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Below is a story that I wrote in my late teens. I remember the day I finished it. I was so full of joy and pride in my genius. It was the best story I had ever written. (True fact. I was rubbish back then.) Maybe even the best story anyone had ever written!
Posted by Justine at 8:08, April 26th, 2012 under Team Human, Words & Language, Writing life, Writing process |
Every time I mention
my RSI people suggest that I use voice recognition software. I do use it. And though I hate it I know that it has transformed gazillions of people's lives. There are people who literally could not write without it. For them VRS is a wonderful transformative thing. Bless, voice recognition software!
I am well aware that what VRS is trying to do is unbelievably complicated. Recognising spoken language and reproducing it as written language is crazy hard. ((Very few humans are one hundred per cent accurate at the task. Even court reporters make occasional mistakes.)) The way we make sense of what someone says is not just about recognising sounds. We humans (and other sentient beings) ...
Posted by Justine at 8:42, February 17th, 2012 under RSI, Ranting, Whingeing, Words & Language, Writing life, Writing process |
Due to
boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for awhile. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Ron Bradfield Jnr blogs as
Belongum. I discovered his wonderful blog via
Cellobella, another fabulous WA blogger, who I met at the Perth Writers Festival last year. See sometimes you can discover fabulous blogs via real life. Amazing, innit?
- - -
Ron Bradfield Jnr is ...
Posted by Justine at 23:59, March 2nd, 2010 under Guest post, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language |
Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers.
Today's guest blogger, Doselle Young, is not only one of my favourite people on the planet, he's also every bit as opinionated as me. (Though frequently wrong, like his love of Madmen and Henry Miller. Ewww.) I enjoy Do holding forth on any subject at all. He's also ...
Posted by Justine at 19:36, February 10th, 2010 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Frippery, Guest post, Ideas, Liar, Reading, Sport, State of the World, Words & Language, Writing life, Zombies v Unicorns |
Pain is extraordinarily hard to write about. Chronic pain is hardest of all. How do you write about a character whose every day, every moment, is shaped around constant pain? And not wear out the reader's sympathy.
It can be done. It has been done.
And when it is done convincingly; those are often difficult books to read.
Half the time we don't want to know about the pain of people we know in real life. Part of us wants them to suffer in silence. We're embarrassed by others' suffering, bored by it, made to feel helpless in the face of our inability to do anything about it, afraid it might be contagious, upset by it, angered, and a gazillion other complicated ...
Posted by Justine at 11:25, June 16th, 2009 under Reading, State of the World, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:26, May 28th, 2009 under Frippery, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 10:45, May 17th, 2009 under Ranting, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 8:38, May 11th, 2009 under State of the World, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
I have an older character, who lives in upstate NY and has pretty much her whole life, who refers to jeans as "dungarees". I had her use that word after consulting with friends from upstate who remembered people of their grandparents' generation and older using that word. I have been challenged on this by someone who thought the word was Australian. Absolutely not. ((I suspect I'm going to cop that a lot with the Liar book---people assuming I've gotten things wrong---like having New Yorkers saying they're waiting "on line"---when, in fact, I've gotten it right, but they just don't happen to know some of the local New Yorker dialect. Many USians assume that all USians talk the same. So not ...
Posted by Justine at 1:16, February 2nd, 2009 under Liar, New York City/USA, Words & Language |
One of the conversations that I have most frequently with my good friend,
Diana Peterfreund, is about our different writing methods. She's an outliner; I wing it.
Tis most excellent fun talking writing with her precisely because we could not be more different. So different that we frequently wind up talking at cross purposes. Last time we had this discussion we got hung up on the phrase "first draft". Turns out that what she means by "first draft" is not what I mean.
Because Diana outlines she figures out much of the novel before she begins writing. I figure things out as I write the first draft. Thus my first drafts---zero drafts really---are frequently messy conversation spines. A large part of ...
Posted by Justine at 2:52, December 17th, 2008 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Words & Language, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 16:49, November 22nd, 2008 under Reading, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 23rd, 2008 under Words & Language |
I finally figured out why I always often get into mega fights disagreements with my copyeditors.
Eureka!
Thus far all my novels have been in first person or limited third. I view these as the colloquial points of view and write them to mimic the character's speaking voice as much as possible. That way, if I do it right, the reader will feel like the protag is talking to them because the language I use is conversational.
And there I fall into arguments with many copyeditors (not all of them---certainly not YOU). They wants everything to be gramatically correct and conform to house style. I wants for it to be colloquial, flowing, rhythmic language. Sometimes that means flouting conventional grammar rules and house ...
