(This isn't a repeat exactly, but it is very similar to a post I wrote when I first joined the ELEW. Hope you don't mind too much.)
Every job has things about it that suck. Teachers might love teaching but hate grading papers or dealing with school politics. People who flip burgers don't have the hardest job in the world, but the pay sucks and then eternally smell like fry grease. So, I understand when people periodically bitch about aspects of their jobs. Everyone needs to vent sometimes. I get it.
What I still can't understand is people who eternally bitch about everything to do with their job as an author.Read more
This may come as a complete and utter shock to writers everywhere, but the publishing world isn't "fair."
We all have woe tales to tell. Shitty Book A is selling better than something you worked really hard on. People with no experience suddenly get huge book deals. Readers in many cases don't want something new, they want the same grounds tread again and again with the same tropes.
Yes, Snooki is selling more than you.
Yes, Twilight fanfic is selling more than you.
Yes, Twilight even exists outside of someone's Desk Drawer of Embarrassing Manuscripts.
Yes, it may not be fair. You may have put years into your craft. You may be doing something exciting and different in your genre. You may be banging your head against the desk knowing that truly poorly written books are selling because they have sex in them, or have X, Y, Z that makes them popular.
I don't particularly LIKE doing math. Not because I'm a girl (thanks, Barbie), but because I'm me and I have trouble with numbers. But I recalculated it a few times and found that yes, indeed, I've written about 450 000 words this year in various novels and short stories.
I finished one new novel, completely gutted and rewrote to others (not revisions--I mean rewrote from the bottom up, into entirely new books), finished another new novel, am about to finish a third, started two other novels, and wrote some short stories.
It's a lot of words. Especially when you work full time.
So. How do I do this? Am I magical? Maybe a robot? Do I have copious amounts of free time?
No, I STFU and work. So here are some fast and easy tips to help those of you having trouble with output.Read more
OK, writers, this blog is aimed squarely at you. I’ll warn you up front that it won’t be pretty. Some of you will probably be damned offended, actually. That’s okay.
Still here? Good. I have a bit of advice to share with you:
Stop spending so much fucking time worrying about what other authors think. If you feel like you have to worry about what anyone thinks, then it better damn well be your readers.Read more
August! OMG It's AUGUST! Back-to-school sales begin now if they haven't already! FINALLY! School looms on the horizon! BWAH-HA-HA-HA! Take that, little Fourth-of-July firecracker hoarders across the street!
Okay, I'll stop the evil laugh now. It amuses me that this ties in to the topic of my post.
If you've been following my posts here, you'll know I've been talking about editing, rejection, and the general process of critique and revision. Here's part three, in which I talk about handling rejections and the critical feedback some of them contain.Read more
(Originally this was posted at my blog and got a lot of discussion--I figure it's worth posting again.
Please note that I'm currently unavailable for a week. If you leave a comment, please allow time for it to be posted. I promise to reply when I'm back.)
Friday night (okay, Saturday morning) I finished my third book of 2010...and I'm ridiculously proud of myself because I didn't write at all for about six months earlier this year. I spent years getting myself in the habit of writing nearly every day and those months off--while ultimately good for me--hurt like you wouldn't believe. Writing is a muscle that has to be worked all the time; it was *so* hard to get back into writing daily after that because I was out of shape.
But after I finished Wounded I swore I wasn't going to start the next book right away. I did, ultimately...about three or four days later. It's been a tough couple of months getting the third done, mostly 'cause I'm always busy. A few weeks went by when I had only the weekend to get any writing done. But I did it.
Which brings me to a couple of points I want to make.
I've written three books this year; three books that, when I started the first one in January, I had no intention of writing. I woke up one morning in January with Abandoned in my head--or at least the plot of a five book series and most of the first in my head--and I just sat down and wrote it.
But I'm not magical. I don't have special powers*. I have no cybernetic parts.
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