Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

Loretta said:

And unless you're highly motivated to start a new work, back off for awhile...the muse doesn't play hide and seek for long

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I beg to differ. Mine was on vacation for five years.

Reasons Your Novel Could Be Rejected

(To be taken with humor.)

9% Love no longer universal theme.
12% Too many hyphens.
22% Misspelled the word hyphen on page 367,
20% Cover had Oprah disapproval sticker.
18% Agent not in story as promised.
19% Could be fatally exciting.

Taken from an email from a writing group member.

Today's official weirdness:

A poem that Doyle wrote over thirty years ago, written on a guard tower in Iraq.

James D. Macdonald said:

3) That ghostwriting gig? That's good money and it's easy work. See if your agent can round up more of those. Do one a year and think of it as your day job.

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I resemble that! No ghostwriting, but I've been picking up small content-writing gigs lately for places like Demand Studios and Constant Content, and before that I did how-to career self-help books for a niche press. Much of it work-for-hire, it's true, and not what I was thinking of when I decided to be a writer when I grew up... BUT "it's my day job," I'd tell myself, "and it's a day job I can work from home without even getting out of bed. And I'm getting money for writing. That's cool!"

That, plus enough mad time management skillz to make sure the fiction is still moving along--a scene a day, a draft or rewrite a week, whatever it takes to get something new in the slush each month--is enough to keep me feeling like I'm moving in the right direction.

I'm taking to the trails for a week,alone.

I need to spew the last WIP from my soul, and toddle along a path shaded by bent boughs full of summer leaves, and tread through strips of sunlight like mile posts. Through a meadow ripe with Queen Ann's lace, dotted with wildflowers, with a curious hummingbird as my companion, and find a lone tree on some far away hilltop to lean my back against.

Ken

Ken Schneider said:

I'm taking to the trails for a week,alone.

I need to spew the last WIP from my soul, and toddle along a path shaded by bent boughs full of summer leaves, and tread through strips of sunlight like mile posts. Through a meadow ripe with Queen Ann's lace, dotted with wildflowers, with a curious hummingbird as my companion, and find a lone tree on some far away hilltop to lean my back against.

Ken

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And you're not bringing me along?

James D. Macdonald said:

Today's official weirdness:

A poem that Doyle wrote over thirty years ago, written on a guard tower in Iraq.

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Wow.

A couple of years ago I did a week on the Appalachian Trail (in the White Mountains -- it was like a week on a Stairmaster). It was great.

Uncle Jim, I've got one of those annoying questions for you.

I've got a story where a secondary character is an AI computer/ship. Normally, proper names for ships would be italicized, but in this case the ship's also a secondary character and it might, if this thing ever saw publication, be annoying to the copysetter(s) to italicize every instance of the ship's name or every time it's referred to.

Do you think it would be okay just to keep the name non-italicized even though it might be technically incorrect (I'd use it once, at the start of the story just to make it clear that this is the ship's name and then drop it thereafter)?

Naturally, I am underlining where the italics should be in this case...

Greg, which answer is likely to a) not confuse the readers, b) not annoy the readers, and c) be consistent?

(And must the AI-as-character name and the ship's name be the same? In 2001, note HAL 9000 and Discovery.)

Um, Good answer...

Honestly, that's an excellent answer to my question and one that I can easily work into the story.

Hah! Actually, that works perfectly as I'd already given the ship 2 different designations.

Thanks much!

Ken Schneider said:

I'm taking to the trails for a week,alone.

I need to spew the last WIP from my soul, and toddle along a path shaded by bent boughs full of summer leaves, and tread through strips of sunlight like mile posts. Through a meadow ripe with Queen Ann's lace, dotted with wildflowers, with a curious hummingbird as my companion, and find a lone tree on some far away hilltop to lean my back against.

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That sounds lovely, Ken. WANT! Watch out for them hummingbirds, though - they can be tenacious when they think you know something they don't!

HConn said:

Wow.

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Indeed. It immediately reminded me of this, and I wondered whether they were the same wall or at least part of the same structure. They're certainly part of the same spirit.

I think that someone finding one's writing personally meaningful enough, or inspirational enough, to pass it along in this manner, must be the very fulfillment of why we become writers.

