Anyone on here ever have anything published? 

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I was published in a book called Magic Methods In Screenwriting.  When I was 19 I wrote a script and an agent liked it, so he shopped it around awhile.  A cable company was interested in it, but it fell through.  I kept rewriting it but it got worse and not better.  So, I laid it down and forgot about it .  I then wrote another script  called Porno Bitches From Hell and a producer was interested in it.  I was writing a few porno movies at that time as well.  That was back in the day when they actually had scripts for porn. 

My plans was to make some porn and maybe make enough money to make my own movie.  A porn star seemed really interested in my porn scripts.  And said I could be in the movies with her if I wanted to be.  She is dead now.  I did had an encounter with God and laid my scripts down.  I never did send the script Porno Bitches From Hell to the producer.  And I never sent any of the porn scripts to anyone as well.

I then spent a year getting to know God and did nothing else.  Later I got involved with ministry work.  I still loved writing though, even though I was not doing it at the time.  I then wrote another script and sent it to a screenwriter and he said "He thought it was one of the worst things he ever read and that I should never write again"  I was angry, discouraged and hurt.  But I didn't write anymore for a few years.  

I then decided to write again, because I thought it isn't about if a screenwriter or producer likes my stuff.  It is about if I enjoy it and if I enjoy spending time with the people I create and meet along the way.  If I enjoy going to the places in my imagination.  

So, last year I wrote another script.  It was a lot of fun and I really did not care if anyone liked it or not.  I did and I enjoyed spending time with the story.  I would like others to like it, but if they don't that is okay with me.  I entered it in the Disney contest and I guess they did not like it, because I did not win.  But I liked it.  And I am going to start another and another and another.  Because it is something I like.  Maybe one day I will get a check, but I am still having fun in the process.

I have thought about writing a novel, but I have not done it yet.  It seems so different than scripts.  If I wrote novels it would be horror novels.  Grammar is a weak point of mine, so I would have to hire a proof reader on all my stuff.  :)  

Back in my journalism heyday, I had published both articles and stories in several magazines and newspapers. Nothing to really get hopped up about, but it at least gave me some pocket money for a while. The entire process of submitting queries and waiting to see if anything comes of it is tiring, especially with articles, as you tend to write them to be relatively timely and you can't submit them to more than one publication at a time, so you'd pour a ton of work into something in the hopes that it either got picked up or rejected quickly enough that you could turn around and submit it to someone else before it became irrelevant. (this is mainly magazine writing I'm speaking of; the newspaper work I did was all special interest pieces for regional newspapers)

I'm looking more into self-publishing these days in terms of the novels I've written, though I think the story I wrote during the 2007 NaNoWriMo is good enough to shop to agents. Hopefully I'll find some time in the next year to work on polishing it up enough for submission. Even then though, I'm still not averse to self-publishing, though I am cautious because I want to make sure I put out the best product possible. My coworker recently self-published a novel before it was really ready to go and now it's in print form and it makes my eyes bleed. He'd asked me to be his copy editor but he got impatient with the process and turned it in for final print before I'd been able to get all the way through his manuscript (it took me forever to edit because there were a TON of things he needed to fix. A TON). And now he's gone back and reread it and is embarrassed. Serves him right for being impatient though. I have no sympathy for people like that. Just because you can put words together on a page does not make you a writer. Don't get me started on people who think they're poets.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

lol  

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

lol   

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

we have a friend that is shopping out her novel right now. She's given it to me to read. She's also in the process of writing another one that's pretty good so far.

I've written tons but I never finish anything! LOL! I could fill up quite a large book of short stories or novels that got started but never finished.

I have no idea why i can't finish anything.

Jordan .

lol  

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Yeah, I have seen only one Saw movie and it was okay for what it was.  I did like the first Hostel movie, not because of the gore, but because of the take it had on society.  I do think the scarier movies are the movies with less gore.  I also don't like all of the low budget bad gore movies that Saw and Hostile has inspired.

I think two wonderful techniques that are rare in horror movies today are as follows:

The Insane Family -  I see this a lot.  But not the way it was done in the orginal Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  I am surprised it is not used more, because when done right it is very scary.  I think the key is to give the family a moral code or system to live by.  I think this is what makes the Joker so scary in the Dark Knight.  His logic makes sense to him.

