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do mechanical keyboards make a difference when typing words? does it increase my WPM (words per minute, thats like Actions Per minute)
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Aug 31, 2015 17:59
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anime was right posted:wait are you telling me video games are not part of the creative process? gently caress! I wasn't sure about this, apparently not, sorry  crabrock posted:I stopped playing video games, and joined thunderdome a week later. Broenheim posted:so you want to write?
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Aug 31, 2015 18:07
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anime was right posted:are you telling me i bought this pro-gaming logitech keyboard for NOTHING?! Yeah sorry
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Aug 31, 2015 18:08
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anime was right posted:do mechanical keyboards make a difference when typing words? does it increase my WPM (words per minute, thats like Actions Per minute) The sound of a mechanical keyboard is quite pleasing to the ear and provides its own encouragement to keep writing. It may not increase your WPM but it will increase your MWPH (minutes writing per hour [a very useful metric for determining WE{writer efficacy}]).
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Aug 31, 2015 18:53
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thehomemaster posted:Not sure if this is the best place, but here we go:
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Aug 31, 2015 21:46
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I found this cool thing: http://www.smokelong.com/2016-kathy-fish-fellowship/ It's a sort of flash fiction residency for new writers. Pays $500 across the year, along with being published in every issue and some kind of mentoring (it looks like).
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Aug 31, 2015 22:11
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:I'm down. Will runners-up be paid if they're selected for publication? Surely you guys can spring for beer money for the writers. 50% royalties, any other money comes out of our pockets, which are not very well paid given we all work various jobs in publishing. EDIT: To clarify, there will be one winner, but any entries we feel we could work on will then be asked if the author wants to get on board the good ship Fantastica. Would get a full edit, jacket, etc. 50% royalties on all sales, print on demand and ebook. If you want an example of the model, check out seizureonline.com and the Viva la Novella competition. thehomemaster fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Aug 31, 2015 |
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Aug 31, 2015 23:17
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videos games are bad for writing
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Sep 1, 2015 02:43
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anime was right posted:do mechanical keyboards make a difference when typing words? does it increase my WPM (words per minute, thats like Actions Per minute) Raised mine from 105 to 115. The clicky sounds are great, but if you live with other people it'll probably drive them batshit. More than that, though, typing on a mechanical keyboard FEELS wonderful.
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Sep 2, 2015 01:11
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Sebmojo just posted the next Long Walk thread. Basically, you pledge to write at LEAST 4000 words for the month, under pain of  If you're having trouble getting your rear end in gear and like having people to suffer along with, consider signing up this month.
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Sep 2, 2015 01:41
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Sitting Here posted:Sebmojo just posted the next Long Walk thread. Basically, you pledge to write at LEAST 4000 words for the month, under pain of Sadly, my first thought was, "JUST 4000? Any idiot could do that." and then I thought back over what I'd written in August. Ugh.
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Sep 2, 2015 14:46
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magnificent7 posted:Sadly, my first thought was, "JUST 4000? Any idiot could do that." and then I thought back over what I'd written in August. Couldn't help noticing you haven't signed up yet, either.
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Sep 2, 2015 18:53
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It's called the long walk for a reason. I just counted and people have written nearly three quarters of a million words in the thread since it started.
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Sep 2, 2015 21:50
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So I'm still working on my novel, it's up to about 50,000 words at this point and I really like how it's turning out. Do you normally wait until you've finished a long work to edit it or do you go back every now and then and rework it? Beyond the hundreds of commas that I probably missed (gently caress commas). I'll end up rewriting small bits of the story to make it flow better or to make sure my characters are reacting uniformly according to their personalities, etc etc. I'm a little intimidated by the idea of going through 80k+ words of editing all in a row, it seems like it would take almost as long as writing the book in the first place to do correctly. So I don't know if I should go back and work on it chapter by chapter as I go.
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Sep 2, 2015 21:56
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Agent355 posted:So I'm still working on my novel, it's up to about 50,000 words at this point and I really like how it's turning out. Usually the first thing I do when I sit down to write is read over what I wrote the day before and make minor edits. Emphasis on the word minor--dropped commas, misspellings, writing the wrong their/there (still happens), etc.--but major tweaks like character reactions, plot decisions, or rewriting sequences and chapters I save for draft 2. Once I'm done with the first draft, I let it sit for a while (1-2 weeks for shorts, 4-6 for longer works) and then run my red pen dry. Yes, it's pretty daunting when you're staring at a full unedited manuscript, but it doesn't take nearly as long as you would think.
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Sep 2, 2015 22:06
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Dr. Kloctopussy posted:Couldn't help noticing you haven't signed up yet, either. Couldn't help noticing I just said "4000? That's nothing" until I noticed I only wrote two things last month: Jack and poo poo. I'm saving all my words up for Nano. My dog ate my homework. Give me a minute, there's more excuses...
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Sep 2, 2015 23:36
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Agent355 posted:Do you normally wait until you've finished a long work to edit it or do you go back every now and then and rework it? The answer's going to be different for everyone. For me personally, if I stop before the first draft is finished to start tinkering with it, I'll never finish it at all. I have to get the whole story down, THEN edit and rewrite and distill and refine.
