9 posts tagged “writing”

Rabbits1-deb1

Prepare yourself, Val.  I've recounted another Hillbilly story involving the darker side of rabbits...or at least the dangers in being near one of my family.

Creative-meetup

Creative Meet-Up at Border's Cafe in Sunset Hills.  Three-thirty to eight post meridian!
Writers!
Painters!
Doodlers!
Chefs!
Scrap-bookers!
Knitters!
Hey, whoever you are come on down!  -and bring your project, if portable

It's Show and Tell time.

Elmeroh

Including:
"We do not accept content that contain pedophilia, incest, bestiality (shape shifters are acceptable), bodily fluids, gratuitous abuse, sex, or violence.."

-that rules out my stories that always include someone, somewhere bleeding

Did you mean to end that sentence with a period (stop) or with an ellipse (3 periods/ stops)?  And I think "contains" is better.  While "that which is contained" by the content may be many, "content" itself is singular, yes?  I think the verb is supposed to match the noun not the object(s).  I went to school for art, like I'd know.

The guidelines further specify:  "Please be sure your submission has been thoroughly self-edited, we highly advise the use of spell and grammar check. It is advisable that you have your manuscript proofread by several skilled and experienced persons other than yourself. It must be free of typos and grammatical errors."

I am such a bitch.  Shouldn't you take the time to be sure your demands of others' grammar be communicated with proper grammar? Am I alone here?

This is my pick from the piece "A Few Good Men" by Gareth D. Jones.  See here for the rest of the story.

Pennsylvania Gazette, 29 June, 1752.

Storm claims one life

This newspaper is sad to report the death of its former editor Mr Benjamin Franklin. Mr Franklin died after being struck by lightning during a storm near his home. Police say that nobody else was involved in the death and they are not looking for anyone in connection with their enquiries.

The circumstances surrounding the death are somewhat mysterious. It seems that Mr Franklin was attempting to fly a kite during the storm. Whether the storm blew up while the kite flying was in progress is not known. Locals say that the area is popular among kite flyers because of the wide open spaces, but that flying a kite during a storm is not generally regarded as a good idea. The main problem would be the kite being caught by the strong winds and carried away or destroyed. In this case it was the lightning that proved fatal.

There have been suggestions of foul play. The strangest part of the puzzle is the fact that Mr Franklin's door key was tied to the end of the string. Experts among the kite flying community have theorised that the handle for the kite had been broken and Mr Franklin had improvised with a key. It seems unlikely that the key could have become tangled by accident. Others suggest that someone had taken the key and tied it to the kite as a prank and that, in fact, Mr Franklin was trying to recover said key when the tragic accident occurred. A darker rumour is that Mr Franklin tied the key himself in a symbolic gesture to rid himself of earthly possessions. A rumour of suicide was quickly denied.

Whatever the outcome of the case proves to be, the newspaper industry has lost a great figure in Mr Franklin.

Anything I write and put on the web is understood now as public domain.  It's "out there."  The thing is, even if

Marvinraygun

Again, I learned this very painfully when my on-line (private, password-protected) diary was hacked by a real-life stalker.  The police were very clear with bringing me to this understanding.  I changed my perspective of anything on-line from being private/ diary-oriented to public/ for sharing/ fun/ learning/ opinion.

Now I'm writing short practise pieces and uploading them with any illustrations to a place on Blogger, looking for critiques to help with the learning process.  Some friends are prodding me to submit some things to publications.  I mean, I’ve no big hopes of getting them published but if I would, alright...

Leah, a voxer in college (and I always assume anyone currently studying anything is more current than my out-of-the-loop arse) offered a caveat regarding writing on-line as a rendering of first publication rights.

I’ve read about this before and it’s always confusing.  It seems that if you’re talking about selling a novel, book publishers could NOT care less; however, magazine publishers are pretty hairy about it.  I looked up some info this morning, including writers’ unions, and I’m still confused.

In my opinion, it didn’t concern rough drafts and first-pass edits that go up because they are not what I would submit.  Anything submitted would be changed at least 10%.  That seems to make it “different enough” in my head but I’m not a legal professional -- or a writing professional.

