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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 9, 2018 23:48:33 GMT
I know at least two people here, perhaps three, who have talked about their literary endeavours in the past.
I have had ideas since age 11 but I only recently decided to start to write seriously. I have various notebooks, sometimes used frenetically, sometimes ignored for years, and my current project settled in my mind in July 2002 when I was in Avignon. My notebook tells me that the idea came to fruition in September 2004 when I was in Vietnam. I remember even going to internet cafés to ask complete strangers about details that I needed. An important detail about this is that it was my very last trip before the parental disasters. I returned home and discovered that things were terribly wrong with my parents who lived far away. I did my best, but my father died in February 2005 and then, as many of you know, I took my mother to France and cared for her until her death in March 2016. Even though she was in a "home," my mind was not free. It takes a certain time to emerge from such an experience (at least, that is true for me), so it was only in mid 2017 that I picked up my idea and started to write seriously. There was an interruption (that annoying trip to Cuba), but really I have been writing quite seriously since my return.
In fact, it has caused me to be on this forum slightly less often. However, when you write, you get frustrated, you need breaks, and I am here many times throughout the day anyway.
I still don't know if I will finish my project, but it looks like I might. I have discovered all sorts of things about fiction that I had read about before but never really understood. For example, characters take on a life of their own and you are as surprised at what they do as any reader might be. This is wonderful in a way, but it is also terrible. I have spent a lot of time having to backtrack to "correct" previous events to eliminate discrepancies because of what those damned people are doing or said they did in the past.
It is also sort of exhilirating.
I am about at the halfway point and am now fixing and rewriting what I have done up until now before continuing to the second part, which promises to be totally different. So the first half has to be completely solid first. I don't what to have to rewrite everything again.
No, don't expect to ever read this. I have no illusions, and anyway, I am writing it in French.
Can anybody else talk about their writing experiences?
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Post by mich64 on Jan 10, 2018 2:07:32 GMT
In 2005 I began compiling a concept, character list, and a timeline for a novel. Then the events of 2006 happened. I actually had forgotten about it until I read this thread about your project. The file is probably still on my other lap top.
How exciting to be at the halfway point!
Have you ever been woken with dreams about your subject matter or locations? I do remember that, sometimes a bizarre combination of thoughts.
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 10, 2018 6:23:24 GMT
Aha! So you're putting a lot of time an effort into writing something and then you say we'll never read it. Even if it is in one of the minority languages of the world where few of us could understand it or even translate it. A bit like my twin daughters who, if one of them had some chocolate and the other didn't, would always say, "It's really good chocolate. But you're not having any."
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Post by questa on Jan 27, 2018 9:00:55 GMT
Why do I get the feeling that the onlyMark family runs on chocolate?
When I had my restaurant in Bali, I kept a journal of the comings and goings of my staff and local people as well as the mini-dramas of tourists and expats. The cafe was like a club with people gathering in the evening and swapping tales. I also had exercise books where my guests would write in their experiences and observations. I have a rich source of material but don't know how to set it out.
Any ideas from anyporters would be gratefully received
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Post by onlyMark on Jan 27, 2018 12:30:45 GMT
We don't run on it, but it is a very important part of our life. Or maybe just mine. To paraphrase Bill Shankly, "Some people think chocolate is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that."
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Post by breeze on Jan 27, 2018 14:10:56 GMT
Questa, since Mark's dad isn't available to advise, I'll put in my two cents. Just start in anywhere, with some short travelers' tales, and while you're writing, ideas of how to shape the whole project will come to you. Pick the best, work along that way for a while, and probably an even better idea will appear. I give this advice not because I'm qualified in the least to write, but as an eager reader of whatever you come up with. Want to try some of the stories out on us?
Kerouac, bait and switch! You have me intrigued but then say it'll never see the light of day and anyway it's in French. Come on, give us a little more info than that. Or maybe it's better if you don't, because any little hint will nag at me and I'll keep pestering you about it.
Mich, are you at all interested in picking up where you left off? It sounds like you had the novel organized so that's a big part of it done.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2018 15:19:10 GMT
All of these projects sound intriguing and inspiring.
Most of my writing anything was stalled when my husband became ill in 2016.
