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AGES (perhaps gemerations) ago, I swore I would not post any more cliff hangers... I would not post any more until my tales were DONE - and could be dribbled out regularly.
I shot myself in the foot with that promise (which I still - regrettably - stand by)
While I have PILES of stuff on my desktop.... none of my open tales are ....done.
So I remain mute - and SO so frustrated.
A} Not dead
B} Thanks to the muse ....and my stupid promise... may as WELL be :-(
I continue to strugle - in solitude.
F**k you, Muse!
Stubbornness will trump (absent) inspiration.
....if it's the LAST thing I do.
While I fantasize about e-publishing my stuff... the joy of sharing my ramblings with the community here, makes the struggle (with the muse) all worthwhile.
Bottom line? Still not dead (alas). ;-)
K@
Comments
Some thoughts
A) This is a great thing. Now get back to writing! :P
B) Your Muse called in reinforcements (some folks named Asclepius and Hygeia?) to keep you here O.o
And your Muse wants to know why you won't share the chocolate or caffeine... Don't look at me like that, that's what Clio asked when she was riding my case a few days and nights ago! Man can she put the chocolate away. And don't get me started on her triple shots of espresso in her mocha cappuccino habit!
Really though, take a walk, or just sit in a park. It really helps, trust me. Be well!
Hugs!
Diana
Chocolate
Most muses crave chocolate and get cranky if deprived.
I have so many stories
I have so many stories unfinished. I get bored with them and the reads as well as the comments drop. Often the first chapters get the best reaction and after writing several it becomes a chore.
If you don't enjoy writing it, your readers probably won't enjoy reading it. It is always hard to keep everyone happy with the ending too. Erveryone seems to have their own idea of a perfect ending.
Leeanna
Hmm, talk to Clio,
I think your muse is broken and has adhd, sometimes they get eas-- SQUIRREL!
Hey, get back here, I was using your input. Come back*-. Sigh, never mind. There must be something in their water lately...
Be well,
Hugs Diana
Getting bored
I treat each story as a challenge and make it as good as I can. Some stories flow like a river. Others are a struggle after the first few parts. I don't abandon them but put them aside. Every so often I go through all those unfinished stories and sometimes, the way forwards appears out of the mists of time.
I don't get bored during the writing (see above).
I don't post anything here until it is complete. That way, I don't leave stories and more importantly readers hanging in the air. Before any story is posted here, it is posted on my own blog. Then it is edited again prior to posting here.
Ok, I have one unfinished story here but there are moves afoot in the background to complete it even if it might be 12 months before that actually appears.
But... each of us have our own way of working. Do what works for you.
Samantha
Perhaps…
…the purpose of the cliffhangers was for your own motivation.
Watch out for “virtue.” About 30 years ago, I once swore off caffeine for a few months. I remember before, and after, but during? No memory of doing anything; I suspect it’s accurate.
Glad to see you active here again. Your name here inspired mine.
Welcome back?
Welcome back?
I don't think anyone sane will take you to task for the stories. The unsane, on the other hand, are probably still foaming at the mouth.
Much as I'd love to see more Secondhand Life, I'd rather you weren't beating yourself up about it. While you don't have any "muse" to continue, why not just re-read a couple of the stories yourself, and see if there's anything in there that jumps out at you after all this time. Perhaps your muse is saying "I don't want to do MORE unless we go back and fix THAT" (whatever that may be). Who knows?
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Cliff hangers ...
... are "okay". They are "good" if they help your muse to keep you writing.
Maybe try this formula: Idea for a story -> Write first chapter -> Write last chapter -> maybe start posting -> fill in the stuff in between.
Sara
Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.
More Kat Walker stories.
As a reader, I love to binge-read a good story from start to end, but having a chapter or two of a story is literally better than nothing. Grin.
Cliff hangers are great. I think cliff hangers make us realize how the author has us hooked with characters that we are invested in and care for, and can't wait to see what happens next. Readers might moan about cliffhangers but I'd like to think authors might take the moans as a back handed complement.
I really enjoy your stories. I hope you might find the time to put some more on the site, but I know that life gets in the way sometimes.
I don't often comment. I'm shy and don't want to add my illiterate words to the end of a well crafted tale that an author has poured their heart and soul into, but I do press the kudos button in the hope that authors get a little happy thought when the count goes up. It's a pity that when I go back to reread some of my fav authors (including you) that I can't add to the count, months or years later.
Some stories on the site start with a note that the story was an old early story. Maybe if you put some uncompleted or rough stories up, let the readers know in the foreword and some readers can avoid if they want to and some of us will enjoy them even so.
