Kate Lowell's Blog, page 25
October 11, 2014
Three Dirty Birds Talk Chuck Wendig and 25 Ways to be a Better Writer
I forgot to post this yesterday–playing Mario Kart with the kid. Zoe has the weekly recap and yesterday’s Dirty Birds post on her blog.
Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: writing advice
October 9, 2014
The great NaNo Experiment
I’ve been pretty burnt out lately. Words have been few and far between. Even revision, which I can normally do anyway when new words aren’t coming easily, has come to a complete standstill. It don’t know if I can really call it writer’s block–it’s not like the ideas aren’t there, or that I don’t know what I want to do. I just…don’t want to do it. Writer’s burn-out? Too much bad stuff over the past two years, for sure.
So, because logic apparently isn’t my strong suit, nothing else has worked and I’m desperate, I’ve signed up for NaNo this year. I have no idea if this will work or not. I have a half-dozen ideas to prep, to see which one I might be able to take to completion. It’s going to mean outlining, which will be a new skill for me, and one that is fraught with peril. I tend to lose interest in a story as if it’s already completed when I do an outline.
To combat that, I bought a copy of a book called Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland. I haven’t gotten too far into it, and so far she hasn’t actually talked about outlining, but what she has covered has been practical and good advice.
I’m thinking again about getting one of those giant pads of paper to do brainstorming on, so I can stand up and work on it with markers. Maybe even do the whole outline on it, and hang it on the wall so I can reference easily when I sit down to write.
It’s going to be fun scheduling this, too, since 1667 words a day is tough for me when I firing on all cylinders. I might have, at most 16 hours a week to do this in, which means being ready to go as soon as I sit down.
This won’t be easy–I’m under no illusion about that. The likelihood is that I will not ‘win’ NaNo, but since getting to that 50K isn’t really my goal, I’m okay with that. The point is to get writing again. I’m tired of staring at the screen and accomplishing nothing.
And I have hope. Once I signed up, I think a heard a few gears whirr into motion. My brain has started poking at ideas. That’s a good sign, right? :)
Filed under: writing Tagged: back in the saddle, NaNoWriMo, writer's block
October 8, 2014
October 7, 2014
Tuesday Guest Tickle: Reining Him In by Jena Wade
I’m happy to see this book come out, because way back in my salad days, this is what I used to do. Now, I’d probably fall off if I tried to do a spin or a sliding stop, but it would be worth it. :) Anyway, here’s a bit of a peek at Jena‘s new book, out today from Loose Id.
What’s it about?
Perry Jameson begins his new job as a ranch manager at the Wright Stables with the goal of returning the place to its original glory. He throws all of his effort into building a home and establishing a career. Being seduced by the ranch owner’s grandson could throw a serious wrench in the works.
Cory Matthews is a world champion in horse reining. Well known for his arrogance and talent, he can train any horse to win, and he knows he’s turned the sexy older hunk’s head, but he can’t seem to get Perry come around.
The two men butt heads on more than one occasion, the way two stubborn, proud studs will do. Maybe looking past their differences to work together will give them a new perspective on each other. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll help Cory rein Perry in.
A Sneak Peek:
Perry was bone tired. With each step his muscles ached and a headache throbbed behind his eyes. Since starting at the ranch he’d worked nonstop, anxious to get the place shipshape as soon as possible. Already some of the boarders had commented on the improvements. Despite the fact that they were at full capacity, they’d had a few calls about people interested in boarding there. He’d even lined up a few new clients to bring their horses for training at the end of the summer.
He’d repainted the old sign by the road, reshingled half of the barn roof, and fixed a handful of other odds and ends that needed repair. He’d worked harder this week than he had in a long while, barely making it to bed each night for more than a few hours before he was up and at it again the next day. But it would all be worth it once the place was running smoothly again.
