A quick ramble around the point.

[hirez]

So then, this business of exchanging pleasingly-ordered words for ${KER-CHING!}[1]

I had previously thought it was a case of toddling down to one's Writing Shed or Study, bright idea clutched firmly in paw, and then scribbling/clattering away until one had reached The End. At which point a bespectacled slip of a girl from the publisher pitches up, dumps the manuscript in the wicker basket on the front of her pushbike, and that's about the last you hear of it until the cheque arrives coincidentally with the telephone call from Melvyn Bragg.

This version of events would appear to be somewhat in error.

The other version, the one that involves staring into space for months at a time, waiting for the muse to appear, also seems somewhat at odds with the facts of the matter.

(Although if the muse were to turn up on the doorstep one morning, in the guise of Sharon Stone helpfully holding the milkbottles, I suspect the conversation might turn out thusly:

"Dear God, woman. You'll catch your death. I'm sure wafting about in diaphanous trifles like that is all the rage where you're from, but it'll do you the power of no good round here. Get yourself inside and I'll put the kettle on.")

On the other hand, staring into space while thinking about a hard problem is acceptable in coding-land (as long as one doesn't subscribe to the man-month or KLOC schools of gross management stupidity), so, um, trilobite in school blazer.

Weirdly, the version that goes 'Just crank it out. Throw away the bits that aren't a lion. Continue cranking until the lion is complete.' probably works for writing code, too.

See also 'Good enough for (jazz|folk)[2]', 'Build the first one to throw away' and the one about perfect being the enemy of working. Probably.



[1] It's the sound of an old cash-register, which will make no sense to those unaware of The Goons, skool of Molesworth or Python.

[2] It's funny how the companion phrase 'Good enough for g*th' doesn't exist. Could it be that g*th 'musicians' are a lot further up themselves than the equivalent jazzer or folkie?

Comments

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

The interesting thing is, cash registers haven't gone $KER-CHING! for a very long time, yet the term/sound effect continues to be a cultural shorthand.

In addition, vinyl has seriously been on its way out for, what, at least 15 years? There is a whole generation of kids who, unless they do DJing, do not have experience of vinyl. Yet the SKRRRROOOOP! noise continues to be cultural shorthand.

Another thing this generation will miss out on is the joy of tape. I've noticed that fast forwarding anything at all on TV programme still has the tinny speeded-up soundtrack of a rapidly spooling reel to reel tape recorder. Nothing has sounded like that since, yet this is the universal sound effect.

I wonder whether, in another 20 years, a new generation of sound effects technicians/foley artists will have jettisoned these retro sounds, except there is nothing to replace them with. You still need an audio cue.

[quercus.livejournal.com]

Vinyl is still around, even in the teenage memeland. Tape OTOH is dead. Vinyl was cool and still is (even if rare), tape was never cool. DJs were cool and still handle vinyl, tape loops and razorblades were always just that bit too trainspottery and these days are so far better done digitally that no-one still bothers.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I think it's down to either wanting to be Norman Cook or Delia Derbyshire / Tom Ellard / Pierre Boulez.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I certainly tend more towards the latter.

[alasdair.livejournal.com]

>>>In addition, vinyl has seriously been on its way out for, what, at least 15 years? <<<

Vinyl sales have actually been increasing over the last year or two, as the Myspace generation have discovered the joy of having a physical artefact to go along with their MP3s. I saw a program on it, and everything.

[alasdair.livejournal.com]

Sorry, and the damn thing posted before I was done. Apparently, it's down to bands like Kasabian and the Kaiser Cheifs thinking that Vinyl Is Cool, and insisting that their single get vinyl releases as well.

Which the kids then buy, because the band says it's cool.

Could it be that g*th 'musicians' are a lot further up themselves than the equivalent jazzer or folk

[silverskull.livejournal.com]

Either that or a lot less talented.

Re: Could it be that g*th 'musicians' are a lot further up themselves than the equivalent jazzer or

[inulro.livejournal.com]

Rock.

Hard place.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the phrase "good enough for jazz" but instead "close enough for rock and roll".

Weirdly, the version that goes 'Just crank it out. Throw away the bits that aren't a lion. Continue cranking until the lion is complete.' probably works for writing code, too.

Sounds like you have come up with a new method for lion hunting!

http://komplexify.com/math/humor_pure/HuntingLions7.html

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Aha. Perhaps I hung around with more jazz musicians.

(It was originally about sculpting lions...)

