[Krista] Where I'm at and...

[Jason Rimbaud]

15 minutes ago, Krista said:

I didn't feel any sneaky duplicity this time.

It didn't last. A few minutes later, I was trying to recruit Myr into the Sacred Knights of Trolling Krista. 

But I was thinking about this last night. I know, as your devoted disciple, I tend to always think of the FO when I'm alone. *make of that what you will* 

I just realized you don't have an idea at the moment. The story you were working on, you spoke of your doubts and hesitation. You also lamented about maybe stopping the coming of age stories. I think your brain hasn't worked out yet what it wants to do. 

You'll write/right when you have inspiration. Just let your mind wander and start jotting down all those ideas you have about pushing me into the dirt and other such nonsense. No doubt you'll hit up on an idea and get back to it when you're ready.    

[Jeff Burton]

On 3/16/2026 at 4:40 PM, Krista said:

I didn't feel any sneaky duplicity this time.  Hopefully I've not gotten into my gullible phase. Honestly though, thank you.  

I do feel bad when I'm not actively being productive. Moreso when I've got a story posting and I run off schedule by a few months. Since I have nothing actively posting, I don't feel as much pressure. I do miss posting stories though. But you're right, mental health and alleviating pressure and stressors are important. 

I'm still trying to figure it out too.  I've got ideas but it's hard judging if it's going to be any good or not, last thing I need is another story on "temporary" or "long-term hold."

I really do want to get back into writing.  When I started writing Encrypted I was able to pump out 74,290 words in a 4 week period, or 18,572 a week.  That's the fire I want back, it was just so easy the works just came, until they didn't.

I need my next idea to do that, something I just can't stop key pounding on.  I've already got the premise and plot for the Anthology in October so I guess that's something but, come on brain, give me something I can work with already.

Or at least give me some focus so I can finish one of the half baked ideas I've already got going on that I'm 2 to 4 chapters into lol.

[Jason Rimbaud]

11 hours ago, Jeff Burton said:

I'm still trying to figure it out too.  I've got ideas but it's hard judging if it's going to be any good or not, last thing I need is another story on "temporary" or "long-term hold."

I really do want to get back into writing.  When I started writing Encrypted I was able to pump out 74,290 words in a 4 week period, or 18,572 a week.  That's the fire I want back, it was just so easy the works just came, until they didn't.

I need my next idea to do that, something I just can't stop key pounding on.  I've already got the premise and plot for the Anthology in October so I guess that's something but, come on brain, give me something I can work with already.

Or at least give me some focus so I can finish one of the half baked ideas I've already got going on that I'm 2 to 4 chapters into lol.

Have you ever thought about writing about giant ants that live in the tunnels under San Francisco?  . 

[Jeff Burton]

6 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Have you ever thought about writing about giant ants that live in the tunnels under San Francisco?  . 

Hahahaha I did see that post you wrote but I’m not that imaginative. 😂

[wildone]

On 3/30/2026 at 6:03 PM, Jeff Burton said:

Hahahaha I did see that post you wrote but I’m not that imaginative. 😂

Oh, look at you all pretty in purple  

[Krista]

On 3/30/2026 at 2:55 AM, Jeff Burton said:

I'm still trying to figure it out too.  I've got ideas but it's hard judging if it's going to be any good or not, last thing I need is another story on "temporary" or "long-term hold."

I really do want to get back into writing.  When I started writing Encrypted I was able to pump out 74,290 words in a 4 week period, or 18,572 a week.  That's the fire I want back, it was just so easy the works just came, until they didn't.

I need my next idea to do that, something I just can't stop key pounding on.  I've already got the premise and plot for the Anthology in October so I guess that's something but, come on brain, give me something I can work with already.

Or at least give me some focus so I can finish one of the half baked ideas I've already got going on that I'm 2 to 4 chapters into lol.

It is amazing when a project jumps from your brain to paper so flawlessly. Even if it is rough and needs reworking before posting, getting it there in the first place is half the battle. Having it motivate you so thoroughly that 74k feels as easy as breathing is so nice. I had that with large portions of, "Learned to Lie," I never felt the lack of motivation with that story, and I needed that as it was my first bit of writing I did without posting as I went. I truly hope it wasn't a fluke in my brain, that I can do the next project that hits me similarly. I don't know. Ellis seemed like that after I got Chapters one and two out of the way. Three through six flowed rather nicely. I liked the characters. The pacing is a bit slow, but nothing new there it seems. 

