The Not Happy Thread

It's a bit depressing to see that this thread has twenty-plus more pages than its Happiness counterpart

 

thirdwind, I heard about that on NPR yesterday. What made it all the more poignant was hearing her voice in the interview. Now I can put a voice to her name, and I find that really jarring.

 

I watched an interview of her last night. She's a very mature and knowledgeable girl. I hope her blog gets translated soon so that more people can read it.

 

Perhaps. But have a look at how often people respond to the unhappy person with posts of support.

It doesn't necessarily mean gloom prevails over exultation.

 

A close friend of mine's mom just died. I went to the funeral and it was horribly depressing and very religious so I didn't understand most of it.

 

I was walking to school for an 8AM start today, and just as I was walking past the tram stop a young man got hit by a tram with a sickening 'thunk' right in front of my eyes. Ran straight over (as did about twenty other people) and saw him lying on the floor, eyes shut, arm twisted round at a horrific angle- looked like the worst break I've ever seen in my life. Couldn't tell if he was still breathing as everyone was panicking in French around me asking whether he was or not. Had to leave when someone medically-inclined stepped in to check on him and told everyone to get out the way- have since heard he's in hospital and that his condition's 'serious.' I know I've never met the guy before, but I'm terrified and physically sick with worry.

Still shaking.

 

^ God, that's horrid! I hope he makes it!

And in light of that, it makes my not happy seem like whining.

Spoiler

I re-booted my N64 MM for old time's sake, only to find out that both my files were completely gone. I clearly remember playing the game a month ago, and I clearly remember NOT deleting the files. Dammit...

 

That is understandable after such an experience. Hope you get over it soon.

 

I'm frustrated about the Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (Film)'s release date. I thought March 13, 2013 is the fixed date for the movie. And then they postponed it to August 2013. >,< Ugh. Additional months to wait for the movie.

 

I'm sorry you had to witness that, that is something that stays with you. A friend of mine witnesses something similar and she had post traumatic stress syndrome from it. If you feel like you keep on replaying it in your head and can't get past it, maybe talk to someone about it.

 

That would shake anyone up, Pludovick.

There is, of course, nothing you could have done to prevent it. And such things do happen, whether you are there to witness it or not.

My recommendation is to allow yourself to feel it all. Don't try to push it aside, or numb it with ethanol or other chemicals.

Write down what you feel as you absorb it. The good that can come from it is that you can incorporate this experience into your writing. If that sounds crass, consider whether it is worse to waste tragedy by never letting anyone else learn from it.

 

Got a phone call earlier today from my church with news that my friend's Aunt was taken in an ambulance thinking she was having a heart attack. I just saw them yesterday so this was a shock. Haven't heard anything more, but I hope everything turns out alright. My friend is probably worried sick.

 

Pludovick: That's a horrible thing to witness. ;/ Hope you're coping okay with and that the man is recovering. I agree with Cogito about letting it out via writing, and if that doesn't help, like Steph4136 suggested, maybe talk to someone.

JessWrite: Sorry about your friend's Aunt. Hopefully she's okay.

 

@Eunoia Thank you. We heard that she is staying over night in the hospital and getting tests done tomorrow.

 

Not sure how I'm supposed to feel when I confess my love to someone and she tells me that I:
1)am attractive
2)have a great personality
3)am trustworthy
4)cheer her up when she's sad
5)make her happy to be around me

But still tells me that she's just not attracted to me and she's completely shut off right now. I just don't know anymore. Someone pass me some Parrot Bay.

 

all out of Parrot Bay.... but here is some Everclear

sounds like she only wants a platonic relationship, either that or she is keeping you on stand by.... you ever seen that Chris Rock set about platonic friends...... "But she keeps the platonic friends...... why?....cuz ya never know..."
If she wanted you in that way she would, you apparently want her in that way... but you might conisder casting your line out in the water again... just my 2 cents



So... we just found out that the camper trailers they are making us stay in are the FEMA trailers that where used in hurricane katrina, they had to stop using all of them becasue of the high levels of formaldehyde in them.... some people died, some got sick.... they where resold only to be used as storage or parts, but my company saw a cheap price on housing and took it, on the side of the trailers it even says in big red letters "Not To Be Used For Housing"... when i 1st saw that i thought it was probably cuz the insulation in the camper was not up to code, so we all have been staying in them thinking nothing of it... now all this comes to light and all of us are pretty pissed off, especially when the top boss man said we can either stay in them or drive the two hour trip back to the yard and sleep at the bunk house, which i think is a saftey hazard for my guys as well, after working a 12 to 14 hour shift you gonna make my guys drive another two? especially my night guys they get off their shift at around 5 am, drive the two back to the yard and try to sleep in a bunk house with heavy machanery going on all around them.... im about fed up... but what can ya do

 

Possible attack by Turkey to Syria this week.

