Tag: writing

treatiseofnatalie:

“Girls like her, my grandfather once warned me, girls like her turn into women with eyes like bullet holes and mouths made of knives. They are always restless. They are always hungry. They are bad news. They will drink you down like a shot 

of whisky. Falling in love with them is like falling down a flight of stairs. What no one told me, with all those warnings, is that even after you’ve fallen, even after you know how painful it is, you’d still get in line to do it again.” 

“A girl like that, Grandad said, perfumes herself with ozone and metal filings. She wears trouble like a crown. If she ever falls in love, she’ll fall like a comet, burning the sky as she goes.” 

“She was the epic crush of my childhood. She was the tragedy that made me look inside myself and see my corrupt heart. She was my sin and my salvation, come back from the grave to change me forever. Again. Back then, when she sat on my bed and told me she loved me, I wanted her as much as I have ever wanted anything.” 

“There are no words for how much I will miss her, but I try to kiss her so that she’ll know. I try to kiss her to tell her the whole story of my love, the way I dreamed of her when she was dead, the way that every other girl seemed like a mirror that showed me her face. The way my skin ached for her. The way that kissing her made me feel like I was drowning and like I was being saved all at the same time. I hope she can taste all that, bittersweet, on my tongue.” 

Cassel Sharpe and Lila Zacharov

Learning to Love Editing: Taking Holly’s Advice

hollyblack:

ivyblossom:

About twelve years ago I got advice about how to write and edit a story from the incomparable hollyblack, and I’ve finally, FINALLY managed to wrap my head around it and put it to use.

Well, that’s not completely fair. I have been using Holly’s advice for years in my fanfiction dalliances, but in my head that doesn’t entirely count, because fanfiction is a happy fantasyland for me, and I never edit fanfiction. So until now her advice and approach around editing has been sitting in reserve in my head, just waiting for its moment.

What Holly said to me about editing twelve years ago left me gobsmacked at the time. I couldn’t even begin to conceive of it. She said she actually likes editing.

She likes it. Like, she looks forward to it. Get that first draft finished so I can start the yay exciting editing! I couldn’t even fathom this at the time. She said, “When I’m editing, I know I can take something and make it so much better.”

I was stuck in an ugly place with this. Because while Holly was so optimistically seeing something less-than-great and turning it into something terrific, I was getting disheartened by the fact that this draft I wrote wasn’t so great in the first place. How could I have written something so awful? I couldn’t haul out the motivation to fix stuff when I was constantly being barraged with my own failures with each terrible, self-indulgent paragraph. It was like editing a tattoo with a kitchen knife.

The obvious answer seems to be: buck up, chum! This is what this writing business is about! Can’t hack it? Don’t bother, then. Out, out, out! No one said that to me. I said that to myself. And I took my own advice. Not because of anything Holly said. She was still happily talking about how great editing is, and telling me how to do it. It just seemed too hard to me. I didn’t think I could. I didn’t want to suffer like this. I couldn’t figure out how to treat stories the way Holly did.

Hence the twelve year gap.

But now I think I’ve figured it out, almost by accident. And I didn’t even have to grow a thicker skin!

It’s not that I had to get better at feeling crappy about what I’ve written, though I suppose that’s what some people do. Personally, I hate pain, so I had to find another way to do this if I was going to ever write anything again. I’ve learned that I can bypass the feeling horrible part by just taking the process seriously from the start and viewing it as the craft that it is.

My weapon against this terrible feeling is planning, outlining, fighting with an outline, planning some more, and then outlining again. I have tried to bring that story-critical eye in early and not letting it go until I have faith in the story structure and characters. Then, once I’m confident that the story itself is pretty sound, and I know it and the characters really well, I let myself go down happy-creation-floaty-time first draft writing. (I really like first draft writing.) 

Having done that, it’s a lot easier to look my story and decide what I can do to make it better. I finally get it! I’m used to thinking about its structure and its flaws. I’m used to making decisions about it. I know what the parts are there to do, and I can begin to judge whether they do those things effectively or not. I’m more open to the conversation about fixing it, since I’ve been fixing it all along. I understand what it is.

People often tell me that they find the idea of planning before writing really boring. Where’s the joy of discovery? Where’s the creativity? Look: you don’t have to listen to me. Do what you like. But from my perspective, I think you’re blending elements together things that don’t fit together. Stories are not about words.

Stories are not about words! Stories are about characters and places, they are about themes and ideas, not words. If you think characters and places and themes and ideas come from the work of crafting beautiful sentences, I feel like you’re giving that other creative work seriously short shrift. Those are different activities. Both are important. But while we like to talk about thinking and writing fitting together, thinking and writing the draft of a story probably shouldn’t. Because I now do my planning and my draft writing separately, I’m able to see the story as the pieces that it is, and I can give each the attention it deserves.

This realization is what has allowed me to edit my first draft. And my second draft! Editing doesn’t hurt anymore! I am finally at the place Holly was telling me about twelve years ago! I’m not scared of my own draft anymore. If something’s not great, I will make it great now. It’s okay. I can do that!

I don’t even think the decisions or the work I need to do is all that different from what I was staring at twelve years ago and what I’m staring at now. The big different is my attitude, my understanding of my own story, and my approach.

