writing a book is like road construction the reader doesn’t care to see all the scaffolding and work and paving measuring and balancing that went into it they just want a smooth ride and for you to get them to a destination
#katyamills
Tag Archives: process
notes on writing
i no longer wait to be inspired to write. one need not wait for rain, to irrigate the land. i block off time every morning to string the words together in a way that captures how i feel. might be 5 words. might be 500. keep digging, you will ultimately find water.
then i turn to some larger body of work – #wip – occupying my every day mind and heart. focus on the immediate work in progress brings me back in alignment with the gods.
fictions
what really happened
memory clouds it
feelings color it thoughts about it
change it
what it really was what
you guess it was
just don’t go thinking
pretending you know
the facts are closer but alone
they are meaningless
that’s why it’s fun to write
fiction
notes on writing
i no longer wait to be inspired to write. one need not wait for rain, to irrigate the land. i block off time every morning to string the words together in a way that captures how i feel. might be 5 words. might be 500. keep digging, you will ultimately find water.
then i turn to some larger body of work – #wip – occupying my every day mind and heart. focus on the immediate work in progress brings me back in alignment with the gods.
go where no one has been
we are pressured in many ways in this life. we live in an atmosphere rims around the world. the condensation builds up by the heat, the clouds form and the rains come. the pressure and heat build up some more. how do you respond? you don’t have to be intimidated! go ahead and rocket across the boundary. go where no one has ever been before. laugh out loud! the way you interact with your environment, your community, your greater family and yourself, is unique in time and space. keep the faith! we need you!
im.print
when i live
crafting these poems of words i
forge my peace with
language
the sun burns on
imprinting shadows
and the dreams oh
the feelings anchored to thoughts
keep me dreaming
as i type across
our time and
space
what’s the rush
i will take the day slow
really get inside the seconds
break up the sentence
dress every letter up and down
listen for the infinitesimal
flood of ink swallowing
paper
run on
wip. run on
This weekend I read my last book Maze to compare against my new book. I found longer sentences and less dialogue in the old book. I liked it. That’s not to say my readership would. I’m a little bit out there. I even like the idea of an entire book which is a single run on sentence without punctuation! I would be the only one reading.
 |
| little fish in my neighborhood |
wip.simple
i am writing the book mostly early mornings. drinking hot chocolate mixed with home-roasted coffee. sitting at my small wooden desk with a swing-arm lamp. i like silence. i may keep low volume classical on a clock radio. because it is spring in sacramento, i keep the window open. the birds wake up and start twittering before dawn. i cannot face the window. too distracting. i write on my chromebook pixel off a g.drive document. i spent the first 2 years working the book in scrivener. i think wearing prescription glasses now has impacted the way my mind processes information. or how i read. i also keep telling myself: it’s all in your head.
wip.60.grand
i took some time off last week and made great headway with my novel. word count now exceeds 60,000. most of what got worked out was a scene where Kell is employed by a laundress in a laudromat in Oakland. the boss is feisty and demanding. a real irritant. but she’s the only ordinary human to give Kell a chance. she sleeps on a mat on the floor behind the counter. and copes by smoking menthols.