Posted by Justine at 0:00, October 14th, 2008 under Words & Language, Writing life, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 19:23, August 12th, 2008 under Liar, Words & Language, Writing goals & milestones, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
"Monster" and "whiteant". Have you ever used them as verbs? If your answer is yes give sentence and say where you are from.
This is in the nature of a scientific survey. Truth must be told.
That is all.
Posted by Justine at 0:00, July 25th, 2008 under Science, Words & Language |
Saturnine, which I'm convinced means Byronically handsome. But when I look it up seems to just mean "dark" or "gloomy".
Pusillanimous, which I'm always a hundred per cent certain means "stingy" but turns out to mean "cowardly".
Chiaroscuro, which I have long confused with kaleidoscopic, but which actually means black and white. Or a kind of drawing in black and white. Or something. To be honest it's a word I now avoid.
I know I'm not alone on this. What are yours?
Posted by Justine at 0:19, June 6th, 2008 under Words & Language |
NB: The following post is not intended to be taken seriously. I do not want to change the way anyone speaks. Please stop sending me ranty emails and comments lecturing me on my presumptiousness and lack of understanding of the diversities of the English language. Thank you. Note to self: never write about language differences again.
So I just listened to John Waters going off about people who pronounce "picture" "pitcher". That one does not bother me. But I cannot stand the way USians say "shone". Seriously, it makes my ears bleed.
I should confess that for years I thought it was just
Scott. He'd pronounce it all wrong when he was giving a reading and I'd be deeply embarrassed ...
Posted by Justine at 0:07, June 3rd, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 23:01, March 12th, 2008 under Words & Language |
I love them hugely, deeply, widely, vastly, cortohumeringisously! ((I'm also fond of hideously bad neologisms.))
Posted by Justine at 19:02, March 11th, 2008 under Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 12:44, March 6th, 2008 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Fans & readers, Words & Language, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 12:18, March 3rd, 2008 under Ranting, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 10:01, February 2nd, 2008 under Frippery, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Research, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
Thanks so much for all the responses to the
grandmother question. Fascinating! Plus I might use some of your responses in my next book, which has surprised me by being set entirely in the US of A with no Australian characters. Gulp.
I just read the first few chapters to Scott and he reckons my only misstep was the word "posh", which I had my teenage protag use to describe a super-expensive private school. Which left me wondering what word you'd use instead. What's the USian equivalent of "posh"?
I've had "classy" suggested but it doesn't work for me because "posh" also has connotations of being a bit stuck up, and hard to get into, not merely expensive. Something can be ...
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 10th, 2008 under Liar, New York City/USA, Words & Language |
I'm from Sydney and I called my grandmother "nana"; Scott's from Texas and he calls his "mee-maw".
To be honest, when I first heard him say it I thought he was making it up. He has more than once tried to convince me something was USian or Texan that was merely Scottian. He likes to trick the dumb foreignor. But then I heard his nieces calling his mother "mee-maw", so unless he briefed them ahead of time and they're amazingly good actors, I'm ready to believe some Texans really call their grandmothers "mee-maw".
Scott's convinced that calling your grandmother "nana" is an Eastern European thing, but I know plenty of other Aussies with no Eastern European background who call ...
Posted by Justine at 13:32, January 6th, 2008 under New York City/USA, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 16:18, November 20th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Publishing business, Words & Language, Writing goals & milestones, Writing process |
I was asked today why I say sorry so much. ((not for the first time))
It's true. I do say it a lot. I say "Sorry!" even if I am not even slightly at fault: like when, say, someone has bumped into me, or spilled something over me. I say sorry for pretty much everything. Even when I'm not at all sorry. Mostly when I'm not at all sorry.
As to the why of all those sorrys. I used to think it was just me. That I have this weird sorry-saying nervous tic. But I now know it's cultural. I say sorry all the time because I am an Australian girl.
I realised this when I was living in Spain ...
Posted by Justine at 12:15, November 5th, 2007 under State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 22:08, November 2nd, 2007 under Bloggery, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 1:11, October 29th, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Titles & names, Whingeing, Words & Language, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 0:52, September 9th, 2007 under Bloggery, Words & Language, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 11:24, September 6th, 2007 under New York City/USA, Reading, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 9:15, August 23rd, 2007 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Words & Language, Writing process |
Somerset Maugham meditating upon the writer's life:
It is full of tribulation. First he must endure poverty and the world's indifference; then, having achieved a measure of success, he must submit with good will to its hazards. He depends upon a fickle public. He is at the mercy of journalists who want to interview him and photographers who want to take his picture, of editors who harry him for copy and tax gatherers who harry him for income tax, of persons of quality who ask him to lunch and secretaries of institutes who ask him to lecture, of women who want to marry him and women who want to divorce him, of youths who want his autograph, actors who ...
