The Eldritch Tomb of Unknowable Caffeine

Hi Cantina.

I hope everyone is doing well today?

Good morning Cantina!

Sunny but freezing this morning. We're supposed to get another snow storm Sunday night. That's gonna be fun driving in.

Tonight is my last overnight shift! There's no truck, so things will be a lot more relaxing and my boss will be the one in charge, so double awesome there. The only downside to returning to my normal shift is not being able to see him as much, especially since he's pretty sure he's staying overnight. This, however, means there's another leadership position opening up in the backroom for mornings, and I'm considering applying for it. Rumor has it, there's another person in the running, but why not give it a chance? I'm in need of a change and a chance at some personal improvement.

aliwood said:

Pete, please tell me you've got off that conference call. PLEASE.

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Got to bed about 8am in the end. I get to do it all over again tonight too

Good morning/almost afternoon Cantina.

Lissibith said:

Hope you're feeling better today!

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I'm feeling much better today, thanks for asking! I took some medicine to clear out my sinuses so the headache is gone and I got a really good night's sleep because my cough is almost completely gone too.

Lissibith said:

Also, our podcast went live on itunes and I am deeply mortified because it means my picture is on itunes. And I hate having pictures of me on the internet where anyone can see them. Twenty years on the internet has taught me that's a bad, bad idea.

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Ikr? I'm really careful about having pictures of me on the internet too, and then I only post them if there's a specific reason and a decent amount of other people are doing it at the same time for the same reason so I'm not standing out. Like, one time there was a big Tolkien read-along on this one site and the participants could introduce themselves if they wanted to by posting a pic of themselves with the book and saying if they've read it before, etc. I only posted my intro after several other people had posted theirs but even then I strategically covered half my face with the book. I also make sure I never give out any personally identifying information at any time.

LadyV said:

Tonight is my last overnight shift! There's no truck, so things will be a lot more relaxing and my boss will be the one in charge, so double awesome there. The only downside to returning to my normal shift is not being able to see him as much, especially since he's pretty sure he's staying overnight. This, however, means there's another leadership position opening up in the backroom for mornings, and I'm considering applying for it. Rumor has it, there's another person in the running, but why not give it a chance? I'm in need of a change and a chance at some personal improvement.

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Good luck!

PeteMC said:

Got to bed about 8am in the end. I get to do it all over again tonight too

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Nooooooooooo!!!

@LadyV - Go on and give it a try.

I am eating my way through a packet of cream crackers. Yes, the entire packet. No, there's nothing on them.

Of course I'm crazy. You needed to ask?

Good luck with the maybe-promotion, LadyV.

When did I get past 900 post?

So, I did the scary thing of tossing out my entire beginning of my novel. I'd rewritten it over 20 times over the past year or so. Every time I'd rewrite it, I'd get stuck. I'd try again with the same result.

By coming up with an entirely different beginning, it changes my characters substantially. It's a moderate shift, I would say. Scary. This is my second draft even. Should I be making monumental changes?

But I look at the result. Because of the change, I've plotted the first 1/3 of this rewrite. That's further than I was getting before with my failed beginnings. And my failed beginning is now a later chapter.

Part of me feels like making such a turn in a different direction after having invested so much time and effort in the other direction is a red flag that I'm doing something wrong. That I should stay on track, dammit.

The other part of me is ready to let go because obviously the old way isn't working and this new way is opening up so much potential and unstuckedness.

Has anyone ever been in a similar position? I'm going down the new path to see where it takes me because it's more productive, but there's still that war inside over the old path.

Kweei said:

Has anyone ever been in a similar position? I'm going down the new path to see where it takes me because it's more productive, but there's still that war inside over the old path.

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I've heard some pretty well-known authors talk about being in that position of being stuck...Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn), Nicolas Sparks (The Notebook), etc. Many of them seem to feel that when you keep getting stuck on something no matter how many times you rewrite it, that may be the story's way of telling you it doesn't want to go in that direction. In that case, you probably will need to take a chance and try something different even if it means major changes. It *is* scary, and it may mean more work, but if it makes the story better it can worth it, apparently.

Just my two cents.

E.F.B. said:

I've heard some pretty well-known authors talk about being in that position of being stuck...Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn), Nicolas Sparks (The Notebook), etc. Many of them seem to feel that when you keep getting stuck on something no matter how many times you rewrite it, that may be the story's way of telling you it doesn't want to go in that direction. In that case, you probably will need to take a chance and try something different even if it means major changes. It *is* scary, and it may mean more work, but if it makes the story better it can worth it, apparently.

Just my two cents.

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I think it's important to be reminded that even some of the most accomplished writers have gone through the same. Heck, I bet most writers do. And when you get that scary feeling, maybe that the mind's way of telling you it's time to take a risk and try something new.

zanzjan said:

I feel that way too, but I think, though, it's really the opposite -- that you've progressed enough in your writing skills & objectivity to know when you need to back up and take a different path. Pretty sure that's both one of the more difficult, and one of the necessary, lessons all writers need to go through.

Or at least that's what I tell myself too, because I'm about to try to gut and completely rewrite my very first novel, and it's incredibly daunting and difficult to break away from what used to be there enough to not just repeat the same mistakes that doomed it in the first place.

