Boarders Writing A Novel: Volume 14 A Memory of Civility

[Spockydog]

3 hours ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

So I've got a question that may be a bit controversial depending on where you're from. Any of you guys ever write/worldbuild/create while smoking weed?

With the political climate surrounding THC becoming progressively more and more accepting to casual or recreational use, I know a lot of writers who feel like it gets the creative juices flowing. So anybody out there smoke? How does the experience affect you're writing or creative process?

Oh and fyi, I messaged X-Ray before posting this, she said it's cool to discuss as long as we don't post information on where/how to buy in illegal states and countries, etc.

Absolutely. Blue Cheese for brainstorming/outlining, and Charas for drafting.

I find it really helps get the juices flowing, but it's important not to get too blasted. Otherwise you risk your shit ending up as unreadable doggerel.

 

[Spockydog]

Just now, Let's Get Kraken said:

Let's please not start insulting other posters or drudging up old drama when we're already talking about a kind of controversial subject. Don't want this thread to meet the same fate as the last one.

Fair enough. Edited.

[Gabriele]

No weed, but I like me a good Single Malt or a glass of wine or two.  

[Starkess]

I don't have much experience with weed, but the couple times I tried it in high school I don't remember as super pleasant. Doubt it would do much for me by way of worldbuilding, but to each their own!

[The Marquis de Leech]

On 16/07/2016 at 2:44 AM, matt b said:

Worked for Bakker. I'm trying, and failing, to find the quote, but I believe there was an interview with him where he was asked advice for worldbuilding and his response was something along the lines of, "get yourself a big bag of really good weed."

So that's how we ended up with BDSM aliens and black semen.

I'd imagine it might work at the brainstorming stage, but I'd never try to write while high: too easy to get side-tracked. I find alcohol helps the first draft, since it helps suppress my inner editor, and just lets me write.

[The Marquis de Leech]

In a bit of good news, I've had another poem accepted for publication. This time by Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. The poem will feature in the November-January issue.

[First of My Name]

Congrats RBPL.

On ‎15‎-‎7‎-‎2016 at 2:29 PM, Let's Get Kraken said:

So I've got a question that may be a bit controversial depending on where you're from. Any of you guys ever write/worldbuild/create while smoking weed?

With the political climate surrounding THC becoming progressively more and more accepting to casual or recreational use, I know a lot of writers who feel like it gets the creative juices flowing. So anybody out there smoke? How does the experience affect you're writing or creative process?

I did have some ideas a few times while smoking, but they sounded like shit afterwards. I'd say (though I'm really no expert) that it does enhance creativity but that the things you think of aren't necessarily any good.
I'm kind of curious to try smoking and writing at the same time now.

[C.T. Phipps]

Cool, my third supervillainy book is out on audio.

http://www.audible.com/pd/Teens/The-Secrets-of-Supervillainy-Audiobook/B01INXZ1AY/ref=a_search_c4_1_4_srTtl?qid=1468964402&sr=1-4

[Callan S.]

On 7/20/2016 at 7:13 AM, First of My Name said:

Congrats RBPL.

I did have some ideas a few times while smoking, but they sounded like shit afterwards. I'd say (though I'm really no expert) that it does enhance creativity but that the things you think of aren't necessarily any good.
I'm kind of curious to try smoking and writing at the same time now.

Maybe it just reduces ones capacity to judge ones creative efforts - so the lacklustre suddenly becomes super awesome, only because of an incapacity to see how lacklustre it was.

[Callan S.]

On 6/14/2016 at 9:20 PM, writtenangel said:

Does anybody else have a problem with sticking to a scene/writing in order? I've been writing this short story that is now turning into a novella but the problem is I keep thinking of new interesting scenes to write other than the scene I'm currently writing. 

I had that problem with nanowrimo.

Try adding a mystery to the scene that even you don't know the answer to (and that doesn't necessarily gets resolved before the scene is complete - just let the scene decide what the answer is or whether its found at all)

[First of My Name]

9 hours ago, Callan S. said:

Maybe it just reduces ones capacity to judge ones creative efforts - so the lacklustre suddenly becomes super awesome, only because of an incapacity to see how lacklustre it was.

Possibly, yeah. I think the amount of ideas you'll think of that you wouldn't otherwise varies case-by-case, so it might kick your writer's block in the throat or it might do nothing at all for you. And odds are leanng towards the latter.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Hey fellow authors, maybe you can help me with a small writing issue.

So I like to write horror, and I have a couple of form rejection letters on hand for a short novel I am shopping around to agents. My theory is they aren't getting past the query. I have an idea of how to spice that up, but I have a small area where I am stumbling. It really comes down to the name/title of a bad character. I don't know what to call him in the query. I don't want to call him by his name because I feel like naming the type of "bad guy" I'm working with really takes away from his proposed goals. Other "titles" for him come off too fantasy-ish in my opinion. For example, if I were to call him the necromancer or something, that might be technically correct (he goes around raising dead things), but it seems more in line with fantasy, right?

Stephen King got it right with the "Man in Black" but a lot of horror writers have gotten away with that one since. I liked "the Tall Man" as a reference to the old Phantasm films, maybe. That adjective before "man" seems popular now, I suppose. Slenderman right?

Any ideas of how to title a bad guy like this--I don't want to call him the Dark One, or Mr. Evil or something. I guess I could. It might be funny. Mr. Evil Pants?

[briantw]

On 7/15/2016 at 8:29 AM, Let's Get Kraken said:

So I've got a question that may be a bit controversial depending on where you're from. Any of you guys ever write/worldbuild/create while smoking weed?

