Hi Guys,
I have wanted to be a writer since I was a kid.
I used to want to be Stephen King, that ship has sailed though. Now I have plans to be something worse... a goddam Artist!
:p
Anyway, I am still quite the noob and look forward to taking advantage of what the site has to offer in terms of learning, structure and making friends.
Have a good one,
Mark
Hi, and I like your dragon!
Welcome to LitReactor, enjoy your stay :)
Thank a lot guys.
Welcome.
Welcome! I've never particularly liked King's writing, but his productivity is downright suspicious. Quite possibly, he's not even human, and his ship's the kind that never makes it to shore. Don't feel bad.
Hey Linda, I say King because when I was growing up he was the thing, everybody read his books, it was ridiculous. I have kinda moved past the desire to be famous, not that it would happen anyway.
Another reason King is a positive example is that he is productive, he has been "practicing his instrument" everyday since he was a kid.
I kinda only like his older stuff though. I particularly dislike how he Disney-fied the Dark Tower series and made it a weird commentary on himself. Anyway, that's a matter of taste I guess.
And thanks for the welcome too Dwayne.
Okay, I'm jumping to King's defense as well. I've been reading his stuff forever. He's pretty modest about his writing; every interview I've ever read on him, has him praising his wife's skill and art of writing.
He does have his moments of commercialism, but all in all, I think he's a decent writer who's influenced others to go for the brass ring.
'Course, that's just my two cents' worth...
Justwords, nobody needs to be defended :p I don't think he's lost his touch either. I thought that some of the stuff in On Writing was very beautiful and profound and there is was one quote from Hearts in Atlantis I saw posted a long time ago that was really awesome. I just am not interested in his work anymore and IMHO a lot of his stuff I was very interested in veered off course and it was very disappointing to me.
I'm sure Stephen will get over it.
Also to clarify I mean't the Disney comment not as commercialization but as turning a lot of things from having a dark edge to happy-go-lucky.
^
Hey, no worries! Neither he nor you need back-up here. I just really admire his complimenting his wife. In my limited experience, when creative people get together, that kind of support isn't automatic, especially with significant others.
I think his having the traumatic accident a few years back had a big influence on him, not just physically, but creatively and emotionally.
This is trite but true: every kind of artist has a time that their "muse" or whatever that inspires them goes (or runs!) away. This is not unique to writers. Painters, musicians, chefs, teachers, doctors, theologians, even the people who are entrusted with the safekeeping of the population and solving the crimes have what is called the "dark nights of the soul." It's how you deal with it--whether you make a break-through creatively or not, and if not, what happens after--that defines your character, and (hopefully) will lead to your eventual success as an artist--but more importantly, as a person.
Sigh I'm off my teacher-soapbox now; feel free to giggle! :)
Plus I really like SK's writing.
Now I feel bad! While I don't like his writing (that's subjective, and more to do with style and content than anything else), I'm in awe of what he has accomplished, and my comment wasn't meant to come off as derogatory or mean in any way. Not that I feel sorry for him. Anyway, I've read On Writing a couple of times, so I'm definitely not above taking his advice, although I don't agree with him on everything. His lack of experience with workshops coupled with his prejudice against workshops I find downright annoying. Considering the millions of people who've read On Writing I think it's a shame he's giving them a bad rep.
I kinda only like his older stuff though. I particularly dislike how he Disney-fied the Dark Tower series...
Also to clarify I mean't the Disney comment not as commercialization but as turning a lot of things from having a dark edge to happy-go-lucky.
That is the oddest thing I've heard in a while, because I thought it got darker as it went.
Just words: it's cool, I guess everybody takes something different for stuff and can can appreciate it in different ways. I appreciate your input : )
Linda: about the workshops, I guess everything is what you make of it, if you are Stephen and hammering out an enclypodedia every year a lot of problems would probably self correct just from experience. For me this kinda site is great for structure and motivation and when you hang out with like minded people concerning a "hobby" it becomes more precident in your brain.
Dwayne: as you know he was a drug addict at one point but I don't think that is what it is, I am a positive, pretty balanced person and can imagine dark stuff sort of "as story". Not to open this can of worms again but you will notice in the Dark Tower he is dropping kids down ravines in a single pointed search for the Tower and later In the series he is all "billy bumbler wobbly wuuuuu thankye sai we all love eachother forever". This happened with Anne Rice too, a person suddenly refuses to kill off characters, cross pollinates them with others they have written, and everything becomes a fantasy of "what would be nice", essentially completely lame. It is almost like fandom literature. I know he has put some dark stuff in his recent novels like Under the Dome which I haven't read but watched part of the series and looked at the wiki for. To me this kinda comes off as sort gross and "why?" because I don't think he really thinks like that anymore.
I mean I think that book 7, the last book, was darker than book 1. In the Dark Tower Series.
