• Key #1 (Persistence): AISFP 56
• Key #2 (Commitment): ISBW 94
• Key #3 (Balance): AISFP 58
• Key #4 (Market Awareness): ISBW 96
• Key #5 (Feedback): AISFP 59
• Key #6 (Write More): ISBW 97
Lots of sage advice in these keys, boiling down to keep writing and write often, understand the market, and revise smartly.
Bits that really stick with me, as I ponder starting to write SF&F: to be a writer and get published, you must be "extraordinarily, bloody persistent"; those who lose faith are unpublished novelists; make writing a kind of regimen or habit, doing it every day, whether 300 or 1000 words; if you're not actively trying to sell your work, writing is just a hobby; "write harder, faster, deeper, slower" -- i.e., write constantly and work your way through blocks.
Many thanks to AISFP and ISBW for this series.
2 comments:
Thanks for this. Got any info on story development or generating ideas?
After 11 years of slogging it out without publication in the fiction game, I'm feeling my energy sapping these days. All bits of inspiration are welcome!
TSC
I'm just getting started in terms of thinking about story ideas and the like. Yet I am finding a lot of great resources out there for understanding and learning how publishing works, how to query agents/publishers, and how -- in the end -- you have to keep at it and believe in your work.
I think that once I begin writing consistently, I'll be seeking out writers' groups and workshops, or some kind of forum of exchange and critique.
As far as SF&F goes, research is pretty key for generating ideas, at least from what I've seen of authors who are not just successful but challenging and provocative (i.e., Guy Gavriel Kay, George R.R. Martin, China Mieville, Alastair Reynolds, Neal Stephenson, Dan Simmons, and others).
Et voila! :-)
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