The Unspeakable Horror of the Literary Life, Part 29,308,543.

I can't imagine the frustration he must have suffered. Poor guy.

What you're seeing there is catastrophic loss of faith in the editor. And it's the editor's fault.

James D. Macdonald said:

What you're seeing there is catastrophic loss of faith in the editor. And it's the editor's fault.

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What I want to know is why the first editor sent it out to a second one in the first place? Or, is that what this entire deal is about? That if they were both happy with the draft they collaborated on, why use a second editor?

Elidibus said:

What I want to know is why the first editor sent it out to a second one in the first place? Or, is that what this entire deal is about? That if they were both happy with the draft they collaborated on, why use a second editor?

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I thought the publisher sent it out to the second editor, after the first editor submitted a revised and mutually acceptable piece (for the author and first editor).

Which makes it an insult to the first editor as well as the author.

gdm

I recall another anthology, many years ago.

The editor had assembled a bunch of stories, both original and reprint. This was a well-known editor, working with a well-known publisher. All's well.

Then the publisher, for reasons that seemed good to them, decided that one of the stories Needed Changes if they were going to market the book in a certain region of the country. So they passed on to one of the authors that his/her story would need to have cuts made.

As it happened, it was one of the reprint stories, so it was already out in an original version. And they were only talking about reprint money to start with. And the author said "Not only no, but heck no," or words to that effect.

Which left the editor with a 4,000 word hole in his/her anthology, with press time in one week. This was a slender anthology to start with, and the deletion (aside from affecting the balance of the entire book--anthology editors consider that sort of thing--made it unpublishably short.

A week of scrambling followed.

So this sort of thing happens. Not unknown.

Uncle Jim, If you were going to start an e-zine specializing in a particular genre, how much money would you be willing to spend on a per word basis to pay your contributing authors?

Also, in a more novel-related vein, I've been reading quite a bit lately from some "authors" regarding what they see as the need for future novelists to "give away" substantial portions of their work until they get established in order to draw a publisher's attention. These folks have recommended using blogs and websites to publish early works and to get attention from people and publishers.

My own inclination is that these ideas are only a step or two removed from vanity sites where an author has to pay to get his work published, if you can call it that, and that it would incentivise publishers to require writers to pay to get them to even take a look at the writer's work. This is especially true in that most publishers would consider anything published on a blog or website to have been previously published and therefore would command only reprint rates.

But, more and more, recently, I'm seeing writers or "authors" recommending "giving away" some of their work in order to draw attention to themselves. What's your feeling in this regard?

(Yea! My 1000th post)!!!

Well, I'm not Uncle Jim, but I can say I've seen some (now) successful writers who became successful by basically giving writing away for free on their website.

It can work. It can also not work. My opinion on the matter is that you're better off trying to get paid for it right off the bat. If no one wants to buy it... sure, why not? Put it up on a website, advertise it a little, if it takes off, you've gained a lot and risked little.

I feel it's sort of a waste of "potential money" if you haven't tried to sell it, though.

(Of course assuming you feel it is professional enough to be sold.)

This is also probably predicated on how you feel about writing. Do you badly want to make money from your writing right now? Try to sell it. Do you have a great job and don't really care about financial success of your writing right now? Well, probably still better to try and sell it first, but you've got a lot less to lose if you're doing it mostly for the love of the writing. Like all things in life, there's a lot of variables. If you have an amazing network of influential writing friends (maybe even published?), or get a lot of traffic on your blog already, of course you're going to have a much different result with giving away writing than if you get maybe 500 clicks a month.

Well, I much enjoyed my few days of hiking. Spent a couple over nights under the stars, (tent), and did a lot of thinking.

It is soul healing and introspective good time. I feel more peaceful and grounded.

I suggest it to all who can hack the outdoor life.

I found myself thinking of the next WIP, and the twists and turns that it might take. Plus, the sights and sounds of both night and daily life with nature will help bring my prose to life.

I plan to take a laptop with full battery to some of the locations I visited to write as I look over the vistas.

Addicting to say the least.

FOTSGreg said:

Uncle Jim, If you were going to start an e-zine specializing in a particular genre, how much money would you be willing to spend on a per word basis to pay your contributing authors?

