Zompist Bboard Again

Raholeun wrote: ↑Sun Sep 29, 2024 5:15 am

Sounds like Persistent Demand Avoidance.
Or Pervasive Demand for Autonomy.
Look it up in the most recent DSM.
Of course my vague hint here is nothing authoritative!

One of my insurance companies just paid me out more money on a claim than the matter in question had actually cost me, so I'm a weird mix of happy and confused right now. (This should, of course, go without saying, but just in case it doesn't: no, I did not mislead them about how much money the thing had cost me.)

Good News!: My fractured hip and thigh are getting noticeably better every day!
Mixed(?) News?: I should be done with this on or by 2025/Jan/09.

The good: Single-precision floating-point support is close to being ready!
The less good: It turns out that while the RP2350 and STM32F746 support FPv5, some of the other MCU's I support only support FPv4-SP, which lacks certain important instructions, so I am going to have to rework a good portion of my floating-point support before I can get it to work on, say, the STM32F407. Also, the floating-point/string conversion routines aren't exactly ideal.
The flipside: This means I still have more to do rather than just declaring victory and then predictably getting bored before I find something else to move onto (even though I would probably just return to working on IPv6 support).

Good: I have written the first three chapters of my attempted novel.
Bad: As of now, I have no idea what I want to happen in the fourth chapter.

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2024 10:54 am Good: I have written the first three chapters of my attempted novel.
Bad: As of now, I have no idea what I want to happen in the fourth chapter.

Now I'm at the same point after Chapter 4.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 10:29 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2024 10:54 am Good: I have written the first three chapters of my attempted novel.
Bad: As of now, I have no idea what I want to happen in the fourth chapter.

Now I'm at the same point after Chapter 4.

This is not unusual. Take some advice from a well-known author from the last century - whose name has sadly slipped my mind again - who remarked that whenever he ran into difficulties with his novel he went to the theatre, because when the performance finished all his problems would be sorted out.

alice wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 2:50 pm Take some advice from a well-known author from the last century - whose name has sadly slipped my mind again - who remarked that whenever he ran into difficulties with his novel he went to the theatre, because when the performance finished all his problems would be sorted out.

Thank you. I'm afraid that would put a bit of a strain on my finances after a while. I have occasionally tried handling this kind of thing by calling up random Wikipedia articles in search of inspiration, but so far, none of my actual ideas came from one of those.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 10:29 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2024 10:54 am Good: I have written the first three chapters of my attempted novel.
Bad: As of now, I have no idea what I want to happen in the fourth chapter.

Now I'm at the same point after Chapter 4.

FWIW this is pretty common, and there is no universal cure. I have two novels waiting for plots to gel. For me it's the hardest part of the process.

Some random things that might help.

* Do you know something that happens later in the book? Write that. No rule says you have to write the novel in order.

* Think like a Wikipedia editor summarizing episodes of a TV show. Can you write a short summary of each chapter? It's often helpful to have an overall plot outline. You don't have to keep to it slavishly.

* The fundamental rule of stories is that they happen when things go wrong. What could go wrong for your characters? Remember, you can experiment. Write about a crisis— maybe you throw that out later, but it gives you practice with the setting and how the characters react to problems.

* Speaking of which, do they have problems? I've bounced off a lot of stories where it wasn't clear what predicament the protagonist was facing. Episodic "Stuff Happening" works sometimes, but readers get involved when they understand the problem and see the characters trying to fix it.

* Similarly: Nick Hornby has a thought-provoking rule: he wants a book to address the single most challenging time faced by the protagonist. Is that the case for your protag?

* If events are just not coming to your head... try some writing experiments. Record an argument between two or more characters about what's gone on so far. Write a diary entry for someone, maybe not the protagonist. Is there an antagonist? Write a short scene about what they are doing at this point. You may not use this material, but it's practice in scene-writing, and parts of it can be re-used later.

* Finally, don't worry if you write a crappy chapter. Cleanly separate writing from revising. A crappy chapter can often be greatly improved— leave that for Future You.

Thank you!

zompist wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 5:30 pm

FWIW this is pretty common, and there is no universal cure. I have two novels waiting for plots to gel. For me it's the hardest part of the process.

Some random things that might help.

* Do you know something that happens later in the book? Write that. No rule says you have to write the novel in order.

* Think like a Wikipedia editor summarizing episodes of a TV show. Can you write a short summary of each chapter? It's often helpful to have an overall plot outline. You don't have to keep to it slavishly.

I have a very rough outline, but I guess summarizing what I want to happen and haven't written yet would take about half a page. I'm still far from having a chapter-by-chapter outline/summary

* The fundamental rule of stories is that they happen when things go wrong. What could go wrong for your characters? Remember, you can experiment. Write about a crisis— maybe you throw that out later, but it gives you practice with the setting and how the characters react to problems.

