1. I missed signing up for the Secondary Characters Bloghop in May but boy I sure had fun running across other blogs participating. My favorite was Heather's at The Flyleaf Review because she did this cool classification of types of secondary characters and really got me thinking about what makes a great secondary character and why I love them so much. She also mentioned some of my favorites: Orma from Seraphina, Brimstone from Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Grimalkin from the Iron Fey... and a ton more.
2. Nathan Bransford posted "How to Know You are a Writer" (in .gif form) yesterday and all the gifs made me nod my head and feel the universal brotherhood/sisterhood/insanity-hood of writers.
3. Janet Sumner Johnson shares about what it's like when you get a Shiny New Idea that you can't wait to write about... and she does this even more brilliantly than Bransford (sorry, Nathan) because she uses all her own pictures to tell the story, instead of gifs collected across the web. Bonus: not one but two reference to... Squirrel!
4. Authoress over at Miss Snark's First Victim blog shared something wonderful about writing - it's really worth reading the whole post, but here's what struck me the most. Reading it just made me want to jump up and hug her and scream "Yes! I know exactly what you mean! OMGosh someone else feels the same way as me????"
...Yes, that novel. The one that is SO BAD that I will have to leave instructions in my will for someone to destroy it. The one that marked the beginning of my journey as a serious writer; the one that lit my fire... Know what's special about that horrible-awful-no-good tome? (All 127,000 words of it??) It's infused with the passion of writing from a purely creative place. I had no idea about point of view, pacing, or purple prose. I'd never heard of an inciting incident; didn't know what "character arc" meant....The absolute joy of losing myself in this world is immeasurable...Sorry, I can't help it, I have to say that again: The absolute joy of losing myself in this world is immeasurable. That's it, people, that's the core of why I write. Having others read it and enjoy it is just icing on the cake.
5. This has nothing to do with writing but KLOVE radio had me BUST UP LAUGHING when the deejays talked about when you forget your cell phone in your back pocket and then you sit on it and place a random call by accident. They called it a Keister Call. I'm still grinning thinking of all the accidental keister calls I've made.
Have you had a keister call or a squirrel! moment recently?
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Absolutely. My first couple of stories were all about the joy of losing myself in the passion of a creative world. Like her, I had no real knowledge of character arcs or backstory overloads or head bopping POV. I just loved the process. I was operating on instinct and I loved it. Then I got clogged with too much over thinking and lost the flow and joy for awhile. Took time to get balanced out. :-)
ReplyDeleteSia
McKye OVER COFFEE
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing these links, Margo. And I agree with you. Sometimes I feel sorry for people who don't have imaginations and have to live in only this world, when writers are so lucky to be able to live in as many worlds as they want.
ReplyDeleteI've been having squirrel moments for the past month! My mom is living with us, and my stepson just graduated from high school and moved in with us last night. We have a FULL HOUSE and I don't even have a cute Uncle Jessie around to help ease the pain! It's really knocked my writing schedule something fierce and I find I am getting very distracted. Oh, and since the anniversary of D-Day was yesterday, I was very focused on that, flitting from Twitter to cool YouTube videos and other links.
ReplyDeleteI love that feeling of falling in love with my stories - then don't quite understand why others don't! But that's by the by! LOL!!
ReplyDeleteTake care
x
Nathan always has awesome stuff. I'll have to go check that out. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNathan's post was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing. He nailed it, especially the look we get when we're thinking about our books. My kids have demonstrated it for me more than one.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive article. I have read each and every point
ReplyDeleteand found it very interesting