GUEST POST: "Building a Writing Career with Freelancing" by Danica Davidson

My first official writing job was working for the local paper when I was in twelfth grade. For years I’d tried submitting my novels for publication, but the powers that be weren’t interested in young, unknown writers. Knowing I needed to make some money and hoping I could build a platform, I started sending short stories to literary magazines like the New Yorker. Cue the rejection slips. So I called up the local paper and they were willing to take a chance on me as a freelancer.

            I wrote about whatever they sent me to cover, which, in a rural community, was usually pretty low-key, like covering tractor pulls. I found a newspaper distributed around the state that was a little more artsy and reached out to them. They were in need of writers and saw I’d already done professional work. While freelancing for them, I asked if I could interview anime voice over actors, and they said yes.

            At this time I was working two other part-time jobs, trying to make ends meet. I took the anime voice actor interviews I did and sent them to Anime Insider, a glossy anime magazine. The head editor there liked my writing and I began freelancing for them as well.

            As the years went on, I freelanced more and more until it got to the point I could stop working my part-time jobs. The best luck I had was taking something I’d already written and sending it to another magazine (or website, or whatever) that wrote something similar. Most places never wrote back. A few did after I sent a couple polite reminder emails, asking if they’d gotten my previous email. My emails would be short, respectful and to the point; I would include a few sample articles and a link to the website I had created for myself.

Here's a sample email:

Dear Ms. [Name]

I'm a writer at MTV who has a special niche in writing about and reviewing graphic novels. In addition to MTV, I've written about this subject for CNN, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and other places. All told, I've sold more than a thousand articles to more than fifty publications. I was wondering if I could contribute any freelance articles or reviews on graphic novels to [Name].
You can see some samples of my published work here:

http://www.danicadavidson.com/Published_Articles.html

Thank you for your time, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Danica

            Writing about anime led to jobs covering manga at Graphic Novel Reporter, Booklist and Publishers Weekly. I tried to get into MTV for a few years because of my interest in writing YA books, and no one ever got back to me. Then I saw an MTV editor who covered comic books had mutual friends on Facebook. I sent him a polite message, not expecting to hear back . . . and was shocked when he wrote back and was willing to take a look at my stuff and give me a chance. MTV turned out to be the only place where I got hired on-staff as a writer.

            None of this stopped my freelancing. The more I freelanced, the more places were willing to give me a chance (though I want to stress that most places either didn’t respond or said they had their full roster of writers and to check back later). A PR person in comic books I met suggested I reach out to someone at the A.V. Club (The Onion) after reading my articles and gave me the contact information, though I still had to pitch on my own. A recommendation through a mutual acquaintance got me into CNN. However, recommendations only got me into a few places; most of the time, it was figuratively knocking on the door myself that did it.

            Writing all these articles helped pay my bills and build me a platform. All my work on manga ended up getting me to sign my first book contract for Manga Art for Beginners, a how-to-draw guide on manga-style drawing with more steps than your average how-to-draw book. 

            After that, I sold my first Minecrafter series (adventure novels for kids that take place as if Minecraft is real): Escape from the Overworld, Attack on the Overworld, The Rise of Herobrine, Down into the Nether, The Armies of Herobrine and Battle with the Wither. I wrote a Barbie graphic novel called Barbie: Puppy Party, and a Tales from the Crypt comic called “Picture Perfect.” Manga Art for Intermediates comes out next year, and my Minecrafter spinoff series (same main characters, different villains and adventures) starts coming out today with the book Adventure Against the Endermen. 

             Freelancing isn’t easy, but I kept at it because I knew what I wanted to do and I knew it wouldn’t be simple. I’ve sold thousands of articles, and this led me to where I am today as a writer.

Danica Davidson is a novelist and journalist. She's published thousands of articles at such places as MTV, The Onion, CNN, Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times and Ms. Her work at MTV earned her a Webby honor with a small group of writers for Best Youth Writing. She is represented by the James Fitzgerald Agency.

She is the author of the Overworld Adventures book series for Minecrafters, with the books Escape from the Overworld, Attack on the Overworld, The Rise of Herobrine, Down into the Nether, a The Armies of Herobrine and the newly released Battle with the Wither. She is also the author of Manga Art for Beginners and  Barbie: Puppy Party. 

Click here to read her post "Turning a Video Game into a Book Series (with Adventure and Meaning)"

Click here to see her face the 7 Questions.

Please check out her website, her Amazon page, or follow her on Twitter @DanicaDavidson.

