Looks like civilization finally caught up with us.

Mal ,'Bushwhacked'


The Great Write Way  

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


Susan W. - Feb 15, 2005 7:48:40 pm PST #9933 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Well, I don't know about that. I didn't write a word of fiction while I was in college, then stopped again between 1997 and 2001. And the project I started in 2001 was the first one of any length I actually finished. But there's certainly nothing I feel more compelled to do, nor anything I love in quite the same way.

And I'm happy with the work I'm doing now. It's satisfying to write and, I think, to read. It's got me by the throat.


deborah grabien - Feb 15, 2005 8:29:41 pm PST #9934 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

I didn't say a writer wrote all day and all night, Susan. Just that we wrote. I stopped writing for ten years, remember? After deciding I'd had enough of the industry, as it was being run in the hands of a select few of those pesky gatekeepers.

Here I am, though.


Susan W. - Feb 15, 2005 8:32:42 pm PST #9935 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Sorry. I'm just a little touchy on that count because the main reason it took me so long to start writing again after the project I dropped in 1997 was that I believed all the writing advice books that said if it wasn't a compulsion for you, then you probably weren't really a writer and therefore shouldn't bother.


deborah grabien - Feb 15, 2005 10:09:59 pm PST #9936 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

Do they really say that? Good grief. Again, glad I don't read the things.

I don't think they mean by compulsion what I mean by compulsion. It smells as if they're trying to convince themselves (or us) that it's some kind of Higher Calling, or something.

I don't know about that. When the musician in me needs to play, I do that, because at that moment in time, it's what I'm happiest doing. And when the storyteller in me has something to tell, that's what I do.

Is that compulsion? It certainly isn't constant.


erikaj - Feb 16, 2005 3:58:39 am PST #9937 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!

Angels and Demons sucked soi hard I was a complete bitch and wrote at Amazon that I would avoid Dan Brown's work like it had anthrax inside. And that my mother bought it for a quarter and she still overpaid. In my world, he's the lackey assigned to scrub Pelecanos' CD collection. Pulls Dennis Lehane's wheelbarrow and buys Deb's cat litter. Wonder who he's blowing.(But how do I feel?) Compulsion...hmm, if I didn't I'd hurt people...I'd say that counts. Also the fact that I was in preschool making my my mom take my dictation and thinking she didn't do it right...that points to a certain innateness. But I did back away for quite a few years thinking I was doing something more "real"


Connie Neil - Feb 16, 2005 4:27:39 am PST #9938 of 10001
brillig

There are stories in my head. Sometimes they get written down, sometimes they don't. After my father died in '82, I shut down for a long time in a fit of "rather childish, isn't it?" But the stories didn't shut up. I had to start writing again just to relieve the mental pressure.

I've always wondered at the difference between "writing is words on paper/electronic media" and "writing as a fully coherent set of thoughts that could be transferred to a more permanent mode whenever you want." Sort of like your brain being a hard drive with its own collection of documents. If you're still constructing stories in your head that have more structure than merely daydreams, then you're coming a little close to writing. To my mind.


Topic!Cindy - Feb 16, 2005 4:32:20 am PST #9939 of 10001
What is even happening?

From Christmas until the anniversary of my dad's death (Feb. 6, 2003), I can't write squat. After that, it slowly returns. Last year, it bothered me. This year, I realized what was going on fairly quickly, and didn't even bother to try or worry. I was fairly sure it would wear off, and it does.

eta...

It seems to linger a bit 'til our birthdays have passed (early March).


Nutty - Feb 16, 2005 4:48:01 am PST #9940 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

How does crap writing like that make the bloody best-seller list? HOW?!?

I told you all, didn't I, about the paperback I picked up in a funk in the middle of January? The hero's "eyes were the color of a dark gray sky." Ummmm, I wonder what color a dark gray sky is?? That was page 2.

Yesterday I picked up a Vonda McIntyre novel, read the first page (which, being the first page, was actually only half a page) and found two similar instances of verbal clumsiness. So, I put it down again. Sometimes I can get past that kind of problem and get into the story, but sometimes I just can't.

I'm a fan of adverbs. There is a whole song about adverbs, you know. It's the L-Y song. Sample verse: You walk into a darkened room, / and sitting there in the gloom / is a TIGER. How do you say goodbye? (Answer: immediately.)


Steph L. - Feb 16, 2005 4:50:50 am PST #9941 of 10001
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe

Angels and Demons sucked soi hard I was a complete bitch and wrote at Amazon that I would avoid Dan Brown's work like it had anthrax inside. And that my mother bought it for a quarter and she still overpaid.

Oh, man. I'm trying to read it, and the topic could be very very interesting in the hands of a skilled writer (I'd love to see Deb or Connie take on the Illuminati), but it's SO BAD.


Connie Neil - Feb 16, 2005 5:26:36 am PST #9942 of 10001
brillig

I'd love to see Deb or Connie take on the Illuminati

She lumped me in with Deb. I love Teppy.

The Illuminati are way cool, and the whole Holy Grail Holy Blood thing was my favorite conspiracy until it got fashionable. I've got all sorts of books about the Knights Templars and the cult of Mary Magdalene and the Illuminati. I'm not persuaded by any of the conclusions of the books, but I admit there are some intriguing possibilities in the evidence.