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On March 25 2012 13:42 Dark_Chill wrote: I'm doing a short story for a creative writing contest. I'd like to know if posting it here and maybe getting some feedback on it would count as cheating or not.
no
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On March 25 2012 13:42 Dark_Chill wrote: I'm doing a short story for a creative writing contest. I'd like to know if posting it here and maybe getting some feedback on it would count as cheating or not.
Check the rules of the contest for anything about peer reviewing. You should be good, though.
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On March 25 2012 14:17 giuocob wrote:Show nested quote +On March 25 2012 12:09 husniack wrote: ...I knew there was a B of A close by somewhere, maybe down a block or two so I decided to walk...
You mean 'their'
......
......
......
No, he's right.....
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On March 25 2012 16:31 killa_robot wrote:Show nested quote +On March 25 2012 14:17 giuocob wrote:On March 25 2012 12:09 husniack wrote: ...I knew there was a B of A close by somewhere, maybe down a block or two so I decided to walk...
You mean 'their' ...... ...... ...... No, he's right.....
There was a house by some where.
There was that bite of my pizza somewhere.
Their car was close by somewhere.
They're not fond of the use of somewhere.
Yeah, it is correct.
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It struck me then, that as I pleasant as it had been to walk to the bank, I would have to walk back.
Where did the "I" come from? o.O
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Okay, here it is + Show Spoiler +Purpose in Life
The beautiful night sky seemed out of place when put together with the city crowded by buildings. Darius could easily appreciate the black and blue above him, but he could see no wonder or beauty in the picture laid out before him. He sat on the roof of the large apartment building he called home. His girlfriend had already gone back inside, feeling chilly and bored by Darius' silence. He didn't care too much though; deep thinking was his way of unwinding, and the nice early March breeze was his tool to ease into that state. Darius found it to be absolutely essential to stop every night, to consider why he was going on and what he could do to forget that thought. He had a child who was in need of support was the most obvious thought, but that would always be pushed to the back of his mind. Sophie was already six years old and always seemed as if her mother could do everything he could do and more. He felt rather useless most times, and even Jane was becoming less and less in need of his company. He worked as a writer, or at least deluded himself into thinking he could still bear that title. His last book was years ago, and ideas weren't coming to him as they did in his youth. Ever since he began coming up to the roof, regardless of the temperature or weather, he had hoped he would see something which could show him what to do, how to make himself feel like he was part of a family and not a stranger hoping for constant financial support. He felt that if just one amazing idea could enter his head, all of his problems could be solved. It was then that his daughter opened the door on the opposite end of the roof. She stepped into the outside world, walking towards Darius while he watched with a nervous and puzzled look. When she finally got there, he said “what are you doing up here”, with a harsh voice. He hadn't meant for it to sound quite so mean, but he wasn't used to what was happening now and hadn't thought at all about what to say. Sophie's face seemed to take on a slightly sadder expression, but she still managed to get a few words out. “Mommy asked me to come up here. She said that lately you seemed sad and maybe I could help”. She paused for a few moments, wondering what to say next. “I'm not sure what she wanted me to do though”. He wondered what Jane had been thinking. He hated it when he had things forced upon him, and she knew that. More importantly, he wanted more silence and time to himself right now, and both Jane and Sophie weren’t helping right now. He needed an idea, and one wasn’t going to come out of a child. “Listen Sophie, it’s eight o’clock. It’s almost your bedtime, and the roof at night is no place for a six year old”. Sophie had a puzzled look on her face. “Daddy, I’m eight. Don’t you remember, my birthday was just last month”? Darius had indeed forgotten. Sophie had a huge party that day, and it was way too loud for Darius to take any interest in. He had gone out with his friends to the bar that day and came back when all of Sophie’s friends were already gone. At that point Jane told him that he had missed Sophie’s party completely, and that she wasn’t happy with him. She hadn’t spoken to him for a while after that. It wasn’t his fault, anyways. He had been far too preoccupied with thinking up ideas. He realized that Sophie was waiting for a response, and that he should probably say something. “Sorry”. He couldn’t make it sound sincere. He has busy, and she was interrupting him. Didn’t she want him to finally get back to being a real writer, and have an actual purpose in life? “Anyways, Sophie, it’s time for you to go to bed, isn’t it? You should head back, before it gets too cold”. He noticed that she wasn’t exactly well dressed for the weather, yet she stayed where she was, shivering but rooted in her position. It was then that Sophie caught him completely off guard. Instead of listening to his suggestion, she asked in a sad, serious voice, “Daddy, why don’t you ever talk to me?” Darius was