Weekly Check In

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

Hello Big Bangers!

It's that weekly check-in time again, so feel free to step on up and use the comments to tell us how you're doing.   Or, alternatively,  flail/cry/jump-for-joy/pour a large one (delete as applicable).   Got any questions you need answered?  Ask away!   Just want to chat about something that isn't the Pros Big Bang?  Well...we're probably OK with that too ;)

Let us know how things are going and give those cheerleaders a chance to shake their pom poms.  Go on - they really like an audience!

Finally,  here are 10 authors' 10 best tips for writing, as collected by The Guardian.

Happy writing, and happy weekend folks!

Comments

[krisserci5.livejournal.com]

Is wallet or billfold used? I can't tell anymore . . if it sounds wrong, I've asked myself too many times. . lol

Also:

With a block of flats- is there an inside the you can pick up your mail. In the US you get the mail in the lobby from individualized boxes with a key. How do describe that for a flat in Soho?

Thanks for any help.

[inlovewithboth.livejournal.com]

Men use wallets, usually with their loose change in their pockets.

Interesting about the block of flats thing. The one's I've been in (and the one I once lived in), post used to get left on the side on a shelf for you to collect. Very open and very trusting. It's probably not like that much now.

[lillianorchid.livejournal.com]

Men use wallets here. :)

In flats these days, the post either gets delivered through your individual door or dropped off in a pigeon hole/box thingy on the ground floor for you to pick it up when you can. Only recently did they start putting locks on them though, as you can't really trust anybody these days. I hope this helps. :)

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

This isn't going to be much help but I think it might depend on the age of the flat as well.

I live in an old tenement building (19th century) in Scotland and we have just have one post box. It gets picked up by whoever sees it and they leave it at the bottom of the stairs for people to go through and collect.

Whereas a friend who lives in a much more modern flat (about 20 years old), the postman can get in past the first door and there are individual mail boxes for everyone.

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with Vic that it might depend on the age/type of flat. I can see a Soho flat of that period (is the story set in Pros era?) being the sort where all the mail would be dumped on a central shelf or table in the lobby/hall for collection. In the real heart of Soho there's a fair number of flats above shops/restaurants rather than blocks. Bigger, more modern places would have the named postboxy things but I wouldn't really associate that with 70s/80s Soho. Great place to set a story (or part of one!) :D

[inlovewithboth.livejournal.com]

I am struggling a little. I have a plot - a plot I really like. And the story is nearly finished. But it's at 5000 words. *head desk*

So what's a girl to do? Judes tells me to "add sex, fights, car chases and more sex", but somehow it doesn't feel right.

More mulling is needed.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Could this story be only 5,000 words long and you're right about it? It might not be the long story but might very well be exactly right at 5,000. I know that's not what you want to hear but it could be true. How about a cold reading by somebody else? See what happens. Good luck!

[krisserci5.livejournal.com]

add sex,fights, car chases

yes.. . . . all good. you will do good, you just like the pressure of a deadline. . . .

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

The story will tell you how long it is. If it's only 5K, well, I guess you need another idea for your big bang story. ;)

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

That article was interesting. Everybody has a different idea on things to do but the one thing that seems to be most prevalant is to write no matter what, every day. Thanks!

[murphybabe]

I am gleeful. I gloat. I squeee. I pour myself a large one - and any of you who would like to join in. Gin 'n tonic, anyone? Large red wine? Single malt? Don't mind if I do.

I got my story back from my dead hard drive. (Well, obviously I didn't, but the nice man from the repair shop did.)

All I need to do now is a) write more words b) find a beta c) write more words d)join up the gaps.

Cheers!

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

HOORAY! I'm so glad to hear it, that must be such a relief *g*

I'll take a gin, if I say so myself *g*

[dawnebeth.livejournal.com]

Yay for the nice man at the repair shot! Hee!

[inlovewithboth.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank Crunchie for that!

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

Pour the drinks!

[halotolerant.livejournal.com]

FINALLY getting somewhere - the secret seems to be writing it longhand first in an actual notebook (I've never done this before) so there is no internet to distract me, and then typing it up. Getting this one out is quite hard - I've bitten off a lot with the plot, I think, but I'm chewing away.

Also, I officially have an inspiration song for this year (last year it was Madonna, of all things) and now it's... Nicki Minaj. I swear this makes sense to my muse...

