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.
Ooooo, I like your Type 2.5. Definitely, me too. I had never heard of the fun classifications either, until I read the article, and it immediately set me to thinking about how it might apply to everything (while also realizing that maybe only a deeply unfun person tries to classify fun, but still).
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!
SERIOUSLY. There are so many times when I look back at my day and I'm like "oh, come on, I was figuring out if an octopus would steal candy from a vending machine, why was I so angsty about it?"
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.
I love that these ideas are coming to you as you're falling asleep! I'm really trying to get stronger about that. However that works. Ritual? Stating out loud that I'm ready for the story ideas to come?
And YES, you reminded me, in your Type II example, of a thing that I have done so many times, where I'm typing a long comment in the margin explaining why I can't do the edit that was asked for, and then, through the process of writing the comment, I realize it's actually a good suggestion and I figure out how I can make it work. (And then I delete my comment and pretend I knew exactly how to make it happen from the very beginning.)
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. 😂
Thank you for being excited about the pb revision class. I'm having fun making it. I love revision! This is all an experiment. And using lots of technology I've never used before.
Oooh, I like thinking about adding nonfiction and rhyme to the list, and where they might fall. I love doing the sort of nonfiction I do here on Substack, but my (very few) attempts at nonfiction picture books have been Type III all the way. And I love putting in tiny spots of rhyme, but I know trying to write an entire book in rhyme would be tough. Type 2.5 at least.
I can nap, sometimes, but I feel guilty about it. I only do it if it's a situation where I am falling asleep trying to work. Also the percentage of time I get interrupted while napping is somewhere around 98%. Sometimes Dave and I try to do a reading-time-to-nap-time magical thing on weekend afternoons, and the kids always have not-important (seemingly) questions suddenly ("How is mustard made?" "Do you know if any of my socks are in your bedroom?" "What's for dinner?").
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.
Ooooo, I like your Type 2.5. Definitely, me too. I had never heard of the fun classifications either, until I read the article, and it immediately set me to thinking about how it might apply to everything (while also realizing that maybe only a deeply unfun person tries to classify fun, but still).
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!
SERIOUSLY. There are so many times when I look back at my day and I'm like "oh, come on, I was figuring out if an octopus would steal candy from a vending machine, why was I so angsty about it?"
Hahah exactly. It makes me feel less of a curmudgeon knowing that I'm just having a different TYPE of fun.
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.
I love that these ideas are coming to you as you're falling asleep! I'm really trying to get stronger about that. However that works. Ritual? Stating out loud that I'm ready for the story ideas to come?
And YES, you reminded me, in your Type II example, of a thing that I have done so many times, where I'm typing a long comment in the margin explaining why I can't do the edit that was asked for, and then, through the process of writing the comment, I realize it's actually a good suggestion and I figure out how I can make it work. (And then I delete my comment and pretend I knew exactly how to make it happen from the very beginning.)
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. 😂
Thank you for being excited about the pb revision class. I'm having fun making it. I love revision! This is all an experiment. And using lots of technology I've never used before.
Oooh, I like thinking about adding nonfiction and rhyme to the list, and where they might fall. I love doing the sort of nonfiction I do here on Substack, but my (very few) attempts at nonfiction picture books have been Type III all the way. And I love putting in tiny spots of rhyme, but I know trying to write an entire book in rhyme would be tough. Type 2.5 at least.
I can nap, sometimes, but I feel guilty about it. I only do it if it's a situation where I am falling asleep trying to work. Also the percentage of time I get interrupted while napping is somewhere around 98%. Sometimes Dave and I try to do a reading-time-to-nap-time magical thing on weekend afternoons, and the kids always have not-important (seemingly) questions suddenly ("How is mustard made?" "Do you know if any of my socks are in your bedroom?" "What's for dinner?").