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7 years 6 months ago - 7 years 6 months ago #1 by Domoviye
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    • the rat race.

    Scared you didn't I?:evil:

    I've been doing a lot of thinking for the last two months, and I came to a decision, I'm going to give being a full time writer a shot. Working a minimum wage job, while looking after my daughter and my parents, wore me down, and if I don't make a change nothing is going to change except that I'll sink into depression and never come out.
    So I put in my notice at work and at the start of October I'm going to be working from home on a number of projects. Whateley is one of them.

    Wish me luck, and keep an eye on my signature, things are finally going to change.

    Edit: and just realized this should be in the Quad. I thought I'd put it there, can a moderator please move it for me.
    Last Edit: 7 years 6 months ago by Domoviye.
    7 years 6 months ago #2 by NeoMagus
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    • Yes, you did in fact scare me. :pinch:

    Bold move. I wish you lots of luck as you set about making this change.
    ... . . -.- / .--- ..- ... - .. -.-. . .-.-.- / .-.. --- ...- . / -- . .-. -.-. -.-- .-.-.- / .-- .- .-.. -.- / .... ..- -- -... .-.. -.-- / .-- .. - .... / -.-- --- ..- .-. / --. --- -.. .-.-.-
    7 years 6 months ago #3 by MM2ss
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    • Just please do not go the Tolstoy route and write a "novel" that is both dry and over-long. Best of luck in your quest. Also, if you get a book published, let us know, as I am sure you would find some and perhaps many here that would get it.
    7 years 6 months ago #4 by Kettlekorn
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    • This is the guy who cooked up Teri. I don't think dryness is going to be an issue.

    Good luck, Domo.
    I am the kernel that pops in the night. I am the pain that keeps your dentist employed.
    7 years 6 months ago #5 by MM2ss
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    • That was intended say a friendly poke. I don't think anyone but Tolstoy could write something as long and dry as War and Peace. Yes, I bought it, I read the entire thing...it is perhaps the only time I can say I really did not enjoy reading just to be reading. I have read more interesting technical manuals. Seriously, I'd suggest mandatory reading of War and Peace as an interrogation method...
    7 years 6 months ago #6 by JG
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    • MM2ss wrote: That was intended say a friendly poke. I don't think anyone but Tolstoy could write something as long and dry as War and Peace. Yes, I bought it, I read the entire thing...it is perhaps the only time I can say I really did not enjoy reading just to be reading. I have read more interesting technical manuals. Seriously, I'd suggest mandatory reading of War and Peace as an interrogation method...


    It's how the Marine Corps breaks literate POWs captured in battle.
    7 years 6 months ago #7 by E M Pisek
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    • Don't leave, your bags not packed.
    What is - was. What was - is.
    7 years 6 months ago #8 by MM2ss
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    • JG wrote:

    MM2ss wrote: That was intended say a friendly poke. I don't think anyone but Tolstoy could write something as long and dry as War and Peace. Yes, I bought it, I read the entire thing...it is perhaps the only time I can say I really did not enjoy reading just to be reading. I have read more interesting technical manuals. Seriously, I'd suggest mandatory reading of War and Peace as an interrogation method...


    It's how the Marine Corps breaks literate POWs captured in battle.


    To break the illiterate ones they deny them crayons...
    7 years 6 months ago #9 by Anne
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    • War and peace is about the only book I've ever started and failed to finish. And considering that I've read the entire Bible, that is saying something!
    Adopt my story: here
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    7 years 6 months ago #10 by MM2ss
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    • I forced myself to finish...it was a matter of pride and a contest of wills... I emerged beaten, battered, bruised and victorious over the textual hordes commanded by letter-marshal Tolstoy Had the Russian winter set in I might not have survived, but unlike Napoleon I was able to finish my campaign in time..
    7 years 6 months ago #11 by Phoenix Spiritus
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    • Anne wrote: War and peace is about the only book I've ever started and failed to finish. And considering that I've read the entire Bible, that is saying something!


    Hmm, I've never tried reading War and Peace, but I'll admit to only getting through a book and a half of the Lord of the Rings books, and only five of the six "White Gold Wielder" books by Stephen R. Donaldson.
    7 years 6 months ago #12 by Anne
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    • I don't believe I could have finished it except if I'd been in solitary confinement and it had been the only reading material available with no writing material available! If he hadn't skipped so much between book one and two I think I would have made it. The story was turgid but readable, but the jump just left me unable to get into the second part.
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    7 years 6 months ago #13 by null0trooper
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    • You could always switch to lighter material, like fan fiction, instead! " Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin ", for example, is still ongoing.
    Forum-posted ideas are freely adoptable.

