Writer’s Block

Sep 27, 2012 by

The problem with trying to write about writer’s block is that to write about writer’s block you can’t have writer’s block and it’s very difficult to write about a block you are currently experiencing. Follow that? Then the rest of this will be very easy to understand. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to be an author to experience writer’s block. Anyone who writes at all can be hit with it – from the pen-pal to the executive editor. It’s better described as “blank page syndrome”. You might, in fact, have a topic already in mind when you sit down to write, pen in hand (or fingers on keys) but nothing comes. You stare at the white space in front of you and fifteen minutes later wonder how it could be possibly...

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Writing To Write

Sep 25, 2012 by

No form of writing is pointless. Or, put less passively: writing is always worth it. I was recently asked if there was “even any point in continuing this mess” by a prospective client – she’d written something she had no desire to see published in print and really just wanted to share with the world online. She wanted to offer it up for free, but was willing to spend some money to help improve her skill. Yes, there is a point. Take fanfiction writers, as our first example. It may seem pointless, and some authors are deeply and darkly against their characters being used by anyone else, but in fact, there are quite a few reasons to write fanfiction–I’ll go into my personal artistic views of the medium at a later date. For now,...

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To Keep Or Not To Keep

Sep 21, 2012 by

Any avid reader understands the issue of too many books, but a writer builds up a collection faster than most. From reference to finished client projects, books related to my day-to-day professional life end up taking more room than the books I want to read. And when I end up running out of room, the first thing that always pops into my head is “maybe I should just sell those novels.” See, because I need the reference books, and each of my contracts calls for me to get one copy of the final published book. Why, you ask? Because I worked very hard, and I don’t take credit or a piece of the money from the sale. I’d like a copy of the actual book. But my novels and the other books I read...

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Period Spaces

Sep 18, 2012 by

Once, a long long time ago, in this here galaxy in which we live, you wrote on a typewriter, and the rule was two spaces after a period. And while even the nefarious Writer’s Digest acknowledges that no, we do not do this anymore, people insist on it, and give many a reason for it. When we used typewriters, readability insisted that two spaces come after every period. It gave the eye a rest, and the irregularities inherent in typewriter text made it necessary. We do not do this in today’s computer-driven world. I understand this is a hard habit to break – that’s what “Find/replace” is for. To remove all those double spaces from your finished manuscript before you send it in. Why, you ask? Publishers don’t want to see it. There are plenty of...

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Writer’s Digest

Sep 14, 2012 by

I subscribe to Writer’s Digest’s newsletter. Many of you do as well, most likely, but while we both read it, this is for vastly different reasons. Writer’s Digest is considered a good source of information for the general public. But in actual fact, if you read closely, you’ll notice that you never actually get said information. Each article or seminar or book is mostly designed to make sure you get just enough to have to buy the next one. Now, this isn’t to say that their information is always inaccurate. It’s not. Just recently, an article went up that I thoroughly agree with and will be writing more on next week. However, this is a bit rare and far between. For the most part, Writer’s Digest is a simply money-making machine. Hardly surprising in today’s world, but...

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Uncertainties of Life

Sep 11, 2012 by

On Sept 11, 2001, the world came to a crashing halt, and that included the book industry. Every book on an editor’s desk that was set to get published? Scrapped. Every manuscript that had an agent’s attention was shoved aside. Every book already at the presses was halted. For six months the industry came to a stand still. Contracts were cancelled, series were paused, sequels didn’t come out. There are no guarantees in the world, least of all in the book business. If you come to me with a manuscript and ask for a promise that after I’ve worked on it, it will be published by a major publisher, I show you the door. No matter how good the book is, there’s never any way to be certain. Today is the 11th anniversary of a deep tragedy,...

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