Wednesday, November 9, 2011

A little bit of superpower

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.




This Week's Topic:


What are your writing and publishing superpowers (drafting? beta-reading? writing queries? plotting? character creation? etc.) -- and what's your kryptonite?

My first inclination was to moan about my complete lack of any superpowers at all. But then I stop and think for a bit.

Maybe, just maybe I have one.

Maybe even two.

Neither is unusual particularly but completely necessary. I’m still going. Day after day I come back to the computer (or note book – whatever) and open the doc and write some more. When that story is done I start another. And submit eventually. And get rejected. And then I write some more.

Super-persistent with maybe a dash of Super-hopeful/optimistic.

We all are to keep going.

The other power is rarer for me… in a few stories I’ve found a groove. When this supergroove happens the words come out as fast as I can type them and I can get a story down pretty fast (considering how little writing time real life gives me).

But in general as much as I would love to be super-plotter or querier or anything I think turning up is the first step. And perhaps the hardest.

What about you? Are you super?

11 comments:

  1. Tenacity is a great superpower! In fact, I wish I would have thought of using it, because I think it might be one of mine too. You've got to have courage and a strong-will to keep on trucking through writer's block and rejection and frustration. Great post!

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  2. Never underestimate the power of "Super-persistence" and "Super-hope."

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  3. Persistence + Optimism + Hope = winner combo!
    That's an awesome superpower ;)

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  4. Persistence and optimism are SO key in this industry--and they're both very easy to lose. I think they're fabulous superpowers!

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  5. Having the writing just pour out of you is a true superpower...I've had my times that were like that, but not always.

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  6. That's a pretty darn great superpower! To be able to knock out the self-doubt and keep on plugging away is pretty admirable!

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  7. Okay, supergroove is the best term of all time. You need to get that on a t-shirt!

    Super persistent and optimistic is a great mindset to have too :)

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  8. The power to keep going is more than half the battle. And keeping a smile on your face is even harder some days. But it's all worth it when everything comes together.

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  9. For sure, persistence--and based on what you've said, it sounds like it's not just persistence but also consistency. You can be persistent without being consistent--but consistency is bound to make you more successful, ultimately. I want to be at the place where writing every day is part of my life but I'm just not yet, so I really admire people who have gotten there.

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  10. Those are some very useful superpowers!

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  11. Thanks everyone. I think i'll need to come back to this post when my superpowers are running low to remember I can keep going!

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