After discovering a portal to Earth and battling the evil Herobrine and his army of vicious mobs, Steve and his friends are known throughout the Overworld as heroes. Stevie’s enjoying the attention—that is, until he tries to show off and instead falls down a mineshaft. At the bottom of the mineshaft, Stevie finds an Ender crystal with mysterious powers.

Soon the Overworld is in danger once again, this time from vicious Endermen! Mayor Alexandra summons Stevie, Alex, Maison, Yancy, and Destiny to try and stop the attacks. When the friends investigate, they quickly realize that the Endermen are looking for something. Could it be Stevie’s Ender crystal?

Soon the group of friends—now an Overworld task force—are caught up in a battle larger than any they could have imagined. Can they protect the world of Minecraft from Endermen—and the larger threat of the crystal?


Fans of Minecraft will race to the end of this first installment in the Unofficial Overworld Heroes Adventure series by Danica Davidson!

danicadavidson.com

7 Questions For: Author Danica Davidson

Danica Davidson is the author of the Overworld Adventures book series for Minecrafters, with the books Escape from the Overworld, Attack on the Overworld, The Rise of Herobrine, Down into the Nether, a The Armies of Herobrine and the newly released Battle with the Wither. She is also the author of Manga Art for Beginners and  Barbie: Puppy Party. 

Please check out her website, her Amazon page, or follow her on Twitter @DanicaDavidson.

Click here to read her post "Turning a Video Game into a Book Series (with Adventure and Meaning)"

And now Danica Davidson faces the 7 Questions:


Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

The Iliad, the Odyssey and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. 

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

As much as I can (and it still somehow feels like never enough). With my Minecrafter novels, I’ve gotten into the habit of getting the first draft completely done in a week, give or take a day. That’s a lot of writing! But my deadlines have usually given me about six weeks to write the book, so I’ve had to move fast. Then I take a little break from it before I go back and revise. 

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I started seriously submitting my work to agents and editors when I was in middle school. I was writing novels at the time and all I’ve ever wanted to be was a professional author. Everyone tells you to be ready for rejections, but I never expected the sheer number of them on my way to selling my first book. When I was in my senior year of high school, I was in a situation where it was important I start making my own income, so I went to the local newspaper and asked for a job. I started out as a freelancer, covering dramatic, stop-the-press events like the local tractor pull (okay, it wasn’t dramatic).

I’d send my published articles to other places, trying to get in. I started writing for an anime magazine (I’m a big fan of anime and animation), and that helped open more doors. Eventually I was writing articles for MTV, CNN, The Onion, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and other publications. All the while I was still trying to sell my books and was stacking up rejection letters. More than a decade after I started submitting, I got an agent who was impressed with my writing and all my publications and wanted to represent me. Some months later, I’d sold my first book, Manga Art for Beginners.  

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

For me, it just came naturally, though I think we all need “teaching.” Since I was little, I made up stories. I used to dictate stories to my parents when I was three. I wrote my first chapter book when I was seven. I just wrote.

But it’s also important to learn how to edit, how to portray characters, etc. Some of that can be done from studying how other writers handle it. It also helps to find an editor who’s willing to look over what you have, because writers tend to be too close to their work, especially at the beginning. 

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

My favorite thing is the act of writing, especially when the words come as a rush and it feels as if you’re just taking dictation from your brain. Sometimes it’s harder to get the words to come, but when they do come in a rush, it’s the best.

My least favorite thing is more the business of publishing. For instance, getting an agent is agony and it took me years. Then you have to publicize your book, but a million other people also want to publicize their books, so everyone’s vying for attention. I just want to write and let the books sell themselves, but it usually doesn’t work that way. It’s very time-consuming and takes time away from actual writing, but it’s part of what you have to do to be a professional writer. 

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

My best advice for writing is “to write.” I hear from people all the time who say they want to be a writer, though they’ve never written anything down. It’s like they’re scared to put something on paper in case it isn’t perfect. No rough draft is perfect, but getting the words down is important. 

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Anaïs Nin, a French-American writer I discovered in high school. She writes for adults, not kids, so she has a very different audience than the ones I have with my Minecrafter, manga and Barbie books. She kept a diary her whole life and parts of it have been published, and some of it is the most real, authentic writing I’ve ever read. She describes things I’ve felt but never heard described before. That’s what all writers want to do.

danicadavidson.com

GUEST POST: "Turning a Video Game into a Book Series (with Adventure and Meaning)" by Danica Davidson

            When I tell people I write fictional books about video games, they’re usually shocked. This shock then often turns into one of two things: either they find this idea suspicious the more they think about it, or they think it’s a great idea that can get kids reading on top of playing the video games they love. I’m really trying to go for the second response, because I write books full of cliffhangers (to keep you turning the pages) that also talk about real-world issues (like cyberbullying) to let kids know they’re not alone.

