Timewaster's Guide Archive

Really?  Didn't know that simple peons like myself could do such a thing.  Is there a list of  "book review do's and don'ts" somewhere on the site?"  Or should I just check out what's been done before and copy the format?  I'd love to blab my opinion.    How do I submit it?  At this point I'm guessing that all this info is somewhere and I should probably just make my lazy fingers get off of their respective butts and click the mouse a time or two.  I'll look.  Thanks for the info.

Edit:  So, I just kicked my fingers into gear and found some guidelines.  Oddly enough, there's no specific guidelines for books... everything but, in fact, it seems.    I'll check out previous reviews, but it might be nice to have a list of things to include in a book review listed on the general TWG submission guidelines page (probably as altered by Fell as he's the original poster).  I'll be sure to put one up for The Name of the Wind as soon as I'm finished.  Thanks for mentioning this.  Should be fun. 

Yeah, that's how "I am Legend" took care of it.  Some disease that was dormant when spread in the wind that became active once it got into your bloodstream.  Mabey it could be a parasite that the vamps implant into you.  The parasite could wrap around the victim's heart and grow to maturity.  So, a budding vampire could be "un-vampirized" if caught early enough.  Wodden stakes would have to be made of a special type of wood.  Has a special sap in it that is an anticoagulant for the parasite's blood.  Eh, I'm rambling now...

I've tossed the idea of reading the sequel around for quite a while.  Don't know that I'll ever get around to it, what with all the other great stuff that is out there right now, but I'd probably be open to reading it if just for her writing.  Not amazing, but worthwhile.  I'll probably pick it up based on the fact that you liked it better than the original.

Got "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss in front of my face now.  He's a WotF winner from 2002, and this is his debut book.  Big.  And pretty good so far.

I have to admit up front that this is a very interesting topic and one that is integral to artists/musicians/writers (but most specifically writers in my case, because that's what I'm attempting to be).  It is actually one that (sort of) came up in a conversation I had with some friends the other night.  I had asked them if they'd be open to reading a few of the short stories that I've written.  They said sure, and one of them asked what kind of response I wanted back because he knew a lot of people that had the opinion "so, read this, but if you don't like it... don't tell me" attitude towards responses.  I kind of chuckled and told him to be as brutally honest as possible.  When it comes to things like this, I want to know what you really think.  I'm not worried about negative comments... as long as they don't take the form of personal insults to my intelligence or heritage.

Anyhow, I have a hard time believing that ANYONE can put something like this together (painting/song/story) without  the result being some part of them.  And that if they can, then I think that they have, unfortunately, just learned to do so for some reason or another.  It has become a job to them, instead of creative meandering, which it should be.  I think that SE's comment about working on laptops falls directly into this category.  Fixing a laptop at a place of employment isn't something that I'd place into the "creative meanderings" category.  It's something that you do, and get paid for it.  Something like that doesn't create a connection.  The creative process though, I believe, does.  For instance, if SE were to, say, build a laptop from the ground up, I think that that particular laptop would hold special significance, unlike the routine fixing of something that is not a part of him.

I really don't think (again this is all imho) that an author needs to make that separation when the edits come, and is actually important that he/she doesn't allow that to happen.  The attachment needs to stay, and the maturity level (as so importantly expressed by SE) of the author is shown in how those edits happen.  Just as in our personal lives, if someone gives us a suggestion on what we should or should not be doing, it shows a certain level of maturity to be able to take that information and use it, should we agree.  We do this to become better people.  I think that if detachment were to EVER occur in the creative process, we might as well throw away the whole piece entirely, because if we allow ourselves to become detached and not care what happens to our work of art/music/literature, it then becomes someone else's to mold and form to what they want to see.  As creators, we need to understand that what we do is not perfect, and can always be made better through suggestion and revision, but still keep the attachment to the piece, which is so necessary to its survival.

The idea that I put forth earlier, that creators can sometimes become detached from their creations, I think happens sometimes in the writing field, when an author has to write so much (for one example, to keep to the strict publishing schedule as set by their contract with a publisher) that their writing becomes more and more a job, and therefore less and less a part of them.  Their whole heart doesn't go into the project and we (the public) end up with books that, quite frankly, aren't that good.  I think that this regularly happens because authors write while detached from the story.  They just want to bang it out and let it fly instead of forming something that is more a part of them.  That's frustrating for readers.  Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but I think that in the wide view of things this is true in just about every discipline.  The quality of work is diminished considerably if you are not attached to what you are doing.  If you want a rocking chair that is going to last, are you going to go to a carpenter or are you going to take a trip to Walmart?

If an author cares for the story that he/she is developing, then it is incumbent upone them to make sure that that essential connection between creator and created is there.  That is, if you want the story to do something other than moulder in your desk drawers, gathering dust and cobwebs.  Granted, if you're going to just write some throwaway fiction, then don't worry about it.  It's not going to go anywhere anyhow, and therefore doesn't need the connection.

The point is, if you're serious about telling stories, make sure that you're attached to what ends up on the paper, and realize that to make the story everything that it can be, changes will have to come.  Just don't allow those changes to break the connection to what you've written.  It is, after all, just an extension of who you are.   Or at least, it should be.

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(ooo... that one's going to get me into some trouble)

ROFLMBO.  That was killer.

So, Lies had a pretty weak ending in my opinon.  Decided to pick up a mystery novel:  James Patterson's 1st to Die.  Interesting, is about all I can say right now.  Murder mystery.  And I'm buring through the thing.  SHORT chapters.

Just got into a book called The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.  It's his debut novel and acutally quite good so far.  Thats two for two for me with books endorsed by George R. R. Martin.  Last one was A Shadow in Summer, which was excellent.