Your first draft...

I teach this concept. In fact, I just mentioned it to class last Monday night.  I'd lost track of where I first heard it, though. And this made me go, of course.

Sir Terry Pratchett. He is a 'Sir' because the Queen of England knighted him for his magnificent fantasy writing.

For the record, many people recommended his work to me but I just didn't get it, couldn't get into it, until I was told that not only did I not have to read them in order, but that the better entry points were later in the series.  For the further record, these are a few of my faves so far:

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld Book 28)

Monstrous Regiment (Discworld Book 31)

Mort (Discworld Book 4) 

There are 40 Discworld books so far, and I am savoring them slowly, because Sir Terry is ill and, well, there you go. I love that there are so many for us to enjoy. What a brilliant, brilliant man.

 

 

 

That Business Stuff

As some of you might know, I was asked to give a Saturday workshop by the Writers Guild of Texas this November about the 'business of writing.'  And I said, sure!

And then, a week or so letter, I emailed and said, enh, maybe not.

Because I actually pretty much hate having to talk about it, and it is changing so much nonstop that any attempt to do a terrific job of it not only would take a lot more time than I want to spend on it, but would be outdated in five minutes.

Somebody else is going to do it, and I am sure they will do a great job of it.

In the meantime, here is some really smart stuff about the writing as a business from Hugo Award-winning Kameron Hurley.

I had a colleagues come to me recently gushing excitedly about selling their first novel in a two-book deal. “That’s fabulous!” I said.

“I mean… the advance isn’t a lot of money, but I know the publishers and they are great people,” they said.

“Do you have an agent?”

“Oh, well… it’s not for very much money. It’s like $500.”

Alarm bells started going off in my brain. A $500 advance is basically just “go away” money. It’s pat-you-on-the-head ha ha money. “Oh, well… what kinds of rights are they asking for?” I said.

“Oh, you know, everything. World English rights, foreign rights, movie rights…”

“OK, stop right there. You’re going to give a publisher complete ownership of your novels, including movie rights, for $500?”

“Well, the publishers are really nice people…”

Ok, my friends, let’s back up.

No Rules

As I have said many times, there is only one rule in writing that can't be broken.

A WRITER WRITES.

If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're not writing, you aren't. It's that easy, and that hard.

So. Are you a writer today?

Here's a reassuring quote. If you don't know who Neil Gaiman is, check him out. In the meantime, reassurance that there isn't One Holy Way to Write, Amen.

“Some writers need a while to charge their batteries, and then write their books very rapidly. Some writers write a page or so every day, rain or shine. Some writers run out of steam, and need to do whatever it is they happen to do until they’re ready to write again.”

—	Neil Gaiman

This Saturday, Meet You at the Library!

Saturday afternoon, September 13, 1-5 pm, drop by The Colony Public Library for a 'meet the authors and illustrators' event.

Sales will partially benefit the library programs, and we--the authors and illustrators--will be there to chat, answer questions, and if you're interested, sell and sign books.