The Idle Inkslinger

Aspiring YA Author. Voracious Reader. All-Around Nerd

[maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20]

How are you so confident with everything you do

Dear c-173,

I think it’s twofold. No, threefold.

1. I’m pretty comfortable with constructive criticism. Not just implementing it, but also sorting it into a manageable size. If someone I respect says, Stiefvater, that’s a little rocky, here’s my supporting argument, I’m usually pretty good about assessing whether I feel that’s something I need to take on. That means if some rando shouts to me on the street that I need to reconsider my life choices, I don’t internalize that. If an internet troll tells me to die in a fire, I don’t internalize that. If a guy I literally have never seen before shakes his head at my car and tells me I have no taste, it doesn’t register as information I need to act upon. If a friend brings something to me, then I start to pay attention, but the everyday slings and arrows of existing surrounded by judgment? Shrug. This is closely related to my opinion that you should like what you like. 

2. I’m okay with being a work in progress. It doesn’t hurt my feelings to post something that isn’t perfect. Perfect is an optical illusion, an end of the road that is unreachable. That means literally everything I attempt will fall short of it by some measure. All I can do is try my absolute best at the moment I am in, and then judge my efforts by however good I am at a thing right then. My first published book isn’t anywhere near as good as my 13th published book. My 13th will be nowhere near as good as my 21st. Does that mean I should wait until the 21st to show anything to anyone?  

2b. I might not have confidence in whatever I’m doing, but I have confidence that I can learn to be better at it. I don’t play the banjo right now, but you know what, I bet that if I had to play the banjo for an upcoming author extravaganza, I could learn. And again — I don’t have to be perfect at the thing. I can just do my best.*

3. I have a sense of humor about it. I’m a ridiculous creature. I understand what that means, looking in from the outside. You think my ripped jeans are weird, well, they kinda are. You think my car is strange, well, it sorta is. You think my music taste is outrageous? Totally is. I don’t care if you laugh. I like what I like, and I don’t care if I’m a prismacolor unicorn of a human.

3b. I’m not for everyone. I’m fine with that, too. We’re not vacuum cleaners. There’s not an objective right or wrong for us to be. We’re more like songs — and not every song is for every person, no matter how well-written or great it is. Just be the best jingle you can be and that’s good enough.

urs,

Stiefvater

*a prerequisite for all of this is that you have to try hard and be present and committed to your own life story. It’s not an incredibly popular option right now, particularly among some of my bag-wine peers, but what can I say? Life works better when you’re there for it.

[schmergo]

“Have you ever read Pride and Prejudice?”

[metteivieharrison]

What Is Beauty?

I’ve been reading a series of Ursula LeGuin’s essays (collected in Words Are My Matter), and thinking about “Beauty.” I find that my tastes in literature and perhaps in other arts, if I can be said to have taste, isn’t nearly as snobbish as LeGuin’s. I suspect that this is partly because I spent too much time in graduate school studying postmodernism, but also a genuine lack of aesthetic taste for what others call “beautiful” writing. I tend to prefer serviceable writing instead, or what you could call “transparent” writing. I like writing that tells a story, and I often tend to prefer other arts that tell a story, as well. I struggle to understand music unless it tells a story, and painting is also more interesting to me if I understand the story behind the art.

I guess I could argue that I think beauty is just the humanity in the story, but I’m not sure this is a fair answer. Maybe I lack a real sense for beauty. I know I’ve heard from readers who wish that my current writing style had more beauty in it. I strive for clarity. When I’m revising a book, trying to make it better, I don’t try to make it more beautiful. I try to make it crystal clear, so that the intent of the words is unmistakable. I try to make my characters fully rounded, not one-note (even the villains) and if there are quotable quotes in my book, I suspect people think they are wry rather than beautiful. I think Linda Wallheim has a strong voice and Laman, too, but their voices aren’t what I would call “beautiful.”

What about beauty in other arts? Yesterday I reread an old favorite for the first time in a couple of years of not rereading (because I’m feeling pressure to read some more of the millions of books out there I will never get to). What struck me about the book (The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner) wasn’t that I found the words beautiful or quotable, but that they were apt. They told a story I love about characters I love, who seem very human and vey real. I think they also told a story that made me feel things that were sometimes uncomfortable, and sometimes poignant. Is that beauty? I don’t know.