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Sep 6, 2015 22:42
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Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft.
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Sep 7, 2015 02:54
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My irl writing group sent out a link to this online writing course: https://novoed.com/how-writers-write-fiction-2015 It looks pretty good- the instructors look great, although I guess there's little to no contact with them directly because it's a MOOC.
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Sep 7, 2015 03:30
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Tyrannosaurus posted:Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft. Finish the draft.
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Sep 7, 2015 08:47
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newtestleper posted:My irl writing group sent out a link to this online writing course: https://novoed.com/how-writers-write-fiction-2015
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Sep 7, 2015 19:50
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lol, ''nano''
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Sep 7, 2015 20:28
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SurreptitiousMuffin posted:NZ thing: If you're interested in Iowa University, their annual summer exchange Poetry/Prose courses in Wellington are going to start taking submissions soon. Each course only takes 13 people. I did the poetry one in 2012 and it was wonderful. ooo
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Sep 7, 2015 20:46
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My book is out, reviews are kind, Publisher's Weekly gave it a  , please buy it so I can afford to own a cat 
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Sep 15, 2015 17:01
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congrats dude!
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Sep 15, 2015 17:47
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i have already purchased your book and have read several words within it, possibly hundreds,
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Sep 15, 2015 17:52
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About time! Great going! Assuming it's available in the UK too?
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Sep 15, 2015 22:25
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General Battuta posted:My book is out, reviews are kind, Publisher's Weekly gave it a Nice, I'm waiting to see it in my local nerd store (or get them to bring it in) so I can go, "Yo, I know that guy online and he's cool."
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Sep 16, 2015 05:40
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PoshAlligator posted:About time! Great going! Assuming it's available in the UK too? I think the UK edition is dropping on the 23rd. Different cover and for market reasons it's just called The Traitor.
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Sep 16, 2015 06:23
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anime was right posted:do mechanical keyboards make a difference when typing words? does it increase my WPM (words per minute, thats like Actions Per minute) YES, A Thousand Times Yes. My WPM went from 40WPM on a rubber dome to close to at least an average of 60 on my mechanical. Fewer milstakes, more accurate, and just a super satisfying experience all around. Personally I would suggest: http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-Mechanical-Keyboard-RK-9000-Cherry/dp/B004F38Y7Y Here's mine with my baller purple alphanumeric keys.  It's super easy to clean too, the facep I went with "blue" switches (color indicates resistance) because they're loud, clicky, and have tactile feedback when you actually engage the switch. This helps prevent you from bottoming out. Also they're higher resistance because I beat the poo poo out of my keyboard on a regular basis. They're also heavy, which is nice if you get into a typing frenzy, as you aren't constantly adjusting your keyboard as it slides further away from you. They're built super well, and if you have a key that goes bad you can just replace it super easy as you can order individual replacement switches and they just solder onto a PCB. You can also find some group buys on keyboards and keycaps in quite a few places. Massdrop is my go-to. Point is: Yes, mechanical keyboards are better than your average schmuck walmart or logitec board for many reasons. Geekout Complete. I'll just slide back into the quiet obscurity that is my horrible work schedule. See you in like 3 weeks or so Goons and Thundergoons.
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Sep 16, 2015 11:29
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SkaAndScreenplays posted:Fewer milstakes
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Sep 16, 2015 17:49
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I mean, that's gotta be intentional.....right?
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Sep 16, 2015 17:52
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this joke has gone too far im sorry
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Sep 16, 2015 17:57
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General Battuta posted:My book is out, reviews are kind, Publisher's Weekly gave it a NICE cover. Looks great!
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Sep 16, 2015 18:37
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Lately I have been feeling the melancholy that comes with not doing enough with my time. I want to start writing again, but I am the opposite of an idea guy. I have two ideas for novels, but I want to start with shorter works. Does anyone have a recommendation for a book or website of writing prompts? I tried that seventh whatever site in the resources thread, but I really didn't like its style. I know that's a useless criticism, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. Maybe too Mad Libs?
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Sep 16, 2015 22:15
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Lately I have been feeling the melancholy that comes with not doing enough with my time. I want to start writing again, but I am the opposite of an idea guy. I have two ideas for novels, but I want to start with shorter works. Does anyone have a recommendation for a book or website of writing prompts? I tried that seventh whatever site in the resources thread, but I really didn't like its style. I know that's a useless criticism, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. Maybe too Mad Libs? Check out Thunderdome. Nothing like a deadline and a weird prompt to get you to write, and sometimes the microfiction you churn out can blossom into a larger work. There's a couple of Thunderdome entries that actually managed to get published.
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Sep 16, 2015 22:20
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Lately I have been feeling the melancholy that comes with not doing enough with my time. I want to start writing again, but I am the opposite of an idea guy. I have two ideas for novels, but I want to start with shorter works. Does anyone have a recommendation for a book or website of writing prompts? I tried that seventh whatever site in the resources thread, but I really didn't like its style. I know that's a useless criticism, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. Maybe too Mad Libs? http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3691539&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=139#post450246224
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Sep 16, 2015 22:20
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I thought about that after I posted. I'm honestly a little scared because I am a tremendous baby, but I guess if I wanted to avoid abrasive responses, I shouldn't have registered. I'm going to miss this avatar.
