Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

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Neversage

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I look at it like cars. Every Ford me or my family has ever owned was a hunk of junk. Every Dodge has had problems too. Every Chevy was fine. I have friends who tell the same story, but the names are switched around. Just find what works for you and do it. With material things, we can afford to be that dismissive.
 

Mr Flibble

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My PC is almost never out of action. In fours years it's had one fried HD ( cost £40, out of action two hours) and a dodgy fan ( twenty minutes, and a resolution to clean the dust out of the intakes every once in a while :D)

Whereas my brother's MAC breaks down at least once a month.
 

herdon

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Any computer will break down -- Mac, PC, or otherwise. Also, speaking as someone who's been in one side and out the other of the computer industry, computers break down more when in the hands of someone that doesn't quite know how to use one.

My personal favorite all time think it's the best ever computer: Alpha. We had an Alpha server back in 1999 that ran our database and that thing was the most solid, sweetest piece of hardware I ever had the pleasure to query. Of course, including the rackmount drives, the thing cost around $80k. But it was still pretty sweet ;)
 

Perle_Rare

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Hi Uncle Jim,

Off topic question. When changing POVs in a story does the different POV need to be in italics or would a lead in be better to let the reader know that a change in viewpoint is coming up?

Uncle Jim likely has a better answer but this is what I've been doing:

I keep the same POV throughout a scene. If I change the POV, I do so for a new scene and I start that scene with that POV person.

For example, scene 1 is from Martin's POV so the first line of that scene might be:

"The shadows were snaking along the ground when Martin stepped past the gate and entered the cemetery. Blah, blah, blah."

Now, a scene with Alison as POV character. I start the new scene talking about Alison:

"Alison ran home as if a vampire was chasing her. Blah, blah, blah."

No italics required and the reader knows immediately whose POV he's seeing the world from.
 

smsarber

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Also, just like different sections in a chapter, use the "numeric symbol" divider.
#
Then you start your new POV and the reader can know what's going on. That's not to say you couldn't use italics, or to say that I'm even right. It's just my opinion.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Hi Uncle Jim,

Off topic question. When changing POVs in a story does the different POV need to be in italics or would a lead in be better to let the reader know that a change in viewpoint is coming up?

Line break, and continue in the new POV.

Just make sure the readers aren't confused.
 

pictopedia

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Just an example of modern Marketing storytelling in action: Microsoft has a current spot out showing a young, insecure woman who pretends to be an independent thinker, trying to get a 17" laptop for under 1000 $. After not finding a Mac for that price, she buys a PC Laptop for 800$. End of spot. If you go online and check the specs of that model, you'll quickly find the 1000 $ worth of parts she thought she got but is actually missing. The funniest being the 17" monitor that only displays the amount of a 15 inch monitor (old hardware, lower resolution) There go about 400$ she thought she saved but actually overspent for nothing, just with that. You have to admire the cleverness of the character building and the storytelling in that and all the other spots that makes customers defend the Mac/PC cost myth with such conviction against all facts.

But even if you live with the low quality and direct your eye to the saved money for condolence, if you work as a freelancer and take 30$/hour, estimating standard PC maintenance, you'll use up the "saved" 1000$ in 32 hours or about 2h/week=4 months. So after only 4 months, you spent exactly as much as for a Mac, only that there is a computer on your desk with old technology that additionally already lost half of its market value.

So,based on hard facts, and the shared reality that 1+1 equals 2, Macs are, financially the overall better buy. That makes every "expensive Mac" story really deal with something of greater importance than money. A pattern, a theme. Some underlying emotional something. A strange occurrence of repeating bad luck. A proof of expensive Macs it is not. But maybe the beginning of an interesting story.
 

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Hi!

I'm slowly making my way through the six years of posts in this thread and, as a young amateur writer I'm finding this VERY helpful. Thanks so much for spending so much time on this! I'm really enjoying it.
 

pictopedia

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Interesting. All right Jim. I'll drop the uncle and go along with your story. Substracts a little illusion and adds a little illusion to my reality. 1-1=0. System back to neutral and rebooting. 3..2...1....
 

smsarber

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Never had to pay a dollar to upgrade, update, or repair my PC. As stated earlier, they replaced the motherboard in two days under warranty. I'm learning about computers on this computer. So lets see, $700 (the dollar sign goes in front), a year old, one problem which cost me no money= PC.
A computer I couldn't afford that I would have less-than-no-clue how to use= Mac.

1+1=2: PC is the way to go for most discerning people.

