truepenny: artist's rendering of Sidneyia inexpectans (Default)
Sarah/Katherine ([personal profile] truepenny) wrote2009-05-29 04:16 pm

on Friday, the internet is full of things

[livejournal.com profile] 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.



Scientists are giving Rubik's Cubes to octopuses.



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



[livejournal.com profile] heresluck, this xkcd is so totally about you. <3



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

[identity profile] strangemuses.livejournal.com 2009-05-29 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Your link to [livejournal.com profile] 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

[identity profile] truepenny.livejournal.com 2009-05-29 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Argh! Thank you & hopefully fixed.

[identity profile] strangemuses.livejournal.com 2009-05-29 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, thank you! :)
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2009-05-29 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] strangemuses.livejournal.com 2009-05-29 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
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: (inappropriate neologism)

[personal profile] heresluck 2009-05-30 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
::beams at you::

(Seriously, SO overused.)

[identity profile] lenora-rose.livejournal.com 2009-05-30 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] truepenny.livejournal.com 2009-05-30 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
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.)

[identity profile] lenora-rose.livejournal.com 2009-05-30 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] cissa.livejournal.com 2009-05-31 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I bet octopi are better at Rubik's Cube than I ever was! Very cool link- thanks!