Boy, have I seen new writers run the gamut of every one of these. There's also a really sad corollary where the writer has quit their job to write, and then their first or second book doesn't sell (because they have not yet got the suck out). Then their annoyed spouse makes them stop writing and get a job. I've seen this happen to so many people. I don't know if the writer made their spouse a lot of pie in the sky promises or what.
It escapas me who said this but my favorite writing quote about the process is: "You just sit in front of the blank page until you start to bleed onto it."
Great article. You hit all the boring things most of us know, and just need to do. It's not glamorous or exciting, it's just work. And the better you get at the work, the more times you find that joy when you first started.
Items 1, 2 & 4 are why I set-up 365 INFANTRY the way I did. Writing weekly flash fiction is a way to consistently cut your teeth, and hone your sense of pacing and characterization because you're dealing in an extremely compact form. Scaling up from short stories to novelettes to novellas to novels instead of immediately starting out in novels helps you learn where the fat usually crops up, and how best to trim it. It also being my learning curve project means that other stories I write benefit from lessons learned when writing for the series. You can see your bad habits, genuine strengths, interests, and overall authorial voice all come into view, and that benefits other stories and projects you write for.
Boy, have I seen new writers run the gamut of every one of these. There's also a really sad corollary where the writer has quit their job to write, and then their first or second book doesn't sell (because they have not yet got the suck out). Then their annoyed spouse makes them stop writing and get a job. I've seen this happen to so many people. I don't know if the writer made their spouse a lot of pie in the sky promises or what.
I should make number 11 "expecting lots of money." Many people get disappointed!
It escapas me who said this but my favorite writing quote about the process is: "You just sit in front of the blank page until you start to bleed onto it."
Great article. You hit all the boring things most of us know, and just need to do. It's not glamorous or exciting, it's just work. And the better you get at the work, the more times you find that joy when you first started.
Items 1, 2 & 4 are why I set-up 365 INFANTRY the way I did. Writing weekly flash fiction is a way to consistently cut your teeth, and hone your sense of pacing and characterization because you're dealing in an extremely compact form. Scaling up from short stories to novelettes to novellas to novels instead of immediately starting out in novels helps you learn where the fat usually crops up, and how best to trim it. It also being my learning curve project means that other stories I write benefit from lessons learned when writing for the series. You can see your bad habits, genuine strengths, interests, and overall authorial voice all come into view, and that benefits other stories and projects you write for.