| Author | Message | ||
     Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Proto just sent me this. It well resonate powerfully with folk who write. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/10/i_think_im_musing_my_mind.html | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.189.45 |
Excellent piece. My admiration for Ebert - as a person and a writer - keeps growing. And I like the line about writers not sitting around waiting for inspiration, just getting on with the writing, because that's when the Muse strikes. Funnily enough, Steve Duffy and I were just talking about this, apropos writer's block and trying to write and having to get on with it: Steve said there are times, when you're writing, when you just feel as if you're taking dictation, but then something happens and everything comes alive under your fingers, and you realise you're writing. I know exactly what he means. Sometimes I'll sit at the keyboard and write, and know that for this space of time I'm just in neutral, as it were; all the right noises are being made, but I'm not going anywhere, just marking time. And then something happens - I'll see a way in, or realise what has to happen here, or what someone has to say or do, and I'm off, writing. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Written anything new lately, Barbara? I know you have the collection on the horizon, but I wondered if you'd been doing anything else. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I don't know about anyone else - and I know it's not true of Ramsey - but I find a longish break between manic writing spells to be greatly beneficial in terms of enthusiasm and ease of composition. It's like winding something up and then letting it rip. I'm half-whirlwind, half-ineffectual breeze. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.189.45 |
I've written a few stories this year, and have three debuting in various anthos at World Fantasy next week: a Holmes/Flaxman Low story ('The Things That Shall Come Upon Them') in Gaslight Grimoire, a horror story ('Back Roads') in Ash-Tree's Shades of Darkness, and an Antarctic-set story ('Endless Night') in Exotic Gothic 2, also from Ash-Tree. I've got a story in Ellen Datlow's antho Poe, out in January, and another in Michael Kelly's antho next summer. Plus I wrote two original stories for my collection, which features ten stories altogether and will be out next October from Prime. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Your stories are generally novelette-length. Like Barker's. Clive's, that is.  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Does anyone worry about time passing by - only so much time in which to write a limited number of stories? I've written only four short stories this year, and it's a bit depressing to think about that in the grand scheme of things. I've got chronophobia or something. Christ, I'm only 37.  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
(Mind you, I have also written a short novel. ) | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.189.45 |
Yes, they do tend towards the longish. The Shades story is 15000 words, and the Holmes one is about 12000; the Antarctic one is 10000. The Poe story is a relatively brisk (for me, anyway) 6000 or so, and the one I wrote for Michael Kelly is positively anorexic at around 5000. The two new stories for my collection are 8000 and 9000 each. I don't necessarily set out to write long, but I like to have the room to make each story as long as it needs to be, in terms of developing the characters and setting, make them real to the reader. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Yeah, I can imagine your stuff being at a shorter length, but I think they'd lose something by doing that. The length suits your prose, somehow. I know that's a vague explanation, but it's the only one I have. That Bound For Evil tale continues to linger in my memory. Fine tale. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Blimey, I didn't realise Ebert has lost the ability to speak. In a two day break from writing my pulp zombie novel, I've finished the 13,000-word first draft of a new novelette. Strike while the mus is hot, I say! >>I like the line about writers not sitting around waiting for inspiration, just getting on with the writing, because that's when the Muse strikes<< Yes, indeedy. I've learned exactly that over the last couple of years. Just write; the rest will take care of itself. And if it doesn't - so what, just write something else and keep writing until it clicks. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.65.112 |
Wow - that is good Gary and I thought that you would be having a rest after the ghost story evening last night. Hang on - I know the answer to that one. 'I'll rest when I'm dead.' :>) | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I wrote eight words today. These are them. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.17.13.124 |
Does anyone worry about time passing by - only so much time in which to write a limited number of stories? Hell, I think the bigger question is - is anybody reading anymore?!? (Of course, if I were snarky, I'd say - is anyone not a writer anymore?... but then, I don't like indicting myself any more than anyone else...) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I'm haemorraghing words at the minute. Hopefully they're good ones, and all in the right order. >>if I were snarky, I'd say - is anyone not a writer anymore?...<< The only writers I know are ones I've met either though conventions or online forums. No one else I know writes. Nor do most of them even read. :-( | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
>>>I'm haemorraghing words at the minute. Actually, I am, too. But mine are all pants. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 99.225.111.224 |
Does anyone worry about time passing by - only so much time in which to write a limited number of stories? I try not to get too concerned over my output compared to other writers, but it does bother me when I can't keep pace with myself a year ago. Last year I wrote more than any year before, and this has had me spinning in place for a good deal of time. No matter. I think I'm in a groove right now and hope to have at least a few more finished by the year's end. I've already written the first drafts of a bunch of tales; all that needs doing is finishing them. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
It's not really about comparing yourself to other writers. It's more a sense of how many tales you feel you have inside you, and how long you believe you have in which to write them. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I've far more tales to tell than I'll have time to tell them. That's how it goes. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Pisser, innit. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
I've far more tales to tell than I'll have time to tell them. Seeing those words, Ramsey, saddens me beyond belief... | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.3 |
I read today in YBF&H that Don Tumasonis, a writer who I admire greatly, has only had 13 stories published. Man, if that's not a shame, I don't know what is. I love his work. | ||
| Simon Strantzas (Nomis) Username: Nomis Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 99.225.111.224 |
I don't think writing is Mr Tumasonis's top priority, alas. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.102 |
I wonder if he has only written 13 stories. I'll see if he has a web site. |