KJA = Kevin J. Anderson
RM = Rebecca Moesta
JP = Jerry Pournelle
JL = Jay Lake
RS = Robert Sawyer
LN = Larry Niven
KJA: “Things I Wish Some Writing Pro Had Told Me When I First Started Out”
RM: Heinlein’s rules of writing
1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it’s sold.
KJA: How to be prolific.
No two writers are the same, so pick what works for you.
1. “Some people have a nice, gentle muse. My muse is a gravel-voiced drill sergeant who says, ‘Anderson, shut up and write.'”
Go out walking and dictate. If you keep walking in a straight line until you dictate one chapter, you have time for a second chapter on the way back. (Of course, that’s really a timesaver only if you have someone else to type it up.)
2. Defy the blank page.
3. Dare to bad. Once you have your story written, you can fix it later. You can’t fix what you don’t have.
4. Turn off the editor in your head. When you’re writing a first draft, you’re in storyteller mode. Once you’ve finished, you can go back and be in schoolteacher mode, correcting things.
5. I have a short attention span, so I work best when I’m working on six different projects at different stages (research, outlining, writing, revising, etc.)
6. Use your time well. You don’t have to work hours at a stretch. You can fit writing into chunks of minutes (such as waiting rooms, etc.)
7. Set goals for yourself and stick to them.
8. Try different writing methods. It took a while to get used to the tape recorder, but now it’s very useful. Don’t convince yourself that the only way you can write is sitting with your word processor.
9. Create a good writing environment.
If you’re a morning person, arrange so you can write in the morning. If you’re a night owl, arrange so you have time to write at night.
10. Get inspired. “Write what you know” means the more you know, the more you can write. Take opportunities to learn.
11. Know when to stop. Move on to the next project.
RM: Be professional. Act professional. Never ever ever ever be a jerk. Being a jerk doesn’t ever get you anything. The SF community talks. People move around to different jobs. An assistant you insult one day ma be an editor next week.
KJA: If you are lucky enough to get invited to write a story, turn it in on time and do what you agreed to do.
RM: If you get an opportunity, don’t whine. Say “Yes, I can do that,” and then do it.
Don’t make any enemies. Don’t start feuds; it’s never a good idea.
If you get a bad review, never tell the reviewer why their review was bad.
KJA: Whatever project you’re working on, make it your best work. There is no such thing as a project you can just blow off. There’s no such thing as phoning it in. Every project that you do, you need to kind of raise the bar a bit. You need to be improving.
RM: Be friendly with everyone.
KJA: Assistants are the most important people in a publishing office. Be nice to them. Get to know their name.
RM: Learn to accept rejection without taking it personally.
It’s not a referendum on how good a writer you are.
KJA: I had 80 rejection slips before I sold anything.
Get to know your business.
Read your contracts when you get them, and learn what they mean.
Read Publishers Weekly.
RM: Keep track of your business. Nobody cares about your career as much as you do.
Advertising is expensive; publicity is cheap.
The Dirty Secrets:
1. Sheer writing talent will not ensure your success.
2. Be persistent. (KJA: A decent writer who is persistent will do better than a genius writer who is not persistent.)
3. Contacts can really help. If the editor has a face to put to the name, the story will get read with a different eye. Or if someone is looking for a writer to fill a spot in an anthology, etc.
4. Publishing is a business. Don’t take it personally.
Good news: success breeds success.
JP: Samuel Johnson said, “Nobody but a blockhead ever wrote for any reason except money.”
See website on how to take his job.
“Writing a bestseller is not having a bestseller.”
If you’re ever on a TV or radio talk show, don’t make the host look bad.
For publicity, being a writer isn’t enough. You need a gimmick — you need to be someone other than just a writer.
“In the last analysis, luck goes only to the well-prepared.” Attributed to Von?? Multi??.
Read Aristotle’s Poetics.
When you’re editing to reduce length, read aloud.
Nobody gets mad if you use good grammar.
Sometimes the right way to cut something is by making one scene a little longer and you can then cut a whole scene.
JL: Advice for new & aspiring writer: Write more.
RS: Point of view.
As writers, we’re playing a psychological game with readers, trying to get them to think what we want them to.
One of the ways we control readers’ thoughts is through putting the reader inside the mind of a character.
Editor David Hartwell said you have to argue with him if you want to use anything but third person POV.
The default is third person limited (as opposed to third person omniscient.)
A metaphor for the general paradigm for fiction for most of the 20th Century and into the 21st is that the story is written by a reporter who is allowed to interview only one person per scene.
A second metaphor is that what the person told the report must stand up under cross-examination in a court case. Only what that person has actual knowledge of can be used.
One reason to use third person instead of first person is that a first person account can come off as bravado (I came in, I killed eighteen Martian warlords, etc.) Third person avoids that problem.
LN: Sometimes you need authorial, omniscient voice to explain things. First person doesn’t allow that.