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Cuzosu

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Posts posted by Cuzosu

  1. No, seriously, WHAT is good writing?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    First of there is a difference between good writing and writing that interests particular readers. For example I hate the works of some historically famous authors. They are not bad writers they just chose topics that don't interest me or made a story that is to slow for my pace. Doesn't make them bad writers. After all many others adore there work.

    The things that make me distinguish between good and bad writing (no matter the subject or pace) are flow and emotion. I have read many summaries that peaked my interest only to get into the story and be unable to finish due to it reading like an itinerary (list). The character does this that and the other thing goes to bed, gets up does that and this. No emotion and no natural flow as would happen in real life. By flow I mean the characters actions leading into future actions. Such as a character having a nightmare leading him into looking tired later in the story. For me when the subject and pace fit my personal style it is flow and emotion that draw me into or lack of that push me away from a story.

    A very good point. Or rather, a few excellent points.

    Reader interest. Every story, long or short, has its own particular target group of readers. An author may not realize it, but most of these groups are relatively small, and so the feedback and quota of readers may not be as numerous as we all like to hope they might be. This is especially true in fanfiction with unusual pairings, for example.

    Flow is a big deal, I agree. It can also be hard to pin down in a way that benefits the story, and I think that most authors will readily admit that stories--especially those which consume the author's mind with plot and scenes!--are quite capable of and often trend towards overdoing things. How often do we write something that grabs us by the throat and demands to have its own way? There are ways to deal with such stories and muses, of course: a good beta is a blessing, particularly with unruly stories. And stubbornness can go a long way, too. However, for me, I find that distraction is the best tactic.

    Here, I can't give you that. What do you think about this, instead? Or, Ooh, look at that! What a neat idea! Why don't you steal it away before these other muses get close? I'll let you pounce on So-and-So later as a reward.

    Yes, I occasionally have to bribe my muses. Surely I am not the only one?

  2. Resumption?

    in Monthly Prompt

    Posted

    Prompt-wise, I have a friend I could ask to help, if you'd like. Just tell her the kind of prompts you're looking for, if there's a theme you want to use, and she's usually quick to think of some, or look them up. She also occasionally throws in quotes.

    Personally, when I try to find prompts or inspiration for myself, I look up quotes on random topics. Or you could ask around and see if anyone has found good lines in a story they're reading. Just have people include a theme that has to do with the quote, perhaps? I seem to stumble across a number that are both dark and amusing.... Forgive me, please, if I misquote them; I'm typing off the top of my head.

    They say that the prospect of being hanged in morning concentrates a man's mind wonderfully. Unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged. --from Terry Pratchett's Going Postal.

    "Defenestrated. It means getting thrown out of a window--a high one, usually. It doesn't really accomplish much to throw somebody out of a ground floor window." --from David Eddings' Tamuli series, though I can't recall just which book, at the moment.

    "I will kill him flatter than dead." --from one of Anne Bishop's Dark Jewels series.

    There are more, of course, or you could browse the quotes that we have posted on a different thread here, if you decide to include quotes in the prompts.

    And no, of course I'm not excited to see a resurrection of the monthly challenge.... I have so much time for the weekly ones right now, y'know.... ;) Seriously, though, it will be nice to have a longer deadline for posting something.

  3. No, seriously, WHAT is good writing?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    The best betas are willing to work with you as an author and as a person. Me, I love playing sounding board to authors I like and respect, regardless of whether or not I'm editing their works. Giving ideas and plot twists to a writer, for me, is fun. I get too many of them for just one person to use, anyway, and sometimes it's a blast to have two writers take the same idea and write their own stories.

    As for long chapters, well, one lady I beta for (when I have time, which, lately, I don't...) has been known to send me 10,000-20,000 word chapters. When I had daily internet access, my turnaround time for her was astonishing. I've been an avid reader since I first learned how to read...and have been known to read 800-1,000+ page books in 24 hours or less, without skimming anything. Out loud, of course, I'm not so quick, but I don't miss as much, either, and so when I'm editing anything, be it my own work or another's, I do a once-over silent and a once-over aloud. And when it's posted, I reread it again a time or three, and if it's another's work, I will add in my review that, "I missed this when I edited it. I'm sorry."

