Questions About the Business of Writing© by Holly Lisle
All Rights Reserved
How do I keep my work fresh and my
enthusiasm up?
Sooner or later, everyone wonders this about any job, and writing
is no different, as evidenced by the number of times this question
comes in. You want to think you're going to stay as fresh on the
fiftieth book as you are on the first, but reading through the works
of some of your favorite authors who have been in the business for
twenty or more years, you start noticing a tiredness of plot and
characterization, a sort of gray sameness that creeps in and leeches
the fun out of the latest things they've done. Then there are those
other writers who seem to be able to bring everything in them to
every single book -- they just keep getting better.
I want to be in that second class of writers, and I'm guessing
you do too.
Here are the steps I'm taking to improve my odds. I share them
with you in the hopes that you'll find them useful. If you have
anything additional to suggest, I welcome your comments.
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Read widely outside of your field.
No matter how tempting it is to say, "Well, I love romances and
I only intend to write romances, so why waste time reading westerns
or hardboiled detective novels?" you have to resist. This is, I
believe, the single most important tool in the professional's arsenal.
Read everything. Read fiction and nonfiction, read old stuff and
new stuff, read mainstream and genre, read biographies and how-to's
and the labels on the foods you buy.
Don't only read things you like, either. If you hate romances,
ask someone who is both knowlegeable about the field and a bit discriminating
what some of the good ones are. Pick up two or three and read them
from start to finish. Ditto if you hate SF or fantasy or mystery
or mainstream or whatever. You can find tools everywhere, and you
will find more of them in fields that have been fallow for you for
most or all of your life than in the fields that you have been plowing
and depleting for years.
If you want to stay fresh, you cannot afford to be a snob. Snobbery
is one of the characteristics of a rigid mind . . . and rigid minds
are not full of freshness and vitality.
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Write outside of your field.
I'm currently working on a novel that no one might ever see. I've
been dinking with it for a few years, doing a couple of pages in
my spare time or when I'm stuck on the books that I have contracts
for and know I'll get paid for. It's not SF, it's not fantasy, and
my agent has already let me know that although he loves the idea
and the bits of it he's seen, it's going to be tough to move. I
might not be able to sell it, and if I do sell it, I might make
first novelist's pay for it.
Doesn't matter. I'm not writing it for the money. Like this page,
I'm writing it for love. I love the story, I love the characters,
I love the themes and the directions it's taking. And knowing that
it's there and that I can work on it whenever I want makes me happy.
It reminds me that I am not confined to the walls of the genre in
which I work -- that I can write anything, that I have no limits
except those that I impose on myself.
This page is something else I do for love. Writing it brings me
a lot of happiness, and so do the letters I get from readers telling
me that something I've said has helped them. And this page helps
me to focus on how I write, and helps me to remember why. Both of
those things have kept me going through some rough spots.
I paint; I draw; I write music and play the guitar (though not
well); I knit sweaters and crochet lace and afghans; I do beadwork.
At times in the past I have spent some time learning the basics
of how to play the hammer dulcimer, the cello, and the pennywhistle.
I write a middling amout of poetry. None of these things is ever
going to earn me a dime (well, maybe the painting might someday,
and I have done the maps and such in some of my books, but in general
none of this is going to earn me a dime.) It does allow me to express
myself in forms that move beyond the structure of words on page
and the linear logic of story, and I suspect it allows my mind to
approach my work from angles that it wouldn't otherwise get. I've
used my experiences with music and art and crafts in my work, too,
but the verisimilitude I've been able to bring to the books because
of that has been secondary to the gains I get from having other
outlets for creating.
You don't have to be good at any of this stuff to do it. You're
doing it for yourself. Cut yourself some slack -- you can be a lousy
painter and still enjoy the delightful smell of linseed oil and
the sensual feel of dabbing paint on canvas, or the homely pleasure
of restringing and tuning your guitar and playing a few chords that
suddenly sound pretty nice together.
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Grab opportunities to learn new things.
Once a week, go someplace in your town that you've never been.
