Learned it the Hard Way

Some things in life, especially writing, are learned the hard way. There's a few things I learned the hard way and I kick myself to this day for doing it in all ignorance.

Lesson Number One: All publishers are not created equal and simply because they say one thing doesn't make it true.

This lesson was learned from Punish Publish America. I was young, very naive, and I didn't have a clue as to how publishing really worked and didn't even know what questions to ask. Lesson learned and every time I think about trying for a smaller unproven press, that sting of that lesson makes me pull back really fast.

Lesson Number Two: In the script business, a % of nothing is still nothing.

I signed up for this thing where I wrote off someone elses concept and the person who brought us together would sell it. I'd get a whole whopping 35%. Well fast forward 3 years later and it has been nothing but an agony regret filled journey and guess what, still not sold. Now the person "selling" the script is trying to back out of the deal and still retain their percentage. Screw that.

I learned not to work for free. Ever. Even if it's a small up front, it's better than a promised percentage of nothing. It was my first and last. Deferment? It'd better be payable upon completion of this script.

Lesson Number Three: There's no such thing as a guarantee.

What writing lessons have you had to learn the hard way?

Thanks for contributing. There are so many lessons out there, I hope I learn most of them the easy way and that there aren't many more hard lessons out there for me.

That a paranoid lunatic does not stop being so simply because you want them to go away.

The Lonely One said:

The more you learn about your own writing, the more you hate it.

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That hasn't been the case for me. When I learn new techniques then I see my writing take that next leap and that's like tingly exciting.