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Post by Stacy on Aug 14, 2010 1:55:28 GMT -5
Yeah, so that inspiration - putting in a whole scene just for it slows down the narrative way way too much.
Maybe? I don't know. It works so well with the conversation, though - but that can be changed.
Or maybe I can just skip it but refer back to it? Like put in a section break and then do a recall? We'll see.
Also, I'm kind of afraid that Seth is too flirty and witty, but well - I did set that up in 10.04 already, with the aliens and bears and roundhouse kicks conversation. And I think that really he is like that, at this point in his life and when he's around Caitlyn.
He's not Valley Seth. The point of this story is to turn him into Valley Seth. Right now he has the seeds of Valley Seth in him, but he also has the seeds of intelligent sane great scientist Seth in him, the seeds of the Seth that might have been. There is the Seth that is alone in the whiteness of the bathroom, the Seth that beat up Steven, the Seth that won't talk to his mother and slams his bedroom door, the Seth that picked the lemon balm flower and destroyed it.
There is also the Seth that flirts with Caitlyn.
And 10 is the story of which Seth wins.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 15, 2010 12:03:37 GMT -5
The video is actually somewhat more important than the song, although the song does have a nice vibe.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 18, 2010 19:54:46 GMT -5
Okay, so, if I am going to conquer the full text web lit world... After WeSeWriMo, I need: A new website with a better prettier more unique design and capabilities for things like a button so readers can vote for 10 on topwebfiction pretty pretty pictures to go on the website (be on the lookout for scenic pic opportunities while at work - speaking of which, check out the album of work pics you already have) Download a movie editor, learn how to use it, make a trailer for 10. I cannot draw at all. I started with Sims. Sims machinima is very legal and acceptable. BUT it may drive away some more mainstream readers. Although maybe not, if I make it clear it's just for the teaser pics and video? So - if decide to go with Sims pictures and video, create teen Caitlyn and dress teen Seth up real nice. The Antithesis is currently at the top of topwebfiction, by quite a few votes. This is our goal. This is who we have to beat. Look at their stats counter. This should be like Seth stealing candy from a toddler. OMG look at the elitism and snobbery in this post! Blooker Prize stuffObjective - Find this Ed dude. Make Seth corporeal. Introduce them. I have a horrible headache. Yes, I've already taken medicine. Off to see if I can get at least just one freaking paragraph of 10.06 out tonight. My mother called and went on and on about stuff and I heard something about visiting and staying later than usual on Saturday - not sure if this Saturday or next. Anyway, need to start 10.06 earlier than I did 10.05. Gotta have a fair bit of content up before I can launch Operation Win at Web Fiction.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 19, 2010 19:41:42 GMT -5
Yes, I am about to get started on 10.06. But I've been looking around sites about "creative professionals" and "advice for entrepreneurs". And also reading an article about women and creativity. Creativity in WomenI got lucky. Like actually last weekend I said I wanted to go out to dinner and a movie on Sunday because I'd made John and Grace stay home on Friday and Saturday so I could work on 10.05. John said "It's okay, we know how important it is to you." I also got lucky with how I was raised - my mother may have had a temper at times, but she also didn't raise no submissive insecure little girl. I never got the message that I was supposed to be quiet and put the needs of others above my own and be all submissive and get married and have kids and stuff. I mean, yeah, I am married, but that was purely a personal choice because we're both naturally monogamous and there are economic and legal advantages to being officially married. We got married in a drive-thru chapel in Pigeon Forge and I didn't change my last name and we don't wear rings. Actually, for a female who lost her father at an early age and grew up living alone with her mother - I have very little idea of how to be female. I have no clue when it comes to clothes and hair and makeup and stuff. But neither does my mother - she mostly buys her clothes from the men's part of the store because their stuff is more comfortable and better made. We have a lot in common really. But apparently, beneath all that gender ignorance, I am still biologically female. And I've been wondering if maybe that's the cause in the conflict between my goals and what I'm finding on more mainstream traditional writing sites. It seems a sort of, well - male - system. With all the focus on status and individual success and cold cash being the measure of whether or not you're a good writer. I realized the other day that I write for readers. I write as a gift to my