Let’s cap off a week of creative jogs and rebellious rapier wit with some kickass examples of writing in the “famous” world, in the bloggy world, and here in the QRW empire!

Creative Links that Cry Out For Love

• How to Be Creative/Motivated/Nurtured in These Hard Times. Monica says we can whine! Vindicated! …but then we have to get our ass moving. Ah, man!
• Speed-noveling madness—and opportunity—await. NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, kids, and I’m strangely calm. Yes, I will be writing an obscene amount, but like Kristin says, it’s all about prep and perspective. Rock on.
• PoeWar. Just go there. John Hewitt wraps up his NaNoWriMo prep series, with great tips for us newbies.
• An agent told me I’m not a great writer! How do I survive? Helpful and hilarious. Nice combo at Editorial Ass.

Random Links that Bring It

Some funny, thought-provoking, and delightful linkage:

• Leave it to Samantha Bee to break down women’s health for voters. With dick fingers.
• And then there’s Sarah Haskins. Summarizing our effed up representations of women, and making it effing hilarious, she talks cleaning supplies, poo, chick flicks, and Disney Princess gear. Go.
• Holy balls, everyone. Check out this gem, in which two old (and I mean old) friends bitch about politics and what not. An example: What was I thinking when I called Sarah Palin a bitch?

Cool People You Should Know:
This month, QRW profiled some terrifically talented freelancers that are movin’ on up and inspiring us creative folks. They’re your peers in the freelancing and creative world. Let’s review, shall we?

• Elizabeth McQuern, freelance writer, comedy producer, photographer, videographer, and all-around cool chick
• Charlie Gilkey, blogger, productivity guru, PhD candidate, philosophy teacher, Iraq vet, and one hell of a supportive friend.
• Keith Ecker, legal writer, comedy writer, and blogger.
• Amy Derby, blogger at Write From Home and freelance cool kid

And keep tuning in for more writer profiles. Next month we’re going to talk with freelancers, creative types and bloggers, including Andrew Huff of Gapers Block, John Hewitt of PoeWar, Linda Formichelli of Renegade Writer, and more!

More from QRW:

Need a reminder of why Quiet Rebel Writer is kickass? Oh my dears, you asked for it:

This month we checked out some astounding Writers Who Matter, including Cormac McCarthy, Joss Whedon, Philip Pullman, Octavia Butler, and Tim O’Brien. We also dived in to Resource Reviews, examining some resources that are worth a read, and a place on your reference shelf.

And then we got down and dirty, dissecting freelancing and creativity as only a quiet rebel writer can: with sarcastic soirees and a Freelance Reality Dose.

• Freelancing can be an exercise in misery! Here’s how to be a freelancer and hate every minute of it!
• Want to be a pretentious almost-not-quite writer? Here’s your chance.
• A bad brain is a terrible thing to let loose. Are you your bad brain’s bitch?
• And don’t forget - you and you alone hold the key to self-destruction. Learn how to make your clients run far far away!

Finally, this month over at QRW’s kissing cousin, Word Porn, the language lust was unhinged. Just this week we looked at libidinous terms for simple innocence, stubborn rebelliousness, and cure-alls, and had some rousing participation in our Reader Challenge: Better Cussing Through Word Porn. Get over there and check it out!

And…scene. Have a great Halloween weekend, one and all!

Like this post? Of course you do. Tell us about it in the comments! Subscribe via RSS or email! And keep hanging around! Cus, um, I like you. Really. Like you like you. Just let it happen.

Chuck Westbrook has a cool idea, so cool it simply can’t wait until my Friday list of Linky Love. He wants to help us cut through the remarkable crap that we can find in the interwebs and blogosphere, and give some deserving blogs a chance at more exposure. Quality, and attention for that quality? How quietly rebellious. Holy balls, I’m in!

Want more info? Check out the original post here, and learn how to get involved.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. And lots of Quiet-Rebel-Writer-ness.

Welcome, artists and artistes, writers and bloggers, creatives and crafters, to our Thursday series focusing on the coolest and creative-est freelancers around!

What’s inspiring in our pursuits of passion? Sure, it’s awe-inspiring to look at the greats, the writers who matter, and soak in their awesomeness and quiet rebel-ness. Sure, it’s occasionally helpful to consult a rebellious resource or two for tips, tricks and treats on the way to creative success. Sometimes a skewed view or some Word Porn is all you need to get your ass moving. You know what else is inspiring? Looking at the writers who live and work around us, the folks that may not have hit it big (yet) but are making a career, pursuing some outlandish dreams, and putting po’ boys and pudding on the table. The writers that inevitably break some rules along the way. I draw tremendous inspiration from these folks, our peers in this creative journey that we’ve embarked upon.