    WhatIF Stories: Buy the Book

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    7 years 6 months ago #14 by Anne
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    • I read Whateley for entertainment. If I get too ADHD I start proofing it...
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    7 years 6 months ago #15 by bergy
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    • Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

    Anne wrote: War and peace is about the only book I've ever started and failed to finish. And considering that I've read the entire Bible, that is saying something!


    Hmm, I've never tried reading War and Peace, but I'll admit to only getting through a book and a half of the Lord of the Rings books, and only five of the six "White Gold Wielder" books by Stephen R. Donaldson.


    Mr. Donaldson has since added 4 more books to that series. I still have 1.5 books to go (and I started reading book 9 three years ago).
    7 years 6 months ago #16 by Anne
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    • I read the first 6 then moved on. Also David Eddings, I read one of his trilogies and started the second and decided if I wanted to read the same story over and over I could read the new testament and find it more profitable.
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    7 years 6 months ago - 7 years 6 months ago #17 by Domoviye
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    • I make it a point to only finish a book I don't like if I'm absolutely desperate for reading material. And the only time that happened was when I was in China for the first year. That's how I read an abridged version of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I wanted to slaughter every character in the book for being so weak willed, vile and/or stupid.
    And don't worry I have a plan for a steady stream of projects to follow one after the other either as Kindle books or online versions ranging from comedic fantasy, horror, military sci-fi, low fantasy, super heroes, and tragic.
    It's going to be fun.
    Last Edit: 7 years 6 months ago by Domoviye.
    7 years 6 months ago #18 by Rose Bunny
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    • Does this mean we will get A good man part 3?
    High-Priestess of the Order of Spirit-Chan
    7 years 6 months ago #19 by Domoviye
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    • Yes. Next week is dedicated to taking the good sections I've written and connecting them together in a way that isn't torture porn.
    7 years 6 months ago #20 by Ametros
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    • Damnit Domoviye, you got me there.

    I hope this provides a good mental break for you, even if nothing else.
    Seriously, thank you for your time and effort. It is appreciated.
    7 years 6 months ago #21 by Bookworm
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    • MM2ss wrote: That was intended say a friendly poke. I don't think anyone but Tolstoy could write something as long and dry as War and Peace. Yes, I bought it, I read the entire thing...it is perhaps the only time I can say I really did not enjoy reading just to be reading. I have read more interesting technical manuals. Seriously, I'd suggest mandatory reading of War and Peace as an interrogation method...


    I'm a speed reader, and I found War and Peace to be abominable. In 1989, I was the first person to have checked out the book from the high school library - since 1968. I kept re-reading the "begats"... sorry, the first 80 pages, about three times, and gave up after that.

    Tolstoy, Chekhov, and all of their ilk, including fantasy writers like Marx, were all horrible writers. I was told by a Russian college student that they all _gained_ from translation. Apparently the Russian writing style simply was bombastic in the extreme. (Not a fan of Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, or any of the various other works, both literary and theatrical. I am SO grateful that in 7 years of theatre, I had to work _no_ Eastern european/Russian plays. Edward Albee and Samuel Beckett were quite bad enough, thank you. Edward Albee is a prick, BTW. I had to work with him for eight LONG weeks.)
    7 years 6 months ago #22 by Rose Bunny
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    • I tried to read Lolita, I made it about half-way... I'm not fond of flowery prosaic style.
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    7 years 6 months ago - 7 years 6 months ago #23 by MM2ss
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    Bookworm wrote: I'm a speed reader, and I found War and Peace to be abominable. In 1989, I was the first person to have checked out the book from the high school library - since 1968. I kept re-reading the "begats"... sorry, the first 80 pages, about three times, and gave up after that.

    Tolstoy, Chekhov, and all of their ilk, including fantasy writers like Marx, were all horrible writers. I was told by a Russian college student that they all _gained_ from translation. Apparently the Russian writing style simply was bombastic in the extreme. (Not a fan of Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, or any of the various other works, both literary and theatrical. I am SO grateful that in 7 years of theatre, I had to work _no_ Eastern european/Russian plays. Edward Albee and Samuel Beckett were quite bad enough, thank you. Edward Albee is a prick, BTW. I had to work with him for eight LONG weeks.)


    Wait, the translation made it better?! So that is what really happened to all those people that got sent to the gulag... The Russians do some of the best ballet in the world, but writing is clearly not their cultural strong suit. (But seriously, the Romeo and Juliet ballet, game on)
    Last Edit: 7 years 6 months ago by E. E. Nalley.
    7 years 6 months ago #24 by Kristin Darken
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    • Agreed. Albee is a prick.

