Simi > Recent Status Updates

Good grief she's wordy!!! I found myself tripping over the lack of sufficient and well-placed commas, the tendency to write long, and to interject heavily with punctuations that made difficult sentences all the more harder.
She does it so much, I'm writing tediously long sentences now!
Her words choices are also ... a lot. It's a bit pretentious and a bit insufferable, especially compared to Lamott.

Schwarzchild must have read this book in preparing to teach his Creative Writing class. I see a lot of his limited beliefs in the pages of Le Guin's advise. (Yes, I'm still salty 13 years later!)

The advise around POV shifts is feeling a tiny bit dated, because everyone and their mother is doing multiple POV these days. Granted, as Le Guin warns, you've got to do it well or you'll leave the reader feeling very twisted and turned about.

A time travel sci fi feels more my speed. But I'm about to witness a terrible time in history, and I don't have the stomach for it right before I sleep. Butler's writing is very evocative.

Some of this advice feels a tiny bit outdated. Le Guin approaches POV with a rigidity that I don't think is as necessary in today's fictional and narrative writing.

The writing is a bit difficult to get through just because Le Guin chooses to write in a atypical sentence structures and the delivery is often overcomplicated.

On the flip side, intentional repetition is a thing of beauty. I try to incorporate that in my writing as well. Done right, in the right place within a piece, it can really lift the whole thing to the next level.

Ha! I was just struggling with repetition in a recent writing activity. I am hyperaware of repetition and work to avoid the clunky, unintentional version. But when you're writing without editing, its bound to happen. And because I'm so aware and wary, I hear it more loudly in my writing than others do. It's interesting to realize others aren't necessarily as bothered by poor diversity in words as I might be.

Writing groups "give you a place to show up and a little benevolent pressure". This is exactly what I'm hoping The Open Notebook serves as, at least in the beginning. If we can move forward and be something more, later, that will be great. But for now, this is a time and space to work on the craft, slowly but surely.

Her sentence structures are so fascinating! A real masterclass in play across the pages.

This book has some nuggets. Definitely has me thinking.

That was rough! I can't tell if she was intentionally messing with the sentences & their structure, or if it was a lack of editing. There are some glaring mistakes, but it breaks my mind to think that Le Guin could make such mistakes & that this guidebook has seen so many reprints without them being caught and fixed.
I had started off thinking I'd want a copy of this book for my shelves, but the more I read it...nah!

Trucking my way through this book and because it's a nearly daily practice, and because I'm approaching it academically and conscientiously, I can see how it's starting to seep into my psyche and truly making me pause, think (critically!), and respond in a more mindful manner.

Less is resonating in this section. Stand out points: observe, be compassionate and empathetic, and the heart of what you write should be something you can stand by at a moral level.

I struggled with the words a bit. I did not find Kipling or Twain or any of the other writers' works to be "gorgeous" and easy to get through. I was tripping over my own tongue reading them. But that is, perhaps, more a me thing than the actual work by these much-celebrated authors.
I like the exercise suggestions and can't wait to incorporate them into the Workshop!

Atalanta juxtapositioned against Medea would've made for a more compelling story. On it's own, it was a little lackluster, especially against the lineup of Ariadne & Elektra.

I'm very curious to pick up fiction by Lamott now. And possibly her father, though I don't think he's in my usual literary wheelhouse.
I was surprised when I read she was only 28 when she worked through her second novel, spending 3+ years on it! That means she started working on it around 25. Which means her first came out when she was younger. At 25, I was ... an ignorant fool. Now I'm just a fool.

Lots of good tips in the Plot chapter

The depravities of men, in particular, over the course of time and history, are just ... unspeakably horrific.

Losing a little bit of steam around this particular reading and I'm not sure if it's the substance of the content or me. Last couple of days have felt like a repackaging of information already shared in earlier sections.

I feel like I'm studying again, but for myself.
This is such a meta read - there are, of course, actual tips and bits of guidance for writing. But the actual writing of these things is, in itself, a lesson (no, many lessons) on good writing.

Nooo! Stop dragging Will back into her life. Let her go and let her live her own life. Sheesh!

The 31-page intro should absolutely count towards writing. I read this book back in 2012 and have a memory of liking it and thinking it was really good. Possibly slightly influenced by my professor, who I adored. But it's frequently on the list of books to turn to for writers, so I'm coming back to it as I start my own writing workshop.

She went with the (mostly) convenient, wrapped up in a bow approach for the ending. It's all a bit rushed and has me rolling my eyes.

On the flip side, I'm LOVING Josie's feminist awakening!

"I loved a man... [who] hadn't loved me enough to stay in it" is such an egotistical and selfish perspective. Lou is really hard to sympathize and connect with in this book.

I genuinely find it unhinged that Lou has been carrying a torch for Will for over 2 years when she only knew him for 6 months. Yes, I know that's plenty of time to know and love a person, but it just didn't build to that in a reasonable way for me. Girl, get yourself to some proper therapy, stop living in the memory of those six months, and start focusing a bit more on yourself!

This kid is so desperate to move to absolutely anyone other than dealing with her own family and issues. None of it is healthy or appropriate. They all need a lot more therapy than they are (or more likely aren't) getting!

A fair bit of hijinks going on with these sisters! This is way more my cup of tea than P&P or S&S any day!