Shinerdrinker: Blog

Okay, I have to get something off my chest. Don't worry, it's not the end of the world but I need to address something... yes, I hear what you are saying about my propensity for the word "giggle." Hell, I even agree to a degree.

I have a glossary of terms to describe laughter that I got back in high school for a creative writing class I took way back when... you know after avoiding the rampaging dinosaurs.

Smirk: Slight, often fleeting upturning of the corners of the mouth, completely voluntary and controllable.
Smile: Silent, voluntary, and controllable, more perceptible than a smirk; begins to release endorphins.
Grin: Silent, controllable, but uses more facial muscles.
Snicker: First emergence of sound with facial muscles, but still controllable
Giggle: Has a 50 percent chance of reversal to avoid a full laugh; the sound of giggling is amusing; efforts to suppress it tend to increase its strength
Chuckle: involves chest muscles with deeper pitch
Chortle: originates even deeper in the chest and involves muscles of torso; usually provokes laughter in others
Laugh: Involves facial and thoracic muscles as well as abdomen and extremities; the sound of barking or snorting
Cackle: First involuntary stage; pitch is higher and the body begins to rock, the spine extends and flexes, with an upturning of head
Guffaw: Full body response; feet stomp, arms wave, thighs slapped, torso rocks, the sound is deep and loud; may result in free-flowing of tears, increased heart rate, and breathlessness; strongest solitary laughter experience
Howl: Volume and pitch rise higher and higher and the body becomes more animated
Shriek: Greater intensity than howl; a sense of helplessness and vulnerability
Roar: Lose individuality; i.e., the audience roars!

I have used this glossary of terms to describe laughing in my writing and while I agree I use 'giggle' too often, it is the term that perfectly describes what my mind sees when I'm writing the scene. I will endeavor to use these descriptions more fluently in the future and try to stay away from 'giggle.' Unless 'giggle' is just too damn perfect of a description of what is going on during the scene!

Tee Hee!

--Shinerdrinker

Okay, Chapter 63 of Mayhem in a Pill is ready and has been sent to the SOL queue. Good chance it is already on there but if it ain't just give it a little time.

Introducing some new figures in the story to shake things up a bit. I'm actually excited about working these people into the story just because of all the bombs that could go off and destroy or rebuild all kinds of storylines. It's very exciting. But before you all worry, just know I was always going to use these new characters, I just did not know when to introduce them into the mix. But I figured now was as good a time as any, so here you go. Enjoy.

--Shinerdrinker

Umm, just a quick one here e'erybody.

I have sent the next chapter of "Mayhem in a Pill" to the editors. They all obviously wait with bated breath by their computers ignoring all other wants or desires until my wonderful prose comes all over their email inboxes.

At least, that's what I've been told. So they gotta read it and then send it back and then I totally ignore it all and go with what I originally wrote. (That little bit is just to keep my already high opinion of myself in the stratosphere.)

Once they read it over, they'll get it back to me and I'll post it soon thereafter. Or I'll just say "fuck it" and go back to wishing for the next chapter of Dman 3. But I'll more than likely do both.

Thank you for your support. (Bartles and Jaymes TV commercial voice.)

-- Shinerdrinker

So I was just watching the new trailer for a new popcorn movie, "Moonfall." The only thing I could think about it was... "Crap, There Goes That Idea!"

I have several different ideas for the next story after I finish Mayhem and one of those ideas featured the hollow moon as a machine idea and well, there goes that idea. Maybe I can still do it if their idea is waaaaayyyy different than mine.

Let's hope so. I really want to do that story.

--Shinerdrinker

Okay. I hope I have prepared myself for the probable onslaught of negativity coming but I just wanted to warn everyone that there is something here that might cause trouble.

Oh, wait, no, don't worry, not too bad but something that tends to trigger many readers of this story. It's something I thought might become a problem so I decided to ignore it and leave the writing as is. But one of my editors rightfully pointed out that a sizeable subset of readers may be annoyed by what I wholeheartedly use as a very dense description of the line of scrimmage play during a football game. Namely a large exposition on the nuances of playing football among the big uglies.

He suggested I might want to remove a large chunk of it but I decided to leave it in. It is a deep description of what happens in the ever so brief moment of the two lines set up to face off against each other and the chess match that goes on in those brief seconds.

The people who have made their minds known, feel there is too much description of football in this story. I can see their point. But what I'm also trying to describe is that football is not just beefy testosterone-filled men ramming their bodies into each other with the hopes of moving an oblong ball made of pigskin in between two giant H's. There is subtlety. There is beauty. And yes, there are violent beefy men ramming their bodies into each other. But there is a method to the madness and I am describing these things to point out that Tim is learning this as well. His strength and speed give him a leg up on everyone he plays against but he can be beaten.

Thus he is growing.

But if you still don't like all the descriptions of the football game, well I think I set it aside, especially the more thick explanations, and you should be able to skip over that part. I do that often myself while reading other stories, like when long bouts of love-making take me out of the story that has captured my imagination, but I want to continue in the story.

So enjoy the next chapter in Mayhem in a Pill and know that there is a method to the madness. And maybe, hopefully, I can unlock a few eyes to what happens during the battles on the line of scrimmage when you watch a football game.

--Shinerdrinker