Search options (Page 23 of 32)

Jeez, a gazillion posts since the recommendation to preview "The Martian" and see how bad the writing is. Well, I did that this morning. And I didn't find anything outrageous or outre. It was a log, and I thought it read like a log would. No "showing" or dialogue applied. I don't get the sneering. But I only read a few pages. Does the author lose all sense of literacy further on? Just curious, since I didn't see anything, even if it were written by a TNBW author, to nit about.

Oops. Good one, Max! Got me!

Assume the upright position. Fold yourself into that chair. Kinda silly, I agree.

I'm reading a Lee Child book now. If all his "was" words were highlighted, the page would look like a sheet of polka dots! Okay, he's a bestseller, and I would never submit a MS to a publisher written in that fashion, but it serves as a counterpoint to all the supposed axiomatic rules of writing. Rebecca, I'm curious about your "come" bane. Can you give an example of how you tend to overuse that word?

Jeez, I just saw this post, Max. Too kind, my friend! Would that it were true!

Alvin York is a good example of a backwoods type who becomes a hero when thrust into war. Another would be Audie Murphy, born of a sharecropper family in Texas, who lied about his age to be accepted in the Army during WWII, and who received just about every award given to soldiers, including two Silver Stars and the Medal of Honor.

JP - If there were "rules," I'd follow them. But there aren't, and I challenge anyone to substantiate a rule for chapter length. In your competition, though, I see the need for a length sufficient to show your stuff.

Linda - You state that "nearly all" agents and publishers have accepted norms for chapter length, depending on genre. Do you have any evidence for this? Because my research reveals just the opposite - that chapter lengths depend on the story context and can vary widely. Now novel length is a different story. There are "norms" for those, depending on genre. The rule of thumb, though, is to shoot for 80 - 90K. Exceptions: Sagas (think Michener)  in this range are likely to be rejected out of hand, and thrillers way above this range will be given the boot, too.

Hey, Dags! Yeah, I combined a couple of Yogi-isms. I always got a kick out of his sayings, much of which made perfect sense knowing the context. For example: "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." That comes from a direction to his house in Montclair, N.J., where my parents lived for a few years. The road divides and reforms later, so it doesn't matter which road you take. "It gets late early there" refers to the shadows that descend on the field (I think left field) in Yankee Stadium as the sun sets. "Thank you all for making this necessary" was said on a Yogi Berra Night honoring him back in the day. "I never said all those things I said" was in response to an interviewer asking him about those sayings attributed to him. "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded." He was talking about a nightspot that became too popular and crowded foir him to want to go there. "You can't hit and think at the same time." As one who has stood in the batter's box facing a pitcher with a wild fastball, I can attest that's true! One of my favorites that absolutely makes no logical sense: The pizza guy asked him if he should cut the pizza into four or six slices. Yogi (supposedly) replied: "Better make it four. I don't think I could eat six."

I didn't know that Yogi was at D-Day in WWII. He came back from the war, a few of his youth years taken from him, to go on as a Yankee legend. And the fans were not kind in the beginning, calling him an ape, a misfit, and such. They learned quickly he was a force to be reckoned with. And now he's a beloved hero. I was interviewed a couple of moinths ago for a book promo, and one of the questions was who, if I could choose anybody now or in the past I'd like to have dinner with, who would it be, and I chose Yogi Berra.

Yogi was one of a kind. His records for the Yankees, his malapropisms that really weren't, his infectious personality - will live on.

Yay! You nailed it, Dags.

I hope this group is still active! Hey, I'm an absentee landlord, and not really a landlord at that. JP does a good job with her quizzes in her group, and they're fun. But I don't want to insert myself into this group, in which everybody can do his or her own thing. I can lend a hand with your story, Linda, if you need it.

1. Ma Barker
2. Clyde Barrow
3. Bonnie Parker
4. Pretty Boy Floyd
5. John Dillinger
6. Baby Face Nelson
7. Machine Gun Kelly
8. Wilhelm Loesser
9. Edna Murray
10. Willie Sutton