Perry took the tractor and hay rake into the barn, ready to take a quick break for dinner before doing the evening chores, when a pickup truck and trailer drove into the driveway. The cherry-red paint on the truck, combined with the chrome rims, nearly blinded him as it pulled to a stop in the middle of the drive, blocking the way for anyone who might need to get in or out.
The impressive rig had the ranch’s logo stuck to the side. Over half of the trailer accounted for the living quarters alone, with more square footage than the cabin Perry was staying in.
Perry shook his head. Hopefully the visitor didn’t plan on staying there long.
He parked the tractor and hopped down, hearing his back pop and crack as he hit the ground. He sure felt every bit of his twenty-eight years. And then some. Just another reminder that he’d spent too many hours working today without a break. Did he eat any lunch? He couldn’t remember.
Tonight would be a good night to sit in his recliner and lose himself in one of his Louis L’Amour books. It’d been too long since he’d sat down and read. And later, after he’d checked the horses for the night, he might actually be able to get more than a few hours of sleep.
Before he could even start walking in the direction of his house, the horses inside the trailer began kicking and neighing, not wasting any time expressing their impatience. The driver stepped out of the truck, and Perry had to stop in his tracks.
The man was tall and lean. He wore a plaid button-down Western shirt tucked into a pair of snug jeans that hugged every curve of his muscular thighs. A silver belt buckle glinted in the late-afternoon sun, drawing Perry’s eyes straight to the man’s groin. The man ran his hand through his hair and stuck a black cowboy hat firmly on his head.
He was exactly what Perry’s dreams were made of.
Feeling his cheeks heat, Perry headed in the opposite direction. This had to be the grandson he’d heard so much about. He would have to meet him sometime, but right now, when he was fighting a hard-on, was not the time.
Tre had neglected to mention that the grandson was so damn attractive. Though he looked a little young for Perry.
Of all the fucking men to attract his attention, it had to be his boss’s grandson? This couldn’t end well.
Ten minutes later, Perry stood inside his cabin, washing his hands at the kitchen sink, when a loud pounding like hooves on metal caught his attention. From the window he could see the trailer in the driveway rocking as the horses inside made sure everyone knew their discomfort. Everyone except the person who should be taking care of them.
“God damn it.” The grandson—what was his name? Cory? —he may be hot but he apparently didn’t know jack shit about taking care of his animals. Or he was too much of a dick to care. Either way, Perry didn’t have time to contemplate why the horses were still locked in the hot trailer after a long road trip.
Perry grabbed his hat and pulled on his boots, then stomped out the door and to the trailer, cursing Cory with every step.
Filed under: Guest Releases, Tuesday Tickle Tagged: cowboys, horses, reining
October 6, 2014
Three Dirty Birds Talk Kick-Ass Writer and ‘Aspiring’
Three Dirty Birds are back, Kicking Ass and Taking Names…no, that’s not it…We’re talking about Chuck Wendig’s book: The Kick-Ass Writer. Today’s topic is 25 Things Chuck wants to say to so-called ‘aspiring’ writers.
Kate: Can I just say that I loved this chapter to pieces? It is, probably, my favourite chapter in the whole book. Because it’s not just for people who are starting out–there’s stuff in here for writers at all stages of their career.
Ana: Yeah, there were a lot of things that I could agree with.
Zoe: It would make a good pamphlet, something you could pick up every morning before putting fingers to keys. Motivational and grounding at the same time.
Kate: The first thing he reminds you of is that you have to be writing, which I liked. It’s easy to get buried in all the other things, or to think you’re writing, when all you’re doing is staring at the screen because you haven’t got a clue.
Ana: Hey, staring at the screen is a big part of my writing process.
Kate: I’m kind of stuck in the ‘staring at the screen’ point right now, which bothers me. I need to get the back of my mind turned back on again. But Chuck is right–it doesn’t matter how many ideas you have bouncing around in your head–get in that chair and type!
Ana: That’s true. Often I don’t get my best ideas until I actually sit down with my hands on the keys.
