posted
At the risk of passing out ammunition in the writers civil war, her is an interview with Mike Resnick.
The interviewer steers his questions toward what new writers should expect in cracking into todays markets, among other things.
Posts: 3072 | Registered: Dec 2007
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posted
I've followed Mike Resnick's writing and writing philosophies for sometime. I'm mostly onboard with his positions, although in part I owe a degree of quid pro quo to him for opening my eyes, paring down my resistance to the hard work of writing a story that appeals. It's the story that appeals not the writer, though name-brand names sell covers.
Posts: 6037 | Registered: Jun 2008
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I agree with his opinion that names sell so often the name will win over the unknown, but as far as not pitching your work to semi-pro publications, that sounds like sound advice 20 years ago. I can't imagine editors still holding a prejudice against writers who have had success selling their work for a penny a word. They get plenty submissions and they've been known to reject plenty of pros.
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As always, bar none, the story matters from the get-go. Where an artful story reaches an audience shouldn't and hasn't mattered except how much it pays, whether it fits a house's creative slant, and how broad the audience is.
I don't believe editors reject for much more reason than a story isn't up to par by their perceived standards or because it simply doesn't fit topically or space-wise. Plenty of artful writers reach their audiences through limited venues. Tens of thousands of paper and electronic digests are eager for artful content and all too often have to settle for fair enough. And editors are as nobly-flawed human as writers.
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All I learned from that article is that my life is not going to be easy if I want to break into this profession. But I already knew that...
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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Well, I know from personal experience, that once I (temporarily) abandoned the notion of writing for money, and dived into Internet Fan Fiction for a few years, I had a whale of a good time doing it. But since I've returned to my original notion and purpose, I've been blowing hot-and-cold about it.
I've said 'round here that I've been looking for print publication primarily, not the money---which isn't much---and if a market can't offer print publication, I'd just as soon not bother with it. But it's not a hard-and-fast rule, but something to be evaluted on depending on the circumstances.
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Me too, Robert. Writing fan fiction was the most creative time of my life and I'm trying to recreate that time now.
Posts: 1271 | Registered: May 2007
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Writing fan fiction was a great time of my life, too. I immersed myself into fandom with vigor, going to conventions, having intense conversations with my friends, and spending sometimes all day (on weekends) writing, writing, writing. I was obsessed, but had a great time. It helped that I was young and didn't have the responsibilities I have now, decades later. But as a mature person, fan fiction doesn't hold the allure it did back then. I want to be a "professional", but am finding it hard to find the time and energy to write like I did in my younger days. But I, too, am trying to channel that enthusiasm for my current story, and sometimes have succeeded in regaining some of that pants-to-the-pavement fire.
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I think fan fiction is enjoyable because we are deeply immersed in that setting and everything we write in that setting comes easily. It's hard to be immersed in something you have to develop yourself first but that's the key component in writing gripping and thorough stories.
I'm at a point where I will give advice to rookie writers that they should write fan fiction just to see how good it can get. Plus, when such a rookie gets tired of writing fan fiction, you know they are hungry for recognition.
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I think I came to it relatively late in life, that it was something that maybe I should have tried earlier, like in my teens---but one thing I did is take my standards along---things like writing to entertain, beginning-middle-end, good grammar and spelling, never write a sequel that requires a reader to read the earlier stuff, that sort of thing. (You'd be surprised how many fanfic writers don't follow those kind of rules.)
I seemed to make something of an impression in my career in fanfic---a series I wrote is often cited as best in its category ("future lives.") And the last story I wrote back then introduced what others found a startlingly innovative new idea / concept / possibility to the field. (I didn't find out about that until a couple of years later.)
And overall, there was the great joy of writing something, knowing somebody read something of mine and liked it---and after thirty-plus years of being read only by slushpile readers looking to slap another form rejection slip on something, that was a thrill.
While I was writing fanfic, I was also reading it, and I found that pretty rewarding, too. There's a lot of good writers among the amateurs, and the mistakes and errors and problems didn't stop some of the stories from being memorable. It convinced me that the professional writers don't have a corner on the good stuff. I continue reading fanfic, on and off, to this day. (I found my Nook Color to be perfect for reading it.)
I would have thought, though, that I'd done it, done my time, and it was all over, and there'd be no more. Except I turned out another fanfic earlier this year, for no other reason than I felt like writing it.
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