You’d think with looking for over an hour, I’d find something that would have definite facts.  I have not.  So, to err on the side of safety, I’m changing the creative tinkering place to “by invitation only.”

Conclusion:  It really pisses me off.  I know that it’s bullshit.  I can password-protect and label crap “private” all day long but it’s still public domain.  So, WTF?  Why can’t somebody just say, “Dude, it’s yours cuz you wrote it and if it wasn’t for profit and is an early draft, it ain’t considered PUBLISHED.”  That’s what I want, anyway.

I'll send invitations to anyone who wants to read/ see my creative tinkering.   Just PM me.

The Divine Ms. M is joining Script Frenzy (link in sidebar) and very nicely asked about The State of The Plot for CS.

I'm ambling around a bit.  I had a beginning that was firm (to my mind) because I had about 8 beginnings

It made sense that Russel Rowden had to be a much stronger person in his community.  The first idea on that was that he owned a lot of land but laid low because he's a scum-bucket.  Now, he's the biggest land owner and a self-proclaimed "sheriff" (not by law).  I also had to come up with some characters that I hadn't planned on and then turned around and killed off some people before I had planned.  And others were left standing, who I thought would be gone in act I.  You never know...

You see, I'm in a state of plot-fidget.  -my own term, I rather like it

I didn't study writing in high school or university (or literature beyond one intro class) so, my foundation isn't what a lot of other Nanowrimo or SF participants have.  That's okay!  There are a lot of participants who are 13 years old--this is supposed to be fun. -well...

I bought and read (our library is atrocious) 3 books in the "Write Great Fiction" series:  Dialogue, Structure and Plot, and Description & Setting.  The last 2 mentioned, I took seriously and did all the exercises within!  That was after doing my first nano-ette (it was the fake one in July).  That one showed that I could use some pointers and I think it was worth the brain effort of those exercises!

Typically, I'm a non-plotter, but I'm trying to convert myself.  What I end up doing is following a 3 act structure (sort of) and try to make sure that I have a "zinger" or grabber from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3.  The rest either comes to me or I force it out.  Also, a great thing about Nano and SF is you're NOT supposed to edit.  You just plow through.  Don't listen to the inner critic.  If you wake one day and think, "All that I wrote yesterday screws things up.  I don't want that," then you just start writing what you wish you had written and count all the words (even the part you know you don't want) toward the word goal.  This isn't school.  It's supposed to be fun and it's supposed to help us break the inner critic from silencing us or putting us down.  -that bastard  Later, I'll wish that I saved that opening scene, the first one.  I felt kind of cocky the first day, what can I say?

There are loads of people who try to make their stories completely nonsensical and that's great, too!  It's whatever you have fun doing or that feeds your soul/ makes you feel alive.  Some people jump off bridges with rubber bands attached to their ankles.  I dive into Never-never-land.  We're all kids here.

Elvis_costello

I've decided on a title:  Complicated Shadows and that struck me, whilst listening to Elvis, no that Elvis, and the song plays along pretty well according to my first (very general) idea of plot.  Then, of course, I started to weasel it around to something else and then I weaseled it a fraction back toward the first idea.  Confused?  Me, too.  That's why you don't "pitch" an idea until it's solidified.

What I want is settlers in Missouri in 1821 (the year of statehood) because a) that's way-easy and b) we did have Native Americans here but mostly pre-Columbians are discussed in local history.  After that time, this area was hunting grounds, not encampments.  The settlers were encroaching (the way white folk do).  The whites and what they did to the indigenous people of the current USA makes me so, so sick.  You can't rely on what they teach you in high school or university.  Read "outside" historical texts and you really want to puke.  This is one of my personal...I don't know what to call it...Something I can never let go of and shouldn't.  It was genocide.  Being that I wanted to write about that time, it has to be featured.  It's too important and while it may only appear as an aside in the story, it's the "why."  That sounds heavy for my story but I'm not proficient enough to properly handle it as a main subject or I would do.

As for music, I've been getting in an hour of practise a week, which for a hobbyist such as myself is about 1/7 of what "should be."

Dancing is still at Plus level.  Beginner was confusing but fun.  Mainstream was more confusing.  Plus?  Oh, shite.  One call has 24 steps in it. As the caller says, "Okay, let's try that again for style."