People. This is an announcement. If you have a cell phone, YOU MUST HAVE IT WITH YOU AND TURNED ON. That is what it’s there for. If you don’t have it on you, or it’s off, then its just a plastic brick in your pocket. Its useless. And you’re useless. For god’s sake, this is what you bought a cell phone for – so people could contact you whenever they need to. You didn’t buy it so you could call people whenever you wanted, you bought it so people can contact you when they need to. Do you think people see a cell phone and think “gee, now I can…
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Dean Wesley Smith: Current Object of My Ire
Let’s dish out some ire. I read this article by Dean Wesley Smith and cannot figure out whether he’s just one of those writing rogues whose method works for a smattering of people, or if there’s any value in it. Now let me preface this by saying I’m an unpublished author, so I could, and should be, considered full of shit. But then, so should everyone. The basic premise of this article is that there’s a big myth in the writing industry: rewriting makes something better. This isn’t true. Why? Because you can polish a giant turd as much as you want, but it remains a giant turd. Exsqueeze me?…
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And Now: AuthorQuest Submits an Open Letter to Seth MacFarlane
Dear Seth MacFarlane, When I watch Family Guy, I expect to watch Family Guy. Not Conway Twitty. Get it right. Sincerely,AuthorQuest
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Writing Ideas Drying Up
You know what scares me? That I haven’t had many good story ideas for a long time. By story ideas I mean short story concepts or ideas to put into the novel. I used to have post-it notes surrounding my desk, but that slowed down this summer and eventually stopped. I don’t know why. I don’t know where they come from – they’re flashes of inspiration that either happen spontaneously or from thinking about something else (“hey, that would be good to put into the novel”). They’ve dried up. I don’t know where they came from, so I don’t know how to bring them back. What’s changed recently – well,…
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New Feature: Video Game Memories
Well, the work on the White Mage story is going well. Sometimes I have trouble getting started because I feel intimidated by all these great writers and stories I read, and then start realizing my own work is shit and I’d be better off writing fan fiction. Then I kickstart myself and just start writing. It feels like putting on a blindfold, gritting my teeth, then tapping on the keys and hoping that the 1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters type something resembling prose. Since I’m trying to avoid too much writing advice, and I’m avoiding self-deprecation, since there’s only so much material I can get out of that, and I’m…
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Critters Bite
I’m getting quite a few critiques on Black Hole Son. The first chapter is in Critters right now, and I think it’s gotten even more buzz than either Blood 2 or Avatar. It’s Monday and I’ve gotten ten critiques. Three of those, though, were not so nice. One’s first line was that I’ve gotten quite a reputation on Critters, and that it’s not good. He then goes through a 4,090 word critique (of my 7,000 word piece) where he nitpicks every paragraph, every sentence, every word, was met with some harsh, and spiteful-just-for-the-sake-of-being-spiteful comment. I don’t know why, I’ve never critiqued anything of this guy’s as far as I can…
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Avatar’s Ending Sucks
It’s been about five days since when I was supposed to be reading Avatar and now, yet, I still haven’t done it yet. I’ve been too busy obsessing over the niggling details that I feel are keeping my story out of publication (damn that editor guy). Mostly the ending. From what I remember about my critiques, about half thought it was too “deus ex machina” and the other half didn’t say anything, so I’m tyring to think of something more significant, something more resonant. But everything I come up with still reeks of some third party coming in and fixing everything. I can’t figure out how to end it that…
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Things and Stuff
Oh not much to say today. My new thing is looking at random pages on video game Wikis. Right now, I’ve got Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, Zelda, and Mega Man. I just wish there were more pix and details, because I love trivia and I love video games. I have to write a complaint letter to my cable company (not really ‘have to’, but I gotta do something). I don’t anticipate it yielding a lot of results, but really, I’d like to know. What can you do to punish a bad company? Especially one that’s got a monopoly like a cable company does. All the alternatives are…