CHAT ARCHIVE - 10-30-99, Mood & Imagery

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ICQ Chat Save file
Started on Sun Oct 31 02:18:08 1999

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<Sea Witch> Do we have any wet towels wrapped around middle bits tonight?
<Casey> I hope not! That sounds ominous.
<Sea Witch> Actually, I think it sounds interesting heh heh
<crip> maybe need some to keep my tummy in if i keep eating this halloween
candy
<Goshwin> bits?
<Sea Witch> Yeah, you know.....bits
<Goshwin> Oh... "BITS" yeah thats clear now!
<Sea Witch> Witchie is a Pommie B******* but you can call me Ms B****** <g>
<Casey> (With a capital B, I notice!)
<Casey> Okay, tonight's mini grammar lesson concerns words that I see
confused every day.
<Sea Witch> I'm always confused heh heh
<shorty103> that makes two of us SW
<Sea Witch> LOL Rose
<Casey> their, there, and less frequently, they're, are principle culprits.
<Sea Witch> So are two, too and to
<Casey> There is a very simple and easy way to keep their and there
differentiated.
<Casey> There is directional. "Over there"
<Casey> There is also used every place where their is not appropriate.
<Casey> There is a box.
<Sea Witch> does it have choccies in it Casey?
<Casey> The spelling of their has an "i" in it--which refers to people
since "I am a person."
<Casey> (Get it?)
<shorty103> got it! LOL
<Casey> So wherever you're referring to people (Their shoes), you use the
their with an I in it.
<Casey> They're is the simplest of the three to keep straight because it's
a contraction. Mentally replace they're with they are and if it is what
you meant to say, the contraction is correct.
<Casey> What are choccies, Witchie?
<Sea Witch> They're happy to announce their shoes are over there in the
corner
<Casey> Chocolates?
<Sea Witch> Of course! And Biccies are cookies.
<Casey> Outstanding example, SW.
<Sea Witch> Blush
<Casey> to and too are also routinely confused.
<shorty103> one star for SW!
<Sea Witch> Thanks Rose <g>
<Casey> The one with the extra o means "excessive." So if you think too
many o's, then you know which one to use.
<Casey> They have too many dogs.
<Sea Witch> Two chickens went to market too
<Casey> Too, also means "also."
<shorty103> Sea Witch has too many shoes in that corner of hers!
<Casey> So if you picture yourself and a friend, then you have an o for
each of you.
<Casey> Wherever you're not using too (to mean excessive or also), then use
to.
<Casey> okay: a and an.
<Sea Witch> I've always loved the term "an eunuch"!
<Casey> an was invented because a is too difficult to pronounce in front of
a word beginning with a vowel.
<Sea Witch> Except an eunuch
<Casey> Yeah, a would be easier to pronounce, but it would play havoc with
the rules if we did it.
<Sea Witch> Rules are made to throw in the ash can
<Casey> When is an used with a word beginning with a consonant?
<Sea Witch> H
<Casey> Right, SW.
<shorty103> an affair to remember, title of a movie
<Casey> You're right, rose.
<Casey> Especially when the h word has the sound of a vowel.
<shorty103> just a thought!
<Casey> an historical novel.
<Sea Witch> Hysterical more like
<crip> don't English people just ignore the 'h' in any word?
<Casey> What the 'ell?
<Sea Witch> Nah You mean "Wot the bleedin' 'ell!"
<Casey> Even better, Witchie.
<Casey> Anyone else have words they confuse? Those I gave are the ones I
see misused the most.
<Sea Witch> Who and whom get some people
<Casey> Those deserve a night all their own.
<Sea Witch> whose and who's also confuse
<Casey> Again, the apostrophe indicates a contraction. Who is, Who has
<Casey> Substitute the two words for the contraction and you'll know
immediately if it's wrong or not.
<shorty103> well, when I start a letter to someone I do know, I begin with
To whom it may concern, and then I don't get into trouble with the who and
whom thing
<Sea Witch> Problem is, most people think a contraction is what you get
while giving birth!
<Casey> Does everyone here know what a grammatical contraction is?
<shorty103> LOL SW
<AUSBomber> /me has no idea
<shorty103> no
<Casey> A contraction is the combining of two words to make one.
<Casey> who has becomes who's
<Casey> Can not becomes can't
<Casey> The apostrophe (') always indicates letters that have been left
out.
<Casey> (forgetting proper names)
<shorty103> we'll; haven't
<Chipmonk> Good Evenink.
