Harakiri Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Volume 1 Issue 3 Another Format ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS: _______ Over the course of the past couple issues, I have been changing various things, trying to find a "comfort zone", and area that the paper can work more on. While, overall the paper has been doing pretty good, and people are supporting it, it still needs to find something to focus more on. The previous two have jumped about, taking on different subjects from Stephen King, to Japan. While the stories may be a selling point, it still does not make the reader feel excited when every week they move from something cool to something boring, to something that doesn't matter. This week, I am going to focus on authors, and writing as a whole. While their might be some specific things we look at, it will not be exactly from my interests, but from everyones interests as a whole. We are writers, and we want to read about writing! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRITERS STORIES: _________________ Learning from other peoples a large part of writing. While theres a lot to gain from how people got into writing and why they do it, theres probably more to tell. Please contact me if you want to talk about your story, but if not...I'll be asking you myself... Anyways, this weeks about me so here goes... RATCHET573 I pride myself in being weird and odd. It all began in the second grade. My story for some kind of contest had to be written fast. I wrote it fast, and as such, it sucked balls. It was about the Earwax monster (an idea I got from Edd, Ed, and Eddy) and it was horrendous. It was about, of all things, the spirit of haloween... After quite a few years of not writing for the public, I found the tip it forums, where my dad bought and sold stuff, and decided to try my hand at Runescape comedies. Everyone remembers Snake and Noob, and everybody remembers how goddamn bad it was. While I wanted to touch on key parts of Runescape that sucked, I ended up with convoluted, and twisted stories that made no sense...and my writing did not help. I was not particularly good I thought, so I continued to write for the past couple years, trying to find a comfortable spot to sit, and write on. While fantasy is my main favorite, I soon learned that I liked writing westerns, and horror. My writing style has grown greatly since Snake and Noob, and I think its sharper, and a bit easier to read. I've always been disjointed though. Some stuff sounds like a cool idea, and then I get bored and move onto something else, which is probably why I have seventy five stories up here that have not gotten finished... At the moment, I am writing my first full length novel, about a guy selling his soul to Satan, science experiments gone wrong, a little girl transformed into a harpy, her brain placed in a computer, and other such things that make no sense. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WRITING TALK: FROM MIND TO PAPER ___________________________________ As you read above, I am starting to write a full length novel, which makes this the perfect oppurtunity for me to talk about getting an idea to paper. Most authors have a myriad of ideas. Most stem from things other authors have wrote. Some stem from gaming, and television. Some stem from the real world. Ideas are a growing database. Usually though, you have just one idea you want to put down, the others are alright, but you feel are not good enough for the publics eyes. Some people expand their ideas in their head. I do this, and think up a plot before putting it to paper. Its usually a basic outline of whats going to happen, but sometimes I expand further. After this, I move to the paper, where I place the idea alongside many others I have had. Keeping a journal of ideas is never a bad idea, because someday, you may look back and say "Thats a good idea". After the idea is down, writing a plotline is the next step. It usually includes all major parts of the plot, character development, places, and all that. Most of the time, I add in extra, which is alright. When writing a story, using a giant poster board is good. When another idea comes, adding it to the plot on the board will help you understand your plot further. Thats the things I do, and they work. If you have any other ideas, then please post them below! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THIS IS NOT JUST A PAPER! ________________________ While some of you may think this is just one, boring guy talking about writing, then you should think again. A bunch of boring guys could be adding on to this! Help us out by sending me anything you want placed in the paper! Also, why don't you discuss down below! Until the next paper, this is the ideal spot for authors to really talk about the thing they care about, writing! Add on to articles, talk about topics covered in this paper, and also, duke it out each week with our new feature, the DEBATE QUESTION! The debate question will be posted somewhere in the paper each week, and whoever has the best argument wins a point. Everyone who wins gets their name and number of points in each paper. DEBATE QUESTION: _________________ Do the reviews for a book help in your purchase of it? Answer below and whoever has the best argument wins a point! