Last week I attended a couple panels at the LA Times Book Festival. The Festival itself was nice, but I'm not into the whole "walking from booth to booth and getting free stuff" thing. I've decided that I'm going to try and write a book and I wanted to hear from some authors writing in the same genre I'm trying.
The two panels were interesting, although I enjoyed the 1st panel much more. The authors on that panel were Robin Benway, Deb Caletti, Lauren Myracle and Lisa Yee. This particular panel was moderated by Cecil Castelluci, an author herself. The five women were quite animated and it was very interesting seeing their different personalities on stage. I came away from the panel with a couple nuggets of motivation that have kept me moving forward with my writing.
The second panel was fine, though a little stuffy. The moderator for that panel ran it much more traditionally by asking questions on down the row of authors. I liked the free form conversational style of the first. Much more relaxed.
As for my own book, I won't divulge the plot. If you dig around on the Internet, you know what genre I'm shooting for. I read once that when you are writing a book you shouldn't announce it to anyone until it's completed. I can understand this thinking but I tend to disagree. I'd rather make a proclamation that I'm doing this thing and have my friends and family hold me accountable. There's nothing more motivating than having someone ask "how's the book coming along?" I hate bullshitting people and to lie would make me feel like a loser. The only thing worse would be to say I haven't been working on it and offer some lame excuse like I've been too busy with Popdose.
Speaking of the Dose, one of the reasons I drew back from writing my weekly television column was because I wanted to focus on writing this book. I feel it was a good decision because I don't feel the pressure to come up with something every week (nor do I feel guilty when I miss a week). I realize I'm not getting paid, but I take the Popdose stuff pretty serious. In addition, it is still my goal to writ a new basement song for every week of the year this year. I still think I can do it.
It's funny, since I went to the festival, I've been motivated to keep my thoughts on Thunderbolt again. I hope that I've finally found the balance between what I'm writing at Popdose and what I want to share here.
Aloha
The two panels were interesting, although I enjoyed the 1st panel much more. The authors on that panel were Robin Benway, Deb Caletti, Lauren Myracle and Lisa Yee. This particular panel was moderated by Cecil Castelluci, an author herself. The five women were quite animated and it was very interesting seeing their different personalities on stage. I came away from the panel with a couple nuggets of motivation that have kept me moving forward with my writing.
The second panel was fine, though a little stuffy. The moderator for that panel ran it much more traditionally by asking questions on down the row of authors. I liked the free form conversational style of the first. Much more relaxed.
As for my own book, I won't divulge the plot. If you dig around on the Internet, you know what genre I'm shooting for. I read once that when you are writing a book you shouldn't announce it to anyone until it's completed. I can understand this thinking but I tend to disagree. I'd rather make a proclamation that I'm doing this thing and have my friends and family hold me accountable. There's nothing more motivating than having someone ask "how's the book coming along?" I hate bullshitting people and to lie would make me feel like a loser. The only thing worse would be to say I haven't been working on it and offer some lame excuse like I've been too busy with Popdose.
Speaking of the Dose, one of the reasons I drew back from writing my weekly television column was because I wanted to focus on writing this book. I feel it was a good decision because I don't feel the pressure to come up with something every week (nor do I feel guilty when I miss a week). I realize I'm not getting paid, but I take the Popdose stuff pretty serious. In addition, it is still my goal to writ a new basement song for every week of the year this year. I still think I can do it.
It's funny, since I went to the festival, I've been motivated to keep my thoughts on Thunderbolt again. I hope that I've finally found the balance between what I'm writing at Popdose and what I want to share here.
Aloha
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