<AUSBomber> Hi Chippers
<Sea Witch> Oh, God. It's her foreign cousin
<Casey> We have Boris Karloff with us tonight!
<crip> it's the evil dr. chipenstien
<Sea Witch> LOL Crip
<Casey> Good one, Crip!
<crip> ahhhhhhhhhhhh stop reading my mind casey!
<Chipmonk> Don't be scared it's just me--not the vampire rodent.
<shorty103> and there's won't as well as isn't
<Casey> exactly, Rose.
<crip> if you're not the vampire rodent then what is that thing on casey's
head? oh wait that's just her hair nevermind
<Casey> (I forget sometimes what "fun" it is to have Crip around)
<shorty103> LOL
<Casey> You have the idea, Rose.
<Sea Witch> Ouch! Chipmonks bite
<shorty103> at least I got something right tonight
<Casey> Knowing that the apostrophe is placed wherever letters are omitted
helps when you create your own contractions in dialogue.
<Chipmonk> We are contracting?
<Chipmonk> They're there with their teacher, Casey.
<Casey> Very good, Chip!
<Casey> Speaking of vampires leads us into our topic tonight, which is mood
and imagery (in horror writing).
<AUSBomber> I used to write horror stories
<Sea Witch> Me too until someone told me where I was going wrong <g>
<AUSBomber> Friends at school used to buy em from me. :)
<Chipmonk> Wow!
<Casey> Ah-ha! people can make money writing!
<Casey> For those of you who have suffered through my Devices workshop,
some of tonight's discussion will be redundant.
<shorty103> I don't even watch horror movies, because of that reason
<Casey> We're all familiar with similes.
<Casey> Similies: phrases using the work "like."
<Chipmonk> Like, what-ev-r!
<Casey> "The night was like a black curtain, shining with cold rain and
streaked with rips where the lightning tore it apart."
<Casey> Not quite like that, Chip. (giggle)
<Goshwin> Going out with a bang? (Aus)
<Sea Witch> It isn't polite to call Sheila's bangs
<Goshwin> Bangers?
<Sea Witch> You don't call them sausages either!
<Chipmonk> Girls are sausages?
<Sea Witch> SNAP!
<Casey> You don't eat them?
<Casey> (Casey hangs her head and slinks off.)
<Sea Witch> Depends whether or not it's a heavy date heh heh
<Chipmonk> That's a metaphore, not a simile.
<Goshwin> Not sure if this is heading in the "Propper" direction (Where is
Zen when yah need him)
<Casey> Okay, we're embarrassing Gosh. Back to topic.
<Casey> Chip named Metaphors.
<Casey> That was exemplified by SW's The girl is a sausage.
<Sea Witch> That's right. Blame Witchie! mutter mutter mutter....
<Casey> Metonymy uses a universally recognized proper name to denote
characteristics of an individual or thing.
<Casey> For example, saying, "I'd better go before King Kong catches me,"
and glancing at a husband.
<Goshwin> My god! Chip just asked me to smell her FEET!!! (Sort of nutty
smelling)
<Chipmonk> That's what kids say when they Trick or Treat here, Gosh.
<Casey> She's always licking them. They should be clean.
<Sea Witch> Hey, Chipmonk has a foot fetish!
<Casey> What is the saying, Chip?
<AUSBomber> there are worse fettishes
<Chipmonk> Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.
<Goshwin> Sniff...
<Sea Witch> There sure are Andy. Some very weird ones!
<Casey> Onomatopaeia are words that imitate the sounds of the things
they're describing.
<Sea Witch> Like the honk of a horn?
<Casey> Yep.
<Chipmonk> The tintanabulation of the bells.
<Sea Witch> Clever dick!
<Casey> Only Chip would come up with that one!
<Chipmonk> Poe came up with it first.
<Sea Witch> So, "ringing" wasn't good enough for him huh?
<Casey> We've used that quote in a previous class.
<Casey> Personification, of course, gives human characteristics to
non-human things.
<Casey> My favorite thing to harp upon: using definite (specific) nouns
and verbs instead of general ones. Trudged, sauntered, pranced, staggered,
etc., instead of "walked."
<Chipmonk> Scrape, thump, scrape, thump.
<Casey> A pirate!
<Sea Witch> I didn't know you had a wooden leg Chip
<Chipmonk> The mummy.
<Casey> Yep, mummy works, too.
<Casey> How about nouns that portray a thumbnail sketch of a character?
<Casey> "The hag grinned."
<Sea Witch> Surely a mummy's movement would be more muffled. All those
bandages see
<Chipmonk> Did you grin, witchie?