Kate: For me, I have to go do something mindlessly physical, and let my brain churn ideas, then I race to the keyboard. Which actually dovetails quite nicely with Tips #4 &5. No one has the same path to authorhood, no one has the same workflow, everyone is different, you need to carve your own path, and that’s okay. It’s the way it should be. If you have the exact same path and workflow as someone else, how innovative is your work likely to be? The differences between us are the differences between our brains.
Zoe: How am I supposed to make millions on my patented The One Way to Writing Success™ plan if you keep spreading rumors and lies like that? That was my retirement money, yo.
Ana: Don’t worry about it, Zoe. Experts like Steven James got your back.
Kate: ROFL.
Tip #8 was pretty straightforward. And in true Chuck style. Finish. (I’ll let you guys fill in the swearwords, ‘cause I’m a lady.)
Ana: I’ve done some writing this morning so I’m fresh out of swear words.
Zoe: COMPLETO EL POOPO. I may put that on a sign both above the computer screen and in front of the toilet….
Ana: He even said it in German too. Which moved me. -wipes away single tear-
Kate: No French. :( Tips 9, 10, and 11, ladies? (I know Ana’s excited for these.)
Ana: Those are about rules, why they matter, and how you should know them before you break them. I just have too many friends who don’t bother with this. But I guess we all know at least one “I don’t want to be influenced” writer…
Kate: I think of stories I’ve read, where the author has over-reached their current skill level and it makes me sad. Because you can see what they were trying to do with the story, but they aren’t there yet, so it becomes a confused and dreary mess. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t push yourself–sometimes you’re more skillful than you realize, but you have to make sure you’re within stretching distance of the story you want to tell. I know I’ve started some stories, only to realize I didn’t yet have the experience to tell them the way they needed to be told, so they’re sitting to one side, waiting for me to grow a bit as an author before I pick them up again.
Ana: I have one story like that, and I keep going back to rewrite my first one, which is a special case because it’s fantasy, even though that’s really not my genre. (Circumstances led me to write that one…)
Zoe: All my stories feel like that at some point, which I think is another one of the tips in this chapter. Oh yeah, #6: Yes, It Always Feels This Way. The days when you feel like an amateur.
Kate: I like that he makes the distinction between reading for pleasure and reading to learn, and points out that, as a writer, your reading for pleasure days are going to be seriously limited, because you’ll be reading for research, or reading to figure out how some other author did something really cool, or because you’ve gotten into the habit of reading critically and now it’s hard to remember not to. (Though he doesn’t really say that last one–that’s something that happened to me. But I was the geek in high school that liked picking out the themes in the novels we read.)
Ana: There’s also another reason reading for pleasure gets hard for writers. You’re so used to looking for the shortcomings in your own writing you immediately spot them everywhere else too. And it’s really annoying.
Kate: It is.
Zoe: Yes! I’m reading a good book now, and I’m still editing it in my head. I miss being blissfully ignorant. (Well, sometimes.)
Kate: He does a bit of a chat about the money side of things too. I like that he looks at those parts of the business, because for so long, it’s been “Don’t talk about money. It’s rude. You’re an artist–you’re not supposed to care.” And so many people have bought into that starving artist bullshit that it is, indeed, coming true. I’d like to make a living off my writing. I’d like to know that people value it enough to put out a couple of dollars. That the hundreds or thousands of hours spent on a book is properly recompensed. Most people wouldn’t work in a store for the kind of money most writers get, if you look at $ per hour. But writing is a long haul, and the beginning of your career pays even worse than fast food.
Ana: True, I earned okay in the fast food biz. (Just the work sucked… and the way I always smelled like onions.)
Zoe: I don’t run into a whole lot of writers these days who don’t want to talk about the money (at least obliquely if not in detail). Which is good: I think people should definitely value the work they put into it and the product they create. I think self-publishing has done a lot to open up those conversations.
Kate: And it’s good. You can go to any job search site and find out what people in any other profession are making. But until recently, finding out what a writer made was tantamount to asking to sit in their bedroom during sexytimes.
