Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The first rule of publishable writing.
There are a few basic rules to writing if you want to be published. First and foremost…in order to publish a story, you must actually finish it. No one is going to put into print a story that has not been written, that does not have a beginning, middle, and an end. This is because when a reader buys a story they expect it to have those things. The pieces may not be great, but they must exist.
As I usually say, the first thing you must do is finish the dam… that is gosh-darn book!
And yet here I am with the beginnings of several stories that aren’t at this time completed. A couple of them are nothing more than beginnings. In one case I’ve got close to ten thousand words done, which is just a little beyond the beginning of the book. In another I’ve finished the beginning and am half-way through the middle part and the end is drafted, making it the closest to actually being finished.
Clearly what I should do is stay focused on one story, get that one finished, then work on the next. Linear writing - make sure I finish what I’ve promised to turn in first and don’t work on anything else until I do. If only I didn’t get distracted by all those other stories…
Anyone else have this problem?
Cheers,
Janet/Cricket
As I usually say, the first thing you must do is finish the dam… that is gosh-darn book!
And yet here I am with the beginnings of several stories that aren’t at this time completed. A couple of them are nothing more than beginnings. In one case I’ve got close to ten thousand words done, which is just a little beyond the beginning of the book. In another I’ve finished the beginning and am half-way through the middle part and the end is drafted, making it the closest to actually being finished.
Clearly what I should do is stay focused on one story, get that one finished, then work on the next. Linear writing - make sure I finish what I’ve promised to turn in first and don’t work on anything else until I do. If only I didn’t get distracted by all those other stories…
Anyone else have this problem?
Cheers,
Janet/Cricket
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Uh...you mean this is a problem? I won't tell you how many stories I've started and not finished, but I will say I look at them as money in the bank. When I run low, I just look into my "savings account" and know there's something there that will start me on the next project.
Well, it is only a problem if you don't make forward progress on at least one project such that it finishes in a finite period of time. Otherwise all you have is partials.
You are correct that I have been known to finish a partial project off much later on.
You are correct that I have been known to finish a partial project off much later on.
I'm good at finishing - it's the starting I seem to have a problem with lately! I was all set to start working on a new idea for connected books, when a completely unrelated idea came barging into my brain, muscling aside the tenuous threads of that other story. Now i'm trying to decide, do I push through and work on the series, so i have the potential for a multibook deal, or write the story that's muscled its way to the front of the pack?
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