Month: March 2009

This is a weird one, isn’t it? It’s probably wrong to say so, but I do appreciate the time and care people take with the graffiti in this city. It’s so… unusual. Hummingbirds. Oil barrels. It’s a statement. Of something…

How do you write anger?

Yesterday I did a little experiment — I usually write with no music on whatsoever, or with very faint classical music on — today I tried writing for awhile listening to indie pop (Andrea Wittgens) to see if I could screw down my concentration to a point where I could free myself to write without obsessing over word choices or specifics, but still be enjoying, on another level, the music. I did that because I was editing/revising — I don’t know if I could swing that if I were writing all new material. I was writing a scene with a rather petulant person confronting her mother in a very aggrieved state, and it worked for me — the sentences were punchier, the scene was tighter and faster, and I think the voice was pretty believable. I’m not sure how the music helped to shape that, but… well, this is science. Experimentation continues apace.

I’ve noticed something about my writing — I tend to hide behind my main characters and look out through their eyes. And protect them. People don’t yell at them as much as they would in real life, they don’t behave badly and really shriek and argue with their parents. They’re leashed, controlled, and always pulled back from the brink. Well, that’s no way to live, much less any way to write. So, those first draft “controls” are ripped away as I revise.

And I have to dig into my own head for examples of emotion… but the problem is that when I get angry — not peeved, not aggravated, but straight, cold, I-wish-you-dead furious, I don’t yell. A.) I cry. In private, if I can, but in public if I have to… which generally just makes me angrier. And B.) I use very large words and speak in very short, emotionless sentences. Talk about leashed and controlled. C.) — Well, please hope you never get to C. Because I will do violence upon your person. Ask the people whose shins I have kicked with my large combat boots. You’d think I would have grown out of that, but, no. It’s a leftover relic from being a very teased youngest child. One minute she’s crying, the next she’s launching for your jugular vein with her fangs extended. My sisters thought I was insane. (Quite possibly they still do.)

*Ahem.* Where was I? Oh, yes, writing anger. As you may have guessed, I don’t have a normal the average person’s anger responses, as I learned early that anger was not ladylike or appropriate. I got in trouble for my temper constantly, which made me angry, go figure — but I knew I was behaving badly, and so over time learned to squash those impulses. That’s kind of a problem, now! I have a character whom I’ve been asked to write more jaggedly, more furiously — so I’m going to try a few things. I’m going to listen to angry music and try to write an angry scene. I’m wavering between Green Day or The Ballad of Sweeny Todd or …something. I don’t know from angry music; I have a feeling I’m not doing this right! (And no, I can’t listen to rap — yes, some fine lyrics and some good examples of angry, but too many words.)

Meanwhile, the scene remains unwritten. *Sigh* I may have to do this the old-school method acting way… by thinking of something that makes me mad, then trying to push it out of my mind long enough to write… Unless you have a better idea? How how do you do anger?

Wintergirls is out today. Congratulations Laurie Halse Anderson! Also, congratulations to Kerry Madden for her biography of Harper Lee, which Jama so generously pointed us to. (Do you ever wonder how she DOES THAT?! How she knows EVERYTHING about EVERYONE’S BOOKS!?)

There’s this one episode of Dr. Who where everyone has gas masks for faces… which freaks me right out. (I don’t know what episode, and I only saw it on video, so forgive me, I have no idea what year, but it was the Doctor before this one, I think.) This statue is of a fireman and it’s in downtown Glasgow, and …well, it freaks me out, too. But doesn’t the bronze coat look life-like? It’s an excellent statue.

“Humans hate to suck, and human writers must learn to suffer through suck.” As always, Laini Taylor’s amusing ways of speaking about writing give us a whole new angle on the particulars of getting through difficulties The Job At Hand, and laughing all the way. Or at least not lying down and dramatically howling. Writing Through Suck — doesn’t that sound like a particularly good seminar class?

I dearly love finding out details about how writers write. On the readergirlz blog, I discovered that like me, Mitali chews bubblegum while she revises! And, occasionally like me, she probably bites her tongue occasionally, and wonders why she put the bubblegum in her mouth in the first place. I haven’t yet popped my jaw out of socket (Ouch, Mitali! Feel better!!), but I’m sure I’m headed that direction soon. Meanwhile, Sara Lewis Holmes eats bowls of popcorn and occasionally does a downward facing dog ON TOP of her manuscript. Osmosis: it helps. Maybe.

