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Guest blogger - Michele Lee
Dec. 29th, 2009 12:12 pmRight, so I finally have my arse ... um, sorry, Dad ... myself in gear, and here is the final guest blogger for the AFTERLIFE Bag of Swag giveaway, Michele Lee! She's the author of the very sinister zombie novella, ROT, as well as a whole load of other dark, creepy fiction. I highly recommend you check out her story BLOODWALKER in the Read by Dawn anthology - it's awesome! Anyway, over to Michele.
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How Do You Do It?
I don't think my husband realizes how supportive he is some days. Take this guest blog, for example. I restarted it three times (this is the fourth try), trying humor, seriousness, and even a semi-high handed lecture and none felt right. So I asked him, “If you were a beginning or aspiring writer what would you want to know about writing or publishing?”
“How you do it,” he answered with an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, I'm not much help.”
But he is, again, unknowingly saying exactly what I need to hear. How do I do it? How do I, especially in this absolutely crazy last year, with housing trouble and multiple family crises, with job changes and complete schedule upheavals, how do I still manage to sit down and write?
Enthusiasm.
It starts with enthusiasm for stories themselves. Not just my stories, with all kinds of stories, all kinds of storytelling. I'm a reader, a member of the audience first, which goes a long way toward staying inspired since there's so much out there to be inspired with. The best writers, in my opinion, are those who love reading. The best writers have a basic love of language and love of the process of storytelling.
You have to love the unfolding of the story to weather bad books and hackneyed plots. Likewise you have to love the process of writing to weather the publishing world. You can't be in it for the publication, because ultimately you can't do much to control editor and agent “yes”es.
From the first spark of the idea, to the plotting and world building and watching the story unfold, even if you already know how it's going to end, or have an outline leading your way, you have to love every part of writing to keep your hope and determination alive in publishing.
Enthusiasm is what makes me sit down and put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, depending on the story). Enthusiasm for the story, or the character, or even just the scene or to use the research I've been doing, it's what gets me to forsake television and video games and other books and movies to play in my own world. It's what makes me want to make time to play in imaginary world when it would probably easier to play in the real world. Easier doesn't equal more satisfying.
Sometimes the enthusiasm wanes or it gets lost in all the other craziness of my life. Sometimes it's best to let myself rest. I like taking in other people's work, to see how they translated their inspiration and enthusiasm. And other times I find that all I need to get going on a project again is to get excited about it again.
So that's how I get through the crushing pressure of submissions and rejections. How do you do it?
Michele Lee writes horror, science fiction and fantasy from the relative safety of her haunted house in the oldest section of Louisville, Ky. When she isn't writing she reviews for The Fix, Monster Librarian, Dark Scribe and her own review blog, BookLove. When not thinking, reading or writing books she gardens and cares for her autistic son, precocious daughter and her #1 fan, her husband.
http://www.michelelee.net/
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So that's it! My guest bloggers have blogged to their utmost and I thank them all very much :) Now it's all over except for that Bag of Swag (which features a copy of Michele's ROT, btw. Leave a comment here or on any of the guest posts throughout December to be in with a chance of winning. I'll be selecting a winner via random number generator on January 2010. Keep watching!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How Do You Do It?
I don't think my husband realizes how supportive he is some days. Take this guest blog, for example. I restarted it three times (this is the fourth try), trying humor, seriousness, and even a semi-high handed lecture and none felt right. So I asked him, “If you were a beginning or aspiring writer what would you want to know about writing or publishing?”
“How you do it,” he answered with an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, I'm not much help.”
But he is, again, unknowingly saying exactly what I need to hear. How do I do it? How do I, especially in this absolutely crazy last year, with housing trouble and multiple family crises, with job changes and complete schedule upheavals, how do I still manage to sit down and write?
Enthusiasm.
It starts with enthusiasm for stories themselves. Not just my stories, with all kinds of stories, all kinds of storytelling. I'm a reader, a member of the audience first, which goes a long way toward staying inspired since there's so much out there to be inspired with. The best writers, in my opinion, are those who love reading. The best writers have a basic love of language and love of the process of storytelling.
You have to love the unfolding of the story to weather bad books and hackneyed plots. Likewise you have to love the process of writing to weather the publishing world. You can't be in it for the publication, because ultimately you can't do much to control editor and agent “yes”es.
From the first spark of the idea, to the plotting and world building and watching the story unfold, even if you already know how it's going to end, or have an outline leading your way, you have to love every part of writing to keep your hope and determination alive in publishing.
Enthusiasm is what makes me sit down and put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, depending on the story). Enthusiasm for the story, or the character, or even just the scene or to use the research I've been doing, it's what gets me to forsake television and video games and other books and movies to play in my own world. It's what makes me want to make time to play in imaginary world when it would probably easier to play in the real world. Easier doesn't equal more satisfying.
Sometimes the enthusiasm wanes or it gets lost in all the other craziness of my life. Sometimes it's best to let myself rest. I like taking in other people's work, to see how they translated their inspiration and enthusiasm. And other times I find that all I need to get going on a project again is to get excited about it again.
So that's how I get through the crushing pressure of submissions and rejections. How do you do it?
Michele Lee writes horror, science fiction and fantasy from the relative safety of her haunted house in the oldest section of Louisville, Ky. When she isn't writing she reviews for The Fix, Monster Librarian, Dark Scribe and her own review blog, BookLove. When not thinking, reading or writing books she gardens and cares for her autistic son, precocious daughter and her #1 fan, her husband.
http://www.michelelee.net/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So that's it! My guest bloggers have blogged to their utmost and I thank them all very much :) Now it's all over except for that Bag of Swag (which features a copy of Michele's ROT, btw. Leave a comment here or on any of the guest posts throughout December to be in with a chance of winning. I'll be selecting a winner via random number generator on January 2010. Keep watching!
