Gearing up to bleed…

I just ordered myself a new Lamy Safari Fountain Pen in shiny black (which makes me think of Snape) and a bottle of Noodler’s Antietam Red Ink (which makes me think of Snape).

What, obsession much?

I’m hoping that bleeding all over my ms (perhaps even with caustic, snide remarks) will inspire me, in a girding my loins sort of way.

And now, to finish the rough draft.

This could not come as a surprise…

That I’m taking a challenge to see how many British authors I read in 2010!

The Rules:

1. Anyone can join. You don’t need a blog to participate.

2. There are four levels:

• “Put The Kettle On” – Read 2 Typically British novels.

• “Gordon Bennett” – Read 4 Typically British novels.

• “Bob’s Your Uncle” – Read 6 Typically British novels.

• “Cream Crackered” – Read 8 Typically British novels.

3. Any book format counts. Must be fiction not non-fiction.

4. You don’t have to select your books ahead of time, you can just add them as you go. Also if you do list them upfront then you can change them, nothing is set in stone!

5. The books you choose can crossover into other challenges.

6. If you decide to participate in this challenge please use the link I have set up below with the button to post on your sidebar, this way others can find their way back to this post and join in the fun.

7. If you decide to join this challenge be sure to create a post telling others, please make sure you add a link back to this post so others can join in.

8. There will be a place for you to link your reviews, but this is optional.

9. Obviously only British authors count!

~~~~^*^~~~~

The only question is, how long will it take me to get to 8?  (Must check current reading list to see how many I might have already read…)

Okay, have read several books but this is the only one by a British author so far:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader’s Circle)

I thought it would be quaint and twee and wasn’t in the mood, but then I read the sample chapter on my Kindle and decided I wanted to go ahead and take the plunge.  It is more than quaint and twee, even though it has that in spades. In short, I liked it very much.  Maybe 4 out of 5 stars.

Marvel does Austen.

I now have the original and the miniseries, Bridget Jones’s Diary and DVD , the Bollywood version, and even Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

How could I not get the graphic novel?

No joke. Pride and Prejudice, the graphic novel, rocks. The images are tres cool, and it’s just fun. Hardcover, pretty, fun. I’m kind of in love with it.

What’s not to love?

This might make one think I have an obsession.

One would be wrong.

Well, I didn’t think I did.

Ahem.

I might be wrong.

So. Writing about writing.

I was reminded gently this week that some people do like to see me natter on about writing.

Who knew?

Or at least, about moleskines.

Well, let me natter a bit about process. It may or may not result in nattering about moleskines, but if not, never fear, I will natter about them again later.

My process is different with this book. This scares me, but I am using this new process and only time will tell if it works.

In the past, I was a mood writer.  I had to work myself into it, into that moment of passion, of anger, of agony, of grocery shopping boredom or getaway-riding terror.  I’d mutter and pace and growl a lot, cuss even more, and finally work up a head of steam and the words would pour out.

When I was under a deadline, such things happened faster, daily, sometimes several times a day, because adrenaline was running and I was riding that tide. Otherwise, I’d write until I’d exhausted my muse’s connection and then I’d lay off, sometimes for days, before the next bit came.

And all in all, it worked.

This time, however, I am doing something different. I’m writing daily. I’m keeping track of my words per day, writing daily at least five days a week.  Yes there have been times when the muse wasn’t there.  There have been weeks when I didn’t write much, though I don’t think there were more than a couple when I didn’t write at all, and those were when I was ill.

Writing daily and watching the words is a very different experience.  It means sometimes I’m flying on hope, not quite feeling it, uncertain that I’m anywhere near the mark, and writing anyway because I need those words to justify my work for the day.

Sometimes I worry that when I finish this draft it will be a steaming pile of excrement.

But then toni says things like:

Oh, I get that–I get that fear. Believe me, I do. And I understand why it’s there, because that method did work. That just doesn’t meant that this one won’t *also* work–it’ll just feel different. But my point is that your skills are not subject to your muse. Your skills are always there, and if you look at it later and it doesn’t build to the crescendo you want, you’ll have (a) recognized it and (b) be able to go in and fix.

Oh.

You mean, I don’t have to have just one process. There might be more than one that works.

I teach this all the time, and I even teach, “The process that works on one book may not work on the next.”

I stand in front of people and say that all the damned time.

But I have to have somebody else say that to me, to remind me, damn it.

That just ain’t right.

But it’s better than if nobody said it and I was still wandering and muttering and cussing a lot.

Wait.

I still do that.

Moving on…

So when she says:

Just write the damned thing. It will be fine.

I guess that’s what I must do. And it will be.

[next up (unless a different shiny topic leaps into my line of sight): tips for writing words daily, or how to avoid the thesaurus and find your bliss with brackets and holes]

Also, I just ordered this shirt, because, really?  It speaks the truth.

I got it here.

More Kindle

On a writer’s yahoo list recently we discussed the idea of naming inanimate devices. My Honda Element is Punkin but I don’t usually refer to her as anything but “the Element.” I guess I’m not inclined to name things much, though I always think it’s a cool idea. My first Mac was creatively named “Mac” and they all have been since.

In high school my friend had a green Rambler station wagon that her family called the Green Demon:

[photo source: wikimedia commons]

Erm, I’m rambling. Rambling. Get it? Oh, never mind.  (My first car was a Rambler, too. Neither my friend nor I had cool parents, it’s clear.)

So, anyway, I’m on my way to get my driver’s license renewed and will be standing in line for a long time, I fear, and am having another one of those moments when I just want to grin like an idiot. I’ll be standing in line reading my Kindle and if I finish the book I’m reading right now (The Queen’s Bastard (The Inheritors’ Cycle, Book 1)) I don’t have to have another book in my shoulder bag ready to go, because having a Kindle is like having a freaking library that weighs next to nothing. I don’t even have to have the next book I want to read chosen and downloaded.

I can stand there in line and either browse through the sample chapters I’ve already downloaded, or surf through Amazon’s Kindle store, and “click” and buy another book.

Standing there in line at the DPS.

And in seconds, it will be waiting for me to read.

I thought about calling my Kindle “Carnegie,” after the gorgeous old Carnegie Libraries, because it is a library in my hands.

I have a feeling, though, I should call her “My Dealer.”

This book habit could get expensive.

Have a good Wednesday.

Send aid to Haiti.

Go Cowboys!