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Chocolate for Editing
An oldie! I made this when I first started out as a novelist, somewhere in the ten-thousandth revision of Darkhaven. Probably.
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September Poetry Challenge #1
1 Secrets and oaths He never held back on the hug.That was why she kept comingAnd he kept comingAnd she swallowed, over and over and over,The lie.It could have been you.But it was always his houseHis bedHer job to hide and tell herselfThis would be the last time.But he never held back on the hug. 3 Above the trees Above the trees, I can breathe.Seems strange.Everyone else breathes with the trees,Oxygen in, oxygen outCarbon dioxide exchange.But I crave a different air, oneI cannot shareExcept with youAnd I will not ask you to breathe for me. 4 The road not taken Real good, you saidBut the way you said itWasn’t realOr…
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Fox’s Map of the Creative Journey
I have many thoughts on the creative process. On social pressure. On the ‘tortured artist’. Not all of them can be condensed into a page of silly scribbles, but some of them can, so here it is. If it doesn’t display well for you (yeah, I got carried away), here’s a handy PDF that you can zoom in and out of to your heart’s content.
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Story Burn
That feeling of a story all coming together in my head and that I need to write it all down all at once right now, and until I do I can’t think of anything else or talk about anything else or be anything except a burning ball of story fire. Honestly, the 15-25% bracket might be a bit short. Sometimes the grim cloud sets in at 10% and constant drizzle persists until after the halfway mark. But I’m hoping this most accurate diagram will help me remember, when it’s raining, that the fire will ignite again. And then consume me.
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Plans sprouting wings and flying away
(That heading will make no sense if you’re not receiving my newsletter!) Plans get away from me when I stumble and begin to doubt my ability. But it’s so rarely an issue of ability, and even if it is, I can find ways to expand my skills and meet the challenge. I had a breakthrough of sorts in my very last uni assignment for making peace with bad writing. I wrote a story, submitted it, got my best mark ever for a written assignment, and was happy. Months later, I found the story on my computer when cleaning some files, opened it, and was horrified at how awful it was…and…
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When writing isn’t writing
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The Editing Doom Tunnel
What happens when I suddenly realise I have an editing deadline. Yes, yes, I do schedule the deadlines myself. Somehow, they still sneak up on me. No, contrary to popular Malamute belief, I don’t neglect Nighteyes while I’m deadlining (that’s a verb now. Means ‘working flat out to the exclusion of all other things to meet a tough deadline). He does still get walks and plenty of pats, just not as many as he’d like, because he’d like to be patted almost constantly, and that’s just not practical. Plus he’s 90% cat, which means he wants to want more pats, not actually receive them.
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Smash Draft Road
Smash it out and fix it later! If you want the background to my silly drawings and processes, sign up for my newsletter 😉
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When an edit goes bad
The general attitude in the writing world is that the editor is always right. I’ve worked with quite a few by now. Most of them I’m perfectly neutral on. A good job gets done. Some of them make me want to gather every word I’ve ever written and set it all on fire, then throw my computer in too so I never try again. And some leave me so excited about the changes I’m making to my work, I can feel myself growing into a better writer, like a bean shoot bursting through the soil and taking off in the (not Australian summer) sun. Those – the bean-shoot-inspiring ones –…
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When writing isn’t writing
Fox, surely you should just be writing. Wasn’t that the whole point? It’s been weeks. Months. What’s with all this ‘plotting’ business? I wish I was joyfully tapping the keys. As I move further into the second half of the saga, I’m feeling somewhat staggered by the weight of it, in that it’s no longer all new fun stuff, but heavy plot and tying threads together to reach the finale. I remember writing short stories, or even the first and second novels, and approaching the end with a feeling like I was juggling all the balls furiously, keeping it balanced in my head, and I just had to hold it…
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Plans sprouting wings and flying away
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My brain lied to me
Have you ever had that feeling where you’ve got a brilliant idea, and in your head it’s wondrous, but when you go to explain it to someone, suddenly that Van Gogh masterpiece is all stick figures and scribbles? I thought I had a plot for books 4–6 figured out, all pretty much there, and it just needed writing down. But, in a twist surprising no one except me, Chris the Couch Sloth of Plotting and Phanta the Phoenix of Pantsing have again been doing nothing useful, and what I thought was a great plan in my brain is actually… Me: I need a plan for book 4. Chris: (lets out…