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Five cents a word, minimum.

Also, in a more novel-related vein, I've been reading quite a bit lately from some "authors" regarding what they see as the need for future novelists to "give away" substantial portions of their work until they get established in order to draw a publisher's attention. These folks have recommended using blogs and websites to publish early works and to get attention from people and publishers.

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Oh, you mean Cory Doctorow?

But as far as putting up early works, please, don't do it. I know of more than one author who has spent substantial amounts tracking down, buying up, and burning their early works. Or at least quietly dropping them from their bibliographies.

Just as the number one reason someone buys a book is because they read and enjoyed another work by the same author, if someone has read and loathed a work by an author subsequent sales won't happen with that reader. So posting not-ready-for-prime-time works isn't doing you any favors.

If you mean early works that were published, have reverted, and aren't getting reprinted for one reason or another ... well. I have some complete stories up on my own web page, and I have the first chapters (at least) of most of my novels posted as well.

My own inclination is that these ideas are only a step or two removed from vanity sites where an author has to pay to get his work published, if you can call it that, and that it would incentivise publishers to require writers to pay to get them to even take a look at the writer's work. This is especially true in that most publishers would consider anything published on a blog or website to have been previously published and therefore would command only reprint rates.

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There's a huge line in the sand between posting work for free on your web page or your blog, and paying someone to publish it. One is self-publication, the other is vanity publication. There are all kinds of reasons to self-publish, and making money is only one of them.

Editors (generally) aren't going to be looking at your web pages anyway (though it's been known to happen). (Because it's been known to happen does not mean it's the Wave of the Future or even necessarily a good idea.)

The Baen Free Library has been an interesting experiment: Full texts of currently in-print books, offered free. The result has been an increase in sales of the print versions of the same works, to the great joy of the authors.

But, more and more, recently, I'm seeing writers or "authors" recommending "giving away" some of their work in order to draw attention to themselves. What's your feeling in this regard?

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To draw attention to yourself? No. But there are lots of other motives for posting things for free on the web that aren't for the purposes of drawing attention to yourself.

The word-count I have in this thread alone is astounding, though I'm not making a dime off it, and making money isn't its point or purpose.

(Yea! My 1000th post)!!!

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Go, you!

Lot's of good advice there Uncle Jim. I know I've posted some things on my blog that are not in the final draft stage. Reading what you just posted, I believe I'll be going back to delete some of that stuff. Not that it isn't good, but, esp. novel excerpts need to go... if the book gets published and those parts are changed... and that's just one reason. Thanks for a nugget of gold, there

Side note: I just got discharged from the hopspital yesterday. I was coughing blood again. Over a pint total. So they clotted off the pulmonary artery. I'm already coughing less. It was my 12th time in the ER, and I think 4th time admitted to the hospital this year, but maybe now I can stay out for a while. Last time I was in there, July 3-9, I wrote over 5,500 words. This time I did close to 3,000. about 1,800 on the novel I'm currently working on. I was in there from Wed. thru Sat. So maybe I want to go to the hospital more often--I seem to get good work done there! (When they did the arterial angiogram and cauterization they had to shave my nether region--at least it was a cute nurse! I told my wife that, hoping to make her jealous, all she said was "That's good, I wouldn't have wanted it to be a big sweaty man." She's such a good woman--but takes all the fun out of my teasing sometimes!!)

Uncle Jim, Thanks very much for your response. Your thoughts pretty much reflect my own on the matter, but you're published professionally and I'm not so your opinion carries a whole lot more weight.

I wasn't specifically writing about Cory Doctorow, no. I've just seen this attitude starting to pop up quite a bit more, often in association with talk about e-publishing and the future of the publishing industry (Michael Stackpole had a recent blog post regarding it and there was one poster over at Asimov's forums that was advocating things that I thought would mean that publishers might ultimately be incentivized to charge authors to print their work, and there have been several other items I've seen when surfing around).

The only things I've put up on my own website and blog are things which have reverted to me long ago or which were always intended for self-publication (for free (ie the rules) unless you want the programs) anyway.

Regardless, I appreciate your response and am happy to see we're basically on the same page.

(Not that what I think matters right now )