More recently I've been entertaining writing some character sketches based on the many different people I have been encountering in all different parts of the city while volunteering for the SPCA feral cat trapping release program. A "local color" type of thing with both character sketches and descriptions of the varying neighborhoods throughout the city. The main character will be the woman who is my trapping partner, She has been doing this for about fifteen years or so years and has much fodder to embellish upon in a pre-Katrina and post-Katrina New Orleans. She is also a very colorful character herself, quite quirky and more than a tad eccentric.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 27, 2018 15:29:07 GMT
One of you will be played by Frances McDormand in the film adaptation.
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Post by questa on Jan 28, 2018 6:09:14 GMT
Thank you for you ideas and offer to read my stuff. I actually have a piece of sonnet shaped verse sitting in "Poem of the day" #303. I was hoping for some feedback from here. I like to have the discipline of a set form whether it is sonnet, haiku or limerick etc. Wrote a bit BK (before kids) and 2 efforts were published in a now defunct quarterly magazine.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 9, 2018 23:13:00 GMT
Just so you'll know, I am up to chapter 34 in my project and hope that it won't be more than 40 chapters at the most, which is already too many.
I'm pretty sure that I have polished the first 25 chapters or so, but a lot of rewriting is required after that since new "events" lead to discrepancies in things written earlier. If ever I move on to a second project (after rejection of the first one), I just hope that it is like assembling items from Ikea -- it is much easier the second time.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 10, 2018 7:08:47 GMT
Some of us speak quite correctly french y'a know ...
I have been told I should write. I am more polite and normal in writing. I wrote a lot of emails when Robin was ill and I should compile it and organise it. Problem is that each time I want to work on it I got despaired and I haven't the time. Really.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 10, 2018 22:02:21 GMT
Some of us speak quite correctly french y'a know ... Yes, I understand, but most of our members are delicate, cultured and a bit prudish. I do not wish to shock.
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Post by patricklondon on Mar 10, 2018 22:20:25 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2018 0:43:58 GMT
AHHHHHH Patrick..... That one liner alone speaks volumes. I have a much lighter perspective of the online personas that people project on here that (given their whims and at times flights of fantasy and, again, projections) perhaps I might have at one time made such a pronounced determination of and can now almost giggle at the definition of "most of our members are delicate etc..." It is something that I can almost embrace, not quite "clutch" I'm afraid. Anyway, back to the OP. It's been quite a time here of late. (psyche wise that is). I have started to write about the aforementioned "local color " and am in the midst of a sketch about a "cat lady" Anastasia, who is part of a subculture of sorts that feeds umpteen colonies of feral cats. One colony is lead by a huge tomcat known as "Jowls" whom every trapper in town has aspired to trap and neuter for years. TBC...
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Post by lagatta on Mar 13, 2018 4:19:26 GMT
I don't understand why I couldn't respond on this thread. While I love only Mark's wry comments, I found his anglocentric crap downright offensive. That is not offensive only to francophones, but many other people around the world.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 13, 2018 6:19:34 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 13, 2018 8:47:12 GMT
Shouldn’t that article be written in French?
In 2012 London was France’s 6th biggest city.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 14, 2018 2:30:35 GMT
I knew I should have kept mother's pearls, in case I should need something to clutch. Ay, Patrick!
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 25, 2018 20:17:58 GMT
I have now begun the final chapter of my project which is both fantastic and scary. Of course this does not mean that I have almost finished, because now I will have to go back to the beginning and start over -- meaning I need to try to fix all of the crap, eliminate the awkward wordings and grammatical mistakes and also change all of the elements in contradiction with things that happened later. That might go very quickly -- or not. Never having done this before, I don't have the slightest idea.
Two people have been selected to read the final draft (ha ha -- of course it won't be the final draft). I have known one of them for years and she was also a "reader" for an editor for several years. She is now a freelance proofreader (a job for which she took specific courses) so I am absolutely willing to pay her, even though I am certain that she will refuse to charge me due to our past history. The other person is someone whom I do not know very well but who reads a lot, mostly things that are far removed from what I have written, which is perfect.
If ever those two people tell me that it is not complete crap, I have two other friends that I will ask before the ordeal of actually submitting the manuscript anywhere.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 31, 2018 22:40:51 GMT
I finished what I was writing on Tuesday and printed a first draft. The page changes were all screwed up, so I had to go through the whole thing again to fix the format. The problem is that the moment you start going through a draft, it is impossible not to start changing various words or entire sentences. If you go through it again, you change even more things. It is maddening.
However, I finally got things under control (maybe) and had some photocopies made. (Ouch. Office Depot is certainly quite efficient, but there must be cheaper places.) Two people have been selected to read my mental breakdown. Once they have given me their verdict, I can toss the whole thing in the bin.
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Post by bjd on Apr 1, 2018 5:12:06 GMT
Or you can just stay in bed and do endless rewrites and corrections in the margins. We'll call you Marcel.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 1, 2018 20:43:58 GMT
I had written 40 chapters and yet there were only 39 when I consolidated the manuscript and printed it. This disturbed me considerably so I combed the files to find what was missing. I remembered very well certain events but couldn't find them anywhere. I finally found the missing chapter in the Windows wastebin. So now it is back, after about three rewrites (because it is impossible not to keep retouching something before you have forced yourself to print it). I have clumsily inserted it into the previously photocopied manuscript -- 5 pages from nowhere.
If by some miracle my readers don't tell me to toss the whole thing, I will have to reprint everything starting at page 62 (out of 280 pages). This is getting expensive in terms of paper, ink, and photocopies.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 21, 2018 18:00:19 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 21, 2018 18:21:38 GMT
If I can only get my three preview readers to actually finish reading the damned thing, I will be full of determination once I have made the necessary modifications.
For some reason, people who work for a living seem to be slow about this sort of thing.
The expense of making copies of a manuscript should be mentioned. I wanted copies of my manuscript immediately (go figure) and I knew that I only wanted 3 copies of the first version since so many things will change in revision. I went to Office Depot and paid 41 euros for the three copies. Actually, I was not surprised because the damned thing is 285 pages long. If I get more copies after revision, obviously the price per page goes down, but still. Do I want to pay for 10 or 20 copies? If I am all full of myself and believe in the quality of the work (which I do, maybe 30% of the time), it would seem ridiculous to make so many copies when obviously it won't take that many for the publishing houses to understand that they have received a jewel.
Writing is a very interesting exercise in self-delusion.
I am on the verge of starting a sequel, because I am not finished with my characters. Now that is sad.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 21, 2018 19:25:16 GMT
If I can only get my three preview readers to actually finish reading the damned thing If only you had written it in English, someone you know well who has worked as an editor would have been happy & flattered to have read it. Re: not finished with your characters ~ not sad but exciting!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2018 15:59:00 GMT
While I still plan at some point to write some character sketches of the many diverse characters encountered while out trapping feral cats throughout the city it has been suggested to me to think about writing a children's book about the adventures of one particular feral "tom cat" in our very own neighborhood.
He has been around for a month or two and his many habits and visits to various homes in the neighborhood have been compared. His range is quite wide.
He is clearly being fed by someone and one neighbor, a talented artist and lover of cats is one of the places he visits. He comes to our house religiously every evening as soon as my husband leaves to take our dog out for a walk and visit at the local saloon and has become "buddies" with my cat Pompeii.
We have attempted umpteen times to trap him to no avail. One of the neighbors who is a seasoned trapper has had no success and only ends up with opossum( over and over again) while I have caught "nada".
We have nicknamed him "Lebowski", (the feral preceding him was "Dude").
TBC...
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 23, 2018 18:08:56 GMT
Sounds like a great idea to me.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 1, 2018 20:07:32 GMT
It is becoming clear that there was not much point of giving my manuscript to anyone. I have not received any feedback from my 3 readers, which means to me:
1. I only read 30 pages and tossed it aside. 2. It was so bad that I don't know what to tell you. 3. You are a total perv and I am speechless.
No problem. Even without feedback, I am going to begin my revision phase before an attempted submission to various publishers.
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Post by mich64 on May 2, 2018 2:26:38 GMT
I would get on with it as well. I would be disappointed with not receiving any feedback. Hopefully you will hear something from them soon.
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Post by onlyMark on May 2, 2018 5:21:18 GMT
They could just be speechless because of the sheer brilliance of it.
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