But then the year ticked over into 2026 and it seemed everything that could derail me, did. I don't like trying to piece things back together to get sorted out to continue a project. Real life is unpredictable, it is stressful, and it is sad. 

I also had an idea for the Anthology, but I didn't write it down, now I can't remember what exactly the idea was. For the best, probably. My Anthologies tend to run me between 30k and 300k. I'd take that over no written words for two months though. A runaway train may be just what I need. 

[Jason Rimbaud]

9 minutes ago, Krista said:

but I didn't write it down, now I can't remember what exactly the idea was. For the best, probably.

I think it was about Giant Ants living under San Francisco in the tunnels. 

[Krista]

27 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I think it was about Giant Ants living under San Francisco in the tunnels. 

[Jason Rimbaud]

1 minute ago, Krista said:

Someone needs to write about this

[Krista]

2 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Someone needs to write about this

Best bet is @wildone I mean the man has shot Santa and wrote a story about genetically modified Capybaras running amok. Bribery works with him, probably. 

[ReaderPaul]

15 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Someone needs to write about this

Interesting thought, writing about G I Ants -- since a GI originally stood for Government Issue and referred to military uniforms and personnel.  So human size military ants -- the mind boggles.

Edited April 2 by ReaderPaul

[Krista]

1 minute ago, ReaderPaul said:

Interesting thought, writing about G I Ants -- since a GI originally stood for Government Issue and referred to military uniforms and personnel.  So human size military ants -- the mind boggles.

Don't give him more reasons, for the love of all things and sanity's sake. 

[Jason Rimbaud]

4 minutes ago, ReaderPaul said:

G I Ants

Took me a few times to get this!  . 

 

Now I have the Title G I Ants

Edited April 2 by Jason Rimbaud

[ReaderPaul]

46 minutes ago, Krista said:

Don't give him more reasons, for the love of all things and sanity's sake. 

48 minutes ago, ReaderPaul said:

Interesting thought, writing about G I Ants -- since a GI originally stood for Government Issue and referred to military uniforms and personnel.  So human size military ants -- the mind boggles.

44 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

Took me a few times to get this!  . 
Now I have the Title  --  G I Ants

@Jason Rimbaud could certainly write about this, but we have others with amazing imaginations as well -- such as @Valkyrie, or @astone2292 or the writing team of @chris191070 + @BendtedWreath.  Would be a fascinating set of stories.  Who knows what we could end up with?  

Edited April 2 by ReaderPaul

[Krista]

Fun thought I had:

Wanted to do that Prompt from a few months back. In a writing slump, any time to try to get out of it, this is it. Talked a big game about writers needing to practice outside their comfort zones with POV. So, decided to practice in third.

Two pages in and I'm ready to toss it.  

Comfort zones are comfortable, I'm finding that I like comfortable things. And riverside conversations between characters, but that's a questionable thing. I do like guys that like to get wet too, apparently. 

******************

Washing up in the river, Will sat back on his britches held together by loose stitching, patchwork, and a belt of baling twine. Spring was in full bloom, he’d been working the pair of mules to get the garden spot plowed and ready for seeding. He wasn’t looking forward to being hunched over in the sun picking up unearthed rocks, too large to ignore. He’d have his sisters helping him fill wagons of rocks, it felt like more were being unearthed every year. Seeding the garden came after. Then lambs. Work never stopped breaking down a body out here, it seemed more came every year. Cupping his hand into the cool water, he reached and let the water drop along his naked shoulders. Sighing he massaged his fingers along the back of his sun burned neck, thinking it was too early to feel this worn. The birds hadn’t even finished their nests.

Alone, too far away to hear his younger siblings squabbles, or the bray of the mules, just as tired and worked as he was. He watched the water, constant in the gentle flow, swelled by the spring rains and melting snow. By August the river will be no more than a couple of inches deep, he could see the bottom and cross it with ease unless the rains came strangely and kept it swollen.

