Monday 25 October 2010

IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR NEIL

I love writing in longhand. Writing in longhand is a marvelous thing for a writer to do these days. If you have a notebook and a nice pen you can go off somewhere and write that’s solar powered. You can drop it or get it wet and pretty much all of your work will continue to be there. If you suddenly decide to look up a word or check a reference you will not look up four hours later, blinking, finding yourself somehow in the middle of an Ebay auction you never had any plans to be part of.”    Neil Gaiman


Don't you love Neil's work set-up?!




What is it about MG/TWEEN that makes writing in a notebook so appropriate? The writing is focussed, brief and non-flowery. The plot is a little twisty but that is good. Ethan and Thursday are great foils, I love them both already. Working title: COUNTERS S:ET 8


The historical romance FIRESTONES is still blossoming. Deep in the mountain where healing is on everyone's minds, the first kiss was even more magical.


Now I am setting off on my round trip to Yorkshire and back via Manchester. By the time I see the Minnow I have to make sure my phrase, "No, I'll buy one." end with the full stop rather than the word "..maybe." 

4 comments:

  1. Neil's a smart duded. Unnecessary researching is my downfall, too. Not sure if I'd be able to move over to using a notebook though.

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  2. The great thing about notebooks is you can doodle in them when you're stuck with a scene. I can measure my progress when I look back by how much I've drawn in the margins of the pages.

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  3. That's so true about looking up a word and finding yourself in the middle of an eBay auction four hours later! I'm not ready to surrender the computer just yet, but I do wish I could disable the internet from it while I'm working.

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  4. It is a different kind of watching the wip grow. I don't feel a slave to the word count either :)

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