I don’t remember when I first began wanting to become a professional writer, only that by third grade I had that idea firmly in my head. But it wasn’t until a few years later that I got a particularly awful SF book from a bookstore–I think it had a robot on the cover, one of those jobs with the dryer-vent-hose arms and the antennae on the head–and really got fired up for the job. I thought (and this may sound familiar) “God, if a lousy book like this can get published, I’m going to be rich!” [image courtesy Ricardo Genius]
Let’s skip over the many misconceptions and sad bits of naïvete lurking in that sentence, if you don’t mind. Continue reading Brilliance and Dreck: Using Good and Bad Writers to Self-Motivate
Cartoonist Bill Watterson cranked out one brilliant Calvin and Hobbes comic strip after another for about ten years. Even if (bizarrely) you aren’t a fan of Calvin and Hobbes, it’s clear Watterson knew how to create art that spoke to a lot of people in a clever, funny, and meaningful way. Here’s a conversation his two main characters had about inspiration.