What he wanted was a train ticket out of here, jobs were for the taking up north. No farming, no mines. Good honest work in the factories making everything a person could imagine, from automobiles to clothes. Rumors of the war taking more men were whispering along the hollers, mostly scared mothers thinking they were about to lose sons they birthed and raised or young wives with babes on their hips not wanting to be left alone or widowed.

Out here alone, the faintest noise turned his attention from the river. Looking over his shoulder he expected his oldest sister, coming to fetch him for supper, or holding a bucket needing cool water for the evening milk to rest in all night. Smiling, he saw Jack Trigg dipping under a low-hanging limb of the young oak. Nestled under it a family of ferns, odd in their red colors that reminded him of autumn.

“We got that run o’ liquor tonight,” Jack said, after glancing around for any sign of anyone else along the riverbank.

“I done made my plans,” Will offered, looking away from Jack as he undone his overalls. Both of them were barefoot, their shoes had to last them all winter. Now that the nights held warmer with no frosts, shoes were forgotten by the front door next to wood for the fireplace.

“It’s gonna be a hot spring,” Jack said as he pulled off his overalls, just wearing his white loose boxers Will watched him wade out up to his knees. The flow of the river, gentle as it seemed threatened to knock Jack off balance, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Better’n a cold one,” Will said, wanting to stand up and strip down. He wasn’t wearing anything under his jeans. Pulling at the baling twine, that would’ve embarrassed him if it was anyone else. He looked forward to a time where he didn’t have to worry about his feet growing too large for shoes that were supposed to last him a year. Jeans handed down by his pa, patched and stitched that never fit him because Samuel Slade was a broad shouldered man of well over six feet and he hadn’t grown up to fill out like him.

“A cold one would hold off the garden, give us more time to run liquor,” Jack said, glancing over his shoulder. Will nodded his head as he watched Jack cup his hands and reach up and pour water over his head. The water ran along his face, washing the dirt of the day in streaks down his flushed face. Skin tanned from last summer, a dusting of black hair that had thickened on his chest and stomach from last year. Swallowing, Will forced a smile plucking a blade of grass brave enough to grow along the rocky river bank of the river. Twirling it in his fingers, his heart racing in his chest threatening to break him out in a sweat. The other reason he wanted to run away to the factories was to get away from Jack Trigg.

“I’m expectin to be called for supper,” Will said as he reached for his shirt, balled up, dirt stained on the bank next to him. “Ol’ Ray tell you where we’re running tonight?”

“Across the river at the Webber farmhouse, a truck’s waiting to take us into Rawlins,” Jack answered, his shoulders tensing before he turned to see Will sitting on the river bank. His brown eyes, the river reflected in them.

“Rawlins?” Will said, dropping his shirt back to the damp earth beside him. “That’s askin’ to get caught. Ray has lost his sense, you ought to have told him no.”

“You tell him no then he won’t let us run for him,” Jack countered, the cool river water up just past his knees no longer felt refreshing. He knew Will would balk like a stubborn mule over the idea of heading into Rawlins. It was a town big enough to hold a full time law man. Ray had promised Jack a smooth run, no bother and all they had to do was take the truck to Rawlins and park it behind an orchard with a high fence for cover and wait. Will had always trusted him to get the plans, they have been running illegal liquor and shine for Ray since fall time after planting. All through winter. The plan was to save up to get out before the farming set into their bones and broke them like it has their fathers, too stubborn to see it was no way of livin’ anymore, not the way they do it anyhow.

“We ain’t got too many more runs to go before we get those tickets,” Will said, his voice falling to a sigh that made Jack smile and his heart ease. He needed Will, wanted him to be on that train come next month. The promise was, get the seeds started and the new lambs on the ground for their families and be gone for the factories. The early spring made him feel rushed, like all this was coming faster than he dreamed. There was a restlessness that clawed at him every night as his younger brother settled into bed next to him. Leaving was close and that’s the only thing he’s had on his mind since William Slade said he couldn’t settle down here another year.
 

Edited April 5 by Krista
Put the wee little asterisks in the wrong spot.

[Jason Rimbaud]

I kind of like it, its folksy and interesting. I know what's its like to run away from a jack. 

Nice little slice of life.  

[Krista]

19 minutes ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I kind of like it, its folksy and interesting. I know what's its like to run away from a jack. 

Nice little slice of life.  

