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13 Responses to “The Stupid 365 Project, Day 35: The End Is (Not) Near” -
fairyhedgehog Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 9:58 am
I love to know that the way you write a book is to paint yourself into a corner and let your characters get you out of it! I feel less anxious about my nanomuddle now.
Tim, whatever you write you put an interesting slant on it. I like your whimsical posts (Rethinking Hell) and hearing about your exploits with famous people. You could just open the newspaper one day and shove a finger on it and see what inspiration it gives you. Unless like me you don’t read a paper. Poking the screen doesn’t feel the same.
I’ll Tweet one of your posts and see if anyone wants to join us.
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Phil Hanson Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Heh! I usually paint myself into a corner, then wait for the paint to dry. Whatever works for ya, I guess. But, hey, Tim, I’ll give a shout out on my blog this weekend (that paint-drying thing, again) to see if I can entice anyone to join in. Oh, yeah, and I do like what you’re doing here. Tim Hallinan, daily blogger. Who knew?
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Eric Stone Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Lurid posts about your bachelor days in Asia. There just isn’t enough sex on the internet.
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Larissa Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
So I’ve always been a fan of dramas and satires so I love to hear a) your spins on what’s going on in the real world and b) to actually seeee some of that struggle you keep mentioning-like with the short story and all-I’m a process person is really what it is-I like to see the way something starts off and ends up and all the roadblocks in the middle.
So yeah, just write and have fun with it and put some stuff up that scares you every once in a while. (c:
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EverettK Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
In lieu of a newspaper to poke your finger into, here’s a challenge (of course, how do we know that you’ll accomplish it truthfully?)…
Ask for ONE word from each person who cares to provide one in a comment. Then pick THREE of those words (your choice) and do a Google search on them. Pick one of the first 10 listings and bring up that web page, and THAT is the subject (or inspiration) for your “challenge blog.”
Should you decide to accept this glove across the face, my word is: pasties.
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Laren Bright Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
If you’re asking what people want to see here,I suggest the answer is: if a picture is worth a thousand words, you could just post a picture every 3 days. As long as it’s a naked picture. And as long as it’s not a naked picture of you (shudder). Would probably also serve to increase the hits to your blog. No, don’t thank me.
BTW — If you write enough short stories, you could have your next e-book.
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Gary Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Everett, I suggested Tim write stories at one word per day. I even sent him a tutorial video. But you know how it is with authors and advice.
Oh, and BTW, from yesterday’s blog: rather than being awed and humbled by your brilliant discovery on how to format comments, Tim seems instead to be mocking and dismissive.
Would you have expected that?
Of course, it doesn’t stop him formatting the heck out of his own entries when he wants to – October 20, for example. But let us lesser beings try to do something like that and then, well… scorn isn’t in it.
Ah, well – the more things change, the more they stay the same.
But seriously, Tim, it’s great that this daily blog is doing good things for your writing. The rest of us can probably put up with a lot for that outcome.
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Sharai Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Tim, I love reading this blog! Although I can’t believe you wrote, “I’m going to take a crack at. . .” in today’s post.
You’ve asked for input, but the best part is seeing where your twisted mind wanders each day. If your ever really stuck just fall back on your weight loss regimens. Or . . . if your REALlY desperate take Everett’s challenge. I’ll add a word if he tells us whether it’s ‘pasties’ as in Cornish meat pies or those things used by striptease artists.
I’d like to know which posts you’ve enjoyed most so far.
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EverettK Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Sharai said: I’ll add a word if he tells us whether it’s ‘pasties’ as in Cornish meat pies or those things used by striptease artists.
 Intentionally multi-meaning for more fun with Googling.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
November 5th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Whew! I turn my back for one day and look at all the people I missed. (Had a meeting most of the day with the TV people re: Poke on cable — very interesting.) Anyway, I’m back now.
FHH — That pretty much is the method, that plus following any character who threatens to hijack the book to find out whether they’ll take it someplace better than the place I had in mind. I am glad you like so many of the posts, and I’ll poke a paper for you sometime soon.
Hi, Phil, and thanks for the shout-out. Tomorrow’s going to be a good one, I think, the first I’ve written from a fictional first-person perspective. Seems like it’s going to be pretty funny, although I won’t know until I actually write it. Anyway, anything you and FHH (and anyone else) can do will be appreciated. And if we have more readers, it would relieve you of the moral responsibility to fall by day after day to keep me from getting depressed.
Eric, my bachelor days in Asia at their wildest can’t even compete with cable TV these days, much less the Internet. I write adventures primarily to make up for not having had any.
