Lessons from Master Hugh
Sep. 14th, 2007 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsWe all have gurus. Right now, I'm reading Bujold and discovering, not only that she make it look easy but that it is easy. Bujold writes more than you do: that's the whole of her secret. That's it. Lois writes more than you do, and that's why she's famous and you're not. She is not afraid to write a ton of bullshit and then pare down to the essentials. She's not afraid to read it out loud to see if it scans. She's not afraid to break the rules. But more than anything else, she writes more than most "writers." This lesson is so important it should be tattooed to either your scrotum or the fold under your left tit where you fail the pencil test (or both, if you've got both) (or somewhere else appropriate, if you've got neither).
Today, I also reminded myself about Hugh MacLeod, the brilliant artist behind "Cartoons drawn on the backs of business cards." MacLeod's pointers on creativity bear some reading, and there are a few that strike me as immeasurably wonderful (note that his rule #3 is the same as the paragraph above):
#10: The more talented somebody is, the less they need props.
I started writing on cheap highschool paper with a pencil. I eventually graduated to a desktop computer and eventually a laptop. But it's an older laptop without all the bells and whistles of the modern age. When I want to write I pop out the wireless card so I can't fiddle with the internet. I use an ordinary text processor so I can't fiddle with the font. The two most amazing things my text processor does is it has a better file browser so I can find stuff, and it spell checks, and that's about it. I write emphasis in a style I've been using for years, with *asteriks* around the stuff that needs to be made louder, and that's about it.
Needing more than a keyboard and a screen to be a writer is known as wanking.
#15: Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.
I'm trying.
#22: Everybody is too busy with their own lives to give a damn about your book, painting, screenplay etc, especially if you haven't sold it yet. And the ones that aren't, you don't want in your life anyway.
This one I haven't quite learned yet. I sometimes kinda wonder if blogging out the process is all that worthwhile.
Today, I also reminded myself about Hugh MacLeod, the brilliant artist behind "Cartoons drawn on the backs of business cards." MacLeod's pointers on creativity bear some reading, and there are a few that strike me as immeasurably wonderful (note that his rule #3 is the same as the paragraph above):
#10: The more talented somebody is, the less they need props.
I started writing on cheap highschool paper with a pencil. I eventually graduated to a desktop computer and eventually a laptop. But it's an older laptop without all the bells and whistles of the modern age. When I want to write I pop out the wireless card so I can't fiddle with the internet. I use an ordinary text processor so I can't fiddle with the font. The two most amazing things my text processor does is it has a better file browser so I can find stuff, and it spell checks, and that's about it. I write emphasis in a style I've been using for years, with *asteriks* around the stuff that needs to be made louder, and that's about it.
Needing more than a keyboard and a screen to be a writer is known as wanking.
#15: Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.
I'm trying.
#22: Everybody is too busy with their own lives to give a damn about your book, painting, screenplay etc, especially if you haven't sold it yet. And the ones that aren't, you don't want in your life anyway.
This one I haven't quite learned yet. I sometimes kinda wonder if blogging out the process is all that worthwhile.
