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Author Topic:   Random musings.
InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 13, 2009 09:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
...when you read in terms of rules and critiques.

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 13, 2009 09:15 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
...when you get ticked off at publishers for all of the sub-standard writers in their catalogue--without even being rejected by them first.

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited March 13, 2009).]

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 13, 2009 09:16 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
...when you can make two opposing airforces with your rejections. (More so, when you start planning strategies for them.)

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Robert Nowall
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posted March 13, 2009 12:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Nowall   Click Here to Email Robert Nowall     Edit/Delete Message
Remember nostalgia?

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satate
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posted March 13, 2009 02:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for satate   Click Here to Email satate     Edit/Delete Message
nice one Robert

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 13, 2009 04:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
What's another name for Thesaurus?

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Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
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posted March 13, 2009 05:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Kathleen Dalton Woodbury   Click Here to Email Kathleen Dalton Woodbury     Edit/Delete Message
...when you can make up dialogue for the animals at the zoo, and it fits what's going on in the cages.

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Andromoidus
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posted March 13, 2009 06:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Andromoidus   Click Here to Email Andromoidus     Edit/Delete Message
IB, thats just when you have no life.

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drake the thall
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posted March 13, 2009 06:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for drake the thall   Click Here to Email drake the thall     Edit/Delete Message
why does noone know what a rhetorical question is?

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drake the thall
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posted March 13, 2009 07:11 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for drake the thall   Click Here to Email drake the thall     Edit/Delete Message
life is like a box of chocolates...

someone else already got the good ones.


OR I found mine empty in the trash.

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 13, 2009 10:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
How many posts are we trying to get, anyway?

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Andromoidus
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posted March 13, 2009 11:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Andromoidus   Click Here to Email Andromoidus     Edit/Delete Message
Im thinking the thousand ranges.


when I have writers block I procrastinate by...

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tnwilz
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posted March 14, 2009 02:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for tnwilz   Click Here to Email tnwilz     Edit/Delete Message
I can never get a break. Today I peeled a banana and it was empty.

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Unwritten
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posted March 14, 2009 09:01 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
eating

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Unwritten
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posted March 14, 2009 09:01 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
checking Hatrack compulsively

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Unwritten
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posted March 14, 2009 09:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
researching random pieces of my stories on wikepedia

googling interesting words I learn from wikepedia

It's amazing how I can spend hours researching something that's only going to get 30 words in a story

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 14, 2009 10:56 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
Didn't we just have a procrastination thread? I'm sure we did.


How about: what's the one element (plot, character, creature or otherwise) that you just can't get away from?

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Unwritten
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posted March 14, 2009 11:14 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
I can't get away from my characters falling in love with each other. I'm almost to the point where I'm OK with that, but just once I'd like to create a character who wasn't determined to fall in love with someone else before the story was told.

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Robert Nowall
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posted March 14, 2009 11:20 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Nowall   Click Here to Email Robert Nowall     Edit/Delete Message
I blew a fuze this morning. Well, strictly speaking, a circuit breaker.

*****

quote:
nice one Robert

Serious extra points if anyone can remember where I got it from.

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skadder
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posted March 14, 2009 12:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for skadder   Click Here to Email skadder     Edit/Delete Message
Why did God desert us?

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skadder
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posted March 14, 2009 12:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for skadder   Click Here to Email skadder     Edit/Delete Message
quote:
I can't get away from my characters falling in love with each other. I'm almost to the point where I'm OK with that, but just once I'd like to create a character who wasn't determined to fall in love with someone else before the story was told.

Maybe it's just a reflection of your personality. Are you easy?

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 14, 2009 01:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
Robert: That would be from the New Yorker: Bobby Bison's Big Memory Offer by George W. S. Trow. (December 30, 1974).

It was satirising Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble.

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited March 14, 2009).]

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Unwritten
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posted March 14, 2009 03:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
quote:
Maybe it's just a reflection of your personality. Are you easy?

