Saturday, October 15, 2011

looking for wiggles


Um.

Now I am doing something else, too. I have been invited to contribute to an anthology coming out next fall (2012) from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

I am happy about this. The project sounds really fun, and I think it will be something kids and schools will really get into.

That means next fall, I will have three things coming out: The Marbury Lens (paperback), Passenger (the sequel to The Marbury Lens), and this anthology, which I will tell more about at some point in the future.

I've been pretty down on the whole writing thing this week, which is why I only posted a picture yesterday.

This week, I've been thinking quite a bit about being a writer, and how much I suck at it.

Let me make this clear: When it comes to writing, I think I am pretty good. I have some chops. I love/hate the writing part of what I do. It's the being a writer part where I am an absolute failure.

You know what I mean.

Some people want to be writers, and they may even end up pretty accomplished at being writers, but they do not know how to write.

I can't tell anyone how to write.

Lots of people can tell you how to be a writer.

I do not listen to them because I think it is boring. I am a bad student when it comes to boring stuff, which is why I fail.

I envy people who are good at being writers.

Here is my way of being a writer: Have some horrible shit happen to you when you are a kid; then, in your young adult phase engage in reckless behavior that you will probably not live through because you really do not care about living or dying; read a lot of non-shitty books and throw the shitty ones across whatever room you are in; and, if you survive, one day, when you wake up in your adulthood and realize, holy shit, how did I not die yet? you can write it down when the words smack you in the face and force you to start spitting them out.

Why would anyone ever tell you to do that?

You're better off just downloading Scrivener, or shit like that.