What is currently on your mind?

[Michie]

That made me laugh, Michie. Lots of them hang out in churches...

There are those types in Church. Although I seem to run into more outside of it. They come and act interested in you and what’s going on with you and then they turn it all towards themselves. They seem to see it as an opportunity to constantly go monologues about themselves. Brag, etc. it’s gross. It just exhausts me. They are so busy with their agendas to plants their seeds about themselves it’s obvious they have little interest in anything else. You don’t want to be rude but honestly, I’m busy. And the majority is just exaggeration or simply not true. Ugh! I do not think secure people need to torture others in this fashion. Lol!

 

[Paidiske]

I do not think secure people need to torture others in this fashion.

Quite so.

 

[Rebecca Jo]

Don't know why I'm sweating it. It's not like anyone will actually buy these books.

A little late to the conversation, but maybe you'll feel like answering anyway... Why wouldn't anyone buy them? Yes, I'm a book reader and collector, so I might possibly be biased here, but I think if you're making book covers, let's think positively! And also assume there is a market for what you're making!

I enjoy Karen Kingsbury's family drama kind of books, but now that I attend Shabbat services online (since there's nothing local) I want to read about folks who attend Messianic synagogues/congregations. I'm thinking that might be my writing direction. I'm sure there's a market, even a small one at first. And maybe Messianic Jews would spread the word and others would try the books as well. God could do all sorts of things with a book series that is what I would enjoy!

 

[Paidiske]

I think all of us would like to see stories (whether that's novels or movies or tv shows or whatever) which we feel reflect our own lives. I often think how much I wish the closest thing most people know about what I do wasn't the Vicar of Dibley!

Good storytellers in any medium are a treasure in any community.

 

[Rebecca Jo]

They come and act interested in you and what’s going on with you and then they turn it all towards themselves. They seem to see it as an opportunity to constantly go monologues about themselves. Brag, etc. it’s gross. It just exhausts me. They are so busy with their agendas to plants their seeds about themselves it’s obvious they have little interest in anything else. You don’t want to be rude but honestly, I’m busy. And the majority is just exaggeration or simply not true. Ugh! I do not think secure people need to torture others in this fashion. Lol!

That so describes my ex. I don't know why I didn't see it back then, but he's full of himself. And yet insecure, so he needs to puff up his own story and personality to impress others.

I try to consider that when I find myself responding to people (in-person or online) with my own experiences. Bring it back to them so it doesn't become a monologue or a conversation where I'm constantly talking about me and not caring about them. Might as well learn from having lived with the torture!

 

[Michie]

That so describes my ex. I don't know why I didn't see it back then, but he's full of himself. And yet insecure, so he needs to puff up his own story and personality to impress others.

I try to consider that when I find myself responding to people (in-person or online) with my own experiences. Bring it back to them so it doesn't become a monologue or a conversation where I'm constantly talking about me and not caring about them. Might as well learn from having lived with the torture!

Ugh!! I can’t imagine a spouse being like that. It makes me absolutely claustrophobic and wanting to run screaming out of the room!

 

[Tuur]

A little late to the conversation, but maybe you'll feel like answering anyway... Why wouldn't anyone buy them? Yes, I'm a book reader and collector, so I might possibly be biased here, but I think if you're making book covers, let's think positively! And also assume there is a market for what you're making!

Thank you. This gets into several things, the big one that I'm not here to sell books, so there's only so much I can talk about it.

Spider Robinson said that a difference between a science fiction writer and a pizza is that a pizza can feed a family of four, and while this isn't science fiction, his observation still holds. Add to that that I'm not on Robinson's level and have a few books for sale that gives me some idea what to expect. I count my sales in how much soft drinks the royalties could buy, which gives you some idea as to the lack thereof. Basically if people wanted to read what I write, the books would sell. They don't.

The plan now is to put what I have already written out there, maybe try some different things with the existing manuscripts, but really thinking about just stopping writing. It's like an amateur golfer who one day realizes he'll never play on the pro level. It's just something that is.

As an example, started tinkering with a new book idea late last week, but a test reader for my latest manuscript wasn't impressed with that one, so may not continue. One of the "tricks" in writing any story is knowing where the starting point is, and this one has already jumped ahead four times. That, and not having a conclusion in mind, are bad signs.

 

[Tuur]

I think all of us would like to see stories (whether that's novels or movies or tv shows or whatever) which we feel reflect our own lives. I often think how much I wish the closest thing most people know about what I do wasn't the Vicar of Dibley!

Well? James Herriot wrote about his experiences as a veterinarian and in the military in WWII. Why not write about experiences as a minister? Confidentiality might be an issue, but experience could serve as inspiration for fictional accounts. If each chapter was a story, on the order of All Creatures Great and Small, you could shift tone and not have to worry about sticking to a single genre.

 

[Paidiske]

Well? James Herriot wrote about his experiences as a veterinarian and in the military in WWII. Why not write about experiences as a minister? Confidentiality might be an issue, but experience could serve as inspiration for fictional accounts. If each chapter was a story, on the order of All Creatures Great and Small, you could shift tone and not have to worry about sticking to a single genre.

One day I might write my memoirs. I think it will have to wait until most of the key people have died.

 

[angelsaroundme]

I think it's important to know the ending before writing a story. If you know the ending of a story, you can build up to it, maybe throw in misdirects along the way if you want it to be surprising. But if you haven't decided the ending, the story can spin out of control later on, with a bunch of loose threads that you don't know what to do with.

 

[Robban]

A line that often comes uninvited, "Dwell not on what has past, see, I make all things new."

 

[Paidiske]

I think it's important to know the ending before writing a story. If you know the ending of a story, you can build up to it, maybe throw in misdirects along the way if you want it to be surprising. But if you haven't decided the ending, the story can spin out of control later on, with a bunch of loose threads that you don't know what to do with.

Ahem. George R. R. Martin take note!

 

[timothyu]

I often think how much I wish the closest thing most people know about what I do wasn't the Vicar of Dibley!

No... no, no, no... yes.

 

[Tuur]

A distant landmark, trigonometry, and rigging a means of measuring bearing without a compass, Used simple trigonometry to calculate how large the object would be if it's what I think it is, then in estimating the bearing. Everything agrees that it should be the landmark I think it is, but it's miles away and I keep wondering if I'm mistaking something else for it.

 

[MehGuy]

Hoping to his stress ends soon.

Desperately need a month of peace.

 

[Tuur]

That things seem quiet here.

 

[Paidiske]

I did the winter sleepout with a bunch of schoolkids last night. I am not very awake today...

 

[MehGuy]

Thinking about a few members I interacted with here who vanished during the pandemic.

 

[Tuur]

1. Radians and milliradians and estimating angles, widths, and lengths by pretending we're dealing with arcs instead of triangles. Yes, converted radians to degrees. Sounds unwieldy, but gets around having trigonometric tables or a scientific calculator. Mils is just a simpler version that eliminates remembering a close enough value of Pi.

2. Stopping writing, though that's not really a subject for here. It's on my mind, though.

 

[MehGuy]

Hoping things get better soon.