What I do know is that when people hand me books they say are “beautiful,” I never want to read them. I have no interest in writing beautiful words for the sake of beauty. I want to move people to think, to feel, to change. I also tend to skip over the descriptive parts of writing because it doesn’t interest me and because I have a really bad visual mind. I want dialog and action, plot. Am I plebian who has never developed a real sense of beauty? Yeah, I probably am. I’m hopeless, too, since I went through all the years of literature school and still haven’t developed an appreciation for “beauty.”

[eleanorcaldit]

Gilbert Blythe would stand on his head if I asked him to.

[carriejodowd]

Swoon!

[maggie-stiefvater-deactivated20]

The Art of Invisible Movement

Several weeks ago, an aspiring writer asked me what my opinion was on “in-between” scenes — scenes where “nothing happened.” She noted that her favorite scenes in books were often ones where characters were only talking about their lives. How did I recommend including these while maintaining pacing?

I have three thoughts on Nothing scenes.

1. Always Be Mindful of Invisible Movement

I don’t believe in Nothing scenes. I believe in scenes that appear as Nothing scenes to the reader, but are actually full of invisible movement. I have a rule for myself — insofar as I do rules — that every scene should be doing at least two things, preferably three or more, no matter how much it appears to be about merely one.

Here are examples of things scenes can do:

• give backstory

• demonstrate character change

• create a sense of place

• satisfy logistics; i.e. move a character from place A to place B

• establish character

• explain worldbuilding

• move through action sequence

• move external plot forward

• establish dynamic between two characters through conversation or action

It can be tempting to grab just one of those and say DONE. SCENE. GOOD. But efficient storytelling, powerful storytelling, involves doing many of these at one time. A scene may appear to be merely about a character crashing his best friend’s car. But it must also be about his character journey and about his dynamic with another character, all the while pushing the external plot forward. Complexly written, but simple to read: ah yes, these scene where Ronan takes the car.

A Nothing scene might overwhelmingly appear to be merely a conversation, but it needs to be doing heavy lifting in the places in between words. Work in place, backstory, character motivation. Let the unspoken seethe inbetween the spoken. Subtly tie the conversation to the external plot. Why is the conversation happening now? Make sure it references the steps that came before it to make it seem inevitable instead of like an element that can merely lift out and be placed elsewhere without consequence.

What you’re attempting to do is maintain invisible movement. Remind the reader of what is still lurking during this quiet moment. Or remind them that this is the stake: that this quiet moment is what the characters are fighting for. Or situate the quiet moment within a larger, external plot machination, and end the conversation by wrenching them externally according to the plot.

But don’t just let them talk. You can at first. Draft it that way. Be delighted by the quiet conversation you’ve written. But then get back to work. You ain’t done. Push things forward invisibly by having the scene do something else in the background.

2. Earn It

You’ve got to earn all frothy conversations or quiet moments in two ways. First is the rhythm of the thing. It’s like a mix tape. Don’t group all the quiet stuff together, dude! Tense action scenes seem more speedy when interspersed with quiet moments, and vice versa. Earn your quiet moment by putting us through our paces for a bit first.

Second: you’ve got to emotionally earn your quiet moments, your Nothing conversations. You may have been daydreaming of the moment your two characters finally open up and reveal their deepest truths through memes, but if you do it too soon, the scene will feel empty … and slow. Like just a Nothing scene. 

An emotional conversation should be a reveal, a satisfying culmination of something half-seen until that moment. Timed correctly, far enough along in the emotional journeys, these conversations will feel like a resting place or a reward instead of a lull. 

3. You Can’t Live on Ice Cream Cake, or You Ruin Ice Cream Cake

There’s a reason why a lot of readers think they love Nothing scenes — they mean the scenes mentioned above, quietly emotional scenes placed well within the narrative. They feel amazing! But the chemical make up of these scenes mean that they only work when used sparingly. It’s not the quietness of them that makes them incredible. It’s what had to happen to make the quietness possible. Ice cream cake is special because it’s a rarity, brought out only for special occasions. The same goes for all pleasurable excesses in novel-making: banter, kissing, action sequences, emotional porn. They all need to be used sparingly, and to be placed as a result of story, not instead of it, or you’ll find yourself with a Nothing novel, because ice cream cake for every meal makes it lose its meaning.