Posted by Justine at 10:57, July 3rd, 2007 under Reading, State of the World, Words & Language, Writing life |
Posted by Justine at 11:15, June 25th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book challenges, Praising, Unicorns, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
Am in the pretty churchy city of Adelaide for a wedding. What larks. I love weddings! And these two crazy kids are great together. But internet access is not so much limited as BLOODY EXPENSIVE. Stupid gouging hotels! Colour me outraged.
So quickly: "gaol" is an another spelling of that place where people are locked up which is usually spelled "jail". It ain't slang. It used to be the only way the word was spelled but is on its way out. I cling to it out of love and perversity.
And thanks again for all the congrats on the Norton win. I can't believe I'm still getting them! Yay! And an even bigger yay for the impact it's had on ...
Posted by Justine at 6:04, May 18th, 2007 under Ranting, Sydney/Australia, Travelling, Vainglory, Whingeing, Words & Language |
Apparently "doobalackie" is not a universal word for "thingamybob"---you know, that thing for which you do not have a name, that "doohickie". I had no idea it was just us Australians who reach for doobalackies.
Is it just us? Any South Africans or New Zealanders or Jamaicans or English or Welsh or Irish or Scottish people care to weigh in? What do you call the thingie for which you do not at that moment have a name?
I learned the non-Americanness of doobalackie from the
the livejournal devoted to Megan Whalen Turner's fabulous Attolia trilogy which
recently discussed my worship of said trilogy ((Are there still any of you who haven't read Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia trilogy (The ...
Posted by Justine at 16:59, April 5th, 2007 under Bloggery, Sydney/Australia, Words & Language, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 12:52, March 31st, 2007 under Bloggery, Cons & Other Gatherings, Cricket, Listening, Praising, Ranting, Reading, Research, Sport, Viewing, Words & Language |
A question for you all:
Would you describe yourself as a fan, or a geek, or both? And if you do describe yourself in that way what do you mean by it? What's your idea of a "fan"? Or of a "geek"?
For the record I'm a fan but not a geek.
Posted by Justine at 10:58, March 30th, 2007 under Bloggery, Words & Language |
Scrotumgate and the never-ending debate about what words are appropriate for what age groups made me realise something very important: You USians talk funny!
See, in Australia where I grew up the words that some people think you should never say and others use all the time are called "swear words" and the act of using them is "swearing". Here in the United States of America they are "curse" or even odder "cuss" words and when you say them you are "cursing" or "cussing".
Both of which sound unbelievably quaint as well as kind of cute to my ears. It's as if I've been chatting with folks who appear to be from the twenty-first century and then---Bam!---all of a ...
Posted by Justine at 0:03, March 2nd, 2007 under Words & Language |
What have
I started? Arguments about the relative merits of
zombies and
unicorns rage across the intramanets. And on each thread someone suggests the zombie-unicorn hybrid. Great minds think alike? Or fools seldom differ?
I was greatly distressed that lovely friends of mine like
Holly Black,
Cecil Castellucci,
Meg McCarron and
Literaticat have fallen pray to the false glittery charms of unicorns despite the fact that being virgin fascists unicorns would have nothing to do with them. I guess it falls into the whole desiring-what-you-can't-have camp. Perhaps to resolve our issues Holly and I should collaborate on a Zombies vesus Unicorns novel? I will write the zombies and she can have the unicorns. Though ...
Posted by Justine at 12:54, February 18th, 2007 under Bloggery, Book challenges, New York City/USA, Praising, Ranting, State of the World, Unicorns, Words & Language, Young Adult literature, Zombies |
This one breaks my brain.
From the Sydney Morning Herald the
Australian cricket team responds to accusations of being arrogant, rude, sledging bastards:
"The way I look at cricket, you do everything possible to win. Some people like the verbal side of the game, some don't, but you just get one with what your job. I take what Vincent is saying as a backhanded compliment."
Hayden, Clark's Australian teammate, was equally indignant.
"If he considers that to be the case, I'm not unhappy about it, to be honest," Hayden said. "It's a great clash between New Zealand and Australia and long may it continue. It doesn't matter what sport---we could be playing kick a cockroach from here to the wall and we'd want ...
Posted by Justine at 12:39, January 31st, 2007 under Cricket, Ranting, Sport, State of the World, Words & Language |
The 9 Oct
New Yorker features an article by Milan Kundera called "What is a Novelist: How great writers are made". And, um, I really, really hope it was written with tongue firmly in cheek cause otherwise these are the pearls of wisdom Mr Kundera offers:
Novelists are like lyric poets except that youth is the lyrical age and novelists are old.