            In my Overworld Adventure series, the video game Minecraft is a real place. (If you have kids or know kids who are into Minecraft, it might as well be.) 11-year-old Stevie lives in the Minecraft world, but he feels as if he doesn’t belong because he isn’t as good at building or fighting monsters as his dad. Then one day Stevie finds a portal to Earth and befriends Maison, a bullied girl who’s starting at a new school and feeling insecure about herself. Their insecurities bring them together and make them friends, and the series follows their adventures as they go back and forth between the different worlds.

            Through the course of the series, they battle zombies, creepers, Herobrine . . . and have to deal with kid stuff. While the first book talks about in-your-face bullying, the following books get into the realm of cyberbullying after some cyberbullies hack into Maison’s computer and let themselves into the Minecraft game there. In other words, they let themselves into Stevie’s world, where they turn it into eternal night and unleash zombies.

            Middle grade readers are either just starting to go online or will soon be doing so, which makes me think this is a prime time to talk about things like cyberbullying and how to be nice online. But instead of turning it into a lecture (ugh) I’m able to weave it into a story. I hope this enables kids and adults they trust to be able to talk about real life cyberbullying, and how you can talk or have disagreements online without it having to turn mean. All this stems out of writing about video games.

            While this is about video games, writers can use other things kids already like and make new twists with them. For instance, I also have a manga how-to-draw book out called Manga Art for Beginners, because why not take a love of manga and channel it into your own creativity? (And it has ninjas in it, of course.) On top of that, I have a Barbie comic book coming out called Puppy Party, and in it you see Barbie and her sisters coming up with ideas to get all the local shelter dogs adopted. Can you use video games to tell stories about cyberbullying or a doll to talk about animal welfare, while  being entertaining? You sure can! 

Danica Davidson is the author of the Overworld Adventures book series for Minecrafters, with the books Escape from the Overworld, Attack on the Overworld, The Rise of Herobrine, Down into the Nether, and the soon-to-be-released (and available for pre-order) The Armies of Herobrine and Battle with the Wither. She is also the author of Manga Art for Beginners and the soon-to-be-released (and additionally available for pre-order) Barbie: Puppy Party. 

Please check out her website, her Amazon page, or follow her on Twitter @DanicaDavidson.

danicadavidson.com

NINJA STUFF: Life Without Television (Part Two)

Last Time on Ninja Stuff: We discussed my former addiction to cigarettes and the prominent placement of televisions in American homes. What riveting stuff this blog is composed of :) 

And now the thrilling conclusion...


Hello, Esteemed Reader. My name is Middle Grade Ninja and I'm a television-aholic. 

But don't get all high and mighty on me. The television is on 7 hours and 40 minutes a day in the average American household. Americans watch an average of 28 hours of television per week. 73% of statistics are manipulated, unverifiable, or made up on the spot:) I got these numbers from seemingly trustworthy sources, but who knows?

Whatever the actual numbers may be, I think we can agree Americans watch a crap ton of television. Don't worry. This isn't a hippie/hipster rant about how we need to throw out our televisions and get back to living in tepees or something so long as there's free wi-fi. That's not a mature response to one of the most awesome communication devices the world has ever known.

I've spent hours in front of my television watching movies and playing video games. At the height of my addiction, I had a 55-inch 3d television, an X-box 360, a Nintendo Wii, more than 100 DVDs, 20 some-odd blu-rays, and an embarrassing number of VHS tapes:) There were weeks I logged more hours playing Red Dead Redemption than working my actual job! I listened to a book while I played, but that's still a lot of hours for an aspiring author to devote to an activity that is neither reading nor writing. 

The main reason I originally started this blog was to force myself to read more, fighting against the time sucker dominating the main room of our house. When I opened our front door, the television was the first thing I saw. When I sat on my couch, it was next to my conveniently placed remote control, tempting me to perhaps just check out something on TV before I got down to reading. Even if I picked up a book, I usually left the TV on so I could keep an eye on... whatever.

