Achievements

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Don Alexander
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Re: Achievements

Post by Don Alexander »

:ymparty:

Sold my first Magic cards on MagicCardMarket! :)

Two German Scalding Tarns für €29 apiece. Is it just me or is it expensive here in Fetchland? :P
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Re: Achievements

Post by Retiarius »

Maybe this belongs more in The Happy Couch. Nevertheless, I cast animate dead on this thread…

My journey as a reader is sort of an odd one; I learned how at about four. I was always pretty good at it, but the actual love of reading came later. I liked books even though I wasn't reading immense numbers of them; at an early age I learned to organize (rather than deface) my mother's rather large collection of mysteries written by Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Rex Stout, Ngaio Marsh, Earl Stanley Gardner, and later John D. MacDonald and many others. It got to where she dreaded me going through her bookshop purchases: "You already bought this one—and this one—you have three of this one—you have this one published under a different title…" She's never been good at remembering what books she already had.

My Dad was the one who got me started on science fiction. I read (without a whole lot of comprehension) Robert Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo from his library when I was six, and I'm not altogether certain I finished it. Still, it is the earliest book I remember reading even part of. It didn't instill the love of reading I have today, but I like to think it spread the fuel. By twelve, I had started getting interested in wargaming and the "president" of the local wargaming group loaned me Heiro's Journey by Sterling E. Lanier, which was a pretty obscure book even for its time. Nevertheless, it was the match that ignited the fuel. I proceeded to burn through all my dad's books: Heinlein, Asimov, L. Sprague deCamp, Phillip K. Dick, Frederick Pohl, Poul Andersen, Larry Niven, all giants in the field. My own collection grew over the years to exceed his.

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.

I finally got the courage over the past couple of weeks to copy my first book (in its final draft stage) to my mother's Kindle and my father's Nook. My thought was, "Surely I will be disowned when they get to Chapter 14." Maybe with a "what hath we wrought?" from them. I was sort of counting on their advanced years delaying that outcome; they likely wouldn't get around to reading it right away. Given that it is definitely in the science fiction/fantasy genre, I know it will probably be some time before my mother reads it; that genre is not her cup of tea.

I gave it to my Dad last Tuesday when he came over to drop off an infected notebook computer for me to fix and to take me to lunch. These lunches are usually all I see of him; he's got a busy life and part of that is dealing with his advancing age, which prompted me to finally give my parents a copy of the book. It used to be that we went to lunch once a month, but these days its been more like once a season. But we're a large family and he's got lots of grandchildren and great-grand children (none of them from me), so that's only natural.

Friday he texted me and asked when the sequel will be done. We've talked more in the past week than we usually do in a year.

I guess he likes it.
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yiraheerai
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Re: Achievements

Post by yiraheerai »

That's a great achievement! I let my mom read one thing I've written and all I got was "How did you get this? You're not like this." It was a short story, granted, and very bitter but still...

I'm very happy for you. :) :ymhug:
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Re: Achievements

Post by Dirty n Evil »

Ret, that's fantastic. :) Not only because of my own distance to my father and I understand how finding something to bond over (such as him giving me guitar lessons) is good, but also because like many writers it's so important to want those close to us to appreciate what we've crafted with the written word. I'm so happy to hear of his reception!
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Re: Achievements

Post by Retiarius »

I don't want to give the impression that my dad's ever been distant with me—either of us could call the other—but it just seemed like there wasn't any real reason to. But he did give specific praise for elements of the book rather than the generic "that's nice" sort of response to a kid's refrigerator art, and he's offered to be a beta reader for the next book, suggested that one of my nieces could do the illustrations (someone else has already asked, though, and she's done illustrations for books before, so she has first crack), and suggested a couple of publishing strategies. So all in all, he seemed pretty pleased with it.
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Re: Achievements

Post by Don Alexander »

WOO HOO!!! Ret, that's great news!!! :ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause:
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Re: Achievements

Post by Dirty n Evil »

I summon the long forgotten 'Achievements' thread!

So, I've long said that I've been wanting to write a book. And how I've found every "wrong" way to write a book. Lately, I've taken inspiration from my friend Ben (the pal who wrote The Walls of Dalgorod, the book I had edited?) as well as a post I encountered on Tumblr. Ben is just your average geek, and if anything being married with two kids he has less free time than myself. However, Ben is always writing short stories and getting them published in various collections. He's helped me by making the goal of finishing a novel seem very plausible and not this high and lofty goal. He's also mentioned that there is a very concrete benchmark for length you want to aim towards without exceeding... 100,000 words. Which is a nice round number for figuring out progress. Plus, he's already agreed to write a blurb for my book if I do ever get published. ;)

The Tumblr post I encountered was more or less about how so many people get wrapped up in the steps one should take before any long storytelling... making character drafts, outlines, little preparatory writing examples. Several little things that do help you... but it recommended that it's easy to get stopped by considering those steps too long. About how you should sometimes try and learn on the fly, get a bit of momentum behind you. Or as Shia LaBeouf has been quoted in an online meme shouting, "Just do it!"

So I have. And it's surprisingly how quickly I've been making progress. I'm already at 4,000 words, or 4% finished of the rough draft. I can put in 2,000 words on average in one night if I commit to it, which is a faster clip than I thought I would. It's funny how having that measuring stick there really gives you perspective on events. I realized as I stepped away from my writing tonight, "Oh crap, I'm four percent in and I still haven't introduced the immediate villain!" However, realizing that forced my brain to improvise and I discovered a better way to introduce him than previously considered. Which I think is really kinda great. Because I don't think I would have tried to improvise if I fiddled with the outline endlessly. I would have fussed with things for ages trying to find the write balance to the narrative.

Yay for actually do it! \M/
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Re: Achievements

Post by Artemisia »

D'n'E...um...I'm not always sure why people think those steps are vital to writing. Honestly, I have a general idea of my character's personality and then I wing it. If something doesn't work right, it gets altered in the revisions. Sometimes I've gone "You know, humans aren't perfectly stable" and even left in some times when my characters acted against their personality type such as a normally non-violent character getting hyper violent in the right circumstances.

Congratulations on getting moving on your writing :)
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Re: Achievements

Post by yiraheerai »

Yay for writings! :ymparty:
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Don Alexander
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Re: Achievements

Post by Don Alexander »

Achievements, hmm...

I wrote over 90,000 words in about three weeks from in May and June. :P
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Re: Achievements

Post by Dirty n Evil »

That's actually very impressive, DA - but let's see which of us actually gets published first. ;)
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Don Alexander
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Re: Achievements

Post by Don Alexander »

Publish? Oh, no, no.

It would be quite a miracle if anyone else ever even reads it...
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Re: Achievements

Post by Artemisia »

How much of it is green text?

Sigh...I need an agent. Time to start looking.
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"I'm going to do what I do best...lecture her."- Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)
"Hello, I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife." - Madam Vastra (Doctor Who "The Snowmen")
"There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." The 4th Doctor Doctor Who "Robot"

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Don Alexander
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Re: Achievements

Post by Don Alexander »

Artemisia wrote:How much of it is green text?
Green... text...

*googles*

I find something concerning 4chan. Still not really sure what you mean.

But, no, it's part of my RPG chronicles. Hopefully the guy I played with will find the time one day to read at least part, but who knows. It's mainly for myself.
Artemisia wrote:Sigh...I need an agent. Time to start looking.
Would you like... a Smith? :ymdevil:
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Re: Achievements

Post by mikbuster »

Don... your moderating is all green text...
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