Comments on: Chapters

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 20:24:23 +0000

Oh yeah, and read ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’ by Jorge Luis Borges.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 20:23:06 +0000

Just had to toss in my ‘I read the post and liked it’ comment. I think your last-night writing actually gave your idea its justice in full, as you projected yourself onto the old man and the old man in your head writing a word a day. So yeah, I read it and liked it.

By: Coco13

Coco13 — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 13:02:20 +0000

If you can only get one idea at a time, then I’m sorry but you’re doing something wrong. I can only think of one writer, the greatest short story writer of all time Theodore Sturgeon, that ran out of ideas. IF you’ve even read one of the volumes in his “complete” collection, considering how much better it is, just writing-wise, than the vast majority of words out there, you’ll be amazed that he only stopped once and only got stuck once.
Then there’s 9 more volumes of his work, I believe.
And really, considering how when he got completly dry Robert A. Heinlein gave him the idea for “And Now the News,” we’re all winners in the end.
Take a shower. A nice long, hot shower. Let your mind drift. I know you’ll get at least one idea.
I had two: A single mom meets and starts heavily dating a man, and her daughter knows she shouldn’t. Why? Does she know him?
Then one I’ve been toying with: Reincarnation is finally avilable for humans. Who do they pick first? Are there any limits on how they died, length of being dead?
Hell, we should both do the second one, I think.

Oh, and I didn’t underline this boldly enough: Read Theodore Sturgeon. You’ll be a better writer because of it.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 19 Sep 2003 04:12:12 +0000

I know. It’s small as fuck.

The problem with ideas is I find I’m only really capable of processing them one at a time. New ones don’t come until old ones get written down and developed.

I guess my hope last night with this article — and I say I guess because I wrote it when I was so half-asleep that I wasn’t sure I had even written it until I checked this morning — was that it would be the development of that idea. That once I hit Submit, it would be finished, and a new one would take it place.

I don’t know if it’s working yet.

By: Coco13

Coco13 — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 23:28:15 +0000

You’re right, that story would suck. Unless you focused it on his background, why he’s choosing those words, made it a psuedo-”Tuesdays with Morries” deal.
Also, you’re almost doing a “Citizen Kane”, but not letting anyone figure your Rosebud.
It’s not a stupid concept, it’s just with all gimmicks, you need to ask “What does this add to my story?” If it turns out that you can’t flush it out, forget it, move on.
Trust me, there’s been times where I thought I had a brilliant sketch, but when I put keyboard to USB slot I couldn’t write anything out because it was far to conceptual. Once the big joke was told, I couldn’t, wouldn’t force anything else into it because it would cheapen everything.
You want shitty concepts, try this one. A story about a man with what he believes as cereberal atrophy, getting stupider and stupider. But as he gets stupider, the writing gets less intellectual, from flowing sentences to fragments and typos. That’s a suck concept.

Just forget about this one, put it on the back shelf, maybe once you’ve written some other stories they could prod you into another direction.

I really hate how small this comment window is.