hardly ready for anymore talk, let alone something as random as this. “What do you mean? We’re talking right now aren’t we? We talk all the time Sophie. I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Sophie seemed to ignore his reply and went on. “On my birthday, you weren’t there, and you didn’t even say happy birthday when you got back at night. Whenever I come back from school, you don’t ever ask me how my day was like my friends’ daddies do. You never come to me to talk or anything. You used to read me stories in bed, and some of them were yours. I really liked them. What did I do?” Sophie was in tears by the end of it. It was as if everything she had held inside for the longest time had begun to come out all in one moment. Darius was shocked. He hadn’t seen Sophie cry in a long time, and he couldn’t remember when was the last time he had had this much of an exchange with his daughter. He didn’t know how to make her stop crying. He realized that right after he realized that what everything she said was true. He hadn’t thought of going to Sophie that night, apologizing, and saying happy birthday. He hadn’t read her a story since he had written his last book. Sophie came into his arms while she was crying, and Darius’ hands held her close to him; he had no idea what else to do. “Listen Sophie… I, I was really busy… you… you know daddy’s a writer. If he can’t find a good idea, then he won’t be able to write anything”. He knew it wasn’t a good excuse, but what else could he say. Sophie’s head turned upwards, letting her tear-filled eyes meet with his. “Daddy, why can’t you just be like mommy? She has work too, but she talks to me, and cares about me. Why can’t you do that?” He wanted to say once again, that work was different for him, but he instead took a second to think back, to every moment he could think of. Jane would come home relatively late, tired from work, and say hello to him. Then she went to Sophie. Despite her long day and how tired she was, she still went to Sophie. How many times did I, even though I hadn’t been working, spend a bit of time with her? He understood, at that moment, what had been happening. He was feeling more and more useless as she grew older. Jane could do everything he could… because he hadn’t been doing anything. He suddenly felt something shaking against him. Sophie was shivering a lot now, and as he put his hand to her neck, she felt very cold. How had he not noticed it before. His daughter was more important than staying out here any longer. He had done enough thinking for the night. He scooped Sophie into his arms and walked towards the door. The short trip back to the apartment felt so strange to him. It wasn't accompanied with a sense of disappointment that he hadn't come up with an idea once again. His attention was focused solely on Sophie, who had seemingly cried herself to sleep. Her shivering was slowly subsiding, and he could feel her getting warmer. He opened the unlocked apartment door and got out of his shoes. Jane came to the door, and was surprised by the image greeting her. He moved his eyes, darting back between her and Sophie, specifically her shoes. Jane didn't seem to notice though, and now that he thought about it, the look of surprise seemed more like a look of panic. “Oh my god, Sophie!” she cried. She took their child out of his hands. “What was she doing out there in the cold!” yelled Jane. “She could be sick now! When did you take her up there?” Darius was confused. “Didn't you tell her to come up to me?” Jane seemed as if she was going to hit him. “Why the hell would I do that!” She turned away from the door and hurried off towards Sophie's room. Darius managed to notice one more thing before they disappeared from his vision. Sophie had been in her pyjamas. She only put them on when she was going right to bed... It was hard explaining to Jane what had happened, since he hadn't really believed it either. It was progress though; it was the longest conversation they had had in a while, and he had forgotten how much he liked hearing her voice. By the time he woke up in the morning, he realized he had forgotten a lot of things. He moved closer to Jane, putting his arm around her. She moved her head so that it rested on his chest. She smiled in her sleep. He greeted Sophie with a big hug when she finally woke up. She complained about it being to hard, but it was okay. After all, he thought that he needed to make it up to her. She felt a lot warmer than yesterday, and she looked perfectly fine. No sign of sickness at all. He raised her up on his shoulder and carried her into the kitchen. Jane was busy cooking eggs, but she turned and smiled when they came in. Darius put his daughter down and she ran over to give her mother a hug. The whole scene made him kinda happy: he hadn't truly seen it in a very long time. After Jane left with Sophie to get to school, Darius went back up to his room. He found his laptop in the same state as he had left it the night before. The word “I” was written in an open document. It was at least a start. He recalled the intense feelings from last night, and continued on. “I never really knew what I was going to do with my life”. He skipped a few lines, deciding to write the ending first, so he knew what he was working towards. “Being there for my daughter is something I hope I never forget again”.
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Just a suggestion to people giving advice in the future: I think for people that are posting stories, they aren't exactly looking for microscale grammar mistakes. More helpful would be a statement like, "your story doesn't make sense." "your ending doesn't make sense." Etc.
