By: Debbie Ridpath Ohi,
on 5/26/2012
This is one of my favourite Neil Gaiman quotes. Thanks to Neil for his permission to illustrate it. :-)
You can hear the original quote in this video in which he offers advice for young writers:
And if you haven't already seen the inspirational commencement speech he gave at the University of the Arts:
For more info about Neil Gaiman and his work, visit http://www.neilgaiman.com/
By: Darcy Pattison,
on 3/7/2012
DearEditor.com is hosting a “Revision Week” in which she interviews various authors about their revision process.
Today, Robin LaFevers answers the question, “When it is sent to the printer. Seriously. I could fiddle and tweak forever. In fact, I have been known to tweak and edit on a printed copy of the book before doing a reading. But there is a point where you aren’t necessarily making it better—just making it different. Or so I try to tell myself.”
It’s true.
We could tweak, edit, fiddle until the earth ended and still not be satisfied. We are perfectionists.
But there are some definite points at which you should stop for a while, or stop for good.
By: Ginger Nielson,
on 3/6/2010
When I begin a project I like to sketch in pencil on rough drawing paper. I love the feel.
By: Darcy Pattison,
on 10/20/2009
Follow her NaNoWriMo progress at her blog, Catch a Star if It Falls.
For years I dreamed of being a published writer, but I didn’t actually write anything. I had plenty of excuses – college, a full-time job, marriage – but I couldn’t stop that yearning to create stories. NaNoWriMo changed everything.
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo is described a a writing contest with no rules, no judges and no awards; winning manuscripts are deleted. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. Of the 120,000 writers who start, about 18% complete the 50,000 words. There are special NaNoWriMo rules for schools that participate.
NaNoWriMo offered a firm deadline and a supportive community, but most of all, it taught me discipline. If I could write 2,000-words-a-day during a November, I could do it all year long. If I dared to post excerpts of my novels-in-progress, I could work up the nerve to submit my work to agents and editors. But it’s been a gradual process, and it reflects my personal maturity as well as the maturity of my writing.
Too afraid to start a work from scratch, instead I wrote a fictionalized autobiographical piece about a disastrous family trip that took place when I was ten. About a week into the November, I posted on the NaNoWriMo forums and declared myself a failure. I was working ten-hour shifts four nights a week, and I was far too tired to write when I got home. My fellow writers encouraged me to keep going. I did. I forced myself to type 5,000-7,000 words on each of my nights off and I made my goal.
I dove into my first original novel effort about a ghostly unicorn, an abused girl, and selkies. No outline, no real plot. I felt tremendously proud of achieving my 50,000-words, but when I re-read my work a few months later, and I was stunned to find it made little sense and my heroine had zero personality. Ouch.
My husband was on full naval deployment and I was entering my second trimester of pregnancy. Writing was a bit tricky since I felt nauseous if I sat at the computer for more than thirty minutes at a time. I somehow fulfilled my 50,000-word goal for MOUSE, and the novel wasn’t even close to completion.
With my husband gone again, an infant crawling underfoot, and under the burden of constant fatigue, I resolved to finish MOUSE. But when my husband returned home partway through the month, I stopped writing at 38,000 words. I didn’t have the energy to walk to the mailbox, much less type.
I was not going to fail again. I did most of my writing via a laptop while my son watched his two favorite TV shows – Sesame Street and The Price Is Right. The story wasn’t done when we went on a Thanksgiving trip to California, so I brought the laptop along and finished the novel at my parents’ house. I did it. For the first time, I felt I had something that might be publishable.
Queries for MOUSE led to agent rejections, but I wasn’t giving up on the dream. THE LOCKED DOOR followed the cross-dimensional adventures of a disillusioned Navy wife. I finished my 50,000 words on November 19th, and then completed the novel in January. I learned my lesson: now I was going to write and edit all year long, not just in November.
After the concept for NORMAL came to me in a dream, I knew this plot would mean trouble. I began researching in May and read and bookmarked my way through five books on anatomy and emergency medicine. Full chapter outlines and character biographies guided my writing, and my word count exploded. In twenty-four days I churned out 74,000-words on my superhero urban fantasy, NORMAL. I finished writing the novel in January and February, and after receiving critical professional feedback, rewrote the entire thing in autumn 2009.
I intend to start on a sequel to NORMAL. I may be a slow learner, but I’m getting better every year.
What have I learned from slogging through this masochistic ritual
every year since 2002?
