Comments for Yellow Wallpaper Writers

Comment on Mindfulness, Revision, & Ear Worms by Karen Burns

Karen Burns — Tue, 14 May 2013 00:35:22 +0000

This is a great description of how a work-in-progress permeates every aspect of a writer’s existence. Always there, under the surface.

As for me, I love that sense of leading an additional, mostly secret, life. Seeing something, hearing something, and wondering how my character would react to it. Writing a novel is a lot like having an imaginary friend! I think it will be very sad to finish the thing and thus lose the friend. Maybe this is why they say you should start a new one right away. These characters become so real to you. Even my husband will mention my protagonist, in passing, as if she’s a real person.

Anyway, revision anxiety: it’s a real thing, should be in the DSM-5 (probably is). I think the cure is to just keep on slogging. Meditation? Would probably help, too.

Comment on Are Good Writers Bad? by Erika Mitchell

Erika Mitchell — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:48:48 +0000

I think the old trope about the tortured writer holds true because telling stories is all about identifying and exploring conflict. If you’re a naturally content, happy, easy going person, it’ll be a lot harder to tap into and feel the conflict you’re hoping to peddle to people.

If, however, you tend to be at conflict with yourself, the world around you, or others, well, I imagine that telling stories with conflict in every scene won’t be such a challenge for you.

So as for good and bad people, I think I might reframe it into layers and depths of conflict.

Thoughts?

Comment on Are Good Writers Bad? by A. Reader

A. Reader — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:40:52 +0000

Certainly understanding evil or badness is important to create characters, but that does not make the author a bad person. Saints like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas wrote of good and evil, not in a fictional way, of course, but they had to understand the essence of evil in order to comment on it, and they were and are considered good people, at least by most. So, you good people who are also aspiring authors, hang in there, you don’t have to turn evil to create believable characters – you just have to understand them.

Comment on Making Every Word Count by Lynn

Lynn — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:33:51 +0000

Ha! What a perfect gift from a writing friend. I enjoy perusing (checking out, looking at, pouring over, studying) the visual thesaurus. But I almost always stick with my second or third draft word, even if I’m temporarily convinced that my later choices are chic, poetic, or pregnant with meaning. It’s all just so…..fun.

Comment on Why We Do We Write Wimpily? by Jon Egan

Jon Egan — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:08:38 +0000

Love this post, and agree almost wholeheartedly aside from the fact that I, a writer, (not related to Jennifer,) am not a wimp, I don’t wear glasses (I prefer contacts,) No one steals my lunch money, just let the buggers try and see what happens, and I write mostly emotional stuff!
So, after reading your post, I went back and re-read my latest ms draft, and realized that my protagonist needed to grow a pair.
Thanks, more bloody work!

Comment on Why poetry? A working manifesto by Mary Casey

Mary Casey — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:48:05 +0000

Eye, ear, word. Sounds like fiction writing, too! I like your comment that poems do make something happen–they elicit emotion (not describe it). All readers want to experience a piece of writing themselves, and be marked by it; that is the mystery of good writing.

Comment on Why poetry? A working manifesto by Christine Johnson-Duell

Christine Johnson-Duell — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:52:53 +0000

Yes! Rules are good to have, everywhere! Your response is encouraging, as I stare down the prospect of writing prose.

Comment on Why poetry? A working manifesto by Lynn Grant

Lynn Grant — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:41:19 +0000

I have made a few fledgling attempts into making poems and it is not for the faint hearted. I think that prose writing demands the same Eye, Ear, Word but allows for–not less precision–more room for lolling. I instinctively know (or think I sense, not every time of course, but just a feeling in my novice-poem gut) when a poem has not-the-right-word, or too many words. In prose, it’s hard to know when there are too many words, when a riff, or a detour results in a word glut. I think that the notion of setting up rules for a poem can be applied to a prose piece is just as well.

Comment on Why We Do We Write Wimpily? by Lady Jane

Lady Jane — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 02:01:26 +0000

I must admit, I am much more drawn to the villains because I try to imagine what the story would be like if told from their viewpoint. This is true in fiction AND in reality– villains are interesting characters because they seem to be placed in that category only by the standards of another story teller. The deep and wimpy character, though, is a good protagonist… most of my favorite classic novels have such a character. I’m thinking about Howard Roark.

Comment on Nine Lives by Lady Jane

Lady Jane — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 01:57:19 +0000

Wow, you sure do keep yourself busy! I admire that you are able to write not despite your busy life, but because of it. I’m not nearly as busy, but I do not have the privilege to say that I write for a living. However, I love writing so much that it will always be a hobby of mine even if nobody ever wants to pay me for it.