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Post by tonylavoie on Aug 11, 2009 8:26:32 GMT -5
"Weird" is a relative term...and yes, some of my relatives apply it to me. But that's where places like The Anomaly come into play. Us weird people (we weird people?) get to hang out together and suddenly we're not weird any more. There is a certain mindset among people like ourselves. The best advice, support, critiques and feedback I've gotten on my writing has come from people who hang out at places like this - very different from what I've seen at some secular sites. We are supportive people, owing largely, I think, to the supportiveness and compassion God shows to us through His Son. We learn from our parents and try our best to pass along what we've learned...in our case, that means we generally try to improve the world and those with whom we interact, rather than get the better of them or try to crush them beneath us. We support, and do it compassionately. We just happen to write speculative fiction as well. If all that makes me weird, then I proudly embrace my weirdosity!
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Post by beckyminor on Aug 11, 2009 9:03:15 GMT -5
Oh, Tony, Tony, Tony... There's no hope. You're a spec-fic guy AND a Jesus freak. You've just alientated 99% of the people you'll ever meet. Thank heaven the other 1% seem to huddle here.
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Post by myrthman on Aug 13, 2009 17:16:51 GMT -5
Just started reading this thread and only got to the second post before I had to comment.
You clean toilets when your writing bores you? Wow! Now that's weird. Just kidding!
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Post by tonylavoie on Aug 13, 2009 18:20:34 GMT -5
Myrthman, your avatar is a jar of Jif...who are you calling weird?
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Post by veryblessedmom on Aug 13, 2009 19:46:03 GMT -5
Just started reading this thread and only got to the second post before I had to comment. You clean toilets when your writing bores you? Wow! Now that's weird. Just kidding! OK I hate cleaning the toilets. Recently at my writer's group, the one fiction writer there was talking about her serial romance publisher she just sold 4 books to. Other people at the group suggested that I write something easier to get published and someday come back to spec. So I sat down to write a romance. That company has a formula on how *sparks* start to fly between the leads in the first 5 pages. I'd write a corny line and would suddenly think of the dirty bathrooms. I gave up on the normal romance. Maybe I'll never be published but if I'm bored writing it, a reader will be bored reading it, put the book down and clean their own toilets.
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Post by beckyminor on Aug 13, 2009 20:59:36 GMT -5
Hee hee, veryblessedmom...I think I'm with you. I don't think I could write romance just for the sake of trying to write something that sells. And I agree, if your heart isn't in what you write, you have to be some kind of master craftsman to pull off anything readable, I would think.
I have a hard enough time not feeling weird with the romantic element of my fantasy WIP, let alone how I would feel if I ditched the fantasy altogether.
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Post by metalikhan on Aug 14, 2009 2:54:42 GMT -5
**Laughing** Oh, yes! I've been told I'm odd, peculiar, radically bizarre, and too weird for words. Abnormal, insane, and loony got tossed at me a few (okay, many) times, too.
Strangely, it was never because I like SF&F fiction. Such labels usually came on the heels of something I did, like doing a razor-cut on my own hair or self-surgery to get a piece of broken bone out of my foot. Making a floor mop out of a roll cotton string I'd saved from miscellaneous bags, dressing a finger puppet in a tropical muumuu during a lunch break, carving peach and cherry pits into little baskets and critters — all that and more was enough to earn the Weird title. One day at work, someone asked why I was so delighted and I answered, "I've got worms!" Rarely have I seen anyone back away so quickly. Can't recall if I explained I was raising mealworms for the box turtles I was rehabbing and the worms were the first hatching I'd raised. I recycled all the W names I could think of while tending the worms — Wanda, William, Wendy, Walter, Wilma, etc., of the St. Francis Home for Wayward Wigglers.
Another time, I'd lined a bunch of dead June bugs on my workbench and was singing Teddy Bears Picnic or maybe Swing on a Star. The floor manager came to ask if I'd finished repairing a tool. He stared at the little corpses and asked what was I doing. I told him I was singing with the Beetles. He fled.
