[3] The Writing Discussion Thread

[James]

Mar 17, 2016 20:43:05 GMT -5 Injin said:

I am not in the best mental mindspace at the moment. I'm feeling a cranial malaise of sorts. Perhaps that is boiling over into everything else, but w/e. I am continuing to revise and fix what I've written. I had a good thing going and then I went all...Injin goes off on a weird writing tangent weird.

There's two things I'd suggest:

A: Use the malaise for your writing. Put a sense of what you're feeling into your writing. Swamp's a pretty good topic for that.

B: Or, possibly even better, write something that knocks you out of your malaise. Some exciting and fun for you to write.

[Injin]

Mar 17, 2016 20:59:41 GMT -5 James said:

Mar 17, 2016 20:43:05 GMT -5 Injin said:

I am not in the best mental mindspace at the moment. I'm feeling a cranial malaise of sorts. Perhaps that is boiling over into everything else, but w/e. I am continuing to revise and fix what I've written. I had a good thing going and then I went all...Injin goes off on a weird writing tangent weird.

There's two things I'd suggest:

A: Use the malaise for your writing. Put a sense of what you're feeling into your writing. Swamp's a pretty good topic for that.

B: Or, possibly even better, write something that knocks you out of your malaise. Some exciting and fun for you to write.

Hmmmmmm

I'll keep these in mind. I think I have a good idea of what to do now.

Thanks James. I just got a surge of muse.

[James]

See, I unironically used the word 'jam' and everything worked out just fine.

[Injin]

Mar 17, 2016 21:11:55 GMT -5 James said:

See, I unironically used the word 'jam' and everything worked out just fine.

I'm getting a groove into it. It was disrupted because my stepmom called, but I'm still going at it.

[Injin]

Okay, I'm about an eighth of the way through and I'm done for the night. I think I'll have more inspiration later, but I think I'm on to something.

[The Counter Cultist(Sawyer)]

I think I'm going to try something new/different.

I'm going to outline a novel for once, and then write from the end to the beginning. I feel like it'd be a fun exercise to try.

[Dylaria]

So... I've been doing some (super rough and incomplete) outlining for something tonight. I mean the whole thing is totally lame and will likely never be seen by anyone but its kinda exciting to have the drive/inspiration to be doing -any- writing type of stuff these days. One of those "maybe if I can actually finish something I'll do more things" kind of things. Bizarrely I'm not actually phased by this never being read by others (usually a killing blow) because its just a gift to me from me.

Is it weird that I have the very early bits and (especially) the final confrontation mostly roughed out but am only at a "connect the dots" level on the middle? I mean I do see the path, kinda. Its just much more hazy.

I dunno, I'm rambling but yeah. I'm doing something remotely relevant to writing (even if its going to be a travesty) and felt like sharing.

[Injin]

Mar 18, 2016 19:58:13 GMT -5 Dylaria said:

So... I've been doing some (super rough and incomplete) outlining for something tonight. I mean the whole thing is totally lame and will likely never be seen by anyone but its kinda exciting to have the drive/inspiration to be doing -any- writing type of stuff these days. One of those "maybe if I can actually finish something I'll do more things" kind of things. Bizarrely I'm not actually phased by this never being read by others (usually a killing blow) because its just a gift to me from me.

Is it weird that I have the very early bits and (especially) the final confrontation mostly roughed out but am only at a "connect the dots" level on the middle? I mean I do see the path, kinda. Its just much more hazy.

I dunno, I'm rambling but yeah. I'm doing something remotely relevant to writing (even if its going to be a travesty) and felt like sharing.

Its always good to get your thoughts out there, even if they don't make much sense.

[James]

Mar 18, 2016 19:58:13 GMT -5 Dylaria said:

Is it weird that I have the very early bits and (especially) the final confrontation mostly roughed out but am only at a "connect the dots" level on the middle? I mean I do see the path, kinda. Its just much more hazy.

I think that's actually quite common. Most people tend to know the ending they want, and the start is obviously something you need to know to start. It is quite often the middle which needs filling out.

Good to hear you're writing again!

[Sensar]

Considering my silence these past few weeks as I finish up directing my first set of shows, I have a selfish thing to ask.

I recently developed, along with some friends, a piece called the Lazzi of the Ark, which was a clowning take on Noah's Ark (built directly from the King James version of the Bible). I may post our script to the new board.

But, since it was received so well and such a blast to put on, I had a thought about expanding on the piece. We've discussed doing more Bible stories, but I also had the thought of taking similar stories/ideas from other cultures, mythologies, or even philosophies (including atheism) and creating a full piece called the Lazzi of the Holy.

What stories do you guys think would clown well? That have source material to draw from.

[James]

A play set entirely in Cronus's stomach. The Phantom Menace to most Greek myths about the gods, except, you know, no Jar Jar.

[ASGetty ((Zovo))]

Noah and Gilgamesh, two ships passing in the night.

[Sensar]

Both Gilgamesh and Cronus are fun ideas. I think the only true source text for Cronus would be Homer, right?

[James]

Yeah, there's not a lot for the Cronus story itself. But here's my thinking.

The Greeks pretty much did all the parodies of a lot of their own stories. Like, The Trial of Socrates could be really fun and maybe you could do it as a quasi-atheism story, but Aristophanes sort of covers that in The Clouds. And so on. Euripides parodies the Odyssey in Cyclops.

So you could take one of the more well known Greek myths and run with it, but you've got ancient competition.

Whereas with Cronus, I think you could extend from the original Cronus myth. Look at the gods who are actually stuck in the stomach, see what myths they're involved in the -future-, and have some of the comedy based around that.

I guess the problem is that type of comedy probably doesn't work if the audience doesn't know their Greek mythology. But if you only have that be one part of the comedy, and throw in some physical, slapstick stuff about them trying to climb out of a stomach. And just play with the absurdity that they're literally a family stuck inside their father who ate them.

Could work. Maybe.

[Dylaria]

Okay, so real question because I kinda need some advice. (okay, a little more than "kinda")

So I'm still working on notes/rough outlining. My goal is to actually do the writing in April. I've hit a bit of a snag though. I have a few competing ideas on how to work out a few things but can't decide what ideas are good and what are well, pretty trash. Usually I'd bounce ideas off someone but there are problems here. One is that my real life friends can -never- know about it or I'll never hear the end of it. My husband is of course supportive but doesn't really have much to add. (this project isn't to his interest, fair enough)

Anyway... my question is does anybody have any tips on how to sort all this out solo? I usually do shorter stuff, so I'm a little out of my depth.

Oh, and yes. I do know I could in theory ask you guys. The problems there being, most of you have a lack of knowledge on what I'm hoping to cover (no offense but its true). Plus this whole thing is totally lame, embarrassingly so. Its purely a story I'd like to see so I have to make it for myself. As previously mentioned it would take a lot of convincing to even post it when its done/in real progress.

Um, yeah, I'll shut up now.