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Post by Sediba on Feb 25, 2018 11:12:23 GMT 10
My book is finished, at last. And I have killed off all the nagging, bleeding, bastard characters that have been chattering, demanding, and pleading in my ears for the last 3 years. My book, my fantastic achievement (as Pali notes) is only one amongst a googleplex of others already written. But it's mine, all mine ... heheee Here's a sneak preview. First and last pages only.
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Post by Sediba on Feb 25, 2018 11:13:28 GMT 10
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 2, 2018 13:16:03 GMT 10
Well .... I thought I was cured of the compulsion to write a book. The last two-three weeks have been great with no characters to think about (and it gave me the time to work on the forum here as well) But it's pretty well tided up now and has it's new facelift. Last night got to bed about 03:00 and suddenly without any warning a new plot came to me. phuck!! Laid in bed, couldn't sleep, tryin to work out how the details of building it could be accomplished. Woke up drowsy, bleary-eyed only to find I got a booking in the night, for today. Damn! Rushed around, got the laundry done, cleaned guest shack. Had to mow the house pad today, recent rain has seen it suddenly thrive. Neighbour rung to say he's bringing a visitor over. (my neighbours live kilometres away) Damn! And all the time the phuckin characters, who were only born in my head last night have already begun their demands for attention. sigh, here we go again. Just finished the mowing now, naked, love mowing naked, don't know why. Every bit of me is tanned, I look like a black stick-insect. The plumber who services the sewage system four times a year caught me welding naked recently, just the mask and gloves. He's told the story to everyone, ' He was welding naked, I walked around to the workshop and there he was, nothin but a mask on, welding!, WELDING!!!' It's spread for a 100km radius. Everybody has a go at me about it, most people here think I'm eccentric .... HeHeee. Anyway, just finished everything and have a few hours to myself. Guests don't arrive till tonight. So I sat down here to thrash out the first Chapter of the phuckin book, glass of Coke, ice, and sittin idle. But for some indolent reason I'm posting here instead of writing ... oh well. Life's a Beach whatever I'm doing.
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 2, 2018 13:43:54 GMT 10
I should be writing but I'm not. My new (second) novel is going to open with a woman's body being found in one of the upstairs suites of the Royal Exchange. No identity, no one knows how she got there, the room booked by a male who has disappeared. It's four star accommodation and rooms are about $200-300 a nite. Sometimes I come in from camping rough in the desert and splurge on a single night there. The luxury is just wonderful. Here are a few pikkys of it. It's in Argent St, the main street of the CBD. (Broken Hill, NSW)
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 2, 2018 13:44:55 GMT 10
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 3, 2018 17:50:18 GMT 10
Well, so far the reviews of my novel, Sniper's Hill, haven't been too bad _______________________________________________________________ 'Even more mind wrenching than it's predecessors in the worst possible way' - The Daily Splutter'Every few years, as a reviewer, one encounters a novel whose ineptitudes are so many in number, and so thoroughgoing, that to explain them fully would produce a text that exceeded the novel itself in both length and interest.' - In Pursuit of Literature'As an sin against all taste and decency in literature, Sniper's Hill could not be forgiven if it crawled into the confessional on it's knees' - Saint Odo-de-Cluny Parish Newsletter
'I'm very good at getting out of what I don't want to do, but I couldn't get out of reading this book. I'd rather commit suicide than read it again' - The New York Echo'This must be a gift book. That is to say, a book which you wouldn’t accept on any other terms. I'd like to dig the author up and belt him over the head with his own shinbone' - Pilgrims' Punch'It may be that this Sniper's Hill is set down in sincerity, frankness and simple effort. It may be, too, that the Eiffel Tower is located in Antartica' - The Bullington Book Club'Don't buy this book. And if you do, don't drop it on your foot' - The Leeds Literary Society
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Post by cster on Mar 3, 2018 18:09:36 GMT 10
All sounds promising, even going to the trouble of warning people not to drop it for fear of pain. So they finished it. That's a good thing.
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 3, 2018 18:12:01 GMT 10
All sounds promising, even going to the trouble of warning people not to drop it for fear of pain. So they finished it. That's a good thing. He heeee .... NO, I'm designing the back cover, so I just made them up to throw on there
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Post by cster on Mar 3, 2018 18:15:11 GMT 10
Maybe they should give the job of reviewing to you, you could send them 20 or 30 reviews. That aught to provide an income.
