I love the smell of desperate librarian in the morning.

Snyder ,'Showtime'


The Great Write Way, Chapter Two: Twice upon a time...  

A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.


Connie Neil - Mar 13, 2005 1:12:13 pm PST #520 of 10001
brillig

I need a magical eighth day of the week in which no one is clinging to my knee lisping "juith" or asking where his sneakers are or reminding me that the dry cleaning is due to be picked up...

Oh, yeah. Writer's Day, when no one wants your help with something, when no one says "You love the computer more than you love me," when no one needs a backrub because it's the only way he'll go to sleep . . .

Stupid, independent fortune not having.


erikaj - Mar 13, 2005 1:36:48 pm PST #521 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!

I would have a hard time being kind to somebody who would tell me I love the computer more than them. But maybe that's why there isn't anybody. But it seems to me there isn't a nice reason to say that.


Susan W. - Mar 13, 2005 2:30:26 pm PST #522 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Men say things to women and to each other, and women do, and why wouldn't something you hear between two living breathing human beings bring you an idea for a situation between two 19th century characters?

But I already do stuff like this. It's just a different part of the creative process than the one where I think, "Aha! I have a novel." That, for lack of a better word, is big-picture stuff, and most of it comes from a combination of my reading of history and a sort of character and situation bank in the back of my mind. Eventually a setting/situation and a character mate and give birth to a baby plot--usually in the form of a vivid opening and a desired end point.

I don't talk as much about other influences because they're on a different level of the process--and they tend to be a bit more personal, sometimes even private. But they're still there.

Maybe you shouldn' thave, because I did your first post to be taking inventory and concluding worrying was in order. You were just wondering how much people had on their back burners, then?

Yes. Exactly. And I guess I need to change the way I communicate or something, because I'm getting pretty angry and frustrated over this stuff. (This is by no means all about this topic or this thread--it's online, real life, etc.) It's like if I use the word "worry" at all, everyone assumes it must be bad obsessive unhealthy worry that's ruining my life and jumps on me about it. And all I meant was some tiny minor niggle that occasionally crops up in the very back part of my mind, not even remotely a big deal. But somebody will inevitably ask, "Why would you worry about that?" which feels like an accusation, and I feel like I have to explain the origins of the niggle, which somehow makes it a big deal that it never was when it was merely one of those little little things I occasionally think about for five minutes and then easily shrug off. It's getting to where I feel like I can't talk about minor worries that are threatening to become big ones to ask for help because it seems like everyone goes into crisis-mode when I use the "w" word, which makes me worry more than I was to start with and/or makes me feel like a freak. And I'm so not crippled by worry. Even when it was a much worse issue for me than it is now, it still never defined me. Not to myself, at least.

That last bit probably belongs in Bitches rather than hear, but I'm going to go ahead and post it, since this is where it came to a head.


Scrappy - Mar 13, 2005 2:35:57 pm PST #523 of 10001
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Maybe you use 'worry" where you mean merely think. For me, worry has a strong negative and unwilling connotation--no one decides to worry on purpose, after all. If someone tells me they are worried about something (not specifically you--this is anyone) I assume they don't LIKE worrying about it. If they say they are thinking about it, or trying to figure it out, then I will assume that it's something that crossed their mind but doesn't really concern them deeply. Maybe this is just how I use the term, however.


§ ita § - Mar 13, 2005 2:41:50 pm PST #524 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I use it like you, Robin. Susan, in my vocab, what you were doing was wondering, not worrying. To me, worrying has an adversity to it, even if someone's just worrying a little. Wondering has no such connotation for me.


Betsy HP - Mar 13, 2005 2:57:00 pm PST #525 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

With ita and Robin on assuming "worry" is pejorative. I wonder what my children will grow up to be. I worry that they'll be axe murderers.

Is anybody around to help me wordsmith the intro to a resume? I haven't updated mine in far too long.

The idea I want to convey is that I love doing internal writing, where I influence the design as well as capture it. I keep missing the point. Here's the current draft.

Career Goal Working closely with a sophisticated development team, capturing a design in English. I prefer to work as a Mercenary Analyst; see Jim Coplien's Organization Patterns for a longer discussion. [link]


Topic!Cindy - Mar 13, 2005 3:01:12 pm PST #526 of 10001
What is even happening?

Maybe you shouldn' thave, because I did your first post to be taking inventory and concluding worrying was in order. You were just wondering how much people had on their back burners, then?
Sheeeesh. I hesitate to discuss this, after re-reading that mess I posted. I went back to look, hoping you'd had an unfortunate copying-and-pasting accident, Susan. I can't even believe I posted that. Let's assume all three kids were talking to me while I was typing that paragraph, m'kay? So erm...what are we talking about...

It's getting to where I feel like I can't talk about minor worries that are threatening to become big ones to ask for help because it seems like everyone goes into crisis-mode when I use the "w" word, which makes me worry more than I was to start with and/or makes me feel like a freak. And I'm so not crippled by worry. Even when it was a much worse issue for me than it is now, it still never defined me. Not to myself, at least.

Look even at what you've posted here: minor worries that are threatening to become big ones to ask for help. Even though I now know you're talking about (which is what I would also call) wondering, that's not what the above reads like to me. It reads like: there's a problem, it looks like it is going to get bigger. Help me.


Betsy HP - Mar 13, 2005 3:03:40 pm PST #527 of 10001
If I only had a brain...

Ignore previous; here's the revision.

Capturing a sophisticated software design in English, working closely with the development team. As I see it, a software architecture is an idea. The designer/implementors are responsible for expressing that idea (or those ideas) as code; I express it/them as prose. See James Coplien's Organization Patterns for a longer discussion: [link]


Deena - Mar 13, 2005 3:06:22 pm PST #528 of 10001
How are you me? You need to stop that. Only I can be me. ~Kara

I would like to lose the "a" in "a software architecture".

The rest looks good to me.


Jesse - Mar 13, 2005 3:11:36 pm PST #529 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Heh, Betsy, I was just going to paste your quote from the link and say to use more of that language.