need to know?

[adelaidesean]

Take a look at Robert J Sawyer's "Eight Things New Writers Need To Know".

Not a response to my ever-evolving 10.5 Commandments post, but a list of things I really wish I'd been told 17 years ago, when I first set out on this crazy adventure.

Every word is gold. It amazes me, for instance, how often people forget numbers 6 and 8. (No one here is guilty of it, I'm sure!)

Thanks to the gang at the Writers of the Future Contest for e-printing this great piece from the contest anthology, Volume XXII.

Comments

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

But I take it you wouldn't necessarily agree with Number Three?

[ladnews.livejournal.com]

Actually, I completely agree with him. Fan fiction is, for the most part, a waste of time for anyone hoping to make a career out of *original* writing. The professional writer's job (well, one of them) is to establish a unique brand (which I felt I had done already before taking on the Star Wars gig). I can't think of a writer off the top of my head who continues a solo career that began with media writing.

Of course, it's not impossible that someone out there has broken all these guidelines and is a roaring success for it. That wouldn't surprised me at all, because there are always exceptions. That doesn't undermine the advice, though, imho. I don't think Robert is talking utter absolutes here. I hope. :-)

Neither is he disdaining media writing. He's just urging caution and advising people not to think it's an easy route to megastardom. That it most definitely ain't.