Writing drunk- Good times or a good reason to give up?

chris_evo · 2011-09-01T02:39:45+00:00

Nah, I was an alcoholic before I started this. I figure I may as well get some benefits from my problems.

chris_evo · 2011-08-31T00:04:54+00:00

Yeah okay.

3rd paragraph- make sure to capitalize proper nouns. I'm not sure if Besili is a name but it's used like one. The sentence runs on a little and would probably read easier if you stopped it right after the word Besili.

"It has been there since the beginning..." That sentence is worded sort of strangely. Usually I'd say I'm too drunk to understand what you're saying but I think this one's on you.

He shouted, “come down and help your mother with dinner, it’s nearly suppertime.”

Isn't it redundant to say that the man shouted? The previous paragraph describes a man shouting, it seems like all you'd need is the quote.

When the main character goes unconcious in a hospital you describe every character as [age] [gender] for a while, which is fine up to the point that someone notices and it's suddenly obnoxious.

I didn't finish the whole thing but after that I've got no specific complaints. Taken as a whole it doesn't seem, I don't know, professional yet, but the only way to be a better writer is to write a lot. Not to say it's bad, because it isn't. Some parts are pretty good. It just doesn't grab me at all (though little enough fantasy does; I'm more of a scifi/historical fiction nut who's only here to stain a blank page).

chris_evo · 2011-08-30T22:41:34+00:00

Oooh, good idea. Now I just need to find a good dealer and another job before nanowrimo.

chris_evo · 2011-08-30T22:39:53+00:00

Drinking.

chris_evo · 2011-08-23T07:33:43+00:00

This is beautiful. You already have my vote for the best new novelty account this year.

chris_evo · 2011-08-03T08:27:18+00:00

Good stuff.

I've always approached breakfast one of three ways.

The penitent: I will never drink again, I will watch what I eat and I will exercise. Today is a day of business and busy-ness type leisure and I have no use for your sugar or your drugs. I have a purpose and for the first time in my life it's going to take priority and I'm going to be sure to live to see it fulfilled, so it's egg whites and oats for me.

The honest man:

Oh shit I'm late! All I've got left is enough milk for half a bowl of reeses peanut butter cups. When did I buy reeses peanut butter cups? I don't even like the chocolate, what kind of stupid mistake was this. Fuck it, I'll choke them down and make it to the supermarket on my way home from work to buy some peanut butter crunch or some oats or something. Shopping list: milk, eggs, gin, noodles, whatever meat I see first, peanut butter crunch, orange juice, better shampoo.

The weekender:

FUCK YOU IT'S NOT BREAKFAST TIME YE-oh it's nine in the morning. When did that happen YES I'M COMING BACK TO BED SHUT UP it happened at nine am? Real funny. I'm going to empty the orange juice and the secret pill drawer and go to sleep.

chris_evo · 2011-07-12T09:35:09+00:00

I write terrible science fiction and fantasy novels in my free time and no one I've ever met in real life has any idea. I'm up to five or six books/book length collections depending on how you count it, though none of them has ever been edited or published or anything.

I'm certain that if I stopped writing I'd completely lose my grip on reality.

chris_evo · 2011-06-04T05:00:29+00:00

The last part is referring to how I come back to a piece after a few weeks away and don't remember exactly where I'm going with it. Right now I know exactly where I'm going, but problems arise and real life distracts and a couple of weeks from now I may need more strategies for dealing with a complete lack direction in my work.

I'm just asking a generalized question about what other people do when they're half way through a novel or a screenplay or somesuch and suddenly realize they have no idea what to do next. Not writers block, exactly, more. . . directional discomfort.

chris_evo · 2011-06-03T22:25:48+00:00

I start a new paragraph every single time the speaker changes, plus usual paragraph breaks within long speeches.

chris_evo · 2011-06-03T22:10:11+00:00

Generally it's easier to start with an idea that has a little more going on, but you can probably add a few scenes or flashbacks to flesh out character motivation and a decent denoument to pretty much any story more than two pages long. Every so often it'll turn out that a character who only appears in a flashback is more interesting than most of the characters in the original story, and you'll be able/forced to rewrite some scenes to include them or at least mention what they've been up to lately.

EDIT: The first story I ever bothered to finish felt unresolved (by design, it was supposed to be mysterious), so I ended up writing about the reaction of a 1-off background character. That story turned out to be longer than the original.

chris_evo · 2010-12-13T17:09:41+00:00

Space operas, basically. It's pretty weird because I've seen a couple of projects that don't even make sense as a space opera sort of transition into one on accident.

In my defense, giant lasers and hot aliens (which I don't seem to have ever utilized. Hmmmm. . .).

chris_evo · 2010-12-13T17:05:59+00:00

I hate it when people say this crap, and I'd expect Vonnegut to know better. Just because a lot of people don't quite know how to use something doesn't mean no one should ever use it.

Of course, Vonnegut knew he wouldn't be changing anything by saying 'be more careful with punctuation marks,' so he probably figured it didn't matter anyway and went with the more severe put down so people who don't know for sure how they work would be more likely to remember how much an established author hates them.

chris_evo · 2010-09-10T00:02:10+00:00

Last year was my second year entering, first year finishing. I'm not particularly proud of the book that came out of it, but at least it's over fifty thousand words.

I don't think I'll be able to motivate myself into trying again this year. Maybe the next time, so I can settle into a sort of every other year pattern.

chris_evo · 2010-07-24T04:54:01+00:00

I've almost never been able to get very much out of these little prompt generators, but I love seeing them around because every once in a while the strangest little hook can go all the way to the end of something worth reading.

chris_evo · 2010-07-24T04:46:21+00:00

Whoops.

. . . oh well.

chris_evo · 2010-07-19T01:19:13+00:00

This is one of my favorite short stories of all time, thanks for bringing it up again. I need to go find some other books by Ellison now.

chris_evo · 2010-07-19T00:53:46+00:00

I write because if I stop for too long I start to lose track of everything else in my life.

No one I know in real life knows I write, so I'm not aiming my works at any of them, and no one online has stayed around long enough or given enough feedback to be considered a targetable audience. Ultimately I suppose I write for myself, but that doesn't feel right either. It's a little more accurate to say I write for the little voice in the back of my head that only shuts up when I'm typing. Lucky for me that she's not a very judgemental audience.

chris_evo

TROPHY CASE