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Utopia Talk / General Talk / So... um some news
Everknight
Member
Fri Sep 23 21:42:41
Wife is expecting, a little girl sometime around the new year. We plan on naming her Skylar.

I have finished writing two books, they are crap but I did it! People I respect say you have to write 8-10 before you write something worthwhile, so I'm 1/4th or 1/5th of the way there!

Sometimes I look at my old writings from when I frequented the UGT boards and I see it is a completely different person. While I miss that guy I realize he was on a path I no longer want to follow.


Last note, wife shot down the name Daemon Lord, I tried telling her it would inspire respect but she didn't like it. Nor did she like Edward as the name for the girl even though it would have made her Edward III because I'm a Edward Jr. So no Radical Edward III either.


hood
Member
Fri Sep 23 23:28:19
Are these books that you published, or just things you've written?

If they're not published, you should definitely post some excerpts here. If they are published, links!

Grats on spawning. It'll be, what, 14 years before the ritual murder of the parents and consuming of the corpses?
McKobb
Member
Sat Sep 24 03:06:19
Congrats man! I will spoke a stogie for you :P
OsamaIsDaWorstPresid
Member
Sat Sep 24 10:36:11
r u namin her aftar video gamez? othar namez dis guy considerid:

morrowlar
oblivilar
marilar
tetrilar
batlar
starlar
OsamaIsDaWorstPresid
Member
Sat Sep 24 10:40:09
also looks leik itz a relie popular porn star naem rofl
Cherub Cow
Member
Sat Sep 24 20:40:42
Congratulations on incoming baby! :D

..
"People I respect say you have to write 8-10 before you write something worthwhile"

Rant time!:
That sounds like terrible advice to me. That's like something that someone who has a lot of nothing to say would say. It's a diluted approach, like "I'll just do mediocre work and then once I pass some uselessly-defined barrier, *then* I'll put in the effort and start making things happen!" .. like no. It doesn't work like that. If writing books becomes a quantitative approach then the writing will stay shitty because there was never any cognitive investment; you don't become better at something by half-assing the formative moments — all that does is teach you to half-ass everything else.
..unless of course you're just going for a "Michael Palmer" dumb shit for dumb people approach. In which case, it's great advice for the "sell lots of garbage" market.
Instead I'd say that you have to put all of yourself into each thing you write — whether that's the first or the 100th — and *that* will make it worthwhile. "Worthwhile" doesn't happen after some arbitrary goal. It's immediate in the expense of a real effort. And I know that these people might counter that those "8-10" would be how many real efforts it would take to finally be self-impressed or externally gratified by some third-party appreciation (like getting published by a book seller), but even that's terrible to me. It's like ascetic prison — putting off achievement for some future "perfection" of which you can never actually be a part. The movie "Atonement" comes to mind... a life of illusion that only in the end finds the strength to discharge its will through a self-honest effort. Why wait?
McKobb
Member
Sat Sep 24 23:24:55
What cc said!
Everknight
Member
Wed Sep 28 17:21:35
Cherub,
It isn't about producing mediocre work and then when you hit the 8th or 10th one you throw it out there. It is about practicing and working on the craft as you write your books. My first book I wrote, an actual novel of length at 80K words is not a great story. I need to work on plot, characters, show/tell, and in general the idea is a bit weak. I recognize all of that while writing it and finished it because sometimes you just gotta get past the first draft. Even after editing it and trying to fix some of the problems it is still a poor book. I published it on Amazon with hopes that people would read it for free as part of the kindle unlimited program and give me bad reviews so I could see what I could improve (https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Transdimensional-Adventure-Edward-Buchanan-ebook/dp/B01LPOT7US). Please do not buy it, if you can't read it for free let me know I'll find a way to get it to you.

My second book, Cannot Tame the Wind, is currently in editing. That book isn't published anywhere yet and I can see I have improved some after writing it but there are still holes and parts that could use some polish. To try and get some feedback I threw the first 4 chapters online so people could read it and see what they think (http://www...not-tame-wind-chapter-1.html).

The idea about writing 8-10 about improving your craft during the time. I you wanted to become a great basketball player you have to practice at it, same with music, writing I believe is the same. You can get published or break in with your first few novels. There are plenty that have done that (JK rowling). You also have those like Rothfuss who revise and polish their book over and over again until it is something excellent, you have others who write a partial books during college and then finally have a great idea that becomes their masterpiece. Then you get Sanderson who wrote a ton before he broke in. From what I gather you have to find your own way to being able to write something great.

Are there those with the talent and ability to do it on their first book, YES. I am not overflowing with talent, perhaps if I had focused on it and took some classes back when Utopia started I would have done it but I wasn't focused then. Now that I am focused and willing to put the time in to write those 10 books not just to get published but to get these stories out of my head.

The downside is the more I write and open the creative pandora's box the more ideas I get.

With E-books and so much being online even if I never get picked up by a publisher I may pursue the self-publish/amazon route, sure it may be crap but having produced some mediocre story or three is much further than I would have gotten if I kept polishing that one idea over and over.
Palem
Person.
Sat Oct 01 20:06:55
Congrats on all those things.

If your wife won't accept the obviously superior name of Daemon Lord, you can always just adopt the nickname of MOD BOAR. While slightly less intimidating, it's enough to put those pleebs that dare to share her air in their place
The Bard
Member
Wed Oct 05 22:16:24
awesome. An EverPage!
Flint
Member
Thu Oct 06 18:33:57
Little girls are great and a lot of fun. My little girl is 3.5 years already and I cannot believe it!
Damian DB
Moderator
Fri Oct 07 07:09:08
yeah no one here believes you reproduced either... still waiting for that apocalypse to start, any day now.
Flint
Member
Sat Oct 08 00:22:02
I'm coming for that ass...
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