Musings from the archives

[jamzsquared]

 I'm in the process of packing up to head back to my parents' house for the holidays (a 3 week break from school!  Whee!), and I ran across a set of notes that I wrote (by hand!) back in March when I was trying to galvanize myself to write again.  They're long, a bit rambling, and a little circuitous, but they include some fascinating insights and

Comments

[jamzsquared]

I can't recommend Possession highly enough. It's written by A.S. Byatt, and it's absolutely wonderful. Thick, dense, and filled with tons of Victorian poetry (one of the storylines traces the relationship between 2 Victorian poets, one who was famous, Randolph Ash, and the other who was a little known poet 'rediscovered' by 20th century feminists, Christabelle LaMotte) and some incredibly intricate and beautiful description. A film adaptation was done a few years back starring Gwenyth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart, but they changed things a lot, and I must admit that turned it off after the first 20 minutes or so.

Thanks for the comment! It feels so good to unpack my head a little and brainstorm.

[jongibbs]

I don't know why, but there's somethig about writing ideas down longhand that unlocks the creative part of my brain in ways that merely typing them doesn't.

I wonder why that is?

[jamzsquared]

It's really true. I realized not too long ago that when I first started writing, I didn't have access to my own computer -- I used the family PC in the hallway where everyone came walking by, so I while I'd type up stories there, I would do all my drafting and brainstorming by hand. I've always felt that there was something really visceral about that connection between brain and hand and pen and paper.

I type way faster than I write these days, so when I need to get ideas out quickly I typically type rather than write longhand (the ease for deleting, copying/pasting and whatnot is also a plus for typing), but when I have the time and patience, there is nothing like writing by hand.

[jongibbs]

I do most of my outlines by hand, but i type the actual ms.