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMIC: _______ COMEDY: POEMS: ________________ Hobo: There he is sitting in the alley Apparently eating some garbage from the nearby pep rally A half eaten hot dog is on todays menu Tomorrow he will move on to another venue Has not shaved in nearly ten years Nearly has a ten foot long beard Eats banana peels, thinks there good Then he thinks that everyone should On the side of the road, asking for change From five to ten cents is his normal range Sleeps beneath some newpapers The only thing that he wears his a jersey for the Lakers Never slept with a woman before Thought he slept one time with a [bleep] Too bad he did not instead it was a man But he still enjoyed it, so sweaty he needed a fan Needs to bathe, cuz he smells like [cabbage] Everytime you tell him that he goes on a fit He throws around garbage cans and throws beer bottles And then he moves around, scratch that, he doddles More drunk than a pirate Less sex appeal than a beaver Don't tell him that or he'll get irate You'll know when his pupils begin to dilate Hippy Theres Sunny Blossom Theres Happy Rose Those hippies will never see a bossom Even if they look at those naughty books with girls in a sexy pose There Sunshine Freddy Theres Gay Pete They always wet there beddy And always have their periods on the leather seats The sit in the back of a van Taking lots of drugs Nixon wanted to hit them with a pan Wanted to hit them right in there ugly mugs Nixon was a mean man Got kicked out of office years ago Now I think he has more of a tan If he dies everyone will say "So?" Theres Smiling Bob Theres [developmentally delayed]ed Mary When I see them I want to sob They would rather take drugs than drink dairy All the hippies in the world With their afros and huge shoes I hope your discoing to the blues your songs about peace make me wanna throw up on you Too bad you wouldn't notice because your outfits look like throw up too! ANOTHER POEM: ______________ My whole life has sucked...Everyone knows. I lived my life waiting for something excting to happen. Nothing did, except for her. She came in an instant. She left just as fast. She knew me so well, I loved her so much. But she just left, after all we did. Felt like an instant, but it was actually more than two. We were together for two years. The happiest of my life. Now, I write my will, my final testament. May god save my soul... I am hanging in the attic. A noose around my neck. Do not leave me there. Burn my body so I can have no more heart attacks. My love will burn deeply. And my soul will to... How I wish she could have thought this through. Hand this poem below to her. Tell her not what happened, just that I left. I will never come back... I am in Nevada. Area 66. "My love let me talk You knew me well I now am in hell Good job [bleep] you killed me See you in hell!" Well, thats not great, but that [bleep] needs to know. When she grows up she'll probably be a hoe. I hate her now. Now she knows. I knew it from the beginning. She grew on me though like mushrooms on my feet. And before I knew it I loved her. Her lips were like the tastiest meat. She ran though, that friggin [bleep]. I hate her now forever. She moved on to a jock cuz god forbid she take a goth... So goodbye people I'll look down on you... But probably up the way I went But make sure you tell that [bleep] Its not hell but her, I resent. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTRIBUTIONS GREATLY APPRECIATED! ANSWER DEBATE QUESTION! NEXT WEEKS SPOTLIGHT GOES ON DOUGLAS ADAMS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nom Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Reviews can be good and bad. Basically what it boils down to is knowing what reviewers to listen to. Crap like Twilight and Eragon get good reviews as part of a marketing strategy, not because they have any actual merit. I'm sitting here with a copy of Brisingr from my brother's school library and snorting at the review snippets on the back cover. I wouldn't be surprised if the reviewers are being paid to lie through their teeth. I find that customer reviews are often more helpful than professional ones, if you can get a ton of them from a site like Amazon and see how the good/bad ratio works out. But in the end it's always a risk to buy a new book. If I'm unsure, I head to the library. I could do the author focus thing for next week if you like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harakiri Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 Reviews can be good and bad. Basically what it boils down to is knowing what reviewers to listen to. Crap like Twilight and Eragon get good reviews as part of a marketing strategy, not because they have any actual merit. I'm sitting here with a copy of Brisingr from my brother's school library and snorting at the review snippets on the back cover. I wouldn't be surprised if the reviewers are being paid to lie through their teeth. I find that customer reviews are often more helpful than professional ones, if you can get a ton of them from a site like Amazon and see how the good/bad ratio works out. But in the end it's always a risk to buy a new book. If I'm unsure, I head to the library. I could do the author focus thing for next week if you like. That'd be cool...Douglas Adams or you wanna do another...we can do two focus's next week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
