Space Marine and Dragonwrangler Bar & Grill

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LadyV

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Gais, does anyone else think that if the cabbage in LadyV's avatar trips up, it's going to chop itself in half? :D
I hope it does. I hate cabbage.

It still makes my brain go a little :Wha: when I watch the movie version of the musical 1776, since KITT was voiced by William Daniels, who plays John Adams in the movie..
And Mr. Feeney on Boy Meets World. :D


And this is the last time you'll see me until this evening. I swear.

*initiates self-ban until adequate words are written*
 

Kricket

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Don't even get me started on that or I'll be whining like a broken motor for hours and feeling all the worse for it. The whole 'being thought-provoking' is the other side of this latest inferiority complex. There's not being smart enough (which I now admit is my own low self-esteem on writing-based issues talking) and there's not being profound enough to write anything but cheap nonsense.

I don't know if you've noticed but there's been a lot of "cheap nonsense" that has made a lot of money and been very popular the last few years.

Really, it all gets down to this. If you enjoy writing and telling stories, then do it. If it causes you too much anxiety and pain then find something else to do that you do enjoy.
 

Raventongue

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When "this person" is, as is the case with me, in fact a collection of some of the most well-regarded science fiction authors in history, it becomes a little bit tricky to think of things I can bring to the sci-fi table that they can't.

No no no no and no. Nobody's worth is measured by how much they can bring to the sci-fi table. Nobody's worth is measured by what they can and can't do, at all, ever, end of story. That is a dangerous, dangerous road to go down and there is no reason it should ever have been paved by whatever dumbass/event/malevolent deity did so in the first place.

Unless what you think you can't do is something like "stop beating up five-year-olds" or "stop putting rat poison in my wife's food", it has no impact whatsoever on whether you suck or not.
 

Reservoir Angel

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I don't know if you've noticed but there's been a lot of "cheap nonsense" that has made a lot of money and been very popular the last few years.
I don't want to be like Stephenie Meyer or E.L. James, writing horrible and vapid but profitable and marketable crap.

No offence to people here who might like those authors' work, it's just the first two examples that popped into my head when I thought "bad but somehow massively popular."

Really, it all gets down to this. If you enjoy writing and telling stories, then do it. If it causes you too much anxiety and pain then find something else to do that you do enjoy.
I do enjoy writing... it just manages to simultaneously be one of the most annoying things I've ever put my mind to. It kind of depends on the day of the week whether the fun or the crushing annoyance wins over my mind.

Today the crushing annoyance is winning. :(
 

Raventongue

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Well I don't consider my self the perfect parent by any means, so I try not to judge too much. But sometimes I can't help it.

I can totally emphasize and agree with trying not tojudge too much, but that doesn't mean you have no room to judge at all. Dude, if being perfect were a prerequisite for being discontent with injustice, nothing and no one would ever improve. And if nothing and no one ever improved, potty training would be the least of your worries.

In the area of potty training at least, you are a better parent than your sister. Perfect and its opposite do not even enter the equation.
 

CAMueller

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I don't want to be like Stephenie Meyer or E.L. James, writing horrible and vapid but profitable and marketable crap.

No offence to people here who might like those authors' work, it's just the first two examples that popped into my head when I thought "bad but somehow massively popular."

I'll agree that E.L. James' writing is dreadful. However, both these authors have something in common: They know how to pull readers through a story.

I feel like there are those writers who can tell a story, but have little flair for prose (both of those above fall into that category, though I think Meyer is far more engaging). Then there are those who can paint amazing visuals with their words, but plot escapes them. You can read a chapter and then put it down for days.

All my favorite authors can do both. Though, it feels more a rarity these days.


ION: Today is the day of too many meetings. Two down. Two to go. Rounds one and two were epic wastes of time. Let's hope the next one is productive. /whine
 

Black-Marlin

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Evening all. I've been lurking awhiles, checking out the Cantina crowd (Cylons in the far corner, I'm watching you) and now I think I'll pull up a bar stool and ask for a shot of that Ol' Janx Spirit (leave the bottle, barkeep, leave the bottle).

My tuppence worth, for what it's worth (about 3 US cents, according to google converter) is the observation that a lot of the science in science fiction is basically 'Abracadabra!' with - sometimes - a couple of equations thrown in for good measure. All you're looking for - unless you're a sci-fi author in the mould of AC Clarke or Larry Niven - is a superficial gloss of feasibility.

An example from my own work (go on, indulge me). I write about military spacecraft. The primary close-range [because the inverse square law holds true in space too] antiship weapons are lasers. Some ships employ 'refractory shielding' as a defence. Others use an armour of 'contiguous microspines', which are capable of 'bending' impacting laser-fire by diverting the photons along planes of zero reflectivity. The practical upshot of this is that a laser will bounce off at right angles.

Now, I am not a scientist. There are huge problems with the systems I just described. But the problems aren't obvious - at least on a superficial level - and so the systems sound feasible enough to be getting on with. They won't convince a scientist who knows even the basics of high-energy physics, but they sound damn impressive to a layperson like me. Since my books are written for laypeople, not specialists (because I don't know enough to fool them for long, and they're a smaller audience [read: 'potential market'] anyway) I'm quite happy with that.

