WRITER’S QUESTIONS

AND ANSWERS

All content is copyrighted by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, except where noted.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction permitted without express written permission of the author.

Hi Everybody!

This page is dedicated to answering some of the questions that novice writers have about how to begin their writing careers, who to talk to, and what to do.

LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING!

So you want to be a writer, huh?  You’ve decided that you have something clever, or deep, or earth-shattering, or horrifying, or monumental, or hilariously funny to say, and you want to make it available to the world in general so they’ll all know how talented you are, right?  Oh yeah, and you want to get paid for it, too, correct?

Fine, but first things first.  Let’s do some background work on what writing is all about, how you get started, and what’s expected of you.  Now, I am the first to admit that I’m no expert, but I have learned a thing or two on my quest to becoming a published writer, and I thought I would share what I learned with you.

So here goes.

DO WRITERS MAKE LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY?

None of the writers I know make lots and lots of money.  I know a couple of romance writers who say they earn an average of $10,000 per book, so they try to turn out two or more books a year to keep themselves in the black.  Even if they are fortunate enough to produce two books–and get paid for them, this only totals a modest $20,000 for a year’s work.

Many trade publishers offer an advance to their writers.  While I’m certain there’s a publisher out there that will offer $25,000 or $50,000 in advance, the truth is, I just don’t know of any…unless you’re Stephen King or some other blockbuster writer like him.  The typical trade publisher offers a conservative $3,000 to $5,000 to their writers, but if it takes them from six months to a year to write the novel (maybe longer), this doesn’t equate to very much.  

So back to the question:  Do writers make lots and lots of money?  I don’t know; you do the math.

OKAY, SO HOW LONG DOES IT REALLY TAKE TO WRITE A STORY/NOVEL?

Who knows?  Author/Actor Mike Myers reportedly wrote Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, in 30 days.  NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month, encourages its participants to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel in one month! On the other hand, it took Alex Haley ten years to write Roots, and I started my African American Civil War historical, Shout When Jubilee Comes, way back in 1992.  It’s almost 2008, folks, and I haven’t finished it yet!

How long does it take?  Who knows.  But one thing’s for sure:  The clock won’t start ticking until you sit down and start writing.

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

Well, first off, you sit down and write.  You don’t daydream about writing, or call your best friend and yak for two hours about what you would write if you had the time, or what you want to write in the future, or what you’ll probably write tomorrow.   You don’t float through your day fantasizing about all the money you’ll make off of your writing, or all the book signings you’ll have.  And you definitely don’t work up an imaginary budget and pay all your outstanding bills with the fortune you’re sure you’ll make off writing. 

You just sit down and write.  Period. 

I belong to a group whose motto is BIC HOK TAM, which in English means “Butt in chair, Hands on keyboard, Typing away madly, and I’ve found this motto to be both inspirational and uplifting.  It’s a no-nonsense motto that doesn’t leave room for excuses or procrastination.  That, in essence, is my advice to you.  Get to it.  No excuses.

WHAT DO I WRITE ABOUT?

Let’s face it, if you have to ask, then you’re probably not ready to write.  A writer isn’t a writer because he or she wants to write; a writer is a writer because he/she has something he/she just has to write…and he/she sits down and writes it.  That’s all.

That being said, there are clever little ways to find ideas to write about, and I’ll include that in a later section.  For now, let’s just pretend you’ve already got a story in your head, and go from there.

WHAT ABOUT GRAMMAR AND SPELLING?

With today’s computers sporting spell-checks, dictionaries, grammar and thesaurus capabilities and the like, the writer just about has it made.  Just about.

My advice to you is to not worry about grammar and spelling when you first sit down to write.  Just write.  Get your entire story down on paper, if you can.  In one writing support group I belong to, we try to write an entire book in one week.  We set our goals (i.e., 35 pages in that week, or perhaps 45), then we go for it.  We don’t edit or correct anything until the book is completed or the week is over, whichever comes first.  This is my advice to you:  Get it done, then edit.

WORD OF WARNING:  A computer is not a human. 

This warning may sound ridiculous, but the novice writer would do well to remember it.  A computer might be capable of running a spell-check, but nothing takes the place of a good old human brain that scans and edits a document for errors and necessary corrections.   What am I talking about?  Well…say for instance you’ve written a sentence about a woman running from the FBI, but you mistakenly spelled woman women.

The women ran from the FBI.

Even though this sentence is grammatically correct, it’s incorrect if you’re writing about a single woman running from the FBI.    Yet when you run your spell-check, the computer won’t know that you meant to write, The woman ran from the FBI.

That’s where manual spell-checking comes in.  Remember, you can’t hold a computer accountable for the errors in your story. 

MAYBE I SHOULD GET SOME HELP TO WRITE MY STORY!

Maybe you should, but not before you try to do it on your own.  When you “collaborate,” you’re actually going into business with someone.  True collaborators have the equal ability/power to add, edit or remove text in a work. 

BEFORE YOU ENTER INTO A COLLABORATION, MAKE SURE…

a)  Both you and your partner know what is expected of you.  You’ll save yourself much heartache that way. 

b)  You’re not going to be the one doing all the work, because if you are, you might as well be writing on your own. 

Case in Point:  I was approached by an acquaintance to collaborate on a work.  They told me what they were interested in writing, and we met to discuss it.  I showed up with pencil, pad and tape recorder.  They showed up with nothing.  When I asked where their tools of the trade were, I was told, “Hey, I’m not the writer, you are.  Write this down….”  and they began to dictate what they wanted me to get started on! 

