You try to remember that as long as you can pick up our books, we can still speak to you directly. Still make you smile, still make you care, still make you cry.
It’s the best sort of immortality there is.
Tag Archives: on writing
“Mr. Hitchcock taught me everything about cinema. It was thanks to him that I understood that murder scenes should be shot like love scenes and love scenes like murder scenes.”
Why birthday girl Grace Kelly was one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most indispensable leading ladies.
Once we start calling people monsters, we start sacrificing our sense of curiosity, our obligation to ask how they became that way, and why they did what they did: life, and certainly fiction writing, is about being endlessly fascinated by the human condition–naming someone a monster is lazy; it allows you to stop thinking and questioning.
Hanya Yanagihara, Electric Literature (via kylelucia)
hey all you fanfic writers
I can 1000% guarantee that someone has flailed and gushed and swooned over at least one of your fics because it spoke to something in them.
You have connected with more people than you know and you should be completely proud of yourselves.
Never compare yourself to others because everyone builds these connections in their own amazing way and fandom would be far less interesting without you in it
Bonsoir, chérie! I’m currently rereading the whole VC and I noticed something. Is it just me or does AR really like changing directions, insert 100 pages of some random topic that has no connection to the actual plot and then go back to the storyline as if nothing had happened? I’ve seen her do this a lot and I’m just sitting there thinking “was that really necessary?” I dunno if that’s just me and my not so perfect English or if that is actually a thing with her? Am I imagining things?
Bonsoir à toi, aussi, mon avocat gris 😀 Rereading the whole series, my gosh what a challenge and what fun! oh if only i could lay around reading books all day and sipping iced tea or an adult beverage that would be heaven siiiiigh…..
#pffffft Shut up Gaston #you’re like illiterate ok #Augustin de Lioncourt
Not sure which specific book you’re referring to, or if you meant that as kind of a silly observation, but I really enjoy how she jumps around! When you really consider these breaks in the “main” story, they’re like side dishes to a meal. When you really consider them you’ll find that those breaks are not so “random” after all, even if they are not connected to the actual plot. Not every piece of a story needs to be connected to the actual plot in order to make a story enjoyable. In fact it can keep you guessing, wondering whether you should keep this information in mind as the tale unfolds, or whether it was put there to throw you off the trail a bit!
Of course, #your headcanon may vary. If you choose not to accept some of these side stories, that’s fine, too.
There are alot of stories-within-stories in the VC. Characters tend to dig deeper and interview eachother. At one point, we have Lestat telling us what Marius told Lestat about what an Egyptian vampire told Marius about the origin story of the vampires written down in archives! That’s like 4 levels?! Interviewception.
In QotD,
from the beginning
Lestat tells us straightup that the story will be laid out like that:
“So we will move out of the narrow, lyrical confines of the first person singular; we will jump as a thousand mortal writers have done into the brains and souls of “many characters.” We will gallop into the world of “third person” and “multiple point of view.”
And by the way, when these other characters think or say of me that I am beautiful or irresistible, etc., don’t think I put these words in their heads. I didn’t! It’s what was told to me after, or what I drew out of their minds with infallible telepathic power; I wouldn’t lie about that or anything else.
I can’t help being a gorgeous fiend. It’s just the card I drew.
The bastard monster who made me what I am picked me on account of my good looks. That’s the long and short of it.
And accidents like that occur all the time.
Now, be assured: though I am leaving you, I will return with full flair at the appropriate moment.”
Writing the dramatic death scene
:: giggles a trifle hysterically, slumps back in chair ::
Anne Rice on fb: here is an article with tips to writing a successful story
Anne Rice on fb: according to edgar allan poe
Anne Rice on fb: but i don’t follow these because i do what i fucking want
So I reblogged this before, but I actually wanted to stop and saying something, which is this:
Everyone who writes has felt that moment of “EVERYTHING HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE I’M A FAKE I’M A FAILURE I’M WORTHLESS,” and it’s always been over a moment like this one. That moment where you realize your idea has been done before. But here’s the thing. Ideas aren’t worthless, but they’re the pennies of your novel. They’re the smallest component.
Execution, on the other hand…that’s what does everything. That’s your dollar bills, stuffed into the jar until you have enough to go on the biggest adventure of your life.
So write your story where the mermaid falls in love with the boy who lives on land. Write him becoming a merman for her, or write him as a her, or write your sea witch as the heroine, or write your mermaid as a villain. Write a world. The idea, that’s a penny you found in the street. All the real value is going to come from you.
This, this, this. 🙂
THIS. Execution is key.
Also
Novels have been around for more then three centuries, maybe even more.
Do you think your idea hasn’t been thought up before?
No idea is original on this earth, no matter how creative it can be, one other has probably thought of the same thing in their life time.
In turn, what does it matter if its “not creative?” Fuck em’. Write what you want to write, you’re not a failure, you’re a visionary, and you know what the difference if between you and the ones who also dared to dream of the same things you dreamt?
You have the will and the determination to put it out there.
I adore the way fan fiction writers engage with and critique source texts, by manipulating them and breaking their rules. Some of it is straight-up homage, but a lot of [fan fiction] is really aggressive towards the source text. One tends to think of it as written by total fanboys and fangirls as a kind of worshipful act, but a lot of times you’ll read these stories and it’ll be like ‘What if Star Trek had an openly gay character on the bridge?’ And of course the point is that they don’t, and they wouldn’t, because they don’t have the balls, or they are beholden to their advertisers, or whatever. There’s a powerful critique, almost punk-like anger, being expressed there—which I find fascinating and interesting and cool.
I-want-my-IWTV 