Because That's Just How Life Works

I tried to get the husband to watch the Gangnam Style video the other day.

 

“Pass.”

I told him that, like, one third of the planet has viewed this video. It’s a world-wide pop culture phenomenon. Aren’t you curious?

“Nope.”

See, there’s a type of person who wants to see what all the fuss is about. Who wants to be kept in the pop culture reference loop so they’re not standing around going, “Huh?” when someone says, “Whope! Gangnam style!”  

And the type of person who’s content to be left out.

There’s the type of person who will stand in line for the iPhone five and half on the first day it’s available.

And the type of person who, on a regular basis, declares that he could get by perfectly well with no cell phone at all.

There’s the type of person who tries to get other people to read, listen to, and watch new things.

And the type of person who doggedly resists reading, listening to, and watching what everyone else is reading, listening to, and watching.

These two types of people inevitably get married. Because that's just how life works.


Which type are you?

Are Literary Masterpieces Still Possible in the Digital Age?

The release of J.K. Rowling’s first book for adults last week got me thinking about writerly work habits in the digital age. I haven’t read her new book yet, and I’m not going to get into what people are saying about it. I just want to talk about how it was written.

 

Not that I know for sure, of course, but it’s been five years since the final Harry Potter book came out, and one assumes that she spent most of that time working on this new one. After all, according to the popular mythology, Rowling took between five and seven years to develop her concept and then start writing the first Harry Potter book. This fact gets cited often as proof of how hard she worked to create an unprecedentedly successful book. In other words, it weren’t no accident.

You know it's got to be good cuz it's huge!

I’m sure editors mention this time investment because they probably get very, very tired of the slapdashery of novice writers who flood their inboxes with first drafts. But working tirelessly for years on a single book—or worse, spending that amount of time on plotting SEVEN books when you haven’t even sold the first one yet?

I doubt many agents would encourage anyone to do this nowadays.

And if they did, there aren’t many professional writers who could afford to do it, because even if there were such writers, at the end of the day, your book might not succeed and then you'd have wasted all that time. Because sometimes more time = your book has wandered way, way off into the wilderness and has turned into a mountain man who is all shaggy and feral and definitely NOT good company.

But the bigger question is, does anyone work like that anymore? These days, does anyone take an idea and incubate it for years upon years before attempting to get it published? Or is that kind of investment gone the way of the fax machine?

Again, I don’t believe that more time necessarily produces a masterpiece, but it sure doesn’t hurt.  

What I think is that the hunger to be published can ruin your chance to write something truly special, and maybe the ONLY opportunity you have to do something like this—ie., take years and years to perfect a single idea—is BEFORE you get published. Not after. So take advantage of your time now, while you can still afford to be great.

Thoughts?

Taming the Impatience Monster

I’m trying something new.

  
Usually I dive right into a new project and keep tapping away until the end. A finer example of a Pantser, you'll not find, my friends! In the Writing Superbowl, with the Pantsers vs. the Plotters, I am this guy for Team Pantser:

We're talking total commitment to the team. 

And in defense of my pantsery ways, maybe jumping right in is necessary to get going, but there comes a point when I want to push the story along faster than it’s ready to be pushed.

Because I’m impatient.

Impatience isn’t always a bad thing, except, of course, when it is. Except when the reason I want to write is so I can be done already because writing is sooooo haaaaard. I sympathize with myself, I really do, but impatience is the enemy of many things. Good, clear, fully-realized stories, for example.

An outline might have prevented this. *sigh*

I’m coming to see that impatience is a just another form of fear. Like, I want to put things down right away because I’m afraid that if I think about it too much first, I'll realize that something’s flawed. So I plow onward.Or I can't stand the idea of not meeting some daily writing goal. I want to see words on the page. Words on the page means I'm writing. I must keep writing even if I'm writing myself off the edge of a cliff! 

*administers slap to self*

No. No more of that hysterical, desperate, impatient writing.

I will change my ways.

Take that, Impatience Monster! I shall tame you yet, or failing that, I will put a tranquilizer dart* in your haunch so you can't get up off the floor for 8 to 12 hours.

*Gosh, I think this is my new favorite website. I only wish they had one specifically designed for stay-at-home moms.

There Are No Magical Shoehorns

You know which fairy tale character I empathized with this week?

 

Drizella.

Remember Drizella? She’s one of Cinderella’s horrible, horsey-faced step-sisters.

When the prince shows up, looking for his beloved, she tries to cram her foot into that glass slipper, because she, like everyone else, desperately wants the Prince to love her, and she thinks this is the only way she can do it. To gain his approval, she needs to be The One Who Fits In.

But she can’t because she’s all, you know, ugly and stuff. And has huge, size 13 dogs like Missy Frankin.

Ahhh, yes, that's much more comfortable.

Poor Drizella.

I know we’re supposed to loathe her because she’s a big meany but somehow I can’t. 

Well, at the very least, I can't blame her. 

Who hasn’t had a moment like this, when you’re trying to stuff your wrong-sized foot into a delicate slipper because you think there’s no other way to find love and approval?

Yeah. I’m not going to do that anymore.

You gotta let your writing be what it wants to be.