The Eldritch Tomb of Unknowable Caffeine

aliwood said:

Please can I use this? Pleeeeeese!

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Go for it.

I don't have any dwarves in any of my WIPs right at this point, so I have no use for the Dwark. Besides, it was your typo.

Afternoon, Cantina.

Just got back from Age of Ultron! It was good, but there are also many things I wish had been different. And some sexism I could have done without
Fun movie overall, though.

Good morning Cantina. Off to dayjob in just over an hour.

zanzjan said:

Sending extra healing vibes towards your SIL, Eye. Scary not knowing.

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JJ Litke said:

Ugh, that's horrible.

*fingers crossed*

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Thanks. On the upside, she was noticeably eating better yesterday than she was previously, managing two courses at the Harvester's we all went to for lunch. So there's that. And from what I know about sarcoidosis (i.e. what I looked up online) it can clear up by itself, eventually. It's an autoimmune condition usually. (I have one of those, namely iritis. Not at the moment, though.)

So I'm working on three stories, Filigree has four, Mr Eye seems to have more than one.

How many stories are you working on right now?



I think it will be interesting to contrast folks who haven't published anything with people who have. I reckon already published folks will have more concentrated minds and will be working on fewer things.

Oh, dear... I have one novel ready to publish, so that doesn't count. Otherwise I have...

3 novels and a novella - first draft written, need edits.
2 novels and a novella - first draft in progress.
Countless WIPs in the planning stages.
And a collection of short stories that needs "intros" added before each story, even though each story is ready to go.

And I might be forgetting some.

Yeah. I have this habit of starting new things and letting old things languish. Bad author, bad!

Oh, right. The movie script! I knew I was forgetting something!

So that's 2/3 of a movie script written, which will probably need pruning once it's done, to add to the big ol' WIP list.

Blimey Cliff! That's just, just... *stands amazed at your productivity*

Oh, I'm not working on all of them at the same time! They're the result of about 7 years of on-and-off writing. Right now, I'm working on a first draft, and probably in May I'll start in on edits on a different book. I can sometimes focus on 2 projects at once, but never more than that it seems.

And yeah - all unpublished as yet.

In other news... I've just started re-watching Buffy, and it reminds me just what can be done with quality writing. When I first watched this show, I had no idea I'd ever want to be a writer, but it was an instant favourite, and I now know that this was because of the writing. The acting's good as well, but the writing just tickles me just the right way.

If I can ever write that well, I'll count myself as a success.

Let's see... I've got 4 half-way done novels, 2 mostly-done-but-in-need-of-major-rewrite novels, 1 done-but-needs-major-editing-because-I-know-better-now novel, and 6ish short stories to edit.

So yeah. My plan's to fix up a bunch of those by the end of this year, ideally. I'd like to end the year with around 4 novels in the second draft stage.

I have a gazillion barely-started WiPs that will probably never see fruition. Optimism!

Define "in progress." I only have one short story, one script for BGA, one script for Fortuna, and one horror one off script with actual draft writing completed. But when an idea attacks, I'll spend a day or two brainstorming, spot researching, outlining, seeing if the story has legs. THOSE I have dozens lying around, either waiting for me to get around to them, or, if I decide they won't work, simply decomposing until I can cannibalize their corpses, metaphorically speaking.

Okay, I take that back. I have maybe three novel or novella stories that I got two or three chapters in and then couldn't get any further. I keep wanting to go back to them, and maybe I will. But, for all intents and purposes, they are on the "decomposing corpse" stack rather than the WIP stack.

I have too many things that could probably count as 'in progress'. The fact that I'll be finished my Camp NaNo story in a couple of days and then I'll have to choose what to work on next is literally giving me nightmares.

One novel, very rough draft.
One polished novel with a couple of failed query rounds, and rewritten opening (not queried with new opening yet).
*Both novels on hold in favor of solid focus on short stories.
Two short stories still in first draft stage.
Two short stories about to go out on submission after one last polishing round.
Six shorts out on subs.

