@missy  No one can really edit their own work.

Well, you can, — just not alone.  As I see it, everyone who writes more than one draft of a story is editing.  But the judgment of others needs to be brought to bear just you can step outside your own head and look at the work with fresh eyes.  Many writers take this necessary step by asking “Be…[Read more]

@missy  @stitchintime   Agreed on Capaldi, and most definitely on “Heaven Sent” — gorgeous piece of work (and let’s not forget the contributions of the director, as illuminated by her comments on her fb page).  Is it *perfect*?  Not quite.  I could easily do without Steven Moffat’s cliffhanger, “The hybrid — is me.”  Considering that “Hell Bent”…[Read more]

@arbutus et al:  what you say about professional writers sometimes receiving less and less editorial help rings true. I have noticed the same tendency in films sometimes, when someone produces something successful, and suddenly has carte blanche to do what they want, and the sequels and so on become increasingly overblown because nobody wants to…[Read more]

@arbutus  Thanks for the thumbs up; and I know just what you mean about historicals (real or fantasized) and absorption in the details.  That’s why there’s not just LOTR, but The Silmarillion from Tolkien — he loved all his background detail too much to give any of it up (note also the comparison between the numbers of readers for LOTR and t…[Read more]

@stitchintime  Sorry, I was interrupted and didn’t complete post #52528, above.  I meant to add that not outlining means that when the story’s done, it needs a *lot* of rewriting to get everything lined up properly, cut-and-paste work for maximizing usefulness and impact of various scenes, and even surgically removing entire story-lines that d…[Read more]

@stitchintime  Drafts of novels — I have a friend and colleague who turns in first drafts, and only goes back over her work according to prompts from her editors; she’s been writing and publishing for decades now, and knows her onions, and they know what to expect from her.  I’m only good for about 6 drafts, myself, and then a book feels too s…[Read more]

On lists and organization — I once made the mistake of hiring someone to help me organize my files, on the understanding that she been a file clerk during her time in the air force.  She managed to completely screw the whole place up for me within a couple of months, mostly by sticking sub-files *inside of* major files, so that I couldn’t see…[Read more]

@miapatrick  Of GOT: there really isn’t that much screaming. Or quite as much violence as some critics claim.

A matter of taste, I suppose; and it depends on how much the context appeals to an individual viewer.  I have to admit that there’s a ton of (usually more subtle) cruelty on Penny Dreadful (case in point, last Sunday’s episode), and I di…[Read more]

@missy re GOT or which your friend says:  there is a lot of bloody (as is blood and gore) violence and sex.

Yep.  Lots.  But IMO, it’s not so much the presence of these elements as the relish with which they’re handled.  Reminds me of little boys (mostly) staring at road kill etc., and torturing small animals (including their younger sib…[Read more]

@stitchintime  Thanks for the background info on “Gunner Cade”.  That was the first SF novel I remember reading, and I loved it (I was about 10, maybe, and I thought it was kind of simplistic but loved it anyway), but I had no idea that Judy Merrill was in part behind it.  There’s a nice library collection of SF dedicated to her in Toronto.  S…[Read more]

@winston  Penny Dreadful is an amazing take on every Victorian nightmare ever fixed in verbal form for us to play with later — they’ve got a wonderful vibe going between the outrageous cheek of stuffing their story with sweetly twisted versions of the grotesques all bouncing off each other in world-spanning adventures, and then endowing them all…[Read more]

@missy  I’ll certainly be on the watch for Doctor Strange, since I enjoy watching Cumberbatch — he looks to me like an alien, himself — something to do with — physical proportions?  Not sure . . . but he’s intriguing.  Now he’ll be Strange.  I’ll be interested to see what that means, character-wise.  I usually don’t have much tolerance for the…[Read more]

@winston   Thinking about re-watching some Who this summer, when it’s too hot to go out in the evenings . . . I’m glad to hear that DB paid off for you, again.  I think those two seasons will age very, very well.

@pedant  “Political correctness”: a term invented by the obnoxious to belittle the courteous.

Someone once accused Ursula LeGuin (a prominent U.S. science fiction author, for those who don’t recognize the name) of advancing “political correctness” in a public conversation at a convention.  Ursula, who suffers fools not at all, snapped back along…[Read more]

Hmm; what was the episode in which CapDoc told Clara *not* to explain (?) something to him, because since he knows so much about everything, it would be a lovely change to be the one who *doesn’t* have the answers for once?  No wonder he seems a bit chastened in mood at Darillium: he has his wish now, doesn’t he?  There’s this “Clara” shaped m…[Read more]

@missy   Thanks for the “more M.R. James”  — good place for me to hang out for a while.  And I second your good wishes for mudlark!  On the gay etc. situation, it’s changing rapidly but still rather wildly in flux in many places, but the general trend in the West seems (to me) to be positive.  Things are so fluid these days — I bought some art…[Read more]

@missy   Ah, belled the cat, did you?  Watch out, he’s a clever one!

@missy  I have extra bells, too, in case yours have been mislaid during this long wait . . .

@missy  Nothing to be sorry about.  *sniff*

ichi

@stitchintime  Nah; the yeti deserves better than that strutting gas bag!  Well, truth be told, everybody deserves better.  P.T. Barnum, reincarnated as the quintessential Evil Clown who turns everything around him into a sinister circus of fools.  Yuck.