Thanks for the wonderful tales you have shared. I, for one hope you have the time to share some more, when you have the time.
Cheers, Kiwi.
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood"
Was left unfinished by Charles Dickens. Seems Dickens was, uhm, "inconvenienced" by Death.
My first Wife loved mysteries, and she always wanted a solution, all the ends neatly tied up.
I took her to a stage play of Drood.
What >she< didn't know, is that there is no ending to Drood. (I knew, but didn't tell her. There are reasons husbands die earlier than their Wives...)
The Players got to the end, and told us a quick overview of six endings. We were given electronic 'clickers' to vote on which ending, and the Company would then perform that ending.
What >I< didn't know, is that the Theater Company was filming that evening. All who stayed got to watch the other five endings! (And we moved to better seats!)
===
All of this is my long-winded introduction to the suggestion that you post the "incompletes", with your warning, plus an invite, that whoever wants can write ending(s).
We post our completions as comments; these might be gathered as Main Story (readers complete); then each chapter is a reader/writer completion.
---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Edwin_Drood
I can relate
I've never allowed myself to post a story in chapters. It's a personal thing after reading so many good stories that for some reason got abandoned. Yes, it's a pain because my WIP file (I have two; one in this genre and another in my other life) on my computer is chock full of unfinished work. Not abandoned, just unfinished.
As a testimony to support the practice. "Dumb Bet," my most well received work was started some five years before it was posted. It lay fallow on my hard drive all that time, then one day I decided to take a look at the bone pile and read some of them. "Dumb Bet" came alive and over about a month and a half I finished it.
What I'm saying here is don't give up on your stories or your muse. I find my muse is fickle and jumps around a lot. She's like kid in a toy store running from one shinny toy to the next and can't decide which one to buy.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Still not dead
"Still not dead" is the best part of your message IMO. For me, all the other gifts from what you have already written is way more important than what you haven't gotten around to. However, if your muse ever does start to cooperate I certainly would feel happy to read more of your prose.
"fallow on my hard drive" - All storage media >will< fail ...
It doesn't matter what we store our goodies on.
All media - hard drive (internal or external), USB, CD-ROM/DVD (limited storage, 1- 4 Gigabytes), flash, solid state, ... All >will< fail.
Always have at least one back-up, more is better.
---
Have a recent back-up off-site: car (not so good), trusted friend/relative (files and media can be encrypted), bank vault.
A 'common disaster' (fire, flood, earthquake, theft) can take out the original and all on-site backups. Even "the cloud" - forget to pay the monthly/yearly charges ... Or, our local disaster takes out our passwords & encryption keys copy, and our own memory fubars them....
---
Backup media is cheap enough: USBs are about $15-$50 USD, hard drives or solid state drives between $50 & $100 USD. Price usually increases with size and "features".
Keep your back-up methods as simple as possible. "Backup software" greatly increases the 'fragility' of your backups, and makes recovering files >much< harder.
===
"Backups are done by people who used to not do backups.
Test restores are done by people who used to not test their backups."
Backups
Yes indeed. I have a ScanDisk 250 GB flash drive. It came with the backup software preinstalled. Every time I write something, before I shut off the computer, I call up that software and backup the whole word processor document folder. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Years ago I lost everything in a computer crash. At that time I didn't have a whole lot and it wasn't worth paying someone to try to retrieve it. After that, every time I upgraded my computer, I put the old hard drive in as a drive D and used it as a backup. However, with the last two computers, the architecture changed and the drives from the old machines weren't compatible. Hence the need for a flash drive.
I highly recommend backups.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
250GB?
Really? Hmm. I must have something wrong with me...
2 TR---4's with 4 16TB in one and 4 20TB drives in the other, along with 3 20TB, 5 12TBm 3 10TB, 4 8TB, 2 5TB, 5 4TB external USB HDD's, 2 machines with 4 6TB and 4 8TB HDD's in each, and a smattering of 1,2 and 4 TB external NVMe SSD's. Not counting a lot of small thumb drives from 64MB to 1TB...
I may have a problem :/
Diana
Yes test that your hardware can read the backups
On my first job, one Friday my duty became to type in code off printouts recovered from the trash. I was wanting cash, paid hourly, and allowed to stay as late as I wanted, but it was still no fun.
Curse?
Thank you for letting us know that you are still there and active. I wouldn't think of trying to give advice to you about writing so all I will say is Smell the roses, watch a sunset or a sunrise whichever works for you. Relax. That should be enough cliches for now. Just take care of yourself.
Time is the longest distance to your destination.