the writing life

Stephen King, the Threat That Hangs Over All Writers

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This post by Jessica Aspen originally appeared on her site on 8/21/14.

I’ve started writing ghost stories. Gothic romances of vulnerable heroines, desperate heroes, and scary haunted ghosts. I have an extensive reading background in Gothic romance and I love it, so it’s easy for me to create the spooky house, the dark and stormy night, and the hero who might be a threat.

What isn’t so easy for me was writing the ghost. But luckily I have my own ghost lurking behind me, Stephen King. Not that my little haunted holiday romance is anything like Stephen King’s writing. It’s not. Not at all. Don’t pick it up thinking it is. But more to the point, Stephen King is what scares me.

I’m so terrified of him that I’ve never even read one of his fiction books. Just the idea of reading Cujo or Pet Cemetery makes my palms tingle and my knees weak. I know I won’t sleep. I know I’ll be afraid to even turn off the light.

 

Click here to read the full post on Jessica Aspen’s site.

 

Confessions of a Bad Writer Gone Good

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This post by Julia Scott originally appeared on The Huffington Post on 9/2/14.

There is a certain kind of bad writing that occurs when you are between the ages of 16 and 24 and have an audience of one. ‘Self-indulgent’ doesn’t begin to describe it, and in fact to do so would minimize the intense feeling of urgency of budding writers of a certain age who feel called to bear witness to our years of transition. From falling in love to falling apart, the themes are big and the feelings are bigger. It’s all so overwhelming. The only way to get a grip on the given moment – to slow it down long enough to see it pass — is to write it.

I want to experience LIFE viscerally, but at the same time step back and think about it all.

That’s a line from a journal entry I wrote as a trembling, sensitive 19-year old on the eve of my 20th birthday, rediscovered nearly 15 years later whilst looking through the diary pages of my sad, anxious year abroad in Paris. The ink was green on yellowed stationary, and as I read it, I remembered walking the streets of that indifferent city as a virginal college junior — the dank wetness of winter, the diesel fumes, the existential fear of failure that leveled me for hours on my thin cot in the drafty boarding house I shared with a hundred other women, run by nuns.

 

Click here to read the full post on The Huffington Post.

 

DON'T Do What You Love

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This post by Rachel Nabors originally appeared on Medium on 8/19/14.

I don’t like advice like “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Not because it isn’t true, but because it’s a monkey’s paw: it’s true under the right circumstances with the right people, and for everyone else, it’s just bad advice.

I used to make comics for a living (these comics, right here), and I gave out similar advice and professed similar goals: If I just tried hard enough, I’d make it doing what I love, making comics for a living. If anyone was less successful then I was, well, they must not have been trying hard enough.

To an extent it worked! I won awards, had hordes of fan girls, a weekly syndicated web comic I got paid for (very well by comic industry standards, too). I thought I was doing great doing what I love.

And then it all ended.

I needed surgery.

And I didn’t have health insurance.

Almost overnight the series shut down. My fans and friends ran a Herculean donation effort for me, but it wasn’t enough. I quit comics and went into web development, something I’d enjoyed doing to support my web comics presence, but I wouldn’t say I loved it. Not then.

 

Life after surgery.

 

Click here to read the full post on Medium.

 

Why Book Criticism and Literary Culture Needs a Poptimist Revolution

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This post by Elisabeth Donnelly originally appeared on Flavorwire on 8/28/14.

When bestselling author Jennifer Weiner was profiled by The New Yorker in January 2014 in an article called “Written Off,” writer Rebecca Mead made sure to outline Weiner’s two audiences: one, the loyal readers of her books, who propel them onto the best-seller list, and number two, a pricklier sort, consisting of the “writers, editors, and critics… who have given Weiner a parallel notoriety, as an unlikely feminist enforcer.” The short version is that, through Twitter (and her following, which currently numbers about 93K), Weiner used her platform to needle such august institutions as The New York Times Book Review and everyplace else with mediocre VIDA counts regarding the amounts of space they give to reviewing and considering the three books that “matter” for the season written by male authors like Jonathan Franzen and Jeffrey Eugenides, while simultaneously ignoring the span of women’s writing, and, additionally, commercial fiction.

