EleCivil

What's especially funny about those demanding emails is the way they're usually from people who have never written in before, and who feel the need to type IN ALL CAPS WITH NO PUNCTUATION PLZ RITE MORE CHAPTERS NOW AND PUT IN MORE XXX THIS TIME DO U HAVE PICS KTHNXBYE! I love those things. Thanks again. At the rate I'm going now, I wouldn't be too surprised to have 8 completed by next weekend. No promises, of course.

Nah. I'm not the masochistic type. My guess would be that a lot of them are just running out of things to say. You know, you write in to an author once or twice just to let them know you're reading, but after that, conversations consisting of "Chapter X was good" and "Oh, thanks" can get pretty old. The fight with Angel? That seemed natural. Didn't annoy me nearly as much as the way he had been treating Gene. Oh yeah, Bobby's still one of my favorites.

Loved chapter 18. Every scene with Ryan tends to drip suspense, especially the last one. He's just so...argh, I can't describe it, but I'm disgusted and intrigued at the same time. It's like he'd be my favorite character if I didn't hate him so much. Everything's getting so tense...can't wait to see how this gets resolved.

One question: What are the rules for the semi-colon? I've been through quite a few English classes, and not one of them has taught me how to use the thing. For instance, would "I've been through quite a few English classes; not one of them has taught me how to use the thing." be a correct use of a semi-colon?

Wow, that was a heartbreaker. I meant to just read one or two chapters and save the rest for later, but I couldn't stop. Jeez...now I'm going to fall asleep in class tomorrow. Note to self: Don't start long stories on school nights.

Seriously? I've always done a double space at the end of sentences. That was the first thing they taught me in all my keyboarding/comp-apps classes (and the first thing that I taught when I was teaching a keyboarding/comp-apps class, for that matter). I had no idea that it wasn't accepted any more. It's become so much of a habit that I'm even doing it now. Oh, and I'll be sure to pick up Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.

Thanks. I've already started on Chapter 8, so it shouldn't take nearly as long this time.

I'm somewhat of a newly "converted" agnostic, myself. As for my religious background...well, I'll just say that about 90% of "Fistfights with Flashlights" is true. Anyway, yeah, this is a good idea for a thread. I don't really have anything to recommend, though, since most of the books I was raised on were more of the "if you listen to secular music or read anything on the bestseller list, you're going to hell" variety.

Hmm...I can't really add anything, but I'll second what WBMS said - congratulations.

I've been getting asked about this a lot lately. Nope, it isn't abandoned. I've got a good chunk of the next chapter written. I'd say to keep an eye out around the end of next week. No promises, mind you, I'm stuck working all of Thanksgiving weekend (4 a.m. shifts? You monsters!) so I'll only have a limited amount of time to write. And, like Blue said, finals are coming up. Of course, I've never been much for studying, and writing is a good excuse to procrastinate a bit more. Don't get me wrong, I'd still procrastinate if I wasn't writing, but then I'd probably feel a bit more guilty about it. At least this way I'll get some productivity out of my...er, slackitude.

Thanks for the comments. This was my first attempt at a first-person story (and incidentally, it ended up turning into the most personal thing I've ever written - go figue). Writing it left a way-too-serious taste in my mouth, so to speak, so I ended up writing some of L&L just to lighten the mood.

Yeah, I like the hyperlink thing, too. It's the first time I've seen something like that, and it's pretty cool to see the online medium being used to the advantage of a story, rather than just an alternative to print publishing. I'm liking the story so far, too - it may be because of the link system, but all the characters seem very well developed.

Some intense stuff. It made my "stories to follow" list, that's for sure. I liked the way chapter two ended, cut off like that. A definite mood-enhancer.

POV changing in a first-person story is a pretty major event. You're crawling into the skin of a different person. Making this new character's personal thoughts and internal vernacular different enough from David's will probably be pretty tough. Of course, using Randy might make it easier - since he's David's brother, you can make the case that they use simular speaking patterns and such, even in thought. Personally, I've always writen in 3rd person, so I've never had to deal with all of that. All I can suggest is that you make absolutely sure that you want to do it.

