Surprise Sunday

I had actually written a rant, but I decided to go back to my original idea – the internet has no privacy and it was useless to make it public. So I’ll spare you my grumpiness and offer you a few writers quotes instead. Have a great Sunday!

The value of structural understanding is in story optimisation and problem resolution, not as a creative starting point. Ideally, your ideas will pour out and there will be no problems with the story you have written; in which case who cares what the structure is? Creativity first, always and forever. Structure secondarily, and only as a tool for analysis and repair.

- David Baboulene

I don’t understand it when writers talk about having to be disciplined and asking about how to “find the time” to write, and wanting a method for getting going. I can’t help with advice there because if you need help in these areas you are probably not motivated correctly to ever be a writer. Writers must be desperate to write – driven – hungry – forcing themselves to leave their writing to go and do other things, not the other way around.

- Lee Child

The old method was to just write and submit and when your craft started climbing some of you stories started breaking through the editorial roadblocks and got to readers. That system was pretty clear for most, but wow did it fail writers with very unusual voices or stories that did not fit into certain genres.Those writers never did get through the system for the most part. Like I haven’t got through the system yet at Asimov’s.

- Dean Wesley Smith

This “indy” publishing revolution is not, contrary to the belief of many, abo0ut money. It’s actually about independence. With independence comes responsibility; and it’s this need to accept responsibility that scares a lot of people. And I’m not just talking about writers. It scares publishers, too, because, up to this point, they’ve thrust all the responsibility for whether or not books sell on the authors. If the books don’t sell – despite a lack of publicity or merchandising, crappy covers, unrealistic ebook price points and a nihilistic pricing and returns policy – the fault lies with the author. We all know this is true. As John F.Kennedt said, “Victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan.” If a book does well, everyone within the publishing company knows it was their brilliance that made it do well.

If it fails, it was the author’s fault . (Or the fault of tasteless readers in the fly-over states who can’t recognize brilliance.)

- Michael Stackpole

You’ve worked your butt off for years to get this right, and now you’re there. You’ve built up instinct, talent, and experience. Those things aren’t anything you can buy or have someone teach you.

- Michelle Davidson Argyle