writerjenn

Artist a. fortis of Finding Wonderland has done a cartoon series called "The 7 Stages of Rejection." Now, I know we writers are supposed to pretend we're so cool, rejection never happens to us.  Ha!  The fact is, it's just part of the long apprenticeship, an acknowledged occupational hazard.  If you want to laugh about it, follow the link here.  One note: they're posted in reverse order, so I recommend scrolling down to the bottom first and following the stages upward.

Today's post covers ground from the serious to the silly, so fasten your seatbelts.

If you're feeling activistic, here are a couple of opportunities floating around the cybersphere.

To scratch your let's-fight-book-banning itch, or to speak up for a great book:
John Green, author of LOOKING FOR ALASKA and AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES, is asking for support in fighting a challenge to the marvelous LOOKING FOR ALASKA. Click on the link to see the full info.

Laurie Halse Anderson has long been blogging about the importance of running to her writing life. Now the author of SPEAK, TWISTED, and other great books is running to fight cancer as well, by looking for half-marathon sponsors to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Follow the link if you're interested.

Switching gears from activism to writing:

There's a fascinating discussion of beginnings over at Nathan Bransford's blog. I recommend reading not only the post, but the comments that follow it, for some great perspectives on what the first page of a work should do. How much action do you need? What about introducing the characters? Is there such a thing as starting off with too much of a bang? Follow the link to read and/or chime in.

And now for some comic relief:

Toon Thursday this week at Finding Wonderland features a toon based on one of my suggestions, hilariously brought to life by a. fortis. The ferret thing all started with a plagiarism controversy in which a romance writer was alleged to have dropped whole chunks of scholarly material about ferrets into a romance novel. Specifically, the romance novel's main characters engage in a long discourse about ferrets after first engaging in an act of unbridled passion. Now, I had never thought of ferrets as suitable material for pillow talk, and I still don't know that I do, but the whole story has certainly served as fodder for some wonderful cartoons.

Finally, thanks for the supportive comments about my difficulty with my current WIP. I've been working away at it, and it's still too early and I'm too superstitious to give a final verdict on how it has gone, so I'll just say I'm proceeding on. 

Must take a brief break from thinking about plot to post this link, and revisit the idea of being illustrated. As promised, the magical a. fortis at Finding Wonderland has illustrated my answer to the "Where do you get your ideas?" question. Check it out and see if you get your ideas from the same place!

Doris Lessing may have edged me out for the Nobel Prize for Literature (a real squeaker of a contest there, you may be sure), but I have the honor of being one of the winners in the "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?" contest at Finding Wonderland, which I entered under my stage name of liquidambar.   Alas, I am not the Grand Prize winner, but I still get to see a. fortis immortalize my smart-alecky answer in a cartoon. Which brings up an idea for my own blog here: what it's like for writers to have their work illustrated. Tune in soon for that post, which I am not going to write tonight, since I have spent most of the day sitting in/on airports, planes, train stations, trains, and automobiles, including some really memorable moments (which felt like hours) flying in circles over Pennsylvania.