Like any provocateur’s performance, it was equal parts annoying — if you see book reviewing as advocacy for the little guy, a review of a Weiner novel is certainly not part of that performance — and righteous truth. It’s sexist that book critics can ignore Weiner while making sure to cover the next book by a Stephen King (who bridges “commercial” and also gets literary cred all the time).

 

Click here to read the full post on Flavorwire.

 

How to Write a Book or Blog (The 6 Danger Stages You Need To Overcome)

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This post by Ali Luke originally appeared on Write to Done on 7/24/14.

You’ve probably had the experience of starting a novel or blog with great intentions…

…only to find that, a few months later, you’ve barely made any progress.

Maybe you started strong but lost momentum.

Maybe you jumped ahead when you should’ve paused.

Or maybe you got discouraged and gave up.

And you wonder: how to write a book (or blog).

I’ve coached many writers in workshop groups over the past few years, and I’ve noticed that there are six key stages when projects often stall or go wrong.

Here’s what to watch out for.

 

Danger Stage #1: Once You’ve Got a Great Idea

Let’s say you’ve got a new idea you’re excited about. Perhaps it’s a great premise for a novel, a topic for a blog, or a prompt you want to work on for a short story.

Writers tend to make one of two mistakes here:

They jump straight in, full of enthusiasm, without planning. They make a great start, and might get a few chapters into the novel or a few posts into a blog…but then they get stuck.

They wait – and wait – until the “perfect moment” to begin actually writing. They put off starting until they’ve got past family commitments and a busy spell at work…or they read about their chosen field of writing without getting any words down on paper.

 

Click here to read the full post on Write to Done.

 

Five Great Ways To Combat Writer’s Block

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This post by blurb staff originally appeared on blurb on 8/8/14.

You’re sitting at your computer, staring at a blank document. You’re poised in front of your notebook, but can’t seem to move your pen. Sound familiar? Writer’s block strikes again. But you don’t have to suffer for long. Great writers throughout the years have faced this problem and come up with clever tricks to get the words flowing again. If you’re having trouble getting your writing project finished (or started) here is some advice to get you going.

1) Just start typing or writing
It really doesn’t matter what you’re saying, as long as you’re saying something. Simply typing the same word over and over again, the simple motion of typing with your fingers, can force your brain to come up with something clever eventually.

“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.’” — Maya Angelou

Even drawing or doodling—just moving your pen around on paper—can set your imagination going. Consider writing captions for your drawings, word bubbles for pictures of people talking, anything and everything that simply gets words on paper.

 

2) Pretend you’re writing for yourself

 

Click here to read the full post on blurb.

 

14 Books That Change When You Reread Them Later in Life

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This post by Andrea Romano originally appeared on Mashable on 8/17/14.

As you get older, you start seeing the world a little differently — the same goes for the books you read.

Whether it was a book you were forced to read in sophomore English class or your favorite childhood novel, some literary classics have a strange way of changing when we revisit them as adults. For better or worse, things just can’t stay the same.

You may find yourself rereading these familiar titles a little differently once you’ve started writing your own life chapters. It’s funny what a little life experience can do.

 

1. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

When you’re 15, you totally understand Holden Caulfield’s angst and isolation. However, reread this literary classic in your thirties and you start to roll your eyes every time this protagonist calls someone a “phony.”

 

2. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The heartwarming story of the self-sacrificing tree that gave everything it had to provide for the boy it loved becomes a slightly sad and disturbing story when you gain a more worldly perspective. As the boy takes more and more from the tree in the story, you start to think, “how about some quid pro quo?”

 

Click here to read the full post on Mashable.

 

Ten Things You Should Know About HP Lovecraft

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This post by Sian Cain originally appeared on The Guardian Books Blog on 8/20/14.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born on this day in 1890. We celebrate his birthday with 10 titbits about the father of weird and wonderful horror

1. Both his mother and father were separately committed to the same mental institution

Winfield Scott Lovecraft was committed to Butler Hospital after being diagnosed with psychosis when HP Lovecraft was only three years old. He died in 1898, when HP was eight. To this day, rumours persist that Winfield had syphilis, but neither HP nor his mother ever displayed symptoms.

Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft was later committed to Butler in 1919. She remained in close correspondence with her son for two years, until she died of complications after surgery.

 

2. He wanted to be a professional astronomer but never finished high school

As a sickly child, Lovecraft only attended school sporadically and was essentially self-educated. He was drawn to astronomy and chemistry, and the writings of gothic authors such as Edgar Allan Poe. Due to what he termed a “nervous breakdown”, Lovecraft never finished high school and instead only dabbled informally in his passions.

 

3. He rarely went out in public during daylight

 

Click here to read the full post on The Guardian Books Blog.

 

Why Write?

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This post by Cathy Fyock originally appeared on The Working Writer’s Club on 8/14/14.

Getting clear on the purpose for your writing is one of the significant hurdles to getting your book completed. If you don’t know how you’ll use your book in your business, you may miss the mark or fail to leverage the full value of your authorship.
By being clear on how your book will benefit you and your business, you’ll find that you can justify the necessary time to write it. You’ll also find that identifying your purpose will provide fuel for your motivation and drive.

Look at the list below and determine which of these benefits of writing a book will fuel your motivation for getting your book completed. And, be sure to add to this blog by commenting [beneath the original post, here] on the benefits you plan to derive (or are currently receiving) from authorship.

To give to prospects as a “calling card”

To help sell your professional services

To establish your credibility

To gain media exposure

 

Click here to read the full post, which includes MANY more specific reasons for writing and publishing, on The Working Writer’s Club.

 

How Much My Novel Cost Me

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This post by Emily Gould originally appeared on Medium on 2/24/14.

Writing my first book got me into debt. To finish the next one, I had to become solvent.

IT’S HARD TO WRITE ABOUT BEING BROKE because brokeness is so relative; “broke” people run the gamut from the trust-funded jerk whose drinks you buy because she’s “so broke right now” to the people who sleep outside the bar where she’s whining. But by summer 2012 I was broke, and in debt, and it was no one’s fault but mine. Besides a couple of freelance writing assignments, my only source of income for more than a year had come from teaching yoga, for which I got paid $40 a class. In 2011 I made $7,000.

During that $7,000 year I also routinely read from my work in front of crowds of people, spoke on panels and at colleges, and got hit up for advice by young people who were interested in emulating my career path, whose coffee I usually ended up buying after they made a halfhearted feint toward their tote bag–purses. I felt some weird obligation to them and to anyone else who might be paying attention to pretend that I wasn’t poor. Keeping up appearances, of course, only made me poorer. I’m not sure what the point of admitting all this might be, because I know that anyone who experiences a career peak in his mid-twenties will likely make the same mistakes I did, and it’s not even clear to me that they were all mistakes, unless writing a book is always a mistake, which in some sense it must be.

In 2008 I sold a book-in-progress for $200,000 ($170,000 after commission, to be paid in four installments), which still seems to me like a lot of money. At the time, though, it seemed infinite. The resulting book—a “paperback original,” as they’re called—has sold around 8,000 copies, which is about a fifth of what it needed to sell not to be considered a flop. This essentially guarantees that no one will ever pay me that kind of money to write a book again.

It took me a while to realize that my book had failed. No one ever told me point-blank that it had.

 

Click here to read the full post on Medium.

 

'Juno' Screenwriter Diablo Cody's Advice on Writing, Hollywood & More is Smart & Spot-On

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This article by Rachel Simon originally appeared on Bustle on 7/16/14.

To some people, Diablo Cody disappeared off the face of the earth sometime in 2008, right after she won an Oscar for penning Juno. Sure, they might’ve heard something about a new movie here or there, but when nothing became as big as Juno, they (wrongly) assumed Cody left Hollywood. To those who’ve paid attention, though, it’s clear that the filmmaker has been everywhere these last few years: writing, directing, producing (not to mention giving birth to two kids) and, most recently, sharing her secrets with Glamour’s Cindi Leive about building an “unconventional career path” and what lessons she has for women looking to have their own Juno-like breakthroughs. All ladies, whether filmmakers or not, should take note; these are coming from the woman who’s making a rock star movie with Meryl Streep, after all. Cody’s best pieces of advice:

 

#1. Don’t Pick a Fake Name Until You’re Ready

The woman born as Brook Busey-Maurio changed her name early on in her career, when she was just beginning to blog and wasn’t yet a published author. She chose a “cool and intimidating” pseudonym for the purpose of Internet anonymity, but looking back, making the change so early, before she was established as a writer, “was honestly such a mistake.”

