Author Inspiration and This Week’s Writing Links

/ Staci Troilo

Ciao, amici! I’ve been busy with rewrites and revisions this week, which (for me) is a combination of glee, stress, and oh-my-god-how-do-I-suck-this-much.

I’ll admit to writing a few beautiful sentences, but I also have to admit to writing a few that simply made no sense. Maybe they would to Lewis Carroll readers (any fans of Jabberwocky here?), but not to many others. There are instances of questionable spelling (and that’s being kind) and sentence structure so poor, I’m amazed I can figure out what I meant. I’ve even found one that just stops. It didn’t end, mind you. There was no completion of thought followed by a period or other punctuation mark. It just dropped off, mid-thought.

The worst part? I have no idea what I wanted to say there.

It’s a process like this which makes Reba McEntire’s words resonate with me:

To succeed in life, you need three things:
a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.

Kind of funny, but very true. Her words apply to stories, too. And I find myself using all these things this week as I try to make a success of this novel.

  • I’m wishing and dreaming for good things to happen.
  • I’m working hard to make sure they do.
  • And I’m laughing at the dumb things I did so they don’t get me down.

And really, isn’t that the best we can hope to do?

What about you? Are you using these bones (and/or any others) to succeed in your writing endeavors? Is there something Ms. McEntire missed? Let’s talk about it.

And now, this week’s writing links:

Posts by me, about my work, or at sites I contribute to:

Me

Story Empire

Posts by others in the industry:

To make you smile:

And when you’re done with these links, don’t forget to check out the sidebar, where you’ll find more links to some of my favorite sites.

Have a great week! Arrivederci!

66 thoughts on “Author Inspiration and This Week’s Writing Links”

  2. The 3am thoughts/verses seem spectacular at the time. In the light of day, not so much. lol. It keeps it interesting and entertaining, though. Cheers to that!
    Thanks for another awesome share, as always. Have an awesome week! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Love the quote! And I hear ya about the revision. When I run across one of those “what the hell was I trying to say” sentences, I always feel like it was something brilliant–or would have been. Maybe. If I was lucky. Then there are the ones where I scratch my head and think “Wow, I wrote this? Damn, that’s not too bad.” Good luck with your revisions! (and whew, I don’t feel so bad about being behind reading posts if Marcia is too–misery/busyery and all that 😀 )

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    • It’s that lost brilliance that makes me sad. The mangled and dropped sentences were probably my best ideas, and they’ll never come to fruition. 😦

      Those “that’s not too bad” sentences do feel pretty good, though.

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  9. I’m currently editing my latest WIP … Eeek …save yourselves! A few of my lines made me think of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. They were jangled and mangled and strange. I’d smoked nothing interesting and the whiskey bottle is still full. There went that excuse. Sigh. I need a ‘switch-on-the-brain bone’

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  10. I love the quote, Staci! I agree with Reba. 🙂 I think we’ve all had times when we’ve written sentences that when we re-read, make no sense at all. But, that’s why we have a delete button! 🙂 Onward and upward!

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  11. Love Reba McEntire, she says it like it is 🙂
    I’ve had a few of those back-of-beyond sentences too, maybe because I like to work on two or three books at the same time. But, truthfully those lines don’t fit anywhere, so nope, it’s just me, being hairbrained, lol.
    The worst is when you have to cut those words that you worked so hard to find, out of the WIP- it’s like pulling teeth for me (actually, I’d sooner have a tooth pulled!).
    Hope the rest of your revisions/editing time goes smooth, Staci. Have a wonderful weekend!

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  12. Love the quote, because there are times when I read my work and feel like a “bonehead.” Sorry. Couldn’t help myself. I wrote my 5th Jazzi book with so many stops and starts that when I went to rewrite it, I had them fixing the same rooms over and over again. I forgot I’d written those scenes already. Ugh! I always plot out the mystery, but not the fixer-upper parts. Now, I keep track of that, too. Good luck with your rewrites. Hate having to rearrange scenes. It always confuses me.

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  13. I love the quote, and it is so true. The element of wishing starts the planning process, where hard work makes those wishes come true. Thank you so much for including Lucy and Twiggy among such funny links. Have a great weekend.

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  14. I don’t think I’ve stopped mid sentence – yet. But I found out in typing ‘soldiers’ in Book 3, either I or autocorrect turned some of the attempts into ‘soliders’. I have no idea what that even is.

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  15. This was such a fun post! I’ve had a rough week (both on the day job and writing front) and have needed all three of these things this week. As for editing—OMG–I’m right there with you. I’ve been working on the same 3K story for the nth time and find myself scratching my head at some of the stuff I’ve written.

    Thanks for the smiles and happy editing!

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    • This is the manuscript that I started rearranging scenes and have my timeline all confused. I’m never doing that again! Edits are taking FOREVER!

      Sorry you had a rough week but glad I could put a smile on your face. And YAY… weekend!

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  16. Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:

    Once again, Staci Troilo has come up with a fantastic Author Inspiration and This Week’s Writing Links post. Good stuff here, folks. Check it out, and pass it along. Thanks, and thanks to Staci for such a great recap of the week! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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  17. Hey, look! I’m here on the actual day you posted this for a change! Yay! And so glad I am. I love the quote, first of all. I’ve always said I don’t know how people with no sense of humor survive in this world, and of course, wishbones and backbones are essential, too. And I sympathize with your struggle to get your WIP pulled into shape. I’m so far behind on mine, I’m not sure what the story’s about anymore. 😯

    Thanks once again for including my Monday Memes in your list this week. Glad they gave you a smile, and hope they do the same for loads more folks. Smiles are definitely magical. They make they smiler feel better as well as the smilee. 😀

    Have a great day, Staci! ❤

    Liked by 1 person

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  21. Great quote and so true. If we can’t laugh at our mistakes, we’ll simply cry. I’ve done the same thing as you. What’s worse, I can be in mid-sentence, get distracted by something, and thirty seconds later come back to forget what I was going to write. Now that’s sad!

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  22. I love the quote, Staci, which is so apt. I have laugh at the bit about ridiculous spelling. I re-read my 10k word short story before submitting it to an anthology. I’d managed to write: ‘ … through the big whole in the wall…’ OMG, I mean, that’s like a basic word, right?!?! lol. I’m just glad I caught it and changed it to ‘hole’ in time! Thanks for a fun post and lots of good links. Have a lovely weekend 🙂

    Reblogged on: https://harmonykent.co.uk/author-inspiration-and-this-weeks-writing-links-9/

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    • I find those all the time. Yesterday I had someone whose “roll” it was to do something. Made it sound like they were shooting dice for the chance instead of it being his role. Really glad I caught that! (Glad you caught yours, too.)

      Thanks for sharing the post. Have a great weekend!

      Liked by 1 person

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    • Oh, my gosh, it totally does. While I’d never put myself in His shoes (assuming He wears shoes) or presume to know what He’s thinking, I assume that’s a tough (the toughest) position to be in. If He didn’t laugh at/with His children, He’d have given up on us eons ago.

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