The Not Happy Thread

Eh..eh.

 

@EstherMayRose I haven't actually done my job properly since august because I'm meant to be supervising a side desk, not running the main one at night. So it's more like I need my actual job than a new one.

And everyone, I think the thing that is dying here is his chances at owning a branch. Though I might use his likeness as a villain for my writing one day.

 

Series XII of Red Dwarf has so far been pretty shit. A shame really, as it was filmed back-to-back with series XI which was a slight return to form, so I was expecting more of the same.

 

Wrong thread.

 

I love writing, but absolutely despise English class. It's just so...boring. Grammar and boring books just don't resonate with me, I suppose.

 

I know the feeling, but it does pay the bills

 

Writing classes, like how to write books, are hit or miss. I took a YA writing class a couple years back, continuing education night class. I was hoping to learn something about writing for the YA market. It was too basic, a class for people still looking for ideas on what to write. The only advice the professor had about writing for the YA market was teens like dragons. There are no dragons in my novel.

So I had to decide, keep wasting one night a week or write my tuition off as a loss. The advice, don't spend good money after bad, comes to mind. I dropped the class.

It's analogous to writing advice books. I checked a dozen out from the library and sat down with them. A couple were extremely useful: Lisa Cron's Wired for Story, Leslie Edgerton's Hooked - Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go, Howard Mittelmark's How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them--A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide, Janet Burroway's style books are some examples. There were many that others rave about I didn't find useful: Stephen King's books, Orson Scott Card's books and others, for example. But those how-to books work for other people.

If you can drop the class, maybe you should. If you can't, do what I do, write during the class. It looks like you are taking notes.

 

This guy is my new hero.

 

My main problems with English classes were that it always felt just a little bit pretentious. Especially when the teachers seem to think they're interpretations are objectively right. Like, bitch, the only thing objective about this that it's objectively in the material you were given that you're relying on. There is no right interpretation because the author's interpretation is frequently denied or gone past and there's no other interpretation that carries any authority of objectivity.

 

I 'member this! An old favourite!

 

Kinda cute.

 

My experiences with the creative writing module for my GCSE are a very, very long rant in and of themselves.

 

Pre-research anxiety. :[ I just realized I have to do research about 1821 Paris, France before I begin my story and the anxiety is rising. I know some recommendations (ie, Dumas books like 'The Count of Monte Cristo') but the general anxiety is there. Telling me I don't have time, I won't ever have time. Or that I'm just fooling myself.

Logically, I know I need to do this; I'll tackle this like it's a research project for college (as I used to do), but..

I'm just overwhelmed with what I need to do. Help?! D:

 

This depends on who you talk to. There are schools of literary criticism (New Criticism) that believe there is an objectively true interpretation of a text. There are also schools that believe the meaning doesn't exist until a reader transacts with the text (Reader-Response Criticism).

It all really depends on how you look at it and which school of criticism you adhere to.

 

It's never really occurred to me before how much talking parrots freak me out.

It's a bird!! An animal!! How the fuck is it talking human????

 

We're under yet another typhoon warning. Typhoons don't really affect Osaka, but if we're still under a warning tomorrow morning, it's a day off with pay.

We won't be, the damn storm is running about fifteen hours fast.

 

I think I just got ruined by fanfiction. Why did I do this to myself? Never again!

 

What happened?

 

Has anyone here read the book - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield? I have been reading this and was struck by two sentences that had such a negative association with me that I put the book down and I don't know when I will read it again.

One of the characters (an author) was talking about politeness being a poor man's virtue and how "Being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else. People with ambition don't give a damn about what other people think about them"

This hit me hard because I feel as if it is describing me perfectly. I have always been too damn nice for my own good and have always put myself second after everyone else needs and wants and I feel so much regret for that. but that's a whole nother post for another day. and while it hurt to be so abruptly reminded of this in some ay it was good too because the book made me feel something. The book went beyond a story about created characters to something real and personal and for that reason, I am sure I will finish it someday because I want that experience to hit me over the head and expose whatever lies beneath and leaves the scares to prove it.

 

I have thought about this point quite often. Sadly, for me, being nice and making myself as likeable as possible has been a means of survival. From experience, when you know you're the odd one out, people look for reasons to discriminate, and I try to make it vary hard for them to do that by being a generally pleasant person. It doesn't always work out. It probably says something about me, and something about people, human behavior and whatnot. Perhaps another way to look at it, is that being an ass-hat is a luxury that only the powerful can afford. Or perhaps it is the sort of thing someone says to justify their actions. There are many ways to look at this. At the end of the day I figure that I am still trying to learn this balancing act.

However, there is a point there. I've been written-off and thought less of by people who had a lot of influence on my future and current situation. It makes me sad that they did, but I haven't stopped being passionate. I haven't stopped learning, or pursuing my goals. In that sense, their opinion hasn't mattered to me. It has stifled me, but it hasn't stopped me yet. I do have ambition, and I have progressed.

Biting your tongue and being nice sucks, but I tell myself it's for a greater cause. My friend who just had a baby was telling me about some of the sacrifices she's having to make. She is working more than she wants to and spending less time with baby, but she's doing so her and her family can have a more stable future. Anyways, I'm in a weird rambly mood.