Hiya, writers & frenz, doin’ DailyKosWritingMonth or here for teh practices. Sing along with the cat on the keys to the tune of The Banana Boat song, while we start with comments of:
DaKoWriMo goals & progress
Aashirs nani — Rewrite a series of scenes in a novella to be more historically plausible, with a pair of new characters.
Dconrad: 20,000 words
Mercy Ormont: get "Cholly" ready to publish on Amazon
mettle fatigue: any least bit of fiction
RiveroftheWest: illos for the riverboat story
ThurzdaysChild: weekly writing sessions, one to four hours each.
Tonight’s resource: Glam’s senior editor and published author interviewed six others for “...Why not make writing a reality?” in a series exploring “reasonable, quantifiable, and—crucially—sane ways to embark on ... objectives you'd like to complete this year” Among the topics: process, writers’ block … and “if you could just give one piece of advice to an aspiring author, what would it be?”
“For someone like me who is used to a quick turnaround on [magazine writing], the biggest adjustment was the pace. You just have to accept that book publishing moves slower, and learn to thrive within that.” -VH
"I don't know if I have a good enough handle on any of it to dole out advice, but I've never been failed by the words of my undergrad thesis advisor, the brilliant author Paul LaFarge, who once told me that “nothing says 'writer at work' like going to a movie in the afternoon.” -KW
“Get your ass in the chair. Seriously. You won't know if you have a book in you until you start to write it. You have to sit down and start writing and do it every damn day. Don't go back and reread or edit until you're at least 20,000 words in. Just keep going and keep moving the story for you. It sounds terrifying but it has worked for me for 12 books.” -JP
“Timing is everything, and be passionate about what you're writing. Don't write a book because people have said you should, or if you're lukewarm about it. If you're not passionate about what you're writing, it's going to be 10 times harder, and it's hard enough as is. But also, trust yourself. Trust your instincts. A fellow author/editor friend gave me the best advice, which was: 'Write that book you want to read.' And that's what I did.” -JR
“Write. The only way to become an author is to actually write the book you have in your head. You don’t need anyone’s permission to do it. You don’t need a fancy degree. Just write! (And read. This should go without saying. One inspires the other).” -TO
“If you write one sentence every day, eventually you'll have a book. If you write no sentences every day, you'll never have a book.” -MK
Challenge: write a brief moment about a writer (1st or 2nd or 3rd-person POV, up to you) being interrupted while writing, and what happens next! :D
Write On! will be a regular Thursday night diary (8 pm Eastern, 5 pm Pacific) until it isn’t.
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors (&/or critters.org/c/pubtips.ht), Absolute Write, and/or Writer Beware.