To my favorite author whom I've never read
From my brain
Contents |
My E-Mail to Kat
Hi Kat. Long ago, I asked if I could bug you about writing things every now and then, and you said no problem...as long as I didn't make it too excessive (insert smiley emote). I know the game is your escape time, so I always feel like I'm pulling you away from your relaxation and back to the real world if I ask too many questions.
Instead, I figured I'd just e-mail you here as if I was a regular fan. In case BC has completely fried your brain, this Darias. I'm even gracing you with my real-real e-mail address, and not just my guild associated one just to keep things separated.
I want to talk about writing. It's been itching at me again. Part of it has been a far-too-early mid-life crisis, and part of it is just because I miss my writing. I miss the creative process (and even the headaches associated with it). I miss being able to compose something that absolutely never existed before in that form and I had a part in creating it.
"Darias" once was the lead hero of my fantasy novel that I started over 13 years ago. He was the Everyman, unwitting hero and held so much promise, but the story died because I was 19 and barely had a life of my own...how could I realistically compose someone else's? I've been through a lot in the time since I let that story collect dust. I think I can slap a little realism on the tale now.
I'm in a very non-creative point now with my career. I'm a database programmer doing work in an application that's 10 years old, and there's barely a glimmer of hope that's really going to change in the near future. Requests come in, code and application designs go out, wash, rinse, repeat. The problem: It's sometimes sucking the creativity out of me. If I can really pull my writing back together...I might be a bit happier.
So, my main question is about when you started to really work on your first book. Were you out in the world working, or was "Mr. Katie" gainfully employed to the point you could write whilst at your IBM typewriter eating French bon bons?
When you get some time between your current projects, the rest of this in-box of real fan mail, and leveling (ZOMG) six level 60's, drop me a line.
Sincerely,
Me.
Kat's Response
Then get yourself down to the library and get a Katie Mac book! Fwah!
- Instead, I figured I'd just e-mail you here as if I was a regular fan. In case BC has completely fried your brain, this Darias. I'm even gracing you with my real-real e-mail address, and not just my guild associated one just to keep things separated.
Adding to my blackmail file... :)
I don't mind answering writing questions. I can't guarantee sterling advice, since the path I took is not the usual one, but I'm happy to yack about it if you think it can help.
- So, my main question is about when you started to really work on your first book. Were you out in the world working, or was "Mr. Katie" gainfully employed to the point you could write whilst at your IBM typewriter eating French bon bons?
My husband was employed, I was not. So I had time to sit down and write at whatever pace I liked. However, I was a fast writer, and I had a plan in mind, which greatly helped down the road.
For right now, I'd suggest that you get involved in a local chapter of one of the big writer groups--Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, if you're writing fantasy. I *believe* they have chapters, although I'm not a member so I can't guarantee you that. The reason I suggest finding a writing org chapter is because I think you need the support right now to really devote some time and effort into getting a new project going, and chapters are usually good about getting your enthusiasm level up. Writing conferences are the same way, although I have no idea what ones are going on in your area (where do you live? I can look some up that might be local to you).
But basically, here's my advice:
- Ask yourself if you're writing for yourself, or for a market. If the former--you can do anything you want. For the latter, you need to examine what sort of novel it will be (fantasy, mystery, etc.). Do you know the average length of similar books? You're going to need to make sure that your plot is sufficient to fit the length of similar standard novels. Romances, for instance, run about 90K words. Mysteries go anwhere from 80-90K. Fantasies, I believe, are in that 80-90K range as well.
- Work up a plot outline (no, it doesn't have to be in outline format with numbers and letters) for the story that you are dying to tell. If it's based on the one you started umpteen years ago, then replot it. I guarantee you that it will have to be replotted--I can't even look at plots written a couple of years ago without seeing that they need to be reworked. So dust it off, read over what you've done, then sit down and rework the plot to make it better. How detailed you make it is up to you, but I will say that when I started writing, I wrote extremely detailed plot outlines before I wrote the book; as I became more comfortable and trusted that I knew what I was doing, my pre-book outlines became shorter and shorter. But I liked the safety net of having an outline to work from, rather than just winging it and hoping it turned out OK.
- Set some goals--realistic goals. One you have your plot, figure out how much you can COMFORTABLY write each day. Some people write during lunch hours, some after the kids have gone to bed, some get up an hour early each morning and write then. What you need to do is figure out how much time you can spend writing without adding undue stress on family/job/life. If you can't do daily goals, set weekly ones (two hours of writing a week, etc.). Figure out when your writing time is going to be, and make an arrangement with your wife to have that time undisturbed. Bribes work well, there. :) Figure out how much you can write during that time period (i.e. I can do 1500 words an hour very, very comfortably, so I use that as my base rate). Total what you can do for your goal period (week/day/whatever), and use that to set your official goals. When I'm on deadline, I have a 2-3K goal per day (varies with the amount of time I have before the deadline). That means I have to get 2000 words a day written, no matter what. I don't get to play WoW, I don't read e-mail, I don't clean, I just sit and write until I have that daily goal met. It doesn't even matter if what I write is good--writing can always be improved with an edit, but getting words down in the first place is the hard part.
- Now that you have your goals, your wife knows that your writing time is sancrosact, and you're rarin' to go...you go. I'll warn you--after the first initial rush of new storydom is over, it becomes work, and you'll start finding excuses not to do it. That's where your goals can help--if you set a daily goal of writing, oh, say 500 words a day, then you have to make yourself sit there and write those damned 500 words or else. It's basically self-tough-love. But after a while, it becomes easier and easier to get the goal met, and your story moves along, and hey nonny nonny, before you know it, it's done.
People write in different ways, but I prefer NOT to edit when I'm writing. If I stop to go back and fix something, I'll lose my forward momentum, and to me, it's very important to keep moving forward. So although you may be the sort of person who just can't go on if you feel something isn't working, I'd really recommend you turn off your internal editor until it's done. Then you can go back and polish the bejeepers out of it.
There are other things you can do--join a writing group (not always a good thing, depending on the people in the group), take classes (same goes for classes), enter contests, but my basic advice is above.
And now I'm off to WOW. But you can feel free to ask me other questions--I don't mind talking writing at all. :)
Katie
