Reinventing the Wheel

This year, I realized something important. This is something I probably should have figured out a long time ago, but being remarkably unaware of my own creative processes, I figured out now instead.

Writing is freaking hard.

Sure, there are days where your fingers fly across the keys and words come streaming out of brain and onto page like ... like [vivid metaphor].* But those days come at the expense of months and years spent painstakingly picking a story out of ... out of ... yeah.

Daydreaming is easy. Everyone's mind is full of fantasies, and there isn't a writer I know who can't happily sit for hours just playing with the people in her head. But writing.

Writing is like reinventing the wheel. Every. Single. Day.

I used to get disheartened by this. I used to feel like if writing was hard, I was doing something wrong. And I do still believe that, to a certain extent.

Writing is doing something wrong over and over and OVER AGAIN until you figure out how to do it right.**

I have learned that if you wait until you can do something perfectly, you will never do anything at all. If you aren't prepared to do something horrifically, mind-bleedingly hard, nothing worthwhile will EVER seem easy. And when you feel like you can't, that is the time to decide that you can.

Sometimes, you just have to sit down and make the mistake.

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*Clearly today is not one of those days.

**Not that I am advocating the perpetuation of bad habits. If you know you are doing something wrong, and you know WHAT IT IS, then you should fix it. My point is that you should not be writing unless you are prepared to make mistakes. Because art, like science, is a series of increasingly intelligent mistakes. (But hopefully with less explosions.)

The Day of Writing Frenziedly

I have a cold. Or possibly a sinus infection. Whatever it is, it has me coughing and streaming and spitting up gobs of nastiness everywhere, so I am compelled to stay home from work, because for some reason gobs of nastiness are frowned upon in the world of cherry sorters. (Who knew, right?)

Ordinarily, I would embrace this excellent excuse to spend the entire day lying in bed. Unfortunately, this is the second day I have been ill. I staggered home yesterday after only four hours of work, and proceeded to spend the next four hours lying comatose in bed. This, combined with the blessed eight hours of sleep I got last night, meant that by 7:00 this morning I was ready to be ANYWHERE but in bed. So I got up, saw my cousins and my sister off to work, then sat down at the computer.

I can only describe what happened next as a sort of manic frenzy. I scoured the internet for ANYTHING even vaguely related to picture book revision and queries. I chopped and smashed and foamed at the mouth and when it was all over, I had a complete second draft of CECILY'S MONSTER and a solid first draft of my query.

And, oh, yeah, a pounding headache. Because in all my frenzy to get this done, I had totally forgotten to eat.

So I trudged off to take care of some of the more pressing needs of my mortal frame (a toilet, a shower, and a granola bar, in that order) and then off to bed I went. And then I wrote a blog post for the first time in almost a year.

Maybe I should get sick more often.

(Or maybe not, because I am now indulging in a manic-frenzy-anxiety attack over EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER WRITTEN BECAUSE IT'S ALL GARBAGE AND AAAAAHH. I think I need a sedative. Or at least some cold medicine. Sheesh.)

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHURGLE *shoots self in arm with chamomile tea* *passes out* *the end*)

FORGET PREVIOUS POST

I have moved the blog. And it wasn't even painful.

All I had to do was drop a dummy blog where the old blog was, so that anyone who goes looking for me there will find a link to here. Then I switched the domain name and voilà! New blog address.

I hope you all survived the journey over. If you're still with me, give a shout in the comments. I'm still tinkering with the new site: setting up pages, planning new blog posts, etc.

BLOG NAME CHANGE ALERT

So, as you may have noticed, I'm dabbling in blog renovations at the moment. And the next thing to go is my address.

In ONE WEEK'S TIME, this blog will no longer be located at sarahhudsonscribbles.blogspot.com. Instead, I will be found at srhmustwrite.blogspot.com.

I understand that this shift in our relationship could be rocky. I realize that some of my (like, five) beloved readers could be cast adrift. And that's why I'm posting this warning.

Be strong. Hold on. I'll see you on the other side.

ARC REVIEW: RELIC (Renee Collins)

Title & Author: RELIC by Renee Collins

Genre: YA Fantasy Western

Publisher: Entangled Teen

Release Date: August 27th 2013

Source: eARC provided for an honest review



Book-According-To-Goodreads:
After a raging fire consumes her town and kills her parents, Maggie Davis is on her own to protect her younger sister and survive best she can in the Colorado town of Burning Mesa. In Maggie’s world, the bones of long-extinct magical creatures such as dragons and sirens are mined and traded for their residual magical elements, and harnessing these relics’ powers allows the user to wield fire, turn invisible, or heal even the worst of injuries.

Working in a local saloon, Maggie befriends the spirited showgirl Adelaide and falls for the roguish cowboy Landon. But when she proves to have a particular skill at harnessing the relics’ powers, Maggie is whisked away to the glamorous hacienda of Álvar Castilla, the wealthy young relic baron who runs Burning Mesa. Though his intentions aren’t always clear, Álvar trains Maggie in the world of relic magic. But when the mysterious fires reappear in their neighboring towns, Maggie must discover who is channeling relic magic for evil before it’s too late.

Book-According-To-Me:
Sixteen-year-old farmgirl plays a dangerous game with expensive people and their shiny, shiny relics. Did I mention the shiny relics?

REVIEW:
First off, I want to say how much I LOVE the magic system Renee Collins has created in this world. As someone with a fascination for shiny new toys in the fantasy game, I deeply appreciated the vivid worldbuilding encapsulated in these glittering pieces of bone. I finished the book half-convinced that relics were, in fact, real, and very nearly able to feel one lying heavy around my very own neck. I also enjoyed the Wild West setting of the story, something I haven't seen much of in the fantasy genre.

That said, I found that the rest of book fell a little flat. I had a little difficulty connecting with Maggie, the main character, although I did enjoy her distinctly Western storytelling voice. I took a loooong time warming up to Landon, her love interest -- to the point that I found myself hoping he was just a stepping stone on the way to someone else. And the plot, well, it wasn't a page-turner for me, but the fascinating magic system and general enjoyability of the book means I'll be reading the sequel if there is one.

CONTENT: ORANGE LIGHT
Maggie works in a saloon that doubles as a brothel, although she's firm about staying OUT of that part of the business. Characters kiss in what Maggie calls 'a most indecent way', and there's one scene involving a sort of MIND CONTROL that ... ahem ... is not something I'd give a twelve-year-old. (Although that scene is ended by what might be Landon's best behavior in the book. So yay for that.)

CONCLUSION:

I rate this book an evening huddled around a smoky campfire, roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories while roaming packs of coyotes howl at ... whatever it is that coyotes howl at. Assuming that coyotes howl. Which maybe they don't.

Clearly I'm not the one writing a Western.