    Really, beta work is give-and-take, and the best author-beta relationships are friendships with equality--and forgiveness and acceptance when things go wrong. After all, Murphy is everywhere....

    As an author, there are a number of things I look for in people who help me with my stories. For example, Raymy will tell me if my editing needs work, but she also tells me what is and isn't having an impact on her and what she's looking forward to seeing in the future. Fei tells me what gets to her, what she's looking forward to, and, even though she's not good at editing English, lets me know if I've confused her with a lack of explanation or sudden missing characters that were there just a moment ago. Clara and Snow tell me how well I'm doing with characterization and world building (futuristic Musketeer-ish Gundam Wing AU is challenging, and I love it, though it takes so long to get through the scenes because it's all stuck in my head and still rather jumbled together), as well as what they're looking forward to seeing. All of these wonderful ladies have also played sounding board for me in one way or another, and when I needed help through rough patches or a handy stick of dynamite for an obstreperous wall or three, they have been there and offered ideas and support, and occasionally some literary nitroglycerin. ;) Ain't friends wonderful?

    ....

    Kindly ignore that last bit of atrocious grammar. Or laugh at it, if you'd prefer, I suppose. Sometimes my accent bleeds through, thankfully not as bad as my dad's. His would be completely incomprehensible to those who weren't either fluent in southern drawl or familiar with our family. *sigh* It's a wonder I don't need a beta for the accent alone....

  6. How long do you prefer chapters?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    I personally don't like posting a chapter with less than a thousand words--unless it's in response to a challenge or is one of my drabbles. I think drabbles are my biggest challenge; describing a scene so that it draws people in with such a limited amount of words is difficult for me, because I. Like. Words. All of my actual chaptered stories, I try to keep a minimum of a few thousand words. Some are longer. Some are a lot longer.

    As a reader, I'm pretty much the same in preference. I love longer chapters, longer stories, the intricacies and details that can be revealed in a well-written work. Knowing this about myself makes me more aware that I need to branch out periodically, though, and so occasionally I find myself reading short stories, drabbles, and poems. Some are absolute gems--like the drabble collection A Karakura Ghost Story by black.k.kat on FF. And some writers are just worth reading, whatever the length of story or whoever it's focused around.

    DG and Kurahieiritr are right: the length of a chapter should probably depend the most on the story flow, style, syntax, and how it reads--both as a standalone chapter and as part of the whole.

  11. No, seriously, WHAT is good writing?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted · Edited by Cuzosu

    I've told I write like Stephen King which does nothing to comfort me - I was imprinted very early on with the terror in which his books are supposed to be regarded! :P

    Pfft. I'll say this: my mother hooked me on his books, too, and I don't think his books are as terrifying as so many people say they are. Don't get me wrong, they'd probably be freaky as hell if they were truly followed and made into movies, but as books, I find myself impressed with his skill as a writer. He fleshes out the characters just enough, leaves just enough mystery to have the reader wanting more, includes wonderful action scenes, and has that dark edge that whets my curiosity. (Not to mention the skill the man has with world-building and societal structures.)

    In my opinion, to write like Stephen King is not a bad thing. Myself, I can't find a way to keep my humor out, and so the Stephen King comparison doesn't work. :P

    To make me spend money on a book, whether it's a fresh purchase, or replacing an old copy, the stories have to grab me. The author has to be a good story teller. There are some things I read as a child, that I'll reread still, simply because it's a good story. Andre Norton, Walter Farley, and Marguerite Henry were my favorite authors when I was very young, as an example. :) Would I read those stories again? You bet I would.