I read 7 & 8, too. Really good. I had a tough time telling between the characters in the beginning (especially with the nicknames being thrown around), but now I'm really able to tell which is which. One sign that a story has good characters is when you can ignore the "____ said" parts and still know who is speaking, and I'm definitely seeing some of that.

(Potential spoilers) I'm going to have to go with GW on this one - I wouldn't call him homophobic, per say. His reaction in 5 was almost justified, even if completely misguided and overly hostile. After what happened, I can see why he'd lash out like that. Seeing his brother in the hospital like that - yeah, he'd be on emotional overload, and that combined with his confusion toward the whole issue makes it a realistic reaction. He probably would have had the same reaction if Adam was straight and, say, the target of gang violence. "The gangs are after Adam, so my brother shouldn't hang around with him" is pretty close to "The homophobes are after Adam, so my brother shouldn't hang around with him." Basic survival instinct.

That's one of those "hindsight is 20-20" moments, there. You never really expect it to happen until it does, and then all of a sudden time slows down and you watch helplessly as momentum carries it to the one place you were hoping it would avoid. Really clears your mind, though. Zen and the art of groin-clubbery. Hey, another July birthday. Cool. I started right around my birthday this year, too. I had kind of been half-kicking the idea around for a while, then thought "Hey, now that I'm old enough to legally read the story, I might as well start writing it." Whoa, what a compliment. Thanks. To answer your question, yeah, I'm a first-timer. I do plan on finishing it - In fact, I've got the last chapter more or less written in my head right now, so it would kill me to not get it all out. Oh, and while I'm typing stuff, I want to add a major thanks to Underthehoodster, who pointed something out to me earlier regarding the style that I was slipping into. That really helped me a lot, and it'll be especially important in the later chapters.

Yep, I liked 5, too. I like the way you didn't give away who was in the hospital until the end. Way to keep me on my toes.

I think it was mainly all the character introductions. They seemed to come really fast and close together. To tell you the truth, I just kind of skimmed through those enough to get the characters' real names and nicknames, then moved on. As far as suggestions on how to fix it, I'm not really sure how (or if it even needs fixing - could just be my short attention span. I blame the music videos and interweb machines :roll: ).

That was definitely my favorite scene in the chapter. I think it's been mentioned before, but I really like the depth that you're giving Ryan. The way you handled that whole scene...I liked it a lot. That's cool - I've been waiting to see Bobby again. His story was what really pulled me into DC in the first place.

Like WBMS, I gave up about halfway through the first chapter, but then started again and couldn't put it down. Like everybody else has said, I like the original approach you've taken with it. It's earned a place on my "stories to follow" list, that's for sure. It kept me up later than I had hoped reading it, but since it was good, I guess I can forgive ya.

Yeah, I've been reading it, too. The grammar/mechanics can get pretty rough at times, but it's still a good story. It's about a guy who wrote a best selling book about his experiences in high school, but then lost his memory. He's reading the book to find out who he is and what he's done. The story switches between excerpts from the book and the main character dealing with what he's discovering about himself and his friends. Link: http://www.selfpics.org/nifty/gay/highscho...n-the-hallways/

No apology needed, but nope, I'm not a female. Not the first time I've been mistaken for one based on my writing, though. I've got a bad habit of using a lot of hedges/intensifiers, which I hear is a female trait. I'm working on cutting back on that, though. Anyway, I'm not making any promises, but with they way things are shaping up, next chapter should be done by the end of the week.

Hey, I'm an official AwesomeDuder now. Cool. I bailed on The Confusion Sets In because of the drug use, too. That's always been a bail point for me, and it's lead to my almost missing out on some really good stories (For example, I almost bailed on Drama Club because of all the smoking). Anyway, I'm working on chapter 5 right now. I was kind of writer's-blocked for a while there, but after a few night shifts in a deserted facility with nothing else to think about...well, now I know exactly what I want to do with this story. Problem is, I can't use any of my plans yet, because a lot of other stuff has to happen to build up to them, and I know that if I try to rush it, it'll suck. Arg, that's frustrating.

This was a one-shot, all-at-once read for me. Incredibly heavy stuff. I started out kind of so-so about it, but as things picked up, I knew there was no way I could leave without seeing how it ended.