Sarah Barra's Blog, page 23
September 15, 2014
"If you are a writer, and you have a novel idea that you are excited about writing, write it. Don’t..."
If you have a book that you want to write, just write the damn thing. Don’t worry about selling it; that comes later. Instead, worry about making your book good. Worry about the best way to order your scenes to create maximum tension, worry about if your character’s actions are actually in character; worry about your grammar. DON’T worry about which of your stylistic choices some potential future editor will use to reject you, and for the love of My Little Ponies don’t worry about trends. Trying to catching a trend is like trying to catch a falling knife—dangerous, foolhardy, and often ending in tears, usually yours.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t pay attention to what’s getting published; keeping an eye on what’s going on in your market is part of being a smart and savvy writer. But remember that every book you see hitting the shelves today was sold over a year ago, maybe two. Even if you do hit a trend, there’s no guarantee the world won’t be totally different by the time that book comes out. The only certainty you have is your own enthusiasm and love for your work. …
If your YA urban fantasy features fairies, vampires, and selkies and you decide halfway through that the vampires are over-complicating the plot, that is an appropriate time to ax the bloodsuckers. If you decide to cut them because you’re worried there are too many vampire books out right now, then you are betraying yourself, your dreams, and your art.
If you’re like pretty much every other author in the world, you became a writer because you had stories you wanted to tell. Those are your stories, and no one can tell them better than you can. So write your stories, and then edit your stories until you have something you can be proud of. Write the stories that excite you, stories you can’t wait to share with the world because they’re just so amazing. If you want to write Murder She Wrote in space with anime-style mecha driven by cats, go for it. Nothing is off limits unless you do it badly.
And if you must obsess over something, obsess over stuff like tension and pacing and creating believable characters. You know, the shit that matters. There are no writing police. This is your story, no one else’s. Tell it like you want to.”
-
Rachel Aaron (via relatedworlds)
Yeah, so, this answers a lot of asks I get. It’s also why YW focuses on technique and style, and less on content and research.
(via clevergirlhelps)
This is so important
(via freddlounds)
"The best books come from someplace deep inside…. Become emotionally involved. If you don’t care..."
- Judy Blume (via writingquotes)
artlung:
wocinsolidarity:
lostthehat:
shuraiya:
beatonna:
le...
Pumzi - dir. Wanuri Kahiu // Kenya
In a dystopian future 35 years after an ecological WWIII has torn the world apart, East African survivors of the devastation remain locked away in contained communities, but a young woman in possession of a germinating seed struggles against the governing council to bring the plant to Earth’s ruined surface.
The main character is a museum curator in the future and also yes I would like see this now please
THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THIS I DON’T LIKE
The complete short film is on youtube and it’s really good and the end kind of took my breath away.
GET INTO THIS
medievalpoc
might dig this.
How to suppress women's writing in the age of social media
Inspired of course by by Joanna Russ. And not set off by anything in particular, just an aggregate of comments and a good friend being treated terribly for posting some of her fiction for free online.
She tweets and tumblrs so she must not be working.
She never tweets and tumblrs so she must she think she is too good for her fans.
Her books don’t sell so she must be a failure.
Her books do sell so she must write for the money.
She writes too much of one series. A good writer would write books set in lots of different universes.
She should write more of the same series because that is what I like. Hope she doesn’t think I will buy her new stuff.
She talks about and answers questions about her books, why won’t she leave her fandom alone? Why is she trying to impose her views on them?
She doesn’t answer questions from her fans or listen to what they say. She must not care about them.
She sells her work for money so she must just want money.
She posted her work for free so it doesn’t really belong to her.
I like her main female character so she must be a Mary Sue that the author based on herself.
I hate her main female character so she needs to learn how to write women.
I wrote her a nasty message and she didn’t answer so she is a coward.
I wrote her a nasty message and she did answer so she is a bully.
She contradicted me when I accused her of something so I know she did it, otherwise she wouldn’t be so defensive.
She didn’t contradict me when I accused her of something so I know she did it, otherwise she would have defended herself.
She wrote it but she tried too hard to be literary so I couldn’t get into it.
She wrote it and I really enjoyed it but because of the subject matter I know it’s trash, really.
This is so, so, so true. Unconscious bias bubbles up over and over, poisoning discourse. It’s enraging and it’s also really boring after a while.
September 14, 2014
Little update!
Hi everyone! Sorry for being inactive lately. I was having tons of things to do and think about.
After some tough months I decided I want to make some changes in my life, get more healthy and stuff.
For that reason I also want to blog more here (like proper blogging, not just reblogging pictures) and post some personal pictures, write about my day or whatever.
Spring is starting, so now I have more thing to do outside that I can share with you guys. I will keep it book related thou. Maybe some quotes once in a while and whatever random thing I can think of.
Also, I want to make a 30 day green smoothie challenge! and I should keep track on those too.
I’m gonna work on my second book too and post some quotes once in a while and get it done soon!
Thanks for reading!
eternal-books:
EBOOKS ARE BOOKS. AUDIO BOOKS ARE BOOKS. PAPERBACKS ARE BOOKS. HARDCOVERS ARE...
EBOOKS ARE BOOKS.
AUDIO BOOKS ARE BOOKS.
PAPERBACKS ARE BOOKS.
HARDCOVERS ARE BOOKS.
BOOKS ARE GREAT.
DO I NEED TO REPEAT MYSELF??
