The Electronical Rattle Bag

theparisreview:

Roberto Bolaño on writing short stories. (via)

February 07, 2013, 3:25am

warrenellis:

Someone asked me to make this rebloggable.  Sorry for the repeat.

Do you ever get an absolutely brilliant idea for a story and then suddenly go mindblank about what to right next?

 weirdandwonderfulbullshit

Yes.  This is why I always have a folder called LOOSE IDEAS.  When the idea sounds fun but the writing goes dead, it goes into a text file with a hopefully-helpful title and the text file gets tossed into LOOSE IDEAS.

THROW AWAY NOTHING.

Because 1) one day you’ll be writing something and think, huh, I had an idea once that might help here, and if you don’t write it down, you won’t be able to go and look for it when you need it.  And 2) not every story idea has legs.  Sometimes, they turn out to be more effective as part of something else.

Stephen King has said something to the effect of, if you forget an idea you had, then it can’t have been good enough to remember.  This only works if you’re Stephen King.  If you are not Stephen King, don’t try it.  Write that shit down and file it.  Go back and read through that folder every now and then.  A different you will have different perspectives on archived material.  You may see the way out of the blank wall you hit.

Ask warrenellis a question

December 03, 2012, 9:12am

What I have to Offer by Eliot Rausch

…featuring director and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.

Full Lecture here.

via Susannah Breslin and Clayton Cubitt

November 26, 2012, 6:11pm

yeahwriters:

teachingliteracy:

amandaonwriting:

The Top 10 Writers Block Quotes

1. Writer’s block? I’ve heard of this. This is when a writer cannot write, yes? Then that person isn’t a writer anymore. I’m sorry, but the job is getting up in the fucking morning and writing for a living. ~Warren Ellis

2. I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer’s block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don’t. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done. ~Barbara Kingsolver

3. All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it? ~Philip Pullman

4. I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block; the problem is idea block. When I find myself frozen–whether I’m working on a brief passage in a novel or brainstorming about an entire book–it’s usually because I’m trying to shoehorn an idea into the passage or story where it has no place. ~Jeffery Deaver

5. You can’t think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block. ~John Rogers

6. There’s no such thing as writer’s block. That was invented by people in California who couldn’t write. ~Terry Pratchett

7. I haven’t had trouble with writer’s block. I think it’s because my process involves writing very badly. My first drafts are filled with lurching, clichéd writing, outright flailing around. Writing that doesn’t have a good voice or any voice. But then there will be good moments. It seems writer’s block is often a dislike of writing badly and waiting for writing better to happen. ~Jennifer Egan

8.Writer’s block doesn’t exist…lack of imagination does. ~Cyrese Covelli

9. Writer’s Block is just an excuse by people who don’t write for not writing. ~Giando Sigurani 

10. Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch. ~Lili St. Crow

This = yes.

August 30, 2012, 9:56pm

thenearsightedmonkey:

People have been looking for the timing videos for Lynda Barry’s Writing the Unthinkable excercises. Here is the one for seven and a half minutes worth of writing.

OK LET’S GO! BUT BEFORE YOU START THE VIDEO….. STEP ONE:

First write ten nouns on ten little pieces of paper. Any nouns will do! Cake! Fire! Teeth! Ticket! Etc!

Number a page from one to ten

Relax your whole body from top to bottom and say the alphabet to yourself or something else you have memorized and think back to early days in your life….

turn over one of the pieces of paper and write down the first ten images… sort of like snapshots…. that come to you from that word

Read the list over

Circle one that seems vivid or has trouble in it and write it on a clean sheet of paper like it was a title to a story and then draw a big X on the page.

NOW start the video.

June 03, 2012, 9:05pm

motleyglue:

So about those Polar Bears. Let’s be clear; nature does not line itself up, all “raw” and “visceral” and hurl itself into our telly screens for consumption. It’s produced; from the moment a documentary is concieved, it is contrived and constructed.

Okwonga’s angle typifies our habitual misconception and fetishisation of photo-reality as reality. (But this guy works in media? Don’t they immunise you against that on the first day?).  Reality, went. Ages ago.  And the line between photoreality and ‘CGI’ is pixel-thin, overlayed a few times and with a shed-load of blur to give the impression of depth of field.

(It’s all ‘enhanced’! Everything!! Look!!!)

OK that’s not so bad. What’s terrible is that anyone gives a monkey /polar bear/ whatever. Because in the REAL world, Cameron has left the UK floating up the Atlantic without a paddle, or a friend (except the US, but that’s ok cuz the dollar will never collapse, right?), and the inquiry into the really properly morally destitute media whores is re-opened.

I don’t subscribe to the theory of a singly masterminded conspiracy. But. When the media is so desperate to distract us from both what IS newsworthy, and from the stink of its own backfired distractions - with a well-timed soup of such cute fluff and contrived confrontation as would make Simon Cowell proud - the icky symbiosis of governance and media is horribly, scarily obvious.