issy2 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Reviews can be good and bad. Basically what it boils down to is knowing what reviewers to listen to. Crap like Twilight and Eragon get good reviews as part of a marketing strategy, not because they have any actual merit. I'm sitting here with a copy of Brisingr from my brother's school library and snorting at the review snippets on the back cover. I wouldn't be surprised if the reviewers are being paid to lie through their teeth. I find that customer reviews are often more helpful than professional ones, if you can get a ton of them from a site like Amazon and see how the good/bad ratio works out. But in the end it's always a risk to buy a new book. If I'm unsure, I head to the library. I could do the author focus thing for next week if you like. When you say " Basically what it boils down to is knowing what reviewers to listen to" I think you mean "It's good to know which reviewers tend to agree with my opinions" I'm not saying that's a bad thing but it's true. You can't accuse reviewers of lying through their teeth simply because you don't agree! What it boils down to is opinions - yours, the reviewers'. Have a little respect! Anyway sorry for the distraction, back to the point. Does reading a review of a book help me to decide whether or not to buy/borrow it? In general, I'd say no, but as Nom said it depends who is recommending it to me. Things that 'attract' me to a book are the author's name, the front cover, the blurb - the image the book is giving off, in other words, as opposed to someone else's interpretation of it. It's target audience, if you like, and whether I think it'd be good for me to read it, even if I won't enjoy it. I agree, though, about the Amazon thing. It's very useful to read the opinions of people in the same situation, and get a wide range of interpretations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nom Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 When you say " Basically what it boils down to is knowing what reviewers to listen to" I think you mean "It's good to know which reviewers tend to agree with my opinions" I'm not saying that's a bad thing but it's true. You can't accuse reviewers of lying through their teeth simply because you don't agree! What it boils down to is opinions - yours, the reviewers'. Have a little respect! Reviewers are subject to fallacies just like everyone else, and sometimes it cannot simply be written off a a difference of opinion. I cannot enjoy a book that has glaring flaws like the aforementioned Inheritance and Twilight, and people raving about them trying to tell me they are the best things to happen in the publishing world in the last ten years are quite simply wrong. They may enjoy them in an entirely different manner than I do, but that does not give the book in question any more actual merit. As a writer myself I want to read a book that is well-written in a host of areas, not one that is, as Zonorhc said on the Twilight thread, "a beneficiary of a viciously effective marketing strategy." That being said I suppose you are somewhat correct in saying that it depends on my own personal opinion, but only because I look for different things in a book than the average consumer. I hold them to an actual literary standard and couldn't care less how popular they are. In that way, I do in fact need to know which reviewers to listen to--the ones that are concerned with the same things as I am. Not the ones who harp on about the brilliance of the author or how the work will appeal to every teenager on the planet. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I am not every teenager on the planet, and I will not be duped into buying the book that easily. I read far, far more than the average person and don't need a publicity reviewer telling me to "READ THIS BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME." Some people are bandwagon readers and nothing else and will read the book because it's the hot thing. Some reviewers will give the book good reviews for the same reason. Quite simply put some reviewers are just not qualified to be giving me an accurate view of how good a book is. It is these reviewers that I do not listen to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