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Sep 16, 2015 22:33
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Twist Endings Suck 1. Twist endings suck because they undermine the rest of the story. An ending that changes the entire context of everything you've just read wrenches away all the emotional capital, all the dramatic tension, all the excitement and interest. Suddenly, nothing is what it meant before, so why did the author waste my time like that? However much the author made me care about the story I was reading, a twist ending means, woah, hey, suddenly I'm reading a different story, one that’s not the one I cared about. Twist endings make the rest of the story feel less real and resonant and more like a setup to a punchline. 2. Twist endings suck because they rely on withholding information from the reader. This is especially egregious in works written from the perspective of a character who should know this information. Now, I'm not saying you need to put all your cards on the table, but if you're withholding information that is obvious and relevant to the characters, all you're doing is making me feel stupid for the fact that you didn't tell me something. I remember some advice I heard about writing mystery stories, along the lines of "never let your character know something that the reader couldn't". Imagine a mystery story where in the end, the detective solves the mystery based on a bunch of clues the reader never saw. Or imagine the detective solving the mystery like, "Ah, well, we know that alien wasps require two power crystals per hour to maintain their cloaking, so that white powder on the late Mr. Prendergast's chest told me we were dealing with alien wasps," when up until the end, it's been standard Victorian mystery-solving. 3. Twist endings suck because they're not an ending. At best, they're meta-endings, getting their legitimacy from the fact that the story is over now. But twist endings don't resolve your story--see point number 1. They unresolve your story. Now, it's suddenly a different story, but it's also over. It doesn't conclude the narrative arc in any meaningful way, it just ends abruptly. There's no sense of closure apart from the fact that there's no more words on the page. 4. Twist endings suck because they screw up a good story's structure. In a story, the early parts are where you introduce the information and the rules your story operates under. The later parts are where you move those pieces around, see how they react together, and bring it to an end. I'm not saying you can't have a hinted-at reveal near the end (oh no, your brother was the killer all along!), but you definitely can't have something that changes the rules at the end (oh no, werewolves exist and your brother, who is the killer, was a werewolf all along!). I expect a story's background to be fairly consistent once I pass the midway point. By then, I should know what kind of story I'm dealing with, and a twist ending puts off a crucial piece of the story until the end. 5. Twist endings suck because they’re designed to make the reader feel dumb. Here's a riddle: What's worth more, a new hundred-dollar-bill, or a five-year-old one? Here's the answer: A new hundred-dollar-bill is worth more than a five-year-old one-dollar-bill. Yeah, that riddle sucks. I hate riddles that rely on communicating poorly, because all they're there to do is to make the riddler feel smart and the riddlee feel dumb. Twist endings are like that. They make you feel like a clever author and make me feel like a dumb reader. Why do I want to read your story if it's set up to make me feel like a big loser at the end for not 'getting' the fact that you were being deliberately obtuse? Some people like feeling smart by figuring out twists, but it’s still an ending that’s designed to make some people feel smart. 6. Twist endings suck because they violate the trust between reader and author. When I go to read someone's story, I'm putting trust in them. I'm trusting that this story's going to make sense. I'm trusting that it's not going to waste my time. I know that what I'm reading is fiction, but I'm trusting the author to have created a consistent reality within that fiction. And I'm trusting that the author is going to tell me what I need to know to understand what's going on. If the author's trying to lead me on, planning to do a bait-and-switch with a twist ending, when I hit that twist, I'm going to lose all the trust I had in the author. 7. Twist endings suck because they turn your story into the setup for a punchline. No matter how much work goes into the beginning, a twist ending reduces the rest of the story into the preface for the twist. Sometimes, this can work in your favor, if you intend the whole piece to be a setup to a punchline, but if you want the beginning of your story to have resonance of its own and be meaningful, don’t use a twist ending. 8. Twist endings suck because they’re easy to use wrong. I have actually seen good stories make use of a twist ending. To bring back the mystery story example, I’ve read a story online that ended with basically, “all that stuff you were unable to figure out, mister detective, was because I’m actually a werewolf and my partner is a ghost,” and they still managed to fashion that into some sort of satisfying ending by focusing on the character’s reaction to that reveal and the choices he made because of it. It’s possible for a twist ending to not suck. That doesn’t mean you should write them, though. They're tough and tricky and require creatively breaking a lot of rules of good writing, and you shouldn't break rules until you understand fully why those rules are there in the first place.
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Sep 16, 2015 23:12
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Djeser posted:Twist Endings Suck I disagree with your premise, but agree with many of your points. I truly enjoy when an author skillfully and artfully constructs a plot, filled with characters and events I care about, and manages to completely subvert my expectations while maintaining consistency with the narrative elements of the story. Unfortunately, that is a very rare thing and the vast majority of writers who think they are clever enough to pull it off, aren't.
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Sep 16, 2015 23:26
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