Sometimes people ask me why I’m on twitter:
Also, notifications like this:
I want this on a t-shirt.
Unrelated, but something I probably need to address anyway…this morning I wrote about my last book being translated into several different language and a ton of you are like, “Where is your next book? Why are you making me wait? Look at your life. Look at your choices.” And honestly the next book is coming but it’s really, really fucking hard. Writing always is for me. It’s something I’ve always done and will always do but I rewrite and rewrite and look at a blank page for days and feel like my head is constipated with thoughts I can’t write properly until suddenly it all comes together and I end up with one perfect page that took 2 weeks. I want it to be perfect because a ton of it is about mental illness and that’s a subject I can’t half-ass because it’s that damn important. Additionally I want it to be insanely funny, and surprisingly mental illness doesn’t easily lend itself to quick and dirty hilarity. It’s coming along and some parts I’m incredibly proud of and some parts I’m struggling with because I want it to be brilliant for you. I want people who suffer from mental illness to say “YES. THAT’S IT. I’M NOT ALONE.” I want people who love people with mental illness to read it and say “Oh. I think I understand a little better now. I never knew how important I was to those who struggle.” I want people who are undiagnosed to read it and think “Holy shit. This is girl is insane but she makes sense so maybe it’s not such a big deal to get tested and treated just in case.” I want people to say “WTF. That couldn’t have possible be true because OHMYGODTHEREAREPICTURES” and then get kicked off planes for laughing hysterically. And I want people who are never touched by mental illness to read it and laugh at the insane stories I’ve collected over the past couple of years and recognize all the little flaws that make us human and special and brilliant. I could have turned something in last year that would have probably sold well and I would have liked it, but I just want this to be perfect so please know that the time spent waiting is time spent making it better and shinier and funnier and more real because once it’s out there I can’t get it back. So many people were touched by my first book and in turn they touched me right back (not that way) and I don’t want to let you down. I have a giant manuscript filled with post-it notes in the shape of Daleks and self-made notes in margins reading “EXTERMINATE THIS. MAKE IT BETTER. MAKE IT STRONGER. MAKE ME A COCKTAIL. WHO ATE ALL THE BANANAS? FIND BETTER PICTURES OF ANGRY POSSUMS.” It’s getting thicker every day and that’s a good thing.
What I can tell you is that the very few wonderful (and painfully honest) people I’ve let read my drafts think it’s some of the best work I’ve done and they keep me from throwing it all in the fire when I feel like a failure, and I hope that you’ll still be here to read it whenever I finish it. It won’t be long in the scheme of things.
It’s coming. I promise. I hope I can make you proud.
And for those of you struggling with your own writing, a few bits of advice that help me to remember that good writing doesn’t always come easy:
I hate writing. I love having written. ~ Dorothy Parker
There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed. ~ Hemingway
Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. E. L. Doctorow
What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hunter S. Thompson attacking writer’s block:
I don’t blame him.