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Good I thought I was going crazy myself. It was the only thread I posted on in weeks. It think it was called something like "Not writing---here's a shot in the arm."
I had a forum to brag about my word count, until Srhowen informed me she (I believe) tripled mine---damnint! I still don't see how you write 325,000 words. That's incredible!
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited October 16, 2002).]
posted
LOL if you ever talked to me you'd know. I talk very fast and switch subjects all the time then come back to the first one and start where I left off.
I can be very wordy or not talk at all---just weird me.
And no I don't knwo how it got so big---just kept going going and going.
quote: And no I don't [know] how it got so big---just kept going going and going.
You ever sell it? You know did it ever get published?
(If you're like a famous author or something with a ambiguous login, I'm gonna feel like an asshole. )
Yeah, I know about talking a lot I do the same thing in my work. Are you familar with the screenwriter/director Kevin Smith? Well, he writes comic books on the side. A lot of people complain about his massive word balloons. Never bothered me because if you watch the guy's movies he has some of the snappiest and most natural dialogue I've ever heard.
I can relate to this because my dialogue is similar. I don't want to spoon-feed readers stuff I can just have the characters discuss. I have a wierd mindset though.
Narrative = Plot
Dialogue = Characters
We all know which I like better.
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited October 16, 2002).]
posted
Rahl, that's probably because you've never hung out in Red Bank, NJ. Trust me, it is a world unto itself.
I am a big fan of Dogma and confess to visiting The Secret Stash every time I drop by Red Bank (which is not far from me) as though it were mecca. Jay and Silent Bob crack my shit up.
quote:Funny you should say that John. I thought the dialogue in Clerks was completely fake sounding and contrived.
Really? I guess that's why they make neopolitan ice cream, but I thought it was pretty on point. I know one of the actresses in the movie (whoever played Dante's girlfriend, Veronica) was God awful and just did not have the cadence to be in a Smith movie.
Chasing Amy is a personal favorite of mine. Anyone open to reading comics should check out Smith's run on Daredevil entitled Guardian Devil. I'm sure there's collected edtions out there. Awesome, awesome stuff.
Sorry, to be so off topic, but it affects (I think that's right--one for the grammar thread) my writnng as it's an influence. My writing regardless of the genre has a cinematic feel, due a large part to Smith and Tarentino (when's he coming out with another movie and not an adaptation of a Elmore novel (although I'm reading Pagan Babies by Elmore Leonard and it's not half bad))
posted
No , not a famous author--been published in magazines, but no novels yet. I work as an editor for an online magazine, have worked for the equivalent of a literary agent in Germany, done ghost writing, and do a lot of freelance writing, including some public relations stuff.
I do have an agent seriously considering the novel before this last one. It ended at 90,000 words.
I don’t write wordy, but I much prefer dialog, both between characters and internal than the author going on about the same things.
I’m a tough nit pick kind of critiquer.(that’s not even a word oh well) My group has gotten used to me, finally, after more than a year. LOL
I just write and write and write---would go crazy if I didn’t.
quote: I just write and write and write---would go crazy if I didn’t.
Agreed. My ideas keep me up at night. I'll be racking my brain about a particular passage all day at work (where I write misaprpriation of company property, baby!) get home read a little, take my contacts out, turn out the lights, have nothing but boxers on, tired as hell then BOOM out of no where I come up with the passage. Have to turn back on the lights find a pen and paper and hold it an inch away from my face so I can see without my contacts. If I don't write it down I never remember I it write down and I don't need my notes. The burden of being a writer.
posted
Pity poor JK, whose Idea Net seems to be snagged on something. He's not been getting up so often in the night to find his pen and paper in the dark (he's not bright enough to put it anywhere near the bed). He knows he should be grateful (he's got a big backlog of projects that aren't getting done, and probably doesn't need any more), but still, it's disconcerting. As is speaking about myself in the third person. JK
Posts: 503 | Registered: Sep 2000
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Brain shut down. I need a switch to shut my mind down when I go to bed. I lay there, uh not in boxers, and the ideas run through my head like a train.
If I don't write them down--poof!, by the light of day they are gone or have lost their flavor.
I have gotten better about shutting down when my time to write is done, but I still lose those midnight scenes if I don't doodle them down.
JK< keep that pen and notebook by the bed.
Gotta wonder though, JOHN, maybe if you took your contacts out and wore boxers, the scene might come to you at work. LOL
quote: Gotta wonder though, JOHN, maybe if you took your contacts out and wore boxers, the scene might come to you at work. LOL
What do you think is so appealing about becoming a writer? It affords me the oppurtunity to achieve one of the ultimate male goals---TO WORK IN YOUR UNDERWEAR!!!
