Indie Authors Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant have obtained funding for a live writing exposition through their podcast. “‘Fiction Unboxed’ is a publishing experiment. Platt and Truant are full-time authors, determined to prove with their Kickstarter project that well-told stories can bloom from excitement and inspiration, rather than from a ‘true artist’s’ tortured soul.”
They are doing this, naturally, by torturing themselves for a month.
Apropos of nothing, here’s an audio skit.
Barnabas Piper tells us to stop writing about writing, because we don’t really have anything to say.
“When Stephen King writes a book about writing I read it cover to cover and then start over. And it is marvelous. When a thirty-something, barely published, Internet composer of public journal entries does so, it’s uppity.”
Yeah. Sorry about that.
In his new book, Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, talks about how to keep a creative team running. He says he noticed many creative companies, even Disney, dying off a bit at some point. They couldn’t keep their creativity going. Catmull wanted to know the reason and whether it could be avoided. Now, with co-writer Amy Wallace, he has given us his conclusions.
“If you’re doing something new, you will make mistakes,” he says. “In fact, if you’re not making mistakes, you’re probably just copying other things. The way you avoid mistakes is to be super safe. Well, we can’t be safe. That means somebody will make mistakes, and we have to say let’s learn from it.”
He says he learned from Disney the technique of putting your storyboard on video to see it works the way you think it will. And it never does at first. In fact, the original storyboarded video isn’t good at all, but artists and writers lose their objectivity at that point and fail to see the problems. Catmull tries to work through the problems with an atmosphere that builds everyone up and allows them to take risks in pursuit of a stronger story.
You can read an excerpt from Catmull and Wallace’s book through NoiseTrade and your eReader before you buy.
An upcoming animated film, based on the book The True Meaning Of Smekday, will be released as Home. Which of these titles is more interesting to you? Studios may have a habit of preferring bland titles over interesting ones.
Let me write about myself for a minute. For the past several months, I’ve been pursuing a new line of work and I spent part of that time wondering what that line should be. I’m still looking for work in various ways, but my main thrust this year will be freelance writing and editing.
I am bidding on projects through Elance.com and Writer.ly (these sites are now defunct). I haven’t gotten to other freelance venues yet, and I like the testing options available through Elance. They verify your skills to a degree. If you have work that could be hired out, you can post a job with Elance and invite me to bid on it. Naturally, I would do my best writing ever, and the project would be more profitable than your wildest dreams, and we would sing each other’s praises for months. The regulars at the pub would love us for at least a day. Maybe two! Feel free to look at my Writer.ly profile too. It’s still in beta mode, but some people are finding work there.
I am happy to have made new connections with a couple editing services. There are two other organizations who have me on their writing roster also. Of course, there’s LinkedIn for general networking. With all of these connections, I am not at all busy. I’d like to try being busy, for a change of pace.
I started this blog in 2004. Lars joined me several months later. Since we’re an established lit-blog, we are asked to review various independent books. Every time I agree to receive a book for review, I hope to love it. I usually don’t, and I wish I could reply with an offer to edit this already published book. It would be rude to make such an offer, but the need bleeds upon the page. Through these new services, perhaps I can field editing requests from authors who have a good story and need help making it great.
Aaron Armstrong talks about the word heresy and how a popular author is probably misusing it. Heresy is a serious matter. To use the word to mean rebel, outsider, or maverick doesn’t help when we have to talk about actual heresy.
Several days ago, Nick Harrison listed five points of writing advice he labeled heresy. Ok, he didn’t, but he did not like them. Now he offers five things he likes. For example, he says, “If you write fiction, please remember that you’re not just telling a story or passing along information. Your goal is to emotionally move your reader.”
For more writing fun, Chip Macgregor describes several things editors love (by which I mean hate) when they read a manuscript. Multiple fonts? Excess commas? Great stuff. Also this: ‘For some reason, Number-Impaired People will make an outline that reads, “First,” followed by “Two,” then “C,” and then “4.” (Or, occasionally, “13.”)’
Editor Nick Harrison talks about the writing advice he dislikes, such as writing what you know and never using passive voice.
“Write even if you know you’ll never be published.” Apparently the idea is that a writer writes because he has to (which I agree with) and that writing is somehow its own reward (which I disagree with). I don’t know about you, but I’m writing to be published. I’m glad I don’t know whether or not I will have more books published in the future because if I knew my writing would never see the light of day, I’d probably be tempted to quit.
Pastor Anthony Carter, who has written a very good book on Christ’s work on the cross called Blood Work
“If you write for national attention,” he says “you are writing for the wrong reasons. I would encourage any pastor to remember and take to heart this sobering reality: Most people won’t even know that you have published a book, and the rest won’t care.”
Nick Harrison offers these wonderful quotes and testimonies to discourage the writer in your family. Rejection. Loneliness. Struggle.
Merry Christmas.
My favorite Christmas gift this year may have come from a total stranger. Digital artist Jeremiah Humphries produced the above drawing of Erling Skjalgsson, apparently, on a whim.
I like the use of light to suggest the hearth fire in the hall.
These are the moments that suggest to a writer that he hasn’t entirely wasted his time.
For more information on Mr. Humphries’ art, check out his blog.
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