|
All right then, thanks crabrock, systran, bauxite and Entenzahn- it would seem I'll have to hold off the pretentious bullshit and work on something more straightforward for by next Thunderdome entry. Just so this doesn't turn into a worthless fluff post, does anyone have any suggestions for good short stories/anthologies that one could read to help get the hang of things? Preferably non-sci-fi or fantasy ones; those are my favourite genres and I'm trying to broaden my horizons.
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2014 02:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 10:55 |
|
|
Read Hemingway! His style is incredibly straightforward, but his stories are much more than the sum of the words. There's a bunch of different anthologies out there, but In Our Time has a lot of his best stories in it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2014 03:29
|
|
|
http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Sto...+garcia+marquez some of these are good. some are not so good. others are better than anything else.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2014 03:36
|
|
|
Aaand that's overwhelming support for finish the first draft first. Thanks, everyone.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2014 03:49
|
|
|
CommissarMega posted:All right then, thanks crabrock, systran, bauxite and Entenzahn- it would seem I'll have to hold off the pretentious bullshit and work on something more straightforward for by next Thunderdome entry. Hemmingway and Marquez are definitely great places to start. I'd also toss a recommendation in for the "Best American Short Stories" anthology that comes out each year. Here's an Amazon link. You can find ones from a few years back for really cheap in both physical and ebook form. The collections usually have good editors with impressive credentials, and it gives you a broad-spectrum view of the modern short fiction landscape. Single-author collections are great too, but it can be refreshing to see so many different voices once in a while. There's also a reasonable assurance of quality since every story was previously published, then hand-picked and shortlisted for the anthology on top of that. 20 Under 40 is a pretty good collection from the New Yorker, as well. I've heard some people grumble that it's basically just who's-who of New Yorker poster children, and there's definitely a few stories that were underwhelming, but as a whole it's very solid and it does a great job of exposing the reader to authors of different backgrounds.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2014 05:28
|
|
|
I've discovered the main cause of me hitting a wall when writing and it's this: I always have too complex an idea. Like at the moment, I've hit the wall at about 4,000 words in a romance piece, which should (by it's nature) be fairly simple to write, but my rear end in a top hat mind has given me a great twist that I've managed to seed so deep into the story that I can't write any more without making sense of one of the characters' motivations. I have tried writing it out in it's most basic form and moving on, but I've now written everything that occurs after that point, and I need to finish this one conversation and I can't because I suck at dialogue and now I hate myself.
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2014 18:11
|
|
|
CommissarMega posted:Just so this doesn't turn into a worthless fluff post, does anyone have any suggestions for good short stories/anthologies that one could read to help get the hang of things? Preferably non-sci-fi or fantasy ones; those are my favourite genres and I'm trying to broaden my horizons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl:_Collected_Stories
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2014 07:52
|
|
|
Edit: Woops, sorry guys. Meant to post in the YA thread.
mastajake fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Oct 9, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2014 12:26
|
|
|
I'm really interested in poetry...but I don't want to write it, and to be honest I don't really like reading it either. What I really do like; however, is when I can tell an author is really inspired by poetry or that they are good at poetry and it seeps into their fiction. I don't know all the technical words that describe this, but I noticed when Muffin won Thunderdome a few weeks ago his piece was heavily influenced by some kind of poetry thing. I guess my question is, how can I create this effect without actually doing poetry? Or maybe I need to bite the bullet and make myself get into it?
