"Digital pants ACTIVATE!"
May. 30th, 2004 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changelingThis is a LinkDump!post, but I'll try and hide it behind some news so you don't notice.
I've been frequenting this particular board recently, "Learn Writing With Uncle Jim". It's run by James Macdonald, a published author who also teaches creative writing. What he advocates above all else is the BIC, or "Butt In Chair" method. I feel vindicated, because that's what I've been trying to subtly urge my classmates to try.
Quotes from Unca Jim, via the board:
Recall also that fiction should be true (for certain values of "true"). The best lies contain the most truth. (link)
As James Nichols put it, "We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary." (link)
Y'all know what a hero is, right? It's someone who's made the "hero's journey." That is, someone who has gone to the realm of the dead and returned. (Emphasis mine.) (link)
Now, y'all know that as artists we're parasites, right? If there weren't a real world where would we be? We live in the real world without contributing to it. And what we do, when times are hard, folks can do without better than they can do without food and fuel.
Now, about parasitism: y'all know what a "parasite" is, right? It's a Greek word, meaning "beside the food." Originally parasites were poets who would crash rich guys' parties, and eat all they could, and provide entertainment with their poetry and songs and witty conversation. Until they were thrown out. (link)
So yeah. Obviously I've been thinking about writing a lot recently. I've hit one of those insurmountable blocks in my book (This is the Shadow Boys, for those not paying attention) where I have no idea what's happening next, and because I don't know the ending well enough, I can't just write for the end. Because I'm spending almost every waking hour trying to think my way around the block (or gap, which is probably more accurate), I am slowly going insane. I rifled through our bookshelves yesterday for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I plan on reading. I am praying to every available deity that this will help. Actually writing a new short story yesterday helped, I think, for all that it kept me up to ungodly hours. It meant I did my quota of writing, even if I wasn't actually working on my novel.
I just saw an ad for YoHoHo Pirates, which is a game. I'd been vaguely interested, until I saw the ad, because, hey, it's PIRATES.
But the ad offers all these things you can do: "Gun! BilgePump!" and so forth. I'll leave "BilgePump" alone for the moment, although that's dodgy as hell. No, my favourite activity is "Carpent".
"CARPENT". That's not even a fucking word. Way to back-form, arseholes.
Eh. I won a double pass to go see Wendy Rule and Augie March tonight, so I'd better get dressed in clothing I wouldn't be afraid of being seen in.
I've been frequenting this particular board recently, "Learn Writing With Uncle Jim". It's run by James Macdonald, a published author who also teaches creative writing. What he advocates above all else is the BIC, or "Butt In Chair" method. I feel vindicated, because that's what I've been trying to subtly urge my classmates to try.
Quotes from Unca Jim, via the board:
Recall also that fiction should be true (for certain values of "true"). The best lies contain the most truth. (link)
As James Nichols put it, "We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary." (link)
Y'all know what a hero is, right? It's someone who's made the "hero's journey." That is, someone who has gone to the realm of the dead and returned. (Emphasis mine.) (link)
Now, y'all know that as artists we're parasites, right? If there weren't a real world where would we be? We live in the real world without contributing to it. And what we do, when times are hard, folks can do without better than they can do without food and fuel.
Now, about parasitism: y'all know what a "parasite" is, right? It's a Greek word, meaning "beside the food." Originally parasites were poets who would crash rich guys' parties, and eat all they could, and provide entertainment with their poetry and songs and witty conversation. Until they were thrown out. (link)
So yeah. Obviously I've been thinking about writing a lot recently. I've hit one of those insurmountable blocks in my book (This is the Shadow Boys, for those not paying attention) where I have no idea what's happening next, and because I don't know the ending well enough, I can't just write for the end. Because I'm spending almost every waking hour trying to think my way around the block (or gap, which is probably more accurate), I am slowly going insane. I rifled through our bookshelves yesterday for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I plan on reading. I am praying to every available deity that this will help. Actually writing a new short story yesterday helped, I think, for all that it kept me up to ungodly hours. It meant I did my quota of writing, even if I wasn't actually working on my novel.
I just saw an ad for YoHoHo Pirates, which is a game. I'd been vaguely interested, until I saw the ad, because, hey, it's PIRATES.
But the ad offers all these things you can do: "Gun! BilgePump!" and so forth. I'll leave "BilgePump" alone for the moment, although that's dodgy as hell. No, my favourite activity is "Carpent".