 

The Venting Thread

In the midst of feeling deflated about my WIP I thought maybe this thread would be a good idea - anyone and everyone can come here and moan. And everyone else should give some word of encouragement and help spur each other on.

So go on then, those who need to vent - come here and vent!

I'll start - I thought I was finally finishing up my novel when I discovered I have to write an entire new subplot for the whole damn stupid frigging RAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!! And now I can't make myself write (hence I'm starting this thread )

Please feel free to add your own struggles

Hugs to all.

 

Dear Mr McKK, Our prayers are with you so that you may keep writing. And we are sure that you'll experience success; and that another story may be written, by you, that replaces all kinds of torments that you have experienced, GODWILLING.
We wish you all the best.

 

Thought I could salvage a story I wrote ten years ago. I haven't looked at in years because I was totally frustrated when I stopped writing it. ( hence it has no ending )
I did a word count - it's over 300,000 words ( and not even a fantasy epic! ) it's just a psychological drama. To call it wordy would be the understatement of
the century! It's written in diary format, no paragraphs. I wrote it before I had spell check and the spelling is abominable.

Tried to start an edit but I'm thinking it might be easier just to rewrite. Trouble is some of the sentences are pure dynamite - but it's
like looking for a vein gold among the rubble.

Ouch Mckk! trying to weave in a new subplot after the story is done - that's hard, I did that once - definitely not easy. In the end it turned into
a complete rewrite. Who am I kidding most of my editing turns into complete rewrites. lol-groan!

Has anyone out there recovered a piece of fiction they wrote in the past?

 

I have tried once. When I took part in a writing workshop two years ago I didn't have a fresh finished story at hand to send them, because I hadn't written anything much for, like, eight years. So I picked an old one to work on. We were supposed to rewrite it in the course of the workshop, so I did, changed some details that the others pointed out, but it was far from a complete rewrite. And, of course, it wasn't much better than the original version.

Then after the workshop ended, I thought about it more and decided that some more basic things like the characters' relationship and motivation should be more fleshed out. I rewrote some parts and the ending, but still it didn't feel right. Then I came up with several more changes that finally asked for a complete rewrite. I started a new file for it - and that's basically where it all ended. I haven't touched it for a year. If I ever return to it, it will be a completely different story, but I'm not sure I ever will.

 

Ah, those early years, when words flowed like a river! My first novel was supposed to be the last segment of a historical (that I had not yet started because so much research still needed to be done), then grew into a family saga of its own. I wrote it long enough ago that it was in WordPerfect, which at the time only gave a word count when you hit a certain F-key. I never did until I had finished it. When I checked, it was 420,000 words. I eventually edited it down to 140,000, admitted it wasn't going to get published, and moved on. I still regard it with warmth and tenderness, and one day I will take another run at it, but it will be from scratch.

 

Holy Toledo - 420,000 down to 140,000! You've given me hope!

 

Gosh Ed - 420k to 140k!? Now that's an achievement both in terms of the writing and in terms of the editing! You must've been ruthless!

So Peachalulu - have you ever read that 300k story from start to finish? Yeah I tried to read one of my very old stories - it's hand-written, all done in pencil complete with my own manga-style illustrations as and when I felt like it. The idea was stolen directly from Roald Dahl's The Borrowers, involving little people. I called mine the "Jungle Healers" lol. I was only 10 at the time and have only lived in England for 2 years. The whole thing was done in English with not a word of Chinese, but still, the grammar was still rather poor. My two main characters were Roses (clearly I'd heard of the name Rose somewhere but hadn't realised) and Graisful (again, clearly I must've heard the word "graceful" in passing and promptly forgot, and on trying to make up my own name found the world to be very pretty, and then spelt it phonetically)

I'd love to resurrect it, but to be honest I has no story - it was just a child's ramblings. It was 96 pages long!

Another I'd love to resurrect is "The Legend of the Dragons" - it involves 4 orphans each linked with 4 different dragons, complete with a little gadget unique to each character. The MC had a silver dagger that communicated with him and he could control it with his mind. I can see the potential, but I've never gone for the plunge really.

Youssef - thank you for your kind words and prayers Hugs.

And on the note of the current struggle, I simply have to look at my MS and I freeze I don't know where to begin.

 

Sorry, Mckk, I think we've hijacked your thread a bit. I have no particular frustration at the moment (just the permanent ones), so I'll just say that I hope you'll find the will and inspiration to work on your subplot soon and maybe it'll become the best part of your story.