Forum: Author Hangout

Sure there are something that are implied, but you need to be consistent, thus there are limits on what you can imply

Remember, he said, "probably unnecessary."

Got to just love the blogger (turn sarcasm off). In point 5 he jumps all over a person for implying they person is outside without describing trees, mountains etc., then jumps all over people for not implying things. I get the impression he has the same some of the issues he's complaining about.

You know what they say, if you can't write, you teach writing. If you can't teach writing, you volunteer for 'writing contests'. If you can't do shit for contests, you blog about pointless contests. Geez!

The biggest 'tell' of all, is that he never once mentioned anything about storytelling, just what he 'can't stand' about other's writing.

By the way, I'm not about to subscribe to David's Writing Tips!

For Number 4 he is upset about "nothing happening", how a girl is just doing everyday stuff and you dont know what this story is about.
Maybe it's a slice of Life story? Coming of Age? Maybe it's a Happy-normal-day routine that gets slashed after an event that shatters the life that she knows? Maybe it's a Groundhog-Day story that sets up the first day?

He stated it's a short story, which typically don't focus on 'slice of life' stories, instead they wrap up quick scenes which capture the characters perfectly in a short span. I tend to agree with him. A short story which never gets to the point, and never develops the characters, isn't worth wasting time on. Especially not if they're competing against full-length novels which take the time to develop the scene, characters and worlds.

For #8, the blogger never said there was anything wrong with with sex stories or graphically violent stories, he instead stated that it was stupid entering them into a public contest, where they simply couldn't choose them, no matter how good they were. Again, a valid point not reflecting on the story itself.

As for your last point, I've resolved several authors writer's block (and several of my own), but it NEVER takes an hour (which is at least how long it takes the read the book, meaning it's a 'buy my book for an instant cure' book, which is clearly a load of crap.

As they say, writers write, those who can't write write blogs about writing, and those who can't successfully blog volunteer to contests so they can promote their crappy blogs. :(

I know he would have to read a lot of trash in those contests but he makes a disservice for aspiring Authors if he cans the story because he doesn't see where the story is going after two pages.

I'm making assumptions here, but I'm assuming he only applies the 2-page limit for short stories (5,000 to 15,000 words), meaning the authors he's referring to aren't using their limited wordage efficiently and won't have time to rescue the story in the amount they have left. However, he also stated that he doesn't think much of people who submit short stories to a contest comprised of primarily novels.

I can see one specific situation where a writer's block could be resolved in an hour or less.

An author with the writer's block receives a either a suggestion or an question from one of their readers. While thinking about the suggestion or answering the question they gain some inspiration needed to continue the story. Note that the idea from the question or the suggestion might not be used.

Even in that case, it still takes time. Not a lot, but generally, the hardest part is identifying the problem with the existing story. Once you do, you generally need time to consider how the story issue affects the overall story, and then you have to fashion how to respond to it. I generally figure those out with a long walk without distractions while I let my mind wander. It generally takes anywhere from two hours to two days (that would be after you finished the crappy advice book), and then you've got to rewrite the broken passages, normally a specific chapter but I saw a recent case where the author kept writing for an additional hundred pages, meaning they'd have months before they could incorporate all the necessary changes.

Sometimes it's fast for isolated problems (several hours), but in NO circumstances can you do it after reading some generic advice for an hour.

I'm guessing he's never actually written much (besides his blog) and has read others discussing how they rectify writer's block but has never resolved it himself (or if he has, he only has to rewrite a 1,000 word blog which he could probably do in about fifteen minutes).

Actually, writing about your opinions in something like a blog is easy. It is only when you are trying to write something that others will accept as realistic and fits the overall flow of a story that you run into problems.