online community, the way my father and uncles and great uncles and grand great uncles played their music for barn raisings and dances and other community events. Which yeah, I have kind of wondered what my grandmother and aunts were doing - I know from my grandmother's stories that they were dancing at those parties, at least. So anyway - I think I am going to end up taking Operation Win at Web Fiction very seriously. SB - you can call me a serious writer now. But my aim is not financial success. My aim is to show how fiction can be a community event, how it can be a gift shared among friends, how it can deepen relationships. It doesn't have to be a writer toiling alone and then sending the manuscript off to a publisher and then the final product maybe reaching a few readers and entertaining them for a few hours. It can be...it can be what we have here. It can be a community. It can be open, with no barriers between the author and her readers. It can live, just as much as the music of my kinfolk. And I'm bringing the serial back, darn it! Dickens wrote serials. Why can't we? Plus I have noticed - people get more involved in serial stories. When the lives of the characters are gradually revealed as opposed to being shown to you all in one go in a completed novel, I think a lot of people get more attached. Perhaps that's one reason why books don't really have the fandoms that TV shows have. So. Yeah. But let's not get ahead of ourselves - we need a quality story with which to revolutionize fiction. *opens a new chapter in LSB*
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Post by Stacy on Aug 20, 2010 22:54:18 GMT -5
Kick them right in the face!!!
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Post by Stacy on Aug 22, 2010 13:08:34 GMT -5
Operation Win at Web Fiction has begun. SheWrites profileAlready had a friend request from a published and award winning author and a professional editor (her profile says she edits for small presses - and apparently she was on a panel at ComicCon) has called 10 "beautifully written and intriguing". Cooling off for a bit because I've been rather active on there ever since my membership got approved (which they're pretty open and I think most people who aren't spambots get approved) and I don't want to be all overwhelming. So I'm going to ingest a few more calories to help power the brain and knock out 10.06. Got 279 words so far. Darn good words too if I say so myself. Had to delay the deadline for a day because my mother came yesterday and stayed until 30 minutes after midnight. We had loads of fun though, and I remembered how she really is a good person and passed some good traits down to me as well.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 23, 2010 9:38:03 GMT -5
So with my mother coming Saturday and dinner taking a while yesterday because both Google and the Five Guys site lied to us and said there was a restaurant where actually there wasn't, plus my own tendency to procrastinate, I didn't finish yesterday. I do, however, have 718 darn good words now. I will hopefully finish the final scene tonight and hit the publish button. I had wild and crazy ideas of finishing it during lunch, but yeah - it's going to take a few hours. Lots of research, lots of detail.
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Post by dbloveshermac on Aug 24, 2010 15:55:48 GMT -5
I bet at least one woman in the grandmotherandaunts group was using her creativity in another community-pleasing way in the kitchen, making beautiful cakes or unusual yet tasty flavor combinations...
I think women in the southern U.S. Have a history of creativity: look at the Gee's Bend quilts! /interruption of your babble
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Post by Stacy on Aug 24, 2010 21:32:38 GMT -5
I bet at least one woman in the grandmotherandaunts group was using her creativity in another community-pleasing way in the kitchen, making beautiful cakes or unusual yet tasty flavor combinations... I think women in the southern U.S. Have a history of creativity: look at the Gee's Bend quilts! /interruption of your babble Oh wow, good point - my grandmother did make quilts! Thank you! Yay, you rock!
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Post by Stacy on Aug 24, 2010 21:47:54 GMT -5
Who am I writing for?
I don't know.
There was a time once, many moons ago, when I'd publish an update and hit over 1000 views.
I published an update today. I'm staying steady at 132 views. 33 of which were people reading the update.
So I ask. Who am I writing for? Why am I writing? Who am I sweating and bleeding and going down into the depths of Seth's mind for?
Don't get me wrong. I love you guys. But I need more readers who aren't personal friends.
OMFG why won't they approve 10 at WFG? I know there's a backlog 'cause website problems. And hey, look at it this way - I'm building content so there's more for them to base reviews on when they do get around to it. I was only up to 10.03 when I submitted it (so yeah, that 'we try to get to most submissions within a week' is LIE CAKE!)
