the 10 1/2 commandments
Sep. 26th, 2006 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adelaideseanI'm asked a lot for advice either from or on behalf of new writers. How to get started. How to succeed. That kind of stuff. I find this difficult because (a) there are no rules (despite there being plenty of opinions) and (b) usually I'm being asked in the context of an interview or an email exchange in which an exhaustive reply is neither expected nor, I suspect, wanted.
I have been pondering, therefore, a short answer to the question that covers every important issue in as brief a time as possible. The points below represent my attempts to do that.
I'm posting this here because I'd love to know how others approach this very question, and if ways exist to condense the answer even further.
Here's my list.
1. Read a lot.
2. Write a lot.
3. Write what you love but be aware of the market.
4. Define your version of success and take concrete steps towards achieving it.
5. Be professional at all stages of your career.
6. Listen to everyone.
7. Be visible.
8. Challenge yourself, always.
9. Never believe you've figured it out, because everything changes.
10. Work hard.
ETA: there may in fact be a Zeroth Commandment!
ETA: see the comments to this post for an expanded version of this list, as published in the SA Writers' Centre's Southern Write newsletter, December 2006. Or just click here
ETA: a similar article has been published at Writers' World, here.
ETA: also see the A-Z of Writing.
That's still not a very short list, and it doesn't include anything explicit about community, which I think is very important--but I suppose that being visible and listening to people kinda assumes that you're interacting with someone.
I figure that if people are doing all or most of the things on this list then they're substantially increasing the likelihood that they'll achieve the goals they set out for themselves. Points 3 and 4 particularly relate to someone who wants to write for a living, but I think they're still important general points. The hardest thing, arguably, is not being published but working out what kind of writer you could be (there's likely to be several different answers to that question) then seeing whereabouts in the market you could fit. The last part is difficult, as the market is always changing, but you can't ignore the question or you could end up consistently barking up the wrong tree. Or a whole forest of wrong trees, until you stumble across a right one by chance--and who wants to leave something as important as this to chance?
The flipside of 4 is the awareness of what constitutes failure as well as success. When I started writing seriously, I gave myself ten years to have a book published. If I didn't make that deadline, I swore that I would give up and try something else. That gave me a sort of anti-deadline--something to strive against rather than for. I think that's important too. (Update: See Jay Lake's post here on the subject of quitting.)
Anyway, that's enough from me. I'd love to hear people's opinions on this. Save me from oversimplification and protect me from proselytising; whatever is required. :-)
ETA: also see Robert J Sawyer's "Eight Things New Writers Need To Know".
I have been pondering, therefore, a short answer to the question that covers every important issue in as brief a time as possible. The points below represent my attempts to do that.
I'm posting this here because I'd love to know how others approach this very question, and if ways exist to condense the answer even further.
Here's my list.
1. Read a lot.
2. Write a lot.
3. Write what you love but be aware of the market.
4. Define your version of success and take concrete steps towards achieving it.
5. Be professional at all stages of your career.
6. Listen to everyone.
7. Be visible.
8. Challenge yourself, always.
9. Never believe you've figured it out, because everything changes.
10. Work hard.
ETA: there may in fact be a Zeroth Commandment!
ETA: see the comments to this post for an expanded version of this list, as published in the SA Writers' Centre's Southern Write newsletter, December 2006. Or just click here
ETA: a similar article has been published at Writers' World, here.
ETA: also see the A-Z of Writing.
That's still not a very short list, and it doesn't include anything explicit about community, which I think is very important--but I suppose that being visible and listening to people kinda assumes that you're interacting with someone.
I figure that if people are doing all or most of the things on this list then they're substantially increasing the likelihood that they'll achieve the goals they set out for themselves. Points 3 and 4 particularly relate to someone who wants to write for a living, but I think they're still important general points. The hardest thing, arguably, is not being published but working out what kind of writer you could be (there's likely to be several different answers to that question) then seeing whereabouts in the market you could fit. The last part is difficult, as the market is always changing, but you can't ignore the question or you could end up consistently barking up the wrong tree. Or a whole forest of wrong trees, until you stumble across a right one by chance--and who wants to leave something as important as this to chance?
The flipside of 4 is the awareness of what constitutes failure as well as success. When I started writing seriously, I gave myself ten years to have a book published. If I didn't make that deadline, I swore that I would give up and try something else. That gave me a sort of anti-deadline--something to strive against rather than for. I think that's important too. (Update: See Jay Lake's post here on the subject of quitting.)
Anyway, that's enough from me. I'd love to hear people's opinions on this. Save me from oversimplification and protect me from proselytising; whatever is required. :-)
ETA: also see Robert J Sawyer's "Eight Things New Writers Need To Know".
Very Good
Date: 2006-09-26 03:42 pm (UTC)I wouldn't grow the list beyond 10 and I think community is already addressed in the above. But I think it's interesting that your responses see community as the importance of contact apart from writing, whereas I read it as the importance of being part of the genre community (which is how Fiona takes it, even if her response is aligned differently from mine - hi Fi!).
I remember when I first started in Hollywood in 1995, there was a list of 30 things to do to achieve success. One that struck me was "Drive a more expensive car than you can afford and keep it clean." I don't think a novelist needs to worry about that one, but the keep it clean is telling. Maybe you should star the point about being professional at all levels of your career. --Lou Anders
Re: Very Good
Date: 2006-09-26 10:52 pm (UTC)Agreed. I'd only add: You need both communities. You need a life outside writing or you'll soon find you have nothing interesting to write. And I have noticed too many writers whose life is nothing but writing. They're hard for me to be around these days. A good example of someone with a life outside the work is Francis Ford Coppola. He owns his own vineyard and makes wine, for example, above and beyond his work in film.
But you also need a community inside writing to give you the feedback you require as you write. And in that community, you don't always necessarily need just writers, critics, and editors. You can find appreciators of the writing process in amateur readers, artists, dancers, and in any other general enthusiasts. Sometimes it can be a trap to include only the people who live inside the writing world when looking at your work.
Re: Very Good
Date: 2006-09-26 11:57 pm (UTC)Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta give an excellent speech to every years's Writers of the Future winners, and a key part of their advice is to be professional from the word go. If writing is to be a full-time job one day, then treat it that way as soon as possible. Create an office, buy a fax machine, invest in business software, set aside fixed times for work--whatever. I think that's good advice, if only because thinking like a business-person is something that has to be learned just like any other skill, and it's not always an easy skill for an artist to pick up. It's taken me years to work out how to keep receipts and manage my own books. And my car is *always* dirty. :-)