Everybody, especially those new to this blog, I strongly recommend finding time here and there to go back and read all the non-InMon posts, to benefit from the advice and to get a better understanding of what our purpose is here. There are rules and there are suggestions. Advice does not have to be taken (but usually should be), and rules should never be broken until you know and fully understand them. Without understanding the rules breaking them is just bad writing. Once you know the reason behind the rules, break them when appropriate, and never let suggestions write your stuff for you. If you take all advice completely literal, you will lose your style and your voice. Write what you write, but be smart about it, and make it the best possible.
Read the whole blog, it does a body (of work) good.
since i assume i am the one you are addressing this to, where do i find those rules. i can draw no other conclusion, due to some rather “odd” coincidences, namely that i recently wrote a prompt response that resulted in a “concerned” message about the darkness of it and was advised to try to write a little lighter. and then when i write “a little lighter” and post a request for the person who had commented i needed to “write a little lighter” to take a look at said new piece of writing, this little message suddenly appears on my screen bearing the mark of the one who had given me that advice…and also to whom i had made the request for the opinion read.
so, as i said, i can only assume i am the intended recipient of this message, which, if that is true, is rather odd…
given the fact i provided that party with a way to contact me directly.
if my assumptions and conclusions are misguided and invalid, then i pray the person who formed this little “tip” forgive me, but trust is not something that comes easily to me, especially when i think someone doesn’t even have the courage to tell me something directly.
signed
“a not trying to make waves, just very edgy” marantha
and if i have broken any rules, i need to know where to find said rules so that the matter does not rise again.
So sorry for the confusion! Look again, Marantha. TragicPete posted this, not me. It is totally unrelated to our previous conversations. I haven’t read the link you gave me yet, but I will, I promise!
Thank you, Stephanie, for clarifying that. When this message popped up on my screen not ten minutes after I posted the second story, I fear that it hit rather close to home.
And speaking of the one on which you left that concerned comment, you can be no more concerned than myself, take my word for it, for it is seldom that my darker side takes hold as it has when I have responded to those writing prompts. I normally have better control than that.
As a matter of fact, my councilor from the psych clinic I go to was here the same day you left that comment. I have been allowing her to read my responses to those prompts precisely BECAUSE of that thread of darkness that seems to be a recurring theme in nearly every single one of them.
I told her of my growing concern that that darkness seems to be cropping up more and more, and most of it involves harming men or a man harming a woman, such as the one I wrote last night. And in each case where a man cheated on, abused, or harmed a woman, their destruction was not pleasant, to put it mildly.
I normally keep ALL of my emotions under tight control, even the good ones, for you cannot open a tap and get only one single drop of water, and emotions are the same…ANY emotion, good or bad, must be closely monitored, for the chances of a chance event trigger a negative one that might be lying just below the surface while extremely happy or excited could act as a catalyst…and I would not have any warning in time to institute the coping skills that I have developed to monitor and maintain control over the symptoms.
But there is one positive effect to the darkness that has seemed to creep into those prompt responses, and it is something I also told my councilor about…
Each time I write those stories, it is like a small bit of the things that I have shoved down over the years escapes and takes up residency in those stories, and in its leaving I am left with a feeling of something having finally started healing.
My councilor suggested that the stories my be acting in a cathartic way, setting free the things that I have bottled up for so long in a way that will not harm others…or myself.
Just as I am not a perfect artist or writer, I am also not a perfect person…but I am trying to do the best I can.
Once again, thank you for the honest and genuine caring in your message of concern. You truly are a very special person, as are Patti, Jinx, and several others. You have all shown me more support in my short time on this site than my own blood does.
Wishing you all of heaven’s many blessings,
Marantha
I can see how it would be carthatic – so I encourage you to go a step further when you write the dark stuff, and find a way to save the good character. Use your writing to guide her to victory and healing. You’ve done it before. : )
I think that’s the main thing that bothered me about your last piece – no happy ending!
Anyway, sorry again for the confusion! That was a fluke of bad timing when Pete posted.
This is like when the boss lectures all 12 of us for being on time, and it turns out I’m the only one who is late. The boss should lecture me and leave the others out of it.
I’m afraid I’m deserving of the reprobation. I break almost all of the rules.
In my defense, the InMon posts say there are no rules for those of us who wish to not have rules. I had been counting on that. I really enjoy the prompts, but I’m sure my posts break all of the rules. However, I don’t want to write like Tolstoy even if I were talented enough to write like Tolstoy because Tolstoy already wrote like Tolstoy.
Marantha,
Given that you’ve admitted to having a hard time in the trust department, I commend you for such a long and personal comment. My idea to post “This means you” came to me last week and is a message for all who subscribe here and is meant only as constructive advice. I come across in the electronic world as rather harsh and sometimes mean. I am nice but direct.
I have not had the chance to read many prompt responses so my knowledge of your darkness is lacking. I may be one of the darkest writers I know; I have written and plan to write suicides, serial killing (in a light-hearted fashion), war, slave-trading, living in hell, and I have a scene in a book where a mass of cyborg-type families (including infants) are tearing themselves apart resulting in a great mess of blood.
As to the rules of writing, it’s an early post entitled “Three Laws Safe” or something like that. It’s covers three big rules to write by, though there are many other rules, like grammatical ones. I’ll probably just write a post about this rules stuff.
Anyway, to all of you at this blog, “This means you” still goes as it is, because I’m sure you will find Stephanie’s posts to be highly informative and useful. I will also work on a post more in depth about rules and how and when to break them.
-Tragic Pete
“The Three Laws of Writing” is the first post, they are more general than what I mentioned when talking about breaking the rules.