Today’s freelancer is inspiring. And hilarious. And naughty. She’s a whirlwind of fresh air in the writing blogosphere, and a gutsy, ballsy, boobsy lass who has a ridiculously cool first name.

Amy Derby was a paralegal until the daily grind of the work world nearly made her batshit crazy. In 2004 she broke the biggest rule of all by quitting the “corporate American suckfest” to make a freelance career, focusing on writing and researching in the legal field. Today she concentrates primarily on legal blogging. In addition to her burgeoning career, Amy also writes the Write From Home blog, a site named to Michael Stelzner’s list of Top 10 Blogs for Writers in 2007/2008 (and a finalist in 2008/2009). At Write From Home, Amy takes on the excitement and frustration of being a writer and blogger, offers real tips (like her Punk Duck series), calls out stupid rules in the field, and creates a thriving, boisterous and rule-breaking community.

I talked with Amy through the magical powers of the interwebs, covering suckiness, snark, and satisfaction in writing and blogging. A few excerpts and lessons learned: (Want the whole interview? Scroll down to click through)

On the lure of freelancing:

Unfortunately, most of my time in office life was spent trying to remember billing codes and attending videoconferences. And wearing pantyhose. I was working about 80 hours a week and commuting three hours each day. At some point in 2004 I went mad and quit. Then I had to figure out what to do next. Freelancing sounded good. I was told I could wear pajamas…

On the love of words:

My favorite word today is suckfest. Former favorites include dumbfuckage and bullshitedness. Oh, did you want real words? Lovely is nice. I use lovely a lot. Words I hate: anything I can’t type properly on the first try. Like fascinating or consciousness.

On creating a community:

I decided to turn write-from-home.com into a blog. And it’s evolved a lot. Into what, I’m not sure. But it’s not a serious site anymore. It’s just kind of my own personal snarkfest where other writer-types hang out. It’s a nice gathering of folks I would invite over to drink coffee and rock the world with if they lived in my hood.

Discover the coolness of Amy Derby at:
Write From Home
Twitter

Like this post? Well geez, how could you not?? Tell us about it in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe by RSS or email for all future writer profiles…

Want more from the conversation? Click on through to the other side… (more…)

Want to know if that lovely little writing book calling to you from the shelves of your local bookstore is worth it? Desperate to find the resource for your specific writing and creative questions/situations/issues? That’s why I’m here, dearies. Let an obsessive book collector pick the best and present them to you for your edification and edumacation.

Picture this, my faithful readers. You are an expert in all areas of freelancing (naturally). You are well paid, completely satisfied, and never procrastinate. Life is grand. But then comes the day in which you decide to branch out, to parlay that growing fame and experience into a book, or to transform your scintillating life into a screenplay. You have questions. You need answers.

Many of you might be screaming at the screen, “look online, jackass!” Good suggestion. But what happens when, horror upon horrors, only frustrating searches result? What if, shockingly, there can be no concrete answers found in the land of Wikipedia?? It’s time for plan B. It’s time to find a text that offers frequently or occasionally asked questions about writing, read it and glory in the answers you so desire, refer to it over time, then leave it on the shelf for awhile, return to it and discover how you’ve been doing something wrong, cry, then read it again. And that could be your story with The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book.

The Gist

First and foremost, this book is for the thousands of aspiring writers who feel they have a book inside them but don’t know what to do with it…This book is also for writers who have found some success either as freelance writers or creative writers…who have mastery in one area but beginner questions in another area. While this book can’t cover every topic in-depth, it can ground you in the fundamentals and show you reliable sources to find out more.

This book sets out to the be a good general resource book, a source for freelance virgins and for those rode hard and put away wet (ah, thanks Grandma Jody, for that expression that never fails to work in any situation). I bought the text because I had specific questions about nonfiction and fiction book writing, and every quarter or so, I flip through to find what questions are relevant to me at that time, and what answers can trigger some unique business thinking.

The beauty of this book is in its organization, and its frank discussion of differing opinions. The first third of the book covers writing fundamentals: why and how to write freelance or creatively, how to conduct interviews and research, how to set up a freelance business, and more. The second third covers specific considerations and concerns about book and magazine freelancing. The book finishes with overviews of different areas, including poetry writing, script writing, children’s writing, and more. Within each section, the answers are clear when they can be, and wishy-washy when they need to be. What this means is writers are given clear direction on which rules are inviolable and which are undecided, and how to break all of them.

