Watcha Writin'?

[Timsup2nothin]

I am once again working on the NMS photojournal referenced in my sig.

 

[Zkribbler]

Did you know there's a novel by Ursula K. LeGuin called The Word for World is Forest?

I have that one in my collection, but haven't read it.

Novelette, I believe. Not only have I heard of it, that's where I swiped my new title.

It was one of the first stories I read that got me interested in science fiction.

 

[Zkribbler]

I was awarded a Silver Honorable Mention for the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest 4th quarter (entries received between July and September). For the life of me, I can't remember what story I sent in.

 

[aelf]

Congrats!

I'm really trying to nail my story and have been spending some time on it and getting good critiques. I'm still fairly sure that I will get nothing when it's done and I submit it. Are there certain things that they look out for?

 

[Zkribbler]

Congrats!

I'm really trying to nail my story and have been spending some time on it and getting good critiques. I'm still fairly sure that I will get nothing when it's done and I submit it. Are there certain things that they look out for?

Not that I know of. I focus in a beginning that sucks the reader in, a world that's a bit unusual, and an ending with an emotional punch. But that's just me.

 

[Zkribbler]

I'm pondering returning to my Pizza Delivery Guy story.

Set in the near future, my kidnap victim's android and my main character have arrived in the desert resort town of Lake Los Angeles. The kidnapper and her victim will be arriving shortly. Expect gunfire.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Working on a couple of op-eds this month. @e350tb recently tied off the last in a series of Hallowe'en projects where he'd write a piece for each day in October. A semi-recurring feature was an off-the-cuff review of government leaders from various countries (which can be read here, here, here and here). Last year one of his fans had requested a review of Canadian prime ministers, and since this year came and went without a tap on the shoulder, I figured it was a good time to flex my Canuckbooism and write one up in depth.

That's on hold for now, though, as I work on a piece for November 11. Over on DeviantArt from 2014 to 2019 I ran a series charting the war's course in poetry; I posted my raw thoughts to OT a couple times, but I've never really laid out a circumspective summary before, and what with the President De-elect having been exposed as the ultimate chickenhawk, I feel it's a good time to try.

 

[Patine]

I'm pondering returning to my Pizza Delivery Guy story.

Set in the near future, my kidnap victim's android and my main character have arrived in the desert resort town of Lake Los Angeles. The kidnapper and her victim will be arriving shortly. Expect gunfire.

Sounds like the target audience was big in the '80's.

 

[Zkribbler]

I was awarded a Silver Honorable Mention . For the life of me, I can't remember what story I sent in.

My certificate arrived today. The story is Ali Baba and the 8th Ring of Alexander the Great.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

My certificate arrived today. The story is Ali Baba and the 8th Ring of Alexander the Great.

Congratulations!

 

[Kyriakos]

Some flash I wrote today:

Laestrygonians

Anyone who is fond of cerebral solutions will inevitably be very disappointed when the problem at hand is solved in the exact same way by all, regardless of their ability to think. If someone asks you how you can know about B, provided you know A, the question simply doesn’t lead to a solution. Still, a cerebral person often tries to avoid the sense that no amount of thought can demystify the object he was presented with. He’ll come to create some copious connection between A and B and then, on what to him is the way to a solution, be faced with an immovable monolith. For other people the problem ceases to exist, due to its irrational formulation: indeed, to solve this problem was to dismiss its formulation.

No one will clap for you because you had battles with Laestrygonians on your way to the kitchen table. And yet, if Laestrygonians start running towards you, you cannot but face them, forgetting about the original problem which – due to your own fault – caused them to appear. Enchanted and terrified by the sight of the two-meter tall human-eaters, you no longer have time to think how strange it is that everyone else passed without a battle from what appears to be the exact same spot.

 

[Zkribbler]

I was reviewing some of my old fan fiction stuff and came across a crossover in which I had placed The DaVinci Code in the Discworld. It was glorious. Curse you, copyright laws!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I was reviewing some of my old fan fiction stuff and came across a crossover in which I had placed The DaVinci Code in the Discworld. It was glorious. Curse you, copyright laws!

Yes, copyright gets in the way of good stuff. A friend over on another gaming forum suggested I apply to the game company that did King's Heir, as a writer (she really likes my take on the expanded storyline, and the developers missed a golden opportunity to do another installment that practically writes itself, since they introduced magic into the game in the final chapter... but their oversight is my future storyline).

But of course I can't just do that and tell them the reason is because I love one of their games so much that I'm writing fanfic... which they could get snarky enough about to issue a C&D.

Not that I actually would stop, of course, any more than I stopped when MZB's estate ordered everyone who owns and writes Darkover fanfic to destroy it and never write another syllable. They're not the keepers of my private notebooks or my fanzine collection, however, and while they could possibly order the fanfic sites to do a takedown, there are plenty of other ways to distribute this stuff. Even snail mail, as was done in the '60s-'90s.

Dunno if that's something I could do well, working in someone else's playground if it doesn't absolutely grab me and demand to be written about.

 

[Zkribbler]

I got a reminder from The Writers of the Future Contest of this quarter's 12-31-20 deadline and a reminder that I can resubmit a previously-submitted story. I was suddenly struck by the obvious. A "previously-submitted story" includes those which have already been awarded honorable mentions.
So I'm resubmitting "Bethlehem Delictim," my near-future, time-travel, detective, Xmas story.

I had hoped to submit something original, but like a herd of unruly cats, none of the dozen-or-so stories I'm working on would allow me to finish them.

 

[Zkribbler]

I'm resubmitting "Bethlehem Delictim," my near-future, time-travel, detective, Xmas story.

Done

 

[Zkribbler]

I wrote only 1/2 page during the entire month of January.

 

[Synobun]

And what a half page it was!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I wrote only 1/2 page during the entire month of January.

At least you wrote. Some days I manage a short sentence, other days a whole paragraph. At this rate I won't be in shape for NaNoWriMo in April when I do 15,000-20,000 words, let alone November.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

I'm always writing some new small computer program. It allows me to hide in the safety of correct syntax and do small adventures, for example putting break; on the same line as the if statement. That's bold stuff.

Making them small means that I can't do much wrong, they're close enough to being perfect that I can convince myself that they really are.

I focus in a beginning that sucks the reader in

How do you do that?

 

[Zkribbler]

How do you do that?

One of my touchstones for pulling the reader in.