One day I got a call at work from a very upset Mrs. Ninja who'd come home to find we'd been robbed. I'll never say those dirty thieves did me a favor. They took my laptop, on which I had the first thirty pages of a new novel I'd foolishly neglected to back up, but rewriting them later took the story in a much better direction. The thieves didn't touch my collection of Batman action figures (my heart would've broken) and they didn't vandalize.  No one got hurt, so we got off very lucky. 

They did, however, do what I didn't have the strength to do: they liberated me from the oppression of my television. They stole my movies, my video games (even my gameboy!), and every last pair of 3d glasses, but they left our books untouched. Wouldn't you know it, Mrs. Ninja and I had just let our insurance lapse, so the whole thing was a total loss.

We've since moved and been without a TV for a year. At first, as with the breaking of any addiction by force, it was difficult. I honestly came home a few nights and stared at the barren wall where my beautiful television had once been, which is so, so sad.

The Ninja is nothing if not a flake keen on taking his ques from mysterious signs and wonders (religious upbringing--what are you gonna do?). I decided my muse must surely have inspired those lowlifes for so oddly specific were the thieves in taking all the items keeping me from being a better writer. Richard Dawkins is chuckling at my bumpkin superstitions, I have no doubt, but all the rational thought in the world doesn't explain some experiences in life (the subject of another post).

At the time I had only enough money to replace my laptop or my television. I chose the laptop so I could write and blog, of course, and I bought a much fancier computer than ever before. I can watch Nextlix, Hulu, and Amazon to my heart's content, and thanks to Steam, I've played the newest Assassin's Creed. If you were expecting this story to end with a chastened Ninja swearing off all media, I'm sorry to disappoint. Just last night, after my reading, I played Ocarina of Time on my 3DS while listening to John Greene's amazing The Fault in Our Stars (go Indiana authors!).

I still watch a good 45 minutes of television a day--usually from the elliptical machine, but it's much rarer for me to find I've vegged out on the couch for a full day. Purchasing The Walking Dead on Amazon for 3 bucks an episode is a lot cheaper than my cable bill ever was (you'll notice there's no link, proving I haven't sold out:).

And the thing about going specifically to the show you want to watch and watching only it with no commercials is it's efficient. It takes me an hour and a half to watch 2 hours of television without the risk of flipping channels to see what else is on and being sucked into garbage on History about not-actual-scientists quoting easily dis-proven, outright lies from a known fraudster:

In conclusion, we should all throw out our televisions and live in tepees:) Also, ancient aliens may or may not have been real, but the History Channel needs to change its name to the Sensational BullS*@* Channel.

Actually, there is no conclusion. I don't do advice. What works for me may not work for you. If you have a TV in your front room you rarely turn on, good for you. I have a three-month old bottle of whiskey in my dining room I'll drink some day, probably when I have a cold. Some writers wouldn't be able to keep that whiskey in their home without drinking it and another bottle.

Every so often I find myself staring at 3D television displays, but I figure my muse would just inspire some punks to steal it anyway:) If you or someone you know suffers from an unhealthy addiction to television, you may want to consider downsizing.

Television and movies are wonderful in moderation, but we writers need to keep them in their place. I write books, not television pilots, so the amount of time I spend watching the boob tube should never outweigh the amount of time I spend reading.

Setting Goals for your Writing

Greetings, Esteemed Reader!

I hope your reading and writing are going well. Mine have fallen behind just a little. My day job (oh to one day be the sort of writer who doesn’t need a day job!) is in personal finance and so each year tax season keeps me hopping. But tax season aside, I live a pretty busy life all year long as I’m sure you do as well, Esteemed Reader. I haven’t got any kids yet, but I have got a wife and a cat, both of whom demand my attention. I have friends and family and various social obligations and I have to watch Lost as they’re finally going to tell us what the deal is with that island this season.

That’s why for the hundredth billionth time I have to focus on setting goals for my writing. My first and most constant goal is to write for two hours a day, period. I get up three and a half hours before my day job to get it in first thing so that no matter what else I have to do that day, my most important obligation has been fulfilled. Something may come up later that impacts my internet writing time, my reading time, or my Xbox time, but my writing time is sacred and must be kept or I will be mad at myself all day and everything else in my life won’t be done half as well.

The problem with a goal of time expenditure is that it guarantees focus, but not results. I can and have stared at my computer screen for two hours and typed a sentence, or worse, changed a couple of existing sentences. Other days I have filled a pad with story notes, but written not one word of prose. In a recent post I compared writing to donut making, but unlike donut making, writing requires a certain amount of wool gathering time. The pump of imagination must often be primed with daydreams and there is no set method for proceeding on every story.