    When I started broadening my reading horizons, thanks to my mother's sci-fi mag subscriptions, what engaged me was something which made me think. Made me look at it, and think that yes, this is possible, and how cool would it be if it actually happened? It just so happens that being a Trekkie (Mr. Roddenberry coined the term, by the way, and not in the way that many take it today), that in TOS, the screenplays were often written by science fiction, speculative fiction, and in some cases horror authors, most of whom I like to read. Robert Bloch wrote a screenplay for the series which he expanded further for inclusion in one of the Dangerous Visions anthologies, just as an example.

    Writing about encounters with alien species, for example, I'd think wouldn't be easy at all. You need to construct that world and its people and culture. You then need to visualize and then put in words, how that culture interacts with humans.

    I think reading tastes do vary. As a book buyer, I won't waste my money on something that doesn't grab me if I can possibly help it. When I have done that, those books go to a book store where I can trade in on something else, usually something I used to have, and no longer do.

    DG, wonderful points. I have childhood books that I would go back and reread in a heartbeat. For that matter, I have some that are part of an ongoing series that I still read! (Megan Whalan Turner's "The Thief" books, for example.)

    Yes. I fully agree with DG. World construction--and societal construction--can play a very big part in a story, especially if that story is in a world the author created. Those two factors will impact every character in the story, regardless of personality; it will just affect them in different ways depending on those personalities. The catch is, it's hard to reveal the details of world or society in a way that the readers appreciate. Too fast or too slow and you'll lose readers, but that in between balance is hard to find and harder to maintain.

    I went on a pub crawl in London to visit the pubs featured in the Richard Jury mysteries by Martha Grimes. I'm strange that way, and I like a good pint of cider. :)

    But what makes me plop down money for a book is a story that draws me in because the world and/or characters promise to be interesting. Occasionally, this backfires, but I've also found books that were so unforgettable that they haunt me years later. I don't go for warm and fuzzy, for the most part, but I do like science, and I like my science fiction to be believable.

    There are authors I would hug and put on a shelf to talk to forever, if I could. Stephen King is one of them, actually. He can suck me into his world so fast that it's amazing. Mary Doria Russell's "Children of God" and "The Sparrow" will never stop haunting me. CJ Cherryh's Downbelow Station books are a favorite to return to for me. Of course, I mentioned George RR Martin, who is wonderful. Tolkien. Poe. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Samuel R Delany - "Dhalgren" is another book that will be with me forever. I also love Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books because I adore her humor. Lawrence Sander's "The Tomorrow File." I read Forgotten Realms books because I love the universe, even if some of the writers are a little less polished. I loved the Dune epic.

    The only thing my likes have in common is that I like them, I think... :D

    We're all strange in our own ways, BW. No worries. ;)

    You know the saying, "Never judge a book by its cover"? I am guilty. I usually do, because if there's a detail on the cover that intrigues me, I always enjoy the book. If I read the back and like it, I'll enjoy the book. And if the title alone is interesting, I'll read the first page or two and see if the author can reel me in. If so, great! If not, then back to the shelf it goes. Genre-wise, I enjoy my action, adventure and humor...but I find myself branching out a lot; I've read the occasional military or autobiography (even biography), and romance sneaks in now and again. I still love the animal books from my childhood, White Fang, Call of the Wild, and the Black Stallion series in particular. (Also one of my grandpa's favorites, At the Back of the North Wind. Surprisingly enough, it's a children's book, too.)

    And your last comment, BW, made me laugh.

    No, I think you might be onto something - they suspend your disbelief instantly and let you get carried away, the action and the setting/scenery/imagery are never far away from each other.

    I try so hard to blend the two together. I find I struggle most with setting and action, I feel like the setting has to come first but it can be built into the boring parts of conversation so by the time its ACTION time to move the story forward the audience has a good sense of where they are where as at the same time, I feel like I should only explain the things people wouldn't know properly.