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Post by Rhianne on Mar 8, 2018 18:09:48 GMT 10
I'll rot before I spoil a book by reading the last page!
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 14, 2018 16:28:37 GMT 10
I've started on the new novel.
I don't know if anyone's interested in how I do this. I especially don't know how any author does it. I just do it my way.
Sometimes I feel an urge to write. I'm not sure if this feeling is describable. I really don't know if anyone else feels it, but I'm guessing that all writers feel it. Usually I write a short story, truth or fiction, and problem solved.
The feeling starts and nags at me. In this case, for this novel, it started within days of me finishing my last (and first) novel. So for a day or two I wandered round doing what I do and trying to think of a plot. This isn't so hard for murder mystery novels, because you are bound to the one, primal, elemental plot. Person X kills person Y. That's it. And so already you have that much plot. So now I have a plot, and up to this point it's been easy, all I've had to juggle with is what sex X and Y will be, and the mechanical method that will be used. Knife? Gun? Combine Harvester? Poison?
But from this point on, and it can take months, the 'writing' consists of resolving the connection between X and Y. What is the connection? And even though this writing can take months, not a single word gets written on the computer. It's all in my head. It's a sorta logical process that goes on all the time, and I have a great deal of time to do this. That is really really important.
If you, like me, like to write, or feel compelled to do it, then this training video by John Cleese is possibly the best place to start and finish. It's got everything and if you're a writer it will make you feel at home. And give you great confidence.
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 14, 2018 17:02:39 GMT 10
If X is to kill Y then logically, certain events must already be in place.
There must be some connection. If the connection is indirect, then what other characters are needed to fill that gap. This means I must create new characters from the void. Their sole purpose at this point is to bridge a connection between X and Y. They have no other attributes at this point and can remain sexless. But already they're forced into birth and they will develop. I don't have to worry about that development, it will come. At the moment all I'm doing is building a small-world that is logical from both X and Y's worldview, from their lookouts, and it must agree and be accountable in both space and time. The new unplanned additional characters will populate this world, having been forced into life by events that logically must have occurred before the murder, or must occur after.
Each new character requires a base personality, nothing more at this stage, a mario-bros personality that will grow out of the activities this character will take part in during the course of the novel. This means the dialogue has to be constantly rewritten as a character reveals some new unplanned (by the author) facet of it's being. This is just something I've had to accept, that the first dialogue written will also be the last dialogue written.
So now you see ... I have progressed from the primal X kills Y to a small world with a handful of characters. It's taken a month, two? to thrash out this plot, and thats all it is, not a word yet on paper. ... and what do I have?
I have a small world whose time and space and the major events that have occurred inside it are all logically correct. And no citizen of that world, if presented with all the events that have occurred so far, would ever disagree that they were other than correct. There can be no contradiction, no paradox. Once I have this, I have THE PLOT.
I never put the plot on paper. That would be like trying to draw a map where the scale is one to one. It's just as easy to write the novel.
Everything I now write will be mostly descriptive so that the reader can settle in, because the most important personage in this small world is the reader himself. ALL my descriptive writing (and I don't mean descriptive as in a coloured vision of that world) is architecture. Everything must be in it's place as the reader would expect.
The architecture of place: Where exactly will the events take place? If I say Milparinka, then I'm forced to give a description of Milparinka, because otherwise how will the reader be able to 'see it'? But an exact, street by street description is the last thing you would give, it's boring and it leaves nothing for the reader to bring. Because the reader too is creative. By reading your book he is creating your world.
The architecture of space: Everything must fit. It's no good if goodies are shooting it out with baddies, room by room, corridor by corridor, only for the reader to later find out the outside dimensions of the building are not much bigger than a telephone box. Of course this could work if you were writing for Doctor Who.
The architecture of time: This is the most important! It's the hardest. When did char A first hear a rumour, or become suspicious of X-killed-Y. Did A reveal it at this time? If not why not? Is another character needed to resolve any paradoxes that may come about from A hearing or stumbling upon this information. How does this information effect every other character created so far?