One of my supervisors commented about my cheerfulness. That was nice. I told him angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. He fled.
My husband has a more flattering label for me — mysterious. He's never sure when he comes home whether I'll be writing, making candles, weaving leashes, drawing portraits, grinding blades, or involved in some mad scientist experiment in the kitchen or shop. He says he still hasn't figured out what triggers my brain sometimes. He hasn't fled. I think he likes me.
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Post by JenLenaMom on Aug 14, 2009 7:11:16 GMT -5
I love that line "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly." Seems like I've heard it before, maybe, but still stupendously awesome!
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Post by myrthman on Aug 14, 2009 10:48:30 GMT -5
Myrthman, your avatar is a jar of Jif...who are you calling weird? Point taken! And with a smile! What can I say? I like peanut butter. I think what a lot of the world doesn't know is that Hollywood A-listers have people following them around who know air-brushing and Photoshop really well. Sometimes I wonder if they carry around a can of "perfect skin" spray paint with them. Even Jesus has been made into a physically beautiful hero, but according to the Bible (I think, in Isaiah), he was "not comely." I'm pretty sure he wasn't a Jim Caviezel. He was beautiful because of his attitude toward God and his actions toward people. Maybe we should, ahem, take a note? I like being weird too. I've developed a response (from others) at work to another's question of "What's he doing?" The answer? "Oh. That's just Rackley." I really like the reputation I've developed!
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Post by myrthman on Aug 14, 2009 10:51:53 GMT -5
metalikhan, you are a woman after my own heart. I love the Beetles gag! I was getting weird looks a moment ago when I was reading it and LOLing really loud. Is LOLing a word now?
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Post by JenLenaMom on Aug 14, 2009 13:00:42 GMT -5
I catch myself wanting to actually say "LOL" instead of just laughing.
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Post by kirstymca on Aug 14, 2009 14:34:45 GMT -5
I'm saying Americans have much higher standards, ) Different standards, maybe.
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catofninetales
Junior Member
People are the only thing you can take with you to heaven.
Posts: 66
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Post by catofninetales on Aug 14, 2009 21:00:24 GMT -5
Yeah, different...where's the nerdy Israeli nuclear physicist leading man, working in an actual Israeli university setting? I'd read that.
Or the family from Kenya who become missionaries to Pakistan, or the Persian who marries the Canadian and becomes a conflict arbitrator in Afghanistan...There's a lot of reality out there that could be enriching our storyworlds. (Even the chick-lit ones.) I love it when writers have the courage to reach out beyond the usual settings and the usual cultural assumptions.
One joy of S-F is that it's a good tool for showing that Christianity isn't just about a culture, it's about a God who's *for* all cultures.
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Post by metalikhan on Aug 14, 2009 23:49:04 GMT -5
JenLenaMom, the saying about angels flying comes from G.K.Chesterton, but I'm not sure that's the exact quote. It's the version I heard from my grandmother.
Myrthman, LOLing looks good in print. Sounds like lolling when spoken, unless you say el-oh-el-ing. Actually, that's pretty -- kind of foreign and musical at the same time. Well done!!
(I wonder if LOLing could be yodeled.) Weirdness makes for some very embarrassing moments. I remember a particular lunch meeting at work. I was a little nauseous that day, the meeting was terminally boring, and I was toying with my food. After a while, I realized there was this expanding silence and I thought I might have missed something important, like maybe news that our paychecks were no good. I looked up to see everyone around me looking at the duck I modeled from the totally ghastly mashed potatoes on my plate.
Dethpicable!
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catofninetales
Junior Member
People are the only thing you can take with you to heaven.
Posts: 66
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Post by catofninetales on Aug 15, 2009 1:25:26 GMT -5
metalikhan, that makes two ROFLs here. (ruffles? Yes.) ;D
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