Monthly Archives: October 2009

Oct
17

It Tastes Just Like Raisins

Posted in wtf | 1 Comment
www.getonmyhorse.com Don’t ask where the sweet, sweet lemonade comes from.… Read more
Oct
16

Ergo, Ego, Eros

Posted in craft, ego, writing | 3 Comments
Writers, from what I can tell, seem to be a bit of a emotional bunch. One only has to be on a few mailing lists to see it – the brilliant moments of shared success when someone wins a contest or gets a call back from an agent, to the utterly gut-wrenching posts of despair that all one’s hard work is for naught – that no one will read it or buy it or like it.  And it’s not limited to just aspiring authors either – even the pubbed folks get rejected sometimes.  Even so, I think it’s a healthy sort of fear. One that might drive you to edit faster or write better, to attempt to become more than what you are. Jeffe and I were chatting about this the other day – why we as writers do what we do. There’s probably a certain amount of ego involved in… Read more
Oct
15

Ouch!

Posted in contests, writing | Leave a comment
So I got scores back for another contest last night (one which will remain nameless), and I have to say that if I’d this was the first contest I’d ever entered I’d be pretty devastated right about now. Out of a total of 40 points, I got a 25, a 24.5 and a *15*! Clearly this was a contest where the judges just didn’t get it. And by get, I mean  – sure, they thought the writing was fine, but the five to ten pages they got (which isn’t even an entire chapter, might I add) didn’t answer all their questions. Which kinda skeeves me – I mean, taking off points because I don’t show both characters’ full GMC in the first five pages seems a bit ridiculous to me. But sweet Jesus, some of the comments: 1) “She swears too much.”  (You know, I’ll concede on this one…I’ve been… Read more
Oct
14

Earning Your Unicorn

Posted in Mary-Sue, unicorn, writing | 3 Comments
Not much of a blog post today – got caught up staying home with a sick little girl (and trying to work from home as well, including after hour server migration stuff). Not very conducive to writing or blogging. Or anything else, really – unless you count hopping around on your hands and knees pretending to be Bolt while your daughter is either: 1) Penny 2) Dr. Calico 3) The Last Unicorn. (yeah, I didn’t get it either – but it makes her happy, so whatever) Anyway, I was thinking at some point today about Mary Sues. (or Gary Stu, whichever you prefer).  I seem to remember writing some awful piece of tripe when I was in about 6th grade. I was unicorn crazy then (and gee, I’m beginning to see a bit of a pattern with ms Lucy, go figure), and I wanted to write a story about one.… Read more
Oct
13

Playing Literary Games…

Posted in writing | 4 Comments
I’ve heard the moniker that being a literary writer is nothing like being a commercial writer. I can pretty much buy that. Back in college I took a bunch of writing classes while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. One class short of a minor, no less, but never did quite get there. I’m actually rather grateful for this – because I’m pretty sure I would never be cut out to be the literary type. Liz tells me I’ve got mad skillz in word smithery – maybe it’s true, but that’s not the same thing at all. I suspect I have a tendency to go a bit purple more than anything else. Even so, I noticed a rather distinct difference between myself and the rest of my fellow classmates in those classes. I cut my teeth on fantasy books growing up. Hell, I was reading… Read more