Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, authors of Writing the Other, among other books, will be guest-blogging this week on Booklifenow. Please help welcome them–I think you’ll find their posts fascinating.
Here’s more about both writers…
Living Your Booklife
Tamara Sellman | 3 March 2010
Everything I’ve learned about writing this year I’ve relearned by watching the Olympics [series Part Two]
On Monday, I brought up some thoughts inspired by 10 days spent watching the recent winter Olympics in Vancouver on TV. Here are two more lessons I culled which offer relevance and perspective for writers:
◊ Expect to earn your medals every time.
Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis kinda blew it in Torino. She hotdogged her way to a second place in women’s snowboard cross when she had the gold medal practically around her neck on that last slope.
Jacobellis has had to live that down for the last 4 years and went to Vancouver hoping to redeem herself. It didn’t quite happen: this year, (more…)
Jeff VanderMeer | 28 February 2010
Welcome Tamara Kaye Sellman, This Week’s Guest Blogger
From time to time we’ll have guest bloggers here at Booklifenow during 2010. This next week, Tamara Kaye Sellman will be blogging. Be sure to stop by for her perspective on writing, the writing life, and much more!
If you’re not familiar with Sellman, here’s a short overview…
Jeff VanderMeer | 9 February 2010
Relinquish All Writing Fetishes: When Should You Hold Onto Them?
In Booklife I have a section on relinquishing all fetishes, which is another way of saying don’t let having to use a fancy pen or special desk get in the way of writing. As I mention in the book I’ve learned to write anywhere at any time, and to never stifle my imagination just because I’m not in the ideal writing situation.
I give this advice in the book because we most commonly procrastinate and find reasons not to write. But the fact is some “fetishes” actually aid our creativity.
Case in point—the photograph above. On the left is a leather-bound, hand-made writing pad I bought in Victoria on Vancouver Island while on my honeymoon. I’d had it in the closet in my office ever since then, more than seven years. Every time I pulled it out, I put it back in the closet again. The thing just seemed so nice, so opulent, that I couldn’t imagine writing in it. And yet I’d bought it because it was tantalizing–it suggested adventures I’d never write about in any other journal.
Well, this past week I finally found the perfect use for it. The paper inside is perfect for writing, but also perfect for art. I’ve started a rather odd story that includes extensive illustrations, and no other writing pad I have gives me the same sensation of effortless motion while both writing and drawing. Even the odd size of it helps, because it better accommodates the art and the words. Suddenly, everything about this impulse purchase that turned me off is helping me get into the groove of writing, energizing me, and recharging my imagination.
Meanwhile, next to it in the photograph is a plain black Moleskine notebook. In it, I’ve written several book reviews and a new short story–a very conventional, Southern Gothic-style story. The utilitarian look and feel of the notebook seems to help me keep focused and on task. I could no more write the reviews and the Southern Gothic story in the opulent oversized writing journal as I could create the illustrated strange story in the Moleskine. Each is perfect for its particular purpose.
So my question to you, because I’m curious, is: Have you had similar experiences with your writing tools, your writing surfaces, your writing life?
Jeff VanderMeer | 4 January 2010
Booklife: Seven Points to Consider When Submitting Short Fiction
The blogosphere saw a lot of discussion during late 2009 about short fiction submissions practices. My main concern with the discussion as it existed was a lack of strategic planning when it came to submitting short fiction. Which is to say, for many writers a top-down approach of submitting to the highest paying and most visible markets may make sense. But that there are good reasons to develop more nuanced approaches. Here, then, are seven points to consider when thinking about the submission of short fiction. (In altered form, the following post originally appeared in the comments thread on my blog, on a guest post by Jason Sanford.)
Also, no advice about short fiction markets is of any use to you if you don’t write a damn good story first. This may seem obvious, but I see far too many writers neglecting their craft by churning out stories at a ferocious rate. In this social media age, your mantra should be: SLOW DOWN. Take the time to edit. Put that story away for a couple of weeks after you do the draft. If you find that your second draft is pretty much the same as your first, you might not’ve seen the story’s full potential.
Jeff VanderMeer | 25 December 2009
Booklife/Jeff VanderMeer Lecture at MIT, Boston
One of the more interesting gigs on my five-week book tour was getting to go to MIT and lecture about Booklife at their Comparative Media Studies center. We had a big audience, and Kevin Smokler of Booktour.com was there to talk a little as well and then discuss relevant issues with me. Many thanks to Geoffrey Long for setting up the event.
MIT Booklife lecture podcast link.
(Matt Staggs’ Friday links post will return next week.)
Jeff VanderMeer | 2 December 2009
Booklife Essentials: Chasing Experience? An Interview with Nathan Ballingrud
Nathan Ballingrud is a remarkable short fiction writer who has won the Shirley Jackson Award and had his work reprinted in year’s best anthologies. I first met him at the Clarion Writers Workshop in 1992. Pertinent to our discussion of “Chasing Experience,” I remember that the first day he locked himself in his dorm room and
typed furiously for a couple of hours. Suitably intimidated, we all thought Nathan was incredibly committed to his art. But, as he told me many years later, in fact he wasn’t typing anything: he was just nervous about meeting the other writers attending the workshop. Although Nathan talks about experience in the context of “genre” writers, I believe what he says is relevant to all writers.
(This week, by the way, I’m in the Carolinas speaking at Wofford College, Malaprops, and a Barnes & Noble in Burlington. Check out the full schedule for details.)
Jeff VanderMeer | 11 November 2009
Revitalizing Creativity in Your Private Booklife
(Never underestimate the power of a change of scenery to revitalize your creativity, either. Photo by Jeremy Tolbert.)
Sometimes, no matter your best efforts, you’ll find yourself stuck in a rut, bored with your work and yourself. At such times, here are a few techniques that may nudge or jolt you out of that mood.
