Miles Klee talks about his novel Ivyland. This particular piece counts as “Monday Inspiration” for me because I’m going through something kind of similar (on a ridiculously less impressive scale) with a short story right now.
When they bring up these kind of genres [like “hysterical realism”] that they’ve identified as what’s wrong with fiction today. My problem was that I love to read those takedowns. I’m like “That’s exactly what I’m doing! That’s me to a T.” It annoyed me that they already seemed to have a handle on what I was doing.
I would bring this stuff up to my agent. I’d express my neuroses — he’s there to tell me to shut up. He was like, “Well, on the one hand that’s kind of bullshit. You read that stuff because it’s fun bullshit. On the other hand, you can’t write anything trying to guess what the audience is going to do. You can write for one person at most.”
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Drunk Texts from Famous Authors, including Emily Dickinson and Dan Brown.
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Flavorwire’s 10 Favorite Manic Pixie Dream Girls
Inspiring for me indirectly, because I sometimes enjoy them but I never want to write one.
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I’m getting ready to read 25 Things You Should Know About Fantasy
Upon skimming the article, my favorite bit of advice so far is
23. Fuck Tolkien
Tolkien deserves kudos. High-five to him. And now we’re done. Stop emulating him. No more elves and orcs and dwarves. No more slavish D&D devotion. Fantasy isn’t beholden to this dude. Nobody’s forcing you to trample the same grass over and over again. He is not the only example (and fantasy needs few examples, anyway)…
Haha I love the drunk texts from authors – thanks, I needed a good laugh.
No problem – happy to share!