Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazDecember 18, 2011 - 10:18pm
Hey everyone, I keep forgetting to mention this. Not that it is crucial at this stage of the game, but you might want to start getting in the habit of formatting your manuscripts:
Raelyn
from California is reading The Doll's HouseDecember 19, 2011 - 1:23am
Could someone do me a favor? Before I withdrew from the workshop I wrote a review for a story called "The Girl's Not There" by user Willcain, and I haven't gotten a message from LitBot yet. I'm thinking it's because I'm not in the workshop anymore. If someone could look at the story and see if my review is still posted there I'd appreciate it. Thank you!!
PopeyeDoyle
from Rio Grande Valley, TX is reading This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot DiazDecember 19, 2011 - 1:52am
What type of message do you mean? If you're talking about a "WillCain rated your review such and such," message, I haven't gotten one either. Maybe he hasn't rated any of the reviews yet.
Raelyn
from California is reading The Doll's HouseDecember 19, 2011 - 2:02am
Okay, I was wondering if he hadn't done that yet. Thank you for looking at it. Also, I've asked Kirk so many questions I feel guilty asking more. I'm just problematic.
ReneeAPickup
from Joshua Tree, CA is reading The Sound of LonlinessDecember 19, 2011 - 6:47am
Wow, this time difference rocks socks. I woke up to several reviews and three LBLs. Thanks to everyone that helped out, and, of course, more insight would be appreciated. Looks like I have a fair amount of rewriting to do.
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.December 19, 2011 - 1:29pm
I am still working on my OCD story but I got distracted with another story for the holidays. Its my version of a demented Christmas tale of family, I will post it soon, its called "Merry Christmas, Satan!" Consider it my holiday present to you all.
ReneeAPickup
from Joshua Tree, CA is reading The Sound of LonlinessDecember 19, 2011 - 1:34pm
Danny, that reminds me-- I feel the need to explain why you won't be getting a Christmas card from me, after I offered one. Basically, I suck at time management. BUT, to make up for the sixty or so promised cards that didn't go out this year, I am going to do Valentines. Hopefully very odd ones.
Chester Pane
from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DiazDecember 19, 2011 - 3:08pm
@Chuck: I am not sure what you mean. Why wouldn't it reset? So you are saying you just don't want to participate in the workshop at all? Clarify please.
I assume you mean that you won't get 15 more points. So you don't have time to do the 5+ reviews? I see where you are coming from if that is the case. Well, how about if you join and go to my two stories and just say "Hi Chester, you sexy genius!" and I will rate your reviews 'very helpful' thereby comping you six points right out of the gate. Then help your fellow Psychotic Anthologizers out by doing three more reviews.
There are some good stories posted by Bryan Howie, Nicholas Wilczynski, Avery Doll, Renee Pickup and others. Just read three and comment. I am sure you can be 'very helpful' when you want to. Anyone who wins trivia contests like I've seen you do definitely has the wits for it.
The one-month memberships will be activated later today and I am not sure if you are in or out. I would love for you to be in.
Let me know Chuck.
@Danny: Dude, I have one of those Christmas Stories too, but it needs some revision. Maybe I will slap it up too. In the spirit of Christmas.
wickedvoodoo
from Mansfield, England is reading stuff.December 19, 2011 - 4:01pm
Synethesia is fascinating. One of those disorders that truly boggles the mind.
Your little story was quality Bryan.
Also, Chester, it's good of you to arrange those workshop passes for folk. Very cool.
I have managed to make some more headway on my story at last. It's going to need a brutal edit when it's done though. I'm only half way through my plan and I'm already at almost four thousand words. Oops.
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.December 19, 2011 - 4:17pm
Jacks--I like what you have so far, just keep going and tell us more about the guys life, childhood, etc.
Bryan--if you want to try writing a different piece for the antho, I am for it. This would be a little more direct and I don't think anyone has picked it yet.
Yay everyone, you are making my Christmas by coming thru for the antho. I am happy as a pig in shit.
