Looking at a blank page and trying to come up with a story is a pretty tough thing to do. Writers like blake can attest. So I thought I might fool around a little on the blog and start a couple of series that would be practice for a real attempt. I am cheating by using real well know characters form other works. But that is what they call fan fiction and these days this is big business. Eric Flint and SM Stirling both really encourage fan fiction and even print the best of the submissions.
So am going to give it a go. Starting with a Western. With the Sacketts. Wyatt Earp. Doc Holiday. Katie Elder. Lucas McCain. And maybe some other well know characters from the time. I guess you can call it creative writing of a sort.
We are just trying to do it through the back door.
So to speak.
20 comments:
So, tell me. As a writer, do you go back and read and reread what you've written? I write music, so it sort of goes without saying that I go back and play what I've written. Of course, a song that lasts 4 minutes is a far cry from reading a novel that takes 14 hours to read, but I'm curious if the writers and musicians follow roughly the same path.
Or, once you've put it down on paper, does that satisfy the urge? I know that I rarely go back and reread what I post on my blog, but I don't self-identify as a writer, so I don't think our approach to the written word is anything alike.
JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and others met together in a writers' group, comparing their projects. Tolkien hated the Narnia books and shut down when Lewis read them. Fascinating that writers of that caliber trusted and valued their peers' input. Writing on a bathroom wall used to intimidate me; I can't imagine inviting Tolkien to critique my work.
Be yourself in your own original voice. It's what you do best.
Troop,
I think this is an excellent use of a blog and I hope you continue it. I learned to do serial blog posts watching you. I was never really interested in being a "news related" blog and more about what interested me.
I haven't been around because I was studying for a retake of the patent bar exam which I failed for the second time this week. This puts a major crimp in career plans and I'm going to need some time off to figure out plan C. It seems that nothing I can do is real job.
Speaking of backing into it....a decision has been made and we are breaking up.
Work and I have been constant companions since we first met. I was only fourteen at the time, so you can imagine what others thought about such an inappropriate relationship, a relationship necessarily intimate. We stayed together through high school and then college where, thanks for my lust for work, I incurred no student loans. And many sleepless nights were spent tossing and turning with the lust for work's gifts.
We settled into an easy relationship after college, moved in together and shared a bed, even when others were there watching. Work took me away on airplanes in search of something in other cities, something more fulfilling that I found at home. The reward for loving work was to get more work, to see work grow harder, more difficult, impossible to satisfy.
I created my own version of work a few times, thinking I could make work behave better if I had full control. I did, but at a price.
Years passed and work brought me a kind of meth...an intense but short-lived high that had to be taken over and over and over at a higher and higher price. Like any other addiction, work eventually wore me out, caused me illness, to become neglectful of myself, to become a mess.
So a decision was reached: One month from today work is being kicked out of my life. Permanently.
I haven't named the next part. I'm calling it The Era Of Non-Work for the time being. It will dawn at 4:00:01 PM on June 14, 2013.
Life is an adventure. Off the cliff I go! Wheeeee!
Did Mamam wish you good health and recovery?
I didn't see her comment on you getting better?
Whassup with that?
What happened to that gal?
tits and thanks.
I don't know what I would do without Work Haz.
The relationships, the power, the believe in being wanted and needed and relied upon?
What the fuck would I do?
BUT, I am only 41. By the time I am 50 I will likely be saying fuck this crap.
Thank God for my parents and their nest egg valued at approximately 5.5 million in addition to 5 properties that can be rented out. As well my condo is paid for and is worth at least 800k.
tits.
Did Mamam wish you good health and recovery?
Nope! I didn't want to get anywhere close to that conjunctivitis. I had it once myself, and it was hell. The other picture posted (first one) was almost as bad as the stuff Titus stirs up in my imagination, so I stayed away from that as well.
But the wishes and hopes I held for a full recovery were real, as they are for El Pollo and M Haz, according the following:
Recovery: A return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength;
the action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost
I left for Columbus on Tuesday, had the water pump on my Trailblazer seize up on the highway around Howell, MI (should have kept Darcy's number handy as I was on my own with MrM in Connecticut!) and had to get a tow to the GM dealership and try to rustle up a rental. Hertz, Avis and Enterprise were completely out of everything in the Howell/Brighton area all afternoon, but one minute before closing time at 6pm, Enterprise drove up with a CARGO VAN they managed to find which I gratefully took and used to rattle through the farm lands of Ohio on to my destination. The whole day was definitely an experience. Fab in flyover land. I was treated well by the female tow driver and the GM Service rep, with a warranty replacement on the water pump (new in Jan). Some things in America may be busted, but courtesy, kindness and service still exist. When they turn up in unexpected places, I'm heartened.
