FAQ about publishing your work online

Hi, all! If you're not already reading the Editorial Ass blog (featuring blogger Moonrat), you should be. Make it happen.

One of Moonrat's posts is about the sticky issue of what to publish online, e.g. on a blog, if you want to eventually publish that work in real life. We have had this discussion before -- it's kept us from doing more with the blog, or from creating an online mini-magazine (maglet?). But Moonrat answers the question well, and with great perspective, since she's an acquisitions editor who has to worry about issues like this routinely.

Here's her thought: if your blog doesn't have a ton of readers, and if you take the work down later, there is absolutely no problem with posting your unpublished work online. Make sure that you don't post the entire MS in one post, of course. But, on the whole, posting your work online is a good way to 1) get constructive feedback and 2) build a fan base.

With that in mind, maybe I'll start posting my own writing on my blog!



Have a great rest of your summer, and I'll see you all in Chicago this fall.

Newness

During the summer of '07, I needed a good beach/commute book, so I picked up my roommate's copy of Company, a "late capitalist novel" by Max Barry. It sounded like a ripoff of Palahniuk, but it ended up being really fun and fairly interesting. The twist at the end was good -- I'm always delighted when authors plot suspense well.

Somewhat less surprisingly, Max Barry (also author of Syrup and Jennifer Government) is also a decent blogger. And one of his nuggets of writing advice, from an older entry, is posted above my desk:

I reacted to my Syrup rejections by writing a standard, genre thriller. It was terrible. And I learned that you never improve anything by making it less original. It’s the opposite: the worst thing writing can be is not new [bold mine -RP].

I’m convinced this isn’t just me. I think everybody wants newness. Editors, agents, readers: we all want new plots, new ideas, new ways of looking at the world. Nobody wants to get twenty pages into a book and know where it’s going, or even feel too much like they’ve seen all this before. Even within a genre’s iron-clad conventions, we want twists, surprises, and reinventions.

Young writers in particular can sometimes try to crawl inside a pre-conceived box labeled “novel” or “screenplay,” and end up with something far less interesting than if they’d forged their own path. I’m not saying you want to hit the other extreme, and pursue a lone, bizarre vision with no regard for how it reads. But you must nurture the things that make your story and your writing unique—that make you unique, since writing is letting people crawl around inside your head. Billions of people can write a sentence. Why should I bother reading yours, unless they’re different?

I read this whenever I'm tempted to give up on writing smart fantasy because I'm afraid it won't sell. First of all, I need to shut up and start writing. But more importantly, Barry makes the point that editors and readers want something new, even if the bookshelves don't suggest that. The more cynical (and publishing-savvy) among us may respond that, yes, they're looking for something new, but what they really want is the new Next Big Thing that will sell millions of copies and have midnight releases.

That said, it really is good advice. I don't want to read the same short story (or fantasy novel!) over and over again. I don't want to write the same story, either.

Any thoughts?

(Cross-posted at I'm Writing)

"...all writers, novice or professional, have to get our hands dirty."

So I'm in this blogging phase right now, right? And I just started my own blog, wherein I'll diligently chronicle my thoughts and actions about writing... someday soon. In the meantime, I'm still reading the blogs of writers I like. At the blog of Shannon Hale, who's a great (and successful!) YA fantasy author, there's a new post up about the point of rewriting. I especially like the following quote:

"Every writer's process is different. Ann (A.E.) Cannon pointed out that most writers either start with character then find the plot, or start with plot then find the character (and of course it's the combination of those two, character and plot, that make story). ... Whichever you are, it becomes the work of rewrite to find the other."

I found this really helpful, since I'm a last-minute writer when it comes to everything but fiction, and I usually rewrite too heavily to even consider my products drafts of the same story. Ergo I'm terrified to revise real projects I'm invested in. But fear is not the answer.

Notes from Week 1 Meeting

Here's another minutes post, because you all love them so much.

+ meetings every week!
+ two or three submissions per meeting
+ Nic's talk, tentatively sched. for 4/22/08 at normal meeting time and place
+ we need publicity for this event! and funding!
+ we need someone to talk to ENGL and CRWR departments/committees to ask for funding and build networking, as well as sending out an e-mail to the listhosts ([ugrad-english] and whatever the CRWR one is, sent out by Julia Klein)
+ let's get started on the online magazine: if anyone has ideas for the website or the magazine itself, or about lj-style cuts to excerpt works on this blog, let me know
+ weekly writer's journal: blog about the problems and successes of everyday writing (this will rotate)... who's first?

And the prompt: write a piece that could only take place in a particular season. Explore the effects of setting on your action and characters.
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