This time, as I read through to edit, I found some parts where I got tired, I got lazy, I skimmed. I didn’t do the story justice. So I highlighted those bits and say, Oh, come on now, lazybum. Do this properly. Show don’t tell. 

I can look at it and say, is that working? I can make big decisions. I can change the way things happen, or change the stakes. Because I understand the point and purpose of my story. I know my characters. I’m more confident about all of this, so I know how to fight for it.

I am taking out lines or paragraphs that I loved at the time, but are just too wheee look over here! in retrospect. And it doesn’t hurt to take them out this time. And it doesn’t even hurt to see where I was being lazy or making bad decisions. Because it’s only words; the decisions I’m correcting while I’m reading aren’t about whether this is a decent story or not, it’s not a judgement on me as a human being. It’s only about whether the story is coming through effectively using these paragraphs and these words and these scenarios. The story is still there. I didn’t build this thing out of eggshells. I worked hard on that story, I tested all the moving parts. The words need to bring that across, and if they aren’t doing the trick, out they go! If those particular words, if those particular scenes or decisions aren’t in service to that story, then I don’t want them there!

It doesn’t hurt anymore. Sometimes I just laugh at myself while I read something silly. Sometimes I wish I’d been a bit less lazy in parts, but that’s okay. As I’m editing, I’ve got a second wind. I can come in and lift up those parts that were flagging. I can make it better.

I get it, Holly. I finally get it. Thank you.

And I really hope you don’t mind me writing a whole post about it.

I don’t mind at all. I’m not sure I was helpful, but I am excited to see you figure out your process and how to make writing more enjoyable.

Now I need you to teach me how to love writing a first draft!

And I need to work on both writing first drafts in a dream-like stage and planning better so I can enjoy editing! WOO rewrites!

Learning to Love Editing: Taking Holly’s Advice

qthewetsprocket:

whowasntthere:

notcuddles:

ostealjewelry:

mybroomstickcloset:

Fairy rings occupy a prominent place in European folklore as the location of gateways into elfin kingdoms, or places where elves gather and dance. According to the folklore, a fairy ring appears when a fairy, pixie, or elf appears. It will disappear without trace in less than five days, but if an observer waits for the elf to return to the ring, he or she may be able to capture it. They are soooooo beautiful!

fairy rings are usually caused by decaying organic matter, generally a tree stump. many types of fungi have symbiotic relationships with tree roots and mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of such fungus. So if a huge old tree was cut down, you’ll often find fairy rings. they can last for years and years as the earth  reabsorbs all the nutrients left behind by the beautiful tree.

sorry, didn’t mean to crush dreams – but i have a degree in horticulture and i was really excited when i first learned this.

maybe fairies and fungi are joining together to mourn the loss of the tree

xo

NO BUT FINDING OUT ABOUT WHY FAIRY RINGS EXIST IS ALSO REALLY COOL.

From a writer’s perspective, it’s even more interesting to find out why they exist on a horticultural level, because it opens up a whole realm of fictional possibilities. Science doesn’t have to invalidate mythology or fiction, no more than mythology or fiction invalidates science.

For example, doesn’t that just essentially make this a tree grave? And if folklore has taught us anything, it’s that “fairies” and other spirits usually occupy trees, or have them as their life force. And that’s to say nothing of the folklore of trees being spirits in and of themselves, or kitsunes that live in tree hollows, or dryads, etc., etc.. So, if it’s disrespectful or feels like a slight to step on human graves, wouldn’t that logic transfer to stepping inside the Fairy Circle, AKA, the tree’s grave? It’s essentially giving more fuel to the story, not detracting from it, in my humble opinion!

Science doesn’t have to invalidate mythology or fiction, no more than mythology or fiction invalidates science.

diversityinya:

This week’s diverse new releases:

Returning to Shore by Corinne Demas (Carolrhoda Lab)

“In this coming-of-age novel, Clare must also decide how she feels about her father’s identity, especially when faced with friends’ homophobia. A quiet, thoughtful story for sophisticated readers.” — Booklist

Gilded by Christina Farley (Skyscape)

Book Description: Sixteen-year-old Jae Hwa Lee is a Korean-American girl with a black belt, a deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows, and a chip on her shoulder the size of Korea itself. When her widowed dad uproots her to Seoul from her home in L.A., Jae thinks her biggest challenges will be fitting in to a new school and dealing with her dismissive Korean grandfather. Then she discovers that a Korean demi-god, Haemosu, has been stealing the soul of the oldest daughter of each generation in her family for centuries. And she’s next.

Dangerous by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury)

“Her middle name may be Danger, but Maisie “Danger” Brown doesn’t seem a likely action heroine. She is a homeschooled half-Latina science geek with a special love for physics and astronomy, and she has an artificial arm. When she wins a contest to go to astronaut camp with other teens, her life changes dramatically. … This fast-paced science fiction novel with echoes of the “Fantastic Four” comics doesn’t let up for a moment. Maisie is a strong, smart heroine with a wry sense of humor, and readers will be rooting for her to save the world. A must-read for fans of superhero adventures.” — School Library Journal