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2014 16:56
|
|
|
Cache Cab posted:I'm really interested in poetry...but I don't want to write it, and to be honest I don't really like reading it either. Muffin is a poetry hugger. I'm sure he doesn't shower and attends poetry slams. The most important part is that he reads and write poetry all the time (filthy hippy) so it's natural that some aspects of poetry seeps into his prose cause that loving ponce is rolling around in that poo poo every chance he gets. edit: What I'm saying is if you want to be good at something, you have to practice it. This isn't the loving matrix. We can't download skills into your brain. Mercedes fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Oct 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2014 18:10
|
|
|
Write as if somebody was going to read your story out loud. This helps define a rhythm and prosody to your prose. If something sounds out of place, make it not so. This kind of stuff usually determines if i leave little words in or take them out. Practice that
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2014 18:43
|
|
|
crabrock posted:Write as if somebody was going to read your story out loud. This helps define a rhythm and prosody to your prose. If something sounds out of place, make it not so. This kind of stuff usually determines if i leave little words in or take them out. Kinda piggy-backing off this, but I actually find it really beneficial to literally read the story out loud once it's done. I notice a lot more spelling and grammatical errors and it helps me pick out clunky, awkward sentences that need retooling. "But Gandhi, I have a 100,000 word novel!!! You want me to read the whole thing out loud???" Hell yeah, I read a 100,000 word novel out loud too and it helped me cut out like 10k worth of completely unnecessary words and sentences.
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2014 18:51
|
|
|
Cache Cab posted:I'm really interested in poetry...but I don't want to write it, and to be honest I don't really like reading it either. I get what you are going for, but yeah, you probably aren't going to make much headway if you aren't willing to even read poetry. I don't think that specifically writing poetry is a prerequisite for "poetic" prose style, but you do need to be familiar with concepts of prosody and reading poetry is certainly a good place to start. Of course, you can also read prose by authors that are noted for their lyrical style. A few that spring immediately to mind: Calvino, McCarthy, D.H. Lawrence, Nabokov, Joyce, and Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is particularly interesting because he flat-out stated that some of his writing was an attempt to ape the style of Keats' poetry and apply it to his prose. I'll see if I can dig it up, but there was a pretty interesting article that showed how blatant his attempts were in some places. He would pick lines from Keats that he loved the sound of and basically find+replace the words so that he ended up with lines that matched stuff like cadence, stresses, etc. Obviously you don't have to go to that kind of extreme to have poetic prose, but at a rudimentary level it probably would do you some good to sit down and just tear apart some of your favorite lines of poetry to see what makes them tick. Sometimes an author strings together the perfect combination of words and it just sounds musical. Other times the words are perfectly ordinary but the rhythm / meter are carefully crafted to evoke a certain feeling. There are a lot of different factors at play and it can result in tremendously different styles: McCarthy loves winding, abstract, drat-near Biblical sentences that do an incredible job of capturing mood and painting a picture, while others like Nabokov can write a simple declarative sentence with such precision and insightful choice of words that it becomes much greater than the sum of its parts.
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2014 20:32
|
|
|
Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Kinda piggy-backing off this, but I actually find it really beneficial to literally read the story out loud once it's done. I notice a lot more spelling and grammatical errors and it helps me pick out clunky, awkward sentences that need retooling. I read a 120k word first draft out loud and I want to gut myself. Hooray. For serious though, it helps a lot, even if all you learn is how bad that draft is.
|
|
#
?
Oct 8, 2014 23:57
|
|
|
Tomorrow is my last day at work, after over twelve years. Some people would panic, but I'm thrilled to have time to finish my rewrite, after working at it for forever. Even bought a new laptop for the task. Whoomp there it is.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 01:30
|
|
|
I haven't really written much since starting full time work. Any tips? I guess I should be writing in my lunch or something. Often I'm just really tired by the time I get home.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 07:57
|
|
|
PoshAlligator posted:I haven't really written much since starting full time work. Any tips? I found success with forcing myself to go to bed an hour early so I could get up an hour earlier and write before work. It took some acclimation and embracing a coffee habit, but I found I was sharper in the AM before work than after.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 09:27
|
|
|
Yup, morning writing is much better.. I believe Childish Gambino is a morning writer.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 09:58
|
|
|
I like writing in the evening, around dinner time. It's just a matter of making the time to do it, ultimately. Doesn't matter when, so long as you do it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 13:19
|
|
|
Yeah, like other have said, you just have to make time for it. Its simple but its difficult. You gotta say, "okay, from __ to __ everyday is when I write" and then don't let life distract you
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 14:48
|
|
|
Hungry posted:I read a 120k word first draft out loud and I want to gut myself. Hooray. Oh yeah, I didn't say it was fun, only that it helps. Also, chalk another up to the morning writing crowd. I get up at 4:40 AM every weekday and write from 5 to 6:30 before doing the whole breakfast/get ready for work routine. On weekends I still write in the mornings but it's usually more around 9 or so since I can wake up when I want and stay up/out as late as I want the evening before.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 15:25
|
|
|
I just lost the pen drive that had all of my notes and all of my edited work. Should I go back to the rudimentary I have written down and start again or should I abandon my work?
