Ever feel like life is a video game?

[Legacy777]

I agree with you Steve....in some small twisted ways I crave for something like that to fulfill the part of me that would excel and suceed in such situations.

[Tleg93]

If it's survival of the fittest in the literal sense then I think I would fare well. I am an aspiring professional writer, so I usually have on foot on the ground and one in some other world all the time. In that way, I can relate to the what-ifs we're discussing. A large part of me fancies living in a fantasy world where there's magic, strange creatures and all that good stuff. It's too bad there aren't holodecks. If there were such things I would love to try them out. Anyway, it would be dissapointing if civilization slid back into the days of warhammers and tribalism. Even if there was high adventure in those days, life was difficult.

It seems to me that one big problem is that there's too many people in the world right now. I'm not sure I buy the idea that there's somthing wrong with the world today that hasn't been wrong since the whole race began. My belief is that there's still so much undiscovered truths and ideas that life wil continue to change in ways that will make it unrecognizable to us today. I used to be a fairly devout christian but in the end I could never reconcile the message with the world as it is today. Most people that claim to be members of any religion never attain the life proscribed by its teachings, that's just how life is. The pie in the sky is the goal and most fall short of it. I love my country and while there's alot that needs addressed I think that we do the best job so far of seeing to the needs of the many. If it all fails in the end then we can say that at least we tried.


I just wanted to add something too. When I say I love my country I mean mostly the geography. I'm not trying to sound like some mindless patriot. I just don't want to be a relentless basher either. There's lots of elements in this society I don't care for so I don't want it to sound like I'm a believer in manifest destiny or anything, especially since I have Cherokee blood in me.

[evolutionmovement]

A fellow Indian brother - I'm part Ojibwe. Anything published yet? I've got two literary fiction novels and a screenplay adaptation I'm trying to sell.

My problem with people is what you said - nothing's changed. All these years and we've gotten no better. We may have better personal hygiene (well, some of us) and some fun toys, but we're fundamentally the same.

There are definitely too many people. Italy and Australia get two thumbs up for reproducing so little that their governments have started offering incentives for people to have kids. Screw that, I think it's great! If we could only convince the rest of the world to do the same. Especially us (we pollute the most per capita), China and India (do I need to explain these?), and Africa (this unfortunate continent is just a complete mess and extra people don't help).

I was somewhat raised as Catholic, but consider myself completely independent in regards to religion as I do politically. My biggest problem with Christians is that they are generally the least like Christ. They always love to quote and preach the Old Testament, too, which I don't understand at all. Usually its an excuse to oppress other people or control them when Jesus wouldn't have wanted anything of the sort. I could go on all day about this - I'm by no means a Jesus-freak, I just think he was a pretty cool guy who's message got distorted and f'd up by power-hungry assmonkeys, but then, there's that whole problem with having people in charge rearing its head again...

Steve

[Tleg93]

power-hungry assmonkeys

That's a good one, I've never heard that before.

Well, I've been trying to write two fantasy novels and I was having a fairly rough time of it until just recently. I started a subscription to Writer's Digest (commercial mag, I know) and some articles in there have really opened up my eyes. Until now I've been reading books on writing, Terry Brooks most recently. Some of the tips and experience he offers helps but the whole outlining things was bogging me down. I'm still on the fence about that but I've learned that, for me at least, just writing the story from the beginning after SOME outlining works best. I have name and place lists that I update but I try not to obsess about it. I work best when I just go with inspiration and type until I burn out the inspiration. Not to give too much information but driving is what inspires me. That's why I find myself here all the time. I need to feed my left brain to get my right brain to wake up sometimes.

I had an epiphany after reading about an author who completed a novel in March of 2001, and after a series of merciless edits from the publishing company, which had him removing characters and changing plot lines etc., he had it finished like a year later. I realized that I was being too anal about certain things and that it's important to just write it out and revise later. That discovery helped me a great deal.

What about you? You've completed a couple books, any tips you can offer?

