So, I'm trying something different. A couple things, I guess. I'm writing a Halloween story, and I haven't done one of those before. It's not done, but I've posted the first part today. I plan to post a chapter a day until the 31st, so the clock is now ticking. I have to figure out how it ends, write it, edit it, and get it posted, between now and Halloween. I haven't done that to myself before either. My problem, I think, is that I don't have enough stress in my life!
I hope you enjoy the story.
Comments
OK, I'm trusting you
I'll start reading even though I don't usually read serials until they're finished. But you have the track record of finishing what you start.
Not enough stress? I'll tell you what I find stressful. Waiting until Fridays so I can post the next chapter. I don't think I'll be posting another serial. To top that off, my muse has had a field day. I have two new stories finished and I'm waiting for my editor to get through with editing the final posting of IIWYH before I send her either of them. Plus, I have two more stories nearly finished.
Not to mention that I have some that I'm working with to fill in some places where my muse abandoned the story a year or so ago, but now has some input on them.
I'm champing at the bit, wanting to post one of the new works.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
There is nothing like starting a serial . . .
Invariably, it causes your muse to overload you synaptic inbox with great ideas for stories other than the one you started!
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Patricia. On the bright side, you'll know by Tuesday whether the bet pays off!
— Emma
Emma, I totally trust you ...
Not only to finish the story, but also to give us something to think about...
So no pressure at all.
As always, I'm really really enjoying your writing.
If I had any pompoms ( Sorry I don't, I'm English after all) please imagine me waving them and shouting "Go Go, Team Emma Go". I learned that from Candi.
Lucy xxx
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."
Pom Poms
Love it, Lucy! But you don't really need the pom poms, so long as you have a tight-fitting top and a REALLY short skater skirt!
Hugs,
— Emma
Good for you
for trying something different.
"And Now For Something Completely Different"
(you have to be of a certain age to get what that means)
I do try to write new themes/subjects with my stories. Sometimes it is not so easy as you might think.
Samantha
not so easy as you might think.
Ain't that the truth.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
That line . . . .
. . . Somehow, whenever I hear that line, it is immediately followed in my brain by, "The naughty bits of a clock radio," with the image tightly focused on the dial. Crazy. Classic. Python forever!
I do try to change up my themes, settings, plot lines, genres. It's hard enough already, and I haven't been at it nearly as long. Just for starters, I need to make a running list of names in all of my stories, so I don't inadvertently reuse them. Crazy, right? With all the names available? But I've had it happen multiple times.
— Emma
names
of the main characters don't need to be unique to that tale but variety helps 'personalise' the story. In rl there are lots of people with the same name, i once worked at a small company with eight employees, 5 of which had the same forename! There are certainly instances in some of my tales where there are more than one character with the same forename, in real life i had 3 friends in the same circle with the same name so i wouldn't worry about it too much. OTOH, if the same names get used in all your stories you've got a problem.
Most of my central characters are named after someone i've known, maybe from work or school or on occasion from other pursuits. I do have a character list for my main series but that doesn't include the many one off cameo performers, as long as every Italian waiter isn't named Mario it matters not if the name is reused.
The other thing i try to avoid are weird spellings, 1) they confuse the reader and 2) they make you, the writer, look stupid, they are just desperate attempts to be different. There is a story running on BC currently where the lead character's name defy's any spelling logic, and frankly makes the character sound like something from a hot dog stand! I find it does detract from an otherwise enjoyable tale, the standard spelling of the name is both shorter and brooks no doubt as to what it is.
So i'll leave you with this thought.
........................
Madeline Anafrid Bell
I totally agree with your thinking regarding names……
I have known many people with the same name throughout my life, although often there is a distinguishing manner of referring to each of them.
As an example, there were two boys named Bruce in my grade throughout junior and senior high school - and they were often in the same classes. In order to distinguish them apart, we began referring to them by their initials - so one became BR and the other became BM. I suppose we could have used Bruce R and Bruce M, but being kids we chose to shorten their names even further.
I have also known multiple men named Anthony, although some go by Tony and some insist on Anthony, I have even known an Ant’ny and one who preferred to be called Tone. I believe some of that may be cultural.
As to the spellings of names, it has become a trend in our country to use a fairly common name and change the spelling. Don’t ask me why, or what purpose it serves, but it has become fairly common to use some totally bizarre spellings - like it makes your child more unique, lol, when in fact it simply means that their name is often misspelled. Not to mention people look at it and laugh at how ridiculous it is.
George Carlin used to joke about how people pronounced their names - his joke was basically about a man who pronounced his name Smith, but it was spelled J-A-N-O-F-S-K-I. He would tell people they were all silent letters. Nowadays it appears that we do this on purpose - add letters to a name and keep the same pronunciation just to make it different.
Of course there are also plenty of people who seem to simply make up names for their children as well……..
