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The offical EE2 bitch and procastination thread (1 Viewer)

Meldrum

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Fuck, I wish I could get down to work.

Last week I bummed around, this week looks like the same jizzle.
 
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Starting's always the hardest... why not force yourself to write 200 words or so now, and then refine it later?

Something is better than nothing, particularly this late in the year.
 

black_man

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i'm sorry to interrupt, but i felt maybe it would be worth asking glitterfairy of jhakka or those others who have previously completed the course - in my collection of poetry i had initially felt i had reached the word limit (which i feel is largely around 3500 words) although i have fairly stringently edited my work, and now i find myself at around the 3000 word range. Would any of you feel that it would be somewhat of an impediment to my work if it remained around this number? i'm aware there is a marking criteria emphasising the importance of a sustained work with precision and flair, though i'm not entirely sure. if anyone could help i would be very very grateful
 

monique66

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amoz_lilo said:
i started yesterday, what I wrote felt disjointed. having trouble making it coherent.
haha...that's like you in real life. Don't worry its absurdist anyhow :D
 
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black_man said:
i'm sorry to interrupt, but i felt maybe it would be worth asking glitterfairy of jhakka or those others who have previously completed the course - in my collection of poetry i had initially felt i had reached the word limit (which i feel is largely around 3500 words) although i have fairly stringently edited my work, and now i find myself at around the 3000 word range. Would any of you feel that it would be somewhat of an impediment to my work if it remained around this number? i'm aware there is a marking criteria emphasising the importance of a sustained work with precision and flair, though i'm not entirely sure. if anyone could help i would be very very grateful
What is the word limit for poetry exactly? Or is there *not* one?

Provided yours falls within it, you'll be fine. Yes, it is incredibly important to have a unified piece that works together well (in my opinion this is most important, unfortunately I'm not the Board of Studies :( ) but it is equally important to fall within the word limit :(

Ok, I've done a little bit of research here, no lower word limit.

So, if you truly believe your poetry is the best it can be and would not benefit from being extended, then go for it and I wish you all the best. :)
 
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amoz_lilo said:
i started yesterday, what I wrote felt disjointed. having trouble making it coherent.
That's ok. Fix it in the re-working :D

You have no IDEA how warped my first full draft was. It didn't even make much sense, not even to me :D
 

black_man

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glitterfairy said:
What is the word limit for poetry exactly? Or is there *not* one?
there is a word limit of 5000 for a total finished product, which i think includes both major work and reflection statement. i'm not entirely sure if the reflection statement is 1500 words for all subjects, but it is within the poetry medium, so therefore there is usually a limit at around 3500 words for poetry.

i'm not entirely sure though, i could be incorrect
 

tez0r

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amoz_lilo said:
i started yesterday, what I wrote felt disjointed. having trouble making it coherent.
Writing disjointed is because you're trying to write sophisticated, llike trying to write beyond how you usually write. This results in a mixing up of tense and using big words etc. Try to make everything clear, because it's completely different when it's read by other people without preconceived knowledge. For you, it might be straight forward, but to others it may seem like a whole ball of confusing.

Here's a tip, try to write how you usually write, or how you usually speak, you can put extended metaphors in later =)
 

monique66

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tez0r said:
Writing disjointed is because you're trying to write sophisticated, llike trying to write beyond how you usually write. This results in a mixing up of tense and using big words etc. Try to make everything clear, because it's completely different when it's read by other people without preconceived knowledge. For you, it might be straight forward, but to others it may seem like a whole ball of confusing.

Here's a tip, try to write how you usually write, or how you usually speak, you can put extended metaphors in later =)
if you knew her in real life she's like how she writes. She was trying to descibe how she was lonely and told me that she felt like the last anzac buscuit in the tin..:p (this way in yr 9 i'll admitt) But absurdist is meant to e disjoined, if it all made sense then it wouldn't be absurd

Btw amoz get cracking! I want to see what happens to her at the end!
 

ameh

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i remember that anzac biscuit moment. i hated those biscuits.
tezor: yeah that verbose thingo was a problem for me intermittently in my writing, but mainly i think it's that i'm lacking direction/purpose. which i hope in my reflection statement can be described as ''intentional absurdism''

shit.
 

tez0r

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LOL omg, anzac biscuit, that's such an awesome description, =)
Yeah, that whole verbose thing pissed me off so much, i initially wrote 7000 words and threw it at my EE2 teacher, only to have it thrown back at me with the comment "it makes no sense". So now i just write what i feel and my writing is just in normal prose. Don't stress out so much, i mean you have to get it done, but once you have direction and know where it is exactly you want to go, the word count will fly by =D
The RS can move you into a higher band if you can adeqately explain what it is you wanted to do in the first place and show evidence of research, so if you can polish your RS so hard that you can see your own absurd image in it, it'll work out great
i'd love to read your MW sometime, if you need anyone to edit, Pm/email me if you need someone to read it
 

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ok with the RS im pretty much screwed, two reasons:

1. cant think of purpose to explain. I actually went to my teacher to explain i needed more inspiration for my story to which she replied ''well you should've have started BY NOW''

2. has no evidence of research that was actually useful to my major work. this is me in my first viva voce in which i got 4/10. - total ad libido!

me: ''oh yeah I'll be thriving off PURE creativity, research won't really be THAT useful. yeah ill be typing it on the computer [in b/w msn and BoS and mother screaming household chores in the background] when i have time. do i have anything more to add? no not really, can i go to the canteen now?"
 

ameh

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teZor: thanks for the offer [has done 103 words all up].

i want to read yours now! [unless its the teen angsty cliche story u mentioned in the other thread....?]
 