Zoe: WHICH NONE OF US WANT TO DO. (Or at least not this bird.)
Ana: I like to imagine all my fellow writers are asexual. (Actually that goes for most people I meet. And all my family.)
Zoe: Yes, too busy writing to have sex. Too busy writing and counting their writing monies.
Kate: Lol. Of course, in order to get those monies, you have to put yourself in the right place at the right time. Chuck talks about meeting the Universe in the middle, which pretty much goes for any career. No one is going to find you if you aren’t out there.
Ana: Unless your name is Waldo.
Kate: Even then, I can never find him… Of course, if he posted on blogs, and interacted with other writers and readers, he might be easier to track down. (On a side note, why are Chuck’s examples always of someone getting hit by lightning or eaten by monsters?)
Ana: Personal experience? I don’t know. I like how he emphasizes that self-publishing isn’t “the easy way out.”
Zoe: They also involve pooping a lot.
Kate: I think I wiped that part from my memory. And the idea of self-publishing scares the pants off me (or would, if I was wearing any). I like to have The Editor in Question holding my hand through the process.
(Zoe: Ha. Wiped. Ha.)
Kate: He talks about jealousy and depression, and how people are envious of writers who appear to be doing better than them, and then they get depressed and decide they’ll never be a success. (I just get cranky, for the most part, because they’ve already got the stumbling around blindly running into walls part over with, and I’ve got so many bumps on my forehead I look like a multi-corn.)
Ana: The only writer you should be comparing yourself to is the writer you were a day, a week, a year ago.
Zoe: Yes! I almost always compare favorably to that writer.
Ana: Once you lose out you can start worrying.
Kate: Once you give up, too. But, and I may be out to lunch with this, I wonder if some of this comes from not having completely honed your skills? I remember Brandon Sanderson telling a story about writing, I think it was 12 novels, before he actually got an agent. 12! You can guarantee he learned a lot about writing over the course of that many words.
Ana: I’m still working on getting my first million out of the way! I don’t know who said this, but someone put it quite eloquently when they said the problem with comparing yourself to other writers is that you see all your shitty first drafts while you only ever see everyone else’s highlight reel.
Kate: The Editor in Question said that to me at one point, not quite like that. The guy you’re thinking of is a religious leader in the States, Steve Furtick–I have that quote in my signature line on Absolute Write. But it’s very true–anything coming out in the stores or online (barring future EC releases, apparently), will have been through edits with someone with some training and skill. It’s not the first draft anymore–not even close.
Ana: #22 kind of reminds me of hanging out with a group of writers where everyone is everyone’s friend and no one dares say anything negative about anyone else’s writing. It can get tiring.
Kate: Yeah, when everything’s peaches and cream, you don’t learn anything. The same as when everything’s horrible, no matter what you do. Critique groups and crit partners need to strike a balance. If they aren’t, you need a new one. Don’t be afraid to sever, or at least severely attenuate that connection. At the same time, you need to try to be that kind of partner too.
Zoe: Time and luck, that’s what it takes to find the people who will best help your work grow. (Time and luck and some self-awareness.) And the same goes for becoming the type of person who can help others’ writing.
Kate: The last tip, #25, made me laugh, because in it, he’s talking about how you have to write, and he says, “Onward, fair penmonkey. Onward.” And now I want a t-shirt with Lady Godiva galloping into battle on a rainbow unicorn, waving Frodo’s sword, with the penmonkey following behind on a donkey. (I have no idea where that came from, but if anyone wants to do it up for me, I’d love you forever.)
Ana: Well, no one can say you lack imagination.
Kate: You can’t say you don’t want one.
Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: aspiring authors, beginning authors, writing advice
October 3, 2014
Three Dirty Birds Talk About 25 Things Chuck Wendig Thinks You Should Know About Storytelling
Find our twitterings over on Zoe’s blog!
