BuffyBot ,'Dirty Girls'
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Yep, he doesn't spare folk the awful bloody deaths. I'm not easily squicked by gore, but parts of The Dark Half almost made me wretch.
I think part of my King-love comes from him being a Mainer, too. I keep trying to get out some sort of further explanation for that, it's more than some sort of "Hometown boy, represent!" thing, more about how it makes me feel connected to his work. But that's for another day.
Now, I go for a beer down to the corner, then come back and keep reading FFoSM!
Actually, it occurs to me, we are all nattering. This stuff really belongs in Literary, since we've stopped talking about writing the stuff.
Lilty, sorry, I loathe and abominate The Stand. Had I been his editor, I'd have thrown up and then taken a meat cleaver to it.
P-C, someday I will tell you about the smackdown I gave Kubrick up in Hertfordshire at three in the morning, while he was filming that piece of shit movie.
One of the things I love about his nonfiction is that it feels like he's sitting right there talking to me.
Y'know how sometimes someone says something that you agree w/ so perfectly and exactly that it's beyond description? That's what happened when I read that sentence.
BoB is awesome, perhaps his last really good book (Dark Tower VII needed an editor very badly); it doesn't scare me so much as it does make me cry a bit.
Anyways...getting back to the focus of this forum (writing rather than discussing lit.), any tips for someone who's just starting to seriously consider writing? (fiction and poetry)
Y'know how sometimes someone says something that you agree w/ so perfectly and exactly that it's beyond description? That's what happened when I read that sentence.Yep. That's what happened when I read the following:
From It? I loved the book, and read it voraciously, racing to the end with bitten nails and a nervous stomach...but the end was a massive disappointment to me. Maybe nothing would have worked, for me at least, since the whole "what you fear is the evil" theme was carried out so well (i.e. what one thing could encompass all that effectively), but the end felt like a huge copout.
AmyLiz, I'm right with you on It.
Anyways...getting back to the focus of this forum (writing rather than discussing lit.), any tips for someone who's just starting to seriously consider writing? (fiction and poetry)
Well, first you write. The rest comes later.
Not meant to be facetious. Just honest. Write whatever it is that's burning in your brain demanding to be written. When you're in the early stages of beginning to write, don't worry about getting it perfect (hint: it never ever is) or trying to follow some contrived set of rules. Just write. If you don't, you'll get so caught in your head trying to decide how to write that you'll never actually do it. Trust me on this.
The only prep I can offer beyond that is to read a lot. Especially with poetry, being exposed to a wide variety of published poets can be helpful in getting a sense for different styles.
But mostly, just get it out and enjoy it. Otherwise, why do it? Well, except for the "burning your brain demanding to be written" part.
Once it's out, if you decide you want to go further with it, then you can get beta readers to give you feedback and to help zero in on your specific strengths and weaknesses and start the difficult [but rewarding] work of revision. You might also decide that writing it was enough. That's fine too.
If you're having a hard time deciding how to get started, there are some great books out there (I use several of these in my creative writing class) such as Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott [link] , Writing Out the Storm by Jessica Page Morrell [link] , Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (warning, this is an much a philosophy book as it is a writing book) [link] , What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays [link] , or many more...the market for this is big. There is a great Amazon list that has these and more here: [link] .
Not everyone enjoys these types of books, but many of my students find them really helpful as a jumping off point.
I'm at this stage where I get half formed ideas, usually in the car, but when I sit down to start them, I end up with a jillion half pages that don't go anywhere. It's frustrating.
I've never read any of the writing books, so the only advice I can think of is some that was given to Lillian Hellman, when her second play got bad reviews and she went into blockage and slump over it. Someone told her "Nonsense. A writer writes. It's what we do. Go home at once, and right something."
Which also sounds facetious, but isn't. If there's a story in there, tell it. If you're a writer, identify your characters, decide which road you want to set them on, give them a push, and tell the story.
Poetry, I don't know. The best description of poetry I ever came across was in Edmund Crispin's "The Moving Toyshop." I'll dig the book out later and find the quote and post it, if someone doesn't beat me to it.
Crip Noir is 176 pages big today...they grow up so fast.
If you can't think of a "proper" way to start something, start with the first event. You can work on most effective arrangements of a plot later. And don't be afraid of "Bob said" and "Jane said." The fancier words can be added later.
"Bob looked at Jane and said, "We're dead if we don't get out of here." is a perfectly acceptable opening sentence.
And sometimes I worry that my default sensibility is to danger and peril rather than something like, "I like that dress."