THE BAD NEWS

“Perhaps the story you finish is never the one you begin.”
― Salman Rushdie

Review for a shot at autographed AVENGERS cast photo!

Katie Mills wrote a fun post on having unexpected time on her hands and cringing at the task of writing again -- deciding to read first:

http://creepyquerygirl.blogspot.com/2013/09/gotta-keep-on-movin.html

It was a wise move I think --- reading often inspires me to write.

It is the unwritten manifesto of the creative soul:

Draw the art you want to see,

Make the music you want to hear,

Write the books you want to read. 

You don't think you're ready to write that book?

Think again.  NOW is the only time you have. 


Carolyn Kaufman's untimely death teaches us that tomorrow belongs to no one.

So use NOW wisely.

THE BAD NEWS:

1.) YOU'LL ALWAYS FEEL THIS WAY --

Part of you will always feel a fake, a poser typing away.

  Stephen Kings feels that way.  Ernest Hemingway felt that way during and after each novel.

How to fight it?

You wrap your head in the tin foil of belief in your dream to block out the voices of doubt.  

If the giants felt like they were not good enough and produced classics -- 

then they NOR YOU are the proper judge of prose.

THE READERS ARE. 

And they cannot read and judge IF YOU DO NOT COMPLETE YOUR NOVEL!

2.) YOU HAVE AN ENEMY BOOBY-TRAPPING THE JUNGLE AROUND YOU --

Look into the mirror and see one of those Boobies.  

Read all those knowing articles on how to write.

Those authors are the other boobies.

One person will tell you this is the path. Another will point the other way and say that is the path.

 They’re both right for themselves, and they’re both probably wrong for you.

We all chart our own course and burn the map afterward.

 It’s just how it is. 

If you want to find the way forward, then stop looking for maps and start walking.

3.) THE WILD HORSE DOESN'T BREAK ITSELF --

 

You learn early on how to write. But for most authors it takes a long time to learn how they in particular write. 

Certain processes, styles, genres, character types, POVs, tenses, whatever — 


they will come more naturally to you than they do to others. 

And some won’t come naturally at all.

Maybe you’ll figure this out right out of the gate.

But for most, it just takes time — time filled with actual writing — to tease it out.

YOU HAVE TO KEEP GETTING BACK INTO THE SADDLE

UNTIL THE WORDS COME AS THEY SHOULD --

AND

YOU FINISH YOUR NOVEL.

 

The ghost of C.S. Lewis just tapped me on the shoulder, chiding me on giving only bad news.

Here is what he would like to say to you:

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose”.

4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing.

I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified.

Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description.

You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers,

“Please will you do my job for me.”

5. Don’t use words too big for the subject.

Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.