Filed under: Tuesday Tickle, writing Tagged: Kick-Ass Writer, storytelling, writing advice
October 2, 2014
Conversations With My Editor
Me: I was considering slipping by the humane society, since the kid wants a rabbit. I’m not sure I want a rabbit, but she’s been asking for a while now. Of course, she also wants a dog. (I might as well build an Ark)
Editor: Er, a rabbit might be slightly less trouble. And quieter
Me:With my luck, she’ll still want the dog next year too.
Editor: Compromise: a rabbit that barks.
Me: I don’t agree with GMO’s :P
Editor: Picky. *sigh* Wererabbit? Waaaaaaait, OMG — your weres are ALL GMOs! I mean, technically speaking. This amuses me far too much.
Me: DON’T. START.
Editor: I can so see a certain witch flinging a snipe about GMOs.
Me: Oh, crap. That’s all I need, Glyn getting on an anti-GMO kick.
Me: Jeepers, I just realized that the post-apocalyptic military gryphon shifter story is a GMO story. *bangs head on desk*
Editor: You’re welcome.
Addendum: We went to the humane society. We looked at the dogs. And the cats. And the bunnies. And the funny thing was that I was the one who wanted to take home both a bunny and a cat.
Filed under: Conversations With My Editor Tagged: GMO's, hoist with my own petard, shifters
October 1, 2014
Three Dirty Birds Talk About 25 Things Chuck Wendig Thinks You Should Ask Yourself While Writing
Birding on over to Ana’s blog today!
Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: Kick-Ass Writer, writing advice
September 30, 2014
Tuesday Tickle: Five Alarm Blaze
A short story I wrote as a donation to a fundraising anthology. I’m not sure if the antho is still going forward, but if it doesn’t, I think I’ll take this one and bump up the wordcount on it. It’s cute, and there’s potential for a lot more cuteness, with an awkward firefighter and his paramedic love interest.
Seth walked in. The flutter in Cody’s stomach turned into full blown nervous twitches and he turned his back on the man to hide his reaction. He’d always thought he was straight, until two months ago. Until the day Seth, with his blond hair and lean, compact frame had transferred to Cody’s station. Now, every time he saw the man, his body bluntly informed him that he wasn’t nearly as straight as he’d thought.
“Morning, gentlemen. How was your night?” Seth’s voice sent shivers up Cody’s spine. He pressed his lips together to avoid answering, since he was pretty sure he’d say something stupid, and pretended to wipe down the already spotless countertop.
Gene threw him a frustrated glance and answered Seth. “Typical Tuesday. Quiet for us, and all the usual suspects for the not-a-docs.”
“Nothing wrong with not being a doctor,” Seth replied. Cody could hear the humor in his voice. “Who wants to spend that much money to be an old fuddy-duddy, right, Cody?” He’d moved closer. Seth smelled like shampoo and a little fabric softener. It made Cody’s nerves sing, in both a good and a bad way. He wanted to pull the smaller man close and just breath him in, but the idea of coming out in a room full of firefighters, when he wasn’t even sure this wasn’t just a phase, made his knees weak.
The silence stretched, until Cody croaked out, “Yeah, right.” He turned and brushed past Seth. “Shift’s over. Let’s go get that anniversary present.” He was out the door with his backpack in record speed, cursing himself for being an awkward son of a bitch.
That was a bit longer than I realized it when I copied it…
Filed under: Tuesday Tickle Tagged: firefighter, gay for you, mm romance, paramedic
September 29, 2014
Three Dirty Birds Talk Kick-Ass Writer by Chuck Wendig
The Dirty Birds are dissecting Chuck Wendig’s opus The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience. Today we’re talking about the first 25 tips he gives, in the section he calls 25 Things You Should Know About Being A Writer.
Ana: And kick ass? I’ll be disappointed if there aren’t any instructions on ass kicking in this book.
Kate: I’m just getting this out here right now–I will never type that entire title again (Holy mouthfuls, Batman). It’s going to either be KAW or 1001 Wendigs (for those days when one Wendig isn’t nearly enough).
