Author Topic: Writers' Round Table  (Read 8422 times)

EUOL

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Writers' Round Table
« on: March 19, 2004, 04:27:13 PM »
I figured this goes here, rather than in books, since this seems more like the appropriate place for a thread dedicated to the writing process.  So, post gripes about writing, problems with writer's block, questions about style--or, if you feel like it, personal victories.

So I'll start.  Woot!  30 pages so far today, and it's only 1:30!
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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2004, 04:40:14 PM »
So I've been filled with a benevolent amount of writers block for the past week or two. Everything I wrote just sucked royally. I tried writing my workshop story, but that ended up failing the first time.

But last night I finished my story, after about 7 hours of going back and forth, between this and that, and distracting myself, I finished it.
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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2004, 05:15:08 PM »
I've had terrible writer's block for about 2 months now. I've written about 1500-2000 words in that time. I see EUOL's done 30 PAGES today (what's that, like 7500 words?) and I"m thinkingn "HOLY FRICK!" Of course, while he DOES have a job, he's not at the office and commuting for over 10 hours of each day, but still. I was doing that during November and I got over 50k words that month. I need to get out of this rut.

I have hope though, if only a slight hope. Yesterday I wrote a good 1000 words. THere's only two problems. 1) it has nothing to do with any project I even had on the back burners, though ideas for using it are coming to me.
And 2) it's well... I don't know how to say this without being blunt or ashamed, so I'll just embarress myself. It's nearly pornographic. Definitely not something Id want my children to read even when they grow up. If it was in a movie, I'd leave the theater. Why did I DO that?

SO on the one hand, maybe I am writing again. But what I've written has to be re-done to be usable. I feel like such a dork.

EUOL

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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2004, 09:07:13 PM »
As a matter of amusement, one of my friends is in a class where the teacher (female) made a huge point about the difference between something being 'erotic' and something being 'pornographic.'  She said the first was okay, and the second was bad.

Kinda wish I'd been there to see that--especially at BYU.
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stacer

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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2004, 12:20:11 AM »
So here's my dilemma (other than a year-long writer's block, but that will be solved if I just sit my butt down and start writing now that I have all this extra time)--

I need character naming resources. Baby books are no good, since I'm working with a Scottish folk tale. I just found an SCA site that has some interesting information, and I might just pull a few names from their lists and use them till I can find better ones, but it just seems like my characters aren't real until they have names that fit them. Any ideas?
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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2004, 12:49:32 AM »
I don't know if this is anything different from what you've been useing Stacer, but when I need a name I sometimes use a baby namer at MSN.com.  you can choose things like what culture is the origin of the name and some other things.

http://family.msn.com/tool/tools.aspx?name=namer&dept=baby&sdept=bpc
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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2004, 12:56:10 AM »
I'll check it out. I've actually been having a bit of success in the last few minutes with this SCA site (Society for Creative Anachronism, if you didn't know, which I'm sure you did, seeing as how most of you know tons more about this sort of thing). I've got the coolest name for my prince: Feradach. Isn't that just unique and weird enough? And for short I'll call him Dach. (pronounced the way the ch in German would sound)

Okay, maybe not very noble. I might have to rethink it tomorrow when I'm not so tired. But the story is coming along a little better.

Now, another question for you, EUOL: when you say 30 pages, do you mean double spaced or single? Because if you mean double, that means I just got 2 pages in the last hour, which is saying something since I haven't written something new in a year!
« Last Edit: March 20, 2004, 12:56:53 AM by norroway »
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stacer

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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #7 on: March 20, 2004, 12:57:54 AM »
And if anyone else has a need for medieval Scottish names, there are a number of resources here:

http://www.medievalscotland.org/scotnames/
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EUOL

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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2004, 01:53:51 AM »
I write, thanks to Dave's influence, in double-spaced courier 12-pt.  That's 250 words a page if you count blank space.
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EUOL

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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #9 on: March 20, 2004, 03:05:54 AM »
Well, that's it.  I hit 40 pages today.  Of course, that's getting up at 3:00 am and writing until 10:00 am or so, then writing for another four hours or so at night.  Guess most people can't really do that....
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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #10 on: March 20, 2004, 09:06:35 AM »
ok, well, it really is more "erotic" than "porn," and, as JP poitned out (correctly) a little forced and cliche. THough I think I can use the idea of the scene, I think those words are good for the Recycle Bin

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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2004, 11:47:57 AM »
I used a bit of erotic in my story. Nothing really wrong with that.
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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2004, 10:25:11 AM »
I did much better Saturday. (Friday I was obligated to attend a dessert social, as it was being held in my home). I wrote 1000 words. Which is nearly as many as I'd written total in the previous two months. I'm hoping to keep up that kind of pace so I can finish the first draft by end of April.

stacer

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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2004, 10:45:25 AM »
Between Friday and Saturday, I think I got 1000-1500 words. However many are in that chapter I sent out. It's about 6 pages long, so that seems about right. I forgot to actually count. At any rate, that is better than I've done in a year, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Course, the next thing is that I can't stop there.  :P I think I'll try to get another 2 or 3 pages tonight.
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Re: Writers' Round Table
« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2004, 09:44:04 PM »
Everlasting book of names

Random name generator. I use it to name everything. Download all the extras, and it has every real place you can think of, and a lot of fake places. Has british names in there.

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/ is another good one - a page full of generators of all sorts.
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