To be a novelist you must tear away your lyrical chyrsalis.
We are always wearing make-up.
The novelist must tear through the curtain of pre-interpretation.
Girl characters are actually based on boy characters.
Readers don't read novels they read themselves reading novels.
We must all embrace the Whole.
Beat your grandmother.
To which I can only say, "Innit!" (("Innit" is the one word in ...
Posted by Justine at 16:57, October 3rd, 2006 under Frippery, Reading, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 13:28, October 2nd, 2006 under State of the World, Words & Language, Writing life, Writing process, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 9:21, September 29th, 2006 under Basketball, Bloggery, Magic or Madness trilogy, Praising, Reading, Sport, Whingeing, Words & Language |
Posted by Justine at 23:59, September 21st, 2006 under Excuses, Liar, State of the World, Words & Language, Writing life, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 16:05, September 17th, 2006 under Reading, Words & Language, Writing process |
Because
Margo Lanagan is one of the best writers I know, and is wonderful in every way, and has written two of the best short story collections ever published (White Time and Black Juice)---I should probably follow her rules of writing to the letter.
But, see, she has this list of banned words and every one of those words sings to me:
accretion
amidst
amongst
atop*
corruscating
crepuscular*
effulgence
enervating
iridescent*
jasmine
maelstrom
obsidian* (Margo says, "only okay when used to describe arrowheads".)
pellucid*
roiling* (Margo says, "must be used with care".)
silken*
ululate*
whilst
There are heaps more but I can't remember the rest. Help me out, Margo? Margo's Clarion students?
Update: *Are Margo Lanagan additions to the list.
Ever since I heard of the existence of Margo's banned words list it has become my goal in life ...
Posted by Justine at 0:31, September 14th, 2006 under Frippery, Ironical (This is Writ), Magic or Madness trilogy, Words & Language, Writing process |
Over at Miss Snark's some
folks get all snooty when agents address them by first name. I find their crankiness weird and am wondering if it's a generational thing or because (as another commenter says) I'm Australian and we're less uptight more relaxed than USians.
Personally, I'm more squicked when people insist on using a title with my name. My name is Justine Larbalestier, it's not Ms Justine Larbalestier, certainly not Miss or Mrs Justine Larbalestier and you're risking life and limb if you ever use
Mrs Scott Westerfeld, though FYI Scott adores being called Mr Justine Larbalestier.
If you must use a title the correct one's actually Dr, which I'm not wild about either, but at least I earned ...
Posted by Justine at 10:14, June 11th, 2006 under Frippery, New York City/USA, Ranting, State of the World, Sydney/Australia, Titles & names, Whingeing, Words & Language |
I know I'm a
teeny bit obsessed with
search terms that lead to my website (especially when deadlines loom), but today's list was a truly bumper crop. Here are my faves:
Q:
does euphoria mean something bad?
Dr Justine says: It can. It really really can. Over-the-top happiness can lead to all sorts of injuries. I broke my toe that way once.
Q:
where does andrew symonds lives 2006?
A: Ya know, I have a feeling it's prolly better that you don't find out. Leave the poor bastard alone. He's injured and in South Africa. Stalk someone else!
Q:
what genre do first time novelists publish easiest?
A: What now?! There is no answer to this question. There is ...
Posted by Justine at 0:38, March 3rd, 2006 under Cricket, Search Terms, Sport, Words & Language |
As usual
the pedant stickler people are losing. "Whom" is dying, so is the
bizarre notion of the split infinitive. Now all we need is for more folks to realise that subjunctive in English, she dead too. (If it ever truly existed.) Languages they evolve, they change. Deal with it, pedant stickler peoples!
via
Bookslut
Posted by Justine at 23:53, February 21st, 2006 under Praising, Ranting, Words & Language |
Well, not me so much as my essay
"Too Young to Publish". Awhile back
Didi Chanoch asked if I minded if it were translated? I did not!
So now Itay Shlamkovitch has
translated "Too Young to Publish" and
Bli Panik has published it. If you
read Hebrew check it out. (Is your Hebrew coming back, Da?) Hell, even if you don't. It's pretty.
This is the first of my writings that's been translated. I've sold translations rights to
Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons but the actual publishing of those translations hasn't happened yet. Oh, the glory of online publication. So very fast!
Oh, and I think this is my name in Hebrew: ג'סטין לרבליסטר
Cool, eh?
Posted by Justine at 8:43, November 9th, 2005 under Vainglory, Words & Language |
