WIP

Blog Beamer

This week's blog post, I'll scoot you over to a couple places.

First - Sherwood Smith's website.

Why?

Well, if you write young adult fantasy, she's a good example of one of those originators. Her generation looked to people like Tolkien for writing inspiration. Confessably, I loathe Tolkien (partly as a matter of principle, because I think way too many people connect fantasy to his work alone and go gaak and judgemental, when there is so much ELSE out there - it IS a big genre, dudes) and have not wasted my time reading his books.

1. They are not the sort of stuff I'm interested in reading. (a) All guys (2) wars (3) main character dies in the end (4) depression (5) plagues (6) talking down to readers and playing on Alice in Wonderland, at least that was my first impression when I picked up the Hobbit.

2. The writing is archaic, so the odds are I would only be picking up bad habits from the books.

Sherwood Smith was the first fantasy writer I've ever read. Well technically. As a child, I read every single storybook and fairy tale collection I could get my hands on. Then I moved on to history and horror books before discovering her 'Wren to the Rescue'.

At my age and experience, I really only appreciate the Wren books for nostalgia reasons. I prefer her Crown Duel books more, or think they better bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood.

Still, the first time I read that book, I WAS age appropriate, and therefore worshipped the book. That first book became tattered from all the times I read it and imagined writing something similar. For the first time in my life, I actually wanted to write a real fantasy novel. Not just a fairy tale. A novel - and one that would give other people the same feeling that I got from WTTR.

There are other reasons to snag on the link to Sherwood's website. She is one of those authors who makes herself available and both posts material and writing tips on her website for people to learn from, and she also answers emails and blog comments. If you are a young writer and still learning the craft, Sherwood's a great teacher.

Sherwood Smith home website

The other website I wanted to mention, only because I listed her books the other day - Alyson Noel.

Just for the record. Whenever I become published and get going with things, I SO WANT WHOEVER DOES HER WEBSITE AND BLOG TO GET ME SET UP. Yes, those caps are necessary. :P

[side note, dog hair and keyboard don't mix. *scowls at nonworking keys*]

This is her main website with links to seperate pages for her seperate works.

I just like the way it has been set up. Useful, easy to get around, not too busy, fun.

WRITING AND PET PEEVE NOTES

I don't mean to be unkind here, so sorry if it comes out that way. If you want to be a writer and get some finished work out and about. The best way to go about it is apply butt to chair, switch computer on, go into your Word program (or whatever you use) and start typing. Don't worry about what people think about the idea until after you are finished. A finished project can always be tweaked around and improved. You have plenty of working time and space. The first option is to get in the game and WRITE the fangled thing.

There are people out there who don't want to commit to a project until after they are assured that everyone in the world loves it. What usually happens is they get so caught up in discussing the project and gathering ideas from other people, they never actually get started on the novel itself. Not for months and months anyway.

I know there are other people who start out this way and waffle from idea to idea. They are idea generators, not writers.

I'm convinced these are the same people who, once they discover you write, rush up to you and tell you this whole idea they have. And of course they want to cowrite the idea with you. Never mind you have your own writing projects which you are either writing or polishing.

If you are one of these people -

Dude! Get to work.