QUESTION: What would someone not very well off use to listen to music in about 1983? Vinyl? Those big spools of tape or were there cassettes? We're talking, as I say, someone who wouldn't have cutting edge necessarily.

[krisserci5.livejournal.com]

I always do a longhand version first and then do my edits on the computer. I can't type as fast as I write and sometimes if I don't get it down as I think it, it's lost forever.

[hutchynstarsk.livejournal.com]

I made the decision to change my AU to original fiction. I felt like it was close to original. It's going well and now I have a different Pros AU idea that I wrote a few thousand words on. If it doesn't work ot, I hope I'll think of something that does.

[inlovewithboth.livejournal.com]

Ooh that's an interesting change!

[solosundance.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the authors' ten top tips. Erm... I like P.D.James who only gives five and even more Diana Athill who only gives three - my kind of writers *g* Heh, and in general I pretty much do about 60% of what Elmore Leonard tells us not to... although I don't at the moment because I still haven't written anything! ACK!

I need a firm talking-to.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

What's funny though is what one says not to do another writer does! LOL!

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

In panic mode here. I couldn't get started, then I did, and then I sent my fic to my beta who is basically happy with it but is going to send me minor stuff to correct - and now I'm in full-blown panic mode. Another friend says that's normal and she could be right. I'm terrified I've got research details wrong, not enough sex, the wrong length, the wrong plot, maybe the wrong fandom??? Hand-holding or pom-poms badly needed.

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

You'll be fine! *holds hands with moth* I have faith. You are NOT in the wrong fandom!

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

*scuffs toe in the dirt* Um, I've been procrastinating. Writing, but in a different fandom... vampire squeamish at the sight of blood, anyone? *g*

I really need to stop playing with other 'toys' and focus on the lads. I'll be in full-blown panic that I haven't got the story finished in two weeks time!

Interesting tips, and some of them I actually agree with, but most of them I don't. *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Writing in different fandoms can be good for you. Definitely. But you do need to remember the lads occasionally.

I think those tips are like any rules - you need to know them to know when you can happily break them. Which is most of the time.

[przed.livejournal.com]

The article is great. I think my favourite bit comes from fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood:

Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so don't whine.

Truer words were never written. ;-)

As for the BB, I've finally had a breakthrough and am making actual progress. And the first sex scene just cropped up, unexpectedly, so that's a nice surprise for everyone. I may actually make the first minimum word count before the deadline. Although by saying that I've no doubt curses myself.

[murphybabe]

lol! Just read Margaret Atwood's 10 rules for writing:

4 If you're using a computer, always safeguard new text with a ­memory stick.

I am now :)

[margaret-r.livejournal.com]

Dithering between persisting with the current direction of the fic, which doesn't seem to be really working that well, chucking it away and using a different approach, or completely giving up! Not sure which option is going to win out at the moment. Ah, the joys of writing:P

Hopefully I'll make either a decision or progress before the deadline*g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Just keep going until the answer is obvious. And the deadline is ages away.

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what's going to happen once Bodie gets to a certain point. It's the approximately four pages that get him there that are bugging me. So in short, I've hardly started, but I'm expecting it all to start pouring out faster than I can type it soon. *says the possibly over-optimistic optimist*

[hutchynstarsk.livejournal.com]

You can do it! Go, go!!

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

How did I miss this? I dunno...

Well, I'm progressing somewhat. A few things happened recently:

• I've been doing a random, unorganized canon watch recently, and I'm picking up on a LOT of things I didn't the first time around. Especially with the banter. (And some of it's incredibly funny, although Cowley lets his operatives get away with too much)


• My story's basic structure will have to be changed pretty significantly to work well (okay, I knew that going in). Wondering whether I should still try this idea, or something else a little simpler (and I do have an idea).

I did compare where I'm at now with where I was last year. Definitely was doing better last year, but I found I'm capable of more writing in a short amount of time than I thought I was (I wrote 5,000 words in eight days last year - whoa).

I'll see how May / June go. If I get some solid time in, then I'll go for it.

Okay, I'm multitasking too much right now. Need to get some work things >:^< done.

[maddalia.livejournal.com]

Urgh - tell me about it. I just want to sit and write, and work is there haunting me. Damn you RL! :)