Wednesday 5 November 2008

A memory lingers



The door slammed and footsteps faded. On the radio the world without us was playing, our song; the song I died to.

‘I don’t like this room, it’s too faded. Rip it out but keep the period radio,’ Mary says ticking her list.

I remain for footsteps and our song.

The secret to being a writer is that you have to write

ChooseInteresting New Scientist article(Article Preview How to be a genius 15 September 2006) that reveals what a genius is. Get down to around 10 years of hard work, and have a mentor to inspire you and you will get the intuitive insights that others call genius

The good/bad news for all us budding writers is write, write and write! See Nanowrimo to get started. In short write a book in 30 days and enter the annual competition of the National Novel Writing Month. This is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

Only nine more years and you are made.