Melrick

7106

They sound like the sort of website which is great if things go well, but customer service is virtually non-existent if you actually need help from anyone. I just had a look at that website, and I clicked on the "J-list FAQ" link up the top left hand corner. That may have info for you if you haven't already looked at it. They do have a PO box you could mail to. Also, they say you can leave a voice mail or fax at a certain number, so it might not just be a fax number. I hope you have some luck with them soon.

7101

Hmm I can see the problem. There's probably two ways you could go in. Either be much more vague about what she's wearing (as in, "her outfit consisted of little more than strips of leather strategically covering her modesty" type of thing) or be much more detailed, so the reader understands exactly what she's wearing. The problem with being that detailed is that it can serve as a bit of a road hump in your story, especially if it's not really all that important what she's wearing. As I alluded to before, you may find an opportunity a bit later in your story to describe her outfit a little more - perhaps as she removes an item, or it comes untied, etc. That's one problem with writing for a fantasy genre, it can make it hard to describe things without using modern day comparisons. I've ran into that problem myself. Anyway, good luck!

7099

I can picture the outfit pretty well, and I really don't think it's too much explanation. Although I had to assume the two strips hanging down were attached to the top. If the outfit is a little unusual - like that one - then I feel it really does need to be explained, especially if there are a number of people in a group; it helps to differentiate them, and can be an outward extension of their character. One thing you can do sometimes is to break up the description. Not so much with that outfit, but with your more "standard" outfits. You can describe how the lady's skirt swished as she walked, and then later - perhaps the next paragraph - how the necklace gleamed as it rested against her light blue pullover, for example. Physical descriptions can be broken up that way as well. One problem with having one big paragraph chock-full of describing how the person looks is that it puts a real halt on the story. There can be instances where that's necessary, though, such as the character pointedly taking time to notice everything about another person. Also... to be honest, I think whether or not the reader likes the clothes the characters are wearing is totally irrelevant. The clothes are an outward extension of the character, not the reader or writer, so a very shy and withdraw person is highly unlikely to be wearing really loud and flashy clothes, for example. If it's not particularly important to the story or the character what the person is wearing then simply don't bother with it, or just have a vague description, such as he was dressed neatly. There is one other thing about your description. After the word 'breasts', I'd personally like a comma after it, just to break up the description of the top and the bottom, since you're essentially describing two different things, even if the bottom part is attached to the top part.

My impression of bipolar medication is that it's more designed to keep a person calm rather than strictly happy, but it more than likely is also dulling your creativity a little, which would be very annoying. I can well and truly sympathise with your writers block. I always suffer from it. My giant Achilles heel is coming up with a good idea in the first place. I seem to be very hard to please when it comes to my own story ideas, so my brain simply refuses to spit out any good ones. And the problem with writing a story with only an okay idea is that I invariably loose interest in the story before I finish, then I abandon it or delete it. Unlike most people, I never upload a story that I haven't finished. I always wait until I've finished it and then upload one chapter a week or so. If you dump a twenty chapter story on the site all at once then you're pretty much doomed yourself to getting no reviews, or at least extremely few. But a chapter a week is more likely to encourage people to keep coming back. Now if only I could get a good idea! I write original fiction, and that's where my problem lies; I really want it to be ORIGINAL, as in, nobody else has done it before. But as they say, there's no such thing as an original idea anymore, and I think that's true. So I may well be cursed to never come up with another idea again. So yes, I can WELL and truly sympathise with you.

7097

7094

I am wishing my back would stop hurting.

7092

7090

7088

7085

7083

Not guilty. G/NG: Ever vomited on yourself?

I believe it's because the website is 5 years old, although it's probably getting towards 6 now.

7081

I am glad I finally got through all my Easter chocolate yesterday. I am not going to be eating chocolate again for a while!

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7072

If the story is already on the internet then you're going to have an even bigger time getting it published. Most - if not all - publishing companies require exclusive publishing rights, which means that it's never been published anywhere before, and if it's on the internet then you've already published it, and most - probably all - publishing companies would turn it down immediately based on that alone. Simply 'forgetting' to tell them about this is not a good idea either, because that would be slightly illegal.

I TOTALLY agree with you regarding the Mary Sue stuff. There are so many so-called writers that go absolutely rabid at the mere mention of Mary Sue. It's clearly because these people just don't understand the real art of writing. To avoid writing a character simply because they may sound a little like ourselves is utterly ludicrous! Why hamstring ourselves like that? If we're writers of original fiction then we should be able to create ANY character, whether they're like us or totally opposite. Nor does it mean you have to agree with, or even like, the character. If you talk to just about any professional, published author then they'll tell you that most of them include at least a little of themselves in their characters. I'm reading "King Solomon's Mines" by H. Rider Haggard, and the author freely and happily admitted that the Allan Quartermain character was exactly him. Does that mean it's a lousy book because of that? Of course not. And as far as coming up with names, I started a topic in the "Resources" forum that has links to various sites. Hopefully others will add their own bookmarked sites to it over time.

7069 69... *snickers*