Lurker > Joker98

DDirtyDastard posted...

By the 4th draft I realized I made a critical mistake in the planning process. The book was running extremely long. I should've chosen a character and wrote it from the first person perspective. I relied way too much on dialogue to explain the character's motivations and personalities.

The first draft is a vomit draft. Just get it all out, the concepts and major scenes.

Draft 2 is a quick over to just make it readable, I also made notes about missing pieces and sections that needed to be fleshed out.

Before the 3rd draft, I put all the major plot points on notecards. I color-coded them based on priority and subject matter. The idea of the notecards is to make them easy to move around. I had a big blank wall and a bunch of scotch tape and was able to move them around and combine multiple ideas into scenes.

Once it all came together and made sense, I started the 3rd draft which basically Frankensteined all the scenes I'd already written into proper order and found the pieces that needed to be re-written and noted where there were plot holes and new scenes to be written.

4th draft was focused on new scenes and refining existing scenes. You also end up finding that some pre-exiting scenes become unnecessary. This pass is really about the tone of the book and giving it a personality. Making sure it all comes together.

My 5th pass came after letting other people read the 4th. You can address or ignore the suggestions. It may end up forcing more passes, but in my case it got a lot of good feedback so I just cleaned up the leftover grammatical errors and started forwarding it to agents for possible publication.

I consider the book finished at this point, but I did end up getting feedback from agents about the book (which apparently most people don't even get to that point). He was critical of my narrative not matching the content in the story. He had a good point, but I also feel like he missed the point of my book as well. The lesson I learned was that not everyone is going to "get" your story if it's something heavily cerebral. In the future, I'll emphasize my style of writing rather than try to jam pack a super complex story into a tight space.

That's a lot of really helpful advice. Thank you!

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

_Savage posted...

poems mostly here's some of my stuff brodie

I really like these two a lot. The first one especially is amazing

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

MedeaLysistrata posted...

If you're writing a novel, try the snowflake method

https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/

The closest I got to a novel was about 30 pages in, but writing was so easy because I had a detailed summary.

Edit: as for RP writing, I'd brain storm a plot with my friends and we'd just freestyle the posts more or less

The method in this article seems incredibly helpful and I'm taking notes atm. I'm gonna try to use this, thank you for suggesting it!
Any other tools or methods you'd recommend? XD

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

DDirtyDastard posted...

I wrote a coming-of-age story/historic piece a few years back. I do a lot of memoir work, but have dabbled in sci-fi, comedy, and post-apocalyptic stuff. The only thing I ever completed was the coming-of-age story. Took 2 1/2 years and 5 drafts.

I'd be really interested in hearing your method for revision. Do you go through the whole thing and do a once over, and make changes as you go? Or is it more piece by piece / chapter by chapter?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

MedeaLysistrata posted...

Kinda, yeah, RP mostly but nothing atm

What would be your method for writing when you used to? Just dive right in, or outline it more thoroughly first?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

SteveNasti posted...

Your goal is to write and publish a book in one year? Golly! But I like poetry good sir

Welll.. It probably won't happen all in 1 year but at least I can set my sights high, right?

specialkid8 posted...

I'm trying. Took me almost a year to write a 60 page short story. I'm terrible about procrastination and would go months without touching it. Now it's done and I'm working really hard on not editing it now. I come up with a lot of cool worlds and ideas I want to explore but can't get into an actual pattern of writing.

Did you outline the story before writing or just jump in? Any tips for writing a 60 page short story?

Pus_N_Pecans posted...

I really only write short stories and poems, but just about everything is about identity, time, or death. (Sometimes theyre funny too though)

Do you write pretty consistently or do you have long breaks where you don't write? Care to share any of your poems?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

What are your favorite topics to write about? And what do you enjoy writing? Short Stories? Plays? Novels? Poems?

I've always enjoyed writing and I've also wanted to publish a book, which I've decided is going to be my goal for 2021. Still deciding what kind of book, though.

Would love to hear from other writers on CE.

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Master Kazuya posted...

Do you think maybe the frequency of sex could've been a negative sign of the relationship? Whether that's the cause of her being shitty and cheating, or a symptom of her being shitty. Anyway, I feel like having sex an average of twice a year with someone who's your new GF is the same frequency of what people would consider a dead bedroom after several years of marriage. It's possible that maybe the urge didn't come up but you know your body better than I do. Sounds like you enjoyed it. Just seems like a bad sign overall (unless both people really don't feel like banging ever).

