#WordWeavers 23/5: Are your MCs picky about where they sleep?
Both Jerya and Rodal grew up in a village where they slept on platforms carved from solid rock with only a thin pad stuffed with goat-hair for a mattress. And crossing the mountains they (and Railu) slept under a tarpaulin on whatever bit of vaguely smooth and level ground they could find. so, no, they’re not picky. #writingCommunity#ThreeKindsofNorth#TheSunderingWall#VowsAndWatersheds#writing#books
#PhantastikPrompts 23.5.:
Was würdest du im Zweifel eher ändern, das Ende, auf das deine Geschichte hinläuft, oder den Weg, den die Figuren nehmen? Warum?
Ich bin zwar Pantser, aber das Ende ist für mich meistens gesetzt (feel-good stories).
Daher ändert sich manchmal der Weg, den meine Figuren nehmen. Ab und zu überraschen sie mich nämlich mit seltsamen Entscheidungen - aber die stellen sich meistens als richtig heraus.
#PennedPossibilities 323 — What's a piece of advice for writers that you listened to and are glad for?
Write what you enjoy.
I've followed that for all my writing life. The few times I tried to write for the market, it didn't work - I either didn't finish the book or it twisted away from the idea.
I do try to hit both - and the (relative) success of my Wolf Shifter series shows that I can make it happen, to a degree. (My Shifters are not spicy and don't have Alphas...)
#PennedPossibilities 323 — What's a piece of advice for writers that you listened to and are glad for?
An Australian author, Lucy Sussex, told us at Clarion West 1998 to be shameless in promoting ourselves. Being a shy person, networking and promotion has been a heavy lift, but I working on it and I know it's going to help. Mastodon: ☑️
#PennedPossibilities 322 — What piece of advice, as an author, did you once receive but hadn’t followed? Looking back on it now, you might wish that you had.
Advice: Don't only write novels. Write lots of shorter pieces.
When I started I saw that you could only make a living if you sold novels, so I wrote novels. That completely discounted the fabulous practice you get completing lots of smaller stories. Completing a novel takes lots of time and there's a mounting anxiety that in the end the plot will fail or no publisher will be interested. Yeah, true with short fiction, but the investment is far lower (or should be if you're doing it right). There used to be lots of magazines you could sell short fiction to... for pennies a word, but it was something, and it offered a chance to build a brand name and a following. Such notoriety could help you sell novels, too.
@DonDeBon Yep. Ray Bradbury. I think both him and Asimov told how they wrote a story DAILY for a few years (and submitting) before making that key first sale.
It was impossible to write 52 bad short stories in a row. One of them had to be good.