Grandma's old LCD TV is now my main PC monitor. It does 1336x768 which is kinda lame but will come in handy for watching the football later in June (assuming I'm not dead). I plan to set up the old screen and a basic PC so Mom can do more reading and researching but maybe later.
Request came in for writing advice. I am the ideal person to give out such advice as I've made all the standard mistakes. There are just 5 important things:
- You must not write when you feel like writing "I wanna make a book". Nor do you write when you have a "good idea for a book". You must write when the cup overflows and you're all stained from the wine you've been drinking yourself silly with. Drunk with the ideas and situations, people and objects that consume your everyday thoughts.
- When you have this, you sit down and write a very drawn out account or a very short one that's just 3 pages. Don't worry. It is a sign that you lack what I call 'anchors'. Stories used to be told because of special days / circumstances, and nowadays, with books, you have to insert the anchors -one of which is the POV or the narrative voice. Why is she / he talking to me? Why is this special? It's special for example, because 'the world is ending' or 'they are trying to understand the gnostic texts'.
- After you conquer that barrier, the next one is that sometimes, stories happen fast, sometimes slow. Information has to be given out. But so many say different things. The truth is that I love giving out information. If you love it too, you will find the right ways to do it. And it will sound good.
- Now it comes the time to do some logistics. Will everything tie up? Will readers get my story? Yes, it's very important to make yourself understood. The way to do this is not to rearrange your whole book and shuffle characters / chapters, but to separate your story into threads. Each thread has a feel, a style. In essence, a full range of emotional circumstances is explored.
- After it's all done, there are 4 or 5 things left. You have to actually read your novel(la) over and it is very painstaking. But there is a simple way of doing it. Just use a grammar checker like Office 365. Rent it for a few months and it will weed out your mistakes. Then you need to go over it again to see if it fits the 'big picture'. This is also easy, just use an AI to analyze it. Another thing is to see if there are humanly mistakes (non-grammatical). This is also easy. Just have an AI narrator read it to you. Finally, give it to some people for their opinions. It should by now be good!
Back to the TV / monitor. I got it adjusted to native resolution via our other TV's remote -Dad's idea. Now it's good to go. My backup netbook is still with the 19" NEC LCD. I rarely wake it from sleep.
We are now beating back the Liew witchy scourge. All of us are armored up and ready for combat of the heart, the flesh, and later, the Spirit.
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It's Sunday, and Dad caught a bad cough. Mom is trying to strengthen herself. Myself, have no issues so far. Managed to get cleaned well, after last night's dinner of beans and mince with reduced tomatoes and locally-grow parsley.
Didn't do much work, just tacked on a few hundred words to SDU (my novel), and fiddled with net4spice a bit. The debugging statements point to a fundamental flaw in my indices management. I have so many, no, nn, nc, n and c which are related.
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Back from visiting Grandma and more scavenging by Mom at her old place. I found the remote for my TV-monitor and it works great after I cleaned the crust off the battery contacts with a nail file.
There is a need to prepare for an onslaught against the Liew witches before the weekend is up. We have to deal them a knockout blow tonight at the latest. Was hoping to work but there is no time.
Being struck with incontinence attacks. Had to wipe up twice today. Feels like somebody turning a wire in my butthole. Also hit by mild swelling in my big toe.
I think we will move on the Liews in 2 prongs. The first prong will be staunch Christians whom I will train, just for half an hour after dinner. The second prong will be kind women and children. I have already selected and separated them. We will be using a simple weapon, jealousy. While the women and children will pull out the emotion(s) of love. We will enter thru mutual friends just like they do to us. And so far that is all I have.
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I wrote over 1k words of Super Derek Underpants. Need to do another 1.3k words later tonight. Also figured out net4spice via a useful print debug statement. Some of my variables got mixed up. Watching Sara Lubratt's writing vlog. She is an inspiration tho I cannot believe writing can be so torturous. Apparently some writers do 6 drafts before they release a book.
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Want to talk a little more on the writing process since Dad is in the shower and I need to kill half an hour with a latte chilling in the freezer too,
There are 3 qualities of a good book (maybe great) in the making,
- You will write a good book if you feature in it in disguise, or at least have an interest in it that is personal. Most good books are about the author or his dreams etc.
- You will write a good book if you can overwhelm your readers in some way, maybe by weaving, or by wowing, or simply by titillating. Overwhelming the reader, taking them where they never thought they'd go physically, emotionally, spiritually.
- You will write a good book if you can separate yourself from your writing in some way. Do not be the 'author' writing the 'book'. Be the story itself. Be the marketer. Be anyone but the writer. Do not do what a writer would do to his story.
For the most part, I obey these 3 points. Many times, I become the story to test out if it reads right. So I am often times the reader or the editor, while my fingers (as the writer) unspool the latest digested scene automatically.
To write a really really good book, you actually don't need experience or intelligence. Somehow it is the opposite. Many writers write to inform and also entertain. I am one such. I don't write books with no re-read value. No discussion value. But it is the book written for and by the common man that has potential to be a bestseller. In order to profit from this, always write having nothing to impart but simple emotions and beautiful situations. If there are sad moments, write them in also but give / promise them closure early. If there are interesting characters, make them important. And if you invent anything, make it look like a supporting character did it. These are common folk's thinking -I am never great.