I knew it was coming. Really, I’d suspected it all along. But nothing ever fully prepares you for the moment when you take your complete manuscript and rip a big 13,000-word chunk out of it.
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Tag: the writing life
You know who Michigan J. Frog is, right? You do, even if you don’t know it. He’s the frog in the immortal Warner Brothers cartoon who, when he’s alone with the guy who found him, jumps up and starts singing, “Hello, mah baby, hello, mah honey, hello, mah ragtime gaaaaaal –” But whenever the guy tries to show the frog off to someone, Michigan J. Frog just sits there, motionless, and goes, “BRRRRRAAAAAP.” Eventually, of course, this drives his finder mad.
Now, we’re not supposed to think Michigan J. Frog is being malicious. There’s no evidence in the cartoon that the frog cares what people think of the man who found him; I’m not sure he even really notices that guy. Sometimes Michigan J. Frog wants to do a little ragtime number with his top hat and cane. Sometimes he doesn’t. It’s as simple as that.
Today was one of the days where, as a writer, I was Michigan J. Frog (observed.) I got up early, applied butt to chair, opened my file and — after many hours — had managed to produce about 250 words worth keeping. So I took a break, ran some errands and tried again. Still, nothing. Remember the part in the cartoon where the guy picks up Michigan J. Frog and tries to make his little legs kick in a dance? Yeah. I had that kind of day.
However, I do not have “writer’s block.”
As Dan Wells (author of PARTIALS and all-around good egg) says, “Writing is the only profession where we can claim we can’t do our job because we’re ‘blocked.’ Plumbers never say, ‘Oh, I have plumbers’ block! I can’t work on your sink!'” I completely agree. Writer’s block is an illusion our profession has created, and an entirely self-defeating one. It takes a temporary problem (“had an off day”) and turns it into something epic, something mysterious, something uncontrollable — and, most dangerously, something that lasts and lasts. People often ask how to deal with writer’s block; I always say that you deal with it by not believing in it. If you’re stuck right now, you have a problem with your story, or you’re writing the wrong story, or something else in your life is messing with your head. (In my case, I suspect it was the last one; I knew my accountant and I would be meeting to do my taxes this evening, and that bit of tension and distraction is probably what kept me from completely sinking into the world of the SPELLCASTER prequel novella I’m working on right now.)
So today, I’m not thinking of myself as having some mysterious, unsolvable burden — writer’s block — that’s keeping me back from being productive. I’m thinking of myself as Michigan J. Frog (observed.) No song. No dance. Too many worries were watching me. But tomorrow I’m going to be back at my keyboard, and I bet this time I’ll need my top hat and cane.
(See how I sneaked that announcement about the novella in there? More details to come soon!)
Categories
post-Australian tour updates
So, my hotel here in Adelaide doesn’t have wireless — WHY DOES THE GOD OF WIRELESS HATE ME — and I’m now typing this in a 24-hour-convenience store, between the prepaid mobile phones and men’s socks. This update must be swift!
1) Australian tour
Was amazing! So many of you came to the events in Brisbane, Morayfield and Melbourne, and more to the stock signings in Sydney and here in Adelaide yesterday. It was great meeting/signing for/answering questions for/denying having tasted Vegemite to each and every last one of you. I’m afraid that this is it for signings on this trip — the rest of my time in Australia will be of a touristy bent — but hopefully I can come back sometime and do this again.
2) Writing updates
AFTERLIFE = done, already in ARC form, out in the world.
FATEFUL (aka WEREWOLVES ON THE TITANIC) = first draft complete, undergoing revision
BALTHAZAR = still being outlined, will be written this fall
SPELLCASTER = patiently waiting its turn, but not for too much longer!
3) Next appearances
No firm schedule yet, but I’ll be doing a few appearances in Chicagoland in late September, and I’m trying to set up something for Vancouver in October and New Orleans in November. And you guys in Jackson, MS, know I’ll be at Lemuria the Monday before Thanksgiving, right?
Now I must sign off — time is expensive here at the convenience store —
I have been shamefully lax in updating this blog over the past week, but wow, no matter how hard I tried to keep up with things while I was traveling last month, I still came home significantly behind. I’m writing a short story and doing essay edits while taking care of non-writing business … little things like, oh, renewing my lease so I actually have a place to live next year, which I kind of had to do in a hurry. Ironically, when I’m busiest with the things you guys are most interested in (the writing), I have the least news. Because my days look something like this:
9-11 a.m. — Write 500 words, squint at them.
11-11:30 a.m. — Take out 100 of those words. Change one adjective in one sentence five times.
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Add another three hundred words. Wonder if this is even the right scene to have in this story. Give into despair.
1 -2 p.m. — Lunch, HGTV
2 -5 p.m. — Take out half of remaining words, write 300 more, decide to rename a character.
5 -6:30 p.m. — Peruse baby-names book in effort to find new name.
6:30 p.m. onwards — Write like mad to make up for lost time. Also, dinner. Maybe yoga.
It’s the way the work gets done, but it’s not exactly a Tilt-A-Whirl of excitement for the observer. I shall work on having more colorful exploits as soon as this short story is done.
Just in case some of you guys didn’t see it before: It’s time to enter the Italian Souvenir Contest! You have a few days yet, so let me know what you’d like to see on this blog, and you could win a Murano glass ring I bought in Rome!