The function of research is to enable you to lie convincingly. Anything beyond that is a bonus.


Ol' Janx Spirit, anyone?

BM
 

jallenecs

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The function of research is to enable you to lie convincingly. Anything beyond that is a bonus.


Ol' Janx Spirit, anyone?

BM

What Marlin said.

Hi, Marlin, nice to meet you. Pull up a chair and stay a while. Watch out for the raptors and the kraken. Help yourself to the smibbles and the EZ Freeze.


ETA:
ION remember what I said about how the first paragraph was the hardest part? Oh, how right I was. I got about 500 words in and realized I was writing THAT PAGE. You know the one: the infodump at the beginning of the story, trying to get my story engine into gear and all I'm really doing is grinding my transmission to ugly powder.

So I found a good cutting place and tossed out an entire morning's writing. I was able to save two -- count 'em TWO -- paragraphs out of that entire mess. How aggravating.

Murder your darlings, indeed!
 

10trackers

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:hi: Marlin.

Another Scottish person, huh? I don't know whether to flee or make myself comfortable.
 

cameomac

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I thought watching these programs about iconic science fiction authors would help inspire me... instead it's just made me feel dumb and inferior. :(

Why do I insist on doing things that put me in bad moods? I suck...

There's nothing I can say that other people here haven't said either more eloquently or more succinctly, so... :Hug2:.

The best way to get children to talk is to withhold things. "You want fed? Then ask for food - no pointing." He'll get the message quickly enough. :D

Food really does seem to be the way through most problems with children...

Oddly enough, I've found that withholding tickets to comic conventions works just as well.

Evening all. I've been lurking awhiles, checking out the Cantina crowd (Cylons in the far corner, I'm watching you) and now I think I'll pull up a bar stool and ask for a shot of that Ol' Janx Spirit (leave the bottle, barkeep, leave the bottle).

Ol' Janx Spirit, anyone?

BM

Depends on what the forfeit is.
 

Black-Marlin

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Jallenecs - Raptors, eh? That explains the muttered "clever girl" I heard a while ago. And also why none of the bar snacks have lysine in them. But what, pray tell, is a smibble?

CAMueller - I believe you. Waaaaaait a minute...

10trackers - I don't know what effect the following information is likely to have on you, but.... I'm not Scottish. I'm from God's own country psychiatric ward, Northern Ireland.

Say, these bar snacks are tasty though. Tribbles 'n' bits? Very moreish. Must be the thionite...
 

amergina

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Gais,

I'm going to see Les Mis (the stage production not the movie) tomorrow night.

With a guy. Who invited me.

:gone:
 

10trackers

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10trackers - I don't know what effect the following information is likely to have on you, but.... I'm not Scottish. I'm from God's own country psychiatric ward, Northern Ireland.

Ireland? Oh. Oh, my. :e2brows:

Let me show you around. This here is the EZ-Freeze... :e2teeth:
 

Reservoir Angel

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I have a feeling what was supposed to be a short story is going to end up running well into "novelette" territory.

Gais,

I'm going to see Les Mis (the stage production not the movie) tomorrow night.

With a guy. Who invited me.

:gone:
I would literally kill for the chance of being invited to Les Misérables by an attractive man... lucky dickens.
 

Black-Marlin

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10trackers - So, EZ-Freeze...that's the stuff you use to turn 3-day-old grape-juice into 10-year-old cabernet sauvignon in about 2 weeks, isn't it?

Pass it here, pass it here, and let me tell you the marvellous - nay, mystical - story of poteen...
 

10trackers

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10trackers - So, EZ-Freeze...that's the stuff you use to turn 3-day-old grape-juice into 10-year-old cabernet sauvignon in about 2 weeks, isn't it?

Pass it here, pass it here, and let me tell you the marvellous - nay, mystical - story of poteen...

*listens raptly to melodious lilt. edges ever so slightly closer to the door of the EZ-Freeze*
 

_Sian_

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10trackers - So, EZ-Freeze...that's the stuff you use to turn 3-day-old grape-juice into 10-year-old cabernet sauvignon in about 2 weeks, isn't it?

Pass it here, pass it here, and let me tell you the marvellous - nay, mystical - story of poteen...

It's where she locks all the hot men for safekeeping until she wants to visit them all. Think 'large body refrigerator'.
 

Black-Marlin

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*listens raptly to melodious lilt. edges ever so slightly closer to the door of the EZ-Freeze*

I think I only lilt melodiously when reading poetry (which has to be done aloud in any case - reading a poem on a page is only half the experience. Have you ever tried reading Milton out loud? It's like chocolate for your ears). The rest of the time, in my accent, 'power shower' is 'par shar' and 'owl' is 'aul'....

But if you would like me to read poetry at you...
 

cameomac

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Gais,

I'm going to see Les Mis (the stage production not the movie) tomorrow night.

With a guy. Who invited me.

:gone:

I have a feeling what was supposed to be a short story is going to end up running well into "novelette" territory.


I would literally kill for the chance of being invited to Les Misérables by an attractive man... lucky dickens.

Wait; she didn't say he was attractive.

Well...is he? Dirty Inquiring minds want to know
 
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