Also six more novels that may be on permanent hold, and I only mention because otherwise it looks like I haven't done much writing.

amergina said:

(7) have an outline for my 100-years war based fantasy

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Ooo, I really want to read that! I did a whole lot of research on the subject for what ended up being a couple of vague references in one of my novels.

Good morning Cantina!

I'm feeling slightly better today. My head doesn't feel like it wants to explode anymore, or burst into flames. There's still a lot of sinus pressure, though. I'm just hoping I improve more by tomorrow, because I have to go back to work. Boo!

In regards to stories, I have one finished book, my current WIP, which is in the process of a total rewrite. The first draft was just awful. Another is a partially written first draft. And the last one is only an idea. I doubt any of them will ever get written, unless I rediscover my desire to write.

How do you feel about swearing in writing? I am ambivalent, myself. I'm a nice church lady and all that, but I actually like swearing; in some situations, the proper swear word is satisfying in a way that few other words can be. Come on, I'm married to a truck driver, and my oldest friend is a Gulf War (the first one) Marine. I've heard language that would make your cat's hair fall out. "Creative" doesn't begin to describe it.

I'm not one of those religious people who think cussing is sinful, either. I know the origins of English swears: it's crass and rude, but not sinful.

You wanna hear something odd? My boys will go out of their way to avoid swearing, to the point of creating wildly meandering euphemisms for even the most innocuous swear. On the other hand, my girls both have the most shocking potty mouths. You'd think it'd be the other way around. And you can't blame it on bad examples, because my husband and I are pretty much even on our cussing levels. Riddle me that one, Batman!

ANYWAY, under most circumstances, I try to keep my cussing to a minimum online, and, strangely enough, I almost never swear in my writing. I don't really have a good explanation for why; I'm not really a prude. It just doesn't seem to come out of my character's mouths. I definitely avoid swearing on my blog, again for no good reason I can consciously identify.

But today's installment of my serial story (April Tyree, Girl Detective, my own modest attempt at the Occult Detective subgenre), my lead, April, suddenly said, "Well, sh**!" in response to something in the story, and it shocked me so much it knocked me out of the writing zone. Very unexpected (though it certainly applies to the situation she finds herself in), and I worry that maybe I shouldn't do it.

There's a part of me that says, "Replace it! Remember your junior high English teacher reads your blog!" (she does; it's a freaky feeling) On the other hand, a part of me is saying, "Leave it in! Even better, you can make it a signature line, like "Hell's bells" for Harry Dresden!"

Thoughts?

Published? One.

In-progress, whether actually being written or just in outline/notes? The four I mentioned plus six more.

That's not counting the art side of my workload, which consists of seven or eight book arts sculptures I'd like to get done before Q3 this year. Three of those are far enough along they 'only' need another 20 or so hours of work, each.

And two day jobs.

Re: swearing. Whatever fits the character and situation, I'd say. Given what I tend to write (sexually explicit fantasy and science fiction), I'm already not worried about what family and acquaintances might think of me writing mere curse words.

But it's a great way to introduce worldbuilding.

Example from my secondary world fantasy: two groups of people worship the same volcano goddess. One group will go out of its way to never mention the goddess by name, because they think that wakes her up (thereby endangering the entire world). The other group cheerfully and explicitly swears by her name, body parts, and attributes all the time. Drives the first group to paranoia and distraction.

In my space opera universe, for several reasons, one culture is just not that familiar with bodily wastes anymore. So, for a person to say 'Oh, s**t!' is more extraordinary and vulgar than it might seem at first.

Filigree said:

Re: swearing. Whatever fits the character and situation, I'd say. Given what I tend to write (sexually explicit fantasy and science fiction), I'm already not worried about what family and acquaintances might think of me writing mere curse words.

But it's a great way to introduce worldbuilding.

Example from my secondary world fantasy: two groups of people worship the same volcano goddess. One group will go out of its way to never mention the goddess by name, because they think that wakes her up (thereby endangering the entire world). The other group cheerfully and explicitly swears by her name, body parts, and attributes all the time. Drives the first group to paranoia and distraction.