"CARPENT". That's not even a fucking word. Way to back-form, arseholes.
Eh. I won a double pass to go see Wendy Rule and Augie March tonight, so I'd better get dressed in clothing I wouldn't be afraid of being seen in.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-30 12:39 am (UTC)I once saw one of the street kids down here in Vic, on a rainy day, carefully count out all the change she'd gotten from panhandling that day and go buy a copy of an old Heinlen book from a secondhand bookstore.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-30 07:19 am (UTC)That's one of the best things I've ever heard.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-30 12:44 am (UTC)Even if you have hit a gap, I'm still terribly envious that you are writing something. I usually give up within days of beginning anything, and I blame it all on distractions, when really it's probably laziness or a naturally useless imagination.
"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."
gah! This is what I've been trying to convince people of for ages. I become snippish when people get touchy about the pronunciation of a word, or it's 'realness'. Because english is a stolen language. I like this Uncle Jim. Especially his parasitic comparisons. I love that especially...
I'm all flattered you want to read it. ^___^
Date: 2004-05-30 07:17 am (UTC)O'course, you'll have to buy a copy when I get it published... *grins*
See, part of that is promising yourself that every day you'll write a page, no matter how long it takes you, or whatever. Your brain eventually gets the message. And one page (handwritten) isn't actually all that much. Normally I'm terrible at motivating myself, too. That's why this course and having writing-type friends around (RL and online) really helps. Also doing NaNoWriMo.
Yeah, I had this great grade 6 teacher who gave us all these spelling tests with "foreign" words like "cushy" and "bungalow" and told us where they came from. It was nifty. Uncle Jim is good. It's worth reading the board, if you're interested.
Re: I'm all flattered you want to read it. ^___^
Date: 2004-05-30 02:11 pm (UTC)Now, as if I wouldn't buy a copy! I'd buy twenty if I could, and pass them on to everyone I know.
See, part of that is promising yourself that every day you'll write a page, no matter how long it takes you, or whatever.
I know it seems so small, to write a page, but I still think it is really really admirable. I will have to try it, I think. Because we all have the ability to do things we have never done before, right? (one can only hope...) That's what NaNoWriMo teaches poeple, I suppose.
I am definitely interested in Uncle Jim. I will follow the link!
Re: I'm all flattered you want to read it. ^___^
Date: 2004-05-31 06:19 am (UTC)Yeah. For me, I found NaNo profoundly hard (I haven't succeeded yet -- not that it's going to stop me trying), because I really struggled to get more than about 500 words per day. And once you're used to beating yourself up over not getting 1,667 words per day, 300 seems a walk in the park. And I'm refusing to feel guilty each day I don't make my quota (I probably won't tonight; I have an editing assignment due tomorrow that will, according to my teacher, take me four hours. FOUR HOURS. Jeeebus.), because Guilt only leads to Avoidance. Trust me. I know.
Re: I'm all flattered you want to read it. ^___^
Date: 2004-06-01 01:33 am (UTC)because Guilt only leads to Avoidance. Trust me. I know.
I know this too, but I need to see it written down sometimes to remind myself.
I tried NaNo. But then I got hit by a car. And had to hand in assignments, and then there was a funeral. I was in no state to write a novel, let me tell you. Damned, I will remember that November forever.
...and of course i want to read it!
no subject
Date: 2004-06-01 05:33 am (UTC)Each year I aim for at least beating that, if nothing else. And hopefully if I keep up my "300 words before bed!" this year, by the time November rolls around I'll find 1,667 quite pappy.
Well, it was more the "Mwahaha! I shall mindcontrol everyone I know until they read it!" But yeah. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-01 01:16 pm (UTC)I have been mind-controlled! And I don't all together mind...*grin*
Everything does happen in November. I even made an icon about it...and I would show you, if my computer wasn't currently being a complete idiot.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-01 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 01:08 am (UTC)If I get some work done today, which is entirely possible, I may justgo over and look...
(I have to give myself some breaks, right?)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-02 07:55 am (UTC)Wow.
Date: 2004-05-30 05:03 am (UTC)Enjoy Wendy Rule and Augie March, you lucky...luckster.
Re: Wow.
Date: 2004-05-30 07:11 am (UTC)I did get into an argument with a Canadian once about who did "The War of 1812", Arrogant Worms or Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. Sad thing is, I was right.
It was a good show. Even though my ears are ringing because the guy who does sound at Melbourne Uni was engineering.