Thanks, Riss — I’d write more about writing and process, but people tell me “everyone” does that, so I’ve soft-pedaled it. I could pretty much write about writing every day of the week. I’ll continue to scare myself from time to time, if only because it keeps me awake.
Everett — you’re on. Not tomorrow, because tomorrow you’re going to read a top-secret memo to President Bush about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and that’s much more important than my accepting some dare. (Feh.) But Sunday I’ll write a post based on a page that I Google using pasties and three other words, chosen by me from today’s comments. To calm your fears about my honesty, I’ll list the words and you can Google them yourself to verify that the site comes up. What I don’t promise is that I’ll get anything out of it you might actually like to read, but that’s the nature of a dare, isn’t it?
Laren, thank you. Naked pictures it is, beginning with the presidents, and, if anyone’s atill alive after Grover Cleveland, moving on to opera stars of the 19th century, when poundage ruled the stage. You are going to be soooo sorry you suggested this. I don’t know about the short stories. Am still considering (not writing, just considering) Thanksgiving.
Whoa, Gary, bold and italics in the same sentence? I would have gladly followed your advice, but there are people in this group who would have seen it as a dodge, pointing out that each of those blogs was 299 words short. Also, writing at that pace would paralyze me; the secret of my method is that I write too fast to think about it. If I thought about it, I’d get paralyzed.
Sharai, I love that you love reading this blog. I’d rephrase “take a crack at,” but it’s too late. The ones I’ve really loved are the truly desperate ones (Hell, for example) and the ones where I went back and opened up a memory I hadn’t thought about in years — El Sombrero comes to mind. I also liked writing about Hepburn and Olivier. Actually, most of them have been fun.
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fairyhedgehog Says:
November 6th, 2010 at 3:10 am
My blog. Now why didn’t I think of that? Thanks for the idea, Phil, and I’ve mentioned The Stupid Project today.
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Bonnie Says:
November 6th, 2010 at 6:40 am
I seem to remember reading that at one time Google had a full-time attorney on staff whose job it was to ensure that Google did not become a lower-case verb, as it were. The example I recall was that the proper form should be “I looked up the cute guy I met last night on Google,” not “I googled that hottie.” Looks like a lost cause.
I for one would love to read about the process of writing, and some of my favorite writers are very inspiring on the topic. In the end, though, I suspect it’s like reading books about exercising and losing weight–just gets in the way of doing it.
To that end I have taken the plunge and signed up for an annual “competition” the goal of which is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Since it is already the 6th and I’ve written not a single word, I’m reluctant to do the math; it’s too frightening. As it happens, within a day or two of hearing about it I noticed a snarky piece in Slate (http://www.salon.com/books/writing/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2010/11/02/nanowrimo) begging us all not to do it. Miller complains that the participants (who “win” if they complete the project, regardless of quality) fail to understand that their “shitty first drafts” are not ripe for publication. Snobbery? Perhaps, but I was struck by her observation that many of the wannabe writers aren’t really readers. Struck, hell, I was baffled and perplexed. Personally, though I would love to be the next Jim Harrison, I’d be happy to be able to create the kind of book that I myself would like to read (which forunately encompasses a pretty broad spectrum).
Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying I would love to read here, Tim, about authors you like and what you like about them. Burningly curious to know, for example, whether you, too, read Report to Greco as a hot-blooded adolescent.
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Timothy Hallinan Says:
November 6th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Well, first, for the next blog (Sunday), I’m accepting Everett’s challenge. I’ll start with “pasties” and if Sharai or others volunteer a word, I’ll use theirs, too –otherwise, I’ll pick three more words at random. God knows where it’ll take me.
FHH, thanks for the mention on your blog. You may refer to this as the Blog du Jour project if you think Stupid 365 Project is vague or pejorative.
Gee, Bonnie, you’d thing Google would be smarter than that — although I guess widespread use as a non-proper noun can endanger trademark. Let’s just hope they don’t go the way of such infuriating idiocy as “Kleenex-brand tissues” and “Clorox-brand bleach.” I worked for IBM for about 20 years as a consultant, helping them with television, and they were hypersensitive, although for a different reason, to my using “xerox” as a synonym for “photocopy.”
I was going to write about the extraordinarily snotty Laura Miller and her wretched Salon piece but it seemed meanspirited on the heels of the Judith Gristle COOK’S SOURCE piece. BTW, they’ve pulled down their Facebook page and moved to another one in which they repeatedly threaten libel suits against negative posters, complete with having retained a geek to trace the e-mail addresses of those who post anonymously. Talk about digging the hole deeper and deeper and . . .
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