issy2 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 When you say " Basically what it boils down to is knowing what reviewers to listen to" I think you mean "It's good to know which reviewers tend to agree with my opinions" I'm not saying that's a bad thing but it's true. You can't accuse reviewers of lying through their teeth simply because you don't agree! What it boils down to is opinions - yours, the reviewers'. Have a little respect! Reviewers are subject to fallacies just like everyone else, and sometimes it cannot simply be written off a a difference of opinion. I cannot enjoy a book that has glaring flaws like the aforementioned Inheritance and Twilight, and people raving about them trying to tell me they are the best things to happen in the publishing world in the last ten years are quite simply wrong. They may enjoy them in an entirely different manner than I do, but that does not give the book in question any more actual merit. As a writer myself I want to read a book that is well-written in a host of areas, not one that is, as Zonorhc said on the Twilight thread, "a beneficiary of a viciously effective marketing strategy." That being said I suppose you are somewhat correct in saying that it depends on my own personal opinion, but only because I look for different things in a book than the average consumer. I hold them to an actual literary standard and couldn't care less how popular they are. In that way, I do in fact need to know which reviewers to listen to--the ones that are concerned with the same things as I am. Not the ones who harp on about the brilliance of the author or how the work will appeal to every teenager on the planet. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I am not every teenager on the planet, and I will not be duped into buying the book that easily. I read far, far more than the average person and don't need a publicity reviewer telling me to "READ THIS BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME." Some people are bandwagon readers and nothing else and will read the book because it's the hot thing. Some reviewers will give the book good reviews for the same reason. Quite simply put some reviewers are just not qualified to be giving me an accurate view of how good a book is. It is these reviewers that I do not listen to. Ok, agreed, but there are so many different ways of measuring a book's 'good' - ness. You can't dismiss something as bad because it's popular. Have you read Twilight and Eragon? I'm assuming you have, since if you hadn't you'd be getting a very much changed view of the book than if you'd actually read it yourself. But I find it hard to believe you think Twilight is badly-written... What exactly about it do you object to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nom Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I object to the fundamental existence of Twilight and pretty much every single thing about that existence. This is the Twilight thread in MM&T. Since I don't want to start up a whole separate argument that essentially repeats what I've said there, you can just skim over it, especially pages 5 and onward. If you object to anything please do say so, but I don't want to repeat myself by laying everything out again. The basic premise, though, is that the prose is badly purple, Bella and Edward are uber-sues of the first degree, the story holds no value except for wish fulfillment on the part of Stephenie Meyer, and the books send a disturbing message of sexism and a distorted view of relationships. For details, see the thread. I'm currently about halfway through Brisingr, having just now been able to get it from a library. So far it looks like he actually tried to listen to his critics, since the prose in the very beginning was God-awful--even worse than Eldest, if that is at all possible--but gradually cleaned itself up a bit. The story seems structured like a checklist, with Paolini addressing each of the points he's been criticized on for a few pages and then moving on. At least he's attempting to clean it up, and it's a sight better than Eldest. Still riddled with problems though, but I don't feel like going into detail since you asked about Twilight not Inheritance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harakiri Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 My opinion: I never read the Twilights, but I have read quite a few books that I can say are over hyped. I read more than the average fourteen year old, and go through quite a few books a week when I have nothing better to do. One day, I started to read Eragon...Oh my god...a new story about dragons by a kid my age...aweso... Holy crap, this is a ripoff of every dragon book ever written...holy crap...this blows. Its probably only published since his parents are editors...which is [cabbage]. So if I had parents in the biz, I could publish my stories? I think it was badly written as well...he's only getting praise since "ZOMG! Fourteen year old gets published!" Another example is Harry Potter. The idea was alright I guess, but the execution was terrible. They were boring as hell. Harry went to Alchemy class (add five pages of description) then he went to dark arts... It was boring and overhyped... I do Amazon to...its good to hear opinions like yours sometimes...at least I'm not the only one who think HP blows... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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