EleCivil

Heh. Nope, don't scream just yet. No second stories, garages, or semi-expensive cars around here. I'm a trailor park kid, born n' raised. The engine-revver in question sits on a motorcycle in his front yard, eating beans out of a can and doing lines off of a switchblade. At least, he did, until the guy across the street got fed up with all the noise and punched him in the face, knocking him clear off the motorcycle. Endless entertainment, these guys are.

Haha, I know how you feel, man. My neighbors seem to have only one CD entitled "A hell of a lot of bass" that they play constantly. Plus, they also get a kick out of revving their engines for hours on end without ever driving anywhere. I've always imagined that they're amused by watching the RPM gauge going back and forth, but that's just a guess. Noise-cancelling headphones are a godsend.

Wow, that's perfect. Good job, Gabe.

Yeah, I know - that's in addition to the writer's block. As in, I'll write a draft, then throw it out, then not be able to write for two weeks, then finally get past it and write again, only to throw that out, too, and then not be able to force myself to write for another few weeks...ach. If it was just one or the other, it'd be done by now. I should be writing. Later.

Yep, I'm still working on it. I'm just starting to get over one of the worst patches of writer's block I've ever had, and I'm working on either the 4th or 5th draft of chapter eleven (lost count somewhere along the line). I'm currently around the 50% mark. Oh, and thanks for asking - someone saying "Where's the next chapter?" is just the kind of motivation that I need sometimes.

Great work! Perfect place to end it, too, in my opinion. Leaves things just open-ended enough to allow for some speculation, but doesn't skimp on the closure. I love to see a story get finished after being posted chaper-by-chapter. Feels like witnessing a victory over whatever anti-writer beams seem to hit so many webauthors.

Haha, nice! "Oh no!" The fans did exclaim, "Now the 'net won't be the same!" A flame-war ensued On the board of The Dude But was locked for the sake of our brains.

Ah, yeah, that's what it was. It was taking so long to load that Firefox just gave up on it before showing it. *Glares at 56k modem*

*Sniff* I swear, every time, TR. Condolences.

It doesn't work for me. For background, it shows up as pure white, which makes the text impossible to read and the links difficult to read. Plus, due to my 800x600 resolution, quite a bit runs off the screen. I'm using Firefox 1.0.1, by the way. Just a heads-up.

Well, moving it to the Limerick section would certainly lighten things up. There once was a writer named Dave...

(Reviving an old thread) One of my favorite pieces of dialogue: (during a paintball game) Mike: "This your first time, kid?" Businessman: "I'm 36." Mike: "This your first time, old man?" Businessman: "Yeah, I've always fancied myself a soldier." Tim: "I've always fancied myself." Mike: "I've always fancied you." Tim: "...Not here." [spaced - season one, episode 4]

Ooohhh...now I see what you were talking about. I think there's a lot of stories like that, though. From what I've seen, they outnumber the completely dark stories. Of course, maybe that's just because I tend to gravitate toward that kind of story in the first place. *snicker*

Personally, I think it stems mostly from the genres that most of these stories fall into: Romance and drama. I don't see any more negativity in gay romance and drama than I do in their straight counterparts. The "Big Negatives" - death, suicide, tragically painful breakups, illness, addiction, abandonment, abuse, etc. - they're all pretty universal, regardless of which way you swing. Look at how many stories, movies, and TV shows there are in which a woman is being abused by her overbearing husband - probably a similar figure to the number of stories we see about gay kids being abused by their overbearing parents. I'm not saying that there aren't a lot of gay authors who went through hell and want to relay the tale of the trip blow-by-blow and brimstone-by-brimstone, because there are. I'm just saying that their number isn't that disproportionate to straight authors who want to do exactly the same thing. About the "gay hero" thing...quite a few straight leads are rather screwed up, too, and there's a reason: We love to side with the underdog, the guy who can't win a fistfight or afford the nicest car or get the hottest dates. I don't think it's some kind of self-hating gay angst that fuels it - I think it's just what sells. Perfect Heroes ™ are alright for Bruckheimer movies, but when it comes to literature, I want characters with some room to grow.

