Actually, I learned they've been doing a series called Novel Ideas as a sort of response to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Check out the quick little articles by the authors. Always interesting to learn how other authors work.
So, of course, I wondered what my answers would be for the three questions they asked for the article:
How I Write
Writer's Block Remedies
A Favorite Sentence
Since this is my journal, I figured I need to answer these questions as I gaze at my navel.
So here goes:
How I Write: I need a schedule and a goal. I try to get up early and write from 4:30-6:30 a.m., before the real world sets in and I can't focus on fiction. I tend to work on one thing at a time; trying to juggle a couple stories or more than one novel at a time makes me surly and forgetful -- I lose the voice and the enthusiasm I had for the project. When things are slogging, it's tempting to want to quit, but the highs that come when the words are flowing and the characters are whispering in my ear all day -- totally worth it.
Writer's Block Remedies:
Exercise, reading, desperation. Grumbling on my journal. Reminding myself that I probably just need a break, or I just need to get back to work. And sometimes, you just need to have a drink...
A Favorite Sentence:
(This one's tricky, because I don't remember my most favorite sentence ever, though I do like "We killed the Buddha for the first time in Berlin." I think my favorite sentences are usually in what I'm currently working on)
"I opened my eyes and drew in my first breath in ages when we stopped, at last, under the flickering gray light that illuminated the torn and chewed-up edge of what I knew had to be the last broken bridge of the Undercity."
Now... YOUR turn, fellow writers. Answer those three questions, either in the comments here or in your own blog. Looking forward to reading 'em...
Later!
- Mood:contemplative
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
michaeljasper- Michael Jasper
- My Web Site
Comments
How I Write: Best in the morning, at the coffee joint, with a big Americano or (this time of year) pumpkin spice latte. Second best, same thing, only in the afternoon. Third best, same thing, only in the evening. I'm sure I spend more on coffee per year than I've ever earned as a writer. Sometimes I write with great joy, like a kid with a new toy. Other times I write like an angry young man, pissed off at the blank page and determined to kick its ass by filling it up with words. Sometimes I write like a brick layer, working without enthusiasm but with a devotion to getting the structure built. Someday, I hope to write like a boatwright, crafting graceful and functional rowboats with skill and confidence. Right now, I'm still making barely seaworthy rafts by lashing logs together with vines.
Writer's Block Remedies: Research. Walking. Walking is the only one I can depend on. I'll probably take a walk today.
A Favorite Sentence: My favorite sentences tend to be clever rather than meaningful. I need at least a whole paragraph to get something meaningful across. My current favorite sentence is by no means a spectacular sentence, but it's got a simile I'm fond of. "But then she saw a bearded man in a motorcycle jacket across the café, looming over his little round table like a bear over a pancake, and her sense of refuge dissolved."
Thanks for letting me use your space, Mike!
How I Write
Currently, I can only answer "How I Don't Write" or "How I Avoid Writing." I am perpetually in search of the answer to this question. "In fits and starts during moments stolen from the rest of my life" would probably be the most honest answer.
Writer's Block Remedies
1. Go somewhere with NO GODDAMN WIFI
2. Long drives -- "luckily" I have these every day
3. Talk/brainstorm with friends
4. Attack a project with a narrow focus, like a themed anthology, since most of my block is the paralysis of choice.
A Favorite Sentence
I tried to find something in my most recent work, but it looks like very few of my sentences stand alone; they all rely on the sentences before and after them. Huh.
Well, here's a snippet I haven't figured out how to use for Geomant yet: "Meridians the acupuncturists called them, but that word held no meaning for her. Highways she understood. Flow and change, backups and delays. These things echoed in her brain at lizard level."
Thanks for sharing, Jenn!
I love these kinds of questions!
How I Write. Randomly. I write because I love it; it's never a chore. I don't track wordcount. I write in a flurry of inspiration and excitment for a week or two, followed by a few days of tinkering, and then more forward progress when I feel ready to go again. I write on my laptop, Heart of Gold, sitting on the couch in the living room while Theo plays legos or reads a comic book. Now and then, as a treat, I go to a coffeeshop to write.
Writer's Block Remedies. I don't suffer from writer's block. Sometimes I don't feel like writing, so I don't, and I don't feel guilty about it, or blocked. Sometimes I do get frustrated with what I'm working on, and am experimenting with a new writing method (inspired by the that coffee drinker, above), which is to work on another novel project until the frustrating one has unsnarled itself.
A Favorite Sentence. Hmmm. I love that bear simile of Greg's because I can see that bear. I also love the last sentence from Tim's story "Little Gods": "I sit, watching, until her brightness merges with the sparkles on the surface of the water, and then I walk away, mouthing a prayer of thanks to the small gods of waking up in the morning, the small gods of drawing breath, the small gods of holding on."
And I'm a total sucker for Tolkien's sweeping epicness (this is two sentences, sorry): "His golden shield was uncovered and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City."
Okay, three sentences. Oh well.
"The pork chops were fragrant and crisp, the potatoes swimming in butter with a sprinkling of black pepper over their shiny brown backs."
Or maybe:
"I sat down and reached for the biscuits."
Or:
"Three biscuits
Four eggs
Two cups tea
Cup of milk
Bowl of porridge with:
Butter
Brown sugar
Nuts
An apple
A cold potato
Leftover berry pie"
Or possibly:
"I made a sandwich out of biscuit, jam, and cheese, and took a big bite."
And that's just from the first 30 pages. I think it's time for lunch.
Awesome imagery, there. Even better in context.
(And now I freakin' NEED a biscuit!!!)
Not to self critique too damn much, but the metaphor is so mixed up you could almost make pancakes with it...
I don't care if the metaphor is mixed. It works. Nyeh.
Did you have that Tolkien bit memorized???
Sometimes I'll have a forty-five minute session and write as much as I can as fast as I can, take a fifteen minute break, then another forty-five minute session. I'll do anywhere from one to six sessions like this.
Another method is shooting for five hundred words in a half hour, and doing it every day.
Timed sessions or goals keep me focused. Otherwise I might just sit in front of the computer daydreaming the time away. I've had many years with that bad bad habit.
Oh. One more thing. Coffee. It always goes good with writing.
Writer's Block Remedies:
I don't have any. Avoidance is my problem. Avoidance leads to writing inertia. Once the inertia sets in it's tough to begin again. Writing every day or most days is the key, but honestly I miss days, sometimes weeks. Then I just work my way back on the writing horse.
A Favorite Sentence:
Like Mike, I don't remember my favorites. Perhaps I don't have favorites. Here's one picked somewhat randomly: "Something had been thrown into the mechanism of her being, jamming the gears, fracturing cogs, knocking other gears off their pinions."
Thanks, Mike, for the link to the NPR site.
I'd love to get 6 hours in a row to work. Though I'd probably fritter it away...