Man, that would be great wake up at 1:30 in the afternoon, pour myself a glass of Alger Selzer (for the night before), and a bowl of Reese's Penaut Butter Puffs, fire up the computer and go to work. Only thing that would make that fantasy complete is if there was a specific woman in the bed next to me when I awoke with an engagment ring the size of her head on her finger (and a wedding band next to it, of course)
posted
The trouble with working at home–everyone assumes you have all sorts of time to do everything!
I get up at 5am write till 8 or 9 on my stuff. Pick up my answer service stuff then call people and work till 3 or 4 on freelance stuff not my own.
Hmm, I also home school my 4th grader, she's 8, the school system was too slow and easy for her.
I run a Girl Scout troop.
I have a teenager soon to be 15 -- need I say more on that one?
Oh yeah and whenever I decide it's a no nasty garments day--aka women's foundation clothes of the upper body sort---and I wear a T with holes in it and sweats----someone shows up at my door instead of calling.
"ah, ah, so and so gave me your address and said you do event flyers?????" Big on the question mark quota.
I always pictured the big fireplace in the office with the leather chair and leather bound notebooks. I'd have a french door going out into a garden with a pond and fish. My cats would never walk on the keyboard while I am in the zone-----I'd have an endless supply of diet Pepsi and it would be chilled and auto appear at my elbow when needed-----
Well, the fireplace is behind me in the family room. My office is a rectangular room, nice paint awful carpet. I have a window, but it’s high up so I can see the tops of the trees. My spouse has his desk along one wall, and my daughter has her school stuff in the little room attached to it. The back wall opens up into a hallway which is open to the family room, no door to close. Oh and there is a door that goes outside–to a patio so full of bikes, lawn mowers, and other “stuff” that to go out there is to discover the meaning of stress.
posted
Yeah, I guess with kids it's hard. (that's why I left the mulatto boy (she is, I'm not) with his father's name and mother's smile out of that particular daydream. The way the fantasy goes I have a couple of bestsellers under my belt, she's an excec at Microsoft, and then we start on kids. That's why they call 'em fantasies!) The muse tends to speak to me anywhere from 1-3 AM. I hate reading articles that say set aside a time to write. "I get up at 9:00 AM every moring and get cracking until 5 PM." Yeah, that's called a job!!! Not that writing isn't work, albeit a labor of love, but I like the freedom that comes with it, even with the added pressure of deadlines. (a pressure I hope to experience one day)
Oh yeah, I meant to tell you, Don't turn off your brain when it's time to go to sleep. That small window of time when you're technically not asleep, but technically not awake is when I come up with the best stuff. That's why I really don't bitch that much about the boxers, contacts, finding a pen and paper, etc. One of the best parts of my story come together that way.
I could certianly go for some of that magic Diet Pepsi, though. They should just call it crack---just as addictive.
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited October 17, 2002).]
posted
I don't get as many writing ideas when I'm falling asleep, now that you all mention it. I think what happens is that if I get an idea I'm really crazy about (like I did a couple of nights ago when "just about to turn off the light") I run to the computer and start writing the damn thing. It's a bad habit. So I don't think of many writing ideas when I'm going to bed because if I think of a compelling one, I then decide it's not time to go to bed yet.
When I'm falling asleep, I often use the time to think through issues with whatever I'm currently writing. Interestingly, I have trouble hanging on to new ideas overnight, but if I think through a solution for a story problem, I generally remember it just fine the next day. Interesting.
posted
This is why I'm glad to be young and free; no genetically similar distractions will come screaming into the room and demand a horsey-ride just as I'm getting into the zone. I also have little to do except work, so I don't have a scary-ass list like Shawn's (I felt a tingle of fear when I read that, you know *grin*). I do seem to be intent on denying myself the time to write anyway, as if my brain's decided that I should have some form of barrier. In this case, I do a 9-5 job, but I do my best work from 11PM-5AM. Which is quite cruel. Also, outside that magical time, ideas will only come to me at inappropriate times; the boss is discussing my time-keeping, for instance, and then I get a huge idea that I have to scribble down now because otherwise it'll go away. That's not good for the job-keeping. Not that it's relevant, but does anyone else have a body spasm as they're going to sleep that wakes them up? I get those all the time. Weird? Yes indeedio. JK
Posts: 503 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
That jump off the bed jerk--yes yes all to often. Even my cats do it.
