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Cynus

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Posts posted by Cynus

  1. This has all been very helpful. Thank you to all of you. I've actually already done the dialogue writing trick, but I haven't tried writing the ending yet. I think that may be just the thing I was looking for.

    I normally don't outline, either. The only reason I did in this case was because I was getting stuck, and I figured I might as well try something different to see if it got me anywhere. It worked for awhile, but then I got stuck again, which brought me here. I'll try to apply your suggestions, and see where it goes.

    Thank you for all your help.

  2. Have any of you ever worked on a novel, gotten to the last few chapters, and even though you have it completely outlined, you've had a hard time finishing it? I'm slowly getting more and more behind. My novel started posting with me being ten weeks ahead of the chapters, and now I'm only two weeks ahead, but I have a hard time sitting down and writing it.

    I've been able to work on other things, like the short story I have mostly finished for the "turning ten" theme, but I'm just not enjoying writing the ending to my novel. I've never completed a novel before, so I have no idea if this is something that happens often, or just to me. Either way, I need to figure out how to get out of it.

    Any suggestions/comments?

  3. I can see where you're coming from on Bukowski, and you're probably right about his character, but I owe a few debts to the man. Some of the thoughts I've gained from him have taken my life in directions I never thought possible, and I have been better off because of it.

    One of the greatest truths I have come across in this life is that everyone you will ever meet has something that they can teach you that you don't know, whether they be a friend or not.

  4. There is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
    human being to supply any given army on any given day

    and the best at murder are those who preach against it
    and the best at hate are those who preach love
    and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

    those who preach god, need god
    those who preach peace do not have peace
    those who preach peace do not have love

    beware the preachers
    beware the knowers
    beware those who are always reading books
    beware those who either detest poverty
    or are proud of it
    beware those quick to praise
    for they need praise in return
    beware those who are quick to censor
    they are afraid of what they do not know
    beware those who seek constant crowds for
    they are nothing alone
    beware the average man the average woman
    beware their love, their love is average
    seeks average

    but there is genius in their hatred
    there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
    to kill anybody
    not wanting solitude
    not understanding solitude
    they will attempt to destroy anything
    that differs from their own
    not being able to create art
    they will not understand art
    they will consider their failure as creators
    only as a failure of the world
    not being able to love fully
    they will believe your love incomplete
    and then they will hate you
    and their hatred will be perfect

    like a shining diamond
    like a knife
    like a mountain
    like a tiger
    like hemlock

    their finest art

    -Charles Bukowski

  5. I usually always start with conversation, because characters talking is where I get told the story and can begin to fill it in and create the situations and the surroundings to support the talk. Once I can get some kind of conversational exchange down on paper I'm usually good to go, and can at least churn out a few pages. Those provide me with my springboard for the next day's writing (or the middle of the night's hasty jotting on a pad that is so awfully hard to read and make sense of the next morning).

    This suggestion has actually helped me a lot. I was maybe getting a few hundred words done a week, trying to struggle through the block. Over the last few days I've written four thousand words of dialogue, and I'm ready to flesh out the in between bits.

    Thanks for this. It's been a refreshing experience.

  6. Recently there has been an article that has been thrown about on facebook talking about "Disney's Gay Agenda" through the movie "Frozen". Here is a link to one of the articles.

    http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com/2014/02/movie-frozen-gay-homosexual-agenda.html#.Uwbh6WJdXpg

    It honestly made me laugh quite a bit, just by how horrifically paranoid this "well behaved Mormon woman" is. But it didn't make me laugh as much as my friend Michael's satirical article he wrote in response.

    http://www.theculturalhallpodcast.com/2014/02/disney-had-a-gay-agenda-long-before-frozen-a-blog-rebuttal/

    And another rebuttal as well.

    http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/2014/02/other-agendas-frozen-is-subtly-forcing-into-your-childs-brain/

  7. I'm curious what everyone thinks of the rest my original post, the quote from Ira Glass, how new writers are so often discouraged by themselves and others, and how they give up before they give themselves a chance to really get rolling.

    You bringing up this quote was what dragged me through this post, even though I went kicking and screaming... I've been in a similar funk, especially with my first novel coming out. I still haven't finished Rumors of War, though I'm not far off. The last little bit has been a serious struggle to write.

    But I'm one of those people who likes to torture myself with my problems. I wasn't sure what was wrong with me, but I knew that it was hopeless and that I wasn't going to be able to make it through. I honestly was close to giving up.

    The quote brought me back to reality. And this conversation has actually helped me a great deal. I'm quite grateful for all the advise that's been given here.

    As my only available gift I think fitting to offer in thanks, here is the quote in comic form. http://zenpencils.com/comic/90-ira-glass-advice-for-beginners/

  8. Good article. I've seen those points raised before, but like them being raised again and again, although as he says, it won't make the slightest bit of difference to the people who really need to read and understand them. When has anyone ever been able to get through to a religious conservative who uses the bible to justify his rationalizations?

    C

    Actually, someone did this to me. I was the religious conservative who someone got through to. Oddly enough for me, the one who got through to me was an elderly Korean man who had spent twenty years as a minister before becoming an atheist. It was actually at the point that he gave up on me, the look in his eyes when he gave his last word... That was what made me rethink everything.

  9. As a kid who grew up in the Utah school system, I'm actually quite shocked by this. Admittedly, I grew up in a different school district, but still, my experience was very different as a kid.

    I was the pickiest eater alive, and I often wouldn't eat the lunch provided to me, and instead of allowing me to waste the food, I often had one of the lunch ladies doing everything she could to convince me to eat it, even calling my parents on occasion to try and get me to eat lunch. I never actually got in trouble, they were just concerned that I wasn't eating.

    This is ridiculous, and I am appalled, once again, for the actions of the people in the state that I live in.

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