[steer.livejournal.com]

You fool! That's the procedure for sculpting ELEPHANTS. It's not recommended for sculpting LIONS! My god... anything might happen.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

See also 'Good enough for (jazz|folk|science-fiction). Careful of taking the easy route: the support contract'll drive you mad. qv: Maggie Atwood.

Tools: What you need is an literary IDE. An Eclipse plug-in, or similar, that automagically underlines cliches with wiggly red. Or that cross-references with wikipedia/google/gutenberg/interwebnetthingys when you're in danger of unwittingly re-hashing someone else's idea. Or that automagically re-pleases your word order. Like a Burroughs cut-up in reverse, if you will. With a little training, I'm sure it could be programmed to win Just a Minute and be more entertaining than the usual.

What you don't need is "Extreme writing", where an editor sits on your shoulder and says things like "You don't wanna do that!" Or "Have you considered a character that would appeal to the mid-20's urban cordwangling audience?"

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Part of the learning process is un-extreming the inside of your own head.

Indigestion Waltz

[aoakley.livejournal.com]

${KER-CHING!}

[BLOODNOK] And the next dance please.

I do have every Goon Show ever, on inflatable leather MP3, should you so desire. But I'm buggered if I'm going to upload them, so you'll have to ask for a disc.

Re: Indigestion Waltz

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I think I've got most of them. I should work out some way of generating a diff and/or working out who had the better quality ones.

[tails-redux.livejournal.com]

KERCHING
You forgot another classic example ... Arkwright's till.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

True. Although I never understood how that programme was funny for anyone other than Existentialists.

[tails-redux.livejournal.com]

Oh I wouldn't know about that, but I find it funny. Perhaps it's my past in retail.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Heh... I think it becomes funnier the further north you are. I love it.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Ah. For me, that (and a bookful of Andy Capp. Or Corrie, or Eastenders) reveal the bleak pointlessness that is our everyday existance.

I have to go listen to Joy Division to cheer myself up if I catch any of those.

You know, there's an entire post in there.

[steer.livejournal.com]

As Homer Simpson said "Ah, Andy Capp, you lovable wife-beating drunk!"

Eastenders is rather bleaker and more pointless (than my existence at least)... plus has a much higher death-rate.

[tails-redux.livejournal.com]

Eastenders (only drift in and out of that) has it's rare moments of humour, one I saw t'other night had Pat Butcher returning home to entertain a gentleman guest ... a bit of innuendo about getting his teeth around her chops and she was also carrying a copy of Basic Instinct 2. Bit dark though.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Good god... I don't want these images in my brain. The alien trilogy had nothing so horrifying.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

I caught a snippet of Emmerdale (I think), which had Patsy Kensit and some man tied up together in a barn having another man slapping them across their faces with a dead, bloody rat. No idea what that was all about!

[steer.livejournal.com]

Good lord. I'd have though that kind of thing would be confined to very obscure internet fetish sites. Lends a whole new meaning to "whack a rat".

[girfan.livejournal.com]

J and I don't watch any soaps ever and a lot of our friends don't either, so no idea what it was all about.
Maybe a poll should be done to see if anyone knows. Someone is bound to fess up!

[tails-redux.livejournal.com]

If you are after oddball fluffy soap comedy, catch up on Neighbours. At times it is so wigged out, it's like freeform jazz only entertaining. ;)

Which you do have opportunity to do these days ...

[steer.livejournal.com]

It is very weird isn't it! Especially the recent "evil twin" plotline.

[tails-redux.livejournal.com]

It's amazing some of the oddities they've come up with (besides from Harold & Lou and THE Legendary Joe Mangel) ... wish someone would post Bouncer's Dream up on YouTube.

[tails-redux.livejournal.com]

Oh and I'll bet scant few (unless I'm in the company of tykes of a certain age) will remember Kerching a Saverstrip.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

"It's funny how the companion phrase 'Good enough for g*th' doesn't exist."

It`s implicit in the quality of offerings, surely?

[hirez.livejournal.com]

I think it's (obviously) a lot more to do with how the artist relates to their art.

(I can't find many references to 'good enough for punk' f'rinstance.)

[jendama.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, the version that goes 'Just crank it out. Throw away the bits that aren't a lion. Continue cranking until the lion is complete.' probably works for writing code, too.

That works . . to get you started. The whole writing to rewrite thing is an art itself. Most writers that I know hate the rewriting process, though each of them claim it is essential. It is rare to sit down and crank out the final in one sitting, though I do not think it is impossible.