dark am i, yet lovely, a lily among thorns, majestic as stars in procession

dark am i, yet lovely, a lily among thorns, majestic as stars in procession
WHY DESTROY YOURSELF? WHY DIE BEFORE YOUR TIME? THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE TREMBLE. DESIRE IS NO LONGER STIRRED. DO NOT CONFORM ANY LONGER TO THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

More on Writing

^^^DIGITAL POTTERY^^^
Termite Citadel flanked by Termite Monastery in front of unnamed slab.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~So Chapter 2 of a probable 7 in Escaping Hazel is almost done, and Chapter 3 is taken care of in terms of what happens where. For a day or two I had to really concentrate on what would happen because I was in Beginner’s Limbo but now it has gotten into a little flow I can relax some. It’s good to have it on the mind though. After doing nothing but short-short stories for 4 years, it’s a nice change to get into something longer. The start, with slow movers, can be boring and challenging, but soon the scenes become so interesting that they are almost like mini short stories in themselves, and little unscripted incidents which you don’t expect then grow bigger than anything else.

Lee Child said he likes to be as ‘in the dark’ as the reader about what happens next, when he’s doing a yearly bestseller starring Jack Reacher. I was surprised by that. He was fired from his job in TV as a forty-something and decided to write a novel. Supposedly, someone buys a Lee Child book every single second. Yeah, and Sandra Bullock is a munter.

Jack Reacher (6"5, body to die for, women wanna be with him, men wanna be him) is an ace character, and the one book I’ve read was high octane stuff. I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that those kind of commercial novels in general come at little cost to the author. John Grisham, former top attorney and fellow career-switcher, is another example. So is Jeffrey Deaver (who outlines and plots his novels vigorously).

Thinking back, my own personal writing history has come out of big sacrifices. Or was born out of big problems. Or something like that.

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