I picked back up on Shadow Shoals, another 10k words. Recently I tried to perform that character shift that I mentioned a few weeks ago: Start with a character’s persona on one side of a paradigm — evil say — and then try and convert that character to good. I had to be subtle, dropping allusions to the shift, hints that the character’s mind appeared to be changing. I think I succeeded.
Dred Rowland drops as a fiend into the tightly knit group and eight thousand words later, after dramatic trauma and multiple events, emerges the friend. Of course, this is just a subplot, but it needed to be done to affect the end result I’m going to reveal later.
Towards the end of his conversion Dred feels compelled to ameliorate the angst between he and the sister of a wounded girl so, he recites a rhyme of his youth:
Dream of the dandy, lions and lambs.
Drink honey nectar, eat toast with jam.
Swim with the fishes, fly with the geese.
Sleep in soft blankets, your head on soft fleece.
Dream of the night we sailed the sea,
Dream of the day you come home to me.
~~~
And, in the spirit of every little bit helps Inkitt has a free mini-course for writing a novel:
https://www.inkitt.com/writersblog/new-program-for-authors-inkitts-novel-writing-bootcamp/
Lesson II portrays the three act pattern and to it the speaker models Star Wars: a New Hope (the first made Star Wars). It made sense as the guy explained it. Having some broad organization seems wise when creating a massive writing effort. One wouldn’t write a 10k line software program without having a pretty detailed plan.
~~~
And I’m anxious to get into the 2000’s for my writer’s hours. It’s been too long already.
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
Hi AMole,
I am almost through Dog Stars. Thanks for the tip. Yes, bullet point style, but ever so often you come across the world in a few sentences, even a few words. I think his feeling for poetry is the beating heart of the book. Here is one example among many: “To animate somehow the deathly stillness of the profoundest beauty. Breath life into the telling.” If anything binds us together AMole, it is that sentence, that hope. Which raises another point: why do virtual communications somehow creep into the thoughts of those who receive them? I still carry the virtual Emma from all those years ago. Sweet kid who is no more, I guess. Should we let electronic signals compete with “real life”? Not sure what it means and why it is so affecting. Hope you are finding your voice for book. Mine is going so-so. It is a real rush to write something that is part of me and comes out in a sort of unique way. I am always looking for those sentences, those grouping of words. As I write, I’m listening to Bob Schneider and his song Wish. It is about a woman who burns herself alive and leaves this note behind: I can’t live to love you anymore. What a fucking great line. Oh well, now I must do things that are stupid, but necessary. Okay, AMole take it easy, don’t sweat the small stuff, and, as people more wise than me say, it is all small. Thanks. Duke
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There were numerous times I paused while reading Dog Stars, to enjoy the prose. That example does indeed personify what I’d love to someday master.
I don’t suspect my voice will be fully realized for another couple thousand hours (of writing).
Digital communication… Someday soon I suspect many of us will be living in a VR world. What will IRL mean then? Will folks look down on those who muck around in real muck?
It’s the journey, I tell myself, not the destination; the destination may never be reached, if so, what a waste to have not enjoyed the trip.
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U of British Columbia and Berkeley offer free courses as well. Good stuff. I wrote a reggae song for THG. Not that I haven’t in the past, but it’s always surprising to find yourself writing out of your bag to a need. 10k to change his mind is good. Up to 5 if you just kick their ass. Or, like Mick the hot rod guy, you kick their ass for most of a book so you have a sub story with an arc when the plot is thin (he said calling himself out) so it looks like whole thought. We need to have a discussion off line about sameness one of these days. Not as an assault, a discussion. Because there is soooo much of the same editorial hand out there it’s frightening. You are a formula searcher, but not the same old thing.
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Yeah, sameness. It’s not that I’m looking for a formula, but that I find myself stymied by my apparent lack of organization. Some structure needs to be there. If I can pull a kernel or two of useful application out of each of these lesson sets then all the better. My skeleton is missing a femur, tibula, and maybe a dozen ribs. The spine is intact, but I’m wobbly.
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As are we all.
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I’ll check out that Inkitt link. Thanks. Not writing lately, but my chess game is improving!
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The videos are short, 10 min, but concise and at least the first lesson was poignant.
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I went to that link but it did not play. I’ll have to Google it and try another approach now that I’m aware of it. I know one blogger who put her book up on Inkitt, I’ll check in with her to see how many reads she has. Have you, or are you planning, to put something up on Inkitt?
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Never mind, got it to play. 10 Workshops. I’ll listen to them all before I write again. Most likely. Or not. Maybe it’ll just inspire me.
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The link is just to the entry page. One needs to navigate to through inkitt to view the course.
No, no inkitt in my future. If The Gribble’s Eye is not optioned by this one agent, then I’ll just self-publish it. I may try and query it out, but that is such a pain and I despise agents anyway. (This one was kind enough to read my first novel — all through — making comments. And she said she wanted first dibs on TGE.)
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Cool, thanks.
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Damn, man, I got in the serial soap opera business to compete with you and now you’re playing chess? Send me your esl fan base! I’ve been such a shitty e friend spending all my time on this goddam bathroom I haven5 liked enough to farm for friends! Chess. Jesus. My head hurts already.
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I play chess like I play poker — brainless. Fold? Me? Never. Ten moves ahead? Me? How about three moves behind.
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How about I space out and play with the pieces like army men or King Arthur or cowboy gun fighters ( remember Paladin?) and forget chess.
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You’re competing with me? Now that got my attention.
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Hell yeah, longest running serialized maybe going somewhere in draft mode duel. However I’m not a dueler, but we could run side by side as a duet! Like those Tony Bennett specials where he wheezes through standards with everybody from Diana Krall to Lady Gaga. You be Bennett, I’ll be Gaga!
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LOL!
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