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Rewrites are hard. It's not just editing, tightening up the writing, adding and deleting. It's going down to the foundation and shaking the story to its core. You have to be savvy enough to know what to keep and what to let go. So hard! But in the end, worth it.

Kweei said:

Rewrites are hard. It's not just editing, tightening up the writing, adding and deleting. It's going down to the foundation and shaking the story to its core. You have to be savvy enough to know what to keep and what to let go. So hard! But in the end, worth it.

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Yep, they are hard. I'm in the process of doing that now. The WIP is something I originally wrote when I was 16, but when I finally dusted the thing off 15 years later I realized that it was going to start from the ground up again. And the characters have changed and the plot has simplified and it got darker, and yet sometimes I find myself trying to shoehorn scenes from the original into it and it ends of not working because it's not the same story it used to be. Which is at once exciting but also intimidating, because it means I don't know what's coming next.

edit: Oh look. We've changed name again. I like it. *polishes glowing sign*

E.F.B. said:

Good luck!

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aliwood said:

@LadyV - Go on and give it a try.

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Cliff Face said:

Good luck with the maybe-promotion, LadyV.

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Thanks everyone!

Off to work now.

aliwood said:

Nooooooooooo!!!

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Yup, 'fraid so. It's 3am here and I've been running an emergency recovery plan for a major client since 10:30 last night and it's not due to finish till about 7am so no bed for me again. I've just had a thank you from our country VP though so it's not all bad.

And on the plus side, the engineers are doing all the proper work and I'm just coordinating and sending comms and doing other account manager-type bollocks so...

tianaluthien said:

The WIP is something I originally wrote when I was 16, but when I finally dusted the thing off 15 years later I realized that it was going to start from the ground up again. And the characters have changed and the plot has simplified and it got darker, and yet sometimes I find myself trying to shoehorn scenes from the original into it and it ends of not working because it's not the same story it used to be. Which is at once exciting but also intimidating, because it means I don't know what's coming next.

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...I managed to get someone's beta done. And it was awesome. That person has mail.

Good morning Cantina. I woke up early again, though not as early as I did yesterday. It does mean that come the evening I'll probably doze off, especially if I'm in front of the TV. I think my brain is working to some strange East European timezone at the moment.

Oh well, I've now reached the time I normally wake up at, during the week. and then another episode of Spiral (the second one recorded last weekend - BBC Four broadcast two more last night). And then the tennis. And then a Blu-ray review copy to watch.

Why is it, when you have a week's leave, that list of Things to Do has barely been dented by the end? Back to the day job tomorrow.

Morning eye!

Good morning Pete! That is on its way...

Cheers, starting to need it now!

Aw, look a plot bunny. Isn't it cute? Aw, look. It's doing that thing with the big eyes.

What? You want to come home with me?

I don't need another plot bunny. I've got at least three at the moment. There's just no room for you.

Aw, but you're only small, and sooooo cute.

Ok then, but you have to play nice now.

Actually, I wonder why it's always a plot bunny? Why are rabbits the animal world's Repositories of Story? Did they have better agents? Why can't it be a plot armadillo, or a plot blobfish?

Then again, this is the SF forum, so you could write an AI story without people thinking it's about a three-toed sloth.

Meanwhile, two and a half hours into the tennis and we're only at the end of the second set. I'm not going anywhere until it's finished.

I always thought it had something to do with reproduction rate. In which case we should probably have chosen fruit flies or yeast as they multiply far more rapidly.

Eta - if we're now drinking quantum quaffables, are they subject to the uncertainty principle? And if so, is this actually my drink?

Extra - interesting g00gle doodle today

Up at an ungodly hour again. I really must fix my sleep habits. Oh well, time to work on writing I suppose.

Night shift is officially over!!!

I'm so glad to be returning to my old shift. I've almost forgotten what it's like to sleep at night. It'll take a little adjusting, but in the long run I'm going to feel so much better.

The only thing I feel bad about is abandoning my boss when we're still understaffed. And of course, I'm going to miss having him around for an entire shift, but it's not like I won't see him at all.

LadyV said:

Night shift is officially over!!! .

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You made it!!!!!

aliwood said:

Aw, look a plot bunny. Isn't it cute? Aw, look. It's doing that thing with the big eyes.

What? You want to come home with me?

I don't need another plot bunny. I've got at least three at the moment. There's just no room for you.

Aw, but you're only small, and sooooo cute.

Ok then, but you have to play nice now.

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Ahem.

eyeblink said:

Why is it, when you have a week's leave, that list of Things to Do has barely been dented by the end? Back to the day job tomorrow.

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I feel the grad school experience is very similar.... *stares at pile of research reading* *whimpers* *wanders off to make more tea*

PeteMC said:

...I managed to get someone's beta done. And it was awesome. That person has mail.

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That person saw

Hope you get some sleep Pete!!!

'Morning Cantina! Another cold and sunny Canadian winter day. Fancy that.

Phoenix AZ normally has brilliantly sunny weather this time of year. For the Super Bowl and the Phoenix Open, the gods of weather gave us four days of rain and now a pea-soup fog so dense it would not be out of place in Dartmoor or San Francisco.

I'm enjoying it - fits my writing mood. I, too, am scrapping and reworking an entire mms from the ground up, and merging it with bits of a trunked mms. It's humbling and oddly exhilarating. Makes me glad I keep all my old writing.