    Not sure why you don't like Beckett though... I loved him... especially his steam of consciousness stuff. No punctuation. No capitalization. Nada. Just words with only as much structure as necessary to link some of them together.

    Anna Karenina... better than the recent Pulitzer play adaptation of it "Anna in the Tropics" ... which reads well, but is stupid impossible to stage without putting everyone asleep.
    Did a Gogol adaptation in college... "Dead Souls" that was fun.

    I think you misunderstand one of the fundamentals of Russian literature though. Russians write the way they live. Long, tedious winters that you only survive through copious amounts of sex with people you aren't married to (that no one ever finds out about) and vodka. The ratio of sex and vodka can vary some... but in absolute quantities, far above what the Western world believes is reasonable. Thus, every Russian protagonist has a lost love... is full of regrets that life is not as good as it should be... but takes no action to try to solve anything.
    Fate guard you and grant you a Light to brighten your Way.
    7 years 6 months ago #25 by Anne
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    • That is an interesting take on Russian 'literature.' It makes sense in a way. As I said I got through the first part of War and Peace, it was more than marginally readable as I recall, and I think if I had accepted the second part as essentially unrelated I think I could have gotten through it as well. I think the error I made was in trying to read it as even sequential books. Maybe it would have eventually made sense and come together, but I didn't give the second part that chance. I would rather read Don Juan Quixote. Or The Prince... And those are so old now that they are hard to understand because they deal with situations so different than any we ever have any familiarity with. Maybe War and Peace was 'foreign' enough that I couldn't identify with any of it either... Like I said, I ground through the bible, including the genealogy that you practically need to make a chart of to make heads or tails of so I don't think it was entirely lack of will power.
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    7 years 6 months ago - 7 years 6 months ago #26 by Katssun
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    • On Russian literature, I really enjoyed the World of Watches books by Sergey Lukyanenko, and am still waiting for an English translation on the last one. I've been told they're quite great to read in other languages as well.

    A bit fatalistic and often quite bleak at times, but by no means slow or boring.

    edit: Oops, it's been out for a year. I better buy it.
    Last Edit: 7 years 6 months ago by Katssun.
    7 years 6 months ago #27 by Nagrij
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    • Good luck Domo. B)
    www.patreon.com/Nagrij

    If you like my writing, please consider helping me out, and see the rest of the tales I spin on Patreon.
    7 years 6 months ago #28 by Bek D Corbin
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    • Good Luck, Domo! Get a Patreon account. It may not pay your bills, but it might fill in a few gaps in your cash flow.

    Seriously, the only reason I don't open a Patreon account are:
    A- I love writing, and when you get paid to do what you love, it becomes work, and you start avoiding it. Also, I'm certain that if I did, Enid would go on strike.
    B- I really dislike the 'begging' aspect
    C- I sincerely doubt that I'd get enough to make it worth the effort
    7 years 6 months ago #29 by slapshots
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    • hmm only book I've ever had to force myself to finish was tolken's similareon then again I've never tried war and peice
    7 years 6 months ago #30 by Dreamer
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    • Good luck, Domo. And as punishment for making us think you were leaving with that thread title, you must write a short story with your daughter and post it on the forum.:-p
    Thank You for story comments appreciated and help me know me they are being read and liked. :-) Note: My story comments can't nor are trying to replace reading the stories, simply my way of enjoying them and letting the authors know I enjoy them.
    7 years 6 months ago #31 by Domoviye
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    • I've already got a Patreon account, just need to start things up to use it. And I have some plans on how to make money. The three projects I mentioned are just for web serials. Short stories, novellas, etc, are going up on Kindle. With 5 hours a day to write, and two more to clean the house while my daughter is at school, then the evening for shopping and fun stuff, and a four or five hours at night for writing, I've got a schedule that should let me get everything done.

    Dreamer wrote: Good luck, Domo. And as punishment for making us think you were leaving with that thread title, you must write a short story with your daughter and post it on the forum.:-p


    Went shopping with my daughter after school, she came up with three superheroes and a villain. The situation writes itself.

    Me: Who is the bad guy?

    Daughter: The giant who says Fee Fi Fo Fum.

    Me: So he likes eating English people?

    Daughter: Yes.

    Me: And where does this happen?

    Daughter: America. Does America have English people?

    Me: Yes... Mostly.

    Daughter: OK, he wants to eat America.

    Fee Fi Fo Fum:     A size warper who can grow to fifty feet in height. Likes eating people.
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