Compliments Matter (or, Tell Someone You Value Their Work)
In the past two months, I’ve twice met the same former student in my gym. Each time, we have a wonderful conversation about what he’s reading, his newfound love of writing, his dreams for the future, and so on. Each time, he reminds me just how much one of my classes influenced him to be a voracious reader and a deeper thinker. These are the kinds of interactions that truly make a week of exhaustion worth it. And they’re a reminder of just how important compliments can be.
On Impostor Syndrome
Pretty much every writer I know has had or continues to suffer from the infamous “impostor syndrome.” Authors, academics, bloggers, etc. If they do some kind of writing, they’ve likely had a moment of pure doubt about their abilities, their place in the “field,” their right to success, and so on. Part of what makes it such a pernicious “bug” is the way it can crush your ability to produce anything. Some people give up. Others feel like anything they do isn’t worthwhile. Still others constantly doubt their abilities at every turn, no matter how minor. I’d guess that a lot of “writer’s block” are just forms of impostor syndrome.
On Writing Projects: Decisions Decisions
In less than a week, I’m meeting with my friend, Jen, for a discussion about writing as part of a new podcast she plans to release on her Patreon page. Essentially, we’re trying to take a stab at actually writing something. For me, it’s a return. For Jen, it’s brand spankin’ new. In an effort to get started, I thought I might return to a project I had started but never completed. Maybe I wrote a paragraph or two. Maybe a few pages. Maybe I wrote an outline. For whatever reason, I never finished these projects, and they continue to haunt me the way fun projects do. So, I figure that coming back to something familiar — especially something I’m really passionate about — would make transitioning back into writing a little bit exciting. Currently, the projects that most interest me are on the playful side. As I mentioned in a previous post, I want writing to be fun, and “fun” for me means letting my imagination run wild. With that in mind, these are the five projects I’m currently looking at:
On NaNoWriMo and the “Work” of Writing
It figures that in the middle of my “writing brain reboot” session, the infamous NaNoWriMo would waltz into my life to taunt me. That’s an exaggeration. In reality, I haven’t paid much attention to it in years. I’ve only tried NaNoWriMo and NaPoWriMo (the poetry one) once. Both times, I failed. Both times were in high-production years for my writing. And both times left me totally exhausted by the whole process. Since then, I’ve come to the conclusion that NaNo just isn’t for me.
On the “Right” Kind of Reviews
One of the things that often bothers me about the reviewing process is the idea that some reviews are inherently more valuable than others. By this, I don’t mean in the sense of the quality of the writing itself; after all, some reviews really are nothing more than a quick “I liked it” or are borderline unreadable. Rather, I mean “more valuable” in the sense that different styles of reviewing are worth more than others. While I think most of us would agree that this is poppycock, there are some in the sf/f community who would honestly claim that the critical/analytical review is simply better than the others (namely, the self-reflective review).
Why I’m Blogging…Again…At Last
You may have noticed I’ve started blogging again. Since Monday (10/20), I have released one blog every weekday on everything from favorite 80s scifi movies to neo-Nazis in my city to terrible movies to my thoughts on spending years reading mostly women. All of this is part of my effort to jumpstart my writing brain. The whole thing. Not just the blogging side, but also my fiction and academic writing sides, too. And I’m having a hell of a time getting there…