Hypocrisy: I'm standing in it
Dec. 23rd, 2008 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katiefooleryThere's the strangest feeling in the air these days and I know exactly how to describe it. Which is useful, really, otherwise I'd just be sitting here making strange gestures and saying Oh, you know, it's sort of like this with a bit of that and actually, it's a bit like the smell of freshly-baked scones if I think about it...
But no.
The feeling is exactly as though a coin has been tossed and I'm waiting for it to come down. As though something very spectacular is about to happen but I just don't know what. Meanwhile, I'm just watching... waiting for the coin to fall and for things to be set in place.
What things?
What place?
I have no idea. All I know is that it's a weirdly euphoric feeling.
Something that's not making me weirdly euphoric is this vague plan I have of doing something before Christmas. I can't say much more, since I'm going to be posting it here eventually - suffice to say, I'm both anticipating it and putting it off in one breath. That multi-tasking procrastination thing again.
And it has a lingering air of hypocrisy, due mostly to conversations I've been having with my writer lately.
Firstly, my writer will exclaim that it's impossible to finish this chapter. That they can't write fight scenes. That it's been too long since they last wrote and surely the standard of writing will have dropped due to lack of use.
To which I reply: Nonsense. Rubbish. Of course you can write fight scenes. Of course you can finish this chapter. Now shut up and get on with it.
I'm a very considerate, sensitive beta.
:D
And then my writer will pick up past passages and say they can't write like that any more and how the hell did they write something so incredible in the first place?
To which I reply: Less angsting, more writing.
Very considerate and sensitive.
:D
Yet, now I find myself in my writer's place... except I'm not being quite as positive to myself. When I say I can't write like that any more; when I say I can't find that voice again; when I say I'm doomed to failure... I agree. Cheerfully.
Yes, you are! Why not forget about it and have a nice cup of tea instead?
And that, my friends, is hypocrisy at work. Unfortunately, hypocrisy happens to share top spot with passive-aggressiveness on my list of My Most Hated Things (DIAF Pls). (This list also includes eggplant and people who think their brains are purely for plumping their skulls out.) But I digress.
I'm going to do my best to overcome this bout of hypocrisy and your good wishes would be most appreciated.
They'll be extra-appreciated if said good wishes come with good luck chocolates or snacks of some sort. :D
But no.
The feeling is exactly as though a coin has been tossed and I'm waiting for it to come down. As though something very spectacular is about to happen but I just don't know what. Meanwhile, I'm just watching... waiting for the coin to fall and for things to be set in place.
What things?
What place?
I have no idea. All I know is that it's a weirdly euphoric feeling.
Something that's not making me weirdly euphoric is this vague plan I have of doing something before Christmas. I can't say much more, since I'm going to be posting it here eventually - suffice to say, I'm both anticipating it and putting it off in one breath. That multi-tasking procrastination thing again.
And it has a lingering air of hypocrisy, due mostly to conversations I've been having with my writer lately.
Firstly, my writer will exclaim that it's impossible to finish this chapter. That they can't write fight scenes. That it's been too long since they last wrote and surely the standard of writing will have dropped due to lack of use.
To which I reply: Nonsense. Rubbish. Of course you can write fight scenes. Of course you can finish this chapter. Now shut up and get on with it.
I'm a very considerate, sensitive beta.
:D
And then my writer will pick up past passages and say they can't write like that any more and how the hell did they write something so incredible in the first place?
To which I reply: Less angsting, more writing.
Very considerate and sensitive.
:D
Yet, now I find myself in my writer's place... except I'm not being quite as positive to myself. When I say I can't write like that any more; when I say I can't find that voice again; when I say I'm doomed to failure... I agree. Cheerfully.
Yes, you are! Why not forget about it and have a nice cup of tea instead?
And that, my friends, is hypocrisy at work. Unfortunately, hypocrisy happens to share top spot with passive-aggressiveness on my list of My Most Hated Things (DIAF Pls). (This list also includes eggplant and people who think their brains are purely for plumping their skulls out.) But I digress.
I'm going to do my best to overcome this bout of hypocrisy and your good wishes would be most appreciated.
They'll be extra-appreciated if said good wishes come with good luck chocolates or snacks of some sort. :D
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2008-12-23 03:36 am (UTC)I am so very excited about the Possibility of What You're Not Telling Us.
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on 2008-12-23 03:45 am (UTC)Thank-you muchly - your excitement makes me feel more confident about this... thing I'm doing. :D
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on 2008-12-23 03:47 am (UTC)Good luck with The Thing! We wait with bated breath :).
