Jibber Jabber - Q1 - 29

I actually like math. I'm just bad at it.

I actually like math. I'm just bad at it.

I like the products of math (see what I did there?) but I eludes me in execution.

side note Q1 29? The last time I ranked higher then R....

5000 seems to be a long way off.

5000 seems to be a long way off.

We just aren't trying hard enough! Want to hear something funny about my SF story? In an attempt to insert positive energy (or maybe a positive psychological tweak), I named several of its characters from the forum. Since I can't enter it again, I see no harm in my admission. So I give a thank you and a shout out to Austin, Bob, Kary, and Martin for making an appearance. No comment on who's in my next one!

Well I mean to say, you can't go around calling a narrator Ishmael, can you? You see Herman Melville began this fashion and I continued it with a splendid R back in volume 29 (qv) just before I joined this forum. Now a revisited version of this exceptionally fine story currently appears under the name of Ishmael on Baen's Bar.

Just sayin'

You know, if anyone would like to help me out with a crit or something?

Call me Ishmael

But your name isn't Ishmael.

So what, neither is yours. Though it probably should be. He's more famous than you are.

I knew that, Long John.

Well I mean to say, you can't go around calling a narrator Ishmael, can you? You see Herman Melville began this fashion and I continued it with a splendid R back in volume 29 (qv) just before I joined this forum. Now a revisited version of this exceptionally fine story currently appears under the name of Ishmael on Baen's Bar.

Just sayin'

You know, if anyone would like to help me out with a crit or something?

I thought that might be just a bit obvious. I'm always up for a good critique! Not sure about 'or something".

5000 seems to be a long way off.

We just aren't trying hard enough! Want to hear something funny about my SF story? In an attempt to insert positive energy (or maybe a positive psychological tweak), I named several of its characters from the forum. Since I can't enter it again, I see no harm in my admission. So I give a thank you and a shout out to Austin, Bob, Kary, and Martin for making an appearance. No comment on who's in my next one!

I seem to be having a bunch of characters named after me. I'm a dying spaceship in one of Martin's stories.

5000 seems to be a long way off.

We just aren't trying hard enough! Want to hear something funny about my SF story? In an attempt to insert positive energy (or maybe a positive psychological tweak), I named several of its characters from the forum. Since I can't enter it again, I see no harm in my admission. So I give a thank you and a shout out to Austin, Bob, Kary, and Martin for making an appearance. No comment on who's in my next one!

I seem to be having a bunch of characters named after me. I'm a dying spaceship in one of Martin's stories.

You are the main character in mine... I'm sorry for all the mental anguish I've put you through, but you'll be happy to know that you and Kary get together and start a family. Bob is a wealthy but kind landowner. And Martin... well, Martin is just trouble!

]

I seem to be having a bunch of characters named after me. I'm a dying spaceship in one of Martin's stories.

You are the main character in mine... I'm sorry for all the mental anguish I've put you through, but you'll be happy to know that you and Kary get together and start a family. Bob is a wealthy but kind landowner. And Martin... well, Martin is just trouble!

Kind?
Well I suppose it is fiction,

]

I seem to be having a bunch of characters named after me. I'm a dying spaceship in one of Martin's stories.

You are the main character in mine... I'm sorry for all the mental anguish I've put you through, but you'll be happy to know that you and Kary get together and start a family. Bob is a wealthy but kind landowner. And Martin... well, Martin is just trouble!

Kind?
Well I suppose it is fiction,

Well, kind in that you help Kary keep her sanity by allowing her to milk your cows for free. I DID say you were wealthy, didn't I? Ironically, the Bob in my story protested being termed 'kind' as well!

off topic - not that THIS thread has a topic:

As some of you know I signed with the Virginia Kidd agency in June. So while Will shops my novel around looking for a suck---editor in love with it, I started a new one.

I asked him if I should write the next book in the series or something else and he told me to write whatever inspires me.
Okay then an SF/noir it is.
Only it took me awhile to get actually writing. I stumbled into a new psychological block to writing.
All my life I had written for myself, knowing I'd send it off and in all likelihood some slush reader would send it back to me. This was different. This time I knew that there was an industry professional waiting on *my* stuff. Someone who said he was looking forward to reading it.
*gulp*
Performance Pressure.
I was actually scared to start work. I did a lot fo worldbuilding. A lot of research. I even wrote a short set in the deep history of the novel. I was doing anything to avoid writing that novel.
I finally buckled down and started it. I'm about 20% done on the first draft and the performance pressure seems gone, but guys and gals, be warned about that beast. It may be lurking in your head too.

