My absolute favourite post this week is one written by Brian D. Buckley titled You Do Not Even Have To Believe In Yourself. This post resonated with me so much, I’ve been thinking about it all week. No matter what kind of art you do (or would like to do), click over and read this post. Because really, you don’t even need to believe in yourself. You just need to “Keep the channel open; make good art; give the world what it can’t get anywhere else.”
As I mentioned yesterday, it’s almost NaNoWriMo time. (Only 8 days to go!) Katy from Storytelling Nomad wrote a great post about her newbie jitters, and her plan for tackling the terrifying task of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.
If any writers out there aren’t following Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner’s blog, I highly recommend it. Although she doesn’t represent the type of fiction I write, she’s always entertaining and informative. This week, she had an amusing competition where she asked readers to complete this joke: How Many Agents Does it Take to Screw In a Lightbulb. A sample of the answers and the winning entry is here. My favourite?
How many agents does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
It’s impossible to say. The whole industry is moving towards ebulbs now.
Ah, spam. Is there anything you can’t do? It’s the little things, really, like the tickle of amusement when I read that you’d like me to change my text colour, the heapings of praise for my “helpful article” about “the best singer” on my vampire flash fiction, and the thrill to find out someone is interested in helping me improve my SEO. But my new favourite thing about spam? It inspired this entertaining post on Prawn and Quartered: And Here’s To You, Mrs. HornyHot26.
And now for something completely different…
Do you like crime shows? Do you always have a little titter when someone gets decapitated and the investigating officer takes one look and comes up with a witty one-liner? Well, now there’s a new group of forensic investigators on the block. I give you CSI: Legoland. Watch it. Seriously. It’s blocktacular.
Jo Eberhardt is a writer of speculative fiction, mother to two adorable boys, and lover of words and stories. She lives in rural Queensland, Australia, and spends her non-writing time worrying that the neighbour's cows will one day succeed in sneaking into her yard and eating everything in her vegie garden.
Thanks for the pingback. My favorite spambots are the ones that want to help me increase my penis size when I don’t even have one. Ah, well.
To give those spambots some credit, they’re starting from a strong point. I mean, it’s not like their dodgy products could make your penis any smaller…
Great article about making art! I agree that we just have to keep moving. Good, bad, indifferent … keep making. 🙂
Absolutely! I love the idea about how no-one else can create the same art as you, because you’re unique.
I’m heading over right now to read about why I do not have to believe in myself. Usually I just can’t believe the dumb things I do:)
Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks for the mention, Jo! It’s day two and I’m already behind, but there is no lack of motivation and inspiration to keep me encouraged! Woo!
You’re only, what, 1600 words behind? That’s an extra 58 words a day from now until the end of November. You won’t even notice it. 🙂
I can always trust my fellow writers to put things into perspective! 🙂