23 Comments
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Veronica's avatar

Hi Jason. This was so delightful to see and to read. I really enjoyed seeing some of your creative process--thank you for sharing. 🌈

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thanks, Veronica!

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Justin Deming's avatar

Thanks for bringing us behind-the-scenes and showing us some elements of your creative process. Your poem tracker idea is brilliant. I’m wondering if I should start doing the same for my fiction, hmm...

Great stuff as always, Jason!

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Dascha Paylor 🇨🇦🍁🐻‍❄'s avatar

Justin, I keep an excel sheet containing a single line about the main event of every scene, with POV character, setting, and page on which it appears. It's great for revising and seeing holes in the story.

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thanks! It's amazing how useful a spreadsheet can be for the creative process.

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Dascha Paylor 🇨🇦🍁🐻‍❄'s avatar

I really love seeing your process, Jason. Thanks for sharing. And I love the metaphor of flying now. This works on so many levels!

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thank you!

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Peter Blasevick's avatar

Your notebook step brings to mind Leonard Cohen, who famously (allegedly?) would fill up an entire black and white marble composition book with a hundred or more verses for each song he wrote and then pick out the best ones.

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Jason McBride's avatar

That's a pretty intense practice! I'm not sure I have the discipline of Leonard Cohen. lol

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

Really enjoyed seeing your process.

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thank you!

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House of Neglected Poetry's avatar

Always killing it, Jason!

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thank you!

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Ann Collins's avatar

Oh WOW! Fascinating to get this in-depth look at your unique creative process. The way you patiently keep iterating is inspiring, Jason.

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thanks! The one trait I'm most confident in is my stubbornness. They trouble has been finding the best ways to use that stubbornness. :)

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Minor Fossil's avatar

Love it! I like how you created the dragonflies.

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thanks!

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Bob Marcus (TGF LLC)'s avatar

This is just beautiful

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Jason McBride's avatar

Thank you!

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Lisa Denny's avatar

My excel spreadsheets

Nothing is more poetic

Than metadata

🧡🤣

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Jason McBride's avatar

Ha! Great haiku!

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Amy Cowen's avatar

“because nothing is more poetic than metadata” -- ❤️

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Jason McBride's avatar

What can I say? I'm neurotic and love knowing all the little bits of data have a home. :)

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