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Author Topic: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___  (Read 291579 times)

Willfor

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #75 on: February 05, 2012, 02:29:23 am »

To receive critique and be treated seriously, you must:

1. create a blog in which you must

2. write daily about what you've read

3. and what (or how much) you wrote (besides the blog)

4. provide a link to the blog to me / the thread (if you're not shy or whatever)

5. You must cut out your own stomach, and build an interface to your computer with your own life's blood and organs, because only death will show that you're truly serious about your craft.

Basically, Supermikhail, I have to agree with the assessment of your own disclaimers. You're giving out standards which no published author holds themselves to. If you miss a day of reading for any reason whatsoever, you're not worthy of being a writer? I know you don't want me to take you seriously, and I am trying to not make this sound like I'm attacking you here. However, I really don't want any potential writers to read this and become discouraged with themselves because of the obscene standards you've set out here.

And I think you wouldn't need therapy if you stopped holding yourself to these standards, and being hard on yourself when you can't live up to them. We're not some secret cabal of ninja-assassins who have to go out and rip out the hearts of our enemies on a daily basis (though I only speak for myself on this point). It's okay not to kill yourself in order to write. It does take dedication, but that dedication should not be peer-enforced. Instead, it should be self-enforced. There is such a thing as forcing yourself to write. There is such a thing giving up your free time, or making time to write. HOWEVER, there is such a thing as holding unrealistic expectations of what it means to suffer for your art, and then judging everyone else based on those.

Yes, I've used some hyperbole here. Hyperbole has a purpose. I'm not making fun of you, I am attempting to shock your system where you see it within my post.

The message completely without hyperbole:
* Don't discourage other writers by holding them to your own heavy expectations.
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In the wells of livestock vans with shells and garden sands /
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Supermikhail

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #76 on: February 05, 2012, 04:00:55 am »

D'accord.

I do mean to write these ideas in a diary, but somehow they always end up on the Internet. ::)
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Tiruin

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #77 on: February 05, 2012, 04:11:36 am »

You can try putting ideas down on Microsoft Word/Open Office/Notepad or anything that holds digital text.

Also, I guess I have to restate this.

Easy reading is Hard writing.

Don't be dismayed on what you write, it will improve in time. The only danger to improving writing is your Ego, and the limits you set on yourself. Though, Humans are a flexible race, able to adapt to every condition and obstacle set before them.

Hence, the reason for this nice thread. Which reminds me that I've forgotten to do my part on the weekly prompt. Oops.

Requesting everyone who has a story to share, and those who have criticism to say to put it all in Spoilers
« Last Edit: February 05, 2012, 04:15:58 am by Tiruin »
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Reudh

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #78 on: February 05, 2012, 05:33:10 am »

@Supermikhail

The best writers are crazy writers. :P

Supermikhail

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #79 on: February 05, 2012, 06:41:08 am »

Thanks, I guess. I'm going crazier by day. I've been feeling so bad, and I don't know whether from Wilfor's critique... or from my own craziness. So, putting the following in a diary won't help.

I didn't mean that you have to be religious about writing (that is, every free minute should be spent writing and you should flog yourself if you miss a day... wait, that was a hyperbole... I guess I don't understand hyperboles). My plan didn't demand any more than 15, say, minutes of writing a day. And it doesn't necessarily even have to be writing strictly, but any organized writing related activity such as brainstorming, reviewing your work... er. I may have run myself into a corner again. Also, well, I like to take breaks from routine or sometimes just am not in the mood...

Well, just needed to... say this.

I guess I just need to stop checking for updates in random places as it's not doing any good to my psyche.
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Reudh

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #80 on: February 05, 2012, 06:58:45 am »

Ideally, if you write for about 15-30 minutes a day it's fine. If you can get that much time to yourself, just write to your heart's content!

Sit down with a cup of coffee/tea/bourbon. Whatever relaxes you. Put some nice calming (or even agitating) music on.

And write! :D

You'd be surprised the quality that comes when one is fully relaxed.

