GasBandit

Staff member
Once, many moons ago when I did not know any better, I cleaned my boyfriend's apartment because he and his roommate were utterly disgusting. I decided the kitchen needed to be cleaned first. They had milk in half gallon cartons that were months past the expiration date. The first one I tried to pour out looked more like ricotta cheese. If only it smelled as pleasant. I can't tell you how many times I nearly threw up while cleaning that refrigerator.
 
Just wrote another 1,600 words for THE DAME WAS A TAD POLISH. I'm at 52,442 words now and I'm feeling like there's about two, maybe three chapters left. Depends on how much epilogue I decide - or well, let's be honest, Dill decides - to write.

I just wrote one line that I'm particularly proud of. It just sort of popped out and I think it's kinda funny:
“I don’t give a damn if she has a Panzer tucked in her panties!”

Also, I was struggling on how to get Dill from where he was to where he needed to be. And then, in Dill fashion, he did something even I didn't expect. I wrote it, looked at it, and nearly vocally shouted right here in Starbucks, "What the hell are you doing, Dill?!" Then I sat and thought about it for like ten seconds and thought, "Yep, okay. You're an asshole and you would do that." So I kept it. And now Dill's on his way to Point B.

Also also, special thanks to @Officer_Charon, who was luckily online on Facebook to answer a few quick questions. Between him, @Terrik, @bhamv3, @Cajungal, and @Zero Esc, the acknowledgements for this book is starting to look very Halforumsy.
 
@ThatNickGuy, I recall Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content fame telling how the characters in his strip sometimes write the dialogue for him. In fact, the storyline arc that was supposed to end the comic actually turned out completely different, because of how the two main characters reacted to the Big Reveal.

That, my friend, is a sign of good writing.
 
It's a sign of the writer creating characters with strong personalities; the next good writing part comes from not forcing them for the sake of the plot.

It's the kind of trouble I'm feeling over my current project. When messing with time travel, it's really hard to just let the characters do their thing and I feel like I've created characters who are so ill-defined that anything I need to do with them won't feel out of character. I'm gonna just keep going and see how it feels when I read it over, but it's a concern.

On a related note, science fiction is way harder to write than fantasy. :(
 
It's a sign of the writer creating characters with strong personalities; the next good writing part comes from not forcing them for the sake of the plot.

It's the kind of trouble I'm feeling over my current project. When messing with time travel, it's really hard to just let the characters do their thing and I feel like I've created characters who are so ill-defined that anything I need to do with them won't feel out of character. I'm gonna just keep going and see how it feels when I read it over, but it's a concern.

On a related note, science fiction is way harder to write than fantasy. :(
You ever need a brain to pick, lemme know. You've helped me more than enough times in the past, including the beginning of the novel I'm almost done now.
 
You ever need a brain to pick, lemme know. You've helped me more than enough times in the past, including the beginning of the novel I'm almost done now.
I'll keep that in mind and I appreciate it. Right now I think I've worked out most of the plot holes, something a lot of time travel stories probably don't bother to do because it's a pain in the ass and can mess up the story. Might run into trouble somewhere beyond where I'm at now, and if I do, I'll toss you a PM.[DOUBLEPOST=1405258303,1405258261][/DOUBLEPOST]
Ha. My 7 year old daughter says, "look I can make the happy meal look like it's on drugs".

So proud.
View attachment 15310
That actually makes it look much less threatening.
 
I just learned my most recent ex girlfriend has been asking our mutual friends about me, namely if they'd share my contact information with her.

howaboutno.jpg
 
On a related note, science fiction is way harder to write than fantasy. :(
With Fantasy, you can do whatever you want, and people usually won't complain so long as you don't contradict anything you've previously Deus Extablished.
With SciFi, you're stuck in a trap where you need to research your macguffins in order to appease the techno-folks who actually do know what you're talking about, and Wikipedia usually isn't enough.

--Patrick
 
With Fantasy, you can do whatever you want, and people usually won't complain so long as you don't contradict anything you've previously Deus Extablished.
With SciFi, you're stuck in a trap where you need to research your macguffins in order to appease the techno-folks who actually do know what you're talking about, and Wikipedia usually isn't enough.

--Patrick
My tech stuff is still bullshit; it's more that with fantasy, I can always go back to earlier and introduce new internal logic. With sci-fi, I can't really do that once I've set up my stuff. Especially time travel.
 
1,800 words written today for THE DAME WAS A TAD POLISH. Total as of now? 54,304. So very, very close to completion now.

I also may have named two police officers as @Officer_Charon and Officer Tidwell (@Cajungal). :D
Dork. Glad you're making good progress.

In my side of things, had a long convo with my wife and decided I'm just going back to my 3rd-person wheelhouse. I'll leave the 1st-person stuff to Nick; he does it better than I do and trying to change my ways is not worth the stress/delays I'm feeling when I could just enjoy telling my story my way like I usually do.
 

Dave

Staff member
Ever wanted to see a picture of Warren Buffet having ice cream with Paul McCartney? Well okay then!

This was taken yesterday here in Omaha.

 

fade

Staff member
Randall Munroe has become less funny and more ranty lately. Reading xkcd has become like reading a blog.
 
Randall Munroe has become less funny and more ranty lately. Reading xkcd has become like reading a blog.
The sad part is that it's only a rant if you're smart enough to get that it's a rant. To the other 99% of the population, it's still either gag-a-day or incomprehensible.

--Patrick
 
Weird Al released a sneak peak of his album tomorrow. I'm onmobile so no link but it's called "Tacky" and it's parodying Happy.

It's also wonderful.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Because of the Marauder's Map, Fred and George knew for years that someone named Peter was sharing Ron's bed and they never said anything about it.
 
Reading about the madness that occurred at that Tumblr convention this weekend has taken up way too much of my afternoon.
 
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