The Lead, And How to Swing It

[elfs]

Insanely prolific blogger and book reviewer James Nicoll has a contest entitled Because My Tears Are Delicious To You. James has a lack of patience for exceptionally bad SF, along with a notoriously long idiosyncratic list of things in SF that especially set him off, and is challenging people to write the ultimate “make James cry” opening sentence. (Really, don’t participate unless you know what makes James cry.)

I wanted to participate– some of them are real groaners.  Much to my frustration, I found that I couldn’t.

Here’s the real truth: I haven’t written anything new since April.  Mostly, that’s because, as I wrote in my previous post, people pay me more to write code these days.  But there seems to be something else going on.  I’m not sure entirely what it is, but it bugs me.  I sit down to write and nothing comes to the fingers.  I do what I’m supposed to do when that happens: I write anyway.  I write crap.  And I mean, real crap. (Okay, some of you might actually want to read a scene involving Wish, a Sterling Y, and a bit of llerkin nobility, but the dialogue there sucks, people)

And many of the novel ideas I had to work with just seem to be equally dead.  A retelling of the Superman story as STL warfare between back-to-the-soil types and posthumans?  Completely hung up on the “just another Anglo writer” complex.  Moon Sun Dragons?  Not enough ideas for a book, not enough eyeball kick for a movie.  Caprice Starr?  Boring.  Automatic Sweetheart?  “Steampunk is so last year.”  The Last Year of the Cat?  “Nobody will ever take catgirls seriously, no matter how much Sarah Waters, Camille Paglia, and Bram Dysktra you throw in there.”  Janae?  “Too obvious.”

Bleah.  Someone find me my mojo, ne?

This entry was automatically cross-posted from Elf's writing journal, Pendorwright.com. Feel free to comment on either LiveJournal or Pendorwright.

Comments

Caprice Star, boring?

[pandakahn.livejournal.com]

Oh, Bitch, it is ON!

It is odd, but I can't say that I have ever read anything of yours that I didn't think was good. I don't like everything you write, but I still read it because I enjoy the way you turn a phrase, craft a line and tweak me when I am not paying attention. The "Travelogues" are on my list of annual re-reads, as are the "Stirlings" and a few others ("Bloody Beth" is a 2-3 times a year.).

I would LOVE to read caprice Star. I read all of those when I was a kid and the idea of your take on the Golden Age (tm) is one that leaves me on the edge of my seat.

You may not understand, or accept, that you have people who like your writing, regardless of your view of it. Your worlds rock and are ones I would love to visit. Since I can't, I re-read them and send other people to discover them.

Don't kick yourself if your off your game. You have a life and things going on. Muse will jerk your chain when you need to write again, you have said so yourself.

MPK

[solarbird]

I know how you feel. I've lost drawing, like I lost glass sculpture. Nothing comes out of it - I mean, I still have the technical skills - they're rusty, but still there - but there's no spark. Not even a little. It's... empty. It's strange.

You've tried the keep-flogging-at-it approach; have you tried the put-it-aside-competely approach? Don't think of it, don't let yourself think of it, for one, maybe two weeks, and see if batteries recharge? Or is that a bad approach for you?

It's less distressing for me, I think, for two reasons. One, I haven't lost design - those ideas pop right up, given a goal. But two, and much, much more importantly, because I feel well compensated for the drawing. I lost drawing at the same time I gained music. And speaking bluntly, I am so much better a musician than I was a visual artist. I can't even begin to compare the two.

So I don't know if this makes any sense to you, but if it does, maybe you should poke around at other arts for a little bit. See what, if anything, pops out. You have been fiddling around some at design; maybe it's time for you to do something visual.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been getting into the visuals a lot, and enjoying trying out the "ten things to make your design POP" or whatever it is tutorial is available this week.

Still, I want to write. I find myself haunted by my own stories.

[solarbird]

Still, I want to write. I find myself haunted by my own stories.
Oh, okay. Then it'll come back. Didn't you say something about if you're blocked to look for the emotional thing you aren't wanting to write about but need to? Or was that somebody else? Poke at that with a stick, either way.

[(Anonymous)]

でも、結婚式以外で、paperのメールってあまりないかも。
クリスマスカードとかはあるけど。

The obvious

[shemayazi.livejournal.com]

I hate to be obvious, but try administering sex, chocolate, liquor, conversation, rinse, cycle, repeat. It may not be a solution, but it resets the context of the problem.