Category: Writing (Page 72 of 73)

You’re Not Alone in Feeling Like It’s All Been Done Before

March 8, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

One problem I often run across while writing (have I mentioned that I’m a writer?) is that I feel like there’s nothing new to write about. I’ll be sitting with my laptop, type, type, typing away, and I’m feeling great. I think I’m brilliant! Can I possibly come up with any more awesome ideas?

Then a few days later I reread a book and think Hmmm. Why does this feel so familiar? I must be remembering the last time I read this book. No. It’s not that. It reminds me of something I’ve read more recently. Oh, right. My moment of inspired originality. Only my writing is not nearly as good as this is. So much for having awesome ideas. This isn’t even a new complaint among writers…even my lamentations are rip-offs.

To console myself I’ve come up with a list of expressions that are disgustingly overused right now. I narrowed the list down to just three (if I didn’t cut myself off there, who knows when I would’ve stopped). These three in particular make me very angry; so angry in fact I think if I hear any of them one more time, I might just implode.

3. Shabby Chic–I’m all for a good oxymoron, but this is one of those terms that everybody’s been using to describe everything. My car is an old junker, but I covered the seats in velour, so now it’s shabby chic. (No, it’s just a piece o’ crap!) I’d call my style shabby chic because I decorated my house with a bunch of stuff I bought at a tag sale. (No, you’re just cheap and now your house is full of a bunch o’ crap that other people discarded!)

2. Dark Horse–From American Idol to NASCAR, commentators are predicting that every middle-of-the-road competitor is a dark horse. A true dark horse is racehorse, candidate, athlete, etc… that really comes from nowhere to win. By definition you can’t predict a dark horse, so stop trying to do it!

1. It is what it is–This has to be the most meaningless expression ever created. It literally has no meaning. And every reality TV star that’s getting his 15 minutes of fame is using it. Just typing this phrase caused me pain. The next time I hear someone say this, I won’t implode. I will explode into a million bloody pieces all over the place. That way at least there will be some evidence of my extreme irritation.

The Scale of the Universe Makes Me Feel Small

February 28, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

My post on the Higgs boson or God particle discussed things that are really small, so here’s some thoughts that take you to somewhere really big. These big thoughts made me feel really small and certainly gave me a totally new perspective.

A couple of years ago, I was in NYC for a writing conference. My husband came with me and we went down a day early to check out the city. We decided to visit the American Museum of Natural History. Neither of us had been there since we were kids. Actually, it was a lot more fun to go as adults. We could look at whatever we wanted (and skip anything we didn’t feel like looking at), we didn’t have to fill out any kind of worksheets or anything, and no chaperones.

There was one particular exhibit that really blew my mind, one I still think about today. The Scales of the Universe looks pretty flashy with the giant model planets that hang from the ceiling and the enormous Hayden Sphere, but the meat-and-bones of the exhibit is based on a simple power of ten scale.

The exhibits walkway starts by showing you the very small (yup, I’m talking about those good old microparticles), and each step takes you to something a little larger, and in comparison you get a little smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and smaller…And as you meander around the walkway, you learn how insignificant your life really is.

The coolest things is how the exhibit uses reference points that are easy to understand. That’s where the models and the Hayden Sphere (which in relative size to the model planets represents the sun) come into play. One step might show you a tiny speck and explain that if the Hayden Sphere were (I’m totally making up this comparison; the museum website shows you real ones) say your head, this speck might be how big a single skin cell is.

That’s how the exhibit does just what it says: it uses the large spheres and smaller models to scale the universe and its parts into a size that is comprehendible. Well, sort of. By the end of the walkway our own universe is so small in comparison to the object to which it’s being compared that you’re not even a speck within a speck within a speck…Whoa! Totally mind (well you know!).

I try to remember this scale when nine months after sending out my baby, my heart and soul on paper (a.k.a. my manuscript), I receive a brief note from an editor saying that she like my manuscript but it wasn’t right for her list. It’s all about keeping things in perspective…at least that’s what I keep telling myself!

The Latest Magnetic Poetry: Sour Pickle Edition

February 22, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

My friends like to share their own unique brand of problems by writing them on my refrigerator. You may remember the last time I shared their magnetic poetry. I have to say, I found their thoughts a bit disturbing.

I’m glad my friends consider my home (or at least my fridge) as safe place for expressing themselves. Here’s the latest entries:

This old dog said you like vacuum prostitutes. (Do I want to know what else you like? Probably not!)
Suck my obedient bosom fire. (That’s what she said!)
Sour pickle mouth takes head. (Ummm…no comment)
Always imagine pleasure and beauty fighting devil spurts. (My personal favorite because it really makes you think.)

Last post I discussed some very small (in the literal sense) things that might actually turn out to be very big (metaphorically). Next post I’ll take a look at something very big indeed!

SCBWI L.A. 2008 Conference Gems: Part 3

September 29, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

Okay, so here are the last few bits of wisdom I’ll share from the LA Conference:

The perfect ending is a surprise and is inevitable
Art is in the details
Fiction has a higher standard of believability than real life
Male energy is action, adventure, fun, and blowing stuff up; female energy is relationships, interaction, beauty of language, and character
Use male energy to make things happen and female energy to make people care

Bruce Coville (from his session “Plotting: The Architecture of Story”)

Try to create some semblance of order in the chaos of the world and within
Children are game for anything
Yearning is part of what defines all art
Use your very guts to spill out your very best

Susan Patron (from her speech “Endings: Surprising and Yet Inevitable)

Okay, that’s all I have for now. As my brother would say, “Think about it.”

SCBWI L.A. 2008 Conference Gems: Part 2

September 5, 2008 / Katie L. Carroll

My picture made someone else’s blog! Wow, I’m almost famous! Lisa Yee is a YA author who presented at the conference. Check out the second picture on this post to see me attending her session on revision.

What you can’t find me? I’m all the way over to the right…the blonde in the bluish/green sweater…okay, so really about a quarter of me is cut off, but I’m still mostly in the picture. Well it was fun for me to see it, so I don’t care if you don’t care!

Here are a few more conference tidbits for you to ponder: