SQUUEEEEEE!!!

[timepiececlock]

The frelling cool sabrinanymph was so sweet that she decided to make me two Legolas icons on a whim, and she didn't even like LOTR much. But she made me them anyway, out of the blue and just to be nice. And I'm touched. Also, squealing the Legolust!

Wheee! B-day in five days! Well... technically 4 days, and 9 hours and 2 minutes.


::all smiles::

IN gaimonblog, the LJ link to his online blog, writer Neil Gaimon said this tonight, which I'm paying close attention to as it pinpoints many of my own insecurity about my writing:

A fan asked:
The phrase 'only write what you know' is continually being drummed into my head by my Creative Writing tutors at University. It's my final year and we have to write 7000 words of publishable quality. I've only just turned 20. I don't know anything. And on an even worse note, I have days when I *think* I know everything. How am I supposed to write when I know nothing and everything, and only have a few months in which to figure it all out?
-Reen

Gaimon's response:

Only write what you know is very good advice. I do my best to stick to it. I wrote about gods and dreams and America because I knew about them. And I wrote about what it's like to wander into Faerie because I knew about that. I wrote about living underneath London because I knew about that too. And I put people into the stories because I knew them: the ones with pumpkins for heads, and the serial killers with eyes for teeth, and the little chocolate people filled with raspberry cream and the rest of them.

You've had twenty years of living, and dreaming. You probably have a fair idea of what it's like to experience emotions, and to go places, and to do things, and to change. You've wondered about things you don't know. You've guessed. You've hoped. You've probably lied -- similar skills to those you'll have used in convincing a teacher that you actually did do your homework, but it was stolen by an escaped convict dressed as a nun will come in useful in writing fiction. Ditto for the skills involved in writing a passing grade essay on something you know absolutely nothing about.

And you don't figure it all out before you start writing. You figure it out while you're writing. Or you fail to figure it out; that's allowed too.

Don't worry about "publishable quality". Just say what you have to say as clearly as you can, and try to enjoy yourself while writing it. Start somewhere, finish somewhere, surprise yourself. And 7000 words honestly isn't really that much writing: a page is about 300 words. If you only write a page a day, you'll have 7000 words in a mere 21 days. And if it really really really really sucks, you'll still have time to write a completely different 7000 words.

(The above owes not a little to Ursula K LeGuin, who I would have quoted directly except the sodding journal isn't loading properly and neither are the archives. The observation that if you just write 300 words a day you have a novel in a year was Stephen King's.)

***

Comments

[sabrinanymph.livejournal.com]

I just finished reading that entry too. As I've gotten older and looked at different genres, I've come to the conclusion that write what you know, amounts as much to 'emotions you've felt' as it does actual happenings. Cause who really knows about talking to a Unicorn or aliens or whatever? And of course, there's observation... you watch people around you and you will learn new insight into new emotions perhaps without even having felt them yourselves.

There's this new(? might not be new) debate in children's literature that schools should only carry multicultural books that were written by a person from that culture, with the logic that only a person from that culture can actually know what it's like. That's the logic of saying that men should only write books with male characters because they can't write females and women should only write female characters cause they don't know what its like to me men.

So... long story short? Don't particularly agree with 'write what you know', and I think what you 'know' can be alot more than what you may have personally experienced.

But, yes, I totally hear you on insecurities about writing. I've got those all the time!

And I'm so glad you like your icon!!

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

So... long story short? Don't particularly agree with 'write what you know', and I think what you 'know' can be alot more than what you may have personally experienced.

I agree with that-- that it's mre your total mental & emotional experiences rather than just your physical/tangible experiences that you can draw from. :)