I'm giving myself a few days off from active drafting, following meeting my goal of writing every day in September (I started on Sept 1, this blog only started after Labor Day). It felt so good to have one less to-do, and I spent it doing teaching prep and enjoying reading bits of many, many novels in pursuit of passages to use in various classes I'm teaching. Reading short scenes from over a dozen stories and novels (c. 1899 to 2010) in 1-2 days is such an eye opener as far as styles. This is what I love about teaching: having a reason to comb through books I've already read--and new ones as well -- in search of instructive passages. More time for reading and supermarket sushi later this afternoon: my idea of a good afternoon!
Already October?! Some self-imposed deadlines have come and gone. Some met. Some not. Writing a synopsis of a novel is like describing the Tardis -- bigger on the inside than the outside. --jonna
Missed posting yesterday due to shenanigans involving sushi and beers. Like Andromeda, I gave myself the "day off" from active drafting (always a good idea to freshen the pot of your brain) in order to do some journaling (about two pages) and to think about story ideas/novel direction. I finished re-reading Dune for the however-many-eth time and decided to re-read Blood Meridian after a nice walk in the autumn on UAA's Mat-Su campus. Also, bonus miniature existential crisis!
Quotage that has nothing to do with writing but came from the recently finished Dune, "God created Arrakis to train the faithful." (Come to think, you could replace Arrakis with "writing" and get something out of that.)
"Slowly, Painstakingly, with the patience that separates a Beethoven from men of equal genius but less divine stubbornness, the great writer builds the large, rockfirm thought that is his fiction." --John Gardner
I'm giving myself a few days off from active drafting, following meeting my goal of writing every day in September (I started on Sept 1, this blog only started after Labor Day). It felt so good to have one less to-do, and I spent it doing teaching prep and enjoying reading bits of many, many novels in pursuit of passages to use in various classes I'm teaching. Reading short scenes from over a dozen stories and novels (c. 1899 to 2010) in 1-2 days is such an eye opener as far as styles. This is what I love about teaching: having a reason to comb through books I've already read--and new ones as well -- in search of instructive passages. More time for reading and supermarket sushi later this afternoon: my idea of a good afternoon!
ReplyDeleteAlready October?! Some self-imposed deadlines have come and gone. Some met. Some not. Writing a synopsis of a novel is like describing the Tardis -- bigger on the inside than the outside.
ReplyDelete--jonna
Tardis analogie is awesome!
DeleteMissed posting yesterday due to shenanigans involving sushi and beers. Like Andromeda, I gave myself the "day off" from active drafting (always a good idea to freshen the pot of your brain) in order to do some journaling (about two pages) and to think about story ideas/novel direction. I finished re-reading Dune for the however-many-eth time and decided to re-read Blood Meridian after a nice walk in the autumn on UAA's Mat-Su campus. Also, bonus miniature existential crisis!
ReplyDeleteQuotage that has nothing to do with writing but came from the recently finished Dune, "God created Arrakis to train the faithful." (Come to think, you could replace Arrakis with "writing" and get something out of that.)
DeleteStill no quote... Also not so much writing...
ReplyDelete1 Hour. 1000 words.
ReplyDelete"Slowly, Painstakingly, with the patience that separates a Beethoven from men of equal genius but less divine stubbornness, the great writer builds the large, rockfirm thought that is his fiction."
--John Gardner