It’s all about moving through the suckitude.

Meanwhile, the very funny and very prolific — whee! THREE BOOKS!!! in one year! — Maggie Stiefvater is blogging about how her rough drafting goes. I find I have just moved through her Housecleaning Stage and am knee-deep in Trudge. Trudge. Seriously. Sometimes, Trudge edges toward Slog, but we go on…!

I wonder how Suzanne Collins writes? Readers who loved The Hunger Games will get to find out how she writes… MOVIES, because, hat tip to Kids’ Lit, I just learned she’s doing the novel adaptation for her own movie. Oh, joy. Oh, bliss. Oh, lucky, lucky writer, and lucky, lucky fans! Much squeeing!

Operation Teen Book Drop has a cute press release wherein it is described as a “reading stimulus plan.” Definitely one stimulus plan that has a great chance of working! Last year’s book drop was amazingly successful — I’m so excited that GuysLitWire is also involved this year as well. Hospitals stays will never be the same!

I don’t make a practice of photographing people in my perambulations through Glasgow, but I thought this guy would go nicely with my post today. He’s Irish. Know how we know? Because that’s an Irish pipe… apparently not a bagpipe. These things are explained to me, and I just say, “Uh-huh,” and keep my bewilderment to myself. (Honestly, does it not look JUST LIKE a Scottish pipe? Apparently if we could see the other side of it, one of the …drone thingies would be over his shoulder instead of hanging down like it would be with a Scottish one. To which I say, “Whatev.”)

Busy days, busy days. Trying to re-imagine one character’s total relationship to another one is about the equivalent of picking out a single thread of color from a tapestry, following it all the way through the under-over-under-over weaving, and …redyeing it. It’s the subtle, small changes that change everything in a piece of art. It’s the kind of fiddly work that sometimes I can only do in small doses, and then I have to get up and wander around. I’ve been working, and in between that I’ve been reading old books — this morning I finished Emma Bull’s War for the Oaks, and sighed in perfect happiness for five whole minutes. Such a good book.

And then, back to work.

I don’t remember who linked to this one first, but I was passed along to the blog of Sara Zarr by several people in the last couple of days. Sara blogs about finding herself Photoshopped for an author photograph she took. She posts Real Sara, Fake Sara shots of herself, and I find myself wanting to quietly batter the photographer over the head with his laptop. Especially for a writer like Sara, who writes about girls learning to love and accept themselves as themselves, the specifically-not-requested Photoshopping is condescending, sexist and …invasive. The photographer obviously has ideas about what makes a woman look better. Too bad he didn’t choose to keep them to himself. Well done and hearty bravas to Sara for making the photographer use the original images of her, and then writing about it.

Of course, the happiest — and most amusing discovery of the last day or so is Neil the Gorgeous Gaiman on Comedy Central. I am eternally grateful to Leila at Bookshelves of Doom for posting it, ’cause I can’t see Stephen Colbert here in the UK (BOO!). I cracked up as Stephen Colbert read the first line of The Graveyard Book, and scolded Gaiman for frightening small children. Wellll. He frightened a couple of big ones, too, but really, I got over it. Bod is lovely.

I also appreciate how The Colbert Show is melding popular culture and literature. When Colbert had poet Elizabeth Alexander on the show after the inauguration, I was hoping that non-political writers would return more often, and YES! They’re on the show in spades now. Way to make literature accessible, people. Smart, smart move.

Meanwhile, the Savage Chickens are pretty sure that Samuel L. Jackson and St. Patrick are the same person. Since I haven’t seen Snakes on a Plane, I’m just not sure…

…Aaaaaaaaaaand now it’s time to go back to work. Ciao for now.

“I can’t help picturing a wedding reception with a giant serpent. He’d be fine at the Electric Slide or the limbo, but they’d have to skip YMCA and the macarena.”

Just in time for your next bedtime story, it’s time for another completely bizarre and surreal fairytale with Sarah Beth Durst! Introducing: the massive evil serpent prince! You will giggle inappropriately. Guaranteed.

