Friday, October 09, 2009

What's the worst thing that could happen

Today I went to my local neighborhood coffee shop to write.
Sometimes it is too quiet at my house and I need the energy of being around people to get any work done. Also I don't take my computer just my spiral bound notebook so there will be no temptation to use their fast internet to check my facebook page or whatever.
So I sit down and I am next to these really chatty people which is OK but somewhat distracting today. Maybe the people I sat next to were really chatty or maybe it was that my ear was facing the direction to pick up most of what they were saying or maybe it was that their conversation about journals and meditation was way more interesting than what was going on in the world of my novel. So after 3 tries of beginning chapters that weren't working I asked the question "What is the worst thing that could happen to my character right now?" Then my writing got interesting. 7 pages later I'm still really excited about what developed. Not that I want bad things to happen to my MC but it is still a cool development.

Sometimes I go on craigslist and I look at the writing gigs. I look to see if there are any places seeking submissions for anthologies or whatever. I always see people looking for people to write their book for them. They usually have an amazing life story or a story idea they know would make big bucks. I also see ads for people looking for illustrators for their children's books. What bothers me about these ads are the errors. People if you are going to post an ad on craigslist seeking an illustrator for your children's book or someone to write your amazing life story at least spell check

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What angers me the most is that those folks on craigslist rarely offer appropriate compensation for children's book art. It's like they're thinking, "Oh, this is just kids's stuff so it should be easy for you to do." Wrong! It's a surefire sign that 1) they have no idea how the industry really works, which means 2) they probably don't know what they're doing, and finally 3) potential illustrators should run away as fast as possible.