Valley didn't start out with 1000 hits on update days. I'm only six chapters in. And it's full text, which is kind of a handicap in this community.
It's NOT a quality issue. 10 is actually better than Valley.
Which I appear to have gotten over Valley and fully embraced my new love - I get offended now when I see people looking at Valley instead of 10, lol.
Okay, self - it's not a quality issue. You are not a horrible writer and a horrible person and just all around horrible, although I am sure that entitled whining is not helping.
Be patient. Keep writing. And figure out a way to pimp 10 to people who will read full text.
Keep being active on SheWrites. Post more blog posts. Send an essay to the moderator of the why you write/process group.
It takes time. You know that. You didn't just strut into the Sims community and hit an instant homerun. It took five years to get to Valley.
Don't give up! DO NOT GIVE UP!!! Listen to Eminem all freaking day tomorrow at work if you have to!!! BTW, self, you really should have added Airplanes II to The Hardcore Experience list.
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Post by rad on Aug 25, 2010 8:26:37 GMT -5
Stacy
Step away from the stats page.
Also: of all my blogs, you know which one gets the most hits each day? The Kyoti Legacy, which finished last autumn. I don't really know why, but I only advertised that one and The Lazarus Dispatches (which also gets a truckload of hits) on the EAxis boards so maybe it could be that. It could be because it's finished - it seems to get more hits now than when I updated it regularly - and this might also be true for Valley still getting hits.
TBH it doesn't matter to me, it pleases me that anyone reads my stuff. I don't really write for hundreds of anons anyway, I write for me and the 30 or 40 people that comment either regularly or occasionally on my stuff. If the anons like it, great, but I'm not sweating about them.
Besides, Stacy, 100 hits a day may not be 400 hits a day but it is still very good. Tell yourself that. It is VERY GOOD. That doesn't mean nobody is reading it, it means many people are. I bet the majority of webfiction writers would kill for 100 readers a day.
I love fiction and 10 is still the first full-text online fiction I've ever read. Stats are not a comment on your quality, just a) the medium isn't what people are used to and b) many people won't know about it yet.
Also, as an aside, the way 10 is shaping up, your Valley novel will be awesome - but I wonder if 10 will become a novel, too (or part of the Valley one) in which case, keeping it a wee bit quiet might not be a bad thing in terms of the whole 'fiction that's already been published' debate.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 25, 2010 18:47:39 GMT -5
I will be writing a response soon - gotta reply to Rachel and Tesseracta's comments on 10.06 first. But here's the song I've got on repeat one while thinking about this and writing a reply.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 25, 2010 22:32:52 GMT -5
I have to admit - I tried to step away from the stats page. And then I sort of took my Blackberry out to dinner with me so I could hit refresh. So err - it's gonna be hard. Oh, Valley does not even get as many hits now as when I was updating it. And yeah - advertising on the official forum does bring in a fair bit of traffic. And I'm glad I advertised Valley on there - that's where the reader whose daughter read it with all of her friends at her Halloween party found it. Do you get hits from any threads on there that you don't have the permission to see? I do sometimes. And it's not 100 unique hits - it's 100 pageviews. And yeah - I love our little group, those 30-40 people that you mention. And I do write for them. But I write for the anons too - well, okay. When I was writing the above sentences I felt really extremely strongly that I write for me. But it's just that part of writing for me...I mean, I know sometimes I'm all "Screw the man! I don't need no corporate gatekeepers! Art is free, dude!" But if I'm honest - and I'm trying to be as honest and real as I can be in this post - I mean, okay, like I said - on SheWrites someone who does professional editing for small publishing companies complimented 10. I copied and pasted one of my recent LJ entries into my blog there, and it was chosen as one of the five editors' picks for the week. A lot of the posters on SheWrites are professional writers. And I can hang with them. They like my stuff. They say it's beautiful. Years before Eminem, I listened to country. 104.1 WTQR, baby! You could pick that station up in Mount Airy if all you had was an antenna and a piece of gum. So yeah - up until middle school and hearing the Fish Sandwiches play Green Day's When I Come Around at the talent show, I listened to country. And this song has always made me cry. From back when I was a little kid to now - I sing along with all my heart and cry my freaking guts out. I'm crying now, yeah. Do remember that I grew up working class, like the dude in the song. "Somehow knew he was born to play". Haha, John just looked over all worried. I said "It's happy tears, don't worry." I want Daddy to be proud of me. Haha - maybe that's why a surprisingly large amount of winners of the Nobel prize for literature lost their father in early childhood. I just - I don't know if I can explain this, but when I think about writing, when I think about what it means to me - I