Every story has to start somewhere, and as a writer, laying down that first stone on the road to the end is always a tough one. Join the Dead Robots as they discuss the topic of opening lines, see what they like and don’t like, and hear some of their own.

Justin wrote:

I love video games. I always have, and I always will. My wife, while not a big player of games, still (thankfully) enjoys watching me play. Not all games, mind you. She doesn’t care for games that are nothing but running and gunning, games that are all violence and no story. When I want to [...]

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Artists like to put on the appearance of the artiste, but we all have to eat, and creating art is easier when a roof is over our heads, so somewhere along the way we have to get paid unless we want to share workspace with the bums. Join the debate!

Justin wrote:

As you will recall, my wife had a seizure last week. It was the scariest moment of my life, but luckily she’s been okay since then and hasn’t had any other sort of issue (we see a neurologist in a couple of weeks, so cross your fingers for her). So, things had been looking up! [...]

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Graham wrote:

I’ve just noticed that the photography category on this blog has 105 entries and the writing category has 130 (including this post). For a blog that’s supposed to be primarily about writing that’s not so good. I’ll have to do more writing to make sure that photography doesn’t take over.

That means that I can’t use photography as a means of procrastination. Hmm… 

Categories: blogging i should be writing photography procrastination writing

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Amanda wrote:

Well, if any of you have been wondering where I am, I got sick. Yes, AGAIN. Gah. Though I think this time it might have been more allergy than germ related, since I contracted my “illness” on Wednesday and I’m already feeling pretty much back to normal. (Though my voice still sounds like crap) Regardless, I’ve been out of the online world since about Wednesday. My evil 37 hour week is finally over and I’ll be working a mere six and a half hours on this likely-to-be-insane Easter Sunday. Yay. I’ve got a lot of days off this week so maybe that will help me catch up with all the things I’ve been putting off (*coughwriting&voiceworkforJustincoughhack;*) and also give me some time to relax and hopefully keep from burning out on my job completely. Dunno what I’m going to do about next week, though. We’ll see…one crazy part of me is half considering throwing open the floodgates on my schedule and going full time just to have something different to do, but I doubt with my “limited availability” they’ll like that suggestion. Something to think about, though. I would like more money, especially since I’ve been saving up for a laptop for almost a month now and I’ve still only got about $750…(I really am excited to get a laptop, though, because I think it will vastly improve my writing productivity, not to mention my online presence. In fact, I’m sure it will be a good thing for me all the way around.)

Anyway. I’d better get upstairs before mom finishes making pancakes, and also I should probably make some attempt at getting ready for work this morning. =P

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Artists live and grow by criticism. It’s one of the many ways we learn where we’ve gone right, and even more importantly, where we went wrong. Sometimes it hurts, but such is the way of the writer. Join us in our pain and progress.

Graham wrote:

From BBC News:

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90…

Sir Arthur’s vivid – and detailed – descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems were enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.

He was the author of more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and his writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction – a genre often accused of veering towards the fantastical – a human and practical face.

I think there are few writers that I could name who have been more influential on my own worldview than Arthur C. Clarke. Although his writing has never really influenced mine – I tend to write in a different strand of his genre if at all – it did instil into me some basic rigours of the rule of writing: Be truthful, within your own universe; once you’ve set the rules for yourself, don’t break them and, most importantly of all, Science Fiction is about the people, not the science. The science is incidental.

I remember a line from his book of essays, Greetings, Carbon-based Bipeds!, specifically from his epitaph to Isaac Asimov. It went something like this:

I once introduced Isaac to a dinner by saying “Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one Isaac Asimov.” Well now there is no Isaac Asimov and the world is a poorer place for it.

I think that you could pretty much use his own words to describe how a lot of science fiction readers and writers feel right now.

And so one of the greats of our age passes into history. But, as always, his legacy remains.

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Amanda wrote:

Episode #27 of DRS has been successfully recorded and by recorded I mean we now have even more material for that bloopers reel we’re eventually going to do. In all seriousness, though, it was a good show, despite any bullshitting that may have occurred beforehand…

As for me, I’m dreading this week. I’m working 37 hours and a good majority of those are probably going to be on the express lane from hell. Today was an absolutely glorious day off, but that doesn’t change the fact that I now have to go to bed and try and sleep with the knowledge that I’m going to be up at 7am tomorrow bleary-eyed and cranky just so I can go stand around in an empty grocery store on sore knees and twiddle my thumbs for eight hours. Yeah. Maybe I can convince them to let me go outside and push carts or something, so I’ll be too exhausted to care that I’m wasting valuable hours of my young life doing absolutely nothing amazing. XP

Anyway. I’ve still go laundry to fold and it’s cold down here. Good night, world.

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Hey, folks, here’s another episode comin’ at ya quick and dirty. We let our hair down a little this week and discussed the topic of theme. Theme is how the writer impacts the reader on an intellectual level, and so that makes it kind of important, but that didn’t stop us from making jokes of ourselves. Make sure to stick around for the whole thing. Or, better yet, don’t, and let this one just die off. Enjoy!

[Reposted by your friendly neighbourhood technomage after it was deleted accidentally. Nothing to see here; move along now...]