    I remember in Forever Amber I always knew what time of day it was, what she was wearing and what her current beef was but the whole idea of that book was to bring the Court of King Charles II alive - people, setting and environment were all a huge part of the story because it took place in the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London AND the Dutch war... while the king was shagging whatever moved and catching smallpox for his trouble...

    P.S. - I found a trick. When 'creating' I suppose, the brain works differently between writing and speaking. I got a dictation program and I'm finding that when I'm stuck in action its easier to dictate, it flows out and I feel like I'm part of it but if I'm trying to slow down and describe to ground setting and stuff, its easier to get it out of my brain by typing. Not sure this is everyone's cup of tea but if the chance arises for experimentation, its out there now.

    Setting and action are a pain to get right. But don't put setting first as a solid, unbreakable rule, because I've seen books that start with the action and just enough description of the scenery and opponents to make it like an action movie clip. In some cases, that style works better. You might try it out, see if it works for you.

    I suppose I can see how it would work for others (that last paragraph of yours), but for me, I like to take the time to think about my phrasing. Still, it's certainly a good idea.

  12. No, seriously, WHAT is good writing?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    I am loving all this advice but the concept of 'trying to please someone' as though I am out for my Pulitzer, can we please shelve that? Trying to convince me to be happy with my own work just because that is what I should be doing is not answering my question.

    The goal of a writer is to write the best they can. To take the shapeless form ideas that are nothing more than a rush of emotion and the flash of an image and use words like a crystal to bounce ideas out of one mind and into another has a definitive set of rules.

    Underneath the shape of every ballgown is the stitches that hold it together and the weave of every fibre. The painstaking effort to take a wad of fibres with no form and turn it in to an Armani is not about a little seamstress sitting in her rocking chair with her knitting needles only to discover "Well fuck me, a ball gown!". It is masterful skill and driven intent. No one who ever truly succeeded has said 'Oh, well, you know, I just fuck around and stuff happens and now I'm a published author because I just loved sitting on my ass for hours on end making shit up with no real intention of selling it because lets face it, we're all just running out the clock til the cancer gets us.'

    What I am desperately trying to uncover isn't the wish upon a star, nor is it the power within, and it sure as hell isn't the giddy joy of accidental creation like an unplanned pregnancy. I am not trying to unlock the door to the Halls of Gratuitous Praise I am trying to solve the mystery behind the impulse of the faceless countless many who open their wallets and dump actual money on an actual counter for the opportunity to gaze into a mass-produced crystal - from the absolute crap that was the abomination known as 50 shades right up to the answers to the universe like... I can't think of the name of that terrible Tom Hanks movie and but I'm sure you know the one, the one knocking the chuch or the Bible or some nonsense.

    No one is reading them into saying things like "My god, such skill such technique it must have been so much fun to write this book! Forget Disneyland! Take me on this cruise, I must feel this rush for myself!"

    So what is that elusive pull that draws in so many - lets take a realistic look at the goals of a writer and be honest, how many are paying their bills with praise? - and makes them buy into the journey of 1000 pages? How can I use the map the project my imagery into other brains in the same fashion? All the joy and passion in the world, all correct grammar, all the neatly placed commas are just a big pile and useless fibre without a pattern. There are millions of patterns I am sure but let's face it, unless we are Lady Gaga there is a sameness to all of our tastes!

    I don't know that there is any one thing that pulls readers in. As someone who reads a number of different genres, the only thing I can think of that all the books I've really gotten into had in common were, as I mentioned before, realistic emotions and at least one good bout of action. This is perhaps because I'm insatiable as a reader and absolutely adore finding that one more book or author I have to add to my favorites, as if I didn't have enough already.

