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Chapter 1 - DONE!
Jan. 13th, 2010 11:02 amWell, it's done insofar as I have an end in sight for the poor sucker and I have started in on Chapter 2.
Yesterday, over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
therightfangirl, the subject came up of who is a writer and how do we deal with online writing groups that don't necessarily hold our same views. It's inevitable - online groups not devoted to politics tend to dabble in the topic from time to time. And these weasels tend to be uber-liberal (like, so liberal that it would put George Soros and the Clintons to shame - the kind of "krazy-kook" liberal that is beyond any sort of mortal reason). It gets worse for writing groups where the writers insist that an explicit sex scene and/or ample use of the F-bomb automatically makes for good fiction. I tend to disagree with that assessment, but that's hard for these nerds to grasp on a common sense level (we have the intellectual level all sewn up, it seems XP).
This is why I have not sought an online writing group. My attempts at relatively clean fiction were not appreciated in my face-to-face fiction writing class and they would certainly not be appreciated in these less-civilized online circles. I mean, it's not like I'm writing fiction for five-year-olds. There's plenty of violence and adult situations to contend with in my story, but I try to keep it PG-13. There's a tendency for online writers to go the whole hog beyond NC-17. I've had occasion to think about it - for example: how difficult is it to show that a couple is in love by having them jump into bed together? It's not hard at all and a lot of writers just fall back on that because they can't think of anything else to do. But some of us would appreciate a great story more if the main characters didn't jump in the sack the first opportunity, but developed the relationship the way it would happen in real life (well, the way it would happen if real life was the ideal).
Oh geez - I'm getting off track. Anyway, this lack of a regular group to read and critique my work has led to my being somewhat lax in discipline to write. BUT - reading the posts and comments at TRF helped me feel motivated again (the_rightwriter where we can showcase our work and critique each other. Most that are joining T_RW are girls from TRF and I've gotten to know some of them from being on the comm and I think that I could benefit from their experience and darn it, all of them are very, very nice! And it doesn't hurt that they have similar views to my own (we've already discussed the fact that we don't like the gratuitous sex scenes in fiction).
But, I was looking over some of what some of the girls have written before and a lot of my shyness about publishing online came back. For the following reasons:
1. A lot of these people have already been published before and seem to know what they're doing, whereas I'm a relative newbie to the online writing world. I have a great fear of accidentally making a tremendous faux pas and thus making a complete idiot of myself that I will be shell-shocked from ever posting again.
2. My story has a terrible habit of changing dramatically and I'm afraid if I post it that I'll go back and change things and it'll make it unrecognizable.
3. Also, a fear of losing said motivation, especially if a review goes really bad. What can I say? I'm a bit sensitive.
Then, I think of George McFly in "Back to the Future" (he's my favorite character in the first movie and I'm sad that Crispin Glover was not in the second and third movies). He's sitting in the lunchroom writing and Marty comes up and asks to see what George is doing. George gives him the line about "I can't take that kind of rejection." But if you've seen the movie (and if you haven't, you should), George gets over his fears and gets published in the end (darn it, I spoiled it for you... oh well...)
So, I am buckling down and doing like George. I am going to deck the bullies that block my writing process. Because I can't go much further without some feedback. And I'm going to take whatever criticism as constructive because that's how we help each other out. And I have an awesome story to share!
(What the crap am I still doing on LJ? On to the writings!!)
Yesterday, over at
therightfangirl, the subject came up of who is a writer and how do we deal with online writing groups that don't necessarily hold our same views. It's inevitable - online groups not devoted to politics tend to dabble in the topic from time to time. And these weasels tend to be uber-liberal (like, so liberal that it would put George Soros and the Clintons to shame - the kind of "krazy-kook" liberal that is beyond any sort of mortal reason). It gets worse for writing groups where the writers insist that an explicit sex scene and/or ample use of the F-bomb automatically makes for good fiction. I tend to disagree with that assessment, but that's hard for these nerds to grasp on a common sense level (we have the intellectual level all sewn up, it seems XP).This is why I have not sought an online writing group. My attempts at relatively clean fiction were not appreciated in my face-to-face fiction writing class and they would certainly not be appreciated in these less-civilized online circles. I mean, it's not like I'm writing fiction for five-year-olds. There's plenty of violence and adult situations to contend with in my story, but I try to keep it PG-13. There's a tendency for online writers to go the whole hog beyond NC-17. I've had occasion to think about it - for example: how difficult is it to show that a couple is in love by having them jump into bed together? It's not hard at all and a lot of writers just fall back on that because they can't think of anything else to do. But some of us would appreciate a great story more if the main characters didn't jump in the sack the first opportunity, but developed the relationship the way it would happen in real life (well, the way it would happen if real life was the ideal).
Oh geez - I'm getting off track. Anyway, this lack of a regular group to read and critique my work has led to my being somewhat lax in discipline to write. BUT - reading the posts and comments at TRF helped me feel motivated again (
the_rightwriter where we can showcase our work and critique each other. Most that are joining T_RW are girls from TRF and I've gotten to know some of them from being on the comm and I think that I could benefit from their experience and darn it, all of them are very, very nice! And it doesn't hurt that they have similar views to my own (we've already discussed the fact that we don't like the gratuitous sex scenes in fiction).But, I was looking over some of what some of the girls have written before and a lot of my shyness about publishing online came back. For the following reasons:
1. A lot of these people have already been published before and seem to know what they're doing, whereas I'm a relative newbie to the online writing world. I have a great fear of accidentally making a tremendous faux pas and thus making a complete idiot of myself that I will be shell-shocked from ever posting again.
2. My story has a terrible habit of changing dramatically and I'm afraid if I post it that I'll go back and change things and it'll make it unrecognizable.
3. Also, a fear of losing said motivation, especially if a review goes really bad. What can I say? I'm a bit sensitive.
Then, I think of George McFly in "Back to the Future" (he's my favorite character in the first movie and I'm sad that Crispin Glover was not in the second and third movies). He's sitting in the lunchroom writing and Marty comes up and asks to see what George is doing. George gives him the line about "I can't take that kind of rejection." But if you've seen the movie (and if you haven't, you should), George gets over his fears and gets published in the end (darn it, I spoiled it for you... oh well...)
So, I am buckling down and doing like George. I am going to deck the bullies that block my writing process. Because I can't go much further without some feedback. And I'm going to take whatever criticism as constructive because that's how we help each other out. And I have an awesome story to share!
(What the crap am I still doing on LJ? On to the writings!!)
