It’s been a long time since I posted this. I keep running into people who tell me it was, for them, a lifechanger or a lifesaver, so I thought I’d put it up again. Everything I know about a life in the arts, in about 20 minutes.
@PatrickRothfuss I wish I could have been there for this.
This. All this.
Patrick Rothfuss is the best.
The. Best.
Photo credit: Ulf Andersen/Getty
From an interview with Stephen King in Rolling Stone:
“Speaking of Harry Potter, you’ve become friendly with J.K. Rowling, right?
Yeah. We did a charity event at Radio City Music Hall a few years back. She was working on the last of the Harry Potter books. Her publicist and her editor called her over, and they talked for about 10 minutes. And when she came back to me, she was steaming. Fucking furious. And she said, “They don’t understand what we do, do they? They don’t fucking understand what we do.“ And I said, "No, they don’t. None of them do.” And that’s what my life is like right now.
What do you mean?
When someone says, “What are you working on?” I’ll say, “I’ve got this wonderful story about these two families on two sides of a lake that end up having this arms race with fireworks,” but I’m doing this event, and then I’ve got the political ad and all this other crap. So you have to be stern about it and say, “I’m not going to do this other stuff, because you’ve got to make room for me to write.” Nobody really understands what the job is. They want the books, but they don’t, in a way, take it seriously.”—
I screamed “YES! YES!” when I read this, and then I had to bite my lip and fight back a few tears. (That boldfacing of the last two sentences is my emphasis.)
Being a writer is awesome – I can’t believe I get to do this. The best parts are: a) making up stuff and writing it down, and b) interacting with fans. But there is always this terrible tension between the amount of time a writer has to write (i.e. there is never enough) and the time it takes to go to conferences, on book tours, etc.
This is probably why writers have taken so rapturously to social media. It allows for super-fun interactions with readers, but in a way that doesn’t drag us away from writing for months on end.
I adore the work of both of these writers and it is oddly comforting to know that they have the same time and energy struggles.
Anyway… I’m not bitching. I just thought you’d like to read the article.
Back to work on my book now…
There is so much awesome… this post… I just… what… can’t…
What You Need to Know Most About Character Voice
I’m kind of embarrassed to admit I didn’t have much of an understanding of character voice two years ago. I’m an English graduate, and none of my professors in college really talked about it. I think I remember learning the definition in high school and reading it…
If you use magic in fiction, the first thing you have to do is put barriers up. There must be limits to magic. If you can snap your fingers and make anything happen, where’s the fun in that? … The story really starts when you put limits on magic. Where fantasy gets a bad name is when anything can happen because a wizard snaps his fingers. Magic has to come with a cost, probably a much bigger cost than when things are done by what is usually called ‘the hard way.’
Yesterday, I held a little game called Hook Me where I asked followers to submit summaries in the form of a query letter to my ask box. The goal was to hook me, just like you would a lit agent.
So why didn’t your submission hook me? It wasn’t your plot (or maybe it was if it was something I’d…
Janet Reid, Literary Agent: Rant: Pitch sessions are the spawn of Satan
I just had occasion to link this post again to a conference organizer, so I’m putting it here to boost the signal!
Pitch sessions are the spawn of Satan.
They’re an evil born of writing conference and writers’ understandable eagerness to get in front of as many agents as possible. If querying is a numbers game (it can seem that way) then meeting with as many agents as possible at a writing conference seems like a good idea…
motivation for moving beyond your writing habits: Some help on picking character names
The names of a cast of characters can say a lot about the author. Because my parents gave me a very simple, extremely popular biblical name for my generation (as in, when walking down the hall at my high school and someone called out “Hey, Sarah!” about three heads…
WriteWorld: A Few Quick Thoughts on Promoting Your Writing Blog
Anonymous asked: How can i promote my writing blog? literally no one is reading it.
This is very, very common. We see great work in the “writeworld" tag every day that gets only one or two notes. So, why is that and what can you do about it?
- Lots of people use Tumblr for something other…
This is just some nice, helpful information on how to get yourself some more hits. I’m personally happy about where this blog is at, but not getting views can be really frustrating, especially when it’s about something as personal as your work.
One small caveat, while writing advice really is a great way to get yourself and your work noticed, general writing advice is a dime-a-dozen. Like with anything involving writing, pick some sort of topic that you can speak on with authority, something you’re personally passionate about, not just what you think other people will want to hear. A personal investment will keep you going long enough for people to start noticing and, because you’re usually reading and researching it yourself, you’ll have a wider pool of information to draw on for much longer spans. It’ll also feel less like work.
Remember, everything you do online can be a foothold towards getting your book published. Be shameless, sell yourself, advertise. The more worth you find in yourself now, the easier it will be in the long run. Ask yourself: why me? What do I have to say that I feel needs saying? What do I have to say that’s worth listening to?
Every writer has to answer these questions for themselves. Tumblr is an amazing network, you can build a base here faster than almost anywhere else. Even if it hasn’t happened yet (and if it has, congrats!), there’s nothing to say it won’t in the future. Pay attention, learn what tags get you hits, and keep in mind: persistence and perseverance.
Happy Writing!
-Michi
