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Man With Hat 
Collaborator 
Jazz-Rock/Fusion/Canterbury Team Joined: March 12 2005 Location: Neurotica Status: Offline Points: 166178 |
 Posted: December 11 2015 at 01:03 |
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I feel like writing (and art in general) is too subjective to the topic and artist to really throw out a blanket statement like.
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Dig me...But don't...Bury me
I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator 
Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 65248 |
Posted: December 11 2015 at 00:51 |
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Charles Bukowski said "No one who could write worth a damn could ever write in peace."
I have found a good deal of truth to that, and though the act of writing in peace is nice the background and experience required for interesting writing will not likely be found in a mountain retreat or lakeside cabin. It was a difficult and ironic but important lesson for me. Thoughts? Do you believe the living of a challenging, varied and even difficult life is crucial for good writes (fiction or nonfiction), or is that romantic folly? |
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Polymorphia
Forum Senior Member 
Joined: November 06 2012 Location: here Status: Offline Points: 8856 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 11:49 |
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Edited by Polymorphia - November 07 2015 at 11:50 |
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk Joined: April 29 2004 Location: Heart of Europe Status: Offline Points: 20239 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 11:21 |
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i had hesitated between that and "blog"  |
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 10:05 |
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...the original subject isn't writer's block, but through David's cunning punning, Writers' Bloc
 However, writer's block can in deed be a discussion subject within this loose association of writers: I can't say that I've ever noticed writer's block - I too can invariably draw upon some untapped vein of creativity in whatever I do. I'll never say never because I'm sure a day will arrive when those creative juices will fail to flow, but for now at least I feel confident that if I need an idea I will be able to pull one from the air and when I want to express that idea in words, images or sounds it will continue to be something that just happens without having to think about it. However, sometimes the sight of blank page or canvas can be daunting even if I have a preconception of what I want to produce. I guess it's a fear of producing rubbish and thus wasting a pristine sheet of paper. When I used to paint regularly I discovered that simply painting over the canvas surface with a base coat of flat tone would be enough to get me started. With creating music picking a sound or rhythm and just noodling around with it would break the aural silence, and in writing once a letter has been typed top-left of a page it is no longer blank so the problem goes away. Edited by Dean - November 07 2015 at 10:06 |
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emigre80
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 25 2015 Location: kentucky Status: Offline Points: 2223 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 09:34 |
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while I was working on the dissertation, I backed it up regularly on an external drive, as well as on flash drives, which I would take to work and put on my (backed-up) computer as a double back-up...When I was at university, I remember one professor talking about how an airline lost his luggage and the only working copy of his dissertation - pre-computer days - and how after it was recovered, he made three copies, one of which he kept in the freezer. Did you know that if your house burns down, the contents of your fridge will survive intact? I always remembered that story, and that's why I was so obsessive about making copies. On the original subject, I never suffer from writer's block. I can turn out the pages whenever I sit down at a computer, that's what enabled me to write the dissertation in six months while working full time. It's a useful talent.
Edited by emigre80 - November 07 2015 at 09:35 |
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Angelo
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin Joined: May 07 2006 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 13244 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 09:12 |
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Just remembered I had three articles published on a Dutch/Belgian web site two years ago. One was about how people treat those who are 'different', could be one of the best I've ever written. If you can read Dutch or want to run it through Google translate for an impression - here it is.
http://www.opiniestukken.nl/opiniestukken/artikel/577/Trap-mensen-niet-in-vakjes?r=be Edited by Angelo - November 07 2015 at 09:13 |
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ISKC Rock Radio
I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
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Kati
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 10 2010 Location: Earth Status: Offline Points: 6253 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 07:16 |
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Thank you Dean, I have downloaded Darqlands and a_leaf_in_freefall
 
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rogerthat
Prog Reviewer
Joined: September 03 2006 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 9869 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 06:24 |
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I write because the act of doing so gives me pleasure. That's the main purpose. That being said, I would like to provoke thought through my writing. If somebody remembered my writing a long while after reading it, I would consider it a good job done regardless of whether they remembered it in a good way or not. The idea is to cut through the clutter and get to them (the readers). I remember showing a W-I-P manuscript to my cousin sis. As it happened, a movie came out with a plot similar in a superficial sense to my book even as I was wrapping it up. Not wanting to take a chance, I dumped the manuscript. My cousin then met me a year after our previous meeting and she said something to the effect that it was too bad that this movie came out when I told her I had ditched the book (without yet mentioning the reason). I was surprised she had remembered the plot that well and told her as much. Sorry for an anecdotal comment, but basically impact is what I look for.
IMHO both are indispensable and a good balance of both is ideal.
If it's fiction, I read purely for the style because there may be something stylistically that I could absorb and internalise too. e.g Arthur Hailey researches his novels a lot but the characterisation is not imo as good as it could be. I could imagine a Le Carre or even Forsyth taking In High Places to a different level. Hailey was too keen to show the main man as an essentially good guy and that's hard to believe since the main man is a politician.