Thank you Bob,
I've wondered about this. I used to coach bowling and taught a couple of mental clearing and concentration techniques. I explained that they were good for getting over failure, but better for sustaining success. My girls would come to me after a great game and say, 'Mr. Jones, I was going nuts when I had four strikes in a row. Then I took a deep breath and went to my happy place, and got three more.'

The term 'happy place' might not wash, here, but I meant it as a joke for the girls' high school team. The point is to remember a time when you were perfectly content. Go there; feel that contentment. Then come back and visualize only the things needed for success (whether ideal delivery mechanics or proper ball placement). They learned positive forward thinking and won every match. A year later, My daughter won the Pepsi USBC Girls Handicap Gold Division National Championship.

Writing is a bit more complicated than athletics, but it's good to be prepared for the pressure to rise with success.
Kent

There is a great deal to be said for working on your own mental attitude. The interesting thing is, however you develop positivity, it has the effect of hardwiring your brain towards more positivity. Literally. “Neurons that fire together wire together,” as psychiatrists say in their knowing way. It goes right back to Aristotle, who was a great believer in the power of habituation; the more you do something the easier and more natural doing it becomes.

Sadly, I suspect it works for negativity too.

All together now "Bring me sunshine ...."

I suffer from Eeyore syndrome (as my mother calls it). What happy place?

I suffer from Eeyore syndrome (as my mother calls it). What happy place?

Eeyore is a philosopher of great profundity, but so far as I am aware he never won WotF.

Lao Tzu is usually translated The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

I understand a more correct translation to be Even a thousand mile journey must begin from where you stand.

But in the original Irish it reads If I were going to Dublin, I wouldn't start from here, I'd start from where you are.

I like happy places!

I think performance anxiety and impostor syndrome go hand in hand, though. Stupid, nasty brain weasels. Almost every time I do an illustration job, the process goes something like this:

THIS IS FUN! They're going to pay me to have fun!>Oh hey look, the possibilities>Oh god its awful they're going to pay me to make something awful and other people will see it and see how awful it is>(here I usually need to set a timer to get myself to work)>Oh wow, I just needed to tweak one thing, now it's flippin BRILLIANT!>I'm a genius!>Oh god I hope they like it

I followed a similar trajectory when I did my IGMS rewrite, and super sweated over the line edits. Maybe it's just a side effect of being creative?

I haven't had this (too much) in the big novel sense, though. I've had it in trickles working on Wattpad, though, especially when someone gives a glowing comment. Or a not-so-glowing comment. Then I feel like the next chapter has to make up for it (and I think I'm getting better at ignoring that feeling?).

In any case, glad you're working past it, Bob!

Maybe it's just a side effect of being creative?

I think it might be a side effect of being creative where other people can see you.

For me, writing a story I know will never see the light of day is a completely different experience.

Lately I find myself reading the story I'm writing to myself. Does anyone else do that?

Lately I find myself reading the story I'm writing to myself. Does anyone else do that?

YEs, I read my story out loud as part of the polishing process. It really helps readability with regards to word choice and sentence structure.

Me, too. I always do a read-aloud as part of the final polish.

Hah! Herself is back and it's almost Th.....

Time to break out the brownies and tequila?

Well I mean to say, you can't go around calling a narrator Ishmael, can you? You see Herman Melville began this fashion and I continued it with a splendid R back in volume 29 (qv) just before I joined this forum. Now a revisited version of this exceptionally fine story currently appears under the name of Ishmael on Baen's Bar.

Just sayin'

You know, if anyone would like to help me out with a crit or something?

I thought that might be just a bit obvious. I'm always up for a good critique! Not sure about 'or something".

YEA!! I found my password for Baen's Bar. Hadn't logged in since 2012. I've printed and will get right on it.

Text to speech software (some free versions available for Apple products at least) is good for a final read out loud pass too. The mechanical voice really makes those nitpicky typos stand out.

The mechanical voice really makes those nitpicky typos stand out.

It really does. And makes invented names very . . . interesting.

You see, I did not know such a thing existed. I just downloaded a version that works happily on Windows. A revelation. Thank you.

The mechanical voice really makes those nitpicky typos stand out.

It really does. And makes invented names very . . . interesting.

Not just invented names. If you use non-western European names it can be very amusing.

The thread was getting lonely.

I STOMP ON THIS THREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!