Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 34

What’s in a name?

Every author has the unfortunate duty of naming her characters. I say “unfortunate” because I’ve never felt comfortable doing it. My characters are usually born with names – maybe even born from names – and sometimes those names are weird. Back when I did comic books, and before I had a kid, my husband used to shake his head over my stories and say, “You are NOT naming our children!”

There are a few characters who have been with me such a long time that I don’t remember anything about naming t...

Addressing the elephant

So if you Google “second book syndrome“, a friend pointed out to me on Monday, quite a number of hits come up. Apparently the second book, just by virtue of being second, presents challenges that the first did not.

Sometimes “second book syndrome” is going to refer to the middle book of a trilogy, of course. That’s a structure issue, in part, particular to trilogies. I’m not writing a trilogy. I’m just trying to write a sequel that doesn’t make everyone who read the first book say, “Gee, she h...

This morning’s music

Nolwenn Leroy’s irrepressibly cheerful version of Bro Gozh Ma Zadou, the state hymn of Brittany. Interestingly, the same tune as the national anthem of Wales.

In other news, good reviews are always music to our ears! Here’s one from my GR friend Archer, guest posting at Cuddlebuggery. Aww! Brings a tear to me eye, it does.

And reminds me, yes, that I really should get back to work.

Coming up for air

But just for a moment! I wouldn’t want to be all greedy about breathing or anything.

Today is the last day of April, the day I intended to have this revision finished. It’s not finished. I’m trying not to let that feel like failure, but it’s not easy.I worked hard, which was the entire point of setting a fake deadline for myself, and that is nothing to belittle.

I can’t help but feel, however, that writing this sequel has been much, much harder than it needs to be. Writing a book is always like...

In which Neil Gaiman makes me feel better about life

I’m not sure why, but this essay cheered me up: All Books Have Genders. The last paragraph, in particular, is something I really needed to hear right now, as I bang my head against my keyboard and shout, “Why am I not better at this after all this time??”

I’m still learning to write this book. We’ve made some good progress, coming to understand each other a bit better, over the last few weeks, but then I have days like yesterday where I finally had to admit to myself that the scenes I was tryi...

Laying down layers

Some days the best analogy I can come up with for my writing process is that it’s like the formation of sedimentary rock. I put down layers over a long period of time and they slowly harden into stone.

That’s the time-scale: geologic time. Don’t think in years, think in epochs. I find this discouraging sometimes.

I just joined a choir, in an effort to get back at the world. Er, I mean, because I wanted some very different art to practice regularly without the kind of (geologic) pressure writing...

This week’s musical obsession

Sometimes a song just reaches out of nowhere and grabs me. Here’s Steve Hackett and Richie Havens, bringing the awesome to “How Can I?” —

I was listening to this all morning, but the video is somehow even better. I like the way they’re facing each other, like this is a private conversation we’re listening in on, and the way they sometimes mirror each other swaying back and forth. Steve looks kind of amused, like he’s never heard these lyrics before, even though I’m pretty sure he wrote them....

Filling the days differently

This week I’m doing what my friend Jay Allen calls “Social Media Detox”, staying off of Facebook, Twitter, and (hardest for me) GoodReads.

I don’t know about you, but I find that if I’m not careful, social media can eat away much of my day. It’s easy and instantly gratifying and superficially more enjoyable than work of any kind. It’s like eating Cheetos: my mouth wants more, even if I’m not really hungry. Er.Not that I have ever spent an entire day eating Cheetos. It’s an analogy, though I co...

Where do you get your ideas? (Part 2)

I’ll tell you where: in the shower.

If the world ever gets to the point where we can no longer take showers, due to water shortages or zombie apocalypse or whatever, that’s the end of my career. For serious.

I don’t know what it is, but in the shower my brain just opens up and all the ideas fall out (this is why it would be a bad idea for me to take one during the zombie apocalypse, see. The rest of the time my brain is protected by my very thick skull).

Various friends have suggested a diving s...

My glamorous existence

Yesterday, shortly after I wrote the previous post, a brand new jug of liquid detergent fell off of our washing machine, landed on its lid, and cracked open. Every drop of detergent – all 2.95 litres – oozed onto the floor of the closet that houses our washing machine. Half went under the machine; half went to the rest of the closet, where we store chairs, tools, linens, and my sewing machine.

We didn't notice this had happened until my husband was taking the dog out. The detergent had oozed u...