Bekanator
from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Transubstantiate by Richard ThomasDecember 19, 2011 - 5:05pm
So the word limit is 2500-5000, right? I'm guessing my story's going to be at around the peak. I'm having a riot writing this thing. I never in my life would have thought that misogyny could be so much fun.
Nick Wilczynski
from Greensboro, NC is reading A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. MartinDecember 19, 2011 - 7:36pm
Every time I work on Puppet Show I get an absurd grin on my face. I mean, it is some vicious shit and sometimes I think "you shouldn't be enjoying it this much" but I still do. I'm just glad I've had a lot of different perspectives to keep me finding ways to work on it.
Nick Wilczynski
from Greensboro, NC is reading A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. MartinDecember 20, 2011 - 1:06am
ewwwww who would want to go to South Carolina.
North Carolina is a fine state, but not great on the tourism number. If you want to see where the Wright Brothers made their first flight there are some... interesting... beaches. But I was raised in the Caribbean and I don't fuck around with "beaches" north of the tropic of Cancer. (except for Venice, Venice Beach has a special place in my heart as the most hospitable place in California)
averydoll
from Kentucky is reading Lisey's Story by Stephen KingDecember 19, 2011 - 10:52pm
I know, right?
I've read several of his things - starting with Prince of Tides of course. He has some very pretty language that I would love to steal.....ha. Southerners have a knack for pretty language (in the biased opinion of one - ha.).
Liana
from Romania and Texas is reading Death by Sunshine by Allison BurnettDecember 19, 2011 - 11:01pm
Since I'm officially on my winter break, first YAY!!!, and secondly, I'll be reading the psychosis stories. I've been working on my hoarding one, but it needs a bit of revising before I submit it.
Raelyn
from California is reading The Doll's HouseDecember 19, 2011 - 11:11pm
I'm at work right now, and I left scrivener open on my laptop while I went to help a customer. When I get to the back my coworker asks me "Raelyn, are you okay? This is pretty morbid." Why is it that people sometimes think that stories are confessions of the author?
averydoll
from Kentucky is reading Lisey's Story by Stephen KingDecember 19, 2011 - 11:14pm
"Why is it that people sometimes think that stories are confessions of the author? "
Because they always are....right?
But really, I know what you mean. I got sent to a counselor in high school because I wrote a short story about a girl being mudered by her father on Christmas Eve. It was really poorly written - I was a freshman. And I think that should have been the real issue. But no...
averydoll
from Kentucky is reading Lisey's Story by Stephen KingDecember 19, 2011 - 11:42pm
Nah - if you are at the college level they are less antsy about that stuff. But high schoolers, well, you never know about them I guess. This was the year of the Columbine shooting as well as two others I can think of - one was in a KY school a few hours from us (Paducah) and one of the girls that died had the exact same name as me, it freaked out the more distant relatives. Teachers were skittish.
Nick Wilczynski
from Greensboro, NC is reading A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. MartinDecember 20, 2011 - 1:15am
I don't know how I got Laguna and Venice Beaches switched up there, silly mistake, I blame California. Venice beach is fun... I don't know anything about Laguna except that I have this consistent paranoia that it used to be a MTV show that I am too freaked out to confirm, because if it is that one then it is instead one of the least inviting places in CA I remember (I was fine in Long Beach for instance, but I remember near having a panic attack at this country club in Laguna because I was freaking out about these country club snobs scheming against me... which was totally weird, I was less freaked out in Compton)
I like the mountain people in NC more, anyways, they are a cleaner and more fun breed than the backwoodsies in SC (or for that matter, the freakish hicks in eastern NC). The skiing isn't great here either, but it's alright.
Avery, I'm only halfway through your story, but I'm having trouble understanding why you'd want to drown yourself, It's technically a very fun story to read, I can't imagine being ashamed of it in any way, even if the content is unsettling.