I always find it humorous when people ask me if my parents were Cowboys fans, or if I was born in Texas. My given name is Dallas (which believe it or not is often misspelled - which in this country is ridiculous), and it is a family name and has absolutely nothing to do with football or where I was born. My family is of Scottish origin and the name has Gaelic roots. It goes back multiple generations in my family. But nevertheless, I still have people make stupid assumptions about my name. And yes, it is the name I was given at birth; luckily, it is fairly gender neutral so I did not change it when I transitioned, although I did change my middle name and drop the suffix I was saddled with by my parents.
Anyway, in this day and age, it appears that naming conventions (at least in this country) have changed.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
On the bright side . . .
Confusion notwithstanding, not everyone is gifted with a name that comes with its own cheer. I mean, c’mon. It must be a rush to hear thousands of people shout, “Big DEEEEEEEE! Little “a” double elle “a” essss!”
Or, maybe the thrill wears off, after a while. ;-)
Hugs, Dallas!
— Emma
Common names
In real life, my nick name is Pat. Nothing to do with my given name except that in the fifth grade there were three of us with that same name one of which was spelled differently though pronounced just the same. Amongst ourselves we began calling each other by our last names. My last name being Patrick, that quickly got shortened to Pat. That solved the problem. One of the others went by the full given name and the other by a diminutive or common nickname for the given name.
I've been Pat to my friends ever since (67 years) with only two exceptions on one job I was called by my full given name and on the other, I went by the common nick name because my cousin with the same last name worked there and had Pat already. Other that that, only my blood relatives of my birth family call me by the common nickname.
I have a second or third cousin who had a similar problem in grade school only with five kids with the same name.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Bruce, Bruce, Bruce and myself . . . .
Indeed yes. The whole philosophy department of the University of Wooloomooloo shared the same name once, according to a famous Flying Circus!
— Emma
First names
I once played a game of rugby, right in front of the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, in a team where eight people had the same first name.
Calling for a pass was confusing.
Great start…….
To what promises to be a wonderful story!
Looking forward to seeing the rest of it.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Thanks, Dallas!
I hope you enjoy it. :)
— Emma
Just...
If Halloween is a part of your culture, what's so special about a story with a Halloween theme?
Genre
I was imprecise. I don’t mean a story about Halloween traditions like dressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating. Lots of those stories here, especially with a cross-dressing up theme, and they can be any genre. Mostly real-world, and I’ve written plenty of real-worlds stories.
What I’m talking about a type of story with deep roots in the American literary tradition — a ghost story. Think of Washington Irving’s classic Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which itself references the far older collection of ghost stories by the crazed Devine Cotton Mather. Like mysteries (which I also haven’t tried writing and probably won’t), ghost stories have distinctive features, structure, mood, and tropes. Enough so that it’s really a separate genre, or at very least, a separate sub-genre. And it’s one I haven’t tried, personally.
— Emma
You did it
... and it's really American.
Thank you . . . I think?
I mean, don't get me wrong. Got no problem being American, most days. It's just been my experience that when people from other countries use the term as an adjective, it's not a positive thing. Like when my Hall of Residence in the UK would serve "American Fish Cakes." There's nothing American about fish cakes, far as I know. In context, it meant, "Even by our standards, this is REALLY foul!"
Hugs,
Emma
— Emma
Not negative
Not negative, for sure. It's (your story) American because it follows all standards of American spooky ghost stories. Even similar by atmosphere Hauf's tales are different.
Two Halloween storues
That's all for me: 'Playtime' and 'Hard Memory'. The first was awkward, because it is the one and only thing I have written with an explicit sex scene, but that is because it is actually a key plot point. it still has what I consider the best 'hook' in an opening I have ever written:
"There was a group of children on the street, playing with a dog. As I watched, one of them started to eat it from the tail end."
'Hard Memory' was a go at writing something with zero sympathetic characters, as well as deliberately bouncing the PoV from one to the other so as to disorient the reader and show each character in the view of the other pieces of.... It's a homage to three separate writers.
Sounds like a good story hook!
I might have to give Hard Memory a pass, though. I like to have somebody I can root for. Pass the Pom Poms, Lucy!
— Emma
Well...
HM does reference Nigel Kneale, Harlan Ellison and HP Lovecraft...
I am expecting another marvel
Part 1 is already posted and available, but I am writing to this blog, without even tasting it!
Everything you have written, I feel is being written to meet a personal target -- something you nearly always achieve, with the failure resulting because it has involved a culture which I find totally alien -- so the fault has been mine!
Now, to taste the, till now, forbidden fruit.
Best wishes
Dave
Thanks, Dave!
I hope this one hits for you. I’m tapping a strong strain in American literature, but ghost stories are scarcely unique to this neck of the woods, so here’s hoping!
— Emma
Biting my tongue!
I'm biting my tongue to keep from guessing out loud where the story will take the touchy Mr Beauchamp...
It's great so far.
- iolanthe
Sitting on my typing fingers
Just so I don’t give anything away. It’s day two of four and . . . the story is not yet done. The pressure builds!
— Emma
Sitting on fingers
Oh come now, that still leaves you with 8 fingers to give us a few hints, right ? Maybe do a bit of sign language ? ^_~