<Sea Witch> Heh heh heh
<Chipmonk> The hag cackled.
<shorty103> yeah, it's a mummy with a wooden leg! LOL
<Sea Witch> Mwaaaah hah hah hah
<Chipmonk> Eeep!
<Sea Witch> The hag cackled
<Casey> Some other words that carry their own connotations, anyone?
<Chipmonk> Hmmmm...
<Sea Witch> The cripple begged
<Casey> mansion
<Casey> behemoth
<Chipmonk> nerd
<Sea Witch> I think I've just lost the thread of this conversation
<Casey> I think you weren't paying attention!
<shorty103> Casey, some of these big words are a little confusing to me,
what's connotations?
<Casey> That's why I gave you guys something to do.
<Chipmonk> Put her in the waste basket!
<shorty103> I don't get out much! LOL
<Casey> Connotations means any word that immediately brings images to mind.

<shorty103> okay, thanks
<Sea Witch> cannibal!
<Casey> Like "mansion" gives us the immediate impression of wealth and
status, not simply a mental image of a large house.
<Chipmonk> Like hag gives a different image compared to old woman.
<Casey> Yeah. Hag gives me the image of some one who's dirty and unkempt,
bad teeth, and perhaps a witch.
<Sea Witch> Sniff, Witchie is very insulted. I'm a very fastidious Witch
<Chipmonk> Gorge instead of eat.
<shorty103> I understand mansion, but some of the words like connotations
are the problem word.
<Chipmonk> The cannibal gorged on hags.
<Sea Witch> The cannibal ain't been born!
<Casey> Anytime I use a confusing word or description, please stop me. I'm
happy to explain.
<shorty103> thanks Casey
<Chipmonk> The cannibal gorged on hags has a different connotation than the
man had an old lady for dinner.
<Casey> Very different, Chip!
<Chipmonk> See the difference Rose?
<Sea Witch> As main course or dessert?
<Goshwin> A new way of thinking about "Eating out"
<shorty103> yes
<Sea Witch> More like grossing out
<Casey> So, I was asking for words that have meanings beyond their specific
meaning.
<shorty103> I don't watch horror movies, I can't stand watching something
like that, even though movies are not real, but it's the thought that it
could be
<Casey> Anyway, after we've learned all these really neat and separate
devices, what do we do with them?
<Sea Witch> Is this a catch question?
<Casey> Yeah, it is.
<Sea Witch> Darn! I fumbled it
<Casey> How are they incorporated into writing to create scary scenes?
<Casey> Usually, they're brought into writing during the rewrite phase.
<Casey> First, because you usually have to know where you're going with a
story to work them in effectively.
<Casey> You need to know the kind of mood you want created in a specific
scene.
<Casey> You need to know the information that must be conveyed in the scene
(because each scene must draw the story forward to its conclusion)
<Sea Witch> The skeletal branches of the tree scraped against the
window......screeeeee!
<Chipmonk> Ouch my ears!
<Chipmonk> Otomotopeia!
<Casey> A nifty trick is to pick a description "theme" and carry that
description through a paragraph or scene or chapter.
<Chipmonk> Like a reoccurring symbol?
<Casey> yes, Chip.
<Sea Witch> The moonbeams, like threads of silver wove a tapestry of light
across the shadowy room
<Casey> What's your theme there, SW?
<Casey> Weaving?
<Chipmonk> It's a spider story?
<Sea Witch> Uh, needlework I think. Just couldn't find a way to fit
knitting in though
<Sea Witch> Heh heh. I think the neural link between my fingers and my
brain has become phase shifted
<Casey> Instead of "shadowy," is there another weaving or sewing symbol you
could use for room?
<Chipmonk> John lay in bed while his bones knitted.
<Sea Witch> LOL Chip
<Casey> Combining the two descriptions (SW's and Chip's) presents a funny
scenario!
<Sea Witch> how about canvas?
<Casey> Good one, SW.
<Chipmonk> across the canvas of the room? Cool!
<Casey> Using a single reference is hardly noticed, but using two in the
same sentence brings it alive.
<Casey> Just don't overdo the allusions unless you're writing comedy.
<Sea Witch> I always thought that too much imagery was like feeding lead
doughnuts to a duck. The bloody thing sinks beneath the weight
<Chipmonk> Speaking of images!
<Sea Witch> Uh oh!
<Casey> Imagery should enhance a scene, not take it over.
<Chipmonk> Uh oh, what?