cry and sob from deep in my gut. And it doesn't mean just writing and then hiding the product away in a drawer or sharing it with a group of internet friends. The writing itself - sitting here and doing research and typing and rereading and editing and the whole thing - it's like...if I was religious I'd say it's like seeing the face of God. It's just...pure ecstasy. But then there's what comes after that, and ever since I was little - and I mean, from before I can even remember - my mother still talks about a story I wrote in first grade and how my first grade teacher was the first of many teachers to say I should be a writer - I have wanted to share the product of that ecstasy. With a lot of people. A LOT of people. When I was in 8th grade, we had to write an essay on our idea of beauty. Of course, I said that everything was beautiful. And when I read that essay out loud in class - I got a standing ovation. Having an audience, getting appreciation from that audience - that is a part of what it means to me to write for myself. Writing is a bit different from music, but yeah - I want to sell out arenas with big-ass stages. I have wanted to since I was six years old. So. I guess we have our answer. I'm writing a book and getting it traditionally published within the next five years. I am. Like I said when I was eight years old - I am going to be a true story writer. As for 10 - John's asked me if it's going to be part of Valley the novel. I was like "Nope - but you know how publishers like to know that you've got a second novel in the works? I can say 'Hey, I've got this prequel.'"
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Post by thelunarfox on Aug 26, 2010 0:01:38 GMT -5
I think you've managed to make an argument (which I will admit is convincing sounding) of what writing for yourself means, but it still isn't writing for yourself.
It sounds like you're writing for validation, like you aren't somebody unless someone is impressed by your work, and there's a danger to that. I'm very positive that you have the power to change things, but I also worry at what cost it may come. Attention is just like a drug, and it's possible to get addicted and to need it until you can't write unless you know someone will be impressed.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 27, 2010 10:13:22 GMT -5
I'll reply later - gotta go back to work in a few minutes and plus write 10.07 at some point. But I just wanted to add - I'm sitting here listening to Airplanes II over and over still, and thinking specifically about Eminem's part. I worked at Arby's for four years. I could not write, not with that schedule and that stress and being stuck in that hell (the last bit I was a manager, and whee that was fun - working 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. and then 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. the next day) and that was the worst time in my life. Ever. I still have the scars - I got through my shifts with the help of the box cutter blades. I used to say that if I was still there when I turned 30, I'd stick my head on the slicer. I had to pass a graveyard every day on the way to work, and I'd be so freaking jealous of the people in it. They didn't have to go to hell. They didn't have to spend their time locked in drive-thru, dealing with people who were prejudiced against them and assumed they were stupid. They didn't have to work insane hours. They didn't have to wash gross dishes. I wanted to be like them. I wanted to die. John worked third shift at the time and I never saw him. I traded shifts with another manager on one of his nights off so we could spend some time together. The store manager called and made me come in. I slammed around in the closet, putting on that stinking awful uniform and crying and screaming, and John told me I could quit, that it wasn't worth that. Later on he said he was scared I was close to a psychotic break. I started my first Sims story the summer after I quit. And then I got my current job and I slacked off on writing. I still felt like I didn't have time, like there was no way I could work full-time and write too. I remember once I was crying about it and John said "If it was really important to you, you'd find time." Yeah. That did not help at the time, lol. But eventually I settled into my current job, with its freedom and time to think and regular schedule and every weekend off. Arby's slowly faded and the memories lost their sting and I found the time. I made it through the stage of paper-thin excuses. It became important enough to me. So yeah. Oh, I also wanted to share a conversation I had with John last night. He assured me that wanting to be a literary rock star did not make me a bad person. And then later I was talking about how you guys are all zen about your stats pages and comments and all, and he was like "I'm doing math in my head and Stacy does not equal zen." I said "Yeah? What does Stacy equal?" and he answered "Hardcore" and I said "I'm hardcore, bitches!" and he laughed a lot. Because yeah - I'm basically Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls, complete with high girly voice. Which, omg - the episode in which she does go all hardcore, Bubblevicious, is like the story of my life. I don't do casual. In anything - not WoW, not Sims stories, not writing, not reading, not anything. Anyway - really gotta get to work now. Will reply later. AND - omg, lunar, I think we have the same brain.