    If you have any specific questions on how to write, it might help to narrow it down to a genre or two, first, before asking for advice. That way you'll get specific tips, instead of generalized how-to help. Also, one of us others here might be able to point you to an author or two in the genre you're trying to write, so that you can read and pick up pointers from your own impressions of someone else's work. Sometimes we find our best style by adapting something someone else is already using. Myself, I appear to have picked up a disturbing mix of Terry Pratchett, Simon R. Green, and Martha Wells. If you've read all three, you'll understand that in some ways, their writing styles were never meant to mix. (When I say Martha Wells, I'm thinking mostly of her Ile-Rien books. Coupled with yet more action/adventure and then parody/satire on top of that? Uh-oh.)

  13. No, seriously, WHAT is good writing?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted

    Nope. But even the best writer in the world needs someone objective to pick up the things they miss. As an author, I know what I want to happen. I know what's going on in the heads of all my characters. But am I slipping something in that throws off the story's chronology? Did I have a dread point of view wobble, and let the reader look into the wrong head for a moment?

    The very hardest part for me was POV wobbles. To my dismay, if I'm writing from A's point of view, I can't refer to A as the blond. Why? Because it's A's point of view and he's not seeing himself. He doesn't think of himself as the blond. He doesn't notice his own eye color, or build, or height. So if I want to describe A, I need to wait to do it through someone else's point of view, which means a break. And you can't change point of view every two paragraphs, because you make the reader carsick that way. You yank them out of the world you're trying to build for them.

    It's not easy to see this in your own writing at all, and now I find I'm actually looking for it. And that will make me a better writer in the long run, because my goal is to make my editor work hard to find my mistakes. (Hint: adverbs. I still like them too much.)

    I prefer to stick to third person POV, usually a narrative perspective, though from time to time I'll narrow it down to only one character as a focus.

    On occasion, I do forget about one or two characters who only play a minor part in one scene as I transition into the next. Thankfully, I have pre-readers and betas who are willing to say, "Hey, what happened to So-and-so? They were here a minute ago...." It may be embarrassing, but it's less embarrassing than posting a chapter and having all the readers asking the same thing. (With, of course, the notable exception, who says something like, "LOL! I forgot about them, too!" and so makes me feel both better and worse at the same time, however unintentionally. Oops.)

    Also, I've noticed as I read around that writers who are strong in voice tend to write mostly voice, while those who are strong in description write mostly description. This, of course, is a general rule and doesn't apply to everybody, but I know that, especially when I first started out, it applied to me, too. I have always been good at voice because I pay close attention to words and phrasing, what is said and what is not. Someone kindly pointed out this tendency to me, and so I have spent some years working on adding more description to my stories...to the extent that sometimes I find myself completely reversing this tendency toward the descriptive side and usually end up scrapping the entire lot that's been written, or at least most of it. Lost five pages of effort in one go, once, but I needed to just start over with a clear mind.

  14. No, seriously, WHAT is good writing?

    in Writers' Corner

    Posted · Edited by Cuzosu

    I'm not sure that I would say a writer has to enjoy his/her own story at all times--sometimes the best you can hope for is satisfaction. Does this fit the theme I want? Is the character's reaction emotionally sound so as to draw my reader deeper? How well did I hit that dark note that should make a reader unwilling to look away? As a reader, how would I respond to this?

    To be perfectly honest, as long as I am satisfied with how it all turns out, the readers seem quite happy, too. And the ones that aren't tend to be the ones who wouldn't buy a second copy of a novel when the first wore out. Fair-weather-fans of anything aren't supportive when life has puppies in your lap and you really need help, so, and I realize this is blunt: don't write to please your readers. If they enjoy it, great, but if you can't at least be satisfied with it, then it's not worth doing. (Generic "you".... Not trying to be offensive or pushy; I drifted into 2nd person.... Strange, really, since I usually drift between first and third, with nothing in between....)