JOHN, it's not that I turn off my brain per say, more like I put the ideas on hold so they are still there later. Otherwise I get them and if I don't write them down right then they are gone.
My daughter knows moms working. My son, my teen----seems to think moms working means stand behind her and chatter about stuff that I already told her five times and that she listened to and gave answers to when I walked in the door from school. Oh yeah mom and so and so said, and I need ot know. Son we talked about this already, yeah, I know but so and so said----
been there done this with two teens already my two oldest are in their twenties. When my second to the oldest calls he always asks so what’s the word count today—then laughs. But he never calls during my write time. LOL
See now today there is no school here, my hubby if off from work today, and I have peace and stillness till everyone get sup and here I am talking to all of you. LOL
quote: My son, my teen----seems to think moms working means stand behind her and chatter about stuff that I already told her five times and that she listened to and gave answers to...
Didn't you know that what moms are for??? I did that well into my twenties, and still do it from time to time when I go over to visit. (well, I'm 25 so I guess I'm still in my twenties) It's even worse with me because I'll talk about things my mother has no interest in whatsoever.
"Mom, Mom---watch this tape, look what happened on wrestling last night. I'll explain the storyline to you before I play the tape..."
or
"This comic book I was reading was great. Now, Youngblood is a superhero team---right? But they work for the government and they're celeberties..."
Now, I bore her to tears with my novel. Her response is usually the same. "I can't believe you're dedicating it to Samantha and not your mother..." I try to explain that if the book had been written for her I would dedicate it to her. I don't just slap a name on the first page. I told her I'd mention her on the acknowledgements page and write a book for her one day. Small price to pay for her listening to my assanine ramblings.
Hey, you all do the same thing, maybe I'll mention you too. Like I already have a three-book deal with a major publisher. Man, I'm presumptuous.
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited October 18, 2002).]
posted
Shawn, I hear you loud and clear, re: working at home. I run my own business out of the house (also freelance marcom, as well as training design/development) and am currently branching out into seminar hosting. Doing that on top of working on an advanced degree and editing/prepping book for submission keeps me running basically around the clock. Oh, and every now and then I actually spend time with my extraordinarily understanding husband and five year old daughter. Working at home is definitely not as easy as it is cracked up to be!
Only, I typically talk about some esoteric field of physics or astronomy--something she is neither educated or interested in. I've been much more of a tax on her recently though, that I'd not even think about dedicating my first book to anyone but her!
Must be a guy-thing. Shawn also mentioned it was her son who had this habit. Like there's something on your mind that you just HAVE to share with somebody, and no one else is around. Your first thought is---"Hey, Mom..." Trust me, she would much rather hear about my novel, wrestling, or comic books than this pharse: "Can you spot me some gas money 'til Friday."
JOHN!
PS: I gotta say, I'm digging the potluck thread. Something we've needed for a while. Sometime you just don't have anything to say that's horribly on topic or worth starting a new thread for. Maybe I'll stop bugging my mom so much.
posted
As the mom of two grown sons (in their thirties) who is on the receiving end of such conversations, I can assure you guys that those exchanges are treasured. Don't ever stop talking.
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
I treasure them the first time, and even the second time, but when we get to the third and fourth repeat of the same info----then I am done. LOL
My two adult children, well my oldest is not much of a phone talker, but the second to the oldest calls once a week, and comes to visit once or twice a year---we live a great deal apart. They are around JOHN's age.
Yup I treasure----it's just the dozen repeat that drives me bonkers. My son has a 130 + IQ, has his life planned out already, and has a good head on his shoulders. He is a very good kid, polite ect----but man he can rattle on and on and on and on and on and on --and half the time he starts in the middle then backtracks and then moves ahead---totaly lost does not begin to describe it. LOL
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Shawn, I don't think I've ever seen so many "LOL"'s from you before. Either your in a good mood, or this thread pulls the best out of you--either way, it's good to see
And I understand what you mean with your son. I was tested at 138 (although, I still insist that those dumb tests mean nothing), and have known that I wanted to be a space physicist/astrophysicist since I was nine. And man, do I blabber.
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Well, my son wants to design aircraft. I keep tellinghim he has to like math to do that. His algebra grade is 98.9 right now, he's also taking an extra math class that covers a broad area of stuff--a little of everything.
He hate grammar though, basic language arts.
Good mood, well thinking about all the times I have said, ok, I got it. Enough now? Please?
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I've been kind of cursed with a love for many things. Law, Medicine, Language, Science, Math--made deciding a future very difficult. But I always liked astronomy the most.