When I get blocked, it's usually because I know exactly what it is that I want to write...next chapter. Or even worse, I know exactly how I want to write a scene in another story all together. I end up in some kind of mental loop - I keep coming back to the same ideas, scenes, lines, but I can never figure out where or how to work with them. I'll start thinking something like "I know I can't use THIS scene, because THIS hasn't happened yet, but I don't know how to make THAT happen because THIS wouldn't mesh with it." I end up with a lot of fully fleshed-out scenes and characters that never make it into the final product, simply because thinking about them sets up blocks. If I'm stuck in the middle of a story, I'll try writing a poem. In fact, that's pretty much the only time I write poems. Gets me thinking in a different direction, experimenting with different phrases and images. If I'm really desperate, I'll do a few math problems or logic puzzles. Anything to get the synapses snappin'.

You wrote that at eleven? Holy hell. The Dude wasn't kidding when he called you a prodigy.

Not anymore, anyway. :oops: Aw, shucks.

Good stuff, once again. I love this story a little more with every chapter. With the way things are looking now, it'll probably end up as one of those rare stories that I want to turn back to the beginning and re-read as soon as I'm finished.

There's an understatement. I always know a story's good when I find myself looking at how far down the scroll bar is and thinking "Aw man, not yet!" This was one of those stories.

Note: "I'm back, Sheridan" and "stormy smile" are lines from a song called "I'm Back Sleeping or Fucking or Something" by the (now long gone) band Moss Icon. I take no credit for either one, and was simply referencing that song. I figure I could have thrown in something more generic, but I really wanted to nail all the specifics. If Moss Icon wants to get together and sue me, they can go for it.

I was seven steps away, And you three slippery inches But I?d never been good with words And even worse with physics And I asked you why, asked ?Where were the signs?? And you shook your head and smiled. You?d smiled a lot that week. ?I?m slick, remember? If I don?t want to be caught, I can lead you on forever.? And it looked like everything, Everything was hanging onto nothing, Nothing more steady than a strong breeze And couldn?t I make you remember? The way we?d scream ?I?m back, Sheridan!? And whisper something about ?stormy smiles? And mumble through lyrics we couldn?t decipher, Fingers operating madly on invisible instruments That looked more like conniption fits than musicianship? Wasn?t that good enough? But I was so short on words! If only I knew what to say, if only I had a writer, If only I was a writer. Or maybe a scripted sentimentalist With a lexicon of liberating don?t-give-ups. Anything but the b-movie sidekick With a fistful of one-liners And the kind of shifty grin that only works When in response to the Hero?s wit Because right now I couldn?t grin to save my life Or yours. When you turned around and stepped back down Ending your brief love affair with gravity And practically collapsing into the concrete All I could think about was how I couldn?t say anything And how it would have been my fault. I spent every day in the library Picking up phrases like loose change And swearing that I?d never, Never again be short on words.

Welcome back, Codey. Glad to hear you're doing good.

Here's another "thanks" to add to the pile. I've never been too good at this kind of thing - haven't quite mastered Praise Protocol ™ yet, I guess - so I'll just say thanks.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067...1705696-0867062 I found this at the library not long ago and picked it up on impulse, not knowing anything about it. Turns out that it's one of those rare stories that everyone seems to be looking for - a story with homosexual romance and themes without being "a gay story". It's about a Jewish escape artist who smuggles himself out of Nazi occupation and into America where he starts writing/drawing comic books with his cousin. I don't want to go into any more details, because there's a lot of twists that I don't want to spoil, so I'll just say that it's a good book and I recommend it.

I've never been a big torrent fan. I blame my 56k connection. Downloading entire discographies just isn't practical at 2.5 kbps. I like SoulSeek, personally. It's slower than Ares/K-Lite/Limewire/etc, but it's got a lot of rare and obscure music that the others don't seem to have.