Love this post. Never heard this classification of Fun.
Type I: Final stages of revision. Or earlier stages where the light blub has gone off. Ideas in my notebook (few lines, a title that makes me laugh). Collecting/Analyzing feedback --> making to-do list.
Type II: Revising big picture items.
Type 2.5: Taking an existing polished story and having to break it apart and start over. First Drafts.
Type III: Not not knowing what to do or which way to go next. Overworked story.
I've known for some time that I write broadly. Now I have a new word to describe it: individual pursuit. I enjoy it but at the same time you are having to learn new skills every time, hence I feel it takes me longer to get a book to polished state. But I don't think I can or would want to write the same type of story again and again. It wouldn't hold my interest, I think.
Wow it is actually so helpful to think about fun on a scale this way. I think as an author/illustrator so much of my work is objectively "fun" but doesn't often feel like it in the moment, although sometimes it does. Now I have a clearer way of explaining this in my brain. Thank you!
Type I for me is my blurt writing. When I've cogitated a concept enough that it just blurts out onto the keyboard. Usually a hot mess of words but has captured the concept.
Type II is revising something based on someone else's comments that I don't necessarily agree with at first, but after revision, I see the wisdom of their perspective.
Type III is reworking an old work so many times that it doesn't often resemble the original MS, but I still can't let it go.
Not sure who said this. "I don't like writing. I like having written."
Off to my weekly writing group where I'm reading a 475-word story filled with body idioms. I did one last week on tools. They're both really silly and both came to me while falling asleep. So silly that I was laughing in my sleep. Now that's the kind of ideas for writing I love, although I feel like these are throw-aways. Still, were really fun to create and put together.
The Tour de Whatever! Individual pursuit! Identifying with being the groupwork doer! Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!
Here's how I see it breaking down for me:
Type I: Any writing where it's flowing. Outlines of first drafts to see if I can tell myself the plot. Putting something that makes me chuckle into my Commonplace Book. Putting a great title idea into Amazon...and finding nothing! Anything where I can imagine who might be the illustrator (obv. in my wildest dreams). Wordplay. Rhyme (sometimes).
Type II: Ditto on what you said: stories I know can be good but require much revision and exploration to finish. A hard draft or revision, but where I feel good about the book and my ability to pull it off. Non-humor picture books. A new-to-me structure or format. Rhyme revision. When I love an idea but am not sure there's a market for it or that I've quite figured it out, so I'm being measured about the time I spend on it (vs. other things). Basically, backburner/slow-burn writing.
Type III: Ditto on a lot of this: when I'm working on an idea I'm not a good enough writer for yet. When I'm trying for flow, and I'm too tired/hungry/distracted/angry/sad to surrender to it. But I would also add: true nonfiction. <--something happens to me where I fully intend to write a nonfiction book (and try!), but by the end of the draft, inevitably, the animals are arguing with one another or having a track-and-field event (or, in my latest one, both). When something has turned into a Frankenscript.
Excited about your picture book revision course! And I had never heard of Bernadette Mayer, either—interested in checking out more about her! (Among many other links.)
I wish I could nap--I've tried on occasion. I just don't have the sleep self-control. I turn selfish mid-nap and decide, "what the hell, let's go all the way and get some real sleep satisfaction," and then my day is totally shot, and I can't go to sleep at night. 😂
Love this post. Never heard this classification of Fun.
Type I: Final stages of revision. Or earlier stages where the light blub has gone off. Ideas in my notebook (few lines, a title that makes me laugh). Collecting/Analyzing feedback --> making to-do list.
Type II: Revising big picture items.
Type 2.5: Taking an existing polished story and having to break it apart and start over. First Drafts.
Type III: Not not knowing what to do or which way to go next. Overworked story.
I've known for some time that I write broadly. Now I have a new word to describe it: individual pursuit. I enjoy it but at the same time you are having to learn new skills every time, hence I feel it takes me longer to get a book to polished state. But I don't think I can or would want to write the same type of story again and again. It wouldn't hold my interest, I think.
Wow it is actually so helpful to think about fun on a scale this way. I think as an author/illustrator so much of my work is objectively "fun" but doesn't often feel like it in the moment, although sometimes it does. Now I have a clearer way of explaining this in my brain. Thank you!
Type I for me is my blurt writing. When I've cogitated a concept enough that it just blurts out onto the keyboard. Usually a hot mess of words but has captured the concept.
Type II is revising something based on someone else's comments that I don't necessarily agree with at first, but after revision, I see the wisdom of their perspective.
Type III is reworking an old work so many times that it doesn't often resemble the original MS, but I still can't let it go.
Not sure who said this. "I don't like writing. I like having written."
Off to my weekly writing group where I'm reading a 475-word story filled with body idioms. I did one last week on tools. They're both really silly and both came to me while falling asleep. So silly that I was laughing in my sleep. Now that's the kind of ideas for writing I love, although I feel like these are throw-aways. Still, were really fun to create and put together.
The Tour de Whatever! Individual pursuit! Identifying with being the groupwork doer! Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!
Here's how I see it breaking down for me:
Type I: Any writing where it's flowing. Outlines of first drafts to see if I can tell myself the plot. Putting something that makes me chuckle into my Commonplace Book. Putting a great title idea into Amazon...and finding nothing! Anything where I can imagine who might be the illustrator (obv. in my wildest dreams). Wordplay. Rhyme (sometimes).
Type II: Ditto on what you said: stories I know can be good but require much revision and exploration to finish. A hard draft or revision, but where I feel good about the book and my ability to pull it off. Non-humor picture books. A new-to-me structure or format. Rhyme revision. When I love an idea but am not sure there's a market for it or that I've quite figured it out, so I'm being measured about the time I spend on it (vs. other things). Basically, backburner/slow-burn writing.
Type III: Ditto on a lot of this: when I'm working on an idea I'm not a good enough writer for yet. When I'm trying for flow, and I'm too tired/hungry/distracted/angry/sad to surrender to it. But I would also add: true nonfiction. <--something happens to me where I fully intend to write a nonfiction book (and try!), but by the end of the draft, inevitably, the animals are arguing with one another or having a track-and-field event (or, in my latest one, both). When something has turned into a Frankenscript.
Excited about your picture book revision course! And I had never heard of Bernadette Mayer, either—interested in checking out more about her! (Among many other links.)
I wish I could nap--I've tried on occasion. I just don't have the sleep self-control. I turn selfish mid-nap and decide, "what the hell, let's go all the way and get some real sleep satisfaction," and then my day is totally shot, and I can't go to sleep at night. 😂