Um.
Just so you know.
I make stuff up.
The other day, a kid I used to coach in writing came to visit me. He's away at college at the moment, but wanted to talk about this idea he has for writing a book. His idea sounds really cool, too.
You know what impressed me about the kid? While we talked, he actually took notes on some of the things I said. I gave him the titles of a couple novels that I thought would help give him an idea of the kind of world he's getting himself into (and I'm not going to list those recommendations here).
You know, if you're going to write, you have to be okay with spending a lot of time alone. If you can't handle that, you're not going to be much of a writer.
It's not only for the process part of writing, but sometimes it can seem like it takes forever between opportunities to communicate with the other people on your team (the people in the bizz).
So you have to get used to it.
So, yesterday, I got a phone call... and I was, like, oh... what a nice surprise!!!
...that turned out to be a "oops. I pressed the wrong button on my contacts list. k. bye."
Then I went back and wrote some more.
Alone.
At my desk.
I guess the upside is that this year I will be able to make an announcement about several more books I'll have coming out soon.
Stay quietly -- and patiently -- tuned.
4 comments:
He took notes? Why is that surprising? I take mental notes based on your work all the time.
And I'm not even a kid. At least not physically.
It's good to be a hermit. Makes getting together with the other hermits that much more fun! The patience part of the equation sounds...less fun.
He took notes? Good for him. If he knew how jealous most of us readers are he might consider selling them.
I took notes while reading STICK. I started taking notes because you asked for feedback (which are being formulated), but then my notes turned into recording brilliant thoughts and techniques that inspired my own writing mind.
I do the same thing with everything John Green writes.
It's great that you got someone to teach like that, especially one on one.
And about solitude, I recently saw this quote by Martin Amis: "The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone.”
Post a Comment