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Any suggestions for people moving from writing short stories to novel length pieces? I get to about long short story length into a novel, then lose the track and just stop working on it (that is to say, I dont exactly get very far )
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On March 26 2012 07:13 husniack wrote: Just a suggestion to people giving advice in the future: I think for people that are posting stories, they aren't exactly looking for microscale grammar mistakes. More helpful would be a statement like, "your story doesn't make sense." "your ending doesn't make sense." Etc. Especially when people try to correct grammar mistakes and are actually the ones in the wrong. Don't correct shit if you have no clue what you're saying. T_T
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Canada10923 Posts
On March 26 2012 07:20 drshdwpuppet wrote:Any suggestions for people moving from writing short stories to novel length pieces? I get to about long short story length into a novel, then lose the track and just stop working on it (that is to say, I dont exactly get very far )
Are you more of an outliner or a discovery writer (invent everything as you go)? Do you know where you're going in the story? I wonder when you are starting, do you have a novel length of ideas (although sometimes it can be the other way around where you're trying to cram too many ideas in and it's not focused enough.)
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On March 26 2012 07:25 Falling wrote:Show nested quote +On March 26 2012 07:20 drshdwpuppet wrote:Any suggestions for people moving from writing short stories to novel length pieces? I get to about long short story length into a novel, then lose the track and just stop working on it (that is to say, I dont exactly get very far ) Are you more of an outliner or a discovery writer (invent everything as you go)? Do you know where you're going in the story? I wonder when you are starting, do you have a novel length of ideas (although sometimes it can be the other way around where you're trying to cram too many ideas in and it's not focused enough.)
I more or less mix the styles, preferring to definitely have a list of thing I want to happen with a little connective material, but for the most part getting myself there organically. As someone who has never written a novel, I am not sure as to what constitutes "novel length of ideas".
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Canada10923 Posts
Well I'm just wondering if you've stalled out because you've gone through your entire story arc or whether it's a matter of discipline of just getting through the rough patches (my problem). Also, discovery writers tend to start and restart multiple times as they rewrite the same story multiple times. In that case, Writing Excuses advice for discovery writers is to not restart your story until you've gotten through a few chapters.
Edit. For myself, I'm a bit of a mix. I need a really basic outline (2.5 pages of point form notes), but if I had to sit down like some writers and detail 30 pages outlines, it would kill the story for me.
Sometimes a story ends too quickly because everything get's solved too quickly/ neatly. If that's the case, then maybe some more trouble needs to be thrown at your main characters. And not useless Macguffin missions, but actual troubles that hinder the main characters from their primary objectives.
To be honest, I have a hard time thinking in terms of short stories as all my 'short' story ideas always expand way past any reasonable definition of short.
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On March 26 2012 07:20 drshdwpuppet wrote:Any suggestions for people moving from writing short stories to novel length pieces? I get to about long short story length into a novel, then lose the track and just stop working on it (that is to say, I dont exactly get very far )
Make sure that your ideas can fit a novel-length first. It could just be that your subject is only meant for a short-mid length story and you may just be stretching it out. Introducing new elements (characters/settings/side stories...) can help there. More or less, if you get the feeling that you can't make a story any longer, it means that you yourself fell it as either gone on long enough or you've run out of ideas on where to take it. I recommend that you might want to either keep it as a short-mid story or come back to it later when you think you know what you want to do.
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Canada10923 Posts
^Yeah, that's good too. You don't want to artificially expand a short story with filler. Also, how short are we talking? Are you hoping for 250-350 page novel? Obviously, just a ballpark. I don't know anyone that aims for a specific page number. And what are you ending at right now? 10 pages? 50 pages?
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I would say that a 300 page (I count in words, I think that is around 90k words) is a good ballpark estimate, though I wasn't really going to limit myself. My problem is that I get about 2 chapters or so in and just lose where I want my characters to go next. I know what I want the end goal to be, but somehow I lose track of how to get there. Maybe more planning is needed?
The furthest I have gotten is around 100 pages.
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Canada10923 Posts
Hard to say without knowing the stories. But you might need a few more plot/ stepping points to get there. So if you know if you've done A, B, and C and you know you're getting to Z- even knowing H, M, R, and V will help direct where you are going. I tend to plot out where all the major crises/ event are. I might have some very specific scenes in my head, but only a point form note to remind me of it. But if there's too few stepping stones plotted out, I would get lost too.
Again, hard to know for sure, but it sounds like the general story arc needs a little more thought/ structure. What are your major rising points of action/ what is pushing the story forward?
Just curious, why did you abandon the 100 page one? Because it would be good to finish at least one novel length book just so you know what it's like.
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It appears my post got buried beneath the initial avalanche of responses. I'm going to post it again and hope someone can help me?