 

#2. If You’re Not Happy With Your Life, Change It

 

Click here to read the full article on Bustle.

 

3 Takeaways for Writers from the 2014 World Domination Summit

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This post by Jane Friedman originally appeared on her site on 7/15/14.

This past weekend, I attended the World Domination Summit (WDS) in Portland, which attracts 3,000 creative people who are concerned with answering the question: “How do we live a remarkable life in a conventional world?” They are guided by three values:

1. Community
2. Service
3. Adventure

Speaking personally, I’m really into the first two, as well as the third when it’s tied to travel and experiencing new cultures. (Some of the attendees are really into physical adventure.)

The weekend was full of insightful and passionate talks by accomplished people from around the world. Here are three takeaways I was left with.

 

1. You don’t need to have it all figured out to take the first step.

Some creative people get tripped up and never start things because they can’t envision how they’ll tackle a seemingly insurmountable project. And they can get paralyzed by everything they don’t know. Some people want to feel safe and take action that reduces risk or feels comfortable.

 

Click here to read the full post on Jane Friedman’s site.

 

Creative Ideation: Know When to Say When

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This post by Tom Nixon originally appeared on alchemy on 6/24/14.

Throw out your first idea, and work to improve your last.

When starting a creative project, whether it be a marketing campaign, an advertising concept, a website relaunch or new brand strategy, there is a common pitfall that is very difficult for some to overcome — falling in love with the first idea.

Usually, the first idea that comes to you does so rather easily. Take that as a warning sign, not as a comfort. If it comes naturally and intuitively, it could be that you’re a creative genius. Let’s not bank on that. It’s more likely that your idea has already been done before. So, subliminally, you’ve arrived in a comfort zone because your idea has already been tested and validated in the market, so it feels both safe and creative at the same time.

The problem is, your safe and creative original idea is too often nothing more than a “me-too” regurgitation of someone else’s idea.

 

Click here to read the full post on alchemy.

 

Pity the Poor Writer's Husband

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This post by Holly Robinson originally appeared on Shelf Pleasure on 4/22/14.

“So, what do you want for Mother’s Day?” my husband asked a few years after our youngest son was born.

I hesitated, not wanting to appear too greedy. “Oh, I don’t really need anything,” I murmured.

“Come on,” he urged, taking me in his arms. “Tell me what you really want.”

“Um, okay. Can I have a weekend alone?”

He rolled his eyes. “Again?”

Yes. Again. Dan had given me a weekend alone the previous Christmas. Not in a fancy spa, but in a cheap hotel half an hour from home. It was the kind of hotel room where people lie on floral bedspreads still wearing their shoes, and pull the room-darkening drapes to either sleep off a bender or have an affair. I did neither. Instead, I holed up to write 10 hours a day on a novel. Pure bliss.

 

Click here to read the full article on Shelf Pleasure.

 

On Output and Quality

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This post by Alan Baxter originally appeared on his Warrior Scribe site on 6/1/14. Note that it contains strong language.

I’ve been reading a few posts lately that seem to contradict each other. What do you know – there’s no one true rule. I won’t bother linking to all those posts, at least partly because I can’t remember where they all are. But the general gist of it all was either:

Write as much as you can, it’s the only way to be noticed and have a career!

vs

Stop just writing for the sake of it! There’s too much shit out there, you need to write well, not lots.

Obviously I’ve paraphrased the general messages there. The thing is, they’re both right. The reason they’re both right is because there are many types of writers out there with many styles of work and opportunity to write. It also depends what you want from your career.

You certainly need more than one book to build a career, unless you’re Harper Lee. It’s true that the more people see from you, the more likely they are to check out your stuff and the more likely you are to build a loyal fan base. But don’t be in a rush.

 

Click here to read the full post on Warrior Scribe.