Friday Links

Josh Olson tells just why he won't read your fucking script. You know, even at this point in my writing career I've had to adopt this philosophy as well. I have enough writing friends, and I include among those the critique group I belong to, that taking on more from people I don't know personally (edit here I meant that there are people who just meet me, find out I write, and want me to read something of theirs - I need to know you for a while before I may say yes - and many of my friends be disappointed when I tell them, "I'm just too busy at the moment, but it's the truth, I don't want to agree to something and then not be able to read it for half a year) is just too much. (Grokked from John Scalzi)

Jay Lake talks about his time allotments and schedules. Here's another writer who says, "I get a lot done, and I’m a very busy boy." How? Well TV is out. For Jay it's way out, for me it's mostly out. I don't have a gaming system (although that's changing, more on that later), I don't do lots of social activities. Even with that I have less than two hours to write in a day (normally). It can be frustrating, especially when I realize that I need to clean the bathroom (and if it's bad for me, I can only have sympathy for my long suffering wife) and the home projects that lag in time (still need a final sand on the hole in the wall project). It's a matter of what your priorities are. Above all are friends and family, after that the things that bring in the cash (day and night jobs), then writing, then cleaning, watching TV, seeing a movie, etc.

Jim Hines talks about self publishing myths. My own position on self-publish has softened in the previous years, mostly due to friends like Ken McConnell and Matt Mitchell who have gone down that road. However you can read the hard work they've gone through on their blogs. Many of the myths Jim talks about are those used in publishing schemes (which, just like POD books, we need to delineate are different from self-publishing). The self-publishing model isn't for me. I'll probably use it the way Scalzi does (to get limited edition books as a way to share), but I don't think I have it in me to go the whole way.

Closely related is Kelly McCullough's self-promoting authors anonymous. Or, letting go and letting marketing professionals help. One of the reasons I go to conventions and read successful writers' blogs is to learn this kind of stuff (to see what works and what doesn't). Really, people have been down this road before. What works for them may not for you (really, who else is John Scalzi?), but it's all grist for the mill.

Last night the missing part of chapter 22 came to me. I wrote it out long hand before going to bed and will key it in today. Maybe and extra 300 words. It might seem like I'm obsessed with wordcount, but I'm not really. It's a hand metric to say, "I'm progressing." If I would get my real milestones I'd be getting all spoilery with my own novel, and I might tempt the fates to make it all go wrong. And if I said, "Hey, last night as I was writing Chapter 22, I realized just why (this thing) happened in Chapter 21, which makes the world of New Frisco that much richer and enhances the depth of the characters. Also, and interesting side plot which reveals some history of the Disaster and can lead to some good situations, humor, tension, and motivation down the road." That probably wouldn't be helpful to you at all.