Monthly Archive for March, 2007

Has the Grim or Happy Reaper got a computer? Death, online fiction, short stories and authors

Published
by
hopcott
on March 29, 2007
in Writing and writing longevity
. 0 Comments
When the Grim Reaper cometh, what chance of writing immortality?

When the Grim Reaper cometh, what chance of writing immortality?

I was reading about the point or pointlessness of writing online and a thought crossed my over-fertile imagination about writing longevity.

When the Grim (or Happy?) Reaper takes us online authors off over the hill into the unknown, I wonder how long our online short stories, online novels, online novellas and blog ramblings will last?

Maybe quite a long time. Just possibly, given a bit of intelligent will writing to ensure the ongoing payment of domain and web space charges, it is quite feasible that just a tiny bit of writing immortality could be achieved.

Bearing in mind that gravestones can be dug up to provide space for new builds of the future so very easily.

In comparison, the Internet is vast and, quite possibly, timeless. The expense of keeping an author’s stories online is not much and there is even the possibility that our short stories, online novels and novellas might be passed from hand to hand virally in pdf files and the like. Perhaps our stories really could be read for ever.

Speaking for myself, I quite like reading my old online short stories, online novels and novellas sometimes. After all, I suppose they are exactly the stories I like.

Here’s another thought. When my time comes to leave this temporal Earth, I wonder if the Grim Reaper will let me use his computer to go online and carry out the occasional edit?

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - free online author - feeling kinda old - Hopcott News)

P.S. Hey, Mr Grim Reaper Sir … I’m not ready yet :-) :-) :-)

Honest!

Aaaaaaaaarghhh …

Writing, rewriting and getting it right needs careful time management for bloggers and authors

Published
by
hopcott
on March 28, 2007
in Writing and writing time management
. 0 Comments
Moorland views in failing light

Moorland views in failing light

I was browsing through Technorati ‘online novel’ listings and came across the writings of Rowan Dai who was talking about the amount of time it takes to get blog posts perfect and the consequent impact on time available for novel writing.

For me, getting something I’ve written right is just far too compulsive. I first have to read it aloud to make sure it scans well. Then I shorten the sentences, move the paragraphs around, and, before I know where I am, half a day has gone. Then I realize with horror that all this effort has been put into writing a comment on somebody elses blog which may never even get past moderation and, even if it does, who reads comments anyway? Aaaaargh!

So the thinking behind the the article by Rowan Dai relating to author’s writing time management couldn’t be more relevant to me.

But I would hate not to visit other writers sites. Writing is a very lonely and solitary occupation and even us creative types need some cross fertilisation to get the creative juices flowing. Ideas bounce off ideas and, before I know where I am, there is a new idea for a novel - OK well at least an article for me to put on my site.

Hope you like it :-)

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author and expert writing procrastinator)

News from Rob Hopcott about articles and fiction

Sensational story first lines from short stories, novels and novellas

Published
by
hopcott
on March 23, 2007
in Writing, short story first lines and writing online
. 0 Comments
Challacombe ford

Challacombe ford

I was glad to see Novas comments in distraction no. 99 about story opening lines. A few months back, I tried to start a discussion on a writing forum about best first lines people thought they had written but nobody seemed interested.

I suppose putting a mountain of difficulty right at the beginning of a story practically encourages writer’s block, even before getting started, for some writers.

I’ve had this first line going around in my head a while now:

‘1967 I started my short story … It’s almost finished.’

Problem is, I’ve got no story to go with it … :-)

However, I am quite proud of a lot of first line I’ve written. Here are a few…

From Holiday to Murder:

‘Slain woman with rose tattoo naked in holiday home rural retreat murder’

the headline screamed.

From Kingfisher Blue:

She walked into Smokey’s Bar like the breeze that sometimes caresses your face on a gray day. Her fair, nearly blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail with two wisps hanging down by each eye. The bustle of the bar absorbed her into its midst and I lost track of her until she surfaced by the gamblers.

From Blooding of Amelia-Rose:

Amelia-Rose struggled to hang the wedding dress on the line. The water-soaked material was heavy and she felt the sadness in her heart well up as she gently pegged it up to dry naturally in the balmy air. Memories were revived with each peg - good memories at first but then many bad ones. Soon they began to overwhelm her so she tried to make the thoughts go away by imagining them hanging up and being refreshed by the healing morning breeze.

From Unwelcome Paradise:

Rod deposited the offending jeans and three socks on the floor of his bedroom where they belonged, found the stolen computer’s power button and switched it on.

From Burglars:

Alice sat neatly down at the kitchen table of her 3 bedroom semi-detached in the suburbs of London. The burglar slouched at the other end of the vinyl kitchen table.

How did she know he slouched, she wondered. After all, the grey packing tape that blindfolded her excluded even the slightest chink of light. But she did.

From The Farmer’s Story: Cool Waters:

Cool waters glisten enticingly under a diamond blue sky.

My time on this earth in this moment seems to hang balanced between the ebb and flow of the tide that rocks against our tiny beach … and the scream of the herring gull.

Shudder … It fair makes my spine tingle reading them!

However, I’d better call an end to this post as I guess it’s becoming a bit self congratulatory :-)

Anybody else got any good story first liners?

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author and lover of great first lines)

Writing and critics

Published
by
hopcott
on March 23, 2007
in Writing, short stories, writing critiques and writing online
. 0 Comments

I was just over at Killer Year, which is a murder mystery site, reading the article ‘Bruised Egos’, which is about the impact of critics on a writer.

The Killer Year article made me remember an email I received from a reader of a short story I’d put on one of my free online short story sites which I was quite proud of.

The article dealt with the question of who was the ultimate arbiter of quality and how different were people’s opinions of the same short story.

For me, at the end of the day, it’s the feeling of “Oh my God, did I write that … yes!” when I go back and read my stories after the passage of some time, that tells me I’ve done a good job.

Some stuff I read the other day, that I’d written a long time ago, almost moved me to tears … (on the other hand, maybe the story is just a mental fit because I wrote it).

My worst experience by a critic was a reader who emailed me and accused me of plagiarising Agatha Christie. I wrote back saying I’d never actually knowingly read her stuff because I’ve never really been able to get into it. On the other hand, I admitted her stories had been on television lots and maybe I’d picked up a story line without being aware. I ended up by saying how hurting I found her comments, when all I was trying to do was put free original short stories online for other people’s pleasure.

She wrote me back saying maybe she’d been over harsh and said to call it quits but that was years ago and the memory still stays with me.

Maybe there’s a good murder mystery based around killing a critic … But then Agatha Christie has probably done it already :-)

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author … and oh so sensitive )