Good luck on the writing, TY. Elmore has some You tube descriptions of how he works, usually by starting with a character that forms in his mind.
I agree that you have your own voice, but playing with other voices is one way to have fun without getting too serious. Doing so can also help break a lock or open new doors. Lots of the old master's exercised their skills by copying a style before settling on their own.
Congratulations on the transition, Michael. Somewhere in my late 20s I realized that I wrapped up my identity with my work. It took some doing, but I was able to finally separate the two. About that same time, I noticed how much I despised that question you get within two minutes of meeting someone, "So, what do you do?" What I do for money isn't who I am. First and foremost, I'm an asshole. Many job descriptions fit that mold.
Congrats to Trooper for getting on with his creative writing. You are really very good.... I bet you will be a big success we can all be groupie hangers on saying we knew you when you were one sick fuck. Wait. Should we say it that way?
Congrats to Haz. Welcome to my world. I decided to retire early. Dec 31, 2010 was my last day as a financial advisor. It was actually pretty wrenching because it wasn't just about ME, but all of my clients, some of whom had been with me for 150 to 20 years. I had to find a couple of referral sources for them. Send letters and make phone calls to all of my clients to explain (over and over) what was going to happen to me, to them, hold their hands and reassure them that they would be ok.
The first few months of not getting up, getting dressed for work and going to an office were very weird. FREE AT LAST!!!! I felt like I should be doing something else. Like playing hookey or staying home sick when not really sick. Fortunately, I LIKE being home and have lots of hobbies that I had put aside for work and now actually had time to take them up.
If you get bored or miss people, join some community groups, clubs. I volunteer at our local non profit library. We belong to a hot rod club. Road Gypsies and do many events with them. TRAVEL....even if it is just short hop weekends.
I did a few posts on my blog about retirement.. Here is one. You are gonna love not working.
Woah....not 150 years....I'm not QUITE that old. LOL.
DBQ - Thanks! My wife is also retiring (I still don't like the word because what we will do is not in that category) which makes it easier for us both.
Work is saying that they'll pay a retainer this summer if I'll return September-October to train a replacement, make the transition smooth for our primary client, and so forth. We'll see. there are BBQ contests in September I'd like to attend, and roads I want to ride in early autumn. We'll see.
My friends who have done this are telling me once I've tried "every day is Saturday" I'll never go back.
Bruce, Just keep pluggin'. No matter what you hit Joe Frazier w/ he just kept coming. It took my brother 4 tries to pass his driver's license test. He got so much shit from friends he needed a shitblower.
Michael, I assume you'll be doing some travelling?
That pistol is an anachronism - too modern to be used in a vintage western story. E. P. Raylan, however, that's his go-to side arm.
Mamam I don't mean to dwell but........no excuses Mary.
You can't catch anything on the keyboard and you really should of wished Troop well much earlier than today.
I believe an apology may be in order to Troop.
Again, my intent is not to rattle any feathers.
Just sayin.
and
tits and thanks.
by the by I have added tits and thanks to my ending. What do you all think-the thanks is said in a really not thankful way if you get me, similar to me saying, "thanks for asking".
tits and thanks
It's gettin warmer out her and biceps are being exposed and recognized and appreciated by me.
As a result, I am getting incredibly horny.
tits and thanks.
You can't catch anything on the keyboard...
Not true. I wouldn't touch your keyboard with gloves and a ten foot pole. Who knows what horrors might be lurking along with your dead and disappointed sperm?
Strewn seed seeps between Titus' keyboard characters, drying a most cruel and slow death.
Titus said...
It's gettin warmer out her and biceps are being exposed and recognized and appreciated by me.
You sound biceptual--in a meadian sense.
I live two blocks from Harvard Square but don't actually "hang' there.
Too my red state tourists and chinks.
Tonight were going to Rialto tonight though. Great food and lots of tits.
It's warm tonight so I imagine I will see many tits.
tits and thanks.
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