* Speaking of which, do they have problems? I've bounced off a lot of stories where it wasn't clear what predicament the protagonist was facing. Episodic "Stuff Happening" works sometimes, but readers get involved when they understand the problem and see the characters trying to fix it.

* Similarly: Nick Hornby has a thought-provoking rule: he wants a book to address the single most challenging time faced by the protagonist. Is that the case for your protag?

In some ways, yes. But it's also a story told by an adult looking back at their youth through a bit of a nostalgia filter, so they themselves might well see that time as the best time of their life.

* If events are just not coming to your head... try some writing experiments. Record an argument between two or more characters about what's gone on so far. Write a diary entry for someone, maybe not the protagonist. Is there an antagonist? Write a short scene about what they are doing at this point. You may not use this material, but it's practice in scene-writing, and parts of it can be re-used later.

* Finally, don't worry if you write a crappy chapter. Cleanly separate writing from revising. A crappy chapter can often be greatly improved— leave that for Future You.

Interesting, thank you again!

zompist wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 5:30 pm Some random things that might help.
[snip]

This was actually very useful and that discussion definitely merits its own thread. Not that I have much too contribute, as I have only tried my hand at short stories, certainly nothing that required visionary plotting.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 6:08 pm

zompist wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 5:30 pm * The fundamental rule of stories is that they happen when things go wrong. What could go wrong for your characters? Remember, you can experiment. Write about a crisis— maybe you throw that out later, but it gives you practice with the setting and how the characters react to problems.

* Speaking of which, do they have problems? I've bounced off a lot of stories where it wasn't clear what predicament the protagonist was facing. Episodic "Stuff Happening" works sometimes, but readers get involved when they understand the problem and see the characters trying to fix it.

* Similarly: Nick Hornby has a thought-provoking rule: he wants a book to address the single most challenging time faced by the protagonist. Is that the case for your protag?

In some ways, yes. But it's also a story told by an adult looking back at their youth through a bit of a nostalgia filter, so they themselves might well see that time as the best time of their life.

There's hardly a contradiction there. The problems teens are facing are probably of a different nature from those of the cast of your horror novel, but they are problems nontheless. That the people who lived through that time look back on it with nostalgia, is not an indication that they liked challenges, but rather that they withstood or overcame them in some way. I mean, when I think of the halcyon days of highschool, there was a good bunch of humbling moments there, that I think shaped me in a positive way and also contributed to a sense of comraderie with others.

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea what might have happened here a few weeks ago?

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2024 7:39 am One of my insurance companies just paid me out more money on a claim than the matter in question had actually cost me, so I'm a weird mix of happy and confused right now. (This should, of course, go without saying, but just in case it doesn't: no, I did not mislead them about how much money the thing had cost me.)

I had a similar thing years ago when my bike was stolen. I did not have a picture if it (it was used and in a pretty bad state). I got the money for a new model of the same brand, which was much more than I had paid for my bike when it was new. I bought a small used moped from the money.

Raphael wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 4:08 pm Out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea what might have happened here a few weeks ago?

Raphael wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2024 7:39 am One of my insurance companies just paid me out more money on a claim than the matter in question had actually cost me, so I'm a weird mix of happy and confused right now. (This should, of course, go without saying, but just in case it doesn't: no, I did not mislead them about how much money the thing had cost me.)

The same thing happened to a coworker a few months back -- his home insurance paid out more (for hail damage) that the repairs actually cost him. We concluded it was actually cheaper for the insurance company to pay the same sum to everyone involved than to ask for bills and check the actual sum.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 4:24 pm
The same thing happened to a coworker a few months back -- his home insurance paid out more (for hail damage) that the repairs actually cost him. We concluded it was actually cheaper for the insurance company to pay the same sum to everyone involved than to ask for bills and check the actual sum.

What's weird is, in my case they did ask for the bill, and I did send it to them. The whole claims process consisted of photographing the bill with my cell phone in their app. And they did sent me about € 65 more than I had paid. Look, I'm not complaining - € 65 is a fair amount of money for me - but I'm still confused.

Then again, it's an "additional" health insurance, covering some stuff that would otherwise require co-pays from me. Perhaps they have a list of co-pay procedures they cover under each plan, and for each procedure, they have a standard amount of money they always pay for that procedure.

Raphael wrote: ↑Sat Oct 26, 2024 4:35 pm Then again, it's an "additional" health insurance, covering some stuff that would otherwise require co-pays from me. Perhaps they have a list of co-pay procedures they cover under each plan, and for each procedure, they have a standard amount of money they always pay for that procedure.

That looks like the best explanation; either that or clerical error.