Other writers
I enjoy looking through the websites of other writers. Tonight Steve Alten was being interviewed by Barbara Simpson on Coast to Coast AM. I would have liked to hear more about how he puts his books together, rather just about cool stuff he learned while doing research, but it was still pretty interesting. It was also... inspiring. Just what I need, since I haven't worked on my novel in a few days. Even now I am debating whether I can really work on that when I need to do the dishes instead.What was really inspirational about Steve's website was his story about how he was laid-off or fired from a meat-packing plant with a life-savings of less than fifty dollars. Within a few days he received a 7-figure, 2-book contract! He writes complex adult adventure novels so I don't delude myself that my simple middle grade novels could bring in that kind of money, but I still feel encouraged by his story of success.
Being there
Earlier tonight I went downriver to write at a wide place in the road near the river. I was writing in my journal - and realized that when I'm in a place like that - I tend to write more location description, and less introspection. I keep that journal mainly for introspection, but then imagine that eventually I might put some of this pretty descriptive prose into one of my novels, so I keep writing it.Example:
"I have been to this place before - I call it the 'one-tree-turnout' - just a mile or two southwest of home. There's rapids and then a huge stone outcropping in the water -- such a place could have been near the homestead of my little River Girl [This is referring to a partly-written novel that is currently gathering dust.]
"If she lived in a cabin on the other side of the river here - it has a clean, nice, easy slope down to the Klamath, some nice grassy-bushy area with sand, and then thousands of rocks that the Klamath tossed aside back when it used to be a glacier, perhaps, for these rocks, polished by the patience of God's time, bear the marks of scrapings and power that existed before recorded history.
"Then there's the constant song of the river-dance throwing itself at boulders in the rapids, its white-water jumping up and laughing, then rolling off to play some more, all the while singing, singing as time and gravity draw it ever nearer to the sea. Slowly the sky darkens and here I remain on a rock on a cliff in a rugged vale."
This stuff just goes on and on - there's no end to the descriptive force of nature when you're sitting right in it. I plan, when I re-write my Pravado novel, to go to the beach and experience the sand and fresh air and surf while I'm writing.
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