stgulik

I want to write, but I just can't hear Their Voices.

On reddit today, writers and students shared their favorite websites for producing ambient sounds. Here are some of my favorites:
( Rain, rain, rain )

I've been writing a short story that is supposed to include a modicum of adventure, involving a shady character who wears black all the time and is renowned for his bad temper.

But I have hit a roadblock. A secondary character, who is Not What He Seems, will not do what he's told in the third act and become the antagonist.

Me: ..... Now in this scene, you try and kill Severus Snape.

Secondary character: [Looks Snape up and down] Who, me? Fight that guy? I'm just a punk kid in an ironic t-shirt.

Me: No, I know that's how you seem, but underneath, you are a trained wizarding assassin! It's all set up!

Secondary character: [Embarrassed to be witnessing my meltdown] Sorry, lady, I have a bus to catch.

Secondary characters are like dogs. You get really mad there are muddy pawprints all over your sofa, but when you trace the problem back to puppyhood, you realize you're the one who neglected to whack it with a newspaper.

Last fall, I was in the midst of finishing a long-delayed - and I mean seriously delayed - graduate thesis. My major was Public Policy. I am here to tell you, there are few majors in the world less funny than Public Policy. And with my stock-in-trade being funny, the thesis was going nowhere fast. I was classically burned-out.

In an effort to regulate my time on the project, I promised myself if I worked x number of hours on the thesis, I would let myself read frivolous things afterward, with impunity, as a reward. But what? Well, I had finished all the Harry Potter books, had read Book 7 about five times through, and was wishing at the back of my mind I could revisit all the characters I loved.

So I went searching for Harry Potter fan fiction. The first place I landed was fanfiction.net. I quickly learned how to weed out the good from the bad just by reading the introductions! I'd have to say, 95 percent of what's on ff.n is just dross. But, oh, that other 5 percent is just what I was looking for.

Did my compromise with myself over thesis time really work? Not usually. But I still managed to get my thesis done and accepted by the deadline!