<Casey> It should add something to the story (add information), not simply
exist to paint pictures.
<Sea Witch> It's knowing where to draw the line
<Chipmonk> True.
<Casey> Exactly. And getting the balance right is usually a matter of
practice and feedback.
<Sea Witch> It's very easy to lose one's ruler
<Chipmonk> You end up writing skip-over paragraphs.
<Sea Witch> I usually end up scrapping them!
<Goshwin> Skip over?
<Casey> Right, Chip.
<Casey> (Where the reader skips over paragraphs)
<Chipmonk> You know, the kind a reader skips over.
<Goshwin> Oh yah.. Blah blah.. next page.. blah blah , next chapter.. Blah
blah.. ah crap, next book!
<Sea Witch> Exactly!
<Casey> Sometime, Witchie, try not scrapping them, but distilling them into
one or 2 sentences.
<Chipmonk> Or mix them in with action or dialogue.
<Sea Witch> Yeah, Action!
<Sea Witch> I always put a lot of thought into dialogue
<Sea Witch> A few well chosen words can set the scene
<Casey> Usually, there's one or two points you were trying to achieve with
the 10 pages of description. If you can figure out what those points were,
it becomes an interesting challenge to fit them in minus the 2,000 words.
<Chipmonk> Very true.
<Chipmonk> To both.
<Casey> Yep. You got the point of tonight's entire lesson.
<Sea Witch> Who moi?
<Casey> Oui, moi.
<Casey> I did find a description that uses some of tonight's devices to
great effect.
<Sea Witch> Are you going to share?
<Casey> Wednesday, June 16, 1976
<Casey> 11:59 p.m.
<Casey> The car eased off Long Islands Highway 27, homing in on the sound
of surf. The tires drilled upon asphalt, turned right, crackled onto a
hard-sand roadbed. Hollies, then the mittens and gloves of sassafras
flogged the cars sides. It burrowed deeper. The roadbed became a path,
engulfed by masses of catbrier and twisted lianas of grape and poison ivy.
<Casey> Can you pick out the devices in these paragraphs?
<Sea Witch> Whoever wrote it like to make a penetrating point!
<Casey> lol!
<Casey> Notice the beginning device used (from my Devices workshop--not
discussed tonight)
<Casey> The date and time is the "ticking clock" device.
<Sea Witch> What function does that serve?
<Casey> It leaves us with the impression that a clock has begun to tick
away and minutes have become significant in this story.
<Casey> It's a suspense device.
<Chipmonk> Lots of grabbing and beating.
<Sea Witch> My cabbaged brain completely missed that.
<Chipmonk> Also a realism device.
<Sea Witch> Don't they have any nice plant in Long Island?
<Casey> Sometimes, I have to wonder whether certain stories were written
for a general audience or other writers. How much do casual readers
appreciate these tricks?
<Chipmonk> Readers aren't supposed to be consciously aware of the devises.
<Chipmonk> "Eased" seems out of place with all the other verbs.
<Casey> There's a progression of words here, that leads from eased
(commonplace) to homing (urgency)
<Casey> From hollies (prickly) to sassafras (beating), to poison ivy
(poisonous--deadly)
<Chipmonk> Scary background music starts about now.
<Sea Witch> And someone makes a rude noise to relieve the tension with
audience laughter!
<Casey> Even a progression from Highway asphalt to hard sand to a path.
<Casey> (from civilization to wilderness and secrecy)
<Sea Witch> Not only is he running out of time he's running out of track!
<Chipmonk> The driver is being engulfed.
<Sea Witch> And beaten up on by the flora
<Casey> Whatever is in the car is being engulfed along with the driver.
<Chipmonk> He forgot to look in the back seat! Aaaaaaagggghh!!
<Sea Witch> He's just discovered what happened to that pork pie he bought
six weeks earlier
<Casey> That the reader should not be consciously aware of the devices used
means that you can't rely heavily upon devices imparting crucial
information to a reader.
<Sea Witch> It's mutated into a........ohmygioditstoohorribletodescribe
<Casey> Lol! brb.
<Chipmonk> Lol!
<Casey> If I laughed like that again I was going to have a wet seat
cushion.
<Chipmonk> You'd think he would've smelled it.
<Casey> Whew!
<Chipmonk> Lol!
<Casey> He was going there to bury it before the neighbors found out.
<Sea Witch> He has a perpetual cold
<Sea Witch> or inflamed sinuses
<Casey> Other devices here? "crackled" = onomotopa-- word.
