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joab1
Your friend does sound like an interesting character. I've known a few bathroom poets, but never a bathroom short story writer. I am aware that Harlan Ellison used to claim he could write a short story on demand, but I never could in a short period of time. With me it turns into free writing and generally requires quite a bit of revision.
posted by
notapoet
on October 8, 2007 at 8:07 PM
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Comment on Writing at length
I had a friend who was a writer and he always carried a grease pencil with him. He said "give him an empty stall, a blank wall, and before he was done with his business, he would write a short story." He was an interesting person. joab
posted by
joab1
on October 7, 2007 at 10:42 AM
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FineYoungSinger,
Good for you. Keep at and you'll get there. I constantly do the same thing myself. As long as I remember to keep writing while I do all my reading, I figure it's time well spent. I can't lose this way, whether the novel ever gets published or not. I still get the fun of trying, and the joy of reading bunches of good stuff in the process.
posted by
notapoet
on October 7, 2007 at 4:36 AM
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Hi notapoet
My all-time dream is to write a novel. I have so many ideas, but have no clue how to even get started. I've written plays, poetry, business articles, technical manuals, how-to pieces, a zillion internet search engine articles sponsored by some corporate raider or another, short stories, character sketches, advertisement copy, short bios, press releases...But once I start with the novel, it seems I haven't been able to build it. It falls off the pages, because I can't seem to get the story flowing.
So I'm getting back into reading novels again. Picking them apart, taking notes on how they are constructed, finding the basic elements and threads that make up a great contemporary novel, and then I'm going to try again.
posted by
FineYoungSinger
on October 5, 2007 at 6:56 AM
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RobertMadang
Thanks for stopping by and sharing with me. I wish you success with your poetry and your book. It's possible that you are sitting on the book because you feel it may not be ready for a publisher. After this length of time it may pay to look at it again and see if some revision might give you more confidence. It also might help to enlist the aid of a friend or acquaintance who could read it and give you an honest evaluation of what you've got. It's possible that a little more work might give you the confidence to send it out.
posted by
notapoet
on October 4, 2007 at 10:39 PM
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You are most fortunate that you know yourself. You know your strength and weakness. Most don't even know what they are really good at and in the end ending up doing a little bit of everything which are not up to the mark. I am one of those persons. I have been sitting on a 70,000 words book for the last 5 years and still couldn't approach a publisher yet. However, in the last three months, I have grown to like poetry very much and have written about 30 poems so far.
posted by
RobertMadang
on October 4, 2007 at 2:52 AM
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Tell me about it, W_E
I've got to finish my blogging break and go back to sports writing for a while. Deadlines, ya know. And yes, I did notice that you were working and blogging at the same time. Very impressive. I wish I could do that. I keep getting sidetracked whenever one of the lovely ladies of Blogit pays me the slightest bit of attention.
posted by
notapoet
on October 4, 2007 at 2:20 AM
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notapoet
thanks
I think I'm beginning to like you again
... and now it's time for another coffee break (it's a hard life trying to work while blogging at the same time!)
... I'm exhasuted already!
posted by
White_Elephant
on October 4, 2007 at 2:15 AM
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Don't sell yourself short, W_E
Remember what I said about sometimes needing assistance from others to properly evaluate talent and strengths. Based on what I've seen, and the judgment of others on Blogit, I'd say you're doing much better than holding your own.
posted by
notapoet
on October 4, 2007 at 2:11 AM
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notapoet
talent?
... Oh I've taken stock of my personal abilities all right but IT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD!
posted by
White_Elephant
on October 4, 2007 at 2:06 AM
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