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Little pieces of paper
I have a couple of news items, before I get to today's episode of My Life as a Writer:
First, a book giveaway: Kate Messner is giving away an ARC of Judith Mammay's KNOWING JOSEPH, the story of a boy dealing with his autistic brother. For more details, follow the link.
Second, the Shrinking Violets are celebrating National Independent Booksellers Month (although frankly, they've gone international already, by featuring a bookstore in Toronto!). Every day this month, the Violets will feature a different indie bookstore. Besides Toronto, they've already hit Santa Barbara, CA, and Durango, CO, One of this month's stores is bound to be near you! You can celebrate by stopping in at the Shrinking Violets blog, nominating your own favorite indie, or (best of all) stopping in to your local indie.
In my last post, I referred to the pieces of paper that litter my desk with ideas about my WIPs. I must say, my blog readers have exhibited very little faith that anyone besides me could decipher them. Handwriting issues aside, allow me to share some of these gems with you:
On slip of paper #1 (this is written on the back of a Trader Joe's dark chocolate candy wrapper):
Is the metric system poetic?
prot-jerky
C. re S. in car: People never know what the hell is really going on.
Slip of paper #2:
how to snake a drain
A. takes T. to ER
good + evil
So you see, these are entirely clear. I will tell you they refer to different WIPs, and I have shortened the characters' names to initials. It's very likely the characters' names will change anyway. The line about the metric system has nothing to do with either WIP; I was just thinking that you can use measurements such as inches, yards, pounds, and miles in effective fiction writing, but most metric terms have a more formal, technical sound to them. Therefore, if the US ever finally goes metric, we may have to deal with this in our writing. You can have romantic tension when the characters are only an inch apart, but doesn't some of the romance drain out when they're "centimeters" apart? Or try these lines: "But I have promises to keep/and kilometers to go before I sleep . . ."
Anyway, I digress. I often do. Which is why I need little slips of paper to remind me of things I would otherwise forget.
First, a book giveaway: Kate Messner is giving away an ARC of Judith Mammay's KNOWING JOSEPH, the story of a boy dealing with his autistic brother. For more details, follow the link.
Second, the Shrinking Violets are celebrating National Independent Booksellers Month (although frankly, they've gone international already, by featuring a bookstore in Toronto!). Every day this month, the Violets will feature a different indie bookstore. Besides Toronto, they've already hit Santa Barbara, CA, and Durango, CO, One of this month's stores is bound to be near you! You can celebrate by stopping in at the Shrinking Violets blog, nominating your own favorite indie, or (best of all) stopping in to your local indie.
In my last post, I referred to the pieces of paper that litter my desk with ideas about my WIPs. I must say, my blog readers have exhibited very little faith that anyone besides me could decipher them. Handwriting issues aside, allow me to share some of these gems with you:
On slip of paper #1 (this is written on the back of a Trader Joe's dark chocolate candy wrapper):
Is the metric system poetic?
prot-jerky
C. re S. in car: People never know what the hell is really going on.
Slip of paper #2:
how to snake a drain
A. takes T. to ER
good + evil
So you see, these are entirely clear. I will tell you they refer to different WIPs, and I have shortened the characters' names to initials. It's very likely the characters' names will change anyway. The line about the metric system has nothing to do with either WIP; I was just thinking that you can use measurements such as inches, yards, pounds, and miles in effective fiction writing, but most metric terms have a more formal, technical sound to them. Therefore, if the US ever finally goes metric, we may have to deal with this in our writing. You can have romantic tension when the characters are only an inch apart, but doesn't some of the romance drain out when they're "centimeters" apart? Or try these lines: "But I have promises to keep/and kilometers to go before I sleep . . ."
Anyway, I digress. I often do. Which is why I need little slips of paper to remind me of things I would otherwise forget.