Even so, it is important that my writing result in something tangible. I can’t sell my notepad of ideas or my revised outlines nor can I imagine anyone wanting to read them. The book is the thing. Everything else I do is just activities necessary to create the book. Aside from my days of staring off, which are mostly infrequent, I aim for an average of five pages a day when I ‘m writing for adults and three pages a day when writing middle grade. But sometimes even this lofty goal is not enough to get me where I need to be.

When I was a wee boy of potty training age, my parents put a Cookie Monster doll on the mantle above the fireplace where I could see it at all times, but I couldn’t reach it. I was promised the Cookie Monster would be mine once I was able to do my business exclusively in the toilet. Well, I’m here to tell you that I mastered using the potty with a quickness and Cookie Monster was mine. I am now planning to employ the same method for The And Then Story.

I spent better than a year planning The And Then Story while I finished The Big Book (an unpublishable 800 page epic literary horror novel for adults). I’ve been writing The And Then Story since February and I’m nearly finished. I charged through the first act, I suffered through most of the second act, and now I’m 60 to 75 pages from the nirvana of a finished rough draft. I revise as I go, so my rewrites should be straight-forward and brief. All I have left is the tail end of the second act, followed by the third act climax (which I’ve been planning from the start, so it should go quickly).

By my math, at 3 pages a day, I need twenty five days to finish. Let us say that I add to that five days for staring off, sentence revising, and sleeping in past my writing time. I know that in an ideal world with an ideal me, none of these bad things would ever come to pass. But it is important to be realistic in our goal planning, Esteemed Reader, and to factor in our shortcomings rather than denying their existence. Therefore, I can expect to announce the completion of my rough draft on May 18th.

Something else important happens on May 18th: the release of an incredibly violent video game that I’m sure is offensive to all of humanity. The game is Red Dead Redemption, which is a Grand Theft Auto set in the old west made by the makers of Grand Theft Auto. It would be wrong for children to play this game, but I am an adult and the heart wants what it wants. I am looking forward to this unwholesome game more than almost any other media release this year.

Unfortunately, the slave driver in my mind who gets me up each morning at 4:00 has caught wind of my desire for this game and doesn’t like the idea of me wasting hours in front of the television when there’s a novel to finish one bit. Therefore, Red Dead Redemption is to be my Cookie Monster. I give you my word, Esteemed Reader, I will shoot not one video game cowboy until the first draft of The And Then Story is complete. If I stick to my goal, I will be celebrating the completion of my middle grade novel in the least possible middle grade fashion. If not, I’ll be in the office working to finish and weeping for the deplorably degenerate joys of violence against pixels I might otherwise have known.

What goal setting strategies do you employ, Esteemed Reader? Got any tips to help me hone my ninja skills?

The Greatest Idea for a Movie Ever

This kept me laughing hard this morning:

Muses and the Magic of Fiction Writing

In Need of a Great Book Idea? Write a Book!

Seriously. It works. My hero Stephen King (ninjas like scary stories as well as middle grade fiction) says in On Writing that in order for your muse to find you, you have to show up to work at the same place at the same time every day. I don’t know if that’s really true; probably not, but it feels like it is. And King is the world’s best-selling novelist (and a god of literature), so his opinion has to count for something.

I can really only tell you my own experience. If I let myself fall slack on my writing, which I’m happy to report is not often, I can’t come up with a good idea to start a single project. Usually, I’m irritated and restless because I’m not writing. Now, thanks to Mr. King, I know that my muse is in my office looking for me while I’m playing my X-box. As I’m enjoying Fable 2, my promiscuous muse is giving all my best ideas that I haven’t had yet to some other writer who is diligently working, and therefore more deserving. And all because I wanted to level up!

But when I’m getting up early every morning and writing, I have ideas all the time. Just this week, after I had completed my day’s page count, while I was in the shower minding my own business, I had a BIG IDEA. It struck me full on and I forgot where I was and all I could think about was this particular image of a boy and his mother. I don’t know their names yet, but I will. And I know enough about their situation that it broke my heart to see them in my mind and I was just a little bummed out for a couple of days. Even so, I like them and am thrilled and honored they have chosen me to tell their story.

