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Wednesday, 16 April 2008

See you soon

Hi, everyone. This is just to tell you that I am getting off here and moving over to TheDolphine08, where I will be posting my writing: mostly stories, and such. Thanks.

Thursday, 28 February 2008

Currently Reading
Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish) (Write Great Fiction)
By James Scott Bell
see related
Progress

Encouraging news can come from anywhere. As of now, my encouraging news is the fact that I have finished plotting the story. For the first time in my amateur career, I've used an index card system, and it has apparently worked. The book that provided a large amount of inspiration during discouraging times was "Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure" by James Scott Bell. He is primarily a thriller writer, but much of what he said, and examples from Dean Koontz and others gave me solid ideas of what to do in the Science Fiction genre.

I need much inspiration in this genre, for although I have read several authors in this expansive area, thus far I have written very little. Now, however, I feel that I am ready to take the characters I have discovered, and send them off in their ship for adventures.

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Life as an Amateur Fiction Author

I'm sure there are many of you who realize the distinction between professional author and amateur author. For sure, many of them love what they do. And absolutely, they are dedicated to their work, but the key comes in that they are not dedicated to the same extent.
Professional Authors: All they do is writing. That is the primary way they make a living. Most of their time is concentrated around either a writing pad, a notebook, or computer. In their free time they attend workshops, seminars, lead talks about their books and/or craft, they maintain connections with editors and publishing houses, etc. These are those few who can churn out book after book to satisfy the demands of their publishers. They may have a secondary career, such as college professor, or something similar, but that is not what they focus on, and that is not how they represent themselves. It is not so much JK Rowling the soccer mom, but JK Rowling the author.

Unlike the rest of us, who are stuck on a rather different treadmill.

Amateur Author: Writing is something we do in whatever we can squeeze out of our spare time. Usually we work during the day that is our primary way to make a living at some other vocation or job. Often, then, when we are sitting down at our notebook or computer, we have to force the real world out and get as much writing done as we can. There is absolutely no time for us to do the various things professional authors do, except maybe maintain a website, or deal with publishers, for those rare people who manage to get a book done professionally but still need another source of income. We can come up with several different stories, but they are not usually enough to win us a contract with the big houses, enabling us to move from this sad category into the more elite one above.

And that, my friends, is where I am located. I am a true Amateur Author. Focused on a primary career (which, thankfully, consists of a great deal of writing, if not in the vein I’d prefer for a professional writing career), I spend some, but not all, of my free-time thinking and plotting for my story. There is so much I want to do, but am stuck by real constraints of time and money, before I can launch my startling career as a professional author.

So, missy, you want to be a professional author? Well, get back to work!