THIS!  LOL!!  Loved it!  It's now on my "favorites" bar so I can go back and re-read when I'm taking myself too seriously or setting an unrealistic goal for myself.

Writing should be FUN, for crying out loud, and if you don't take time to relax, smell the proverbial roses and join the human race once in a while, you've missed the point of being alive.

Your story/book will still be there when you get back from actual live human contact and/or cavorting with nature...and it might be all the better for those few moments you spent interacting with The Outside Word, getting your batteries recharged.  At least that's what I've heard.   

I've sat here for an unreasonably long period today, perusing my usual forums, drinking a lot of coffee and only thinking about getting dressed - which is why I love the weekends when I can become that NetZombie who feeds off the minds of others.  It can be inspirational or at the very least it reminds me that I'm not the worst writer out there.  And then my muse thumps me on the head and points out I should be working on my own stories and projects.  As it's doing right now.  Dressing is optional. 

   

Oh, I know you would if you could...but that's ok.  I've been doing all right without a beta...I think...so I'll survive without one.   

That's the spirit!   

Oh, no!  No laptop on holiday?  Bummer.

Your mum knows you all too well.   

I'm hoping to get some writing done this evening after some RL stuff.  If nothing else, a little editing would be better than nothing.

Sorry to hear you're under the weather, shades.  That sucks.     May you feel better tomorrow.   

Cen...I suppose I would be considered lucky that most of my family (which is very small, btw) is right here where I am, so I see them a lot.  Maybe too much.   

So...getting to be with your cousins is a good thing in your case, if they are not so close.  But your holiday does have the makings of a fun time!

Sometimes we just have to sit back and realize that writing has to take a backseat to RL.  Of course, that makes us want to write even more.  LOL.  When we can't.   

Well, cen, enjoy this free time for as long as you can.   

You deserve it!

It's beginning to sound to me as though conflict is what prevents the beginning from getting to the end...? For example, beginning: Frodo has an evil ring. End: destroy the ring! Everything in between: conflict! (Because if it was simply a matter of dropping the ring into the dustbin, there would be no need to write LOTR)

Does that sound right?

I had this sort of mental mixup where I thought conflict had to be related to fighting in some fashion, where one person does one thing and another person pushes back.

I think a lot of people, when they hear the word conflict, immediately think of fisticuffs or a big battle, which is why I don't particularly like that term.  It conjures up visions of physical confrontation instead of a broader range of situations.

I had a teacher once who taught that the true difference between a novel and a short story is not mere length but the fact that a novel should include in its length secondary (and tertiary, etc.) plot lines and thus secondary conflicts.

A great little book I read on writing science fiction and fantasy was talking about episodic TV (but applies to novels, as well) containing two and a half plots...one main one and one and a half subplots, all of which should be happening at the same time.  In other words throw everything you have at the MC all at once and watch him sort them out.  And one of the mistakes I made in my first attempt at writing.  I concluded one problem/situation and then went on to the next one and the next without them overlapping very much.  It wasn't exactly a bad story, but it became a lot better, more dramatic, when I changed all that.

As to when conflict should start--depends on genre. Someone right before me basically said that rules are not hard and fast. I'm learning that. It's almost a case of they are and they aren't.

So in other words do it the way you want.   

Rules are a good guideline, especially for new writers, but eventually they're meant to be broken, once you've developed a style of your own - and that just comes with practice and more practice.   

And I don't think everyone has to use the two line - or the 13 line rule.  I think readers have a little bit more patience than that, but not much.  For me, personally, having to read a long, drawn out description at the beginning (unless very well done) is boring and makes me wonder...what is this book about?  But then I'm not one of those patient readers.   

A "he" and a "she" - that's nice...and I did, of course, see their names in the other thread.

Good name for your new English.  And capital letters are overrated anyway.   

Ok...I hit 200 now...so I can officially sign off and get busy!!!

Take care and good luck doing whatever it is you're doing.