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I will probably be in the chatroom tonight and tomorrow if anyone cares to join me. I will hopefully be spending that time playing catch-up. D: Being sick really set me back.
Famous Advice Friday!
This excerpt comes from "Polaroids" in Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
"Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't--and, in fact, you're not supposed to--know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing.
First you just point at what has your attention and take the picture... Maybe your Polaroid was supposed to be a picture of that boy against the fence, and you didn't notice until the last minute that a family was standing a few feet away from him. Now, maybe it's his family, or the family of one of the kids in his class, but at any rate those people are going to be in the photograph, too.
Then the film emerges from the camera with a grayish green murkiness that gradually becomes clearer and clearer, and finally you see the husband and his wife holding their baby with two children standing beside them. And at first it all seems very sweet, but then the shadows begin to appear, and then you start to see the animal tragedy, the baboons baring their teeth.
And then you see a flash of bright red flowers in the bottom left quadrant that you didn't even know where in the picture when you took it, and those flowers evoke a time or a memory that moves you mysteriously. And finally, as the portrait comes into focus, you begin to notice all the props surrounding these people, and you begin to understand how props define us and comfort us, and show us what we value and what we need, and who we think we are.
You couldn't have had any way of knowing what this piece of work would look like when you first started. You just knew that there was something about these people that compelled you, and you stayed with that something long enough to show you what it was about."
I love this feeling--I tend to get ideas in the form of really strong images, and so this is very familiar to me, sort of sliding around until I find my footing.
Famous Advice Friday!
This excerpt comes from "Polaroids" in Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
"Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can't--and, in fact, you're not supposed to--know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing.
First you just point at what has your attention and take the picture... Maybe your Polaroid was supposed to be a picture of that boy against the fence, and you didn't notice until the last minute that a family was standing a few feet away from him. Now, maybe it's his family, or the family of one of the kids in his class, but at any rate those people are going to be in the photograph, too.
Then the film emerges from the camera with a grayish green murkiness that gradually becomes clearer and clearer, and finally you see the husband and his wife holding their baby with two children standing beside them. And at first it all seems very sweet, but then the shadows begin to appear, and then you start to see the animal tragedy, the baboons baring their teeth.
And then you see a flash of bright red flowers in the bottom left quadrant that you didn't even know where in the picture when you took it, and those flowers evoke a time or a memory that moves you mysteriously. And finally, as the portrait comes into focus, you begin to notice all the props surrounding these people, and you begin to understand how props define us and comfort us, and show us what we value and what we need, and who we think we are.
You couldn't have had any way of knowing what this piece of work would look like when you first started. You just knew that there was something about these people that compelled you, and you stayed with that something long enough to show you what it was about."
I love this feeling--I tend to get ideas in the form of really strong images, and so this is very familiar to me, sort of sliding around until I find my footing.
Group Hiatus
So I pride myself on being honest with y'all, but I really haven't been, and that's crappy of me, so... here we go.
The truth is I've been in the middle of a major depressive spike for about a month and a half now. I'm working on things as best I can, but at the moment I have a shitty living situation and a shitty job, and it's really all I can do to keep those plates spinning.
This group is supposed to be a joy for me, but at the moment it's really just kind of a strain. I don't need a long break, I think, but definitely at least through the holidays, because those are going to be really rough for me this year.
Sorry, guys. If any of you
WHY AM I DOING THIS Wednesday 71, December 10
WHY AM I DOING THIS Wednesday!
It's that time again! Please tell me all your woes, writing-related or otherwise. I promise to listen.
Remember, no criticism, only commiseration.
I am all right this week. Looking forward to Christmas and all that jazz. And there is no work at my work because we are in a lull before the time when people freak out and realize, "Oh crap I need to have health insurance when I do my taxes."
Taking a break from my NaNo right now because the topics are too heavy for me to deal with at the moment. Working on fanfiction instead.
Twosome Tuesday 71, December 9
Okay, so I'm sure everyone else got to celebrate the new DA logo with parties and such, but for me I got 500 server errors all weekend every time I tried to open a page. =/ So yeah. Let's move on from that.
Twosome Tuesday!
First, from Francesca Lia Block,
"Write with abandon and no constraints for the first draft. Cut brutally and save in separate files for the second draft. Add conflict; don't be afraid to make your characters suffer. Read what you love. Write what you love. Love."
And from Neil Gaiman,
"The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like."
I've be
WHY AM I DOING THIS Wednesday 70, December 3
WHY AM I DOING THIS Wednesday!
It's that time again! Please tell me all your woes, writing-related or otherwise. I promise to listen.
Remember, no criticism, only commiseration.
This week has been all right so far. Keep getting blindsided by the fact that it's December already, but there you are.
Took a day off from writing to go through my novel. I plotted this one ahead of time, but now I have run out of outline and have to figure out where to go from there. Also, the characters have changed so much on me that I don't think my original vision is anything like what it's going to be. So I gotta figure that out before I go any further.
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That is a beautiful quote.
Very true, also. You learn a lot about your characters and the world by writing about them. But still I do prefer outlining and plotting prior to writing. This year I'm doing NaNo without a plot, and it's scary! There's been several times I wanted to give up, and almost did. By the end of week 2, all I had was this dangling mess of character backgrounds, voices, ideas...that seemed to lead me nowhere.
But then I remembered the initial idea, that got me excited for this story in the first place. Now that I know my characters and the world better, I can actually form a story out of it!
Very true, also. You learn a lot about your characters and the world by writing about them. But still I do prefer outlining and plotting prior to writing. This year I'm doing NaNo without a plot, and it's scary! There's been several times I wanted to give up, and almost did. By the end of week 2, all I had was this dangling mess of character backgrounds, voices, ideas...that seemed to lead me nowhere.
But then I remembered the initial idea, that got me excited for this story in the first place. Now that I know my characters and the world better, I can actually form a story out of it!