Fri 15 Jun 2012
Book burning party
Posted by PJ under books, libraries, video
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Archive for June, 2012
Monthly Archive
Fri 15 Jun 2012
Clubbing
Posted by PJ under inspiration, quote of the day, writing
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Random quote of the day:
“Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.”
—Jack London, “Getting Into Print,†in Practical Authorship, ed. James Knapp Reeve, 1905
This quote is often paraphrased as, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Thu 14 Jun 2012
Dive in
Posted by PJ under action and activism, imagination, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:
“Doing is a quantum leap from imagining.”
—Barbara Sher, I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Wed 13 Jun 2012
Why critiques are like funhouses, except when they’re like black matter and mixed metaphors
Posted by PJ under critiques, it's curmudgeon time, metaphors, novels, the rules, writing
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So, here I am reading a book I’m enjoying immensely. I come upon a chapter in which the writer does something that I know, positively, I have told some young writers in my capacity as a critiquer to never do—switching POV late in a book to one not encountered before. Hey, I’ve been told not to do that myself. The thing is, it works perfectly in this book. As a reader coming upon that shift, I could give a hairy pontiff’s left ear whether the writer has changed POV. I want the information it can give me, I want to know what happens next. And in that moment of realization a great crap paper tide of old critiques fluttered behind me and a voice called across the abyss as it filled with the perfidy of my Writing Thoughts, It doesn’t really matter what you’re supposed to do. The only thing that matters is if you can make what you do work.
Not the first time I’ve had that thought, but it came home especially strong to me today. It may have something to do with rereading one of my older novels—a shuddering experience if ever there is one.
Experience. That’s the key word. The perfidy mentioned above is all about the difference between critiques based on experience (and maybe instinct) and those based on regurgitation. “The Rules” only matter if the story doesn’t work. And here’s the other thing, even if a beta reader or critquer or critic says the story doesn’t work, it still might not matter. That “doesn’t work” can be a question of individual taste, or prejudice, or the sour feeling left in the reader’s stomach by the cafeteria food. If your own gut—not the one turning sour—tells you that something is right, you need to stick by it.
I’m not saying we writers have a magic I’m A Genius Don’t Bother Me With Your Tiny Opinions card. No. If enough people tell you that something isn’t working, you should probably pay attention to that. Be very sure that your gut is talking, telling you a thing is right, and not some fractured corner of your ego.
And even as I’m typing that last paragraph, I’m thinking “Regurgitated Wisdom.” (Because, really, haven’t you heard the one about “if enough people” ad nauseam?) In this case, it happens to be regurgitated with a side of experience, so maybe it’s not total bullshit. Maybe I do sort of know what I’m talking about in this particular instance, as opposed to some of the half-assed critiques I have offered up over the years.
But you never know. Reading my old stuff and realizing how deluded I was about the quality of that work has me stumbling through a funhouse of fractured and distorted opinion. What do I really know?
This is an existential question and has no real answer. The question is the black matter holding the universe together like invisible glue. It is self-contained and complete and needs no critique to make it whole. Sufficient unto the day is the question thereof.
Wed 13 Jun 2012
Spiritual
Posted by PJ under quote of the day, religion, spirituality
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Random quote of the day:
“To be spiritual…is not to be tied into religious dogma or ideology or a belief system. I think belief is a cover up for insecurity. The most fervent believers are fundamentalists, and you know what a mess they’ve made of the world…The universe is set up for maximum diversity.”
—Deepak Chopra, Iconoclasts
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Tue 12 Jun 2012
Greening
Posted by PJ under quote of the day, what the living do
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Random quote of the day:
“I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.”
—Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Mon 11 Jun 2012
Some things, even in the world of weird, are predictable
Posted by PJ under meme
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So, pjthompson, your LiveJournal reveals…
You are… 2% unique (blame, for example, your interest in the egress), 27% peculiar, 40% interesting, 16% normal and 14% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy writing). When it comes to friends you are popular. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are keen to please. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.
Your overall weirdness is: 39
(The average level of weirdness is: 28.
You are weirder than 79% of other LJers.)
Mon 11 Jun 2012
Crazy for loving neu(trinos)
Posted by PJ under creativity, physics, quote of the day, science
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Random quote of the day:
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“We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.”
—Niels Bohr to Wolfgang Pauli regarding the Heisenberg-Pauli nonlinear theory of elementary particles, quoted in Symposisum on Basic Research by Dael Lee Wolfle
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Fri 8 Jun 2012
Imaginary
Posted by PJ under imagination, quote of the day
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Random quote of the day:
“What is now proved was once only imagin’d.”
—William Blake, “Proverbs of Hell,†The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
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Disclaimer:Â The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
Thu 7 Jun 2012
The meme from everyone
Posted by PJ under meme, novels, page meme, writing
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The rules:


1. Go to page 77 (or 7th) of your current ms

2. Go to line 7

3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
The last time this was going around I was slowly, painfully working on Shivery Bones and I still am (sorry to say). I refuse to post the same excerpt, so I went back to the novel I was working on before that, Carmina. There’s no page 77, so here’s page 7. Carmina and Susan are speaking. Carmina is the one speaking that first line.
“Do you realize how rare it is for anyone to confront their own demons?”
“No. I confronted mine, and Jeremy confronted his, but I can’t speak for anyone else.”
“I can.” All humor drained from her voice and face. “I don’t just make them see and feel what they’d rather not when I sing, you know. I see and feel it along with them.”
“How awful!” Susan had been an empath all her life, buffeted by the unguarded emotions of others, and sometimes their thoughts. “Why do you keep singing?”
Carmina’s vivid eyes grew bleak, her face exhausted. “I can’t help myself, darling. I am compelled whether I wish it or not.”