When the inspiration is something close to your heart, the words come thick and fast. It can be difficult to control the flow. A famous actor in these parts said the really good actors look at a character and then search within themselves to see what part of themselves they can relate to the character. I.e. their inspiration comes from within. This need not apply to ALL good writing, but it's certainly one highly effective way. The writer must then use his/her imagination and creativity, though, to disguise these internal influences so that they don't rub somebody near and dear the wrong way, ha ha.
Presently have a novel in the works but now is not the appropriate time to share it. Going to share a blog post but the writing style I use for my non fiction writing is very different. Kind of dry and meticulous. Edited by rogerthat - November 07 2015 at 06:26 |
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Angelo
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin Joined: May 07 2006 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 13244 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:57 |
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That's a small step beyond what my favourite modern writer Neal Stephenson does, Dean. I started reading Darqlands a long time ago, I'd have to go back and read if fully now.
Actually, I forgot to add to my post (in response to the books David posted) to list Stephenson's 'Cryptonomicon' and the 'Baroque Cycle trilogy' as my favourite books, together with Hugh Howey's Silo series.
Edited by Angelo - November 07 2015 at 05:58 |
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ISKC Rock Radio
I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:40 |
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I write what is somewhere between Low Fantasy Fiction and Speculative Fiction. You can read an adequate description of Low Fantasy on wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy. Essentially my stories are set in the real world at some unspecified time in the near future where weird, often supernatural, events happen. I don't offer any explanation for these other than they may or may not be about dream-states, they just happen and the characters have to deal with the consequences, hopefully in witty or humorous ways. Essentially the first, 'Darqlands', was about immortality and the second, 'A Leaf In Freefall', concerned with travelling between alternate realities but the plots are somewhat secondary to the writing. The one I am currently writing, 'The Mundane Adventure' series, (which may or may not see its completion on Nervous Horse) has a sub-plot about superheroes but is probably more of a follow-up to my first as some of the characters (or their descendants) are common to both. However, mostly they are experiments in different modes of writing as that interests me more than simple story-telling. For example the first was based upon the number seven as that number appears a lot in myth and works fiction - so has seven main characters, seven "side-kicks" and the story cycles through each character sequentially over seven parts divided into seven chapters. I have refined that further in 'The Mundane Adventure' series by having each character relate a different part of the story from their perspective in a way that each part connects to another to tell the whole story. The restriction I have placed upon myself there is that this only happens once for each character, which forces me to be creative in how I continue narrative from scene to scene. 'A Leaf In Freefall' was just a means to have fun with different ways of writing without imposing rules (or following existing story-telling conventions), and I wanted to have a story that linked Alice in Wonderland with Valhalla, the Planes of Nazca, Ancient Egypt and Milton Keynes. You can download free copies of 'Darqlands' and 'A Leaf in Freefall' here: www.lulu.com/spotlight/darqdean. (Please don't buy the print books, they are stupidly expensive and not worth the money). The first four instalments of 'The Mundane Adventures' can be found in Vompati's Nervous Horse ezine at nervoushorse.com starting in the 1/2014 edition.
Edited by Dean - November 07 2015 at 05:40 |
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 65248 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:25 |
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^ I too enjoyed doing fiction when I was younger-- though I admit I took a lot from the authors I was reading (Poe, Doyle, Juster, etc). In hindsight, stealing was good exercise and a way to understand style.
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Angelo
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin Joined: May 07 2006 Location: Italy Status: Offline Points: 13244 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:20 |
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Good idea, David! I write reviews, obviously, but also poetry and song lyrics, and many moons ago I got good grades in school for my fiction assignments. Writing fiction I dropped straight out of school, something I regret now so it may change in the future. At the moment, I mostly write reviews and short blog articles, and I notice that my ever too large list of activities has a negative impact on the quality of my writing sometimes. From next year on, I'll be limiting myself to 26 reviews per year, to improve the quality and free up time for other things. You may actually have started a topic here that may get me back into posting more often op PA :)
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ISKC Rock Radio
I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected] |
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 65248 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 05:10 |
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^ I get sad too when a good'n is coming to an end
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Kati
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 10 2010 Location: Earth Status: Offline Points: 6253 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:54 |
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BTW to me a good book, when it's really good, when t is coming to an end and the pages are becoming less and less I start to get sad and I do not want it to end. I can read a thick book within 4 days and nooooo... not those supermarket over the counter romances, arghhh.... I hate those things, I don't even want to touch that with my hands. The Michel Bolton lookalike guy on those book covers looks so creepy ewwww
 brrrrr....
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 65248 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:53 |
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Dean's MO when he first arrived was DarqDean
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Kati
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 10 2010 Location: Earth Status: Offline Points: 6253 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:49 |
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I was not aware that you have written novels too, Dean!  Wow. you are a dark horse, I said this before. What kind of novels do you write, your subjects? What interests you to write?