<Chipmonk> Or a little pine tree hanging from his rear view mirror?
<Chipmonk> Lots of otto mottos
<Casey> That's easier to spell, Chip. I'll remember that one.
<Sea Witch> Why doesn't he admit he took a wrong turning and turn the
bloody car around!
<Chipmonk> That's why I figure its a guy driving.
<Casey> Because he's a man!
<Chipmonk> Twinkie fingers!
<Sea Witch> Good answer!
<Sea Witch> Gosh is strangely silent!
<Casey> He has in-laws over.
<Chipmonk> Poor Gosh.
<Sea Witch> He's lucky. Most of kine are out-laws
<Sea Witch> That's mine
<Goshwin> He just left... 2 min ago,,,
<Chipmonk> Oh I thought you meant cows.
<Sea Witch> Some of them are! <g>
<Chipmonk> The Outlaw Cows!
<Sea Witch> No, just silly cows
<Chipmonk> So, did the foliage eat the driver?
<Sea Witch> No, the pie did
<Casey> 10 years later, children playing hide and seek found the rusty hulk
. . .
<Sea Witch> It reached over, dragged the unfortunate bloke onto the
backseat and engulfed him in it's slavering maw
<Chipmonk> Imagine anyone just dropping into this conversation.
<Sea Witch> Just a few friends having fun heh heh
<Casey> It's rarely been safe for anyone to drop into one of our
conversations.
<Chipmonk> I like slavering maw.
<Casey> No matter what we were discussing originally.
<Chipmonk> Very true.
<Sea Witch> No-one has managed to mention bodily functions tonight.
<Sea Witch> Oops!
<Casey> SW has a way with words.
<Casey> Rose got queazy. We had to stop.
<Chipmonk> Eating is a bodily function.
<Sea Witch> I believe I should have said excretions
<Casey> I went to the bathroom! Doesn't that count?
<Chipmonk> It ate him and pooped out his buttons and zipper, and the
change in his pockets.
<Chipmonk> Gosh?
<Chipmonk> Omigod! It ate Gosh!!
<Chipmonk> Omigod! They killed Gosh! You Bastards!!
<Sea Witch> LOL
<Casey> Goshwin?
<Sea Witch> Who can you see Gosh?
<Sea Witch> Gosh?
<Goshwin> My cable modem.. the error light blinked, and I froze up.. ok now
<Chipmonk> He can't see anybody! He's dead! Whaaaaa!!!!
<Sea Witch> Can you see us all?
<Goshwin> yep...
<Casey> Frozen in panic!
<Casey> run, gosh, run!
<Sea Witch> before the cyberboogie gets you
<Chipmonk> Hey, what if there was a town called panic and they made ice
cream there.
<Sea Witch> Is there a punchline to this?
<Casey> There'd be an ice cream panic.
<Sea Witch> What's one of those?
<Goshwin> Groan
<Chipmonk> It would give frozen in Panic a whole new meaning.
<Casey> he he!
<Sea Witch> I rather wish it wouldn't <g>
<Casey> Oh, oh! Drats!
<Casey> I should have mentioned earlier when more people were here!
<Chipmonk> We do have towns with such names here, you know.
<Sea Witch> Who've you lost?
<Chipmonk> What did you forget, Casey?
<Sea Witch> Mentioned what?
<Casey> I found a victim . . . I mean, a nice person who has given me
permission to share a story for crit among NW's members.
<Chipmonk> Sucker!
<Sea Witch> You were right the first time Casey
<Casey> We've never really done a How to Crit session in NW's before, so
this is a first.
<Sea Witch> Tonight?
<Chipmonk> Good idea.
<Casey> No one had the guts before.
<Casey> Not tonight. You guys know everything.
<Chipmonk> Can we do it next time?
<Sea Witch> Please?
<Casey> Yeah, next time we meet.
<Chipmonk> We know EVERYTHING!
<Casey> And I'm not going to hold NW's on Christmas Day, which is when one
of our meetings falls.
<Sea Witch> Awwww why not?
<Casey> Because no one would be there--and shouldn't be there, Witchie.
<Sea Witch> Are you kdding? It's a madhouse in my house on Christmas day.
I try and escape if I can
<Chipmonk> Hey, are we all going to have a chat on New Years and see if Y2K
gets us?
<Casey> Try is the key word there. How successful are you?
<Sea Witch> I'm bloody Houdini
<Casey> (Metonymy there--used quite effectively)
<Casey> You haven't told anyone about your attic?
<Sea Witch> My attic actually resides in an alternate reality.
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