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» Hatrack River Writers Workshop » Forums » Grist for the Mill » Random musings. (Page 5)

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Author Topic: Random musings.
InarticulateBabbler
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...when you read in terms of rules and critiques.
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InarticulateBabbler
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...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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...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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Remember nostalgia?
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satate
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nice one Robert
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InarticulateBabbler
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What's another name for Thesaurus?
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Kathleen Dalton Woodbury
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...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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IB, thats just when you have no life.
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drake the thall
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why does noone know what a rhetorical question is?
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drake the thall
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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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How many posts are we trying to get, anyway?
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Andromoidus
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Im thinking the thousand ranges.


when I have writers block I procrastinate by...


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tnwilz
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I can never get a break. Today I peeled a banana and it was empty.
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Unwritten
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eating
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Unwritten
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checking Hatrack compulsively
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Unwritten
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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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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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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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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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Why did God desert us?
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skadder
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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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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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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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Sheena,
Do you use Schwarzkopf got2b hair gel?

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skadder
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I was just kidding!
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Unwritten
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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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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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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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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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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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Ah well, I tried.
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Unwritten
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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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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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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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My characters like to fall in love too.
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Robert Nowall
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Did you know Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same day?
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philocinemas
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The exact same day - February 12, 1809.
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shimiqua
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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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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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Anybody who sees a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.
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Unwritten
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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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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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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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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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I don't really understand your problem, Andromoidus, do you mind explaining?
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Andromoidus
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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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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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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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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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I have a problem making the characters anybody but me. Even the girls.
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