Sometimes it’s really lonely being an author. Because when you’re writing, you’re doing it alone, and there’s no one there to gush over silly feelings with you.
And I suppose that’s why reader comments are important to authors. It’s not about the compliments. It’s that we’ve been alone with our thoughts this whole time. It’s an awesome feeling when a friend shows up to share them with you.
When people ask how my writing’s going
There is something so amazing about receiving an email informing you that someone has left a comment on your fanfic. It’s like, “Brain Secretary cancel my next appointment, I need to read this at least ten times and bask in the feelings of validation.”
so much truth
i love that charles dickens got paid by the word. like i cant even be mad when he’s boring and long-winded bc i would do xactly the same??? i wouldnt use contractions or colours at all. want to say the word red? too bad. we r now only using “the colour of freshly-spilled blood on snow; the hue of the horizon when the sun sets over the deserts of sub-saharan Africa” BOOM guess who can afford 2 eat now: me and my boi dickens
What I love about Alexandre Dumas, in contrast, is he got paid by the line. So it’s not really wordy, it more like 80% dialogue which makes it sound pretty modern but also ends up like-
“Where are we going now?”
“We are going to the city.”
“Which city?”
“Paris.”
“We are going to Paris?”
“Yes.”
# can you imagine the kind of extended torture we would have been subject to if victor hugo had been paid by the pun (via vlajean)
is George RR Martin paid by deaths
Writing tag game
I was tagged by @jaimistoryteller and @phipiohsum475
Go to page seven of your current WIP, go down to the seventh line, and copy seven sentences.
“Greg.”
“Gregory…” he said with just a bit of hesitation. “There is no need for that. I simply appreciate you watching out for my brother. You may finish your drink and go.” Mycroft turned back to his laptop and opened it again, a clear sign of dismissal.
“I’ll call you,” said Greg, finishing his drink and standing.
This fic isn’t seven pages long yet, but this is where I left off, anyway.
I’m a gonna tag @mylittlecornerofsherlock and @chasingriversong
I feel like, if, while writing a fic, you find yourself muttering “I am so going to hell for this,” you’re probably doing it right
Here’s the thing about being a writer, or a musician, or an artist, or any sort of creative person. The ones who make it are the ones who make themselves do it. They’re the ones who practice even when it seems like they aren’t getting any better. They’re the ones who open up their work-in-progress when their friends are going out hey-are-you-coming-with-us — even if they know that this novel is not the one that will be good enough to get published, because they know that practice is the only way to get to the one that will be good enough to be published. They’re the ones who send out query letters and hear no and they send out more query letters and they hear no again and they send out query letters and they hear no again. They’re the ones that hear no as not yet and nothing is ever a failure, it’s only a complicating plot point in the arc of their life. They’re the ones who realize that there’s no point tricking your way into publication, because the point is to write something other people fall in love with; that’s what being a successful storyteller is. They’re the ones who are hungry for it. No, they’re the ones who are starving for it.
They’re a little unhinged.
Everyone else is everyone else.
No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can’t put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.
ERIN BOW (via stardust-rain)
A FAN-FIC WRITER’S LIFE
*Writes a line*
*Procrastinates for an hour*
*Deletes line*
*Watches youtube for an hour*
*Eats everything in fridge*
*Writes a line*
*Thinks deeply about life*
*Feels like tossing the laptop into the ocean*
*Browses Tumblr for an hour*
*Whoa, inspiration strikes*
*Writes 3000+ Words in an hour*
Also applies to original stories.
See, the only part of that process I have difficulty with is the last step.
I’m terrible at describing things in stories. That is my worst fault.
I FUCKING HATE WRITING MAN
