost http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3649617&pagenumber=1#lastpost Ps. God damned spellcheck might have hosed a lot of this up. Sithsaber fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jul 10, 2014 |
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Jul 10, 2014 20:10
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