lin

Don't make me have to unleash my adolescent angst on you, Cap.

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Mike C

Oh?

I'm a prick, but not a writer. Actually, Nancy, I think the word you were struggling for when you settled for prick is arrogant.

I am a writer, and reasonably successful in my field. Check my sig line link if you want to read what I do - I don't hide anything. It's because of my writing that I was invited to join the staff of NFG as senior fiction editor. And went on from there to co-found GUD magazine. But writing is what I do and when business slows down a little, it's what I'll go back to doing full time.

I'm also lucky to count amongst my friends and clients a large number of published novelists, plus editors and some agents, far more successful than I will ever be and, having known/worked with some of them for a very long time, in some cases from draft to best-seller, I know (albeit vicariously, granted) the process and how the system works.

My opinion is just that. Use it or leave it as you choose. I'd agree with your comments on Lin, though:

Throw out the 'how to' books and analyse what's actually selling.

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My writing
My Photo Blog
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The Oddville Press

ClancyBoy

Edit: Nah, I'm not going to say that.

I stand corrected Mike. A writer you indeed are.

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

Mike C

Sadly the only writing I'm getting to do right now is yet another business plan, final wording for a patent application, and yet another draft of a contract that's taken 12 months so far to negotiate. The last one took 2 years and, including all revisions and rewrites, probably 500k words just to say "Don't fuck me over and I won't fuck you over."

Ho hum. Real life, huh? Who needs it.

__________________
My writing
My Photo Blog
Web design for Writers
The Oddville Press

Foxee

Depends how badly any of us want to pay our electric bill and eat regularly. Though when in the grip of a good idea and the words are flowing food seems irrelevant.
Bitter people? Maybe a few but more often I get the sense that it's all been said before, it's all been argued before. Even though I haven't been around the site as long as some I see that the same questions tend to surface on a regular basis. The same advice, given over and over, gets expressed in briefer, sometimes downright terse, terms.

Meldy, as for the books you'll have to make your own determination on that. Obviously there are as many different ways of thinking as there are avenues of learning.

One of the most helpful things for me has been to go to some favorite authors' books and look at them from a writing standpoint. I wanted to know what made me turn the pages on one while another one seemed to amble along more slowly. But I've also browsed the reviled 'how to' in the writing section of Borders (I can't afford much more than some serious browsing) picking up a few tips here and there and I've subscribed to Writer's Digest magazine before which covers a lot of different aspects of writing.

When I joined a private critique group on a different forum (about 4 years ago now?!) and the members gently explained that I needed to learn about POV I skimmed some books looking for that specific information (if I remember right it was King's 'On Writing' that explained it pretty well) and took an online writing course.

I really, really am not there yet...but I hope I'm beginning to scratch the surface of knowing how to write. I doubt I'll ever be good enough to be truly satisfied with my work...and even if I was I have some of the editors like Mike C who actually DO know what they're looking at and will cheerfully puncture my ego if I get above myself.

I know...I've blathered on about myself but I'm trying to give you some encouragement, believe it or not. To get any sort of (constructive) response on a board this busy is a compliment.

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Try the POSTCARD FICTION CONTEST! Closes for entries November 19. Can you write a story in 350 words or less?

CaptainFreedom

Sure, I said you were psychotic and broke, but that was just meant to help you. Ever heard of advice? So stop overreacting, fuckhead.

- smoochy woopy

CF

lin

Don't confuse freedom with license captain. And I wont mention the lack of bulge in your tights.

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Shawn

Don't start with "my penis is bigger than yours."

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The most frightening part of leaving a parent's home, to me, is not knowing where one's own home is.

CaptainFreedom

You have to zoom in on the picture - way in.

CF