Ana: Seeing as we’re birds it should be CAW. Cawing about KAW?
Kate: Caw, caw!
Zoe: At first I was like, “THIS BOOK STARTS OUT GREAT,” and then I realized I was confusing “legion” with “legendary.” But Chuck’s right: we are legion. The internet is 55% porn and 45% writers. And it’s kind of like a Venn diagram, with a lot of overlap between the two.
Ana: I firmly identify with both factions.
Kate: Here, here. *raises coffee mug* I liked his first tip, and if you don’t get anything else out of this book, you need to internalize the concept that there is no One True Way. That everyone has their own workflow, their own style, their own things they do well or do poorly. And that you have to give yourself time to find yours. (As much as I covet the ability to outline without completely losing the story to the ‘oh, I already wrote that’ portion of my brain.)
Ana: But this goes against everything that Story Trumps Structure has taught me.
Zoe: I found at least one tip in my reading this week that did that. Chuck, for all his bluster and yelling, is actually far more moderate than Stephen James as far as telling people it’s okay to find their own way…and that every story has structure whether you accept it or not.
Kate: And, while finding your own way, he mentions that even the most talented writer will not succeed unless they invest time in the tools of the trade–spelling, grammar, plotting.
Zoe: I like where he said “The writer you are when you begin is not the writer you become.”
Ana: And thank God for that!
Kate: No kidding! I also like his very blunt acceptance that luck does factor into this, like it does in anything, and part of your job is to take the time to make sure you’re in the right place for luck to find you. If you never engage, never put your work out there, how can anyone find you?
Ana: Well, yes, you can influence your luck to some degree. Fortune favors the brave, after all.
Zoe: Yes, you’re far more likely to get lucky when you have ten stories out there than you are while you’re daydreaming about writing your first.
Kate: Which feeds into his tip that ‘You Are Your Own Worst Enemy’. You need to do the work. BICHOK, baby!
Zoe: I am totally my own worst enemy.
Kate: Me too, lately.
Zoe: I have this fantasy that before the internet existed, writers…found more productive ways to procrastinate. ;)
Kate: Lol. I think most of them found bottle to procrastinate in.
Zoe: Stop it! You’re ruining my dreamworld of clean houses and efficiently managed to-read piles!
Kate: Considering what’s currently going on in publishing right now (authors behaving badly, Ellora’s Cave, etc.), Tip 15 is mighty apropos: Act Like an Asshole, Get Treated Like an Asshole. There’s a ton of people wanting to break into publication–why would you put that unnecessary obstacle in your way? No one wants to work with a jerk. Or read one.
Ana: Very true. Of course, that goes for publishers too. No one subs to someone with a bad rep. Or well, smart people don’t.
Zoe: In the case of Ellora’s Cave right now, no one’s reviewing their books, and many people are boycotting purchasing them. Terrible for the authors caught up in it, but a reminder that you have to really scrutinize the people you’re going to partner with. (Although, if you got into EC early, you didn’t have the benefit of seeing the warning signs before you got involved.)
Ana: I liked tip number 16 too. “Writing Is Never Just About Writing.” We wish it were, but there’s so many other things that factor into it once you got your story written.
Kate: And wasn’t that a shock? That first time edits happened and you were trying to get the new story moving along, but the edits were due, and then you realized you also had a blog post to write? *panic in the writer’s room*
Zoe: In some ways I like that there are other parts to the job, because I like to switch gears to get my head together and catch my breath before I get back into the story. But sometimes those other responsibilities show up at inopportune moments…
Ana: Like when you really have to edit your book, but you also have to beta read that other writer’s book that you swapped favors with and there’s a promo op coming up that you can’t miss and you should probably not wait too long before getting the ball going on the next book you want to publish.
Kate: We need a cloning machine.
Zoe: Or assistants. My goal is get wealthy enough to afford an assistant.
Kate: That would be awesome.
