writing – Peter M. Ball

Smart Advice from Smart People

Vintage Links from the To-Read Folder: Word Counts, YA Editors; My Little Pony; Book Tours

Readers love to talk about the piles of unread books they’ve been accumulating over the years, breaking out plans to put a dent in the pile if only so they can justify purchasing new books to fill the gap. We can take a certain pleasure in what that unread book signifies, in both the look at all the pleasures that await me when I have time sense and the behold my default state of busy sense. We tend to be a bit quieter about the unread piles of links and bookmarks we accumulate, unless someone looks over our shoulders and spots a massive pile of unread tabs. Or, in my case, taps the “To Read” folder in my bookmarks bar and gets assaulted by the 300+ blog posts I’ve stored there to engage with later. Lots of these were put there during my days with the writers centre, flagging resources I might want to come back to later or could

PeterMBall 04/03/2019

Writing Advice - Business & the Writing Life

Creating Art Absolutely Involves Privilege

It’s been interesting to follow the Stacey Jay Kickstarter controversy around the internet this week, ’cause it’s one of those moments where we’re reminded that the public perception of how the arts should be valued is a) batshit crazy and b) still based on theories of creative genius that requires no work. If you haven’t followed the internet storm and don’t intend to follow the links, the short version goes like this: 1) a YA author turns to kickstarter to fund the production of the second book in her series, as self-publishing requires far fewer readers to be successful than going through a big publishing house; 2) said kickstarter is poorly executed in all sorts of ways, but it’s biggest sin is suggesting that a sizable percentage of the funds would be spent on the author’s living expenses while writing; 3) internet explodes, as only the internet can. Said author apologizes, closes down her kickstarter, and withdraws from the internet for

PeterMBall 09/01/2015

Smart Advice from Smart People

All Writing is Political

I’m about to commit a metric butt-load of white-male-privilege sins by being a white-male-guy whose linking to another white-male-guy saying sensible things about writing and feminisim, but just this once I’m going to be okay with it. Chuck Wendig wrote a post about Sexism and Misogyny in Publishing. It got some responses, ’cause Chuck knows his shit when it comes to building an audience on the internet, and so people link his posts around. Then he wrote a response to the responses, and called out this particular piece of bullshit in a way that had me punching the air like a madman. “BUT IT DOESN’T SERVE THE STORY!” Worst excuse ever. I hate this excuse. I hate it like I hate the DMV, hemorrhoids, airline travel delays, and bad coffee. I hate it because it suggests that writers are not in control of their own stories, that they are merely conduits for some kind of divine unicorn breath, some heady Musefart that

PeterMBall 12/06/2013

Big Thoughts

The Things I Think About On New Years Day

ONE It’s the first morning of 2013 and in the writing room, writing. Not even writing, really. More dragging myself back into a writing mindset after being not-a-writer for the bulk of last year. There are days – today is one of them – when the fact that I still do this amazes me. I figured I’d kick this year off by telling you a story (it is, after all, what I do). I want to start it with something like once upon a time I met a girl on a bus, but truthfully it’s not the kind of story you’d expect from that kind of opening. The way you starts a story sets up the ending, makes promises that need to be delivered, and I can’t deliver on that one. So instead I’ll start it like this: when I was twenty and still at university, I learned not to tell people that I wanted to be a writer. And

PeterMBall 01/01/2013

Works in Progress

Sunday

It’s generally a bad sign when the cleanest room in my flat is the study, but it appears I’ve reached that point. I predict a day of epic tidying and cleaning in my future, but right now I’ll settle for getting the washing up done and putting away the clean laundry. That’s next hour’s problem, though. Right now there is coffee and bloggery and answering some emails. Possibly some toast while I try to work out whether the toaster is really broken, or just bitching about the cold. It feels like that kind of afternoon. # Every now and then I come across people who really, really like the idea of creativity. It drives me crazy. Otherwise ordinary conversations are derailed by statements like “writing? Wow, it must be nice to be so creative” or “I’m a writer and creativity is one of my strengths,” mostly because I then froth at the mouth and stomp around until someone gives me

PeterMBall 24/07/2011

Journal

Tenters & Zucchini & Reasons to Shop for Books This Afternoon

This morning I went to start the blog with the phrase “waiting on tenterhooks,” which is one of those expressions that’s been around for a while without me ever really understanding where it actually came from. And so there was google, and this rather succinct discussion of the phrase where I discovered the tenterhook was a series of hooks on a wooden frame used in making woolen cloth, specifically in the bit where the freshly woven fabric was stretched out to dry after being cleaned in a fulling mill. The tenter was the frame and the hooks went around the outside, and it had the side-effect of straightening the weave. We’re not much with the tenters these days, but I found myself looking at the description and though, well, yes, life feels exactly like that at the moment. There have been doings and goings-on in regards to dayjobbery and we have hit the bit where I wait, quietly, filling in the hours

PeterMBall 25/05/2011

Tag: writing

Vintage Links from the To-Read Folder: Word Counts, YA Editors; My Little Pony; Book Tours

Creating Art Absolutely Involves Privilege

All Writing is Political

The Things I Think About On New Years Day

Sunday

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