Bornfamous

In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron advises budding artists, writers and anyone who wants to be more creative to write three pages, by hand, every morning. She spends at leasts a chapter explaining all the reasons for this, but I think it’s pretty obvious: getting your hand moving with your mind is good exercise for [...]

I’ve been trying to understand why, whenever I boldly announce that I’m finally going to write That Book That I Never Write, I suddenly lose all interest in the subject and just wish I had kept my mouth the hell shut. Because I promised myself that I was not going to allow the inevitable lack [...]

He wasn’t as bad as that makes him sound. I’m sure he was actually a good person but I only have my mother’s stories to go on and unfortunately, her version of things is suspect. She divorced him, after all. But the fact is, my father killed my dog.
I didn’t know it at the time. [...]

I’ve been sitting on a story that I’ve wanted to write–and desperately wanted not to write–for 37 years now. I started this blog in an attempt to finally tell it, but then I got caught up in the early, heady days of blogging and forgot my purpose. I forget my purpose a lot. Where was [...]

It’s Day 3 and I have less than 600 words of my novel written. Not good. My plan was to write 2500 words a day for 20 days and be done with it, or at least have a built in cushion for the days when nothing comes. Well, those days are now and the cushion [...]

10/28/2003 8:44 AM
Five more days to NaNoWriMo. Well, four if you don’t count Saturday, which is the first day to start writing. I don’t know how I will ever be able to write 50,000 words in one month. It just seems impossible, since I can’t even make myself do 2500 words a day, even as [...]

10/25/2003 3:16 PM
Did somebody say 2500 words? A day? Me? Nah. Couldn’t be. I wouldn’t commit to something as ridiculous as that. What, do you think I’m stupid or something? Don’t answer that. All right, so I promised–no, VOWED–to write 2500 words a day. I didn’t mention WHICH days, did I? So I’m off the [...]

Okay, so I haven’t even started today’s 2500–except for these few words–but at least I have gotten back to typing Bob’s book. And that’s the important thing.

Only 10 days to NaNoWriMo! The horror! The horror!
Well, at least I have that one sentence that says it all in a nutshell–just in case I forget what it’s about: “A teenage girl resents her new stepfather and rebels, but when he is nearly killed by a gang of thugs, she discovers to her amazement [...]

I’ve decided to go back to an old technique I learned from a writing teacher many years ago: write 2500 words a day–any words, every day. It’s a lot like Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, and it’s a good way to jump start change. I started yesterday. Hopefully, it will get me in shape for NaNoWriMo, [...]

10/20/2003 9:36 AM
So I’m trying to figure out which voice to listen to–the one that says, “Do this,” or the one that says, “Don’t.” I’m going a little crazy here. I get in these ridiculous little arguments with myself about which one to listen to, which makes yet a THIRD voice in my head. [Not [...]

10/19/2003 8:42 AM
Off we go…into the wild blue yonder…
Yes, I’m doing the good old 2500 words a day thing again. A little voice told me just now to get my ass in gear. NaNoWriMo is less than two weeks away and I need to have some habits started by then, so this is it. I [...]

The Snowflake Process for Writing

It is becoming painfully clear that if I want to write this or any other book, ever, I must give up the Internet. I can’t even fire up Eudora to check my email any more. It sucks me in so deeply that I don’t come up for air all day. I’ve developed web gills; I [...]

I’m having a problem with outlining. Like how should I do it–or should I do it at all? When I’ve written outlines in the past, I lost interest before I even got down to writing… and we all know what happens when someone with ADD [that's me] loses interest: nada.
OTOH, I think an outline will [...]