Nick Wilczynski
from Greensboro, NC is reading A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. MartinDecember 20, 2011 - 1:35am
I hear you, but I guess I'm just the opposite sort of way, I go around all day vowing to fight myself to the death, but when I write something technically competent then I usually go "alright, truce, I'll let you live for now." And that always makes me happy.
Maybe you could have tried to abandon some babies first, then you could have finished the story thinking "well, at least that knowledge didn't go to waste."
Now that I've finished it, I see why you find the content unsettling, but I still have to admit, the execution is great and you ought to be proud of it no matter what. I understand that it's fucked up, but as a bit of writing it was very good, and you ought to be excited about it.
Bekanator
from Kamloops, British Columbia is reading Transubstantiate by Richard ThomasDecember 20, 2011 - 1:46am
@avery - Subject matter, right? I read Renee's story today and I'm planning on reading yours next whenever I get the time. My main character's mother had PPD in my story and I'm sure it'll be inspiring.
I'm finding that channeling the pervasive anger my character requires is rather easy when I'm working retail, but I still don't feel all that fucking great when the day is over. Still, writing with inspiring music and a good drink is always a treat.
aliensoul77
from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall.December 20, 2011 - 2:44am
Well to be fair, avery's story is very depressing but it's supposed to be. I think that's what makes it so good is that the voice is real, if it wasn't I wouldn't have believed it. It has an almost Sylvia Plath "ready for the oven" feel about it. The whole story is just laced with anticipation of some madness that never really boils over but instead just infects the main character.
Arkadia
from Australia is reading The Wasp Factory by Iain BanksDecember 20, 2011 - 6:59am
I might have missed the answer to my question in the bajillion previous posts in this thread/the last thread, but I'm wondering if this anthology is planning to accept and attempt to publish anything (or pretty much anything) that the assigned author gives them. Regardless of quality (at least comparative to stories typically considered publishable)?
It seems interesting to me that any old person can pick a psychosis and it's theirs, that their story is going to represent it. Is there something I'm missing?
Oh yeah. Well that is before last call here, so you are still ok.
Hey everyone, I keep forgetting to mention this. Not that it is crucial at this stage of the game, but you might want to start getting in the habit of formatting your manuscripts:
http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html
@chester: for our purposes, i dont believe the home address is needed.
and, by the way, i did the workshop back in october. it will not reset if i join again. that was my point.
Could someone do me a favor? Before I withdrew from the workshop I wrote a review for a story called "The Girl's Not There" by user Willcain, and I haven't gotten a message from LitBot yet. I'm thinking it's because I'm not in the workshop anymore. If someone could look at the story and see if my review is still posted there I'd appreciate it. Thank you!!
What type of message do you mean? If you're talking about a "WillCain rated your review such and such," message, I haven't gotten one either. Maybe he hasn't rated any of the reviews yet.
EDIT: And yes, your review is still there.
both of you should have gotten a default very helpful after a week, unless there's some glitch. i would PM kirk...
Okay, I was wondering if he hadn't done that yet. Thank you for looking at it. Also, I've asked Kirk so many questions I feel guilty asking more. I'm just problematic.
Wow, this time difference rocks socks. I woke up to several reviews and three LBLs. Thanks to everyone that helped out, and, of course, more insight would be appreciated. Looks like I have a fair amount of rewriting to do.
I am still working on my OCD story but I got distracted with another story for the holidays. Its my version of a demented Christmas tale of family, I will post it soon, its called "Merry Christmas, Satan!" Consider it my holiday present to you all.
Danny, that reminds me-- I feel the need to explain why you won't be getting a Christmas card from me, after I offered one. Basically, I suck at time management. BUT, to make up for the sixty or so promised cards that didn't go out this year, I am going to do Valentines. Hopefully very odd ones.
Things aren't so bad. Just look at the parking lot.
Message redacted. I put it up as a piece of flash fiction. It's called "Blue."
People should get points if they read it :).
@Chuck: I am not sure what you mean. Why wouldn't it reset? So you are saying you just don't want to participate in the workshop at all? Clarify please.
