Hatrack River Writers Workshop: This forum is depressing...

This is topic This forum is depressing... in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Rahl22 (Member # 1411) on :

Where is everyone?

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

The magazine I work for is finaly up, the last week was crazy.

Shawn

Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :

Reading WorldNetDaily.com, of course.

Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :

Since we're having a slow day, why don't we have a call-out of some of the lurkers? We all know everyone seems to lurk around here before they post anything. Let's have some of the lurkers tip their hand and say "Hi" and we'll be pleased to meet them. Maybe a final breaking of the ice for a long-standing lurker?

Like the em-cee who tap dances between segments, let me tell you about the high school reunion where a fellow showed up who had been listed on the "died" list of schoolmates. The resourceful reunion organizers gave him the prize for coming the farthest.

Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :

The forum seems to have these cycles of down time for some reason.

I’ve been tied up with a new job and an assortment of other time-consuming life must-do’s that have managed to suck away most of my writing time and spare time this past month.

This weekend though, I’ve got her all freed up and the computer ready…yippie!

Posted by huntr (Member # 1490) on :

When is the next round of workshops due to start? Should I just go for the gang in Fragments and Feedback? I've been waiting 4 weeks, seems like 10.
Chuck

Posted by Studebach (Member # 1404) on :

Not that I've really said much before (may have been labelled as lurker), but I've given up my computer for a few months. I physically had to remove it from the house. This is in order to find some more constructive hobbies/habits. I would spend countless hours on games and surfing/downloading (anyone familiar with that?) that I lost much sleep and forgot I had instruments in the room. I'm now trying to exercise and write music. Will have to start writing again soon. Just been journaling.
If anyone has any suggestions on what else I could be doing, then shoot. I have the occasional withdrawal symptoms and need to do some other things.

Apologies if this is too off topic, but....

Stu

Posted by chad_parish (Member # 1155) on :

quote:

If anyone has any suggestions on what else I could be doing, then shoot.

I've found my computer addictions and writing addictions PALE in comparison to my martial arts addiction. Give that a shot.

...now we're REALLY off topic...

Posted by Rahl22 (Member # 1411) on :

Well, avoiding the computer is definitely a good thing when it becomes a problem. But don't stop writting! All of these new hobbies and interests are great, no matter how intensely you persue them, because they provide you with new experiences about which to write!

Posted by Rahl22 (Member # 1411) on :

Wow, I sound really pathetic there don't I?

Posted by huntr (Member # 1490) on :

quote:
Wow, I sound really pathetic there don't I?

No, not at all. I speak from that vantage point myself. I'm beyond many of those great hobbies because of age and infirmities. Now,it's great fun to be able to write about them. Take all the experience you can get from life.

Chuck

[This message has been edited by huntr (edited September 09, 2002).]

Posted by ladyscribe (Member # 1478) on :

I have a suggestion that I found is the best way to break a computer addiction. Get a job where you are forced to work on/trouble shoot/fix computers for 9 hours a day. Believe me, this is a sure fire way to drive you as far from a computer as you can get. (*snickers*)
Now back to work I go, next caller please.
;-)

Corinna

Posted by Studebach (Member # 1404) on :

Actually, I do work on computers, but only for 7.5 hours per day. Yes, they frustrate me, but also do the people. I do techie stuff as well as web design, yet I would still go home and play on mine for at least another 6.

Martial arts does sound cool. I have thought about something like swordfighting, just because. Of course, I don't think it's a booming industry in Columbia, SC.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Stu

Posted by JOHN (Member # 1343) on :

I've actualy been writing pretty fast and furious lately. My goal was to complete my novel by the end of August with no less than 75,000 words. I have yet to finish my novel but I've exceeded 78,000 words. The son of a bitch is never going to end.

It's definitely time for me to shit or get off the pot. As much as I love character devlopment, I need to move the plot along. I feel like I'm meandering, but I don't want to hurry things. "Once upon a time---they lived happily ever after. THE END."

I'm having a hard time fine tuining the prophecy aspect of it. Why does my female lead beleive the the male lead is the answer to prophecy? They never met until recently. It's not one of those she's-been- prepping-him-since-childhood things. I REALY want to avoid writing a whole bunch of B.S. and all too convenient prophecies. Thats just way too contrived of an device---even for me. She does come from a different cultural, not one full of prudes but they do seem a bit more religous on the surface. That can only take me so far though.

***I MAY HAVE SHARED THIS BEFORE. I START A POST AND NEVER FINISH IT AND I CAN'T REMEMBER LATER IF I ACTUALLY POSTED IT.****

Something I've been meaning to share for a while because I thought it was kind of zesty. My characters are basically fugitives (wrongly accuse of a crime the didn't commit--just like the A-Team) They'd been camping in the woods for a few nights, but the setting was getting stale. I was having a difficult time coming up with an excuse to get them in an inn just to change the setting. (The stick out rather easily) All the ideas I came up with were horrid. I didn't want to lose my pace so I had my characters dicuss the problem. One would suggest one of my bad ideas and the other would shoot it down for the same reason I did and this went on until one of the charcters finally came up with a good idea. I actually came up with the idea but while writting they're dialogue. How cool is that?

JOHN!

Posted by Rahl22 (Member # 1411) on :

Wow, John. 78,000 and you're still worrying about character development. Sounds like a beast of a novel.

Oh, and about the whole characters discussing your idea thing--it sounds very very cool, but also a touch neurotic. Good for you!

Rahl

Posted by talans fury (Member # 1507) on :

hmmm... the only thing that sucks about computers is Microsoft... Sombody should write a book on Gates taking over the world.

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Oh, come on, Bill Gates is hardly the only evil monopolist in the computer industry (or even the most evil--those Intel commercials are creepy).

JOHN, if they've been camping in the woods because they're fugitives, then you have to give them a plausible motive for going to an inn. Just finding an "excuse" isn't good enough. Since they probably can't accomplish their main objective (I take it that avoiding capture isn't their only objective) by hiding in the woods forever, it shouldn't be too hard to get them out of the woods. But they will probably all (or most of them) know how going to the inn would further their main objective already...oh, pay no attention to me.

Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :

JOHN -

A 78,000-word novel is a rather meager novel -- at least from the commercial viewpoint. For example, a 280-page standard paperback is about 100,000 words.

I know that DAW Books wants a first novel to be not less than 80,000 words. And they prefer a novel closer to 100,000 words.

So if this is something you're thinking about sending out, you'll want it to be a bit longer. Especially if you take Stephen King's advice and cut 10% of it when you re-write.

But if this is something you merely see to help you become a better writer, then just consider this post to be the babblings of an officious man.

PS - Do you have to be so scurrilous?

[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited September 11, 2002).]

Posted by Rahl22 (Member # 1411) on :

I'm assuming this would be John's first publication, and as much as I hate to pull 'formulae' onto the table--most sources tell me that first time authors should shoot for somewhere between 70,000 and 90,000 words.