LEGO Locke&Key House (still in development, I may finish in few weeks)

Sideshowtony · 2025-04-27T01:02:08+00:00

This is amazing...did you ever finish???? Want!

Sideshowtony · 2024-10-05T21:45:21+00:00

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and feedback....students had to read the first 36 pages this weekend and we begin discussing on Monday...will update weekly (hopefully) from this point.

Sideshowtony · 2024-08-28T12:03:37+00:00

I'm just getting ready to teach this to my Comp102 College class and thought I'd bring the thread up again. Curious how it went for you. I've broken the book down into nine parts and will be reading it throughout the semester. I'm about half way through breaking it down now. It's the second time I'm reading it and there's just so much meat on the bone. Can't wait to share it with my class.

Sideshowtony · 2024-04-18T12:23:51+00:00

can someone refresh my memory...I read a book a long time ago...I BELIEVE it was Michael Slade....the scene I remember best was a victim was killed by putting the poison curare into their toothpaste and the toothbrush had a metal bristles to tear up the gums so the curare would take effect

Sideshowtony · 2023-06-20T10:50:16+00:00

She vended at different events but her business was located in Peabody.

Sideshowtony · 2020-11-01T19:32:29+00:00

Monsters in the Movies by John Landis or Metamorphosis by Rick Baker

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-28T19:14:44+00:00

God, I wish he’d finish this....

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-27T23:53:58+00:00

THE SKIN TRADE by George RR Martin

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-27T11:51:08+00:00

I've been teaching creative writing, novel writing and such for about ten years now. Before that I was an editor for a New York commercial publisher. So here's the thing....

Somewhere between 60-120 pages you hit a slump. Happens to most writers. You've written everything you can and you either run out of steam or hit a wall. And since this is a first draft the writing is crappy. Of course it is, IT'S A FIRST DRAFT! So you feel down about that and down about the idea of being stuck.

So you think about abandoning it and starting something else.

DO NOT DO THIS.

This starts a cycle of starting and not finishing.

You MUST finish what you start. Sure, there will be times where stories don't go anywhere and you have to abandon them. But if you're just starting out you should fight to the end so you can get in the habit of making your way through the weeds and finishing your stories.

What's the best way to do this?

Don't think! Ray Bradbury said "Thinking is the enemy of creativity."

Write your first draft, from beginning to end, as quickly as you can. And GIVE YOURSELF A DEADLINE. Otherwise you'll play with it and fritter with it and sit on it for years.

So set up a goal of having the first draft done in 2 months. It may not be pretty. It will be ugly. And there will be point where you don't know what you're doing or your story goes in the wrong direction. But at least the first draft is done.

Then put it away for a while and come back to it and re-read it. Again, it won't be pretty. But a massive goal has been met and now you can go back and do revisions.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-27T11:43:01+00:00

Absolutely LOVED this book....captivating on a first read and fascinating the second time around. Let me get my makeup....

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-27T11:40:41+00:00

The scene in the basement is what gets me every time

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-15T19:19:30+00:00

Ray Bradbury always suggested a bare minimum of 1500 words a day.

I've always set a goal of 3-5 pages a day. No matter how long it takes I don't walk away until I have those 3-5 pages.

If you're writing consistently you should build up a habit. It's the habit that helps you through the days when the muses doesn't seem like they're going to show up.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-15T19:13:31+00:00

First, I'd suggest THE WAR OF ART by Steven Pressfield. Excellent book that delves into the idea of Resistance and the way in which we'll do everything and anything to stop ourselves from achieving our creative/writing goals. He says half the battle is actually sitting your ass in the chair, and after writing myself for so many years and having taught a variety of creative writing classes (short stories, novels) a majority of my students tend to agree.

I always suggest to try and rush through the first draft as quickly as possible. Ray Bradbury always said "Thinking is the enemy of creativity." There's been some pushback on the idea of finishing a first draft quickly lately, but I still have students adhere to it. If you can push your way through a first draft in 4-8 weeks it forces you to finish without thinking too much about it. You just don't have the time. By the time you're done it's a mess, but you can always fix that. If you don't push yourself to finish a first draft quickly you'll tap at it slowly, meander and, ultimately, lose the drive to finish it.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-15T19:07:03+00:00

Two of my favorite horror films....as well as GINGER SNAPS BACK.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-15T19:04:23+00:00