    As a reader, I find myself a sucker for stories with darkness, humor, realistic emotions, and characters/world(s) that are fleshed out just enough but not too much. Info dumps are a major turn off for me because I just don't retain all the details that way. Don't get me wrong, I love details, but I like them better when they're spaced out somewhat and not all in one place. Take a paragraph or two to describe something/someone, physically. Emotions and mental state are harder to get right--I went to my dad's college classes with him when I was little and I absorbed more than anyone expected me to, so I can be kind of critical of getting the emotions right. The thing about writing emotions, though--at least to me--is this: emotions that fit the situations will draw a reader in. I'd be the same. I'd be pissed/sad/angry, too. You want the reader to empathize with your characters, because it inspires a deeper connection, yes? So I'm of the opinion that using the correct emotional response (for the character in question; not everyone reacts the same way!) is a key element to writing well. It's not the only element, but it is one of them, and societal differences will weigh in on that equation, too.

    And, yes, editing is big, too, but--as others have noted--you certainly seem to do well with it already.

    Plotting a story ahead of time.... I won't say it's a waste of time, but you don't need to plan every little thing. List situations, events, maybe even conversations that you want to include, figure out if they need to be in any certain order, and then it's kind of like a Fill In The Blank game. Just try to get your characters from one point to the next. Sometimes they'll try to off track you, and sometimes it may work better for your story if you let them, but if the end result of the off tracking doesn't feel right to you, scrap it and try again. I don't know that there is any certain number of crises that ought to be included, but DG has a point--trouble comes in threes, right? ;) Three big problems, plus however many little disasters crop up along the way. If you get stuck at one scene, skip ahead to another so you keep writing. Let the part where you got stuck simmer in the back of your mind as you write ahead, and sometimes you'll have it all figured out by the time you get back to it.

    Tenses, now, past vs. present: Past is often easier to stick to in writing, but sometimes the action seems slow or just doesn't flow right. Present is difficult to stick to--which can be a turn off if the writing switches back and forth from 'is' to 'was'--and can cause a writer problems when deciding what phrasing to use, because, of course, it is the present and no one knows what's going to happen next except the author, who shouldn't be talking about the future in the present! (Sorry, it's a bit of a pet peeve....) Still, I feel it's a challenge every writer should try their hand at once, if not more than once. It gives them an appreciation for writing nuance that, I feel, many fan fiction authors lack.

    I can't think of anything else at the moment, but I hope this helps!

  16. The AU thing

    in AU

    Posted

    This topic caught my interest so I figured I would respond. I can understand wishing to let the cannon stand on originality merits. However, there are plenty of ways to remain in the cannon world while writing a story. Most Yaoi writers fall squarely into the problematic gray area of staying within the confinement of a cannon world. It can be very difficult keeping the characters from going ooc while promoting a clandestine love life that weaves into a behind the scenes feeling position within the cannon structure. It is a very tough task to do with finesse so most writers don't bother.

    I find that many AU writers are not up to the task of keeping cannon characters true to their established personalities. OOC is my second biggest complaint with AU writing. My biggest pet peeve is having to read way too much Original Character take over in an AU storyline. IF I am reading a story about an anime I like, I want to read about the actual characters from the series, and not get overwhelmed without break by an original character that was created by the writer specifically. When AU has too much Original character, and too little cannon it makes me gag.

    I do not mind a splash of OOC happening due to an emotional strain the character endures. All people have those moments, and it makes the cannon character more realistic/human. I can handle the cannon acting out of character for a couple of chapters while they resolve an overwhelming problem. If I find the OOC behavior continues non-stop over a number of chapters, I will stop reading because I get fed up with the non cannon portrayal. It feels way too disrespectful to the original creator.

    There are a few well written AU stories that I have read. However, most often those are way too far and few between for my comfort. I only like AU that remains faithful to cannon characterization. So long as it is the genuine character from the anime I like, I will read and love the tale. Even if it goes very AU, I will be content so long as the author does not make me gag on an original character, and keeps the cannons within expected boundaries. My hatred of OOC makes it impossible for me to stomach tags that simply do not fit the cannon character personalities. A gentle cannon character will not get into sado/masochist bondage and pain in example. I can't see it, and have trouble suspending my expectations for that characterization. Character evolution is a different beast all together, which I do not mind. The differences between OOC and evolution of character determines whether I will stick with an AU story.