Making The Person Stronger But More Corrupt  - This is rarely used and I don't know why because it is very powerful.  This is seen in the Fly.  The doctor is becoming stronger, while at the same time becoming more and more like an animal or more corrupt.  

But yeah.  I think less is more in horror movies and in horror novels.  

To address Jordan and j's issue with keeping the process going...this is why I went back to using a typewriter and plain ol' pencil and paper. Computers totally wrecked my productivity as a writer because it was entirely too easy to stop and go back and immediately edit what I'd written rather than just let things flow naturally. I find I end up with far more energy to write when I'm able to remove as many blocks to creative flow as possible. I know it seems archaic, but it's no big deal...I type uber fast so transcribing handwritten stories is easy, and I use text-to-document software to convert scans of my typewritten work into word documents.

I know people like to jerk off over Stephen King's "On Writing" and adopt his style of scheduling a period to write every day. That may be well and good if you want to churn out bland, robotic novels like him, but at the end of the day, forcing yourself to write when you're not feeling it isn't the best approach. Many creative writing professors will tell you this. It's fine for the occasional writer's block, to help unclog the works. But as a regular practice, it can burn you out and cause you to write shit like the last three novels of the Dark Tower series.

If you absolutely NEED to have daily writing practice...create a blog. Even if you never share it with anyone, having someplace to empty your head on a regular basis can help. A lot. But still...don't force it.

I really think we need to get a gang of us here joining NaNoWriMo this year. Y'all would love it. I have so much fun every year and writing a 50k word novel isn't as hard as you think. You just need to let go and have fun. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

lol

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

lol   

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

 Hmmm.  I'm going to have to give that some thought.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Jordan .

hahaha you think that many people are terrible at sex?

i love that idea. "the condom broke my first time, so i just gave up forever" lol

Jordan .

yeah i think that's what makes it funny

lol   

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I read Stephen King's On Writing.  I liked a lot of what he had to say.  I guess it depends on what kind of writer you are.  Quentin Tarantino says he can't write if he is not feeling it. 

Some things I have to do is write in long hand.  It just does not feel the same to write on the computer.  So, I have to write long hand and then type it out later.  I also have to know the ending or a good idea of how it will end.  I have to outline every scene.  I have to make sure I am hitting the story beats for the genre I am writing.  This shows up in the outline.  I also have to give the people in my story the freedom to go somewhere else and to disagree with me and what I mapped out for them.  I have to give myself some sort of treat when I am done.  The script I wrote last year was very loose in structure.  It was very experimental.  The next script I write is going to be very classic in stucture.  I don't know abot the play I am writing, because it is the first one I have ever written.

Some other books I have enjoyed are as follows:

How Not To Write A Screenplay - Denny Martin Flinn

How Not To Write A Novel - Howard Mittelmark 

Anatomy Of Story - John Truby

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Well somebody has to like his shit and continue to put money in his pockets. I found it to be trite and bland. The one section where he actually talks about writing itself is lined with rudimentary information that any aspiring writer should already know. If I need Stephen King to explain to me about gerunds and participles, I probably shouldn't be writing. I should probably be back in remedial adult education courses, picking up whatever it is I missed back in grade school. It would have also been nice if King had at any point said "But not everyone has to adopt my methods to be a writer" instead of making his writing practices sound like an end-all be-all. The only thing I CAN give him props for is his recommendation to read works by specific authors for insight into what actually makes good writing. At least he had the sack to do that... (PS - I love the part where he lectures about how bad it is to use adverbs to describe how characters say something, yet he does it quite often in his own books. I checked. WTF? Thx, Stephen.)

Honestly, if you want to read something about the process of writing, there are a dozen books out there that are far more profound and definitely less sideways. Living the Writer's Life by Eric Maisel, for example. And definitely Elements of Style.

To be frank though...I think we should chuck our writing books and just work how we see fit to work. The magic happens when you do your own thing, not what someone else tells you that you need to do. If an idea pops in your head, run with it. Outline it if that's your gig, or just go balls-out and start typing and see what comes out on the page. Play with the english language. Have fun with it. Combat writer's block by figuring out what it is that's causing the block and then devise a way around it that suits you. Don't force yourself into strict practices if it just makes you miserable. Don't get all free-form if you feel you need structure. I mean, it's about you as an individual. It's not about someone else's imaginary process.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."