Zoe: Number 18: THE WORST THING YOUR WORK CAN BE IS BORING. Aaaaaaamen. I may complain (privately) about all kinds of ways authors mangle stories, but the only truly unforgivable offense is boring me. The story drags, nothing happens—or, rather, lots of piddly, pointless, banal, inconsequential things happen, interrupted at random occasions for some big, overwrought thing that gets solved in a page in a half so that the author can get back to the tedium of Nothing Freaking Happening. Don’t do that. Don’t do it with your storyline, and don’t do it on a sentence level.
Kate: Zoe, you’re taking me back to that historical I read while I was checking out editing at different publishers. You don’t want to be the person who wrote that. That’s someone who should have paid more attention to Tip 21: Everything Can Be Fixed in Post. (Okay, I need to pay attention to that too.)
Zoe: I love that one. It’s so true. You get unlimited do-overs.
Ana: Knowing that I can rewrite is one of the things that stops me from going insane while writing that first draft.
Zoe: Yes, it’s not like making a movie where every minute you spend filming and editing costs big money, it’s not like painting where you’re using up expensive oil pigments with every stroke. It’s virtual letters on virtual paper, and all it costs is the electricity—which you were going to pay anyway, since if you weren’t writing you’d be looking at porn on the Internet.
Kate: Exactly. So there’s no excuse for letting ‘It’s not perfect!’ stop you. Write it anyway, fix it after. Sometimes you have to get it down on the screen before you can see what you really should have done. (Especially if you’re a pantser.)
Zoe: Yes, and don’t forget the “fix it after” part. Very important.
Ana: I also like the next piece of advice: Quit Quitting. I have a lot of friends who have 1001 wips and no finished drafts. I feel bad for them sometimes because finishing a novel feels freaking awesome and they don’t get to experience that!
Kate: I think a lot of people buy into that artistic ‘the muse took me over’ idea, and when they find out writing is actual work, they get bummed out. There’s a really warped idea out there of what the life of a writer actually is. (Which can sometimes make it hard for writers to carve out writing time, since the people around them assume it’s much easier than it is. Don’t be that person–guard your writer’s writing time the way you guard your own!)
Ana: I think a lot of people just get bummed out when they run into rough spots while writing their wips and it’s easy to start thinking if you abandon this stupid mess of a wip and start Awesome Idea #23, everything will go much easier.
Zoe: That’s my philosophy about romantic relationships. ;) But this brings us back to tip #8: Writing Feels Like—But Isn’t—Magic.
Kate: Yep. It’s that whole “grass is greener” thing. Until you get into a relationship, a job, a new car, a new story idea, everything looks wonderful, there’s no faults, nothing that doesn’t go exactly to plan. Then you find out the new SO puts the toilet paper on backwards, the customers are annoying, the radio buzzes when you turn up the bass, and you don’t know quite how to get from AWESOME STORY EVENT #1 to AWESOME STORY EVENT #2.
Zoe: “Hammers above magic wands; nails above eye-of-newt.” You just keep working at it, instead of hoping a new WIP or a wonderfully generous muse will swoop in to rescue you.
Kate: We keep harping on work, work, work, and all that, but the last thing Chuck reminds us of is that it needs to be fun. If you hate your job, you don’t want to go in. If you aren’t enjoying the writing, then you won’t want to do it and it’ll show in the story. And who wants to be miserable, anyway?
Overall, I thought this section was a pretty good picture of what the writing life is actually like. Sure, it’s loads of fun, and I get grumpy if I’m not getting my writing time, but there’s a lot more to it than that image of the author swanning around to book signings, with camera flashes going off all around, and spending their days on the beach sipping margaritas and tapping away at the laptop. I like that Chuck is blunt and unafraid enough to talk about the parts of the industry that no one likes to discuss, like luck, and behaviour, and maybe you don’t have the basic skills yet, so there’s work you need to do.
Zoe: It’s a good mix of truth and encouragement.
Filed under: Three Dirty Birds Talk, writing Tagged: writing advice, writing life