    Emotional OOC-ness due to situation/circumstance is probably the only OOC I tolerate well. Though I have enough of an off-kilter sense of humor that OOC-ness done as a mockery can be acceptable, too.

    And you make a good point about the OCs.... Too many fan fictions are entirely about OCs when there should be much more canon characters instead.

  17. Review Responses for A Cupful of Heartache

    in General

    Posted

    hollow: Again, I'm trucking and have practically no time. Though I want to, I doubt I'll have any updates for some time. As to Shunsui, though.... Yes, he is getting possessive, isn't he? He might snap...and then again, Kis-kun may snap first. Tension, tension.... And neither one of them is easy prey. ^_^

    Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying my stories!

  18. Review Replies and Discussion for Convincing Kisuke

    in General

    Posted

    hollow: Ok, another vote for Shunsui. The bet, you ask? They're betting on when Shunsui and Kisuke are going to get laid. However, there will be two winners of the bet, in the end. And, given reader popularity and my own twisted mind, I have decided on who the two winners are. Those scenes are going to be most amusing. Currently, my problem is getting everyone there.... I hit a bit of writer's block, which isn't fun, and then when Raymy helped me past that, suddenly I have no free time to write because I'm in training to be a trucker. It's going to take a while to get another chapter out, for which I apologize.

    For everybody else who has read CK so far, the updates above are current, and I am so, so sorry that it's taking so long. It's making me a bit snarly, too--at the story and at my muse, and most definitely at my job. But needs must...so please, bear with me.

  19. Truckers Are Pervs

    in Personal Rants & Journals

    Posted

    Since I have a moment of down time, I'll share this.

    My man and I are going through training to drive semi trucks. Well, one thing truckers are given is a "handle" or a nickname other truckers use to identify them on the CB. One of our group is Smokin' Joe. My man, on the other hand.... Four of us were going over the pre-trip inspection and one thing we're supposed to do is check that nothing is damaged. So my man's listing off things that need to be checked for on the steering shaft, but he forgot to mention "bent"...so we reminded him. He went off on a tangent, one of the other guys and I looked askance at each other and tried (and failed) to bite back laughter because his phrasing was so easily misunderstood.... Now he's Bent Shaft among the four of us, and you should hear the razzing he gets.

    Yup. Truckers are pervs.

  21. Blank

    in General Staff Questions

    Posted

    Yeah, in two weeks, we covered three months of regular training.... So I know what you mean about needing more hours in the day than you can possibly get. I let some of the studying and work slide so I could sleep and be semi-functional; no use letting yourself get stumbling stupid when you're supposed to be safe to drive. (I think the average, for our group, was maybe--MAYBE--3 hours of sleep per night, when you're supposed to have eight or more. Unsafe much?) At least if you fall asleep at the keyboard, you can still fix your mistakes relatively easily. Falling asleep at the wheel of a big rig, not so much; accidents in a semi trend toward the costly and/or life-endangering side.

    Although, and I can't believe I'm saying this because I so rarely drink anything for caffeine (too focused on flavor), I miss my cappuccino when I'm on the road. *stumbles about, arm outstretched* Sleep, sleep, why doth thou elude me?

    I really did mean it, despite my rambling, when I said that you do a good job. Thank you.

  22. Blank

    in General Staff Questions

    Posted

    Ah. Sounds like a workload I wouldn't want, but she does a good job. (As if I have room to talk about insane workloads.... Cram school for trucking, yes, let me just say this: Avoid it. I spent a week and a half recovering--mostly mentally--from the first two weeks of cramming/training, and I have been cursing myself since...to be honest, since I headed over to be trained. Two days on the Greyhound is never fun, and then coming in late and having to play catch up on top of that...I was kicking myself pretty hard. The insane part? I think I'm starting to enjoy this. There's something wrong with my head. Either that or I'm exhausted and getting loopy....)

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