This is the thread where we motivate/harangue each other to do the stuff we should be doing

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... encouraging pep talks, verbal abuse, name-calling, Rob Schneider shouting "you can do it!", whatever.

I have not yet managed to get into a productive routine since moving, and I really need to fix that before the summer's over.

What I should be doing: writing, and lots of it. I've been writing, but not enough, and not every day, and not enough things are getting finished. I have a novel I've temporarily put aside in order to write the first half of the sequel to the novel I'm shopping -- the novel I've put aside was, to begin with, the novel I started because I realized the other novel I had in progress had some kind of flaw which kept increasing the more I worked on it and that I needed to put it down and come back to it fresh.

I've had a lot of good news and good vibes about things already written, but ultimately that doesn't matter if I don't produce new material.

I need to be thinking about vampires and guns and church intrigue and shit like that, but I end up getting a page or so down, if that, and then too easily distracted by other things.

I've got two short stories I haven't finished -- one's got a rough draft and the best title I've come up with (I'm shit at titles), but after I was done I looked at it and realized it was completely devoid of emotion and character. Purely idea and style. The other one, I got the first few paragraphs done, and then it just fizzled. I can't get my rhythm going (granted, I'm slightly less worried about this because I'm just out of practice with short stories and I did write a pretty good one a couple weeks ago with my second-best title; by the same token, until a novel gets picked up and there are royalty checks, short stories are my bread and butter and quick buck -- and putting out the short story collection means the cupboard is bare in terms of decent stories which I can send out. I shot my wad.)

So. Tell me to shut up and get back to work, and then go on about what you should be doing.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

i should be:

a. packing
b. cleaning
c. writing pitches

instead i am:

a. pining
b. worrying
c. imagining horrible scenarios involving my relationship

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Saturday, 26 July 2003 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Hrm, motivating for packing and cleaning. Well. It's a good excuse to listen to music ... um .. oh, once you have things packed up and cleaned, you can empty a room and then hear your echo in there! That's always cool.

I suck at this, fyi.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 00:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Writing can be a good excuse for listening to music too, donchakno.

― Leee (Leee), Saturday, 26 July 2003 00:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I should be writing myself: a novel-ish idea a friend suggested after reading a bunch of short stories of mine; plus two papers for class and things promised to friends. Plus lots of catch up e-mail, snail mail.

Instead, I'm feeling sorry for myself, wasting the last week sleeping (when I said I wanted a week off to spend in bed, THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!!!), and generally fucking around.

Having said that, Tep, get to work! Jess, start packing!! Me, I'm gonna have a beer.

― luna (luna.c), Saturday, 26 July 2003 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Writing can be a good excuse for listening to music too, donchakno.

Yeah, I just wasn't going to try taking a stab at writing-motivating, since that's the thing I need to be doing too :)

Aimee, go write. Have a Moxie. Moxie is good for the soul and good for the pen. (So is beer.)

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

it was completely devoid of emotion and character. Purely idea and style

This doesn't sound like a completely lost cause to me, Tep. I think experimentation is so important for your own growth and your own understanding of yourself as a writer. Even if it doesn't turn out to be something you'll eventually send out for publication, you may have opened up a new way of thinking about narrative or language for youself. I probably err more on the style/idea side than the character/emotion side, which isn't necessarily good either. I might even go so far as to say style is everything in a story or novel; it's how you conjure an experience of/in language. Anyway, don't dismiss it out of hand. See if it leads you somewhere interesting.
(If you'd like, I'd be happy to take a look at it. Send me an email?)

― Prude (Prude), Saturday, 26 July 2003 07:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, it's not that the low-emotion quotient is inherently horrible ... just that a) this particular story could have used some, b) the idea itself is not good enough to stand on its own (it's deliberately and explicitly taken from The Terminator), and c) ... for lack of a better way of putting it, "neat idea, oooh emotional resonance" is what I'm known for, so to speak, among those few people who read me without knowing me first. (And that's the problem, of course -- I got a really good review and then examined the next thing I wrote in terms of "darn you, why aren't you more like your older brother?")

As soon as my kill-me-dead headache goes away today, I'll take a look at the story. As for email -- I can email you a copy if you want, but what address? Not )@(, I'm assuming :)

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 16:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Naw. My address is matthewjpurdy@hotmail.com. I just do that other thing cuz it looks neat.

― Prude (Prude), Saturday, 26 July 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

(It took me two or three sentences to decide that this was a Tep thread.)

― Chris P (Chris P), Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh dear. I've gone from pineapple zombie blowjob guy to nonproductive guy?

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:29 (twenty-two years ago)

those are one and the same, tep.

― oops (Oops), Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I should NOT be wasting my time on messages boards!

― killian mulroney, Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

What, are you saying you can't be productive during a pineapple zombie blowjob? Cause they make pills for that.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:51 (twenty-two years ago)

who the hell starts a thread like this on a Saturday?

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:56 (twenty-two years ago)

SOMEbody sounds a lil defensive. And how do you know about the pills? Hmmm?

(xp)

― oops (Oops), Saturday, 26 July 2003 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I started it on Friday!

Besides, I work more on the weekends, not less.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 23:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Gross.

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 26 July 2003 23:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't have any choice, I've got classes during the week. Besides, the stuff I do for work is a lot of the same stuff I'd do for fun, anyway. I just focus more when there's the potential for reward.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 26 July 2003 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I should be whoring myself to print publications and writing reviews to do so. I am getting pissed on port and writing stuff for Stylus because I love Todd.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 26 July 2003 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

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