Any published authors here?

[cletus-factor]

With as much talent as we have in the art section, I would have to believe that there is at least one bona fide author here. Certainly there are some aspiring authors.

Myself, I am an aspiring author with a degree in Creative Writing from Mankato State, MN.

The only trouble is, I don't practice. I have wrote some stuff, but never have I been published. I have some tickling fiction (I may share with the community). But before I do that, I wanted to know if there are any practicing writers here who could give me some pointers if I were to post.

My major dilemma is real life always getting in the way. They suggest 1 hour a day to practice writing and that has been hard to come by.

Does anyone know if MTJ publishing publishes the work that is done here?

 

[Journia]

MAYBE IT DOES, BUT YOU DON'T NEED TO PRACTICE AN HOUR A DAY.
I would suggest, practice as much as you want to practice, if you can do that, you will become great.

 

[cletus-factor]

Well suffice it to say an hour a day shouldn't be that much and knows I may be able to scrap together 4 or 5 hours a week. If you look at publishing authors like Grisham he most likely works 6 hours a day minimum but that's his income.

 

[Journia]

Yep. Well, hey, if that is what it takes to earn your living, then I say, do it!

 

[Dude'sonfire]

I'm writing a long, three-volume novel at the moment. I'm into the third volume with the first draft, second volume on the rewrite. If I have the guts (which I undoubtedly won't!) I might tell the title when it's out... but I would have to be feeling mighty brave lol.

 

[Journia]

Thou art anonymous dude'sonfire...just tell us now.....

 

[Sablesword]

In the weak sense of having sent stories to others, who made them available for money and who sent money back to me, I am a published writer. In the stronger sense of meeting the standards of (e.g.) SFWA for being professionally published, I'm not.

FWIW, I've had a story published in Harmony's old Bondage Life, a story in Tales from the Asylum, a bunch of stories in the Damsel Theater Token site, and a novel collection rejections (along with a half-written sequel that I'm stuck on).

Different writers have different methods. "There are nine-and-sixty ways/Of constructing tribal lays." The only rules close to universal are Heinlein's

1. You must write
2. You must finish what you write

(and if you want to be published,)

3. You must submit what you write to a publisher

One common dicipline is to set either a daily time or word-count minimum. Not so much one hour of "practice" but one hour of working-on-a-story. Or at least 300 words.

Or less. Or more.

In extreme cases, I know that some writers have set themselves things like. "I will write at least one sentence in my story each day."

An important point is that this is a daily minimum; if you do more on a given day, you don't get to count it toward the next day's requirement. (And if for some reason you miss a day, you aren't required to "make it up.")

OTOH, some writers just can't work this way; they work in bursts, with lots-of-writing getting done some weeks, and little or none during other weeks. But you still might want to try it, and see if it works for you.

 

[Wade1]

The fact is, you really should write every day.

The fact is, I do NOT write every day. But that doesn't change the fact that you should. It makes you a better writer, and it puts less pressure on the stuff you're writing at any given time. If Friday's the only day you write this week and your output's crap, that's pretty demoralizing. But if you crank out crap on Friday but you did all right on Thursday and you know Saturday's around the corner... well, it has less potential to paralyze you.

Writing every day means you catch more stuff, too--minutiae that might not find its way into your work because a day later it's lost to you gets snagged if you're working every day.

I used to write every day; currently, I don't, just because circumstances have made me too busy for the time being. But I'm paying the price for that. My last book paid me pretty well between the advance and rights, but my agent hasn't had any luck placing the next one yet (the publishing house that did the last ones passed, politely) and the later I am in coming up with the next one, the more I'm reducing my chances of that next sale.

 

[cletus-factor]

Well, glad to see that there are some authors here. Well then, if and when I get some serious time I think that I will rework my tickling stories and post them here. Right now, I'm going to be doing some tax preparation on the side of going to school, sleeping, and working at wally world.

 

[Dude'sonfire]

I don't think you have to write everyday. If you do, you might get better faster, but even if you just write whenever the hell you feel like it, you could still produce some excellent stuff.