I've never done it with weed, but I've always felt I'm at my best when mildly intoxicated.  Like, not drunk, because then it starts to become hard to type and think properly, but a slight buzz does wonders for clearing your head and helping you keep a flow going.  I used to play a video game competitively back in college (Team Fortress 2), and I felt the same with that.  Two beers deep was when I was at my best.

Anyway, I think the best thing is whatever works for you.  If writing while high makes you write better, fucking do it.  If it makes you write like shit, don't.  For me personally I get too lazy and unfocused when I'm high so I couldn't see that working out.  I mostly just want to put on a funny movie and lounge on the couch, whereas with alcohol it gets my mind buzzing. 

[Leofric]

On 7/26/2016 at 9:56 AM, Simon Steele said:

Hey fellow authors, maybe you can help me with a small writing issue.

So I like to write horror, and I have a couple of form rejection letters on hand for a short novel I am shopping around to agents. My theory is they aren't getting past the query. I have an idea of how to spice that up, but I have a small area where I am stumbling. It really comes down to the name/title of a bad character. I don't know what to call him in the query. I don't want to call him by his name because I feel like naming the type of "bad guy" I'm working with really takes away from his proposed goals. Other "titles" for him come off too fantasy-ish in my opinion. For example, if I were to call him the necromancer or something, that might be technically correct (he goes around raising dead things), but it seems more in line with fantasy, right?

Stephen King got it right with the "Man in Black" but a lot of horror writers have gotten away with that one since. I liked "the Tall Man" as a reference to the old Phantasm films, maybe. That adjective before "man" seems popular now, I suppose. Slenderman right?

Any ideas of how to title a bad guy like this--I don't want to call him the Dark One, or Mr. Evil or something. I guess I could. It might be funny. Mr. Evil Pants?

Most of your examples, "Man in Black" "The Tall Man", "Slenderman",  are all based on distinguishing characteristics of the bad guy seen by victims or witnesses who don't know the bad guys name.    The TV show Person of Interest does this for John Reese, where cops and criminals just know him as the "Man in the Suit". 

So does your bad guy have a distinguishing feature that would stand out to a witness and be used to describe him to others.   Is he bald? Does he wear distinctive clothing? Walk with a limp? Have an accent? Carry an umbrella?  Smell of garlic?  Look like a famous person or a typical stereotype? 

So an innocent descriptor gets sinister overtones as it becomes tied with his necromancy.

 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

29 minutes ago, Leofric said:

Most of your examples, "Man in Black" "The Tall Man", "Slenderman",  are all based on distinguishing characteristics of the bad guy seen by victims or witnesses who don't know the bad guys name.    The TV show Person of Interest does this for John Reese, where cops and criminals just know him as the "Man in the Suit". 

So does your bad guy have a distinguishing feature that would stand out to a witness and be used to describe him to others.   Is he bald? Does he wear distinctive clothing? Walk with a limp? Have an accent? Carry an umbrella?  Smell of garlic?  Look like a famous person or a typical stereotype? 

So an innocent descriptor gets sinister overtones as it becomes tied with his necromancy.

 

 

Thank you, this is helpful--the adjective descriptor is helpful. I have the perfect idea now 

[C.T. Phipps]

I was really surprised a publisher was super-excited about a book of mine I'd long since given up on being too out there. I should have known I just needed the right fanbase.

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13912604_10205803250480055_4143507221083638008_n.jpg?oh=c20cd1edb492a207b4d71652c11281cd&oe=5817AFD8

[Jerol]

According to Professor Tripp, you can write stoned. Though I somehow doubt Chabon writes while under the influence. 

Hannah Green: Grady, you know how in class you're always telling us that writers make choices? 
Grady Tripp: Yeah. 
Hannah Green: And even though you're book is really beautiful, I mean, amazingly beautiful, it's... it's at times... it's... very detailed. You know, with the genealogies of everyone's horses, and the dental records, and so on. And... I could be wrong, but it sort of reads in places like you didn't make any choices. At all. And I was just wondering if it might not be different if... if when you wrote you weren't always... under the influence. 
Grady Tripp: Well... thank you for the thought, but shocking as it may sound, I am not the first writer to sip a little weed. Furthermore, it might surprise you to know that one book I wrote, as you say, "under the influence," just happened to win a little something called the Pen Award. Which, by the way, I accepted under the influence. 

[Myrddin]

On 8/1/2016 at 7:40 PM, Leofric said:

Most of your examples, "Man in Black" "The Tall Man", "Slenderman",  are all based on distinguishing characteristics of the bad guy seen by victims or witnesses who don't know the bad guys name.    The TV show Person of Interest does this for John Reese, where cops and criminals just know him as the "Man in the Suit". 

So does your bad guy have a distinguishing feature that would stand out to a witness and be used to describe him to others.   Is he bald? Does he wear distinctive clothing? Walk with a limp? Have an accent? Carry an umbrella?  Smell of garlic?  Look like a famous person or a typical stereotype? 

So an innocent descriptor gets sinister overtones as it becomes tied with his necromancy.

 

Excellent angle, Leofric.

I always liked the Cancer Man from X Files as a descriptor both physically (smoking) and as a character. 

[The Marquis de Leech]

On 02/08/2016 at 11:40 AM, Leofric said:

So an innocent descriptor gets sinister overtones as it becomes tied with his necromancy.

Why does the Necromancer always have to be the Bad Guy?

[Gabriele]

17 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

Why does the Necromancer always have to be the Bad Guy?

Mine isn't bad. She's a girl, too.