Writing

Commentary on closing in on word count, writer’s block and writing through it, and increase in creativity with daily writing.

Commentary on Week Two progress – being behind in word count and efforts to catch up – and multiple methods for backing up your novel (why doing these saved my a** when my computer crashed last Saturday).

I found this TED talk by J.J. Abrams, the man who, among his credits, created the television show LOST and produced the latest STAR TREK movie, very motivating. Abrams is so passionate about what he does and he’s incredibly funny as a speaker. His comments about writing, the importance of investing time in developing your characters, and the importance of mystery in storytelling are things I, as a writer, can relate to and find very inspirational. This may be directed more towards script writers, but novel writers will find nuggets they can use as well. Watch – I think you’ll enjoy it.

“Eat, Pray, Love” Author Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

I found the following TED talk (video below) to be incredibly helpful to me in the middle of my writing my NaNoWriMo novel this month. Perhaps you will too. Too often, we writers write in a vacuum. Most of us, I think, are loners who toil away on our computers without much outside understanding. It thus becomes easy to believe that what we experience during the process of writing is something unique to us alone. Every now and then, we hear or read another writer’s lamentations about the process they go through when writing and we realize, “Wow. I’m not so alone after all.” All of us need to feel that connection sometimes. For example, about fourteen and a half minutes into Gilbert’s presentation, she says:

“When I was in the middle of writing, “Eat, Pray, Love” and I fell into one of those sort of pits of despair that we all fall into when we’re working on something and it’s not coming and you start to think this is going to be a disaster, this is going to be the worst book ever written – not just bad, but the worst book ever written – and I started to think I should just dump this project, you know…”

Oh, how many times have I thought those exact thoughts these past couple of weeks!

And about twelve minutes into the video, Gilbert also says:

“That’s not at all what my creative process is like. I’m not a pipeline, I’m a mule. And the way that I have to work is that I have to get up at, like, the same time every day and I have to sweat and labor and, like, barrel through it really awkwardly…”

“sweat and labor and, like, barrel through it really awkwardly” Uh, yeah. That’s EXACTLY what my creative process is like! Nice to know I’m not the only one.

Take a look at the video. I think you’ll enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert’s unique perspective on the creative process. And remember, you are not alone.

Commentary on being behind in word count, making progress, the importance of describing your characters’ looks, dress, and mannerisms fully, and Fan Fiction vs Regular Fiction.

Boring commentary on procrastination and perfectionism and
not meeting my daily word count goal for the last several days.

Below is a link to a great video of Stephen King, one of my favorite authors, talking about his newest book Under the Dome. Interesting backstory about the process of writing it that will be of interest to writers.

Borders :: Under the Dome by Stephen King.

Commentary on the difficulty of writing and finding inspiration from other authors to overcome it.

Commentary on wishing I had done more pre-Nano plot planning.

Commentary On: Vlogging in the daylight hours and having fun with Photo Booth (procrastinating much?). Obviously too much caffeine went into the making of this video. ;-)