My trick to achieve this is to run a timeline, and even things like rumours, glances, solitary acts, thoughts, have a reality and a time-date-stamp. It's a very strange timeline and I hope it never falls into the hands of the enemy .... heheee.
My other trick is to write about places I know really well, and if I don't then I must go there and become familiar.
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Post by Stray Pup on Mar 14, 2018 17:23:07 GMT 10
So now, I have my little world ... And I must introduce this logically correct spacetime. The Working Title of the novel is, for want of anything better at this moment, The Royal Exchange Hotel.Here's my first pen on paper, my introduction to the little-world. So far, I have about six characters that have been required to make this glimpse feasible (if it is to continue) and even if it continues, things can change, and they can change retrospectively, and my timeline can become more complex that a cryptic crossword puzzle. So this intro, tho on paper, is far from resembling it's final form, tho it may not change at all. That's up to the bastards whose stories I'm telling.
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Post by mipela on Mar 23, 2018 8:07:25 GMT 10
Righto Sebiba, How do I obtain this wonderful work of fiction, Sniper's Hill ? There must be a better way than zooming in, page by slow page. You want pelf, just ask. Cheers, Mipela
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Post by Sediba on Mar 23, 2018 23:17:31 GMT 10
Righto Sebiba, How do I obtain this wonderful work of fiction, Sniper's Hill ? There must be a better way than zooming in, page by slow page. You want pelf, just ask. Cheers, Mipela I'm having 5 copies printed. Should get them tomorrow. If one is read kwik by the current family-friends I can post it to you, but you have to post it back when you're finished. When one is free I PM you and get your address.
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bluesky
Fought a few Battles
Posts: 95
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Post by bluesky on Apr 1, 2018 19:13:34 GMT 10
So now, I have my little world ... And I must introduce this logically correct spacetime. The Working Title of the novel is, for want of anything better at this moment, The Royal Exchange Hotel.Here's my first pen on paper, my introduction to the little-world. So far, I have about six characters that have been required to make this glimpse feasible (if it is to continue) and even if it continues, things can change, and they can change retrospectively, and my timeline can become more complex that a cryptic crossword puzzle. So this intro, tho on paper, is far from resembling it's final form, tho it may not change at all. That's up to the bastards whose stories I'm telling. Your stories have a persistent theme of murder. I read an interesting essay on the gradations of developing such characters. I'll leave it here for anyone who's interested. The Pleasure of Walter Whites Grotesque Ody....pdf (669.52 KB)
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Post by cster on Apr 2, 2018 8:43:18 GMT 10
Now Now he cant help it he was indoctrinated by Ted Bullpit who kept saying somebody should blow people up. Next thing ya know we're all offering the same response to situations. Murder Mayhem. Who has done a nice ride book where you are taken on a nice ride through the country side experiencing mateship and socialising with others at pubs and enjoying a good feed there in. I've not seen such a book for I suspect there is no money in that sort of book. Where as everyone on the planet wants to read of a way of getting rid of someone. he's a stray after all.
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Post by Sediba on Apr 5, 2018 12:39:57 GMT 10
ummm ... murder mysterys (who dunnits) have to have a murder?
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Post by cster on Apr 5, 2018 13:59:31 GMT 10
Or a shotgun wedding
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Post by Sediba on Apr 8, 2018 8:00:53 GMT 10
Your stories have a persistent theme of murder. I read an interesting essay on the gradations of developing such characters. I'll leave it here for anyone who's interested. My stories (2) have a persistent theme of murder? That's because they're murder mysterys. Every murder mystery has to persistently have a murder? The reason you think they are obsessively related to violence is because I have posted the prologues. (The first chapter) All whodunnits have a murder in the opening chapters and a revealed killer in the closing chapters. But they are no way related to the the link you posted which deals with the psychopath obsession with murder. Murder mysterys are just cryptic crossword puzzles and murder is just a device that drives the puzzle. People addicted to whodunnits don't care, aren't interested in murder. They're just interested in solving the puzzle. I think you have persistently judged my books by their covers.
