Thursday, January 09, 2014

excuse me, aren't you supposed to be writing?



Okay, okay. This will be a quick one, I promise. I'm just dropping off some quotes from Laini's blog before I dash.

Laini on reading:
... readers inhabit fiction. We experience novels from the inside, and they change us.
This is just so true. There are some books so lovely I just want to crawl inside them and live there. 


Like that!

And this one, back when she first started on Daughter of Smoke and Bone (THREE MORE MONTHS TO DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS, GUYS!!!):

I had the most beautiful, brilliant, joyous writing day yesterday! Every word was sheer fun. The air crackled with ideas so that my hair got static and stood on end. A shimmering window opened in the air and butterflies flew in. A polite goblin brought me a key on a golden pillow. I don't know what it opens yet, but I'm sure it's something awesome."

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My god, I am OBSESSED with her prose. O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D. Such pretty imagery! Ugh, what goes on in that wonderful, brilliant mind of hers that she can so easily create such beautiful writing that ignites the imagination? Can I inhale the same air as her? Read the same books, look at the same art, go to the same places? (She doesn't really watch TV.) 

This is probably the reason why I read her blog. 

Not just because her tone is so conversational and upbeat and engaging. 

Not just because I love reading about her lovely, loving family and her glamorous writer's life (book tours! book parties! readings! award ceremonies! talks!).

But because I want to know the sort of life she leads so that I can, in my own meagre way, expose myself to the influences, the sights and sounds, that she is exposed to. So that I can somehow translate that into my writing like how she has translated that into her writing, in some way (although given how bright and happy everything in her life is, her prose is incongruously dark and dramatic.)

Okay, I should probably tone this down a notch. I'm starting to sound like a creepy stalker.

Speaking of toning it down, here's someone else who needs to calm down.




And something from Laini on keeping the love alive:
I'm sure you've been there on the first day with a new idea. Like a relationship, a book will not always maintain that same level of infatuation, but hopefully like a relationship it can sustain deep affection and attraction and commitment. Love.

It's true. Everything is always so much fun at the beginning. The mood is fresh and new, and there a song that constantly plays in your head as you craft your scenes and develop your characters. It's all skip-hop and twinkly toes and flower petals in the air, until you realise you need to develop some conflict and everything starts to get complicated - or worse, convoluted - and what do you know, you're halfway through the story!

That, my friends, is when the mid-story goblin starts his awful cackle, rubbing his hands with unbridled glee.

No. You are not getting me this time, you little sucker.

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Good question, Castiel. What am I doing blogging so often when I should be writing?! 

You know what I'm really doing? Procrastinating, that's what. Because blogging is much easier and doesn't deplete my brain juices as much as, say, WRITING A NOVEL, I'm hiding out here instead of working on bumping my word count as I ought to be doing.

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Don't judge me, Belle!

Okay okay. I think I've held this off long enough. Back to Neverland!

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