Susan Henderson's LitPark - Latest Comments in Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:21:00 -0000

I asked my dad about Reed Ghazala and his name didn't ring a bell. Apparently, my dad was involved in funding the speech research they used, so he knew the Texas Instrument guys who were the principle designers, but he didn't know everyone on the project.

I'm in Virginia now. I just tried half a teaspoon of $250 balsamic vinegar. Who knew there was such a thing?

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

chuckles — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:04:21 -0000

I like to answer quizzes like this right off the bat, as if my first idea were likely to be my best. This time though I just couldn't. I could barely focus on the question, really. I would begin to consider it and my mind would just push the idea away, like one magnet repelling another. It was hours later I realized that I probably was resisting admitting to myself that I do not seek comfort, do not give myself leave to cry or feel overwhelmed. I can empathize like a sonofabitch, crying at hallmark commercials or perfect sunsets or maudlin crap like that - but when it comes to my own life, I don't think I give myself that permission. For support, I turn to myself. More often than not I somehow find strength and resolve that I had overlooked before, and that has gotten me through most of what I call my life so far. As for the rest, I am thankful, this thankful season, for a very patient wife who has buoyed me more than I can ever know for more than 20 years.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

troutbum70 — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:35:58 -0000

It was hard to find one that fit..........

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

CarolynBurnsBass — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:48:38 -0000

Wow, Robin. Thanks so much for sharing Neil's letter. I'm not signed up with Nano this year, so I didn't get this.

I have my own challenge to get my novel revisions done this month. (BTW, check the Writing Samples forum at Backspace. I started a new thread for Sexy Scenes. Of course, I was the first to post. Have you got any? ;-)

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:28:19 -0000

P.S. Robin, did you notice you now have an edit button?

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:27:19 -0000

This is a great link. I hope some of you have time to click on it:

http://ascenderrisesabove.c...

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:26:26 -0000

I love the sound and smell of fall leaves so much. The strange thing is everyone gets these leave blowers now and they kind of vacuum their properties of any evidence of fall.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:24:45 -0000

They were very glad, and they noticed the difference.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:24:18 -0000

Oh, and the edits are for the novel with St. Martin's. It's finally starting to come together. The next book is done, but it says in my contract that I can't shop it until 90 days after my final edits are in, and SM gets first rights of refusal on it. I have a grand idea for book 3, but it'll be a while before I can even let my head go there.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

Kimberly — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:22:03 -0000

Every time I dump a new total in my nano box, thinking I have finally caught up to you, there you go besting me by at least another 600 words!!!

DAMN YOU ROBIN SLICK AND YOUR SUPERIOR WRITING ABILITIES!!!

:-)

I declare a WORD WAR!!! (click to see the widget in action)

http://www.nanowrimo.org/Na...

ps - Nathalie is kicking all of our butts, she's already over 40K!

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:21:23 -0000

Kimberly is a fantastic cook.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:20:36 -0000

What cool trivia, and especially knowing how you're tied to Robin's trivia.

I hope you had a great (well-deserved) day off!

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:18:34 -0000

Yay! You put a photo up!

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:17:58 -0000

Yes and yes and yes. Hey, maybe Kimmi wants an invite to your film's premiere?

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:17:19 -0000

Yeah, let's get rid of all these little blue men. Looks like you were all cranked out of a factory.

Nice on the cinnamon rolls.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:15:54 -0000

Maybe it'll work the same for you, but I found that taking a little time off gave me my edge back.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:14:50 -0000

It was a great day of focused work on my book (I got so much done!) and then when my boys were home, we had a fire and read (Wayside School Is Falling Down) and just slowed down. It was great.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:12:57 -0000

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:12:48 -0000

I just read his blog, too. Hmmmm.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:11:54 -0000

Maryanne, it's great to see you here!

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

SusanHenderson — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:11:32 -0000

Aww, this is so comforting. And imagine, Neil Gaiman calling his agent in a panic, too. This, along with my lunch with Ellen Meister the other day and my own panicked emails to my agent, just might put me into the homestretch on this book.

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

robinslick — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:54:54 -0000

Okay, Susan, here is something I know you have been waiting for with...well, okay, so you haven't been waiting at all, but you are going to than me anyway for this. Here is Neil Gaiman's love note to those of us struggling to write a 50,000 word novel this month, which I just received in my email (along with 1,000,000,000 other Nano writers, but I'm pretending it was written just for me):

Dear NaNoWriMo Author,

By now you're probably ready to give up. You're past that first fine furious rapture when every character and idea is new and entertaining. You're not yet at the momentous downhill slide to the end, when words and images tumble out of your head sometimes faster than you can get them down on paper. You're in the middle, a little past the half-way point. The glamour has faded, the magic has gone, your back hurts from all the typing, your family, friends and random email acquaintances have gone from being encouraging or at least accepting to now complaining that they never see you any more---and that even when they do you're preoccupied and no fun. You don't know why you started your novel, you no longer remember why you imagined that anyone would want to read it, and you're pretty sure that even if you finish it it won't have been worth the time or energy and every time you stop long enough to compare it to the thing that you had in your head when you began---a glittering, brilliant, wonderful novel, in which every word spits fire and burns, a book as good or better than the best book you ever read---it falls so painfully short that you're pretty sure that it would be a mercy simply to delete the whole thing.

Welcome to the club.

That's how novels get written.

You write. That's the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

A dry-stone wall is a lovely thing when you see it bordering a field in the middle of nowhere but becomes more impressive when you realise that it was built without mortar, that the builder needed to choose each interlocking stone and fit it in. Writing is like building a wall. It's a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. Plot and character and metaphor and style, all these become secondary to the words. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn't build it it won't be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in.

The search for the word gets no easier but nobody else is going to write your novel for you.

The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm---or even arguing with me---she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, "Oh, you're at that part of the book, are you?"

I was shocked. "You mean I've done this before?"

"You don't remember?"

"Not really."

"Oh yes," she said. "You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients."

I didn't even get to feel unique in my despair.

So I put down the phone and drove down to the coffee house in which I was writing the book, filled my pen and carried on writing.

One word after another.

That's the only way that novels get written and, short of elves coming in the night and turning your jumbled notes into Chapter Nine, it's the only way to do it.

So keep on keeping on. Write another word and then another.

Pretty soon you'll be on the downward slide, and it's not impossible that soon you'll be at the end. Good luck...

Neil Gaiman

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

maryanne Stahl — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 09:22:43 -0000

Susan--go outside and jump in the yellow leaves!

xxx

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

robinslick — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 08:09:56 -0000

Lance! I saw your blurb and just read your blog! What does this mean? C'mon, you have to share with your friends here. It sounds like you are about to embark on one hell of a journey....

(or you can just email me...haha...)

Re: Weekly Wrap: We Are Gutsy

lance reynald — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:30:09 -0000

psst.
wondertwin...check your email.
xo.