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Workshop Thread "The Sound of Existence" by DL

DamagedLemon

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Workshop Thread #6 "The Sound of Existence" by DL

After a 2 year hiatus I finally managed to write again!

I don't think it's as good as it could be, maybe due to the lack of practice, but I appreciate any kind of comment (whether good or bad).

Thank you for reading :)

The Sound of Existence.
 
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i've been consuming copious amounts of intravenous midazolam.
ah, water soluble benzos + micron filters really make for enjoyable evenings.
edit: i'm reading it now.
 
okay finished it. first impression: it was well written, executed and structured.
on a purely subjective note though i found the sentiment of the story entirely too saccharine for my liking. i hate it when people express their opinions as valid criticisms, so please don't misunderstand me on this point. i did not overly enjoy your story, but i can appreciate that it was well done.
 
"He even went so far as to jump on my bed and do a little saunter 'round me." Wonderfule line.

I see we've gotten to Cat's Cradle, that was quick? Your'e as fast as me. (Busy, Busy, Busy.) ;)


I thought the exectution of the story was with little flaw, some grammer and reaarangment of strtucture is necessary and maybe a touch more action. I don't know love stories, or existential love stories, as this seems to be, I must admit.

I liked the way you described the lonliness of love. Aldous Huxley did this well I'll quote him here for you have done a similar thing with your introduction and first half.

"We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies — all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes."

You could see the autobiographical nature in this quite clearly, which is always present in all writing. Maybe a touch more subtle on that.

I love the turn after the arousal on the 'new age' and how accurate we hope in our hearts, us psychics to be, and my only real other critique before I got to the point where you described what you thought death would be like was the language lacked punch. Lacked someone grabbing me by the balls with forceful language , not a muse, but a warden, a zen master whacking me on the head with his stick as I fell asleep during Zazen: THIS IS BEAUTY, FUCKHEAD! REALIAZE WITH EYES WIDE OPEN.

That statement did just that for me, it was the first truly ballsy and negative balance in the piece up to this point. I'd quote it but mediafire won't let me quote anything and I've not time to write it out because I'm late for a date with the loony bin. We need more of that language in this piece, to balance the romantic tongue.

"A hip flask was strapped around my side."

Story turns from a poem about lossed love to a rebirth in consciousness. A bit optimistic for some, but not for me. You're dreaming my dream for me, but we're too similar for our own good in a workshop, me thinks. I'm done complimenting the story, but now I'm here only to critique the structure. The bare bones, as it were.

Sorry but I couldn't find it. I loved the turn from romance into fantasy in a single nights sweeping dreamlike motion.

Wait - I'd have preferred more dialogue, but I'm a freak for good dialogue. You'd have to use it very carefully, almost surgically as not to detract from the emotional leanings. Many places throughout made for good spots to introduce even the subtlest of interchanges, the techno lounge, the bedroom, etc. Again, it was so poetically driven the dialogue may even detract from it, thus my caution to use it with subtetly if at all.

Thank you for an enjoyable read, and bless your heart for quoting my favorite bokononist saying.

This was certainly no pack of 'foma'.

<3
 
Details. I love the details, but strangely the piece remains fairly esoteric to me. The cultural references detract from the story, for me, because you're showing off some great descriptive skills and it seems like defering to some external reference kills the words you personally could have written in their place. Some of the description gets a bit verbose, which isn't always a bother but because of the exclusion of certain details I found myself feeling lost.

Only half-way through did I even get some clue as to where in the world the character was (as the grass is most definitely not lush during December in the Northern Hemisphere). With all the rich description about the relationship between the main character and Melody, there are no grounding details provided which makes the story feel like a dream. Who is the main character? Why does he, or she, do what he, or she does? I understand the point is all about capturing a snapshot of time to portray, but it's hard to feel anything for a main character whom we know almost absolutely nothing about. That's the issue with the lack of details about the setting also. While a lot of the stories featured so far didn't implicity provide details about time and place, they also didn't delve into strange Disney-like descriptions of sparrows flying into rooms to chirp songs at the sleeping princess. That kind of stuff gets to be more scary than saccharine when the reader has no frame of reference as to where on Earth such things might actually occur.

To summarize, I think details are a major cornerstone of writing and you rock the show on that front. I'm not sure if the setting and character details were excluded specifically to create a special atmosphere, but as a reader I was hoping to get a lot of those details to provide that ground connection and fully hook me into the plot flowing from the character's mind.

I fucking forget which writer said this so I have to paraphrase and insist that it was a great American writer but here's what he said anyway: "Give the reader everything."
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys, I really appreciate it.

I know, I think my style is a little too ethereal and dreamy and I needed to keep things grounded more. I think I was too concerned with evoking an emotion in the reader that I forget to keep things realistic.

I'll definitely take the comments here into consideration and try and incorporate that into my next piece of work.
 
Comments pending. I've been neglecting the workshop because I can't justify doing writing-related shit other than meeting my current deadline. Fucking deadlines. Need to finish a story by tomorrow afternoon, if I have any chance of getting it published. But I'm not writing anything. 24 hours, to come up with 1800 words. Fuck monkey.
 
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