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flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2006-09-03 06:29 pm
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Yesterday was too much cleaning in the morning, too much gadding about in the rain in the afternoon, and too much gin in the evening. The result today is an aching slow-moving bad-tempered me who's accomplished nothing at all except to replace the gin she drank last night, and who currently wishes she was one of those 'I had to get up to pee at 3 am and when I saw my compy I sat down and wrote these three stories and here they are. Now I'm going back to bed. Dated 3:45.' Because authors like that- authors with no internal editor- clearly never need to go back over a passage to get it right, probably never even think about a story before they write it, and certainly never find themselves stuck trying to get through even the little distance from point A to point C. They're the Mozart writers to us Salieri ones- you know, the ones who *suffer* while writing?- and I hope they die as per the script-- young, indigent, and convinced they've written nothing of any real worth yet.

(Possibly the codeine's started to work, because I don't really want anything of the sort. I've written stories that wrote themselves, without any pain at all, and it felt like being a secretary taking dictation. I had no input into the thing at all and no pleasure of creation. So fine, I'll go on wrestling with balky stories that refuse to co-operate. The devil you know...)

[identity profile] tekalynn.livejournal.com 2006-09-03 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
It can be a bit scary doing the dictation-type stories, because you don't know *what* will happen, you just let your fingers move with what feels like no volition and then you go "What the hell does *that* mean?" when you see what you've just written.

It's probably better to be a wrestler-writer than a dictation-writer, because those of us who are dication-takers get very spoiled and don't want to do anything when no dication is made available. Wrestling requires proper discipline and probably results in MUCH better writing.

[identity profile] tammylee.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
Sometimes the difficult relationships are the most rewarding.
*strangles her laptop*

[identity profile] unearthly-calm.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 05:55 am (UTC)(link)
Hope you feel better soon and good luck with your story.

Mmmmm...Gin...

[identity profile] kickinpants.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
Is that gin straight, in tonic, or something else?

Do people who wake up at 3 to pee and get brained with genius ideas (while in the bathroom? hmmmmm...I see taking the "bath" route is not the way to go. Must drink more water before bed...), and then write three stories- do they have work early in the morning? I wonder.

Don't stress. Don't hate. Unless that's motivating, so stress away. If it's not, don't bother. Not every story is easy, and often those are the most satisfying because you remember them better later. The Blizzard of '93 and that Story of '01. "The horror, the madness, the POV changes. It was hard, and up hill (both ways!), but goddammit, it's over, and I'm still alive."

Good luck. Have fun. Enjoy. This hill can be climbed (both ways even!)

Man, I've said it earlier, I but think you would be into La Chevalier D'Eon. Three episodes are out, and it is really good. Any thoughts? If I burn you a CD, would that work on your computer?

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
It was interesting the first time because that's exactly what happened. My hands knew what was going on; my brain just sat and read what they wrote. That at least had the pleasure of reading a new story. But it's never been quite that way after. More often what happens is that I know the general plot of a story, the large action. I sit down to write and it all comes and then it's done. There's nothing new in it and I didn't actively write any of it. Blah.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I hear you barkin', big dog

This amuses me far more than it probably should. WOOF! (To be sillier, the toddling baby I look after: 'What does a dog say, G?' 'Boo.')

Keep on hackin'.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
(short pithy Anglo-Saxon expletive)

True. But more often they end in axe murders.

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks. And where are you now? There or uhh there?

Re: Mmmmm...Gin...

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
In tonic. Was socializing and needed gin to do it.

I think the people who write as easily (and as often) as they pee must be students. Those who must be up at a certain time grudge even the ninety fuzzy seconds needed to empty the bladder. Or, y'know, they work like me- any time after noon is great.

Yeah, I know, I'm just indulging the old game of Everybody has it easier than me. It isn't the ease of writing I envy- I could dash something off in fifteen minutes too. It's the conviction that of course a fifteen minute unedited dash-off is a perfectly respectable story and of course people want to read it. And given the current 'all fic is kleenex- use and discard' attitude, they're probably right. People read, people say nice things, people pass on to the next. So why give myself the pain of fighting to get a story right when I can get it wrong and no one will know or care?

Mhh- what program's needed to play video CDs on a computer? I'll check and see if it plays in Win98.

[identity profile] unearthly-calm.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 05:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Not yet 'there', but still at home being trotted out for visiting relatives and friends :)

writings on the way to the bathroom?

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2006-09-04 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"People read, people say nice things, people pass on to the next. So why give myself the pain of fighting to get a story right when I can get it wrong and no one will know or care?"

Oh because there is always someone who will read it appreciate it and in moments of nostalgia re-read them! ^__~.

15 minutes? Oh man I have never wrote anything so fast. I wish things flowed easier for me. Sometimes it is two sentences here and there over a week. But whatever the result, I do feel 'accomplished' and then "oh well I hope someone out there likes it", anyway as an afterthought.

Yes it is a hill, for me, but I do enjoy getting there. ^__~ Both weays even!

Re: writings on the way to the bathroom?

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2006-09-05 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
Oh because there is always someone who will read it appreciate it and in moments of nostalgia re-read them! ^__~.

Ahh. The Not Impossible Reader. For whom all one's best works are written. ^_^

Nor have I ever written anything in fifteen minutes by the clock, because I type with three fingers max. Fifteen emotional minutes, let's say.