Neil Gaiman Writes Back, Insecure Writers, and a Shower Curtain Story

umping up and down:

Neil Gaiman wrote back!

Hope this catch sways Gaiman towards taking me on as copy editor (she says wistfully).

Insecure Writers Support Group (thanks Alex!)

All this is very timely as I'm in the midst of editing insecurity. So many missing scenes (25 to be exact) to draft for Rome, Rhymes and Risk, and each time I sit down to write one all I hear is a negative inner critic cackling at my efforts.

I know, I know, just quiet that critic with a little whisky latte, right? But it doesn't always work. Yet the only way to plough through is to do so despite the insecurity. As John D. MacDonald said, in his introduction to Stephen King's Night Shift:

"The only way you learn how to write is by writing. ... Because that's the way it is done. Because there is not other way to do it. Not one other way. ... Compulsive diligence is almost enough. But not quite. You have to have a taste for words. Gluttony. You have to want to roll in them. You have to read millions of them by other people. You read everything with grinding envy or weary contempt. ... Diligence, word-lust, empathy equal growing objectivity and then what? Story. Story. Dammit, story! ... Story is something happening to someone you have been led to care about. It can happen in any demension--physical, mental, spiritual--and in combination of all those dimensions." (lucky for me, someone else had already typed all this up)

Or you can, you know, try something new:

Shower curtain story

Dave Eggers has published a story on a shower curtain: "The McSweeney's founder has given a new meaning to idea of reading in the bathroom. His text is printed on a shower curtain for people to read while getting clean. It costs $65."

I don't know. I think I'll keep using my notebook.

Have you ever printed a story on something other than paper?