on Friday, the internet is full of things

[truepenny]

arcaedia on the first five pages. What she says is why, when I do novel-writing workshops, the first five pages--or fewer, even--are what we focus on.

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Scientists are giving Rubik's Cubes to octopuses.

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Ta-Nehisi Coates on "The Importance of Being Politically Correct."

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heresluck, this xkcd is so totally about you. <3

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Do Your Own Adventure w/ Sue Teller. Give her a chance to get going before you make up your mind.

Comments

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

Your link to arcaedia's post appears to be broken. I got this lovely 404 message:
This page is not here
like plum blossoms in the wind
existence is fake

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Argh! Thank you & hopefully fixed.

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you! :)

[larryhammer]

It's one of the rotating 404 messages. I just got "Oh noes! The page you're trying to reach could not be found. Maybe it doesn't exist. Maybe you typed it in wrong. Or maybe we just messed up."

---L.

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

The LJs do have entertaining 404 messages. My all-time favorite 404 message (found on a different site) said, "Like this elusive creature, perhaps the page does not exist." It had a hyperlink to a picture of the Lock Ness monster. hahaha!

[heresluck]

::beams at you::

(Seriously, SO overused.)

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

I only have one problem with the idea of focusing on the first few pages; they invariably end up with the most critique and rewrite both, because everyone knows the beginning is so important.

And my weak spot seems to be the last chapters.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it's almost impossible to deal with that issue in a one-off workshop.

(Not saying you're wrong. Just, there are things workshops can address and things they can't.)

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

Oh, very true: Those times I've had to crit a workshop piece that was made up of excerpts from the middle, my *first* complaint was the inability to really see the arc, and therefore the inability to judge the merits of the story as a whole. (I did it myself once, and discovered from the other side how useless it was, too. I blame the fact that I was 19.) I can't imagine handing in an ending usefully to a workshop.

I just find that it's so easy to get crits for the opening, and to keep rewriting them until they're dead on the page, scoured into nothing instead of polished.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

I bet octopi are better at Rubik's Cube than I ever was! Very cool link- thanks!