Perforation Problems

Today's pictures are subpar. Michael and I went to see The World's End, and I snapped a picture of the movie theater as we walked over from the pizza place where we had dinner. Lately we haven't been so great at time estimation -- for the second time in a row, we ended up at the theater too early. I took this second picture while we sat outside, waiting for the theater to be cleaned.  The movie was good,  the kind where at some point you realize everyone in the theater is laughing, and you're laughing, too.  That's enough of my fascinating movie story. I'm supposed to be writing right now, but I'm procrastinating. Why is it that writing has to be such a cruel bitch? I say I want to write, and I associate such good feelings with having written, but when it comes down to actually doing all the things I say I want to do, I balk. It's too hard. Am I worried I won't be able to do it? Am I worried I'll find out once and for all that t...

Someone shared this in a writing group I'm a part of on FB today:  25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing I can specifically relate to #2, 3, 4, 6, 8... lots of them. But I think #7 in particular:  7. STOP THINKING IT SHOULD BE EASIER  It’s not going to get any easier, and why should it? Anything truly worth doing requires hella hard work. If climbing to the top of Kilimanjaro meant packing a light lunch and hopping in a climate-controlled elevator, it wouldn’t really be that big a fucking deal, would it? You want to do This Writing Thing, then don’t just expect hard work — be happy that it’s a hard row to hoe and that you’re just the, er, hoer to hoe it? I dunno. Don’t look at me like that. AVERT YOUR GAZE, SCRUTINIZER. And get back to work.

In typical English major-nerd fashion, I very much enjoyed Patrick Rothfuss's post on punctuation today, even if he had this to say about semicolons: "Here’s the problem: Semicolons are for wankers. Seriously. You can go your whole life without ever needing to really use a semicolon.   Unless you’re an academic, of course. If you’re an academic, you’ve got to use semicolon to impress other wankers with how much of a wanker you are so you can get your paper published. You know, that paper you wrote detailing your in-depth Marxist interpretation of the last eight lines of John Donne’s “The Flea?” The paper where you used the word “moreover” twenty-seven times in eleven pages?   Most importantly, a semicolon looks really strange in a piece of casual dialogue. People don’t speak using semicolons. Unless they’re wankers." Sigh. He's right. Semicolons don't really exist in the real world.

Came across this today: 4 Writing Tips from Mark Twain My favorite: "The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say."  I've noticed this so many times. You start out writing with one end result in mind, and then by the end, the actual process/journey of writing has brought out much more than you actually intended to say. Maybe you've gone down a completely different train of thought -- a better one. It reemphasizes the importance of not editing yourself ( Shut up, Bartholomew! ) during your first draft -- get it all out first, then make sense of it. This is only slightly related, but when I was writing my undergrad thesis, I researched the connection between bipolar disorder and creativity. The cycle of manic states and depression (for mild episodes, at least) fits well with the creative process (especially poetry), where ...

Came across this article by Ben Yagoda, author of How to Not Write Bad . In it, he gives you 7 words "guaranteed to make you a better writer": Read. Read it aloud. Show, don't tell.  A bit of a gyp, but true.

I caught the tail end of a Tell Me More interview with Katherine Petterson ( Jacob Have I Loved , Bridge to Terabithia ) on the way home tonight. She sounded like someone I would like to be friends with. Here's the interview . Some favorite parts (paraphrased by my incomplete memory): She says if you say you'll wait to write until you have time, you'll never write. You'll never have time. She started writing when she had four kids. If you can write for 10-15 minutes a day, eventually you'll have a book. This reminds me of Kate Chopin, who wrote as she raised her kids and never had time to do much editing or revising. When she finishes a book, sometimes she thinks, "I'll never have a book-worthy idea again." But then something -- a phrase, even -- gets her thinking, and though it won't be the whole novel, it's a place to start.

"Welcome to earth, young man. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, Joe, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of: Goddamn it, Joe, you’ve got to be kind!" Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country My brother sent me these 22 Rules of Storytelling from the Pixar writers. My favorites: 5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free. 9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up. 11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone. 17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

I read a couple good essays by Craig Clevenger this weekend on LitReactor: one about descriptions and one about " disembodied action ." Some things to remember: 1) It's the "conflict" in a description that's interesting. You don't need to have a laundry list, or as Clevenger describes it, as "fashion catalogue copy," when it comes to describing a character - pick the contrasting details. Contrast or conflict is what makes a person interesting and what turns him/her from a flat, two-dimensional stereotype to a real, complex human being. A few striking examples from his essay: “I wear a black suit and tie and a dirty white shirt. The clothes hang loose, as if borrowed.” –Will Christopher Baer, Kiss Me, Judas (the contradiction lies in the formal, put-together nature of the black suit, the tie, and the white shirt, and the not-put-together nature of the dirt and the loose fit.) “I was stirring my brandy with a nail boys, stirring my...