Some Great Posts
Some Great Posts
On the site Women in Science Fiction, Kris is hosting and doing some great stuff, as well as having guest blogs there.
Vonda N. McIntyre has the most recent guest blog there. The one before that was Judith Tarr. Worth reading and following that site, folks.
And, of course, before it is gone, get the story bundle pictured above. Stunning amount of great reading for $15.00.
The web site with the blogs and Kris’s writing on the topic is at:
http://www.womeninsciencefiction.com/
THE DAY IN GENERAL
Mostly all day I worked on workshop stuff.
Then home for a short nap, dinner and news. I got in here around 9:30 and wrote the next chapter of the sales copy book.
Took a break to watch some television, then powered on the novel.
1,100 words by 2:30 a.m.
Short break, another 1,300 words by 3:30 a.m.
Then after a short break I did another 1,100 words by 4:15 a.m.
This is going to be a short novel, which is fine. It will still be the anchor novel in Smith’s Monthly. Sometimes they just come in shorter than others.
1,300 words of nonfiction. 3,500 words of fiction.
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TOPIC OF THE NIGHT: A New Sacred Cows Post Coming
I haven’t been doing any more Sacred Cows posts recently, mostly because nothing that hasn’t already been talked about is coming up. And I am helping through workshops and such so many writers who want to be helped, I feel that at times I don’t have time for those who don’t want the help.
Even a single post aimed at the really misinformed writers who think they need an agent.
But that said, an old, old cliche has come back up in publishing that I find just scary amazing. The old cliche is that agents “protect” their writers.
Well, since I got rid of my last agent, it has been stunning how many jobs the agent was “protecting” me from.
This thinking that an agent will “protect” a client from all those little, unwanted checks is just stunning.
I like lots of little $300 to $500 checks, thank you very much.
And this “protect” stupidity seems to be growing as part of this new world where writers still think they need to pay their gardener a percentage of their home for mowing their lawn.
I want to finish this recent sales book and the most recent novel before even thinking of wading into this can of worms.
But just say that I promise that agents “protecting” their writers will be the next sacred cow to be toasted here.
Yes, I am that disgusted at the stupidity yet again of writers.
When common sense was passed out, so many writers had left the city.
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Writing of Heaven Painted as a Cop Car
Day 1… 2,100 words… Total Words to date… 2,100 words.
Day 2… 2,300 words… Total Words to date… 4,400 words.
Day 3… 0,000 words… Total Words to date… 4,400 words.
Day 4… 2,400 words… Total Words to date… 6,800 words.
Day 5… 2,100 words… Total Words to date… 8,900 words.
Day 6… 1,100 words… Total Words to date… 10,000 words.
Day 7… 2,400 words… Total Words to date… 12,400 words.
Day 8… 1,900 words… Total Words to date… 14,300 words.
Day 9… 1,100 words… Total Words to date… 15,400 words.
Day 10…3,500 words… Total Words to date… 18,900 words.
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Totals For Year 3, Month 1, Day 14
Writing in Public blog streak Day 744
— Daily Fiction: 3,500 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 18,900 words
— Nonfiction: 1,300 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 11,550 words
— Blog Posts: 600 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 8,000 words
— E-mail: 18 e-mails. Approx. 500 original words. E-mails month-to date: 415 e-mails. Approx. 14,400 words
— Covers Designed and Finished: 0. Covers finished month-to-date: 3 Covers
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4 Comments
Linda Maye Adams
People keeping passing around misinformation as fact. I still see a lot of unpublished writers advising other unpublished writers about agents. I’m sure some of it is rooted in not understanding the business side. The writer is probably thinking, “I just want to write; the agent can take care of that business stuff that I don’t really understand.” It probably has its roots in people not really understanding money very well, because I see the same thing in my dealings with other people’s travel vouchers. I’m amazed at the number of people who are unable to grasp basic things they need to do just so they get paid correctly, and aren’t even willing to learn. This is how people get ripped off, because that leaves them in the position of trusting someone else. No one else is going to have an investment in what you get paid.
dwsmith
Spot on, Linda.
Mary
It’s not just the business side. I saw one unpublished writer saying that after she finished editing her novel (she was on the eighth draft!), she was confident an agent would help her fix it so that a publisher would accept it. I started to object, but since everyone else was agreeing with her, I wasn’t going to beat my head against that wall.
Why does the idea that agents know anything persist?
dwsmith
Just a horrid myth. Beginning writers are always looking for crutches, for pats on the head, for committees (workshops) to stamp their work. They have not gotten to the point where they can trust their own art. Agents are just another way of all this feeding the new writer problems. Instead of learning craft and writing a lot and putting it out there, the eight rewrites and the agent comments are ways to make sure nothing original comes from that person. Sadly.