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Posts Tagged ‘Writers’

Free Download: Stupefying Stories’ “The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology”

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Oooh, shiny!

If you are at all interested in good writing or genre fiction, check out Stupefying Stories’ “The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology.” The name is a bit of a mouthful but get past that and you are in for a treat. This collection contains 80 short stories by authors eligible for this year’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer award, and all free free free.

Limited time offer, get yours today!

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Excerpt From A NaNoWriMo Notebook

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

** This happened in November but it fits so perfectly with my current mood that I decided to post it today.**

It was a fine day, although just before I started work on my novel the cat got out of the yard and I ended up with sixteen bandages and a lot of bleeding. Nothing too horrific, just lots of scratches and some annoying flaps of skin, but I am now pleased to know that I am the sort of person who can have four bandaids on one hand and still write almost 3,000 words. It was actually really satisfying, I must say.

That brings to mind a Neil Gaiman quote that I hope serves you as well as it has me:

“When writing a novel, that’s pretty much entirely what life turns into: House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.”

Finish the damn story. You’ll be happy you did.

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Writing…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , on February 7, 2013| 2 Comments »

photo by Benimoto on Flickr

photo by Benimoto on Flickr

I’m writing. How’s it going? Not bad, considering. Ann Patchett has a terrific essay called The Getaway Car. One particularly telling passage details her view of writing. While the work is in her head it is perfect, she says, a beautiful, multi-dimensional butterfly in the most magical and vibrant colors. The problem with bringing the story into being is that she has to take that gorgeous creature and smash it onto a black and white page, a two-dimensional and wholly inadequate representation of the original.

It made me laugh and want to cry because I know exactly what she means.

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Making the Most of Rejection

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on January 28, 2013| 2 Comments »

I am relatively new to fiction writing. I submitted my first story in 2011 and have been fortunate enough to have some success publishing since. That said, I have also had an awful lot of rejections. Here’s the thing: I’m an academic. Ok, not anymore, but once upon a time. Getting a Ph.D. was terrific but did a number on my writing. What was I left with? Verbiage. Semi-colons. Colons. And commas, lots and lots of commas. Ever heard of a tale titled “An In-Depth Analysis of One Woman’s Experience with Conflict, Work, and Marriage: A Speculative Analysis of Gender Roles, Cross-Generational Attitudes, and Female-Centered Power Struggles in Medieval Europe”? No, because it’s a lot easier to just say “Cinderella.”

No matter what your background, writing for others is awash with rejection. I dare say that even writers like Ken Liu and John Scalzi have been rejected a time or two. The good news is that it’s not all bad. I’ve got a piece on blazing your own trail, and the potential usefulness of rejection in that process, over at the Clarion Foundation today. If you’re interested in ways to make even this potentially unpleasant experience work for you, check it out.

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Creativity, Minus the “Obligatory” Crazy

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , on October 12, 2012| 1 Comment »

I stumbled on this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert yesterday and loved her characterization of creative genius as something that we encounter, rather than have (or, more devastatingly, do not). Sure, it could be considered a cop-out, but any idea that can help artists move forward while avoiding the pitfalls of despair seems like a good thing. Also? She’s funny.

 

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