Needless to say, this partnership didn’t work out.  This person thought they were going to give me their “insight” on a story, and I would do all the research, writing and editing.  They then thought I would find a publisher, send the package off (at my expense) and secure publication.  But even with all this work, they wanted to be sure I put their name first in the author credits, because it was their idea.

C)  Your partner is at or above your writing level, because if he/she isn’t, you’re going to be forced into giving impromptu writing lessons instead of doing any actual writing.

IN OTHER WORDS…

If your partner can’t spell, use proper grammar–or worse, can’t even type…you should probably postpone the collaboration.

If your partner doesn’t use punctuation marks, reconsider collaborating. 

This may seem a bit bigoted, but it’s true.  I was once asked to read a friend’s 200-page story and give my opinion.  The problem was, his story was one big fat 200-page paragraph.  He said no one told him he was supposed to break it into chapters, and since he wasn’t an English teacher, he hadn’t bothered with capitalization, punctuation or spelling. 

Since I had already promised to look at it, I didn’t go back on my word.  Have you ever tried to read 200 pages of run-on sentences???   It was traumatic, I’ll tell you that!  I started out with my little red ink pen, marking where the periods or commas should be; correcting misspellings and repositioning words…

But after several pages of run-on sentences, my eyes started to cross and my head started to throb.   I finally gave in to those stubborn, unkempt pages and gave him back his story.

TIP:  WRITE IT YOURSELF!

WHERE DO I FIND MY IDEAS?

As promised, I’m addressing the issue of finding ideas for stories or articles.  Most writers already have something clamoring around in their brains to write about, but in case you don’t, you can use these tips to find ideas:

1.  Read the newspapers.  There’s no better way to keep up with the trend of what’s going on.

2.  Log onto newschannels or hot websites, like YouTube, Myspace and the like.  See what they’re talking about.

3.  Join a blog community, like WordPress.  WordPress’ blogroll has a constant stream of what they call “Hawt Posts,” or posts that are so exciting or controversial, they get hundreds of hits a day.

4.  Play the “What if?” game.  In other words, think of some stories that had certain endings, then ask yourself, “What if this had happened instead?”  Here’s an example:

My son was a big fan of the 90210 series during its heyday.  Remember Brandon Walsh and Andrea Zuckerman?  Remember how everyone assumed they would get together, but they never did?  Well, instead of Andrea getting pregnant and marrying into oblivion in the series, what if she had married Brandon instead? 

And what if Brenda, Brandon’s twin, had become pregnant with Dylan’s baby and they decided it was best to marry…but since Dylan really loved Kelly, he sneaked around with her during the pregnancy?  And what if Brenda didn’t know about the affair, and decided to make Kelly the baby’s godmother?

Can you see all the possibilities by playing the “What if?” game?  Of course, you wouldn’t actually be writing for 90210, you’d be writing your own story.  You would change the names and the storyline, but the challenges and obstacles would be there just the same.

 SELF-EDITING THE PAGES YOU’VE WRITTEN

So let’s say you’re on a roll, and you’re writing as fast as your fingers can type.  When do you edit?

There are many theories on when to edit your own pages, but for purposes of this discussion, I’ll only give you my personal suggestion:  You should begin editing your pages only after you’ve finished a complete section.

What do I mean by “a complete section?”  I mean you should only begin editing after you’ve finished the complete chapter or book, whichever is applicable to your project.  Why?  Because any writer can tell you that the self-editing phenomenon has a powerful sucking motion like a vacuum, and can sweep you into the abyss and prevent you from getting anything done.

Let me explain. 

When you begin writing, you’ll probably be tempted to stop after each word or sentence, to see how everything “sounds.”  But since you’ll be looking at the sentence with the critical eye of an editor, you’re sure to immediately find something wrong with it.  Perhaps a word isn’t spelled or used correctly.  Perhaps you prefer to slice the sentence in half and place the second half first, and the first half second.  Whatever the temptation, you’ll be so busy editing that you’ll lose your “roll” and will further hinder yourself from finishing. 

I remember buying a book on writing and self-editing years ago, which warned writers not to edit until they were completely finished with their piece.  The publishers and editors who wrote that particular book told how the writer can find herself editing and re-editing the first page or so of a 300 page novel, and all she ends up with is one perfect page and nothing else.

What should you do?  Here’s a list of tips for you.  It’s by no means an exhaustive list of tips, but here it is, for what it’s worth.

1.  Finish the book or chapter first.  Just write…don’t worry about grammar or spelling or anything else. 

2.  Once you’ve completely finished the section, chapter or book, start from the beginning and edit your words. 

3.  Be ruthless when you edit.  No matter how good something sounds to you, if it’s unnecessary, cut it off like you’d cut off a boil or a wart.

4.  Print out your edited pages.

5.  Read your edited pages aloud to see how the words flow.

6.  Make any necessary changes, then re-print.

7.  Put the story away for a week.  Yeah, really!  A whole week!  After the week is up, take your story out and read it out loud.  You’ll be surprised at how many typographical or grammatical errors you’ll probably find.

8.  Make the necessary changes then re-print.

9.  Repeat numbers 7-8.

10.  Share the story with your critique group.  If you don’t have a critique group, consider joining or starting one.

11.  Wait for their feedback.

12.  Grow thick skin.

13.  Consider what your critique group members have to say.  They may not always be right, but remember, you’re getting outside opinions, and that’s what counts.

14.  Polish your story as needed and begin to search for a publisher or editor to submit it to.

Well everybody, that’s all for now. 

Best wishes and happy writing!

Rita