Yeah, I don't think it is going to work for me. I wanted to do a period piece, but I've noticed that I've already messed up the language a few times. Implemented some things that I'd have to research. It felt sort of head-talking between the two characters. I'm so used to only being inside one head, so I could have that character notice things more. But yes, I like the idea.

This is supposed to be a flashback as well. Someone is about to interrupt this scene. I don't know about writing between time, back and forth. I think it should feel more like a flashback, maybe it will be too jarring otherwise. But anyway, I have a different idea that is also a period piece that will be easier to write in mind than this one. I'll do it in first, comfort zones.  

The plus side though, in third I pay attention to tense more. Not in the writing of it, obviously, but when I read it back I see the sudden swapping of it that makes the sentence read funny.

 

[Jeff Burton]

27 minutes ago, Krista said:

Yeah, I don't think it is going to work for me. I wanted to do a period piece, but I've noticed that I've already messed up the language a few times. Implemented some things that I'd have to research. It felt sort of head-talking between the two characters. I'm so used to only being inside one head, so I could have that character notice things more. But yes, I like the idea.

This is supposed to be a flashback as well. Someone is about to interrupt this scene. I don't know about writing between time, back and forth. I think it should feel more like a flashback, maybe it will be too jarring otherwise. But anyway, I have a different idea that is also a period piece that will be easier to write in mind than this one. I'll do it in first, comfort zones.  

The plus side though, in third I pay attention to tense more. Not in the writing of it, obviously, but when I read it back I see the sudden swapping of it that makes the sentence read funny.

 

To show that I'm not a total ass kisser like @Jason Rimbaud, girl you can do better.  

Having read your work and been thoroughly involved with it on an emotional level across more than one of your stories, I can see the struggle in between the lines your having trying to make it work.  One thing I've learned about writing is if you have to force it, it's probably going to get tossed. You've done it, I've done it, we've all done it.

There is nothing wrong with staying in a comfort zone if you tried the other way and it didn't work out.  My whole schtick is built around my comfort zones, half my stories tread on the same kind of theme just different variations of it. It's my niche, it's my jam, it's how the ideas come the easiest. 

I'm struggling with something myself, I've got two chapters of something and it seems forced and I don't like it.  I'm sure everyone will love it anyway but what's the point if I don't?

And I know we kind of work the same way like that.  You are just way more eloquent with words, like a flowing field of bountiful vegetation, where I'm more direct and to the point like a sword being shoved home.  Different visions, but same methods of getting there. 

You said somewhere that first writing is for fun, and when it's no longer fun you're going to stop doing it. So keep it fun so you keep doing it. If the shoe doesn't fit, it isn't Cinderella. ❤️

[Jason Rimbaud]

6 minutes ago, Jeff Burton said:

Having read your work and been thoroughly involved with it on an emotional level across more than one of your stories, I can see the struggle in between the lines your having trying to make it work. 

You missed the point. . I'd never miss your point, but you missed.  I apologize for that comment as well. 

The reason why it doesn't flow like the FO's other work is because she is attempting to write in third. All that emotional connection you spoke is because she hasn't figured out how to convey those emotions in third person limited yet. 

Besides, I was talking about the germ of an idea, bootlegging, 1930's,  judging by the comment about the war. I love that idea. 

And as the founder and First Prime of the Sacred Knights of Trolling Krista, of course I'm a kiss ass!  What to join up? 

[Jeff Burton]

3 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

You missed the point. . I'd never miss your point, but you missed.  I apologize for that comment as well. 

The reason why it doesn't flow like the FO's other work is because she is attempting to write in third. All that emotional connection you spoke is because she hasn't figured out how to convey those emotions in third person limited yet. 

Besides, I was talking about the germ of an idea, bootlegging, 1930's,  judging by the comment about the war. I love that idea. 

And as the founder and First Prime of the Sacred Knights of Trolling Krista, of course I'm a kiss ass!  What to join up? 

Well that would explain why it reads like it does I can’t do it either.

[Jason Rimbaud]

40 minutes ago, Jeff Burton said:

Well that would explain why it reads like it does I can’t do it either.

How’d your date go. 

[Jeff Burton]

22 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

How’d your date go. 

Had to cancel, I had a previous engagement that ran long.  Trying to reschedule for later this week.  It was kind of spur of the moment, last minute planning that didn't work out lol.