Planetfurry BBS

[TGIF007]

Pet skunks are omnivores with a preference for veggies and fruit. In real life they are quite happy with carrots.

Then again, it could be like Kell in Kevin & Kell, who acquired a taste for carrots after marrying Kevin.

Loved how you finished off the chapter with Cindy sleeping in Clarence's bed, smelling his scent and hoping the leave her's behind.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

TGIF

[Teric]

Yeah, I 2nd that--Clarence has shown pretty clearly that he doesn't like carrots. Really nice gesture to leave some for Cindy.

Nice to have another look into Clare's past--how the heck did Jake drag him to a sorority party in the first place? That must've been quite the effort. And then, seeing that rejection--gosh that hit home. I've been there myself. Poor guy, so scared of getting rejected, finally works up the courage, and then this heartless vixen just looks him over and shuts him down.

I dunno about you guys, but I came to resent the 'popular, pretty' girls after a while when I was a teen. They were either deliberately malicious or simply apathetic. Shallow, shallow, shallow.

[mwalimu]

Hmm, truth be told, I had overlooked that Clarence had such a dislike for carrots. But it really doesn't matter - he would have had them there for Cindy anyhow.

As a single guy I got turned down for dances on numerous occasions. Some were friendlier about it than others; I don't recall any personally who were as cold about it as the girl in the scene, but I've heard of it happening to other guys. Part of Clarence's problem (and my own, back in those days) was that he wasn't the smartest about choosing which girls to ask.

[Zuesek]

Just read the latest chapter and loved it. Looking forward to more.

Thanks for the hard work mwalimu, it's a great story.

[mwalimu]

You're welcome, and thank you for reading. My goal is to have the next chapter posted before MFM.

[AmigaDragon]

Did I miss a chapter in the last couple weeks?

[mwalimu]

No, at least nothing since the chapter I posted in April.

[mwalimu]

Chapter 9 has been posted to my website - see link in my sig below. It should go up on the bookshelf this weekend.

[anthony]

I really should stop visiting the PF forums before I go to work...
(Luckily, I have flexible working hours... )

Did my eyes deceive me, or did Clarence actually try to volunteer to help with the photoshoot?

Good poem.

[Frazikar]

Yea, have had that happen before, though usually i just note what's been added and leave it for later when I do have the time...

Nice poem though...

[anthony]

Leave it for later?

B... but... It has Clarence and Wanda! in it.

Next you'll tell us that you don't start checking the Sabrin Online pages early in the afternoon the day before the next set is due...

Or the Raccoon's Bookshelf while eating breakfast on saturday...

Slackers...

[mwalimu]

[Frazikar]

Weelllll, being an ex-serviceman, I still get up at 6-7 AM, so have time to do a scan of various sites and boards. If there's a time crunch (AM appointments), I will know where to go that evening (or the next point time is available for reading)...

While it may be 'better' to read it 'hot off the presses', sometimes, one just has to savor the moment with a little anticipation...

[mwalimu]

As some of you might have guessed, I've been struggling with how to get On Location back on track so I can continue and eventually finish it, and have made a couple of attempts to gain some kind of renewed momentum on the story. There are a few different issues here.

One of the recurring themes in a number of other discussion threads in the Raccoon's Bookshelf forums has been writers who lose interest because they receive little or no feedback from their readers. That's been a factor for me too. There are other story ideas running around in my head, but I feel like I need to finish this story first and get it off my plate before I'll feel mentally freed up to pursue them.

A recent chapter included a poem, and there were a couple of reader suggestions on how that could be used in foregoing chapters. I have some ideas there but a couple of the pieces needed to make it work just won't seem to fit into place naturally. That's what I seem to be stuck on the most lately. Perhaps I should just abandon it altogether and go back to developing the plot threads I had already worked out.

Thus far I've mostly followed a "1 chapter = 1 day" format, which sometimes puts me in the position of needing to work up more material to make decent-sized chapters. That in turn is at odds with the writerly wisdom of making every scene advance the plot and cutting what isn't necessary. So it becomes a question of whether to keep doing as I'm doing, stick to the chapter a day format but don't worry about length, or abandon it and break the chapters at what seem like reasonable lengths and story breakpoints.

I've also debated about whether to continue or abandon the "morning chats", the scenes where Clarence visits with one or more other characters over breakfast. They are to a degree slice-of-lifeish filler scenes, but I think at least some of them serve the purpose of letting the readers get better acquainted with some of the supporting characters. I think I'll keep those for the time being for that reason, especially if I can tie other plot threads, but I won't worry about doing one for every day of the week.

There are other life issues for me that have me analyzing how much I was able to write in how much time in the past, especially since there were times in the past when I was able to put out quite a bit more material in less time despite being still married and having to share one computer with the rest of the family, not to mention spending time and doing things with them. I won't go into all of that here. I was very much into music from adolescence until sometime after I married, when it fell by the wayside. I've just rediscovered it in the last few years and that's one interest I don't want to let slip away again. There are other things I find myself spending time on and some of them I find myself asking, is this a good use of my time? Is any of this going to matter years from now. I've given up several online games for that reason, and have others I still play but keep telling myself I should let go of.

And the bottom line of all this is that it shouldn't be that difficult for me to get back to writing at a level where I'm putting out at least 100k words per year, doing it because I love weaving the stories, polishing them up, getting them out for others to enjoy. But first it seems like I have to get over this challenge of finishing On Location. I don't dislike working on it. I look forward to sharing the rest of what I have planned, and I really want it to end up finished rather than abandoned. But it feels like a mired, tangled mess that I'm having trouble getting untangled and moving ahead with.

To all who read this entire post, thank you for bearing with me.

[Nicolai Borovskaya]

Perhaps I haven't posted as regularly as I should on this story, mwalimu, but I have read and enjoyed it. Very much. I would hate to see it dropped for lack of feedback.

The poem was wonderfully done. Kudos!

As for writing yourself into a corner, I understand that one quite well.

One possibility for getting out of that (and it's worked for me) is to skip ahead in time to where you do have a handle on everything, write a chapter or two, and then see if you can work backward, back to the sticky point.

Personally, I try to keep my chapters in the range of 15-20 pages, although a number of professional authors have commented that the ideal length is 10 pages. I try to write a minimum of about 12 pages, then let the story tell me where the chapter break is after that. Your method of 'one chapter - one day' is also quite usable, and in that case I'd let the chapters be whatever length they are, according to the action that happens that day, be it three pages or thirty.