Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Writing in a Vacuum? Ha!

I've heard lots of people say that writing is a solitary act. To them, I say, "Hogwash!"

I just had an absolutely BRILLIANT writing day thanks to interactions I had with two people. First, by chance a fan Friended me on "Facebook.;" Turns out he lives in Cairo, Egypt, a place I've been struggling to describe in RESURRECTION CODE. So, he and I have been corresponding about the sights and sounds and smells of Cairo. It has totally inspired me.

Also, just by chance, I mentioned on livejournal that I had an epiphany about the structure of the book. I finally realized what I want to do is write a faux memoir written by the main character, Mouse. One of my friends from Oregon, Frank, commented jokingly, "Does this mean Page can make commentary throughout?" In the words of Christopher Robin: "! !! !!! !!!!"

What a brilliant idea! I just had an absolute blast writing snarky footnotes by Page in which he comments on all sorts of lies and misinformation his father presents... even dissing Mouse's use of the English language. I haven't had this much fun writing (particularly this book) since I don't even know when.

Thank you, my friends. Without you, my writing would be so, so much worse!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But what you were doing wasn't the "writing" that people generally call a solitary act. You were pre-writing, networking, brainstorming, et cetera. I'd say that the actual fingers-to-the-keyboard creative part is still something only you can do. (But I always disagree with everyone.)

lydamorehouse said...

Well, I'm disagreeable, too, so I'm going to propose that IMHO all that stuff -- the networking, the idea generating, researching, "pre-writing," as you say -- all of it is part of the process of writing.

Theo Nicole Lorenz said...

Oh man, I am SO looking forward to reading that!

And I agree - writing can be a social act, and all that idea-connecting business absolutely counts as part of the process.

Anonymous said...

What Lyda and Nicole said. ;)

Jon said...

I think the "Actual" writing is easier done alone, but thats only half the process. You have to be out there with it and show it around and get some responses, otherwise you end up with a half-baked story.

And that is how people end up at Publish America. ;)