> I get a lot of inspiration from Steve; I fire up his books page when I
> am in a funk to read what he thinks about his books. Keeps me going
> knowing that I'm not the only one who struggles with books.
>
>
I'm going to say something that will appear awfully fanboyish; there's
no help for that. I'm also going to introduce an element of faith,
which can be even dicier, but it's part of the story, and I'm not as
shy about that as being tagged a mindless fanboi. ; ) I like who I
like but I don't go weak in the knees when the object of my
fascination is mentioned. It's not anything worse than a tic. Maybe
a tremor. I digress.
I deliberately started getting geared up for NaNo2k4 pretty early this
year, like, in mid-September. I cast about for different ways to do
that and ended up reading the first Omnibus of the Vladiad (hope I
have that spelled correctly).
I was so taken with the verve and vibe of Vlad that I was revved up
for NaNoWriMo, and that creative excitement and energy carried me
right into the beginning of the second week, where I hit the
stereotypical wall head-on at highway speeds and had to pick myself
back up and soldier on ahead without the benefit of all that kinetic
energy. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone else, but it worked for
me. I had the picture in my head of a guy with six months to kill and
a particular mood in his head, and then I compressed that into thirty
days.
It's true - Steve was a huge inspiration while I was preparing for
this; Steve, and my unshaken belief that the creative process is a
gift from the Christian God whom I believe in and attempt to serve,
with fear, trembling, and a keen sense of hypocrisy. I'm also a
hardcore PC FPS gamer, so one wonders how devout I could be, and far
be it from me to defend myself on that score.
So I went rolling into this challenge with the staunch belief that
creation (or invention, if you will) of this sort pleases my Creator
and with the attitude of a cocky, dangerous assassin who is the
consummate professional, has his own ethical system, and has earned
these magnificent, die-hard friends. These things were in the back of
my mind, a strange mix that pleased me deeply, the melding of the
divine and the earthy.
There's an energy and ambition in the writing of _Jhereg_, for
example, that overcomes a multitude of sins and set the stage for
great works later on. You can see Steve mature and develop with each
new book, and if he did it, I told myself that it is theoretically
possible for myself to walk that path as well.
These are the things that got me going and kept me going through many
late nights and apparent dead-ends.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
johne cook
wisconsin, usa
johne.cook at gmail.com / jcook at apostate.com
http://www.phywriter.com
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .