Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck
- Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
- Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
- Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.
- If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
- Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.
- If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.
I will put this into practice.
~Bunberry
Deutschland
Images first. Words to follow.
~Bunberry
Deutschland
Monday night D and I are heading to Germany!
I plan on reporting lots of stories/pictures upon my return.
Please think happy, safe, and adventurous thoughts!
~Bunberry
English major nerd crush
2 words: Downton. Abbey.
2 more words: Matthew. Crawley.
2 more words: Absolute. Perfection.
Hooray for season 2!
~Bunberry
No Phone
I have not posted in a very long time. There seem to be reasons, but none are very original or interesting. And to double my lack of presence - I still have no phone. Tomorrow will be a week. It has had a very interesting (surprising?) emotional toll on me. I feel very disconnected. My computer is my real security blanket, but not being able to touch base with D or randomly text a friend is oddly unnerving. Probably a little sad too.
According to FedEx, I MIGHT get my phone (we’re hoping for an iPhone people. Enough of this crappy Droid B*llshit) on Thursday. Keep your fingers crossed.
I do hope everyone had a lovely holiday. I hope I’m not the only person who’s like “um..how did that time go by so quickly?” I can’t just APPRECIATE the fact that I had a nice break from work..nope, gotta complain about it to. Sheesh.
~Bunberry
This is truly brilliant.
Most of my dance moves are stolen from Peanuts characters. The bottom right is an old standby.
(Source: thefrogman)
Sing
I’ve never been much of a singer. In middle school we were required to participate in some kind of music - choir or band. I chose choir because I was too lazy to learn to play an instrument. I think, deep down, some part of me wishes I was some amazing singer. I am blown away by those (few) really good YouTube videos of people singing their own stuff or covers or whatever they want because their angelic, talented selves just sound so damn good.
Here is one of those videos. Enjoy. Share.
~Bunberry
Catch Up
It has been a while. I think this blog has been mostly for me (like an image-filled, quazi regular digital journal, if you will), so I don’t think there’s need for any apologies since I’m 99% sure nobody has been on the edge of their seat, banging their desktop, waiting for me to post.
Anyways - things have been a great and a little off. I won’t go into nitty-grittys (who wants that?), but it has definitely been an odd time. I am grateful, however, for all the wonderful things that continue to be wonderful: family, D, work, roommate. The things that have been sucky will hopefully be slipping to the non-sucky end of the spectrum soon - one can only hope/wish/pray. I’ve been trying to help the slide happen with positivity, appointments, talking with friends/family, etc. But it’s scary when you realize how much is out of your hands.
I’m more than halfway through my semester. It is strange to think about that. I’ll post more about specifics later - but the long and short of it is that one class has been amazing and the other class has been kind of a dud.
Things to look forward to (this is always fun, no?)
-Thanksgiving at home in NJ
-my birthday (no plans as of yet…and I’m okay with that)
-DECEMBER (my second favorite month after November) = holiday songs, snow, Christmas spirit
-ONE DAY GETTING BACK TO THE GYM (Jesus. Without exageration, I have not set FOOT in the gym since before school..that’s almost three months, folks)
-D and I going to Germany (for one week! Talk about an adventure)
I hope you are all well. I want to hear from you. Write to me or something.
Much love,
Bunberry
The Obvious
That is all.
~Bunberry
Bonjour, Girl
After a 8-hours of office work, followed by school work, followed by a jog, followed by school work, followed by curry & Project Runways, followed by more school work - this is exactly what the doctor ordered.
~Bunberry
