After my disappointment with The Lovecraft Investigations, I thought it would be a good idea to write our own Lovecraft inspired work.
The Story Ark
Hey Y'all. This is a place for story lovers. Whether you create stories, or you just love to experience them, come join us as we write and talk about the tales which inspire us.
Interested? Want to learn more about the community?
Sheldon@TaleTold
October 14, 2024
Time to Write
How are the WIPs going?
This last week I started going over an older manuscript I hadn't touched in a while, tentatively called The Crimes of Rick (one friend does not like that title). I had forgotten how much work I had already put into it. It itself is about 26K words long now and is a continuation of a story I've been working on (a work that is about 114K words now). But it is not just a story; I might call it the story. This is the first story I really knuckled down and seriously tried to write, and it has in some sense been the center of much of what I've been trying to do with my writing. Have I been submitting short stories? Have I been learning about self-publishing? All because I eventually want to publish this story.
However, it has been a sort of forgotten center. I haven't really worked on it itself for some time now. I think I need to rectify that, and not just for a day or a week, but as a habit. I need to set time aside within the time I set aside for writing, to focus on what really was the reason I first started regimenting time specifically for writing. I don't want to die and leave this story untold.
Let me know how your writing is going.
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Proof Copy of Post Mortem
A little, sneak-preview, if anyone's interested, in my novella. Still waiting for the cover as patiently as I can. (The artist isn't late or anything; I've been going crazy since I placed the order.)
- Are you publishing/self-publishing anything?
- Would you, maybe, want a copy of my story?
- Would anybody want to read my story?
00:01:30
קהלת | Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
So, I tried my hand at writing my own translation of one of my favorite passages in the Bible.
1 The words of the Preacher, son of David, King in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher. Vanity of vanities; the whole is vain.
3 What is left over for man in all his toil in which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation comes and a generation goes; but the earth remains forever.
5 And the sun rises, and the sun goes [down]; And to his place, there he strives to rise.
6 Going to the South, returning to the North—turning, turning, the wind goes; And over its turning, the wind returns.
7 All the rivers run into the sea, but the sea is not full.
[From] the place where the rivers run, there they return to run.
8 All these words are tiresome. Man cannot utter [it].
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled by hearing.
9 That which is is that which will be, and that which is done is that which will be done; and there is nothing wholly new under the sun.
10 Where is...
It's the Police
How are the WIPs going?
I hope you all had a happy Halloween. I took the Friday after the festivities off and was able to spend the first half of my day writing. Anyone who follows me on the app formerly known as Twitter might have noticed that on that day the police locked down my street because of an ongoing manhunt. It was less exciting than it sounds. I think I saw part of a car chase before the Sheriff's office sent out warnings for everyone to shelter at home until the situation was resolved.
Despite all that excitement, I was able to get a lot of work done on my Eden story. I haven't reviewed any of it yet, so it may be crap, but that's still good. Editing comes later, but you have to have something to edit.
Anyway, the only other project I'm giving any attention to right now is the narrative poem I mention now and again. It's a wild beast that has grown far too long; never seeming to get to the ending that I have had in my head since its inception, it has now surpassed in ...
Happy Halloween
How are the WIPs going?
Well, it's Halloween this week. It seems like a somewhat successful October as I've got two of my horror stories published this spooky season as well as, I hope, putting up some good material on my own blog full of ghosts and ghouls of all types.
With all that said, I have been facing a sense of terrible want. I remonstrate with myself, outlining how I've achieved what I've set out to this month, and yet I find myself unhappy.
Writing has long been a sort of therapy for me, but I fear it is no substitute.
I hope your writing is going well. Please share something of what you're working on.
Have a happy Halloween.
A Long Road Ahead
How are the WIPs going?
Well, I've almost finished going through my old manuscript. I had been fairly sparse with naming my chapters. So, I made it a rule to give each chapter missing a tittle a tittle after reading it; whether good or bad, I felt that that would be a little thing I could do as I reviewed what was already written. Anyway, now it is getting to the end, three more chapters, but life is getting in the way of my writing yet again.
Work is sending me off on a long commute, and it's going to cut into any writing time I have. I'll manage, I always do, but this is the longest drive I've ever had to make for my job.
Anyway, keep writing. Let me know how your WIPs are going.
My (Insane?) Plans
I saw an interesting question posed on twitter: Would you write an entire book series and not publish a single book until it's all done? Now, that is precisely what I've been doing, or, perhaps I should say, what I've been planning. Right now, I've somewhat given up on traditional publishing, partially as it seems like traditional publishers want me to do the marketing as well as the writing, and partially because it seems like most forms I fill out ask me how well I've self-published my own work so far.
So, I started to consider whether to self-publish the book I have written, and it seemed to me that since I had already organized it into three major sections, each about the length of a short novel, it would make sense to self-publish it in those organic pieces. As my original outline extended beyond this book, I figured I ought to finish writing to the end of my outline. That should make a fourth part. Furthermore, when I finished that outline, I jotted down a few notes for a continuation of the story. I've been working on a new outline, off and on (mostly off), and hope to finish it and add it to this possible series, thereby reaching a total of either five or six parts.
Now, why do I want to chop up my story like this? For one, I think these breaks in the story make sense. Also, one piece of advice I've heard about self-publishing is to keep a steady flow of work coming out. So, before I self-publish, I want have a ready well of titles to publish at regular intervals. My overarching plan is to, over the next two to three years, get ten titles ready, half or so consisting of this series and the other half based on a few short outlines I've jotted down here and there throughout the years. Then, take the leap and self-publish.
- Am I being stupid?
- Would you try something like this?
- Have you written any series?
Why Write
I was listening to a video talking about harnessing creativity. It didn't say much that hasn't been said before, but it did get me thinking about my own reasons for writing. It is, in a sense, a bit of a mystery: I can tell you I write because I want to tell stories and because I love books and language, but why do I want to tell stories? Why do I love books? Why do I find language such a captivating subject?
The question was, "What did the first frog say?" And the answer was, "Lord, how you made me jump!"
~Chesterton
The stories are just there. They pester me. They want time and thought and form, and it's my great joy in life to give it to them. A story appears and demands my attention, and it just so happens that that is what I love to do. I find no answer beyond my own actions; I simply do it.
Books, at least the written word, are my medium, and I can hardly put into words the way printed words make me feel. If I ever won the lottery, I would probably convert my whole house into a library. Here there is some explanation: Certain associations from childhood may have molded this love, but I can remember some fairly bitter experiences here as well as good, in fact some of my earliest encounters with books made me swear I'd never read anything ever again; it was only in my later childhood that I learned to love to read.
But just as the stories I tell come to me seemingly from out of the æther, and just as my love of those stories is something that merely is, so I find another love, an unexplainable delight in language itself. Every tidbit of etymology is my treasure, every quirk of grammar my delight. It is a struggle, the work can even become drudgery at times, and yet I can't escape.
I don't know why I write; I just know I do.
- Why do you write?
- When did you start writing?
- What was the first thing that made you say, "I'm going to be a writer"?
