Inspired by Mr. Unhappy Ice Planet, I went to a coffee shop (ostenibly to meet some friends) and wrote for an hour before they'd arrived.
I've had an intro paragraph for a new story bubbling in my lobes for a few days now, but no idea where it was going to go.
I know where it's going now, and I've got 660 words to prove it. Thanks Tim!

My 'technique' that gives me something to write about: Mull over a bunch of ingredients, including characters, their relationships with each other at a few points in time, vague ideas of conflicts and issues to deal with, and a little bit of plot. Then ball it all up and stuff it down the barrel of a sideshow cannon and shoot it out at a given trajectory. Strap on jet pack and fly around the cloud of debris, describing it in flight. If it all comes crashing down too fast, stuff it all back in the cannon and choose a new trajectory...

Which is why I have difficulty thinking about writing short stories.

My technique is as follows:

10 Have an idea.
20 Think about it further.
30 Do fuck all with it.
40 GOTO 10

I seem to get all my short story ideas while taking a shower or sitting on the crapper.

One of my favorites was your scarecrow story, Shadoth. It is really cool watching your writing evolve just over these past few years.

I wonder if you're referring to the "Jeremy Crow" about the kid with a cloak of crows, or "Toke" where the gang of roughs kills the scarecrow and smokes him, to unpleasant results. If the former, then that just appeared in Electric Velocipede, and will soon be world famous as the first Veridon story. If the latter, then that will be coming shortly from Interzone.

Thank you, btw. My craft really has come a long way in a short time. This community has been integral to that. I hope to meet you all on tour, someday.

quote:

I hope to meet you all on tour, someday.

That would be very cool.

My writing is basically non existant on paper. I've finished something like three short stories, all for school. But I have about two novels that I no longer like roughed outin my head. Better than that, i've been working on the same graphic novel (originally novel, but got caught in medium shift) for about three years now. Most of its still in my head, but a decent chunck of notes are on paper. I'm spending most of my creative time these days working on improving my drawing rather than writing.

quote:

Originally posted by Shadoth:
I wonder if you're referring to the "Jeremy Crow" about the kid with a cloak of crows, or "Toke" where the gang of roughs kills the scarecrow and smokes him, to unpleasant results. If the former, then that just appeared in Electric Velocipede, and will soon be world famous as the first Veridon story. If the latter, then that will be coming shortly from Interzone.

Thank you, btw. My craft really has come a long way in a short time. This community has been integral to that. I hope to meet you all on tour, someday.

I was refering to _Toke_ but _Jeremy Crow_ is just as good. Maybe E.D. would set up a reading at the KGB bar. That would be a cool reason for a road trip.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Eric,

Oh, I'd love to do a reading at the KGB. I don't think I'm at that point, fame-wise. Someday.

What Marshie said about noodling around in your head with characters and so forth got me thinking, about how that could still be classified as productive time even if it wasn't words on the page, it got me thinking. To whit:

I think he's right, but I think it's a slippery path. It's very easy to spend a lot of time doing that stuff, and even though you aren't actually getting anywhere you can still tell yourself that you're writing. I know this because I did it for *years*, where I'd say "I'm going to go write." And then I'd go to whatever cloistered habitat I favored at that point in my life, and I'd make notes and fiddle with characters and so forth. Never wrote any of those stories. By the time I had noodled them out, I was bored with them. On to the next thing. But never actually writing.

So you obviously have to do that stuff, but I aggresively try to limit it. Maybe section off some time for specifically that, but also section off time for specifically not that. For words on page, and nothing else.

Anyway. It's tough. I've managed to take all the real magic out of writing and knuckle it into craft. That doesn't mean I don't love doing it, but it was a lot easier daydreaming about stories. Meh.

How many of your books have been published Shadoth? Where can I get them?

What the Dead Channel has really beaten into me over the past few months is, if you have a story idea you'd better write it down. Don't sit back and start noodling, because you risk getting bored with the story and never writing it.

The stories I managed to get written were all pieces that I started because I had an idea, but without knowing if I was going to be able to work them out. I wrote them from start to finish and then went back to fix them. The stories which I haven't managed to write are the ones where I started noodling around and trying to plan things out.

So, Mr. Shadoth, you are right, which should come as no surprise.

Archie - I'm what you'd call new. All I've sold to date are short stories. And that's only been happening with any success in the last year. I've finished one book, which was crap, but good enough to catch an agent's eye and start a...uh...dialogue. Which may lead somewhere someday. I'm about a third or half or not at all the way through my second book.

You can, however, catch a bit of my writing at the Dead Channel , along with the work of Mr. Colin and Mr. Coil.

I have to admit, pretty shit day for me. My dad had the old emergency appendectemy today. Exciting. He's a very stubborn man. He'll admit to having pain as far back as thursday, but the doc said it must have been going on longer than that, considering the progression. Anyway. He'll probably be okay. But these are the kinds of things that keep you from writing, and maybe later come out in a different story. Quite so.

quote:

Originally posted by colin:
What the Dead Channel has really beaten into me over the past few months is, if you have a story idea you'd better write it down. Don't sit back and start noodling, because you risk getting bored with the story and never writing it.

I have to agree with you there- I get my best idea at work- I have often thought I'll write them down later- But, I always for get them- Now I keep a order pad near so I can write down the ideas for stories and pictures real quick--

Things happen quickly, sometimes. Sometimes you check your word count and it's 20k, and a little while later you check again and you're approaching 40. I've always thought of 40k as the metaphysical center of the book. Maybe not word count-wise, or length-wise, but the center of the story. And I feel like I'm there, finally. Like the little things that I've been dribbling along, the complications and relationships and clues, I feel like that's all coming together. It's a hell of a thing. It wasn't like this the first time, not at all. The first book was like writing with a bloody finger. This is like silk, baby. Smoove.

I can already see stuff that I'll have to rewrite. Revelations that I'll have to foreshadow, background information that I'll have to bury in the scenery from page one. Little shit. I have a notebook full of little shit. But I have a laptop full of novel, and it feels goddamn good.

quote:

But I have a laptop full of novel, and it feels goddamn good.

Don't forget the back-up.

Send me a copy. I'll back it up for you.

Strangely, I feel like I'm pretty much in the middle of Break to Bind, and after adding it all together, I find I have a little over 41,000 words. Crappy words, but 41,000 of them, dammit!

Feel free to share giblets, tidbits, drumsticks or whole animals with us as you please...

Funny, I just checked and Sweet Moonlight in its current state, is just over 40,000 words. I thought 40,000 words meant you could call it a "short novel" with a straight face.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: colin,