Some sections in which I found answers to my questions:

• Page 33: What do They Mean When They Say…? An entire chapter devoted to deciphering publishing and freelancing lingo.
• Page 54, 122: Structure and Process of Novel Queries. Sure, there are whole books written on the query process. But this gives a nice overview and summary of all the conflicting and complementary information out there, and is nicely accompanied by more helpful information in the Appendices.
• Page 258: Ghostwriting and Writing for Hire. Direct answers to many of my questions during the brief period when I thought I was going to ghostwrite a memoir. Until he turned out to be an asshat.
• Page 341: Appendix I. Extremely useful lists of novel genres, word counts, formatting guidelines, and sample queries.

Bottom Line
Writing a book, or writing for magazines? Have lots of questions? Get this book.

To Learn More
Order The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book

Dig The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book? Skeptical? Incensed? Tell us about it in the comments!

Dear children, you simply must subscribe to QRW. Writers Who Matter! Resource Reviews! Freelance Reality Doses! Writer Profiles! Sign up today, and never miss another rebellious moment.

I have lots of books. It’s a sickness, really, one my partner shares, one that became apparent during my recent move, as our combined books totaled some 50 boxes and our movers thought we were going to kill them. He has art, architecture, and rock and roll books; I have lots of fiction and historical non-fiction. So cutting back on book purchases, as I’ve recently done, isn’t necessarily the punishment it first sounded like. Instead, I’m rereading favorites and rediscovering lost goodies. One author that stands up to these repeated readings is today’s Writer Who Matters.

Tim O’Brien went to Vietnam. He saw some bad shit, and participated in some even worse shit. But instead of bottling that up when he came home, letting it eat away or turn him into someone harsh and unfamiliar, he wrote. And in the process he created some of our country’s best, most moving, most undeniable accounts of what it meant to be in that war, to be a man in that era, to be a human in our times.

“Forty-three years old, and the war occurred half a lifetime ago, and yet the remembering makes it now. And sometimes remembering will lead to a story, which makes it forever. That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can’t remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story.” - Tim O’Brien

O’Brien wrote straight, creating novels that told dirty, funny, real tales of guys in the midst of a ridiculous war. He also wrote artfully, creating stories that included himself, or a version of himself, and told his and his friends’ individual tales. He wrote books that had nothing at all to do with the war, except that they were in today’s society, a direct result of all the FUBAR crap that went down back then.

Why does O’Brien matter? Two words: cowardice and stories. O’Brien writes about being a coward, and what that means. Sure, his characters go to war. They face peril and pain like their fellow citizens back at home cannot imagine. But cowardice informs their every move, whether it’s running away from the war in body and mind, or failing to save someone that potentially could have been saved. Cowardice is key long before the war as well, when a man is given the chance to escape the draft and opts not to, out of fear and embarrassment of what his family will think.

O’Brien also writes about stories. Using stories, he shows the power of stories, how they help, hurt, confuse, trick, speak plainly, and survive. How they serve to exorcise demons, and to summon them. He shows by his life’s work how stories can affect readers, can change people’s perceptions and increase understanding. But within those works he also questions the ability of stories to do all of this.

Reading O’Brien is an exercise in pure entertainment and enrapture, and immersion into a world where all the solids are fluid, where up is down and left is right. Through his skills in creating fantastical and familiar stories, and through his ability to question our givens, O’Brien is a writer who matters.

A few choice examples from O’Brien:

• Going After Cacciato. One normal day in Vietnam, a soldier disappears from the ranks and his team is left to determine what happened, and what will happen if they join him. What follows is a ludicrous journey across the world, one that O’Brien refuses to offer finality on. Written a few years after O’Brien’s own tour ended, it’s an exploration of the absurdities of the war, and the inner dreams and fears of every man and woman in it.
• The Things They Carried. Following a platoon that just happens to have a character named Tim O’Brien, these stories blur the line between what “really” happened and what is true. A maddening, saddening, beautiful book, one that seems painfully relevant to today’s war.

“They carried USO stationary and pencils and pens. They carried Sterno, safety pins, trip flares, signal fares, spools of wire, razor blades, chewing tobacco…Often, they carried each other, the wounded or weak. They carried infections…They carried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds. They carried the land itself…They carried their own lives. The pressures were enormous…they carried it on their backs and shoulders – and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.” - The Things They Carried

For More on O’Brien:
Book Reporter Author Profile
PLAUSIBILITY OF DENIAL: Tim O’Brien, My Lai, and America
New York Times Books: Reviews and Interviews with Tim O’Brien

Got an O’Brien favorite? Tell us about it in the comments!

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