I'm not a Jesus freak either but I have some strange ideas about that whole thing. The accounts of him raising the dead and healing
the sick not to mention inspiring people to give up their lives in his name has always left big questions in my mind. I don't want this thread to get religious so I'll keep it at that. I will say that most people are too self centered to attempt living life the way he described. There is a big picture there that hints a kind of hidden history.

[evolutionmovement]

Religion and political discussions can swiftly turn allies to enemies, so I'd rather nor discuss it either, but, yeah there's a lot of stuff that's been changed and chopped out in the bible over the centuries.

I roughly outline in my head and write when it inspires me. I usually write the beginning and end then some scenes in the middle then piece it all together. My method is very wasteful as I end up writing at least two novels of material for each one when stuff I wanted to put in doesn't fit or inspration leads me down a better track and I end up cutting and rewriting huge sections. Driving is a big source of inspiration as well as sitting by the ocean. I have one of those cheap little tape recorders I keep with me for when I think of something.

Life events and dreams are also inspirational for me and I try to include the really weird stuff that happens to me when I can as I feel authentic incidents of strangeness are all the better than made-up weirdness. One screenplay I wrote for the hell of it about a mutant killer rabbit terrorizing a '50's American town came from a dream I had years ago. I find that whenever I get hung up on how to connect things, I just write what comes to mind, even if I don't particularly like it. At some point I know inspiration will strike and I'll come up with something to replace it with that's much better. In cases like that its like someone writes through me rather than me writing it out. Sometimes I finish with something and think that it wasn't me that wrote it, because I'm not that good.

Sometimes I wonder where the hell stuff I write comes from for the same reason. For example, I wrote this weird dream sequence in the follow up to my first novel and rereading it months later I realized how representative all the stuff was of the main character and his life. It was almost like a real dream where everything's supposed to mean something even if its meaning isn't readily apparent. In this case, I didn't even realize it when I wrote it. That's why it seems there's something more inspired that writes through me sometimes (unfortunately not all the time, as sometimes it's a struggle).

Whew, this is why I write novels - I talk too much for shorter formats!

Steve

[entirelyturbo]

Steve, how long does it typically take you to write a novel? I can write a short story no problem, but I rarely keep interest longer than a few days, and it rarely ends up being past 20 pages... I need to work on that

I am a Journalism major in college, and I think I'm going to pursue an automotive magazine career, perhaps an editor of Automobile Magazine or something, but I would also like to write books for fun, etc.

All this writing stuff and I rarely read books . Most books today have ridiculous subject matter that doesn't hold my interest past 3 pages. I have, however, read almost everything by Jules Verne. His work really fascinates me.

[evolutionmovement]

For a writer, I don't read a hell of a lot either, unless you count car magazines and non-fiction. I find most fiction to be too cookie-cutter for me and I never know what to pick up. Usually I end up with something that has no heart. However, I love Vonnegut. The old sci-fi guys were great, too. Wells and Verne, I like distopic stuff like 1984, Brave New World, We, etc. I did read this great book recently about Captain Kidd, the pirate who wasn't actually a pirate, but the scapegoat for a huge scandal involving the king of England. I found it particularly interesting as the history of the time surrounds me (Salem was where most of the money for the New World came in). It was called Pirate Hunter, and I highly recommend it if that old nautical and pirate shit interests you.

Anyway, it takes me about 2 yrs to do a novel. The first one I finished was the fourth one I started. One I did in high school because I thought it would impress chicks (actually worked to some degree), but it wasn't really my style (it was a sci-fi fantasy) and I abandoned it after 180 pages. The second one I tried I can't even remember. It may've been about cannibals or that was a short story I wrote, I don't know. The third was another dream-inspired piece about slug-human mutants created as soldiers for the Gulf War. It was a dark comedy, but I wasn't motivated enough. Midnight in a Perfect World is really just an embelishment of my life and I floated the idea for six months before actually starting it (knowing my previous failed attempts). I'm still amazed I finshed it (and now 2!). Inspiration is a strange thing, but it felt like something compelled me to write it. It was like excellent therapy for me to get everything out - even if I may have said too much about myself as the Dante character.

Steve[/i]