I will not read your f*****g script!

[Boneman]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

As someone once told me, "Everyone has a book inside them ... and for most, that's where it should stay!"

Damned if I can find it, but the professional critique that I had all those years ago was by a guy who wrote a long article (Times or Guardian, I can't remember which) extolling exactly this! Apparently some folk lead an interesting life and people say to them "you should write a book" and lots of them do...

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Peter Graham

For an agency receiving 200 unsolicited submissions a week (not uncommon if their blogs are anything to go by), that still means up to 520 good submissions per annum (to 9,880 bad ones). Constraints of time and budget inevitably mean that only a handful even of that 520 will get taken on.

Which is why it's important to keep on writing and submitting new things over the years. It increases the odds that some time for some agent, your book will be one of the handful.

Many of that top 3-5% don't do that, which is a big reason why they are never picked up by an agent.

[springs]

See, they should be too busy making up things to tell to actually lead an interesting life. That's where they're going wrong.

[The Judge]

Originally Posted by RcGrant

How many of us, when telling people we write, get the time-worn response of "Oh, I wrote a book once"/"I have a great idea for a book, maybe I should write it sometime"?

I think the craft of writing is highly underrated.

I don't know how true it is, but I recently read an anecdote about Margaret Atwood at a dinner party when a brain surgeon told her that as he was just about to retire he was going to write a book. "What a coincidence," she says. "I was thinking of taking up brain surgery."

[chrispenycate]

Originally Posted by HerHonour

I don't know how true it is, but I recently read an anecdote about Margaret Atwood at a dinner party when a brain surgeon told her that as he was just about to retire he was going to write a book. "What a coincidence," she says. "I was thinking of taking up brain surgery."

So, now I am no longer a studio engineer I should start investigating neurosurgery or nuclear physics, anything rather than try and write, is that what you're implying?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Or practice law.

[Vertigo]

Bun fight! Yeah!

[Ursa major]

Originally Posted by chrispenycate

So, now I am no longer a studio engineer I should start investigating neurosurgery...?

It seems only fair, given how many times we've picked your brains.


(Not that I'm suggesting the first neurosurgical instrument you buy should be a pick. You have to walk before you can run. )

[Peter Graham]

Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton

Which is why it's important to keep on writing and submitting new things over the years. It increases the odds that some time for some agent, your book will be one of the handful.

Many of that top 3-5% don't do that, which is a big reason why they are never picked up by an agent.

I entirely agree. Being able to write well still isn't enough. You have to catch the zeitgeist, or at least be in at the start of the Next Big Thing. I suspect - and you will know better - that understanding trends, business and the timelines for publication are also invaluable to an aspiring author.

Regards,

Peter

[David Evil Overlord]

Originally Posted by Peter Graham

I entirely agree. Being able to write well still isn't enough. You have to catch the zeitgeist, or at least be in at the start of the Next Big Thing. I suspect - and you will know better - that understanding trends, business and the timelines for publication are also invaluable to an aspiring author.

Regards,

Peter

Read something where the writer was wondering how many Boy Wizard tales flooded the slush piles after Harry Potter became the Next Big Thing.

Alas, it is very easy to spot the Last Big Thing.

[Hex]

And yet vampires went on and on and ON.

[David Evil Overlord]

Quick, somebody drive a stake through their cold, dark little sparkly hearts!

[Nik]

Ploughing a lonely furrow before I discovered Chrons, I fell into some terribly bad writing habits. Several apt critiques dragged me kicking and screaming into compliance...

I've actually finished writing a 150k-word book, but I can still hardly believe I spent 18 months on it. I began a sequel before the enormity of the task ahead halted me...

At the moment, I'm not writing. Period. Partly, this is because I can't currently string words together in even a half-satisfactory manner. If they're not good enough for a scribbled draft, the tale's going no-where fast. With luck and time, my urge to write may return, where-upon I hope to 'catch the wave' again.

[Jake Reynolds]

Nik, the only way anyone can improve is to write. Anything else, while it might be helpful, won't make you a better writer (though it might make you start to notice how you can improve). Just write, write and write some more.

Also, 18 months on 150k? Geez, I've spent 20 years learning how to write, and I'm not even good yet!

[Kaldaur]

The only time I stop writing is when I'm editing a project. Otherwise I'd go mental. I agree with Jake: you have to keep plowing forward.