In my space opera universe, for several reasons, one culture is just not that familiar with bodily wastes anymore. So, for a person to say 'Oh, s**t!' is more extraordinary and vulgar than it might seem at first.

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Until Mom got sick, she was my first proof reader (it's handy to have an English teacher in the family), so I worried a lot about shocking her sensibilities. She's dead now, so I don't have to think that way any more. Having that teacher reading my blog brings back a little of that feeling, but not as much.

And I love your idea for your space opera's cussing. It's terrific character and world building stuff!

I think I'm going to go with the cussing. I've polled the character, but she refuses to give me an alternative line, so I think I'm stuck for it. It rubs me funny to have to deal with this situation. On the other hand, the fact that she so openly and stubbornly refuses to accommodate me tells me that I've done a good job in birthing this particular character (at least in my head; whether she's coming across that well in the story is another conversation).

Morning Cantina.

*Rolls a new barrel of coffee up to the tap*

aliwood said:

So I'm working on three stories, Filigree has four, Mr Eye seems to have more than one.

How many stories are you working on right now?

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Define 'working'. I've got one shortie continuously out on submission, another that I'm editing (whenever I have time to edit), about 2-3 others that are in serious need of editing, and a novel (in sig) in a very, very, very rough draft form.

LadyV said:

Good morning Cantina!

I'm feeling slightly better today. My head doesn't feel like it wants to explode anymore, or burst into flames. There's still a lot of sinus pressure, though. I'm just hoping I improve more by tomorrow, because I have to go back to work. Boo!

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*Has smibble-bot deliver coffee to LadyV*

Glad to hear you're doing better.

jallenecs said:

How do you feel about swearing in writing?

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Pervasive swearing for the sake of swearing is annoying. If it fits into a character that they swear a lot, then it's fine. I generally avoid swearing in writing just so that when it does occur it has more impact.

Isn't it weird the strange decisions you end up making for your characters? I had to make the cussing decision a little bit ago. And just a minute ago, I had to decide what sort of pistol my Girl Detective would carry: what would be a good weight and caliber, would she go for stopping power or fast reload, revolver vs. automatic, what about recoil, blah blah blah. And those decisions are IMPORTANT, they help define who this person is. Dirty Harry wouldn't be Dirty Harry without his "most powerful handgun in the world."

ANYWAY, I finished my blog entry for the day. Time to reward myself. I think I'll cook me something nice for lunch!

Hoplite said:

Define 'working'.

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Any story you believe to be as yet unfinished even if you have typed 'The End'.

Looking back through my files. I have the three previously declared stories. Two SSSFFSS stories that I might rewrite. Half an ATCT idea and a few others where I just have the basic premise such as 'Was St. Patrick the world's first eco-terrorist?'

Clearly my original idea about story production is incorrect, looking at what Zanz and Gina have said I need to be far more prolific. That said I went back to work on one of my storys earlier and wrote a whole new start. When I went to edit the original file there was a whole load of stuff to strip off the beginning, which was fair enough. Then I discovered that I had written the original piece in first person and the new bit in third person because I have an extra character now. More wrangling to come. Please get tea ready for tomorrow I am going to need a serious amount.

jallenecs said:

Dirty Harry wouldn't be Dirty Harry without his "most powerful handgun in the world."

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Every time I hear 'I know what you're thinking...' My brain ends up in one of those films.

Last year on another thread, people started posting swear word totals for their current novels. (I was a bit surprised to find that mine fell on the light side compared to some others.) I don't recall that anyone said they had none at all. Which really makes sense—if you're putting characters in terrible situations, then swearing is gonna happen, just like in real life. I don't see anything wrong with swearing as appropriate. It can serve a cathartic beneficial effect.

Manufactured swearing in novels can be dicey. It's possible to pull off, but I read a book last year that didn't accomplish that. Throughout the book, it never stopped being awkward and drawing too much attention to itself.