Holy cats, that made me laugh. What kind of a question is that?
Melanie

[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited March 14, 2009).]

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Unwritten
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posted March 14, 2009 03:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
Sheena,
Do you use Schwarzkopf got2b hair gel?

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skadder
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posted March 14, 2009 03:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for skadder   Click Here to Email skadder     Edit/Delete Message
I was just kidding!

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Unwritten
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posted March 14, 2009 05:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
I haven't been asked that question for over a decade. For a split second I felt 20-something again. Sigh.

On the other hand, love and being easy are mutually exclusive categories, wouldn't you think?

[This message has been edited by Unwritten (edited March 14, 2009).]

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 14, 2009 06:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
quote:

On the other hand, love and being easy are mutually exclusive categories, wouldn't you think?

Not necessarily.

Love has the ability to come in all shapes and forms. But I wouldn't invest in a ring just because I was grinning wide on the second morning.

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philocinemas
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posted March 15, 2009 08:51 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for philocinemas   Click Here to Email philocinemas     Edit/Delete Message
Here's a sentence that is easy to say, but just about impossible to write (at least not without sacrificing comprehension):

The word "to" can be written three ways.
The word "too" can be written three ways.
The word "two" can be written three ways.

Maybe it is like this:

The word (to, too, two) can be written three ways.

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Robert Nowall
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posted March 15, 2009 10:46 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Nowall   Click Here to Email Robert Nowall     Edit/Delete Message
InarticulateBabbler: your reference predates my reference...I picked it up from a Spider Robinson book review column in Galaxy sometime between 1975 to 1979.

*****

Down-down-down-dummy-doowah...ooh-yeah-yeah-yea-ah...wo-wo-wo-woao-wah...only the lonely.

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Bent Tree
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posted March 15, 2009 11:09 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Bent Tree   Click Here to Email Bent Tree     Edit/Delete Message
quote:
...when you can make up dialogue for the animals at the zoo, and it fits what's going on in the cages.

Anthropomorphism

Darwin rolls over in his grave anytime someone does.

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 15, 2009 11:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
Ah well, I tried.

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Unwritten
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posted March 15, 2009 08:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
I didn't want to mess up the recipe section with my drooling, so I'm coming over here to say--yum. That all looks so incredible. You all should write a Hatrack cookbook.

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drake the thall
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posted March 15, 2009 10:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for drake the thall   Click Here to Email drake the thall     Edit/Delete Message
yeah, but who would publish it?

who would the money go to?

whos face goes on the back?

or, you could just have an essay, see whos is the best, argue over who is the best, and end up giving the rights to charity.

I should stop thinking. its just too much.

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drake the thall
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posted March 15, 2009 10:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for drake the thall   Click Here to Email drake the thall     Edit/Delete Message
on the other hand, one thing i can't get away from is the blood in my stories. i like to write about medieval times, so it gets bloody fast.
the issue is, im religous, and try to stray away from the whole horror/ adventure/ video game-ish
blood scene. if my book becomes a movie, i want it rated PG-13 at most.

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satate
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posted March 15, 2009 11:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for satate   Click Here to Email satate     Edit/Delete Message
My characters like to fall in love too.

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Robert Nowall
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posted March 16, 2009 02:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Nowall   Click Here to Email Robert Nowall     Edit/Delete Message
Did you know Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same day?

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philocinemas
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posted March 16, 2009 05:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for philocinemas   Click Here to Email philocinemas     Edit/Delete Message
The exact same day - February 12, 1809.

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shimiqua
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posted March 16, 2009 10:51 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for shimiqua   Click Here to Email shimiqua     Edit/Delete Message
I find my stories all have a similar quality of not being publishable.

And Melanie, nope it's not got2be gel, I use the cheap stuff that's blue and glocky and does in fact smell of cedar.

