In January, I’ll be back to trying to think of my own content again, but here’s December’s Q&A:
Q: How about the writing lessons you’ve learned along the way? Anything from outlining to editing your own work.
Try to write every day.
Take notes. No matter how certain you are that you could never possibly forget the incredibly clever plot twist you just thought of . . . odds are good that, yes, you can. At least, if you’re me.
Make back ups. Frequently.
Learn from your mistakes. Even if it’s just Okay, we won’t do THAT again.
Follow your fish. (A reference, for those who don’t know it, to Neil Gaiman’s The Kindly Ones.) By which I mean, do what your process needs you to do, not what writing advice books or authors you admire or anybody else says you SHOULD need to do. Creativity is so subjective and so fragile (while at the same time being completely freaking indestructible) that I sometimes think our current mania for How-To books and advice is just tying people up in knots.
Q: I’m sure there’s a few unpublished authors (such as myself) who would love to hear about your publishing experiences. How’d you get started? Agent or not?
Well, it depends which part of my writing career you’re talking about. Novels need agents. I know you see stories about people who get fabulous deals from publishing their books on their Live Journals or strewing single pages from a hot air balloon or what have you, but those are flukes. It’s not that it doesn’t happen; it’s that you can’t count on it happening TO YOU. So, yes, agent. Short stories, on the other hand, are just a matter of submit, reject, submit again. All you need is the brute stubbornness to persevere. Also, short stories–if you can write them–can help in getting an agent, because they give you publishing credits to put in your cover letter.
I got an agent in a weird, roundabout, and completely unprofessional way, which I prefer not to relate because (a.) I certainly don’t RECOMMEND it and (b.) also, it took most of five years, plus (c.) I find it a little embarrassing. I’d rather tell you to do your homework to find reputable agents who represent the kind of thing you write, look at the agents’ websites, read their submission guidelines and follow them, and be polite and professional throughout.
Q: What are your thoughts/ experiences regarding writing groups / seminars / cons / bootcamps?
The last time I took a creative writing class was in high school, and I’ve never successfully been a member of a writing group. I do have a writing partner, Elizabeth Bear, but that’s not quite the same thing. I personally would never do a Clarion-style bootcamp because I know full well it would kill me, but that’s a matter of knowing my own fault-lines.
I don’t think workshops and seminars and classes and so on are necessary if you want to be a writer–many of us who are publishing now are entirely self-taught as writers, and you’d never know it if we didn’t tell you–but I think educational experiences of that sort can help you get through particular stages of your apprenticeship more quickly. They will not, however, reduce what someone (my memory says Ray Bradbury, but I’m a little dubious) calls the Million Words of Shit. You really do just have to write and write and write and write before you can begin to write well.
I do go to conventions, and I enjoy them. They’re a good way for a beginning writer to meet other writers, both beginning and not-so-beginning, editors, and–in general–people who love the same things you do. I dislike the word “networking,” and, believe me, it’s not hard to spot someone who’s trying to use a convention solely as a means of networking rather than just, you know, making friends, but it is true that conventions are a good way to meet people.
Q: What web-sites do you think could be useful to a writer?
- Pat Wrede’s Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
- The Language Construction Kit
- Kate Monk’s Onomastikon
- an online translator (this is the one I use, but I know there are others)
- Standard Manuscript Format
- The Turkey City Lexicon
- also Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses (Mark Twain, 1895)
- Ralan.com
- Writer Beware
- Preditors & Editors
I have the others bookmarked, but will love you forever for the Onomastikon link. My previous best source was great, provided that you wanted mostly modern first names from the northern hemisphere, and didn’t care too much what tribe/nation your Native American characters were from.
I can’t vouch for the Onomastikon’s accuracy–insofar as I can tell, it’s trustworthy, but, due to the nature of my writing, I don’t use it for things where I need it to be exactly and precisely correct.
Just a mild caveat.
Many writers recommend “write, write and write” (as well as “read, read and read”!). Is this generally undertaken in a vacuum, though? Doesn’t the improvement process depend on feedback of some sort? I suppose being extraordinarily self-critical can help hone writing skills but I would have thought some sort of peer review would have been essential in order to identify everything a new-writer gets wrong.