Via the ever-informative SF Signal comes the news that Octavia Butler’s Kindred will be turned into a graphic novel. If you’re not familiar with this novel — you should pick it up. It’s the story of Dana — a modern African American woman who gets time-slipped back to slave times — problem being, she’s time-slipped into her own family line, and she knows that her task in that time is to save the life of her owner — or else she won’t have existed. Unfortunately, though he starts out well enough, he turns into a product of his time. The psychological implications of having to save your …enslaver… whoa. This was an amazing mind-inside-out kind of book. Really, anything by Octavia Butler is amazing. She died way too soon.

I Stand Corrected: Galleycat supports the use of the phrase “people of color” to mean ethnic minorities all across the board, and is calling for more books from other ethnic groups as well as African Americans. Go, GalleyCat. Yay.

High on my list of Cool Things I Learned This Week is Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men. I think I need to find a picture book about this man. There has to be one.

Happy Monday. March allegedly comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb… can I vote for the lamb part to start earlier?? The time hasn’t changed yet in the UK, but the weather has just gone completely nuts. I’ve never seen snow come with lightning and thunder. That was really, really weird! It’s good to be indoors and warm and dry.

Hey, have you heard about Diamonds in the Sky, the astronomy science fiction anthology put together by a bunch of writers? It’s for use in the classroom, and though I only recognize the name of Alma Alexander as a contributor — she of the Worldweavers fame — and Mary Robinette Kowal, I am enthused about this idea. All of the “what ifs” in this book are based in solid science, and the anthology was made possible by the National Science Foundation. Very cool.

Share a Story – Shape a Future — a celebration of reading, and a place to find ideas for how to incorporate story and books into everyone’s everyday life — starts today. Click through for the full schedule.

Other writers and illustrators have found interesting and creative ways to share the love — Grace Lin has a gorgeous new piece up for the Small Graces auction this month, for which the proceeds go to the non-profit Foundation of Children’s Books, and Justina Chen Headley has made her own video for the Finding Beauty Challenge. For every video about true beauty, Justina will donate $10–up to $1,000–to help children in third-world countries born with cleft lips and palates.

Via Betsy at Fuse#8, I have found the next Procrastination Adventure. It comes from Facebook, as all things seem to, and it’s that “create your own album cover” note thing, except it’s better …it’s Create Your Own Fantasy Novel Cover. This is, of course, so bad it’s good. Check out 100 Scope Notes, and then play along. I actually love the first one he posted in his gallery, by Percival Henry Dillon. First: Percival. I love that so much! Second: Butterfly ships! This book must be written!

Carrie Jones is going to be at the Tollbooth this week, but before she gets started on her official topic, she’s talking about the writer’s role in giving young adults hope — vs. giving them the truth. How do we write about suffering? “As writers, how do we show the hellmouth of the world, what Nietzsche called the ‘innumerable shouts of pleasure and woe” without pushing teens and children into despair?” Yes, she did just throw out Buffy along with Nietzsche.

As always, I love what Carrie has to say, and am both inspired to be as truthful as she is, and haunted by the truth I want to tell. To me, it’s a question not of if some things need to be told, but how… and if I have the courage.

Suddenly, I feel the need to get writing…. Ciao for now.

“We have to remember: There is nothing wrong with women writing about themselves, their youth, their indiscretions, their habits and values and personal development. Men have been writing about this stuff for thousands of years; they call it the canon.” ~ Rebecca Traister

“Immediately he opened a large number of eyes very wide. “What a strange idea. Love isn’t feeling. If it were, I wouldn’t be able to love. Cherubim don’t have feelings.”

“But —“

“Idiot,” Proginoskes said, anxiously rather than crossly. “Love isn’t how you feel. It’s what you do.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle (in A Wind in the Door)

“Too often we see the ills that plague us more clearly than the possibilities in front of us.” ~ Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, during her confirmation hearings, 1/2009.

Hey, I just noticed that GalleyCat is now featuring publishing professionals of color. By “people of color,” they mean African American people, which is interesting, considering the discussion at Mitali’s Fire Escape the other day about the vocabulary we use when we talk about race.

Which leads me to another blog you might not have met yet in your travels: Color Online. C.O. is a blog for young women of all colors, and celebrates the diversity, literature and empowerment and cultural awakening of women of all colors from around the globe. I’ve been lurking there quietly, and I like what I see. Check them out. (And C.O. — check out readergirlz. I think you should hang out and be friends.)