~Sheena

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tnwilz
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posted March 17, 2009 03:14 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for tnwilz   Click Here to Email tnwilz     Edit/Delete Message
Listen. If you really wanted to join the P.F.J., you'd have to really hate the Romans.

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Robert Nowall
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posted March 17, 2009 06:59 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Nowall   Click Here to Email Robert Nowall     Edit/Delete Message
Anybody who sees a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.

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Unwritten
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posted March 17, 2009 08:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Unwritten   Click Here to Email Unwritten     Edit/Delete Message
I was just wondering, because that stuff STINKS. I got some on sale, and you'd just think something that costs that much money would at least have a pleasant smell, but nope. Before I get accused of slander though, I ought to mention that it really works.

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aspirit
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posted March 17, 2009 11:20 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for aspirit   Click Here to Email aspirit     Edit/Delete Message
quote:
How about: what's the one element (plot, character, creature or otherwise) that you just can't get away from?

That's an obvious attempt to remove the randomness from our musings, IB!

Ah, well. Mine is racial conflict. Also, my characters often devote themselves to unappreciative people. Oh, and I shouldn't forget that new technology usually complicates my characters' lives.

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InarticulateBabbler
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posted March 17, 2009 01:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for InarticulateBabbler   Click Here to Email InarticulateBabbler     Edit/Delete Message
Not an attempt at killing randomness (I think you'll find the answers will look pretty random), just thinking about a more practical approach than re-iterating the procrastination thread, and something that might benefit us as well.

I have a problem with my protagonists being too passive. I guess they are usually more explorers than warriors--with the exception of Pantroth, of course.

[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited March 17, 2009).]

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Andromoidus
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posted March 17, 2009 02:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Andromoidus   Click Here to Email Andromoidus     Edit/Delete Message
I have a problem making my characters less powerfull.

it wouldnt be a problem, except im running out of ideas to make them stronger.

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Zero
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posted March 17, 2009 02:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Zero     Edit/Delete Message
I don't really understand your problem, Andromoidus, do you mind explaining?

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Andromoidus
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posted March 17, 2009 03:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Andromoidus   Click Here to Email Andromoidus     Edit/Delete Message
well, I have a character, starts out weak, and by the halfway mark is so strong I cant think of anything that can beat him.


Ive resorted to needless chapters on his tutorship, which is boring and doesnt make good reading, even to me.

it gets annoying.

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Bycin
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posted March 17, 2009 03:22 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Bycin   Click Here to Email Bycin     Edit/Delete Message
Well, if he is that strong by the halfway point, where else can you really go with the story? It seems like all conflict is now null and void because it is a given that your MC will win.

It could be that the problem isn't finding ways to make him stronger, but that you already made him way too strong. Is there a reason he needs to be this godlike so early in the book (or even at all)?

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Andromoidus
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posted March 17, 2009 03:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Andromoidus   Click Here to Email Andromoidus     Edit/Delete Message
well, the antagonist of the book is kinda immortal, so...

I think that Ill lengthen it into a trilogy, with the first two books detailing his learning and the third book applying what he has learned. (with limitations.) I also think that I might give him some trouble CONTROLLING what he learned.

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extrinsic
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posted March 17, 2009 04:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for extrinsic   Click Here to Email extrinsic     Edit/Delete Message
The middle of a story is the climax. A climax is where efforts to address a predicament are greatest and the outcome is most in doubt. Antagonism is greatest at a climax, problems opposing purpose and vice versa, and a purpose might pose problems as well as possible outcomes. An invulnerable, immortal, problem-free (internally and externallly) protagonist is so far over the top in magnitude that there's little latitude for potential opposition and problems. Ubermensch protagonists have been done and found dramatically wanting. An Ubermensch villain, however . . . a mighty, opposing antagonist, at least.

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Robert Nowall
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posted March 17, 2009 05:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Nowall   Click Here to Email Robert Nowall     Edit/Delete Message
I have a problem making the characters anybody but me. Even the girls.

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