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on 2008-12-23 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 04:33 am (UTC)As for your writer not able to write how she used to? Well, I think she needs to hash out her angst in her writing. Fights aren't always smooth and flowing like dances - spars are, but not fights. Fights have bumps, they have bone chipping skips, they have bleeding noses and broken arms. Calculation and posturing. Not pretty - tell her a fight scene doesn't have to be pretty. Tell her a fight scene is supposed to make the reader feel like it was their face that was drug over dust, grit and jagged rocks.
no subject
on 2008-12-23 05:34 am (UTC)*panic-flails*
I keep telling my writer: layers. Start with the basic layer, then build on that, then on that, then on that... until it's done. I like your advice, though - I think I'll definitely pass that on.
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on 2008-12-23 05:52 am (UTC)Sometimes that dazzles the eyes though. The observer loses the focal points.
Time for abstract art. She needs to splash black, red and yellow up on the canvas and smear it with her hands and pressure. Pat it in a couple of places she thinks bars of color might need interruption. Ugly, isn’t it? And yet it is still art.
Blue and purple come later - when the healing actually starts.
Layers are good advice. I can think of chapters I’ve written (on a beta’s advice!) that started as nothing but pure dialog. I am certain your writer will be able to do this and so much better than I.
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on 2008-12-23 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 04:41 am (UTC)*hands you mince pies and folds your laundry*
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on 2008-12-23 05:35 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 05:33 am (UTC)Can't wait for Christmas! Hopefully, I'll get my laptop and then I'll be sending you a chapter a week (hopefully!!!!!!)
Have a nice Christmas and don't worry about being a hypocrite (no one is perfect), you'll be fine. Everything will work out.
<3333
no subject
on 2008-12-23 05:41 am (UTC)So you still might be getting your laptop? That's fantastic!
ETA> I should add that I don't mind the comments at all - I totally get where my writer's coming from. Maybe I should have more sympathy but I want that latest chapter, dammit!
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on 2008-12-23 05:36 am (UTC)Would it be good if I said just write it?
Oh - and snacks! *passes the Rocky Road and the White Christmas, because it's in the house and I sure as hell ain't eating it! (No, really)*
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on 2008-12-23 05:44 am (UTC)And that would be good. It would be very helpful, in fact. So thank-you. And I will accept your Rocky Road but I'll pass on the White Christmas (so you can continue not to eat it). I never worked out how to love White Christmas, really.
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on 2008-12-23 06:05 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 06:46 am (UTC)My biggest issue is that it always seems to have orange peel in it (White Christmas, not my head, obviously...). I do not get orange peel.
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on 2008-12-23 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 09:34 am (UTC)I totally lack a sweet tooth whatsoever... Perhaps I'm adopted?!
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on 2008-12-23 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 10:55 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-24 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-24 01:32 pm (UTC)*joins*
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on 2008-12-23 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-24 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-23 01:58 pm (UTC)Yes, you are! Why not forget about it and have a nice cup of tea instead?[/i]
I laughed out loud when I read this because I DO IT TOO.
We are bad kids. We should lay off the tea and lay on the writing. Or....still have tea while we write.
Mmm tea.
*makes some*
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on 2008-12-24 05:55 am (UTC)It makes me feel all productive when I go off and make some tea! Unfortunately, it's the wrong sort of productivity.
Combining the tea and writing is definitely the way to go. Bonus points if we can get someone else to make the tea for us. :D
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on 2008-12-23 04:03 pm (UTC)Hypocrisy is a good thing as long as it's in short bouts and quickly remedied but production.
*sendshotcoco*
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on 2008-12-24 05:52 am (UTC)Mmmm, hot cocoa...
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on 2008-12-23 04:59 pm (UTC)get into that study and write me a novel bitch!
*bitchslaps*
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on 2008-12-24 05:51 am (UTC)Yes, ma'am.
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on 2008-12-23 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-24 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-24 07:44 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-24 12:40 am (UTC)Along with anti-cheating measures that disregard text added by use of Cntrl+C, etc, etc.
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on 2008-12-24 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-25 12:15 pm (UTC)GET BACK TO YOUR COMPUTER AND WRITE IT DOWN.
gheesh!
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on 2008-12-26 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
on 2008-12-30 12:34 am (UTC).... hmm, after all that, would it be too goofy to offer you a cheese ball and some crackers? ;)
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on 2008-12-30 04:41 am (UTC)And you're right - I have precious little time left in which to be lazy and to procrastinate and angst about things... I might as well enjoy it while I can!