The thing to remember about novel writing is that the key to pacing is tension, and tension doesn’t always come from negative consequences. Positive consequences can work just as well (think of it: love stories, exploration narratives, training sequences). Make sure your Nothing scenes maintain invisible movement by continuing to promise some kind of tension, and you’re golden.

Oh yeah, and most important? Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t pull it off in a first draft of a scene. Just because you have to end up with a hard-working scene doesn’t mean you have to be able to juggle all those layers at once. Writing is revision, revision is writing, etc. etc. etc. 

[demondarlington]

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” 

literature posters; persuasion by jane austen

[ear-tugging]

break my heart break it a thousand times if you like it was only ever yours to break anyways

[sleepy-minimalist-deactivated20]

A little library in a telephone box I came across yesterday.

[carriejodowd]

Now I want one of these in my house...

[thenatsdorf]

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[timelordthirteen]

Literature Aesthetics 7/?? | Persuasion

Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you.

[metteivieharrison]

The Finish Line Keeps Moving

If you’re feeling discouraged today about how far off the finish line is, consider how far you’ve moved it from when you started. Twenty years ago, I just wanted to publish one book. Just one book. I figured when I got one book published, I would be a “real writer.” After that, everything would be easy. I’d just naturally keep getting books published. It was only the first book that counted as a real victory. I wanted that contract. I wanted an agent. I wanted reviews. I wanted to see my book cover.

And then I got the phone call. The one that said an editor wanted to buy my book. A national editor at a respected house. Would pay money to publish my book.

It was all real. I was a real writer.

And how long did I spend celebrating that achieved goal that I’d spent more than twenty years trying to achieve? About one day.

Then the next day, I went back to work on other projects I had in mind. I started planning bigger goals. I wanted to think about book 2 with this publisher (that never happened, fyi). And then I had to think about how I’d sell a bigger book that would earn me more money. And dealing with how to promote this book. And presenting at conferences now that I was a real author. And on and on.

I moved the finish line and I’m not sure I even noticed that I was doing it. I didn’t feel like a real author, for one thing. I felt like I was still just a beginner. That’s because one day doesn’t make you feel different. But it’s also because we have a tendency to just keep moving forward without really celebrating and seeing the changes around us.

My finish line now includes movie deals and a TV show. It includes earning enough money to set up a charity to support the causes I believe in. It includes selling books in multiple genres to different ages. And people coming to me to ask me to contribute to anthologies. And being paid to give keynotes. And on and on.

It’s good to have new goals, to always have your reach exceed your grasp and all that. But if I feel like I haven’t finished yet, this is why. I keep resetting the goal posts. I keep wanting to get a new PR. I keep getting new book ideas. This is the life. It’s a good life, as long as you remember that you’ve already finished the race you started out to finish.

[carriejodowd]

It's time. I need a shiny new idea that doesn't take place in the universe of my last WIP. So my coffee and notebook are joining me while I dream. ☕☕☕ #authorlife #writinglife #amwriting #authorsofinstagram #author #amdreaming

[metteivieharrison]

How Do You Find Time to Write

The simple answer to this question is always: I have a very messy house.

What I mean by this is that everyone has the same hours in the day and if you want to write, you have to give up some things that you’re doing right now in order to add writing in. You can give up whatever you want, depending on what your priorities are. For me, having a clean house turns out to be a low priority. For you, it might be the same or it might be watching television, sleeping, exercising, talking to friends, going out to lunch, being on Facebook, or baking.

What do you value less and what do you value more? You’re not going to be able to somehow make more hours in your day. You can’t expect that you will just be more efficient at other things and be able to fit writing in that way. I’m serious when I say that you have to give something up in order to write. That’s the way life works.

I’d argue that this is about more than writing. If you look around you, you will see people who are very good at some things. Inevitably, what this means is that they aren’t good at other things. Because they made a choice, either consciously or not. I notice this all the time when we see heroes fall from grace. Usually, they just are who they are and we suddenly realize that being good at one thing means that they aren’t good at other things, maybe things we realize we value more than the other things, after all.