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Post by thelunarfox on Aug 27, 2010 10:37:42 GMT -5
lol, it's okay, you don't have to reply. You're not a bad person at all. I really do think you have the power to change things, so I hesitated to say anything and semi-regretted I had at all. Because you're going to do things your own way, and that's how you're going to get things done. So long as you realize that you don't suck, and you give yourself a smack when those thoughts creep up. Like I told Nicole, sometimes we go through those phases were we aren't happy, and then we look for any sign that we're right. Don't let yourself do that to yourself. Also, I can only claim I'm zen about the stats page because I just don't advertise anywhere but here. That way I can't be disappointed if no one reads because no one knows.
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Post by rad on Aug 27, 2010 10:58:06 GMT -5
I don't know if this will encourage or depress you, but you do realise that you probably have more readers of your online stuff than most writers get for their published novels, don't you? Even Booker Prize winners (the biggest literary prize in the UK) can end up selling just a few thousand copies of their work.
Funny you talk about being working class and that as a means for your having dreams - I guess that illustrates the differences between the US and UK. I am from a working class background too and in Britain that generally means the opposite to aiming high; it means accepting your place very often, sometimes being cynical about 'the man', and most likely slightly despising/mistrusting those above you. There is no 'British dream' like the 'American Dream' (unless you count the dream it'll be sunny for a couple of days a year).
Being British working class (and I have only ever lived in places that used to be based on an industry that is now in decline - pretty much all of Northern England is like this) means we are pretty good at expectation management - we don't, as a people, tend to dream too big, and we don't tend to expect too much - but then of course we can also be rather cynical and world-weary so that's not so great.
Anyway, apart from that tangent, what I wanted to say was that there's nothing wrong with dreaming and nothing wrong with wanting to be liked and wanting others to like your work - but whether they do or not shouldn't stop you writing. If writing is for you then it should be what you do whether or not you have an audience (but of course having an audience is lovely).
It's always nice to hear you're a good writer (and you are) or that your story is good (which it is) but don't depend on huge numbers to give you the impetus to write - even if you get published one day you may not get the numbers you seek - but those who do read your work and get it will love it, as we do.
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Post by sb on Aug 27, 2010 13:59:39 GMT -5
You can't depend on the numbers for validation. You just can't. I follow work that gets maybe 3 comments per update and it's good, it's very good. Hang on...got to kill a spider...too late, oh well.
Your work is really good. It's hard to reach an audience on the net but you know, you really do know, that what you're creating is just incredible. You do know it.
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Post by dbloveshermac on Aug 28, 2010 20:25:39 GMT -5
It is NEVER too late to kill a spider. Kill them all. Whenever you can.
Sorry, that was necessary. Um, where were we? Oh, yes. Stacy, you rock. You rock for your determination, your imagination, and your wordcraft. And a whole lot more. You know what stats measure? Clicks. They don't measure the reaction of the reader. Was it intense? Was it gutteral? Do they still think about your story every time they see a flashlight or a fireplace or a creepy old abandoned plant? There are no stats to measure that.
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Post by Stacy on Aug 30, 2010 9:49:54 GMT -5
I admit I'm a little scared to read the replies, but I will. Promise on Seth. Actually - maybe this is the thing keeping me from working on 10.07. Because I was going to come here and say something about energy bars and how I needed to spend mine on 10.07 and would come back and reply when it filled up again, but yeah - I think this is what I need to process. This is the block I need to clear. I have like 12 minutes before I have to go back to work though. And I really would like to get 10.07 out by tomorrow at the latest. So err - how about this? I read the replies when I get home, write 10.07, and reply as I can during the week. It's a good idea, but I imagine it'll go something like this - read the replies, spend all night tonight replying to them, get 10.07 out much later than I wanted but go into it with a clear head.
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