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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 7:31 pm
(This post was last modified: September 2, 2015 at 7:36 pm by Lemonvariable72.)
(September 2, 2015 at 7:19 pm)Alex K Wrote: (September 2, 2015 at 6:59 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: Are you familiar with the work of Fred Pohl. One of his favorite main characters has a computerized psychoanalyst that responds to his moods and conversation like a real human being.
I have a traumatic experience connected to the name. There is this novel "Last Theorem" written by Pohl and Arthur C. Clarke, no less. It is a horrible horrible hack job. A hot mess that doesn't seem to go anywhere and the most absurdly unreadable alien sub plot. Who let this get published, I wondered. I put it down after a few chapters and never touched anything by the guy again... Well I read childhoods end and my conclusion from that is that Arthur C. Clarke had a sort of jerky style at best. Now I've read 2 pohl works one earlier, one later. The earlier one was brainwave which is very good. The second was a novella called iron. Holy crap it was bad, even though it had a good concept and potentially interesting setting it was so meandering and soapish that I could barely read it. I was actually shocked they were written by the same guy.
On a side note I recommend brainwave, it will make you think hard.
Sorry wrong pol. I thought pol Anderson was ment
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 7:32 pm
(September 2, 2015 at 5:41 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: Awesome! I got an agreement for a trial period for the subforum. We need to keep it popular, though, in order to keep it alive! If you want I can write devils road ep 2.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 7:32 pm
(September 2, 2015 at 7:19 pm)Alex K Wrote: (September 2, 2015 at 6:59 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: Are you familiar with the work of Fred Pohl. One of his favorite main characters has a computerized psychoanalyst that responds to his moods and conversation like a real human being.
I have a traumatic experience connected to the name. There is this novel "Last Theorem" written by Pohl and Arthur C. Clarke, no less. It is a horrible horrible hack job. A hot mess that doesn't seem to go anywhere and the most absurdly unreadable alien sub plot. Who let this get published, I wondered. I put it down after a few chapters and never touched anything by the guy again...
Really? I haven't read him in a long time and when I did, my impression was mixed. But I did like several of his novels.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 7:34 pm
(This post was last modified: September 2, 2015 at 7:35 pm by Alex K.)
This is certainly not representative of their other work... I've never read anything else by him.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 7:39 pm
(September 2, 2015 at 5:41 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: Awesome! I got an agreement for a trial period for the subforum. We need to keep it popular, though, in order to keep it alive!
Now where is it? 
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 7:47 pm
(September 2, 2015 at 7:27 pm)Alex K Wrote: Exactly! I did that all the time with my last nonfiction thing. I had to shorten ithe almost finished manuscript by 50% because it had to be a short crash course format limited to 100k characters, and since it is a terribly painful process, I was always like, ok, these paragraphs here go in the next book! Whether it ever really does happen is not clear, but simply deleting two hours of hard work? I don't think so!
How do you even do that—count 100k characters? Microsoft Word doesn't do that. I guess you just see how many words fit on a page and multiply it by an average of 5 characters per word.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 7:53 pm
Maybe AF can have a whole forum for writers with separate discussions for those who want critiques and those who want to share and those who just want to talk about writing.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 8:36 pm
What then makes a writer good? I find I can't go by popularity, even though most writers who write for publication want that name recognition and big advances. Take Stephen King. He has a big name. I read just one of his novels and for the life of me could not figure out what the hype was all about. Commercial fiction has no excuse for being that bad.
As a writer, I want to write quality stuff that does not disappoint even the most discriminant read. If some big house wants to give me a 5 million dollar advanced royalty, I wouldn't turn it down, but I won't write junk just because that's what the publishers are looking for.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 8:40 pm
(September 2, 2015 at 7:39 pm)Alex K Wrote: (September 2, 2015 at 5:41 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: Awesome! I got an agreement for a trial period for the subforum. We need to keep it popular, though, in order to keep it alive!
Now where is it?
Fuck it was there a moment ago. It was idling, waiting to be used.
Dammit, it's been stolen.
Bet we'll find it up on bricks somewhere - probably in A69!
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
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RE: Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread
September 2, 2015 at 8:42 pm
(September 2, 2015 at 8:36 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: What then makes a writer good? I find I can't go by popularity, even though most writers who write for publication want that name recognition and big advances. Take Stephen King. He has a big name. I read just one of his novels and for the life of me could not figure out what the hype was all about. Commercial fiction has no excuse for being that bad.
As a writer, I want to write quality stuff that does not disappoint even the most discriminant read. If some big house wants to give me a 5 million dollar advanced royalty, I wouldn't turn it down, but I won't write junk just because that's what the publishers are looking for.
I think characters and situations that are compelling.
Rarely these days do I find a book I'll pick up and then read until I suddenly realise it's morning.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
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