Vacation Week March 16, 2009
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I finally got to spring break. Hooray for that. I’m planning on trying to finally get some serious writing done, and I’ve got some cool ideas to put up here over the next few weeks, once I finally get around to writing them up. Unfortunately, I also need a job, so a lot of time is getting spent putting together resumes and cover letters, and strangely enough comedy stories. When I get some places to post those up here, I think I’ll put them up too. It’s really late, and to be completely honest, the only reason I’m updating is to just have done something in the last few days to prove I’m still alive and keep myself from falling into that trap of not updating much for long stretches of time. Hopefully next time it won’t be one AM when I get around to updating again. Next time I’ll have something with more substance. Probably.
Notebook March 10, 2009
Posted by headgrenade in On Writing, Tools.1 comment so far
I’ve finally gotten around to carrying a notebook with me wherever I go — to class, work, and such — and I haven’t had something work as well as people have told me before. It’s a wonderful thing to always have paper on hand, for whenever some unusual idea strikes, but having something specific to put them all in, small enough to carry anywhere, but large enough to write more than a word or two per line really makes everything worthwhile.
Of course, I’ve done this with other notebooks before, but I ended up with a smaller sized three subject notebook, that I can more easily tell is not one of my school books, and is divided up so I can work on a few stories at once (which I am always doing, even though I probably shouldn’t). We’ll see how long it lasts before I end up putting it down in favor of some other notebook, but I don’t think I’ve found something so useful to write with since I realized Notepad was much easier to write in than Word or OpenOffice (especially OpenOffice, for me at least). But that’s another story for later, when I’m not staring down midterms and multiple papers.
Back from the Bookstore March 8, 2009
Posted by headgrenade in On Writing, Reccomended Reading.add a comment
I love bookstores. There’s always something to be found, looked at, considered, and, given how much I get paid from my part time job, put back on the shelf dejectedly and walk away empty-handed. Okay, well, technically, this time, I bought Night Watch by Sergi Lukyanenko, but there’s plenty of other things I would have loved to have gotten too. Besides, that’s . . . research for monster stories and horror and such. ^_^;
Of course, I went to the writer’s section too. I’ve come across plenty of great books on writing, and there are lots that I still keep trying to collect the capital to obtain. But there’s just so many ridiculous titles: “20 Ridiculously Awesome Plots!” , “How to Sell your Novel Guaranteed*! (*Not Guaranteed)” “Make Writer’s Block Your *****!” Okay, yeah, none of these were real (though some were based off real titles), but it always amazes me to see these on the shelves. I don’t know who buys them, I don’t know who writes them and thinks it’s going to work, and I don’t know how much money they make, which is probably why I don’t understand the second part. Maybe that’s because every other book I’ve read on writing eviscerates these books with a wooden spoon.
There are some awesome writing books out there. Stephen King’s On Writing, all three of Noah Lukeman’s books, John Dufresne’s The Lie that Tells a Truth, and, of course, the amazing, awesome, and unbelievable How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card (since I haven’t finished reading Strunk & White’s Elements of Style yet, I needed a placeholder).
I think, reading those first, and realizing that writing wouldn’t ever be easy, is all that keeps me from buying those. I can see why people want those books: if they were true, they can write, they can get published, and that pretty much solves everything, doesn’t it. Everyone has times where they get scared about these things. I do. A book like those, with the “master plots” and “sure fire strategies” sure would calm my nerves faster than a couple beers or a shot of sake. If only, if only. But, as far as I know, they’re not true, or at least not true enough to make things all that much easier.
Back Again March 7, 2009
Posted by headgrenade in Mistakes, On Writing.add a comment
I’ve been trying to write something for this all day and failing, so now I’m going to write something rather pointless instead. I’ve finished an anime I’ve been meaning to watch for almost two years, I’ve found an amazingly atmospheric game that shows a complete story without a single line of text or dialogue withing the game; but whenever I try to write about those, I get nothing, so now I’m going for the reverse.