Choosing to spend time writing won’t make you a better person. It won’t make you superior to people who choose not to write. It arguably won’t make you feel better about yourself, either. It will just mean that you will have produced writing that may or may not be good. And that your house may be a mess or you may have gained weight or that you have posted less on Facebook.

I’m not a writer because I magically figured out how to do more things than other people did. I’m not a writer because I’m smarter than other people or more “talented” so it’s easier for me than it is for you. I’m a writer because I stopped doing some things and started writing instead. In some ways, it’s very simple. In other ways, not simple at all.

[metteivieharrison]

BORROWING THE FUTURE

I cannot count the number of times that truly talented writers that I know have given up. After several years of rejection, they simply decided they didn’t want to deal with that anymore. It breaks my heart when I think about all the wonderful books they will not write. But of course, it is their decision. The writing life isn’t for everyone and rejection is sometimes simply too much to bear.

But writers who keep writing get published. That’s what I have seen. Writers who give up, don’t. If you want to be a success, don’t dwell on how horrible it feels to be rejected over and over again. I am not saying that you have to put the feeling away or deny it. It hurts. I know it hurts. I still get rejected and it still hurts. The hurt will never go away, I don’t think. But it’s the way to the future. I don’t know why we have to go through all that rejection. I am not always sure that the books that are rejected are rejected because they are bad.

But I do know that you can take rejection and use it. You can fuel yourself with either anger or determination to write the next book. You will write a better book next time. You will write a book that they can’t possibly reject. You won’t just write a book that’s good enough. You will write an incredible book. I believe it. Now, you must believe it, too.

Borrow the future. See yourself successful then, and pull it forward a little to hang onto.

I invite myself and all of you reading this with me, to give yourselves permission to imagine not just a better future, but a rich one, beyond your expectations, into those dreams in your heart that you are afraid to wish even in a whispered way to yourself. Dreaming will not cause nightmares to appear. Dreaming will not invite the displeasure of the universe. You cannot dream too big. You cannot dream too much. Dreams are borrowing from the future, but they don’t have to be repaid.

[metteivieharrison]

A Journey is for Every Day

Some books take years to write.

Some, surprisingly, only weeks.

Some books go through dozens of revisions, require pulling out entire plot lines, attempting complete revision, feel like resurrecting a corpse, and then you go back to an earlier version, lost two years of work, and finally figure it out.

Other books you write and do very little editing, and sell them.

It can be easy as a reader to imagine that you can tell the difference between a book that took years to write and one that took weeks.

Look at the beautiful prose, you may say.

Feel the deep themes resonating through every scene.

Look at how the patterns are mirrored here and there.

Notice the careful pacing.

Get into this character’s deepest thoughts.

The truth about writing is that authors don’t know anything about what we are doing. We don’t know if a book will touch readers. We don’t know if it will be a hit or a failure. We don’t know if all the work we did today will end up being trashed in the next month’s revision process, or if the book we are writing now is nearly perfect.

We don’t know and we shouldn’t try to discern it. I really believe that writing is a process that makes us who we are as much as it makes a book. Who we are as writers determines what books we will be able to write in the future. It has to be as much about the process as it is about the product.

To try to figure out if you’re doing anything good right now is like trying to decide if your newborn is going to end up at the Olympics. If there were a system for figuring it out, would you really want to know? Would you really want to tell your child in first grade that there was no point in joining the local city swim club because she wasn’t going to end up in the Olympics?

I hope not. I hope that for writers, and for readers, a book is a journey that we allow ourselves to go on, wherever it takes us. Yes, you can end the journey. No one forces you to either finish writing or reading a book. You may choose a different journey. But don’t confuse the journey with the destination. Destinations only happen now and again. A journey is for every day.

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[tastefullyoffensive]

by floccinaucinihilipilificationa

[carriejodowd]

It's always nice when an author dedicates a book to you: "To the girl who reads by flashlight who sees dragons in the clouds who feels most alive in world's that never were who knows magic is real who dreams This is for you." #beautyandthebeast #bookish #bookstagram #bookphotography #currentlyreading #hunted #meaganspooner #ya