How is a preview different from a sample chapter on an ebook retailer? Or when a reader picks up your book in a bookstore and reads a few pages before she decides to buy (or not)? Enjoyed the House in the Hedge.,
It isn't really, you're quite right --- it's entirely down to me not expecting the sudden halt to the flow of text...so utterly my preference/experience/obliviousness 🤪...my brain throws a tantrum, especially if a piece is really engaging. It took me a minute to get used to the way Substack set these things up so I'm forewarned and can now choose to avoid the inevitable heartbreak😉. Glad you enjoyed the House in the Hedge, thank you for saying so. 😊
I so enjoyed this peek into your “behind the screen” processes. I find I can get very caught up in lots of intricate writing activity...planning, making vision boards, and task lists, taking notes, writing quotations...and use up all my energy instead of doing the actual writing itself. So that’s my Achilles heel.
Very bummed I had to miss Silent Scribble today. I’ve found it very helpful the past couple of weeks and I look forward to joining next Monday.
Also, I’m so very glad you’re at work on Hazel 2. I absolutely adored House in the Hedge. I feel Hazel is me (or I am her?) Anyway, loved the book and can’t wait for more, so keep at it! 😍
Ah yes, the noble distraction of Planning…it’s a fairly common affliction, I think! That said, I think the pre-writing activities are also an enormously helpful part of the process. I suppose the trick is finding the right balance…warding against the unhelpful forms of inertia.
You were missed at the Scribble…I’m finding them so helpful too. Hope to see you next time! xo
You’re so welcome…I love having a nosey at other people’s processes too. That’s so funny about the laptop/keyboard set-up…I’m forever trying to adjust the ergonomics and maximize my (Very small) desk space 😁
I hear you on the small desk space, I feel like I am constantly playing Tetris to get things in the best place for work and repeatedly failing. I have two screens which I realise you don’t it makes my work easier with two. I have an adapter which allows me to plug a monitor into my laptop.
Same!! The precarious piles are a menace, especially when the cat wanders through 😆. I really want to get a second screen - again for the ergonomics, but I’d have to replace my desk...🫤
Oh wow I thought I had a small desk! Yours must be really small. Mine is built into the space in the dining room between the chimney breast and the outside wall. It was designed with a PC in mind, the main box part was stored on a shelf below the desk, so there was a lot more space on the desk when it was used that way with a laptop it is rather cosy but maybe not as cosy as yours.
In all honesty I might want to spend an afternoon (a cool, breezy one) in your brain! And I'd invite you to have a good museum day in my brain. It's pretty much a children's museum - tactile and colourful. You have such an exciting mind! Are you truly looking at science?? That is - gah! - exciting! So grateful for your brilliant words. I mean, if they haphazardly fell on the floor I might try to do something crazy with them. But your coherent words on page is "such a feast that mends in length." That's from an Easter antiphon, music by Ralph Vaughan Williams but I can recall the writer. Language is the best and perhaps the worst. We can take the best and leave the worst behind behind behind our behinds. And there's my eloquent statement for the day. I'm reading you on my Kindle this aft. 💚
I’m in this week for silent scribble, if that’s still happening. Book 5 let go of me finally and book 3 is back and I haven’t written in 2 weeks!
Yep, still happening! See you Wednesday! Two weeks?!? You must be experiencing withdrawal. 😁
It would explain the vivid Book 5 daydreams while being a passenger on long car trips …
How is a preview different from a sample chapter on an ebook retailer? Or when a reader picks up your book in a bookstore and reads a few pages before she decides to buy (or not)? Enjoyed the House in the Hedge.,
It isn't really, you're quite right --- it's entirely down to me not expecting the sudden halt to the flow of text...so utterly my preference/experience/obliviousness 🤪...my brain throws a tantrum, especially if a piece is really engaging. It took me a minute to get used to the way Substack set these things up so I'm forewarned and can now choose to avoid the inevitable heartbreak😉. Glad you enjoyed the House in the Hedge, thank you for saying so. 😊
I so enjoyed this peek into your “behind the screen” processes. I find I can get very caught up in lots of intricate writing activity...planning, making vision boards, and task lists, taking notes, writing quotations...and use up all my energy instead of doing the actual writing itself. So that’s my Achilles heel.
Very bummed I had to miss Silent Scribble today. I’ve found it very helpful the past couple of weeks and I look forward to joining next Monday.
Also, I’m so very glad you’re at work on Hazel 2. I absolutely adored House in the Hedge. I feel Hazel is me (or I am her?) Anyway, loved the book and can’t wait for more, so keep at it! 😍
Ah yes, the noble distraction of Planning…it’s a fairly common affliction, I think! That said, I think the pre-writing activities are also an enormously helpful part of the process. I suppose the trick is finding the right balance…warding against the unhelpful forms of inertia.
You were missed at the Scribble…I’m finding them so helpful too. Hope to see you next time! xo
Thank you for your lovely window into your writing process, so fascinating for those of us that are not writers and are unlikely to go down that road.
I couldn’t help noticing that from the photo at the beginning of your post that I have the exact same laptop/keyboard set up 🙂
You’re so welcome…I love having a nosey at other people’s processes too. That’s so funny about the laptop/keyboard set-up…I’m forever trying to adjust the ergonomics and maximize my (Very small) desk space 😁
I hear you on the small desk space, I feel like I am constantly playing Tetris to get things in the best place for work and repeatedly failing. I have two screens which I realise you don’t it makes my work easier with two. I have an adapter which allows me to plug a monitor into my laptop.
Same!! The precarious piles are a menace, especially when the cat wanders through 😆. I really want to get a second screen - again for the ergonomics, but I’d have to replace my desk...🫤
Oh wow I thought I had a small desk! Yours must be really small. Mine is built into the space in the dining room between the chimney breast and the outside wall. It was designed with a PC in mind, the main box part was stored on a shelf below the desk, so there was a lot more space on the desk when it was used that way with a laptop it is rather cosy but maybe not as cosy as yours.
In all honesty I might want to spend an afternoon (a cool, breezy one) in your brain! And I'd invite you to have a good museum day in my brain. It's pretty much a children's museum - tactile and colourful. You have such an exciting mind! Are you truly looking at science?? That is - gah! - exciting! So grateful for your brilliant words. I mean, if they haphazardly fell on the floor I might try to do something crazy with them. But your coherent words on page is "such a feast that mends in length." That's from an Easter antiphon, music by Ralph Vaughan Williams but I can recall the writer. Language is the best and perhaps the worst. We can take the best and leave the worst behind behind behind our behinds. And there's my eloquent statement for the day. I'm reading you on my Kindle this aft. 💚