The reality or honesty that I want from media is more fundamental than location or editing. If necessary, composite Cameron’s head onto some fuzzy bear cubs, and then lets have discussion and debate of something relevant to our interests.

December 14, 2011, 11:30am

jessfink:

I gave my 2 cents for this AMAZING Comics Alliance article by Laura Hudson on how to write better female characters in super hero comics:

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/13/female-characters-superhero-comics/

Jess Fink: (Chester 5000) When people talk about this issue they use the word “comics” to refer only to super-hero comics and it kind of gets under my skin. There are so many amazing indie comics out there that treat female characters the way they should be treated. People keep asking how they can make female characters in super-hero comics better and it’s just so frustrating because it’s right under their noses, indie comics already do it. I could name so many.

A perfect example for me is Nausicaa. If Nausicaa was a main stream US super-hero comic her t*ts would be the size of her head and she’d be dressed as skimpy as possible. She’d probably look like something out of Heavy Metal magazine. It makes me feel like some comics publishers don’t think readers can take a woman seriously unless she looks like a hot piece of ass.

A lot of writers don’t seem to be able to write female characters unless there is a need for them to be female. What I mean is that women are treated like cake icing, something to make the story sweeter, sexier, to give the reader something nice to look at amid all the violence. It feels like if you asked one of them to write a female character who wasn’t overtly sexual, like they do with males all the time, they’d look at you like you had two heads and say, “Well then, what’s the point of the character being female?” The simple solution is to stop treating women like icing,a pair of boobs, a pretty face, just treat them like people.

Obviously I don’t have a problem with sex; I draw porn comics most of the time. But even in my comics when the characters aren’t getting it on or about to get it on I am considering their personalities and their situation and I dress them accordingly. Just because Priscilla highly enjoys sex with a robot doesn’t mean she’s going to walk down the street in Victorian society with nothing but her knickers on. So why then do so many women in super hero comics do JUST THAT? They fight crime in things that look like they should be hanging in the window of Fredericks of Hollywood. You can’t wear a thong on a Victorian street but super-hero ladies wear floppy corsets, skin-tight tube tops, thigh high, g-strings and high heels to fight crime and they AREN’T EVEN IN A PORN COMIC.

October 13, 2011, 5:41pm

thenearsightedmonkey:

Notes on notes and sketch pages

September 19, 2011, 8:38pm

rosalarian:

She’s contacted the FBI about it, because obviously, this wasn’t something she wanted. But the internet is happy to make sure those pictures get sent around and multiplied enough times that she’ll never get her privacy back.

This. Is. NOT. Cool.

Seriously. It doesn’t matter if she’s a celebrity or regular person, beautiful or ugly, taking away her privacy is despicable. She gets to make the choice what parts of her body you see and when. Her choice, not yours, no matter how much you want to see her boobs, no matter how hot they are. They were taken from her, not given to you.

A few years ago, I had this happen to me. Someone stole nude photos of me and I got to go through a long investigation and court process and I have no idea how many people ended up seeing those photos but I was thankful I wasn’t a celebrity because as awful as I was feeling, it would have been a thousandfold knowing they were being circulated like that.

I’m perfectly fine with and proud of my body, but I had a piece of my autonomy taken from me. I lost my ability to control who got to see it and when and how. It took a long time for my body to feel like mine again. I had something stolen from me, so much more intimate than having my possessions stolen.

I know this isn’t at the forefront of people’s minds when they see celebrity boobs. I know no harm is intended, and I can’t be mad at ignorance. But you know now, because I told you, what happens when you do this. So from now on, don’t reblog it, don’t retweet it, don’t save it, don’t pass it on. If you feel so inclined, report it. But at the very least, stop viewing this kind of thing as a happy thing. It’s actually very upsetting for the victims.

erikamoen: I’ve seen the incredibly disappointing opinion from many people that if someone takes a private, intimate photo, that they should absolutely expect and deserve to have that photo posted publicly without their consent, and that, essentially, they’re ‘asking for it’ by creating that picture in the first place.

I wonder, do they feel the same way about other people’s diaries? If that same person keeps a journal and writes their private thoughts in there, do they also deserve to have it posted online without their consent, just for the crime of having created it in the first place?

I mean, I get the reality of the situation. The reality is that predatory people will always exploit others given the opportunity, and if a predatory person gets their hands on a nude photo/the journal of someone who does not want that shared, they will share it. It’s shitty, but that’s “The Way The Internet Works” (which is also frequently used as an excuse for perpetuating predatory behavior). (Sorry for using the word “predatory” three times in two sentences. But it’s the most accurate word!)

But really, the way to ward this behavior off is to just not create anything personal and private in the first place? No private self-expression? No private titillation for your partner? No private scribblings in your weak moments when you’re just trying to sort out your head? —Because somebody might use that against you someday?

Just wanted to throw it out there that people are, in fact, entitled to create private and intimate artifacts that are not ever intended for public consumption, and that should those personal pieces be taken from them and exposed against their will, they don’t actually “deserve” it and it is, in fact, a really shitty, violating action against them.

September 16, 2011, 4:42pm