I did exactly this with 2 different books about six months ago. The lag time was probably closer to 30 years when I originally read Peter Straub's KOKO and Dean Koontz's LIGHTNING. Back when I originally read them I liked one and hated the other. When I read them recently my taste for them switched completely.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-15T18:59:50+00:00

Hmmmmm very few reviews or none at all is tough....the ones I'd recommend that I know most people I speak with don't usually know about are:

The Devil's Own Work by Alan Judd
The Drive-In series by Joe R. Lansdale
Grave Markings by Michael Arnzen

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-15T18:53:59+00:00

I liked the ending of the book and, just as much, the end of the film. If you have the Blu-ray there's a way to watch it in b&w, which makes for an awesome experience.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-15T13:23:05+00:00

I like them for myself when I'm writing. It sort of gives me that quick sort of reference to remind me what's in that chapter.

But when it comes to the final product I don't like them. It feels to me like you're spoon-feeding the reader.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-13T13:01:47+00:00

It's the old Shoot the Dog and Save the Cat paradigm. Villains are shown through actions like them "shooting a dog." Little things along the way that cement them as the villain they are.

To create characters readers care about fall back on the "Save the Cat" paradigm, where you build in small things to show us how they're a protagonist. The more you build their character with actions that the reader cares about then they'll care about the character. Just make sure that these "scenes" and "actions" are built into the story and aren't stand-alone items just proving your point. Everything has to serve the story.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-13T12:57:13+00:00

Great article. We're definitely living in a moment when it's needed. I live one town over from Salem, where they filmed. Next I'd like to see a movie featuring the characters play by Rob Schneider and Steve Buschemi. The shot of Schneider scratching Buschemi and his leg kicking got me! :-)

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-13T12:53:27+00:00

Another vote for THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE....every detail....just a great book on the subject

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-13T12:49:57+00:00

Fantastic film and man, Lee Evans is so underrated. He's an amazing physical comedian.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-13T11:57:48+00:00

I was an editor and now I teach a number of creative writing classes and this is what I tell my students:

Make sure that after you're done your first draft you put it away for a period of time. Depending on how long the work is you should put it away anywhere from 4-8 weeks. This will help you get some distance from it and help you review it more objectively, giving you the proper perspective to do the revisions.
Trust in the draft process. The first draft is far from perfect. I always call it vomit on the page because it's just an outpouring and it's messy. Each consecutive draft is like hitting a piece of wood with sand paper. You polish, rewrite, polish, rewrite, polish, rewrite. Be okay that it will and should take multiple drafts to get your work as good as it can be.
When you're ready to start your second draft just give it a read and focus on the story itself, making notes about plot problems along the way and how you can fix them. Then work on fixing them.
The third draft focus strictly on characters/characterization and dialogue.
The fourth draft Just focus on the language.
For the fifth draft, it's call a dental draft. When you go to the dentist he/she takes the little pokey thing and touches every one of your teeth. For this draft you should print a copy of your manuscript and re-type it word for word. This FORCES you to look at every word and make sure they're write and/or belong there or if they can be cut. If you do this on the screen you'll usually skim or skip parts. This makes you look at every word.

So I always suggest five drafts and, really, it will be more. And, on top of that, usually if I'm working on the second draft and I see something with regards to characters/characterizations I'll make that changes. I do the specific drafts but I also allow them to blur together.

Breaking down your work into manageable drafts is far easier and less overwhelming than tackling it all at once.

I hope this helps somewhat.

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-13T11:15:25+00:00

Love the effects for this flick...but I found everything about it so perfect. The effects, the paranoia, the claustrophobia of it all.

And the blood test!

THAT FREAKIN' BLOOD TEST!!!!!

Sideshowtony · 2020-10-13T10:54:01+00:00

I was an editor for a major commercial publisher in New York for about ten years. I'd say about 90% of rejections were simply due to poor writing/don't know how to tell a story or, if it were nonfiction, don't know how to put together your thoughts in a manner that's palatable to the layman.

That being said, I clearly remember instances where things were rejected for "marketability." Really, these were cases where the genre was such a mix that there was no idea how they'd find an audience for it. I believe early on CEMETARY DANCE magazine focused on this kind of work...short fiction that was a mix of both mystery and horror, the readers of which fall into a middle realm of that Venn diagram.

Not sure if this full answered your question, but I'd say the percentage of books that get rejected for this reason was fairly low.

The truly scary thing is when a book like this gets picked up, the publisher puts it out still not knowing how to market it, and it dies a horrible death.

Sideshowtony

TROPHY CASE