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 Neal Stephenson to his fans: I love you, now go away!By: Mark Morgan on 4/9/2002; 9:41 PM Neal is one of my favorite authors. But I won't be writing him soon, and neither should you, since he is a bad correspondent. "The short version is as follows: I am not a recluse or a misanthrope or a grouch. I simply cannot respond to all incoming stimuli unless I retire from writing novels. And I don't wish to retire at this time." I hear ya, Neal. Running Unreason brings out the creative side in me, but it's the programmer creative side. What cool new thing can I code? How cool can I make this thing over here work? How can I separate the signal from the noise? How many feature requests can I pummel the support site with? (Aside: for the latter, there are days when I am a one-main Denial of Service attack. At least I've stopped being the Official Finder of Ways to Crash Netscape 4.x.) Where the writing? Part of the reason I created Unreason was to give myself room to fly, as a writer. I was over at Nitcentral writing these humongous essays and I realized I didn't need to clutter that message board with that foolishness. It's a big old Internet, I can clutter my own site with that foolishness! Was that a good strategy, I now wonder? I spend a lot of time dreaming up new features for the site, but when was the last time I wrote something substantive? (Hint: the amount of time since is bigger than a breadbox.) A persistent high-speed Internet connection hasn't made it any easier. I lurk around various places reading and goofing off and not writing. I post small things to my journal. But I don't write. What gives? Jerry Pournelle advises on becoming a world-class writer, and he is blunt about it: "The secret of becoming a writer is that you have to write. You have to write a lot. You also have to finish what you write, even though no one wants it yet. If you don't learn to finish your work, no one will ever want to see it. The biggest mistake new writers make is carrying around copies of unfinished work to inflict on their friends." At Chaos Manor, Jerry has a room with no Internet connection, no windows, no television, no nothing but a computer and some reference books. He calls it his Monk's Cell. He also has a beach house where he can hide from distractions, and an apartment that he doesn't know the adress of, nor the phone number. All the tricks to stop goofing off and write. Maybe Stephenson has the best answer. Get off the net and just darn write. I've been known to go to the greatest place on Earth and hide in the coffeeshop with pen and pad to get some writing done. It doesn't always work because there are over a million books to distract me, but mostly I get down to work and write. It's a wonderful feeling. What do you all think? What do you do to get the words out? Is the 'net the source of all evil? How do you manage?
 RE: Neal Stephenson to his fans: I love you, now go away!By: Evan on 4/9/2002; 11:40 PM Generally I just get advice from people on the websites I frequent which is basically this site and http://boards.gamers.com/messages/overview.asp?name=poopypoop&page=1. Generally what I ask for is two or three random words and simply write a story that involves a combination of those worlds, examples would be, squirrels and world domination, the Pillsbury Doughboy and murder, chimpanzees and motorcycles (although admittedly I don't think that one turned out so well), and insane asylums and knife emproriums. An alternative strategy I have used so far only on Niggly Bop and the Quest for Toilet Paper, which probably explains why it is taking me so long, is to generate an entire fantasy world that I perceive through my mind's eye and then put it on paper. The first strategy is an easier way to generate a story but it becomes difficult to write much more than about five pages of material. Making one's own fantasy world takes a lot longer to do but is much easier to create a longer story or a series of stories. Also a helpful thing to do is to model the characters' personalities after other real or fictitious characters. For example, Lieutenant Bob is more or less a parody of Columbo, and the female character in Bio-tech whose name for some reason escapes me at the moment was inspired by a character in the Stephen King miniseries, The Langoliers. Also giving one's characters idiosyncracies makes it much easier to identify with them and determine how they would act when faced with the situations that you throw at them. Another important thing to remember is that panic is to thoughts as laxatives are to poop, it greatly increases the flow. Another very important aid to writing is knowing that there are dozens of things you should probably doing instead of writing. I've found that it is difficult to write when I don't have anything else to do, unless I get a sudden burst of creative insight. Of course, this stuff is what works for me, and it might not work for you by virtue of the fact I am barking mad, and you only seem to be slightly crazier than average, but hey its possible you could be as crazy as me without my knowledge. An interesting side note while I'm thinking about it, did you know that some 90% of all great artists (admittedly somewhat subjective but including painters, poets and authors) have suffered from psychological disorders. If you filter out those for whom the problem was substance abuse, you have maybe 30-40% of of the greatest creative minds were mentally ill. I'll have to look that up again to see if I have it right, I think its in my psychology textbook.