But Pic, you stick with what works for you. Just be prepared- from what I've read, when something DOES go wrong it's gonna be a hassle.

#

Now for something related to writing novels:

How does everybody break the bonds of writer's block? I usually write something out of my usual comfort zone. I want to see what some other methods are.
 

Neversage

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To work around blocks (I'm still of my own opinions on those in general) I skip ahead to later int he book, or the sequel, and write a scene I'm looking forward to. I may never use it, and will certainly change it, but it helps me get back into the fun of telling the story.
 

smsarber

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To work around blocks (I'm still of my own opinions on those in general) I skip ahead to later int he book, or the sequel, and write a scene I'm looking forward to. I may never use it, and will certainly change it, but it helps me get back into the fun of telling the story.
Now that's interesting... I never thought of going to "sequel-status," I have gone to later in the book, however. It does help.
 

Neversage

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Uncle Jim, I love that. I recently had my protag engage in a steamy makeout session, with a supporting character, in the middle of the road; to shake my thoughts up. Only then did I realize that he has a thing for her. Now the plot is far more interesting.
 

Mr Flibble

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Naked woman, check. Actually, make it a naked man. With baby oil. That should get my writing going again!

But even if you live with the low quality and direct your eye to the saved money for condolence, if you work as a freelancer and take 30$/hour, estimating standard PC maintenance, you'll use up the "saved" 1000$ in 32 hours or about 2h/week=4 months. So after only 4 months, you spent exactly as much as for a Mac, only that there is a computer on your desk with old technology that additionally already lost half of its market value.

Huh? Spending almost nil on maintenance / repairs, and I use my PC at least six hours a day ( OK, £40 for new HD and £15 pa for virus checker) makes it more expensive than the Mac that was several hundred pounds more expensive to buy? Within four months? Try within four years, if ever ( not including maintenance / repair expenditures for MACs when they break down)

Sorry, does not compute.
 
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DamaNegra

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Yeah, the old PC vs. Mac debate is getting old. PC rock, Macs suck, it's a fact (because I say so and that makes it a fact ;)) so there. Mac fans: Don't kill me!

Back to your regularly scheduled writing thread...
 

pictopedia

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I'd like to ask everyone about something that's been bugging me some time about point of view: 1st person versus 3rd person. When you think about the books you like: is there one you prefer?

I find it harder as a reader to feel for or identify with the main character at the beginning of a book when a book starts with "One day I did..." in contrast to "One day he/she did...." With 1st person I sometimes feel like the Siamese twin to the mc, stuck inside his head and way too close for comfort at a time where I don't care or the mc just jet.

Do you feel that way too? Or do you think that 1rst and 3d make no difference? I'm asking because I am shortly before my first rewrite and am torn between making it 1st or 3rd. Can see good point for either one, but as a new writer, I want to take the safest road and not kick myself out of the game with unlucky style choices.
 

herdon

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While we are on the subject, most people overpay for the hardware they use whether it is PC or Mac. Many people don't need more than a netbook, and that will be all the more true in the next few years as cloud computing takes off.

Unless you want to (1) play games or (2) have a very specific need that requires the power (high end graphics, SQL server, etc.), you won't need a PC or a Mac. Just a $200 netbook with Linux.

As for what has the better quality, it's quite silly to even compare PC vs Mac. The PC is an open platform. You can have extremely high quality or extremely low quality. A Mac is a closed platform. You don't have much choice in the matter. So the real answer is that a PC is both lower quality and higher quality than a Mac. ;)
 

smsarber

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There are reasons and places for both, but I wouldn't focus on "taking the safest road." In my opinion, neither is necessarily safer than the other anyway. But you have to go with what serves the story best. I find crime dramas to be best suited in first person, with third-person veiwpoints from secondary characters. Horror I personally like best in third person. YA in third. In many ways I find first person harder to write, and that may be why my first WIP is giving me stomach ulcers. It's going to get whipped into shape, though. My other WIP is horror, and in more of a comfort zone because of the genre, and it is in third person. Even when I'm stuck I just find it easier to get something out to advance it.

Just my humble opinion, and I've only been writing for about three years, give or take a few months.
 

pictopedia

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Sorry, said that wrong. It's not about the fear of having to travel the road, it's about getting reeelay far on it and realising I should've taken another exit. "God, no I could be miles from here already. I could be almost there. Now I have to go BACK". That kind of feeling.

It's not fear. It's impatience. Although... impatience is a fear of loosing time...hm....
 
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