I assume you mean that you won't get 15 more points. So you don't have time to do the 5+ reviews? I see where you are coming from if that is the case. Well, how about if you join and go to my two stories and just say "Hi Chester, you sexy genius!" and I will rate your reviews 'very helpful' thereby comping you six points right out of the gate. Then help your fellow Psychotic Anthologizers out by doing three more reviews.
There are some good stories posted by Bryan Howie, Nicholas Wilczynski, Avery Doll, Renee Pickup and others. Just read three and comment. I am sure you can be 'very helpful' when you want to. Anyone who wins trivia contests like I've seen you do definitely has the wits for it.
The one-month memberships will be activated later today and I am not sure if you are in or out. I would love for you to be in.
Let me know Chuck.
@Danny: Dude, I have one of those Christmas Stories too, but it needs some revision. Maybe I will slap it up too. In the spirit of Christmas.
@Bryan: Dude, good one you got on the line there. Synesthesia. That sounds like fun.
Shit, this is getting exciting you guys.
EDIT
Workshop
Synethesia is fascinating. One of those disorders that truly boggles the mind.
Your little story was quality Bryan.
Also, Chester, it's good of you to arrange those workshop passes for folk. Very cool.
I have managed to make some more headway on my story at last. It's going to need a brutal edit when it's done though. I'm only half way through my plan and I'm already at almost four thousand words. Oops.
A second draft of my story on DID, Dissociated, is up in the workshop, here.
And now I can also review some stuff again.
Jacks--I like what you have so far, just keep going and tell us more about the guys life, childhood, etc.
Bryan--if you want to try writing a different piece for the antho, I am for it. This would be a little more direct and I don't think anyone has picked it yet.
Yay everyone, you are making my Christmas by coming thru for the antho. I am happy as a pig in shit.
Gonna round it off to 2k tonight. Shoud be able to push 2.5 no problem. Gonna need a lot of editing though.
So the word limit is 2500-5000, right? I'm guessing my story's going to be at around the peak. I'm having a riot writing this thing. I never in my life would have thought that misogyny could be so much fun.
Preaching to the Choir Rebecca, Preaching to the Choir.
Every time I work on Puppet Show I get an absurd grin on my face. I mean, it is some vicious shit and sometimes I think "you shouldn't be enjoying it this much" but I still do. I'm just glad I've had a lot of different perspectives to keep me finding ways to work on it.
Double post. My bad.
Really? Am I the only one who wants to go drown themselves after writing their psychosis?? Hm....
I want to drown myself before writing my psychosis.
You are all good to go. One month in the Workshop.
Now, can I borrow one of your cars to drive down to Carolina?
Chester deserves an 'awesome' achievement. I would lend you my car if it were lendable (still broken).
You might want to suspend that decision until after you read Renee's story.
North or South Carolina?
Charleston.
ewwwww who would want to go to South Carolina.
North Carolina is a fine state, but not great on the tourism number. If you want to see where the Wright Brothers made their first flight there are some... interesting... beaches. But I was raised in the Caribbean and I don't fuck around with "beaches" north of the tropic of Cancer. (except for Venice, Venice Beach has a special place in my heart as the most hospitable place in California)
Beaches. Tropic of Cancer. Why am I getting aroused?
Avery, how do you like The Boo?
Chester - I love it! I'm a big Pat Conroy fan. I love his writing.
I read an excerpt. It looks really good. I have, like many others, only read The Prince a long time ago. Yeah, great style.
Speaking of South Carolina.
I know, right?
I've read several of his things - starting with Prince of Tides of course. He has some very pretty language that I would love to steal.....ha. Southerners have a knack for pretty language (in the biased opinion of one - ha.).
Since I'm officially on my winter break, first YAY!!!, and secondly, I'll be reading the psychosis stories. I've been working on my hoarding one, but it needs a bit of revising before I submit it.