RE: Neal Stephenson to his fans: I love you, now go away!By: Mark Morgan on 4/10/2002; 5:41 AM I've got some story ideas, what I'm fighting is procrastination, distractions, and prioritizing. If one is not Brian Carnell, is easy access to the Internet a good thing or a bad thing? How does one avoid distractions, and just write? Is it necessary to lock oneself in a closet to get anything done?
RE: Neal Stephenson to his fans: I love you, now go away!By: Evan on 4/10/2002; 10:55 AM Well as far as procrastinating goes, you can either eliminate the distractions, or visualize impending doom if your story does not get written. Have someone with an axe stand behind you when you want to write occasionally waving it around in the air.
RE: Neal Stephenson to his fans: I love you, now go away!By: Mark Morgan on 4/11/2002; 8:04 AM I was looking for this yesterday. When Derek Powazek wrote a book about the Internet he discovered the same thing I'm discovering: "It's ironic that, to write this book about networked digital communities, I had to distance myself from the very network that inspired it in the first place. I wrote half the book in my corner coffee shop, where I had no choice than to be disconnected from the net. It's just too distracting for a guy like me - there are always sites to visit, email to read, conversations to participate in." ...websites to redesign...
 RE: Neal Stephenson to his fans: I love you, now go away!By: Rachelle King on 4/11/2002; 2:04 PM Mark, The internet is a constant source of distraction for me, as well. For instance, right now I should probably be doing my laundry and or working on my portfolio for my writing course. Instead I have chosen to reply to your email by checking out the new changes to Voices and posting a newly written piece. Ability to delegate priority foiled again!!! I find that the easiest way to concentrate on writing is to leave the house. Try not to venture into a coffeehouse bookstore, but just a coffeehouse. Usually the one's[coffeehouses] near a college campus are brimming with some-what quiet individuals all concentrating on their disarrayed college careers. Going to community writer's workshops and open mike readings can also be a useful tool when you have hit a block. I have found that in writing, one of the most important elements is the feedback you get from the writing community. Reading, reading, and more reading is also an essential element in one's ability to produce their own ramblings. Try to stay away from books on HTML or the latest in Netscape advantages if it not something you desire to write creatively about. These books will also bring you back to the computer screen over and over again, as you attempt to experience the content. You might just want to try and prioritize [i cannot spell that confounded word!!!!!] your time more wisely. For instance, if you also spend a good deal of time watching television, take time away from this activity to spend on writing. If push comes to shove, and writing means more to you then the TV, turn off your cable: I have done it before. Place a sheet or some other covering over the screen with a self-defercating note on it, like: YOU SUCK! You couldn't describe a monkey crawling out of an elephant's ass!!! Then prove that note wrong. Everyone has to weigh out the differences in the things that matter most to them. Utimately, you are the only person who can decide which of the things you do is most important. I don't think anyone would start sending email viruses to you if you spent a little less time at Voices, and more time on yourself.
 RE: Neal Stephenson to his fans: I love you, now go away!By: Eoghainn Oniongardail on 4/17/2002; 4:57 PM Mark, I think it is clear that most artists require solitude for concentration. Although I sometimes dabble in the written word, my own passion is composing music. Few people who do not create understand the artist's need for solitary time. When I compose music, I cannot imagine desiring input and distraction from the Internet, or any other source. It takes all of my mental energy to focus on the tremendous challenges of endless possibilities. But, too much time locked into my imagination is also not advantageous. Sometimes, there is a need for distance from creative work. There have been short periods of my life when I have pushed my mind too far into that other world. I judge such times by their results. What had started out as an awe-inspiring idea, eventually became overburdened with a warped focus that could not be understood from the outside, even by myself when I emerged from the depths. As much as the artist may wish to create something extraordinarilly unique, independent of the views of others, it often takes a more remote, objective view to appreciate the merits of the work. Over time, I have learned to appreciate that fresh breath and retreat from isolation; reaching out to others and seeking to purge that insistant voice in my mind that would love to control everything I do.
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