Also if you really wanna fuck, you'll find a way. In the car, somewhere public, quickies when everyone's asleep, not giving a fuck and knowing you pay the bills so you're allowed to enjoy yourself in your own house, etc.

I agree with all of this. When there's a will, there's a way. It sounds like either one or both of you didn't want to have sex that much (which is fine)

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Kobe Bryant posted...

How do you only hit that 9 times in four years lmao

I was wondering that too. In my 4+ year relationship, we had sex hundreds of times

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

I hesitated to date a girl I worked with last year. I didn't like her enough to see myself with her forever, so I thought a breakup would be inevitable. Fast forward to now, It's COVID and we don't work together anymore anyway and I probably could've dated her with no real issues (I'm probably not going back to the same job after COVID).

Lots of probably's and I don't actually regret my decision to not date her, but ya know how it is

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

OP wants his iPhone to cost $20,000

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

AdrianBeterson posted...

was this pic taken in like 2005? what is that ancient phone on the table?

that's not what phones looked like in 2005


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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

LincolnDuncan posted...

I work in a contact center, and you're wrong. That agent should have wrapped the convo up. Unless..you shoulda got her number.

XD I obviously don't believe EVERY call is just idle chit chat. Although, I did also used to work in a call center, and a lot of the calls were idle chit chat.

Kobe Bryant posted...

Should got her fb first so you know what she look like

I was only into her platonically

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

WrestlinFan posted...

Shouldve got her number

It's on their website XD

LincolnDuncan posted...

*WE ARE EXPERIENCE HIGHER DEMAND THAN USUAL, PLEASE BE PATIENT *

"So, like..vampire cult. What's that about, right?"

I'm firmly convinced that on the other side of every "Longer than normal call volume", is a "So the friend I don't like, the other thing he did was..."

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

I was on the phone with an agent for over an hour while we were waiting for the supervisor to be free to arrange a time to call me back, but during that time, we talked about everything from her friend who wanted to join a vampire cult, to my friend who I don't really like, and everything in between. We talked about career paths, how she's going back to school, how she needs to buy a new phone, all kinds of stuff. Did I have to stay on the phone with her for an hour? Probably not. Would I do it again? Absolutely.

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

The whole reason I like wearing a mask is that it hides my face. Why the hell would I want a see through one

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

DarthTyrannus83 posted...

I still dont know. Its not a career, i just have kind of a tech job and worked as a computer tech before. My hobbies (music, programming) and what i studied (economics, management) are completely different to what i do. I want to switch to programming as a job but i feel like the competition is too stiff and the learning curve/knowledge level required are too steep/high in the fields im interested in (C++ development) and i dont wanna be just another website-building coder.

I used to be an executive recruiter at a tech agency, and I'm confident that if you have certain skills and just a little bit of experience (including passion projects) you can get your foot in the door fairly easily. I've seen people get 90k+ jobs without that much experience. Tech jobs are aplenty

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Zikten posted...

No. But I sometimes worry it might happen to me. I looked it up and head injuries can lead to them. I fainted once and smacked my head hard enough to need stitches once like several years ago

that's a scary thought indeed =/ I'm sorry that's something you have to deal with

If it makes you feel better, I've been knocked unconscious multiple times =/

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Did you know someone who that happened to OP?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

I need to hear other peoples' rationales that led to your decision :>?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

ArchNemo posted...

Hell, I've been that friend.

what happened?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Returning_CEmen posted...

My ex-girlfriend was like that. She was just a toxic person. Idk why I put up with it for so long

How long are you together?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Up

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

seems like 10k from what he's said

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

In the past I've spent $60 or more on a first date. That would be like, a nice meal, maybe dessert or a drink after, maybe flowers, whatever.

Nowadays (assuming COVID wasn't going on), my views are different. I want to spend like $10 on the date (coffee / ice cream / boba, etc. If we get drinks, make it $20/30). That way if the date doesn't go anywhere I didn't spend more than I wanted to.

But yeah, what about you?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

BloodMoon7 posted...