I'm at work right now, and I left scrivener open on my laptop while I went to help a customer. When I get to the back my coworker asks me "Raelyn, are you okay? This is pretty morbid." Why is it that people sometimes think that stories are confessions of the author?
"Why is it that people sometimes think that stories are confessions of the author? "
Because they always are....right?
But really, I know what you mean. I got sent to a counselor in high school because I wrote a short story about a girl being mudered by her father on Christmas Eve. It was really poorly written - I was a freshman. And I think that should have been the real issue. But no...
That's great! Was the story for a class or did it just fall into the wrong hands?
It was for a class - which was my first mistake. I should have known better I guess. But she said it could be about anything...
Oh dear. Next semester I'm taking a creative writing class...I wonder if I should be careful.
Nah - if you are at the college level they are less antsy about that stuff. But high schoolers, well, you never know about them I guess. This was the year of the Columbine shooting as well as two others I can think of - one was in a KY school a few hours from us (Paducah) and one of the girls that died had the exact same name as me, it freaked out the more distant relatives. Teachers were skittish.
I don't know how I got Laguna and Venice Beaches switched up there, silly mistake, I blame California. Venice beach is fun... I don't know anything about Laguna except that I have this consistent paranoia that it used to be a MTV show that I am too freaked out to confirm, because if it is that one then it is instead one of the least inviting places in CA I remember (I was fine in Long Beach for instance, but I remember near having a panic attack at this country club in Laguna because I was freaking out about these country club snobs scheming against me... which was totally weird, I was less freaked out in Compton)
I like the mountain people in NC more, anyways, they are a cleaner and more fun breed than the backwoodsies in SC (or for that matter, the freakish hicks in eastern NC). The skiing isn't great here either, but it's alright.
Avery, I'm only halfway through your story, but I'm having trouble understanding why you'd want to drown yourself, It's technically a very fun story to read, I can't imagine being ashamed of it in any way, even if the content is unsettling.
I'm not ashamed I wrote it. But it didn't make me feel excited or happy in any way.
I hear you, but I guess I'm just the opposite sort of way, I go around all day vowing to fight myself to the death, but when I write something technically competent then I usually go "alright, truce, I'll let you live for now." And that always makes me happy.
Maybe you could have tried to abandon some babies first, then you could have finished the story thinking "well, at least that knowledge didn't go to waste."
Now that I've finished it, I see why you find the content unsettling, but I still have to admit, the execution is great and you ought to be proud of it no matter what. I understand that it's fucked up, but as a bit of writing it was very good, and you ought to be excited about it.
@avery - Subject matter, right? I read Renee's story today and I'm planning on reading yours next whenever I get the time. My main character's mother had PPD in my story and I'm sure it'll be inspiring.
I'm finding that channeling the pervasive anger my character requires is rather easy when I'm working retail, but I still don't feel all that fucking great when the day is over. Still, writing with inspiring music and a good drink is always a treat.
Well to be fair, avery's story is very depressing but it's supposed to be. I think that's what makes it so good is that the voice is real, if it wasn't I wouldn't have believed it. It has an almost Sylvia Plath "ready for the oven" feel about it. The whole story is just laced with anticipation of some madness that never really boils over but instead just infects the main character.
I have 1500 words, namely the beggining and the ending, written for my submittal on Cotard's Delusion. Just think, all I need is the whole middle.
The name of the story is The Passion of Tanakachi Katō
Do you have to be a part of the writers workshop to submit?
I don't have money to pay for the site at the moment, but I'd love to send something in and be a part of this.
I believe that Chester has some 1 month trial passes if you ask him nicely and use your powers for good (to contribute to the anthology).
I might have missed the answer to my question in the bajillion previous posts in this thread/the last thread, but I'm wondering if this anthology is planning to accept and attempt to publish anything (or pretty much anything) that the assigned author gives them. Regardless of quality (at least comparative to stories typically considered publishable)?
It seems interesting to me that any old person can pick a psychosis and it's theirs, that their story is going to represent it. Is there something I'm missing?
Honestly, just curious. :)