Go to a church or synagogue that you don't belong to, in a religion
other than yours. Stop by that little one-man museum curated by
the old guy at the end of the street. Pick up a book on growing
roses just because you've always thought it would be cool to try,
and learn all about organic fertilizers and the uses of ladybugs
and praying mantises. Take a class in stained glass work or CPR
or bookkeeping. Learn to ice skate or tango. Ask the beautician
and your accountant and the old woman sitting next to you at the
bus stop to tell you about their work.
Sooner or later, these excursions will work their way into your
subconscious, and from there begin to filter into your work.
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Listen more than you speak.
You only discover the cool things in the universe when your mouth
is closed and your senses are open.
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Pay attention all the time.
Ask yourself why your neighbor leaves his house at 4:30 every
morning and returns exactly one hour later, wearing different clothes.
Why does that woman in front of you in the checkout line keep looking
over her shoulder? What are those teenaged girls huddled around
over there in the corner of the park, and why are they laughing
like that? Notice people, cars, buildings, street names, the way
light falls on water and on old brick, the smell of the earth by
your back door on a hot day in August.
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Don't write more of the same.
If you write series books, permit your characters to grow and
change. Or write books away from your series. If you write stand-alones,
write male and female characters, young and old people, those who
have had easy lives and those who have had it rough. If you keep
writing the same character and just giving him different names,
or telling the same story but from different places, you're going
to get stale fast, and the joy will go out of everything you do.
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Keep the machine in good working order -- stay healthy.
And you're saying,"Eh? Like . . . exercise and shit like that?"
Oh, yes. Exercise and shit like that. You won't be lifting those
bales and toting that hay, but to work your mind, your brain still
needs a good supply of oxygenated blood, and healthy highways to
get it there and back to the heart and lungs. Twenty minutes of
aerobic exercise four times a week or better, and a diet as low
in animal products (none is best) and as high in raw fruits and
vegetables as you can manage will strip the cholesterol out of your
arteries and keep them from hardening. Cadavers from apparently
healthy children as young as eight have shown fatty deposits and
the beginnings of hardening of the arteries, so no matter who you
are or how young you are, this is an issue.
How do I face the computer each day?
It should be fun most of the time. If you're following the steps
I've listed above and you're still dreading sitting down in front
of the keyboard, and you're still miserable while you're there,
you need to reconsider what you want to do with your life. Don't
try to make a career from something you hate.
When should I start marketing my book?
If it's fiction, when it's done. If it's nonfiction, when you
have a good proposal and some good sample chapters, or when it's
done.
How do I treat my writing as a business?
- Write every day.
- Give yourself a page limit and set deadlines for project completion.
Write your deadlines in on a desk calendar and meet them.
- Don't answer the phone while you're writing.
- Don't take time off from your writing to do housework or go
out to lunch with friends or find the kids' mittens. If this means
that you have to write at wierd times of the day, write at wierd
times of the day. My work hours are from five a.m. to noon.
- Create a workspace for yourself that is yours alone, even if
it's just one corner of a room and your own particle-board mini-workstation.
- Identify yourself as a writer, to yourself and to others.
- Keep all your writing-related reciepts.
- Don't accept the judgements of others as having any meaning.
If your friends or family suggest that what you're doing is just
a hobby and that you shouldn't be wasting your time on it, ignore
them.
For more on this subject, see How to Quit the
Day Job to Write Full Time
Do I need an accountant?
If you're spending any money on writing supplies, computers, office
equipment or postage, yes. If you're making any money at all, yes.
If you're typing with a thirty-year-old Remington on second sheets
and only popping for a ream of good paper for your final draft once
a year or so, and if you aren't yet selling your work, don't sweat
it.
Should I incorporate?
At the point where this crosses your mind, ask your accountant.
You'll already be making money, and will have one.
If you aren't making money yet, worry about selling your work
first.
What about taxes?
Save all your receipts for everything, follow your accountant's
instructions, pray.
What about setting up corollary incomes?
I've got to admit I've considered doing this. At one point, I
tried working on the side as a Writer's Digest instructor, but it
didn't pay enough to give me the safety cushion I'd hoped for and
drained a lot of my energy from my regular work. I've considered
setting up a class, but haven't done it, mainly because I'm afraid
it would turn out like the Writer's Digest thing, and I don't want
to pull myself away from my books.
Some writers do it. So far, I'm not enamored enough of security
to put in the work, I guess.
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