Zestful Blog Post #290
I didn’t
ask permission to share this stuff here, and I don’t have exact quotations, and
I can’t in every case remember who quite said what. But most of these items are
from writers I’ve encountered at events at Ringling College of Art and Design,
as well as conferences and meetings in the last six months or so. Some are from
me, and some you’ve no doubt heard from others before, especially this first
one:
·
Don’t overthink it. (Don’t we all love that?)
·
Longer passages of quick dialogue can do two
things:
o
Make for plentiful white space on the page,
which is easy to read; and
o
Take up pages in a printed book, making it look
meatier than it might be. (Heh-heh.)
·
Time spent getting to know your characters on a
deep level is time well spent.
·
It’s hard to make money as an author.
·
Some authors make great money. The foolproof how-to
formula is unclear.
·
It’s easy to get published.
·
It’s hard to get published.
·
Social media sucks and does nothing for your
career.
·
Social media is great and can help your career a
lot.
·
One gets lonely.
·
Collaborating with other authors (writing books
with them) can be:
o
Fraught with icky drama, making you not want to
do it anymore, like when somebody else claims credit for your idea, just the
same as in other group projects we’ve all dealt with.
o
Really great, especially if it’s just one other
person you like and trust.
·
Most of us are too uptight.
·
You should stick with one genre and make a name
there.
·
Experiment widely in different genres if you
feel like it; you never know when you’ll hit it big with some new thing.
·
A pseudonym can jump-start your career in a new
direction.
·
To write a good action scene, such as a fight:
o
Give a quick overview, then
o
Get into some deep detail, then
o
Pull back again to the ‘long shot,’ so to speak.
o
Rinse and repeat.
·
Every one of us is walking—or running, or
plunging, or staggering—along a different path. No two careers are exactly
alike.
·
Therefore I say: Let’s trust our own paths,
rocks and wrong turns and all. Because we’re getting somewhere. And sometimes the view is great.
What do you think? To post, click below where it says, ‘No
Comments,’ or ‘2 Comments,’ or whatever. If you’re having trouble leaving
comments on this or other blogs, it’s probably because third-party cookies have
been turned off in your browser. Go into your browser settings and see if
that’s the case. Then turn them on again in order to leave comments. [Photo by ES]
If you’d like to receive this blog automatically as an
email, look to the right, above my bio, and subscribe there. Thanks for looking
in.
And they're all true . . . Really.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that, Caroline!
DeleteI think I’ve heard them all at one time or another at conferences, online classes, in blogs, or in writing books or articles. The upshot seems to be that it’s up to us to make of our writing career what we want it to be, and work as hard as we can to make that happen. I do believe some people are just naturally more talented than others, just as in any other art. The rest of us just have to work harder. Plus, some days writing is easy and some days it’s harder. So yes, it’s true.
DeleteWhat's the opposite of overthinking it?? Ha. If we didn't overthink it, maybe we're not really writers. Just thinkin'.....
ReplyDeleteYeah, I guess overthinking is an occupational hazard. But the opposite is free, joyful flow that goes so well you don't even know where it's coming from... XO
DeleteHey, I'm reading your "You've Got a Book in You." It's very positive, playful, creative, inspiring. No over-thinking! Love it!
ReplyDeleteI'm thrilled, Patricia! I'd be forever grateful if you'd consider posting a quick rating/review. But regardless, keep us posted on your writing, OK?
Delete