This sounds silly but it actually isn't. I have embarked on a quest for the perfect spring jacket a few months ago, and have encountered such monsters as the brainwashing to conform to consumerism, the lies of the marketing and the advertisement, the objectifying of women, the dogma of beauty, the discrimination according to body size, boob shape, ass shape, etc., poor craftsmanship, bad design, careless customer service, and finally, no notion that women might actually have a very specific idea about what they want—women are told what to wear, and if they don't like what they can buy, tough shit. There isn't anything else available.
Read MoreTUBE cover reveal!
It's here! It's done! It's ready for you to feast your eyes on and wonder what hellish hilarity it has inside! Because it has. I'm into revising Act 2 of TUBE, and I think by end of May I should be done with the whole thing.
I suppose I should ask you if you want your words to appear on the back of the back cover, as quotes. So I'm asking you. Let me know if you want to beta read the final draft and send me a quote or two. I don't guarantee that I'll pick your quote, but I might. It will be anonymous, in the section called "From readers," just like on my other books, unless you want your name listed there. Or, actually, do you think it'd be a great idea to list names? Thoughts?
Read MoreFinding a writing mentor and working together
I never actually looked for a writing mentor (who wants to stay anonymous, because, as he explained to me, he doesn't like to be bothered by people and prefers to live a quiet life—so I shall call him Basil Bee, or Vasya Pchelkin in Russian). We somehow found each other (on Twitter, of all places) and over time fell into the roles of a student (me) and a teacher (Pchelkin), and then it kind of went developing from there (we meet once a month or so, occasionally text and exchange emails).
I think when you're ready for a mentor, you'll find one.
Read MoreMy new writing process: I think I know what I'm doing
Lately writing feels more and more like a job. I get up, get my coffee, and sit down to do my job that I know how to do. It feels weird. It's new. I used to just wake up and start writing. You know, gleefully banging at the keys, hoping I know what I'm doing. Now it's different.
I plot every scene ahead of time, I read a chapter from a book on plotting, I decide on the conflict, on the scene goal, on the scene conflict, on the scene disaster, then I read my notes from the previous day, then I read an example of prose I like to emulate, then I plan out the scene (and all its turns and emotional shifts) in an Excel spreadsheet, and only after all of this do I begin writing. Which doesn't quite look like writing anymore, either. It's mostly thinking and speaking aloud one line until I get it right. It can take up to 30 times for me to repeat it. With dialogue it can take up to 50. So at the end of my new writing day I end up with 300-800 words, tops. On rare days (like today) I can get to 1,200. But the number of words no longer matters. What matters is, did I stay on track? Did the scene question get answered? Did every character play their role? Did the scene and the way the characters behaved fit into the act and into the overall story? So it's really like math, or like engineering.
Read MoreThings I read every day before writing
I have compiled a sort of a little help-guide for myself which I read every day before diving into writing. Then I thought, this would be cool to share with you, in case you were looking for a list like that. Or maybe you have a list of your own and could share it with me. I have pulled this from a ton of books I had read, so ask me questions if some of the terms sound unfamiliar. Depending on where you are in your writing career, you will either laugh at this (been there, done that) or feel like your brain is starting to smoke (I tried explaining this today to two non-writers who finally begged me to stop—it was like math, like programming, too complicated).
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