I would adjust my behavior if I considered them worthy of it but I would also call them sensitive. If you've talked to me long enough that I consider you a friend, you would already know that sometimes I'm just a really cruel person.
:v

I read this as: "People should accept that I'm a cruel person and only if someone proves themself to me as being worthy will I show them the courtesy of not being an a-hole, but only upon request and I would still tell them they're being unreasonable (too sensitive)."

There's a lot to unpack there

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

BloodMoon7 posted...

A dog died today probably. Life is sad.

Oh no you are right. Am... Am I offensive?

You might be offensive, I don't know you.
It is interesting that you rejected me for friendship (you said we wouldn't be friends) when I actually never asked to be your friend.
I wonder if it's a defense mechanism (to reject people).

Seemed interesting to me.

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

keep in mind your answer might not be good
only answer questions if you're pretty confident it's a good answer

ok go

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

BloodMoon7 posted...

I think we wouldn't get along. Though I'm more of a dark humor person myself.

I dunno, I can have a dark sense of humor as well. As long as you're not racist, sexist, transphobic, etc, I don't see why we inherently wouldn't.

If your friend said they were uncomfortable with something you said, would you make an effort to understand why and adjust your behavior, or would you put the opus on them and say they're being too sensitive, and ramp up the jokes even harder?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Fast food because I could donate it to charity or sell it for more than the elec.
Electricity can save me, what, $150 a month max?
Free fast food can amount to that much per day, easily, and I'll just donate it (or sell it).

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Here's a snippet of our convo that sums up the friendship pretty well:
Years back, he used to tell awful sexist jokes. I would call him out on these jokes and he would say I'm being too sensitive. He's since stopped telling them (to me, anyway).
Last night, he made several jokes purposely using "politically correct" incorrectly. I clarified, and the joke was just that he was using the term incorrectly (the quote was something like "it wouldn't be politically correct to pay above MSRP").
This seemed problematic to me (and made me on edge) because he's previously been really politically incorrect himself, and now he's making fun of political correctness again. Meanwhile, I'm a person who values political correctness and I think we should all strive to be less racist, sexist, etc.
So after I clarified that there wasn't more to the joke, he said something like, "come on, that's funny" and I was like, "I get the joke, but it doesn't seem funny to me" (just being honest). I asked, "Should I clarify why..?" thinking I could explain my position and we could reconcile where we stand on the issue or something.
Instead, he goes, "No, I don't see anything good coming from that".

What do you guys make of this?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

So I have this friend and we chat on the phone for a couple hours every now and again. Each time, I find myself being defensive, offended by stuff he says, etc. He's super invalidating and I feel like we've just grown apart in the 10+ years we've known each other. Each time we talk, I find myself needing to wind down after, whereas with other friends I am more relaxed, cool, and confident after talking to them.

Has anyone dealt with this before?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Well about 1 in 5 CE users apparently don't 100% align with their assigned gender at birth so that's something

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Anytime I change the volume, this huge sound bar or whatever you want to call it pops up, and it's really annoying. Anyone know how to make it smaller or go away or something?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

I've been there. That was an indicator for me that I should break up with her

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Mingue posted...

Yeah, I love being a man and having a penis.

I wish I could have some of the advantages of being a woman tho. They have it so much easier.

Any specific advantages or just in general?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Couldnt find anything good huh?

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Just curious if anyone knows who he is

(I know him irl)

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

CommunismFTW posted...

No.

No

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SolidShadow3 posted...

Part of the Capitol Hill riots?

Nope.

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

No violations on my profile, but I'm barred from posting in groups for 1 week, and creating groups/events indefinitely.

What gives? I appealed and we'll see what happens

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

I only date bi girls

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

I remember that original topic! So proud of you OP

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

spacebear
no

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

It was definitely the introduction to drugs in 3rd grade, with a cop telling us "Drugs make you feel ecstatic" and he described the feeling and said "Only drugs will make you feel this way, but you must never do them".

And those pencils that, as you sharpen them, they go from "It's not cool to do drugs" to "cool to do drugs" to "do drugs"

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Sayoria posted...

The Republican party is so damn outdated.

The Democrats are becoming the new Republican party.

We need a new party to the left of the Democrats.

Democratic socialists


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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

This assumes everyone is a democrat or republican

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~

Im glad I have an excuse not to see some family

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~~Every day I'm husseling and busseling~~