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 04:38 |
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Absolutely. I often write short character profiles for each character as an aide-mémoire so that my writing is consistent for each. It frustrates the hell out of me when I read a piece of dialogue that is "out of character"
Yup, using body-language, facial expressions and non-vocal actions to tag dialogue are useful techniques that I use frequently too. I called it 'the descriptive narrative' in my earlier post and it is fairly difficult to write convincing dialogue without it. The "struggle" I spoke of was two-fold: avoiding tedious repetition and disrupting the natural flow of the conversation. Of course true natural flow is nigh-on impossible to write in linear text because tempo and rhythm is difficult to convey and people sometimes talk over each other.
That's pretty much how it was intended, it started as a conversation between two characters then a third, fourth and fifth joined in later, pretty much as it would do in reality. In context, telling which character could have spoke each line is easier to discern because the reader will know of the events that preceded the scene. For example they would known which of the two Lacy characters was washing their hair in the shower when the portal opened. I wrote that passage as an experiment and deliberately set it in a darkened room so I could not use visual narrative, I could have left it at that but since anyone listening to the conversation would not be able to tell which of the two Lacys were speaking I challenged myself not to use any aural narrative for the entire scene. Where it doesn't work, and I admit there are several lines that are completely ambiguous, I realised that it didn't actually matter a great deal who said those lines.
Verbosity vs. Brevity is something I first noticed in comics and graphic novels. Comic strips demand brevity and you rarely see long lines of speech or long rallies of dialogue, graphic novels tend to be more 'literary' so while keeping to the brevity limitation they are not as restrictive and longer monologues and dialogues are not uncommon. Also because they are visual mediums changing fonts can be used as narrative descriptives and that is something I have sort of used in two of my text novels though only as style and not a necessary part of the narrative. The next level of brevity is of course tv, radio, film and stage scripting, and now time is the limiting factor. Scripting a story that would occupy a 400+ page novel into a 90 minute film demands that long tracts of dialogue are trimmed and redundant conversations are cut. On screen conversations are rarely as long as they are in a print book, even when they seem long to the viewer. Both of my 'published' novels were originally written as e-novels and were published episodically as a series of short chapters. Because they were written to be read on-screen and not in printed form I deliberately imposed length restrictions on each chapter. I realised early on that no one reads long passages of electronic text, that necessitated writing shorter narratives and dialogues than I would normally write. The need to write concisely is something that requires adapting ones natural style into something more disciplined, and for me that involves some small amount of planning and a lot of editing. I prefer to let the words flow onto the page naturally, and then go back and revise what I have written into something that has the pace and energy the scene requires. [Ironic then that I write long verbose posts here  ]. This does not mean that my stories are short, when I converted my last e-novel to a print book it ran for 486 pages and contains over 120,000 words... ...the next challenge would be to publish an episodic novel on Twitter. So, to summarise, I agree with everything everyone has said.
Edited by Dean - November 07 2015 at 04:40 |
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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk Joined: April 29 2004 Location: Heart of Europe Status: Offline Points: 20239 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 03:57 |
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yup, no kidding... Bought in March and I will use first time... this w-e  ...if I can figure out how that thing works....   (can't find a user manual in that bloody box) I guess than I could've used a memory stick as a back up, since the My Passport thing I bought will not be doing anything systematic, since it won't be connected permanently to my laptop (do I make sense??) Actually the laptop I'd bought back last December didn't do the weekly communting Belg-Neth for the first seven months (so it stayed in my Brussels pad), but since August, I've started to bring it with my once in a while and now it's almost every week, so it stays again in my car trunk too often to my liking I'm not really concerned of losing the data in my computer (I'm not gifted or computer-literate enough to scram a computer ), more than actually losing the computer itself with what's on it
one of my main influence (I guess) would be Claude Courchay's Avril Est Un Mois Cruel (April is cruel month) Edited by Sean Trane - November 07 2015 at 04:02 |
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: November 07 2015 at 02:40 |
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The next step is to use it regularly... that sounds like a redundant piece of advice but I've seen too many cases of people recovering lost data from out of date backups. Before I change something I've been working on I make a compressed archive of the original and save it to another harddrive, then after making the changes take a back-up and save that elsewhere. When I'm writing a novel I'll backup the whole folder, complete with any sundry notes I have on plot and character synopsis, and all the research material I've collected along the way. I'll also make backups of any artwork I've created for the book cover, title page and any illustrations, plus the .docx and .pdf layouts for the e-novel version. I don't have a harddrive backup system, I have several... at last count I have 7 external USB hardrives, one networked NAS drive and more memory sticks than I care to count, plus a networked PC that is fitted with four harddrives to act as a file-server. I don't use "the cloud" because I don't trust it and because I can access my home-network remotely so don't need it. ...and still I manage to lose data occasionally
Edited by Dean - November 07 2015 at 02:41 |
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Writers' Bloc
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Dean wrote:
