Lounge II (The Lounge Strikes Back)

[Eagle of the Forest Path]

It's been rather quiet in the lounge for a while, so ...

Funny thing happened recently. I've been reading A short history of nearly everything (described as "a rough guide to science") and it contains a formula for Hubble's law (about the relationship between the distance of galaxies and the velocity at which they are moving away from us each other). It was printed here as H0 = v/d

I read it as "ho equals vee dee" (and then rolled around laughing for a while).

PS: It's also where I got my new member title, as the book points out that ambergris - a fixative used in perfumes - is actually the parts of giant squid that sperm whales can't digest. So to quote the relevant footnote: "The next time you spray on Chanel Number 5 (assuming you do so), you may wish to reflect that you are dousing yourself in distillate of unseen sea monster."

Edited May 14, 2018 by Eagle of the Forest Path

[Robinski]

On 14/05/2018 at 7:17 AM, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

then rolled around laughing for a while

LOL.

And love the sea monster thing 

[Jorville]

Hey, got what might be an odd question:

Background:I have probably 20k words worth of material that I wrote on the submarine(I mentioned that I am in the navy and served on a submarine in another post). Because of the nature of the work I could not send the material to myself via email so I had to print it off. now I am left with all that to transcribe back on to my computer. reading through it while I notice things I want to change.

Question: Should I transcribe everything exactly as it is and then change it later or do I make changes while I transcribe the material?

[Robinski]

1 hour ago, Jorville said:

Question: Should I transcribe everything exactly as it is and then change it later or do I make changes while I transcribe the material?

Ooh, that is an interesting question. Here's my opinion. I think if it was me, I would transcribe it exactly then have a digital original preserved before editing. (I guess I would change any obvious errors, grammar issues, typos, etc.) But that's just my opinion. I can see the merits of making a compelling change in case one forgot (which I would be likely to, unless noting said change down for later).

That's my 2 cents (or is it 5 cents these days? can never remember).

Edited May 21, 2018 by Robinski

[Asmodemon]

On 26-3-2018 at 3:06 PM, Mandamon said:

Who else for REcon 2019??

Can't believe I didn't notice this sooner (should spend some more time looking at the Lounge topic ). I'm also going to Dublin 2019 - first Worldcon ever, so should be interesting.

[Mandamon]

8 hours ago, Robinski said:

I would transcribe it exactly then have a digital original preserved before editing.

Well yes, but @Jorville will also have a hardcopy. Half of me would want to edit while transcribing, just to save time, the other half wants to make sure I have a copy that's the same...

[Mandamon]

1 hour ago, Asmodemon said:

Can't believe I didn't notice this sooner (should spend some more time looking at the Lounge topic ). I'm also going to Dublin 2019 - first Worldcon ever, so should be interesting.

Great! Let us know if you're planning on doing touring things as we get closer. My wife is going to put together some options, possibly with some group rates.

[Robinski]

1 hour ago, Asmodemon said:

Can't believe I didn't notice this sooner (should spend some more time looking at the Lounge topic ). I'm also going to Dublin 2019 - first Worldcon ever, so should be interesting.

Yay!!! We'll need to hire a hall at this rate... or at least a medium-sized cupboard.

[Robinski]

31 minutes ago, Mandamon said:

the other half wants to make sure I have a copy that's the same...

Yup, I'm with the other half of you.

[industrialistDragon]

10 hours ago, Jorville said:

Question: Should I transcribe everything exactly as it is and then change it later or do I make changes while I transcribe the material?

That's what I do, change as I type. My "draft zeros" are all handwritten, and when I type them in, I add to them. I have the original hardcopy if I want to go back. I do try to hew fairly closely to what I've written in terms of large plot beats, or fighting the urge to delete large swaths of text I don't like. Subtractive edits like that are easier to complete (and reverse!) in digital format, so even if I'm absolutely mortified by what I've written on paper, I will try to get it down, but I also have no problem adding to places that were too sparse on my handwritten original, if that makes sense.  

[Jorville]

@industrialistDragon, good suggestion but I don't really do handwritten copies(dont think it's possible with a nosy 3 year old around anyways.) but like @Mandamon part of me wants to save time. it occurs to me that I could scan it and just keep the original as a pdf and write the changes as I go.

 

Also you guys have me so jealous with this Ireland talk, I would love to go there. I've only been to Scotland and England and that was with the navy so it wasn't a real vacation.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Jorville

[Silk]

I was gonna suggest scanning it, yeah. Personally, when I handwrite drafts, I typically just enter the changes as I go. But at that stage, I'm usually only making line edits. I'd be much more tempted to maintain the original somehow if I were doing significant revisions.

Also, I am only just now seeing from Robinski's signature that we have a Facebook page. HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THIS BEFORE.

In other news, hey, I finally managed to do some fiction writing last weekend! (I've been very bad at making time.) It was an utterly bizarre vignette that I'll almost certainly never do anything with, but hey, it was fun. Now I just need to see how many songs I can write before June 1st...

[Robinski]

2 hours ago, Jorville said:

Also you guys have me so jealous with this Ireland talk, I would love to go there. I've only been to Scotland and England and that was with the navy so it wasn't a real vacation.

Ooh, whereabout in Scotland were you? I'm frae Glesgae (Glasgow). Or where in England for that matter? (Presently I'm on holiday in Falmouth, not far from Plymouth and Portsmouth, or Portland for that matter, all navy places.

[Jorville]

@Robinski, So I went to Helensburgh because that is essentially where the boat pulled in. We went there 7 times so we spent a lot of time hanging out in Glasgow. I did make the trip to Edinburgh twice, did the touristy things. We ported in Portsmouth twice, one of those visits I did get the chance to overnight in London, again did some touristy things. I really would have loved to see more but operational schedule wouldn't allow for it. I enjoyed the chance to see those places but it's not worth the 100 hour plus work weeks to go back to a submarine, lol.

[Robinski]

8 hours ago, Jorville said:

but it's not worth the 100 hour plus work weeks...

[Jorville]

18 minutes ago, Robinski said:

Yeah, its as bad as it sounds. There is a saying that those of us in the submarine nuclear community have: Submarines once, period.

[kais]

So uh, this is a thing now. Which is one of the reasons I'm so far behind in responding to crit. BUT ALSO I just finished listening to book one as an audio book and OMG the voice actress is amazing. Having your book become an audio book and then listening to it has to be one of the most rewarding things ever. EVER. And she's already signed on for book two!

Now only two outstanding contracted books. I'm not over extended. Nope. Also not panicking over AR. Nope nope. Not me.

[QuirkyGrandpa]

I couldn't find a board where whining was encouraged so I came in here! 

I've never actually written anything before. Ever. Other than a paragraph here and there in high-school for whatever and only the bare minimum I had to. I suppose I could count the times I RPed with my BFF, but never a story, or anything more than a few sentences.

I don't even know where to start! 

So I tried to write a couple different fan-fiction like things instead, I already had some fun plot ideas on my computer that I never imagined I'd do anything with. This way the majority of the background for the story was already there. Which went ok, but holy crap this is hard! Drawing is so much easier, how do you guys even do this!?! Then I tried writing a bit of my own thing...and got like a dozen sentences on each. I feel like I spent an hour whispering promises to a piece of paper and left it cold and lonely. It's not going to give me a second date at this rate . It's going to be an eternity before I can submit anything at this rate .

[Jorville]

@QuirkyGrandpa you have great ideas. the more you do it the easier it gets so just keep swimming.

[QuirkyGrandpa]

Just now, Jorville said:

@QuirkyGrandpa you have great ideas. the more you do it the easier it gets so just keep swimming.

My main inspiration is you babe .

Beating you I mean, at publishing a book first <3.

[kais]

6 minutes ago, QuirkyGrandpa said:

Beating you I mean, at publishing a book first <3.

This is amazing

[Jorville]

29 minutes ago, QuirkyGrandpa said:

My main inspiration is you babe .

Beating you I mean, at publishing a book first <3.

Yeah you have to finish a story first, and I am ahead of you there. It may have a crappy beginning, middle and end but at least there.

[Robinski]

58 minutes ago, QuirkyGrandpa said:

Beating you I mean, at publishing a book first

 

My tuppence-worth, @QuirkyGrandpa, is to make it about the characters. Which maybe sounds obvious, but having character at the heart of your story, and wanting to know what happens to them (and usually their relationship to other characters), is a main driving force for the majority of writers.

As far as technique, skills, etc. go, you can do a lot worse that listen to a few Writing Excuses podcasts (https://writingexcuses.com). Where you start (if you are not familiar with them), is entirely up to you.

[QuirkyGrandpa]

4 hours ago, Robinski said:

 

My tuppence-worth, @QuirkyGrandpa, is to make it about the characters. Which maybe sounds obvious, but having character at the heart of your story, and wanting to know what happens to them (and usually their relationship to other characters), is a main driving force for the majority of writers.

As far as technique, skills, etc. go, you can do a lot worse that listen to a few Writing Excuses podcasts (https://writingexcuses.com). Where you start (if you are not familiar with them), is entirely up to you.

I think I'll check out the podcasts, I know hubby listens to them a lot.

I think my major issue is over thinking every single moment I am writing about. I spent two hours after determining how many moons a planet had and started to fret about its seasons and cycles, weather, and how all of this effected everything else before I realized I might be overthinking it to the point of insanity. I think I'll try making an outline type of deal like you did, and then trying to write again later next week when I have my thoughts just generally jotted down :o. Might help, and I'll listen to the podcasts in the meantime.

[Mandamon]

10 hours ago, kais said:

So uh, this is a thing now. Which is one of the reasons I'm so far behind in responding to crit. BUT ALSO I just finished listening to book one as an audio book and OMG the voice actress is amazing. Having your book become an audio book and then listening to it has to be one of the most rewarding things ever. EVER. And she's already signed on for book two!

Now only two outstanding contracted books. I'm not over extended. Nope. Also not panicking over AR. Nope nope. Not me.

Congrats! I'll be getting one in a moment.

I'll have to check out the audio book too. It'll be cool to hear what voices she puts to N and E.

Oh, by the way, the kindle and print versions aren't linked on Amazon yet--they'll probably catch it in a few days, but you may want to send in a request just in case.