Yoink

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #81 on: February 05, 2012, 07:04:18 am »

It's rather annoying... I don't have anywhere nice and relaxing to sit in my current house. :( My room has a decent desk, but there's icky carpet on the floor and traffic noise from outside. In my dining room/living room I'm most likely going to be interrupted a lot, and my stuff gets moved if I leave it out. That leaves my computer table, and well, I'm probably going to be playing games or looking at Lolcat pictures or something if I'm on here.
...The last time I actually did a decent bit of writing, was when I caught the wrong train and ended up out in the middle of nowhere, waiting for another train to take me back home. :P Good thing I brought my book! I've had this novel idea kicking around for ages, in fact I've even fleshed out much of the plot and started writing it twice before. It's getting motivated to write it that's the trouble.
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Deadmeat1471

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #82 on: February 05, 2012, 07:37:59 am »

So, I've been itching to write here again, and it may turn out woeful. I apologize strongly in advance because what I'm about to write (or the very fact of my writing it) may be unpleasant to people.

[REDACTED. REASON: DANGEROUS COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA]

But, in case I or anyone else takes this seriously, I'd like to remind myself/them that this is probably a bad idea based on the fact that I am the creator of the "Writers Guild" thread and it wasn't exactly thriving, as opposed to this one, which seems alive and kicking so far. Also, I'm sort of crazy (as in, about to be put into a mental hospital for therapy), so you're probably legally forbidden to take me seriously, unless you're a qualified medical person.

Arthur C. Clarke was crazy and shit and look how his work turned out.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2012, 07:40:02 am by Deadmeat1471 »
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Willfor

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #83 on: February 05, 2012, 11:14:07 am »

In the interests of trying to make you feel better about yourself, Supermikhail, I do think you have what it takes to be a great writer.

Also, I need to stop using hyperbole, because I just read my post again and I come across as such an asshole.
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In the wells of livestock vans with shells and garden sands /
Iron mixed with oxygen as per the laws of chemistry and chance /
A shape was roughly human, it was only roughly human /
Apparition eyes / Apparition eyes / Knock, apparition, knock / Eyes, apparition eyes /

Kattaroten

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #84 on: February 05, 2012, 03:22:10 pm »

Ok, here goes, the second part of Eric the Dwarf. This part is probably just as rife with grammatical errors, feel free to point them out... Feel just as free to point out strangeness in pacing. I don't know if I'm overdoing it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Dwarf Fortress: You have a team of hundreds working for four years to make a game where you save the world again. We have one guy for four years make a near-infinite world generator, write the physics,generate histories,form detailed descriptions of every human, elf, dwarf, and goblin generated, caverns, and huge randomly generated monsters made out of who knows what. You. guys. suck.

Urist McScoopbeard

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #85 on: February 05, 2012, 03:28:36 pm »

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yay! more Eric The dwarf

Ok so I had written some more of my hitmen story it's just a paragraph giving you a general idea of the characters.
I was writing further when I realized that the part I had written earlier is actually pretty close to the end of my story, so I went back and tried to devise a general plotline which I have and will now try and wrte up to my previous scene.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I suspect my punctuation is off, and that i've placed too many periods, hopefully it's readable.

as usual please critique and enjoy.
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Kattaroten

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #86 on: February 05, 2012, 03:45:22 pm »

Francis is a very interesting character indeed! One wouldn't think a hitman would be obsessed with cleanliness. It paints a nice picture of how a man like Francis would err... Inhume someone xD

Also, try breaking it into paragraphs, as was previously said. It makes it easier to read :D
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Dwarf Fortress: You have a team of hundreds working for four years to make a game where you save the world again. We have one guy for four years make a near-infinite world generator, write the physics,generate histories,form detailed descriptions of every human, elf, dwarf, and goblin generated, caverns, and huge randomly generated monsters made out of who knows what. You. guys. suck.

Urist McScoopbeard

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #87 on: February 05, 2012, 04:15:23 pm »

thanks, I was contemplating breaking it up but in its current form I decided to group it together because of its nature, in the next iteration there should b some more breaks.
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MaximumZero

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #88 on: February 06, 2012, 08:54:40 am »

Aaand now I'm gonna lurk this thread for a while.
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Johuotar

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Re: ___/The Writer's Apprenticeship\___
« Reply #89 on: February 06, 2012, 09:08:19 am »

posting to remind to read this when I get to my comp.
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