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black_man said:
i'm sorry to interrupt, but i felt maybe it would be worth asking glitterfairy of jhakka or those others who have previously completed the course - in my collection of poetry i had initially felt i had reached the word limit (which i feel is largely around 3500 words) although i have fairly stringently edited my work, and now i find myself at around the 3000 word range. Would any of you feel that it would be somewhat of an impediment to my work if it remained around this number? i'm aware there is a marking criteria emphasising the importance of a sustained work with precision and flair, though i'm not entirely sure. if anyone could help i would be very very grateful
Just to add on to what Lynn said:

I would not feel that cutting out those 500 words would be an impediment so long as the words you cut were unecessary. The short story medium has a word limit of 6000-8000 words, a two thousand word gap, so I sincerely doubt that 500 words under the maximum word count would do you any harm, so long as it doesn't look like you're cutting corners.

If you were 500 words over the word count, I would strongly advise you to cut them out since you must be within the specified limits. But since there is no minimum for poetry (which I would assume is much harder to write), those 500 words should not be held against you.

amoz_lilo said:
1. cant think of purpose to explain. I actually went to my teacher to explain i needed more inspiration for my story to which she replied ''well you should've have started BY NOW''

2. has no evidence of research that was actually useful to my major work. this is me in my first viva voce in which i got 4/10. - total ad libido!
1. What is in your story (so far, anyway)? If it contains a point about society or the experience of growing up or the evils of milking a cow with cold hands, that's a start. If you're making a point of deriving from an accepted model for a genre, write about that too. I'm sure if you overanalyse you can find something.

2. What texts have you read in your chosen medium/genre/style? What style guides have you looked at? Hell, even past Major Works is a start. What information have you had to look up to make your work that little bit more accurate? Download and read articles about writing (or whatever) and chuck them in your journal. At least then you have something even if it's not the ideal amount.
 

ameh

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jhakka: pm'd you

I'm having trouble with character descriptions. Great writers such as Wilde and Balzac are cause and effect indescription in terms of ACTUAL contribution to the POINT, mine is just ok if it sounds good, creative just chuck it in, to hell with the future, long term purpose!

n.b. there should be a HISEXT bitch and procrastination thread! *makes one up*
 
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In regards to your Reflection Statement:

You *must* have had a purpose for writing this story. Well, ok, so I woke up one morning and wanted to write a story about a cow. Why? Dig a little deeper... ok, so I had a dream about cows, I *want* to write a story with a simple character and subject (like a cow) in order to __________-

It's actually a lot easier than you think. However, don't expect your answers to be floating around on the top of your head... go a little deeper.

As writers, what we write is as a result of years of culture, discourse (I could go on about this forever) and also what we read. For example, even though I had a sort of po-mo thing going on in my major work, the bulk of it wasn't to prove how cleverly I could fragment my story, it was to look at a concept close to my heart, because *I* wanted to analyse it, and *I* wanted the audience to be able to understand what I was trying to do. That was my purpose - I wanted to educate an audience, show them a new perspective, tell them *my* story.

Also - even though there's a trend towards the whole pomo thing (yes, even me... *sigh*) I'm not a pomo writer, never claimed to be. I read fantasy and glorious pulp fiction, hence I write like a pulp-fiction writer. Think for a minute about all the things that influenced your writing style - is it because you love action movies/books, magazines, front-page news...? Chances are all this "background stuff" will sneak itself into your writing somehow, for the unconscious reason that you want your story to appeal to your intended audience - essentially other people just like you :p

However, I wanted to do it in a non-overly-academic way so it was accessible to my intended audience. So, I do a little research into psychology, and I read a couple of short stories to get my head around the fact I have a *gasp* word limit... (I'm more of a novel/epic writer).

But as Justin has said, if you overanalyse you *will* find something. Even if you analyse, you might find something you're assuming the reader will just sort of know - don't assume, write it down. Yes, even if it's obvious to you.

Talking more about research now - research your genre, for a start. Language, concept... There is a whole bunch of books out there "teaching" you how to write. There's even the movie Finding Forrester which I thought was WONDERFUL.

Even if you research, and it's not useful, still put it in your journal and say *why* it wasn't useful. We do so much textual analysis in Adv Eng and EE1 - it's just doing it again (in part) in EE2.

And now, I'm also way too tired to go on... will continue this tommorrow
 
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tez0r

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amoz_lilo said:
teZor: thanks for the offer [has done 103 words all up].

i want to read yours now! [unless its the teen angsty cliche story u mentioned in the other thread....?]
awww so you wouldn't read it if it was angsty? :(
haha, i've changed it now, i'm dealing with consumerism in my MW in a non-boring way. Well, non boring to me anyway, i'm almost done with my first draft =) 7200 words so far hehe
YOU CAN DO IT!!!
 

ameh

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tez0r said:
awww so you wouldn't read it if it was angsty? :(
haha, i've changed it now, i'm dealing with consumerism in my MW in a non-boring way. Well, non boring to me anyway, i'm almost done with my first draft =) 7200 words so far hehe
YOU CAN DO IT!!!

wow 7200 words! good work =)
lol ill go to sleep now and maybe work on it another day . . .

i was looking up the absurdist communities on the net. they're are a bit weird:
http://www.absurdist.cc/


toodles!
 

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