I’m aware that all of this talk of muses and characters choosing writers is making me sound more than a little flaky. But there is something just a little bit magic about writing fiction. Most of it is practical and straight-forward and thoroughly muggle. You read a lot of books written by better writers, study them inside and out, and then try and do likewise. You get up with a mug of coffee, curse the chirping birds outside, fire up the laptop, and crank out the days words just like the local pastry shop worker is cranking out the doughnuts. Fiction writing takes discipline, know how, some degree of skill and all of that, but it’s just a job that needs doing so people have something to read while they’re eating their doughnut.

Yet, once in a while, there is magic. Just a little.

The tricky thing about writing as writers well know is that our fiction has a tendency to betray us. Just a little. Most of us writers have had the experience of going about our jobs, writing a planned story about something not like our own lives at all, and then when we reread the manuscript we find that our own subconscious sneaked in an aspect of our lives it needed to work out on the page.

Other times, when we reread a manuscript, we may find that something else was sneaked in there by someone else (not us), something that also needed to get worked out. It’s sort of creepy and I haven’t got the words to better describe the experience. You non writers may well think that I’m a kook, but I’ll judge a fair number of you writers know exactly what I’m talking about.

I shall end on a more practical note. Let us imagine there is some merit to this mystical notion of muses running around with BIG IDEAS and they’re just hunting for writers to give them to. If you were a muse, who would you give your BIG IDEA to? A writer who is diligently making the doughnuts every morning, or the guy playing X-box who has aspirations to one day write?

Ever have a BIG IDEA that you later forgot, even though you wrote it down? Could be a muse was considering you for it, then noticed you weren’t showing up to write and whisked it away to some other writer with a stronger work ethic.

God Help Me, I’ve Been Inspired By Ayn Rand (cold shiver)

Dear Esteemed Reader,

Pray for me in my time of wanton depravity. I have been inspired by none other than Satan herself, Ayn Rand. I am unclean.

First, I should mention for anyone unfamiliar that Ayn Rand, aside from her duties as the Princess of Darkness, is also the author of several books considered by some (me grudgingly included) to be classics of American literature, such as Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. 

No, don’t read them. Walk not through that valley of the shadow of darkness. Just know that there is a direct link between her wacky ideas about selfishness as a virtue and too many American executives who would starve puppies and/or children for another point on their stock. She was likely also responsible for a sharp uptick in the rape and abuse of American women in the 1950’s.

Well, Ayn Rand gave writing lessons to crowds that some misguided soul compiled into a book called Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction, or as I call it, Ve Have Vays of Making You Vrite. I’ve been listening to the audio version on and off for a good laugh, ‘cause that book is hilarious. Seriously.

Ayn says everything most writers occasionally think, but have the good sense not to say aloud in the presence of other sentient beings. Does she praise her work above all others and openly acknowledge she believes it to be the pinnacle of literature? You bet she does! 

Does she call out other writer’s shortcomings by name and then explain why her own writing is better? Absolutely! 

Does she bluntly state that all fiction is propaganda for one’s own political and philosophical beliefs and that plots must be constructed to enforce said beliefs. You know it! 

Ayn Rand’s thoughts are horrifying when taken seriously by people who ought to know better, but they are also comic gold:)

Anywho, I was listening tonight at the gym, giggling and minding my own business when this godless wench inspired me! The nerve! But that’s my fault. You dance with the devil, the devil don’t change, she changes you and all of that. 

Ayn was talking about the seemingly mystical quality of writing that puts so many off, that magical moment when a great idea for your story pops into your head from nowhere. You have to earn your magical moments, she said, or something to that effect. It was all jumbled up with the usual “kick the poor in the teeth as they are dragging us all down,” and “if you want something, take it, even if she says no—she’ll impressed by your can-do spirit and will beg you to smack her around.”

Last week, I had an idea for “The And Then Story,” while I was minding my own business and playing Bioshock 2 (a game partially inspired by Ayn Rand). As soon as I had the idea, I rushed to write it down and the entire second and third act of my project fell in a cohesive whole that they did not have before. This big gateway idea unlocked a huge portion of the story for me and it would have saved me a lot of anxiety if it had come sooner. 

But it didn't come when I was only thinking about the story last year. It came this year as I’m actively writing the book every morning at four. My regular conscious focus on the novel allowed my subconscious to have a swell idea while I was slacking off (the best way to spark the subconscious). The coming of the idea felt like a magical moment from nowhere, but I earned it.

Incidentally, one of the characters in “The And Then Story” is named after Ayn. Is it possible this hatred I feel is actually a secret love I don’t have the emotional maturity to acknowledge? I mean I’m listening to her book, I’m playing her video game, I’m naming characters after h

Oh dear. I've vomited all over my keyboard.