The tears, carpal tunnel, and sleep deprivation are worth the effort. Nothing compares to seeing that completed progress bar on the NaNoWriMo site. “I wrote a novel. I did it. I made the time. I’m an author.” Once you experience that high, you’ll understand why suckers like me keep coming back every year.
Related posts:
By: Megan,
on 2/17/2009
David Bach is the best-selling author of the eight books in the Finish Rich series as
well as Fight for Your Money and The Automatic Millionaire. In his latest book, The Finish Rich Dictionary, Bach defines 1001 essential financial terms and provides 10 essays packed with financial advice ranging from skipping your morning latte to avoiding common money mistakes. Below, we’ve excerpted Bach’s steps for creating a financial plan that will really work.
By: Megan,
on 2/3/2009
David Bach is the best-selling author of the eight books in the Finish Rich
series as well as Fight for Your Money and The Automatic Millionaire. In the latest book in the Finish Rich series, The Finish Rich Dictionary, Bach defines 1001 essential financial terms and provides 10 helpful essays with topics ranging from understanding a credit score to planning for retirement. Below we have excerpted five of Bach’s ten most interesting money mistakes people make.
Mistake #1: Having a 30-year mortgage.
A typical 30-year mortgage at 8 percent inflates the real cost of a $250,000 home to more that $666,000. If you paid off your mortgage in 15 years, the total cost of your house would come to just under $493,000. That’s nearly $168,000 less than it would have been with a 30-year mortgage.
Make a small extra payment each month or fork over a larger lump sum at the end of the year. By making an extra 10-percent payment each month and then adding an extra month’s payment at the end of the year, for example, you can pay off your 30-year mortgage in about 18 years.
Mistake #2: Waiting to buy a house.
When you own your own home, you are building equity for yourself. When you rent, you are building someone else’s equity.
The number-one reason people put off buying a home is because they think they can’t afford it. But you don’t need tens of thousands of dollars in the bank for a down payment. All lenders will provide 75 percent of the purchase price of your house or condominium, and many banks will lend as much as 95 percent.
You can probably get a substantial home for the equivalent of your current rental payment. Say you pay $2,000 a month in rent. For that kind of money, you could get a $250,000 mortgage. In most of the country, $250,000 can buy you a lot of house.
Mistake #3: Putting Off Saving for Retirement
Almost 95 percent of Americans age 65 or older have an income of less than $25,000 a year. That means only 5 percent of us are in a position of financial security, much less comfort, when we reach our so-called golden years.
The best way to get started saving for retirement is to arrange to have your monthly contribution either deducted directly from your paycheck or automatically transferred from your checking account each month. If you’re not yet using your retirement account at work, go in to the office and sign up for your plan today. Make it a goal to save 10 percent or more of your gross income. If you can’t imagine saving 10 percent, start with 3 percent and make it a goal to increase that amount by a small percentage every month (you’ll barely feel it). By the end of the year, you’ll be contributing the maximum allowable amount to your retirement account at work.
Mistake #4: Paying too much in taxes.
When you are building an investment portfolio, it is absolutely imperative that you take into consideration your potential tax liability. Financial advisers call this “looking for the real rate of return.” The more you seek to minimize your taxes when investing, the more money you’ll keep. Start by making it a goal to fully invest in your 401(k) plan or retirement plan at work. No plan at work? Make sure you use an IRA account. Once you’ve maxed out your retirement accounts, look to investments that grow tax-free (like tax-free bonds).
Mistake #5: Giving Up.
People often make a financial mistake, get bad advice, and then give up on their dream of financial security. Don’t let this happen to you.
Yes, you should be careful, but don’t become overcautious. By learning to avoid the common pitfalls investors make, you can minimize your risk and put yourself on the road to financial security. The biggest mistake you can make is to not become an investor.
人類最大的悲劇不是死亡，而是沒有掌握有意義的人生........................................
I just love fresh, raw sketches they have an energy that finsihed pieces just dont have- I love looking at the sketches of the old masters- I was at the Getty in LA and pulled all my non artist family and friends over to show them that "hey! even Leonardo doesn't get his hands just right the first time- but boy were those sketches gorgeous- if I ever could collect art- I would buy the pages of sketch books before a finished piece-
I love sketches too, Julia. There is a freedom there that cannot be duplicated. I do think, however that the freedom returns in the Painting of the subject.
Creating a more detailed sketch just before painting allows me to work quicker and smarter in the final stage. That is where more wonderful things happen.
Just one paint stroke can open up a whole new approach to an illustration or a character.
I have been known to create a whole dress from the inspriation of one button. *:)