On March 18 2012 12:15 -Aura- wrote: Hey guys, so cool that a good thread about writing finally got started. I've always wanted to write since I was a little kid. I used to churn out countless pages of fantasy drivel (which is what I enjoyed at that point in my life, nothing wrong with fantasy, just very easy to be extremely cliche with it). I even participated in NaNoWriMo for two years (failed both times). Anyway, to the point of they story, not counting school essays and stuff, I haven't written seriously in almost three years. I want to get back into writing as a hobby. I don't know what I want to write about, I don't know what my goal is, I just want to get back to the point where writing is an enjoyable leisure activity. Where should I start? Are there any interesting books or aricles you read that inspired you to write, or gave you great ideas for plots or characters? Any videos you watched that made you lunge for the nearest keyboard? And is there any advice you can give me as to how to get back into my old favorite hobby?
To make my point more clear, I used to have thousands of plot ideas constantly swimming right under my conscious. Now I can't think of a single interesting topic to even consider writing about. that's why I am asking for help. Thanks.
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On March 26 2012 08:39 -Aura- wrote:It appears my post got buried beneath the initial avalanche of responses. I'm going to post it again and hope someone can help me? Show nested quote +On March 18 2012 12:15 -Aura- wrote: Hey guys, so cool that a good thread about writing finally got started. I've always wanted to write since I was a little kid. I used to churn out countless pages of fantasy drivel (which is what I enjoyed at that point in my life, nothing wrong with fantasy, just very easy to be extremely cliche with it). I even participated in NaNoWriMo for two years (failed both times). Anyway, to the point of they story, not counting school essays and stuff, I haven't written seriously in almost three years. I want to get back into writing as a hobby. I don't know what I want to write about, I don't know what my goal is, I just want to get back to the point where writing is an enjoyable leisure activity. Where should I start? Are there any interesting books or aricles you read that inspired you to write, or gave you great ideas for plots or characters? Any videos you watched that made you lunge for the nearest keyboard? And is there any advice you can give me as to how to get back into my old favorite hobby?
To make my point more clear, I used to have thousands of plot ideas constantly swimming right under my conscious. Now I can't think of a single interesting topic to even consider writing about. that's why I am asking for help. Thanks.
Read
User was warned for this post
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Canada10923 Posts
Make sure that advise conforms to TL standards. One word replies are not appreciated.
Having said that, there is something to be said about 'priming the pump.' That can be accomplished by reading, maybe other fiction- I don't get much inspiriation from other fiction books quite frankly. I've had much better success reading history. Alternatively, sometimes I get inspiriation from movies. Usually not the plot, but more specific visuals or the more atmospheric type movies. One particular scene might get me thinking on tangents. The trap is that this can just be a form of procrastination.
Go out and do stuff? Hike up mountains, travel, observing people's interactions at a pub? Who knows, ideas can come from all over the place. I was actually on fire with ideas when I briefly lived in another country. Something about being in other cultures, just really did it for me. Of course I wouldn't suggest travelling specifically to get story ideas, but rather for the adventure itself. The side benefit of more experiences could be what jump starts the creative process again.
Perhaps listening to writing podcasts? I strongly recommend http://www.writingexcuses.com/ I believe they have several idea generating exercises.. Sometimes a specific interest is the key. I was listening to a university lecture series on Faerie Stories by Corey Olsen and got new ideas from there. Rarely is it from the actual plot or characters themselves, but these little ideas.
If I'm ever continuing a work that I haven't worked on awhile, I find it's helpfu to back up and to a lot of reading on what I previously wrote or side notes before moving forward.
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On March 26 2012 08:39 -Aura- wrote:It appears my post got buried beneath the initial avalanche of responses. I'm going to post it again and hope someone can help me? Show nested quote +On March 18 2012 12:15 -Aura- wrote: Hey guys, so cool that a good thread about writing finally got started. I've always wanted to write since I was a little kid. I used to churn out countless pages of fantasy drivel (which is what I enjoyed at that point in my life, nothing wrong with fantasy, just very easy to be extremely cliche with it). I even participated in NaNoWriMo for two years (failed both times). Anyway, to the point of they story, not counting school essays and stuff, I haven't written seriously in almost three years. I want to get back into writing as a hobby. I don't know what I want to write about, I don't know what my goal is, I just want to get back to the point where writing is an enjoyable leisure activity. Where should I start? Are there any interesting books or aricles you read that inspired you to write, or gave you great ideas for plots or characters? Any videos you watched that made you lunge for the nearest keyboard? And is there any advice you can give me as to how to get back into my old favorite hobby?
To make my point more clear, I used to have thousands of plot ideas constantly swimming right under my conscious. Now I can't think of a single interesting topic to even consider writing about. that's why I am asking for help. Thanks.
Just backtrack yourself. What did you read/watch as a kid?
Honestly I get ideas from watching pretty much anything I'm interested in. So only thing I could say is watch things or read books that you think you'll enjoy. It's not like there's a single book or movie or tv show that will suddenly revert you back to how you were before.
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