From: nicky.matthews@btinternet.com   
      
   On Monday, August 18, 2014 12:04:34 AM UTC+1, J.Pascal wrote:   
   > On Sunday, August 17, 2014 4:26:16 PM UTC-6, Nicky wrote:   
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   > > On Sunday, August 17, 2014 11:08:26 PM UTC+1, J.Pascal wrote:   
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   > > > On Sunday, August 17, 2014 3:28:58 PM UTC-6, Nicky wrote:   
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   Well it impressed me. I've been really useless at getting on with writing for   
   the last couple of years. Mainly because I can't decide what I want to be when   
   I grow up!   
   I can see what you mean about getting to 80k  - I've a couple of stories that   
   ran out of steam at around 25k which is just annoying!   
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   > > > > I just met up with a lot of old friends who used to frequent this   
   space. It is some years since I was a regular but I am enormously grateful for   
   the many conversations here which gave me a language to discuss writing and   
   helped me to teach it at    
   a couple of UK unis.    
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   > > > >  So I wanted to ask what are people working on and where are they?   
   Published? Self published? Seeking representation or just writing for pleasure?   
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   > > > Hi Nicky,   
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   > > > I've gone back to university (for Geology and Technical Writing) so   
   there's not much story writing that happens during the school year.  I am   
   writing more than I used to, though.  I've got a couple of WIP, but what I'm   
   doing mostly is editing and    
   rewriting some of my older short stories and fixing them up with cover art and   
   typesetting it all with InDesign.  My goal with that is to use them as demo   
   booklets for copyediting and book design.   
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   > > > I do seem to have passed some sort of writing threshold. Before when I   
   looked at written stories they seemed sort of set in stone.  Now I look at   
   them and I can see why they aren't good and what they need to actually work.    
   At least I think so!     
   And I don't think it's just a matter of time passing for the older stories   
   because my new writing is the same.    
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   > > > I don't have anything ready to self-publish, but that's my goal at this   
   point.   
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   > > Is that because of the control, or because you are less interested in   
   submitting to mags/publishers/agents? I am impressed you can do anything at   
   all while studying. My brain isn't big enough to multi task and seems to be   
   getting smaller by the day!   
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   > > Nicky   
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   > Doing anything else while studying is only slightly less impossible than   
   doing anything with huge teenager drama. "Doing more than I was before" isn't   
   actually doing much.  And most of my writing as been during summer break.  :)   
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   > I think that I'm thinking mostly in terms of self-publishing because I'm   
   beginning to suspect that my longer stories are long novellas or short novels   
   and I'm beginning to suspect that a lot of my blockage is a feeling in the   
   back of my head that "this    
   isn't going to work" because I can "see" that the plot isn't going to map out   
   for 80K words. I have a strong aversion to working hard on something without   
   knowing it will "work" so that's part of it, too. This way I can work on a   
   story structure that isn'   
   t entirely standard and worry about the story instead of "what will sell."   
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   > Not that I'm getting much done with school, but it *feels* a whole lot   
   better.   
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   > -Julie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)