Writing can be like stone soup. You have a story simmering on the burner in a great pot and you throw in this and that and whatever you have in your pantry and wait until something comes together. This is another ‘something’ for the “Hunt the Mists” pot. Here’s to you, in_the_blue, for wanting more.
I keep telling people that if they want to become professional writers, most of them are going to end up with the daily-slog system (that is, you write a page or two every day, rain or shine, feel like it or not). Oh, there are a few folks who are burst writers – who can set everything up in their heads in advance and then disappear for a month of 12 to 16-hour days, reappearing only when the book is finished. And there are cyclical writers, who do nothing for a week, then splurt out a 30-page chapter in two days, then do nothing, lather, rinse, repeat.
— "Twitchy, Twitchy" by Patricia C. Wrede
Thanks to pygmymuse for asking the questions that led to this piece. It took me forever to make it stand alone, but I hope it satisfies.
Gacked from likeadeuce:
"Ask Me Questions About Stuff I've Written" meme:
Questions can be along the lines of "What were you thinking when you wrote this?" or along the lines of "What happened to these characters five years later?" or if you don't want to ask a question you can just quote a few lines from something I've written and I'll comment on them.
This is the common or melting-pot American, in the particularly masculine form that Ms. Le Guin has singled out for castigation: and if he is afraid of dragons at all, he is probably afraid that they may be a shade too dull for him. Old-world etiquette requires him to be a St. George and kill them, but he would really rather climb on their backs, rodeo style, and see if he can stay on for the whole eight seconds. He used to be wonderfully served by what we may call his official culture, the Arts and Literature and Other Good Things with Capital Letters. Cooper, Irving, Poe, Melville, Twain, O. Henry — the earlier part of American literary history is a glorious constellation of tall-tale tellers who didn’t care a rap whether they were being ‘realistic’ or not.
— "Why are dragons afraid of Americans?"
by Tom Simon
In an on-the-side breadwinning effort, I took a short break from all things writerly to help out other writerly folks with premade book covers.
Answer, turn and answer / Then turn the stone again