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Post by epictetus on Apr 10, 2018 11:41:46 GMT 10
Righto Sebiba, How do I obtain this wonderful work of fiction, Sniper's Hill ? There must be a better way than zooming in, page by slow page. You want pelf, just ask. Cheers, Mipela I'm having 5 copies printed. Should get them tomorrow. If one is read kwik by the current family-friends I can post it to you, but you have to post it back when you're finished. When one is free I PM you and get your address. One for me, too, please. To save postage perhaps we can arrange a "drop" when you're next in the Big Smoke. How about a spy thriller?
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Post by Sediba on Jun 26, 2018 8:58:34 GMT 10
Well .... Sniper's Hill has received rave reviews from those selected to read, and pass around the 3 copies I had.
A squillion typos have been noted and repaired in the Master Copy.
Comments so far:
'It's just like a real book Gregory' My Mum. 'Why did you kill the dog, you shouldn't have killed the dog' A dog-lover. (In a murder mystery it's mandatory to kill someone, but don't kill dogs ... heheee) 'Please find Izen a better girlfriend for the next book, that one has loose morals, she's not good enough for him.' A virgin.
Basically everyone who read the book read it to the end and enjoyed it, if we can believe subjective opinion. When a large number of subjective opinions from different quarters all agree then that is objective enough for me,
I will get some updated copies made soon ... and I will deliver one to you Epic, no problem.
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Post by epictetus on Jun 26, 2018 21:03:47 GMT 10
I'm desperate to read it, and am happy to pay for it. You deserve some compensation for all your hard work and stress.
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Post by qjumper on Jul 23, 2018 19:12:47 GMT 10
My book is finished, at last. And I have killed off all the nagging, bleeding, bastard characters that have been chattering, demanding, and pleading in my ears for the last 3 years. My book, my fantastic achievement (as Pali notes) is only one amongst a googleplex of others already written. But it's mine, all mine ... heheee Here's a sneak preview. First and last pages only. Congratulations from me, for sticking to the long task of writing a novel.
I scrapped my novel after 44.000 words because I did not like it as a book. My plot and characters were original and good but I thought it would be better as a movie.
I have culled "Breadcrumbs" heavily to make it movie length.
Here is my promo precis, but unfortunately the format has not copied.
Breadcrumbs to Briz Vegas
By Mango Chutney
© C.J.Griffin Brisbane All rights reserved: Contact 07 33768347 or artwombat@outlook.com
There is a fight to near death; “Man vs Girl”, in the middle east.
The girl is Peggy and she becomes an overprotective mother and lives in Melbourne. Peggy is married to Magic O’Bottle and they have a son nick-named “Messy”. Peggy is scary because she does self -defense practice in supermarkets and when Magic goes to golf she goes to shooting ranges.
“Messy” O’Bottle grows up business wise, but nerdy and socially inept.
At 17 years of age, Messy gets away from his over-protective Mum and starts “Facts a Million” a computer-based business in Southbank Brisbane. Messy, becomes a Southbank iconic character who operates dodgy but legally.
Messy is a standout eccentric as he tries to capture his lost youth by learning to ride a rusty old bike and acting like an overactive teenager. Messy is a “technonut”.
Messy’s business attracts international spies, then the past and the present get intertwined and Mum’s kill and maim skills are put to the test.
Characters abound, and subplots interact with confidence tricks, fight scenes, a car crash, abduction attempts, chases, an ambush or two or three plus more action and intrigue, involving ASIO and international spies and rank amateurs.
The plot is original, and the characters are original, it is fiction, but it could be true.
• Duration = 90 minutes
• Genre = Spy action/Satire
• Showcases = Brisbane Southbank Parklands and outback travel
• Pages = 99
• Words = 21,154 words
• Format = “Word Screenplay Template”
Leading Characters
1. Peggy O’Bottle (nee O’Brien orphaned at 17 in the Middle East and trained to maim and kill)
2. Messy O’Bottle (Peggy’s son born in Melbourne and grows up as an overprotected nerd)
3. Magic O’Bottle (Messy’s father - Cambridge educated in Business Administration)
4. Big Nose (a group 1 jockey and Science Graduate and Messy’s only friend)
5. George the Jockey (a cross-dresser and a hard as nails street fighter)
6. Harry the whip (outlaw Bikie gang boss and 2 times loser)
7. ‘tricia (a scientist/analyst who flirts with Messy who has never had a girlfriend)
8. Bruce and Sheila (USA secret agents and an odd couple
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