You really do have to learn/like math in order to do any of it, but it's much easier to like once you get to about your junior year in college. When everything, all of your science and math classes are coming together--you see kind of an overall picture, a grand design. It makes it all worthwhile.
posted
Hey, everyone. I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I would check in and say hi. After one of the most infuriating weeks of my life, (accompanied by one of the most surreal weekends ever I experienced) the muse has finally come back to me. Thank Christ, I’m writing again. As I mentioned last week was really rough and I had a VERY difficult time writing. I figured it was just life so I didn’t bother coming here to bitch and moan about it. Happy to report that everything is back on track!!!!!!
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited October 29, 2002).]
As for myself, I've only managed to plot a few things--but school has done an effective job of smiting any writing time I had. I plan to get it up and going soon, though.
quote: Well, John, that was an interesting post for a thread with the title of this one.
Yeah, I didn't know where to put it, but knew that it wasn't worthy of it' own new thread. Besides, this was the last thread I posted on and we kind took it over and as a potluck thread last time I was here.
posted
Oh yeah, one more thing and I'll leave you all alone. (bet you're looking fondly upon last week when I wasn't naggin you all to death ) I need a moment to brag, please forgive me, but it's official.
101,650 words!!!!!!!!!
I broke 100,000, which is funny my goal was 75,000. Hey, this is a pretty big accomplishment for me, seeing as the longest thing I've ever written before was just under 30,000 words. I just need to finish this one and I'll be happy!!! I've gone back to read a good deal of it and it's not 100,000 words of total crap. I'm really hard on my own stuff, but I'm actually pleased with this. Well, thanks for listening, i'll go toot my own hor somewhere else.
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited October 29, 2002).]
posted
I’m closing in on the end, but it’s hard. My story has been really character focused, but now that I’m warping everything up I’m trying not to get away from that. I don’t want my plot to overshadow my characters, turning it into an event story. I also want the end to come naturally as well and not seem rushed. I have really good idea where I’m going, but only a vague idea of how to get there---don’t you hate that?
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited October 30, 2002).]
posted
Back to the over-blabbed mother issue (I'd like to say problem, but I don't think it is one) I just HAVE to know: Am I the only one who doesn't have that issue?
I mean, my mother is a devout Pentecostal Christian, so if I try to go on about my story, and it's dragons and knights, or planets and aliens far away, she goes into her "Find Christ or Burn in Hell" shpiel.
Other than in my own writing, I have no one to confide my writer's block issues with and, given my WRITER'S BLOCK, that's hard to do. My siblings don't care (I'm the one of the only brains in a family of brawn...more or less, and the other one is away at college) and my friend, once a writer, long ago decided to switch hobbies, and is now deeply interested in selling real estate. Sure, I have other friends, but they're...less interested in this than other things. One is a devout follower of the RPG religion (he lives breathes and sleeps these god-awful, addictive games) and the others find my devotion to the written word strange or nerdy.
Hmmm.
Oh well. Live and learn.
Sorry to unload, I was just venting.
Still pluggin away at my first (and hopefully not my last) novel, (which it sometimes seems like I'll NEVER finish without devine intervention),
Chris.
"You can't change the world, but you can make a dent." Edward Norton, DEATH TO SMOOCHIE
posted
I answer any and all questions my son asks even the turn your face red ones he asked after sex ed in fifth grade. (though I don't blush at these questions I just wonder where kids get some of their ideas) You think Mt. Dew does what?!?!?!?
And yes I know what you mean about being the only one. My mom used to say, oh I always thought I would write something or in collage I wrote-----
My brother and sister think I am nuts for any and everything I do.
My crit group and the members there of are my greatest suport---we have become friends over the year we have been together.
If anyone said my writing was dumb, nerdy or weird---well, then they really were not a friend. friends, in my mind, accept and suport you for what you are and do not judge you.
quote: If anyone said my writing was dumb, nerdy or weird---well, then they really were not a friend. friends, in my mind, accept and suport you for what you are and do not judge you. Shawn
quote:How does that square with the idea of criticism? Not that I disagree--more that I just don't know what you mean.
My best friend of 17 years is usually my proof reader and editdor, and I do the same for him. If I write total shit I'd like him to tell me. I would do the same for him. I may word it a little more politely than that, though. If a concept or sentence or wording doesn't work, I want to know---that's why I asked him to read it in the first place. IMNSHO
JOHN!
[This message has been edited by JOHN (edited November 03, 2002).]
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Welcome back.
oh, well, yeah---that makes sense 
