Month: January 2018

Writing a one page summary of a 100k-word novel is brutal.

---

It’s good luck to submit a manuscript during a total lunar eclipse, right?‬ Continue reading “Grim-Sweet, Eclipse Luck, and Slush Snacks”

Plan:
1 – edit all night long until the lunar eclipse
2 – go outside and look at the clouds over the moon
3 – submit my novel to Apex Publications
4 – get very little sleep and be tired all day tomorrow

The coffee shop I was writing at closed before I finished writing my story. So I went to a second coffee shop, and I had a second chai. And now I feel very caffeinated. But I finished the story!‬

---

I’ve been getting a lot of writing done lately, and I want to be clear about something — staring at my computer & feeling like I have absolutely no idea how I’ll manage to write even a single word is still a big part of my process.

Movies I watched tonight — “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” They, uh, clashed rather badly.‬

As we marched, suddenly, the ten-year-old called out, “WHAT DO WE WANT?”‬

‪And all around, the crowd grew quiet. You could practically hear everyone thinking, “What? What do we want? Which thing are we supposed to call back??!!”‬
‪
Finally a woman called out, “JUSTICE!” And the chant went on.‬

I have a new routine — I brush my teeth while sitting next to the fish tank and reading. This makes my fish very happy.‬

Talking to the four-year-old about how he needs to settle down and go to sleep, he suddenly got really somber and quiet. A moment later, with absolute seriousness: “I just remembered, I’ve never fallen asleep.”

---

One of my favorite lines from Michael Copperman during tonight’s discussion of Kazuo Ishiguro’s brilliant novel, “Never Let Me Go,” at Wordcrafters In Eugene — “You’d be surprised how often the heavy-handed, clunky move is the one you need.” Continue reading “Stray Thoughts on a Random Day”

The four-year-old, speaking of the small dog: “I wish Amy could talk like me.” A moment later, “I’ll pretend she’s talking.”‬

‪Yep, that’s my kid.‬

The four-year-old’s excuse for not listening to me at the park: “I left my ears at home.”

Generally, I’m a very linear writer. I write stories like I’m reading them… just more slowly. But lately, I’m finding myself writing passages entirely out of order, and the sentences reorder themselves around me like pieces in a Tetris game. It’s very disturbing. Continue reading “Writing Processes Changing”