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!
Maggie writes an ASTOUNDING NUMBER of words per day. And this is how she has THREE books out, and I have one and a half.
*sigh* mumble grump
According to Maggie, I’m about to have an epiphany. Yay! Or maybe I just had it; I don’t know. If I did, it wasn’t big enough. I want BIG before I go into SLOG.
Of course, I don’t usually write 80,000 words. I’m more of a 35-50,000 word girl. So maybe my timing’s off.
Hmmm.. Or maybe I should just keep writing instead of reading how other people write. 🙂