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 15:31
|
|
|
Don't abandon it. And start using Dropbox or (even better) Google Drive, for gently caress's sake.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 15:33
|
|
|
always use at least three different methods of saving. hard drive/thumb drive/cloud is fine
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 15:39
|
|
|
but it's sithsaber... i vote give up
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 17:19
|
|
|
Thanks for the writing and work advice everyone, I'll get on it. Thinking about doing NaNo this year properly for the first time, which will either push me in the right ways or make me quit writing forever.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 19:06
|
|
|
crabrock posted:but it's sithsaber... Suicide is an acceptable action of the anhero. Remember that when you're feeling down. 
Sithsaber fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Oct 9, 2014 |
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 19:28
|
|
|
o hai fellow outcast CCer I say keep at it. I recently lost the computer a bunch of my older work was on, but as I sit down to try and recover some of it, I realize I am happier with the versions I'm coming up with now. Sometimes a total loss is a blessing in disguise.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 19:53
|
|
|
Cache Cab posted:o hai fellow outcast CCer You two should collaborate on something.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 20:15
|
|
|
God Over Djinn posted:You two should collaborate on something. like chlorine gas
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 20:21
|
|
|
God Over Djinn posted:You two should collaborate on something. Why not? That would be better than wasting time on mentally shriveled do nothings. Why are people here so negative?
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 20:23
|
|
|
Sithsaber posted:Why are people here so negative? a history sparse with hugs and a future devoid of loving relationships
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 20:24
|
|
|
crabrock posted:a history sparse with hugs and a future devoid of loving relationships That's sad and pathetic. BYE
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 20:30
|
|
|
lol @ everyone
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 20:42
|
|
|
Sithsaber posted:Why not? That would be better than wasting time on mentally shriveled do nothings. Why are people here so negative? Because you're not part of the circlejerk that runs Thunderdome. No disrespect; y'all give some great advice. But it can be pretty intimidating to try and get better when the people who're supposed to "help" are so quick to judge people who don't post right, or don't know the in-jokes, or whatever. Sometimes I wish the SA writing community weren't so tangled up in that one thread. Again, I appreciate the help I get, but I know full well where I stand around here, and it makes it hard to submit things when I know that it's not just my writing that's going to get torn apart. *ForumsOldGuy.txt*
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 22:48
|
|
|
The Fiction Writing thread cycle sure clocked around pretty fast this time.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 22:56
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 23:02
|
|
|
My book is due Monday and I'm preeeeetty freaked out. I should've had plenty of time but then the narrative encountered complications — a cold, a party, a dead dog, a lot of scenes I realized could be way better. Feeling kinda rough.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 23:03
|
|
|
Cache Cab posted:Because you're not part of the circlejerk that runs Thunderdome. TDers make fun of you because they would make fun of anyone who A) doesn't read the submission guidelines, B) prefaces their stories with disclaimers, and C) sometimes gets vindictive when they are criticized, usually for A) and B). So maybe don't do that.
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 23:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 10:55 |
|
|
Ironic Twist posted:TDers make fun of you because they would make fun of anyone who A) doesn't read the submission guidelines, B) prefaces their stories with disclaimers, and C) sometimes gets vindictive when they are criticized, usually for A) and B). Once I stopped doing that, I became a TD rockstar! I'm gonna live forever!!
|
|
#
?
Oct 9, 2014 23:23
|
|