Comments on: the ten commandments of becoming a published author

By: Jumping in with both feet « Waiting for "The Call"

Jumping in with both feet « Waiting for "The Call" — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:55:12 +0000

[...] getting the idea that I’m resisting “killing my darlings”, as the ever fabulous Julie Cohen put it in her Ten Commandments, chopping out all the lines and scenes and characters I adore but [...]

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:18:28 +0000

Mulberry—have you finished the book? Don’t do any killing till you’ve finished!

But yes, the sad truth is, that if you suspect it has to go, it probably does. Don’t lose it, though—keep a cutting file for everything you’ve chopped. If nothing else, you can have a “deleted scenes” section on your website for fans, once the book is published!

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:16:40 +0000

Olivia, I’m thinking of telling each person who tells me they’d like to write a book if they had time, that I’d like to do their job if I had spare time, too.

Radio presenting? Oh, if I only had a spare hour or two.

Used-car selling? It might be fun as a little hobby.

Nursing? I might pick the basics up in a day or two and do it in the evenings, just for fun.

Accountant? Well, you just need a calculator, right?

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:12:53 +0000

Your would-be famous author…I guess it’s the same for anyone who wants to be famous for the sake of it, without much talent or passion for anything but being successful. It must be a special kind of talent in itself, to get famous. But I’m flummoxed about how she believed that would make her happy, or how that would pan out for a long-term career? Deluded.

Writers are also people who can’t quit writing, even after all the setbacks in the world. IMO, there’s something that writing fulfills, as difficult as it is, that nothing else touches.

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:09:18 +0000

That said: Ehle, I’d put a hot, shirtless guy in any children’s book I wrote anyway.

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:08:15 +0000

I don’t think I could write a children’s book. I have friends who do, and it seems like they go through the same angst I do, except worse, because their novel is much, much shorter so they have to worry about every word counting and also they have to worry about whether kids will like it and it has the right message, etc. I have a hard enough time writing for adults, who can make their own minds up (and kids can, too, but their parents and other adults don’t always seem to think so, so you have to write for them as well).

Anyway, I’ve got a degree in children’s literature which means I analyse the stuff too much to be able to write it.

And I tell people all this when they ask if I want to write a children’s book, so they look at me confusedly and drop the subject.

By: mulberry

mulberry — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:08:52 +0000

Brilliant post, thanks Julie.
Just off to start on commandment 7- killing my darlings.

Right now I have 60,000 words. When I cut all the sections that don’t move the story forward I reckon I’ll be left with less than 40,000. Woo hoo, lots of room for layering more in then!

But why are they always the “best” bits? I have a 10,000 word kidnap scene involving the heroine, some incompetent criminals, Grace Kelly, and pigs, that I looooved writing, it was an absolute hoot, but I know it has to go!

By: Sue (aka MsCreativity)

Sue (aka MsCreativity) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:24:28 +0000

Great comments and as always another fab post. Thanks Julie! xx

By: Olivia Ryan

Olivia Ryan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:33:29 +0000

Hi Julie. I came here via Kate Hardy’s blog and have loved reading your Ten Commandments – brilliant advice, all of it! Yes, I think if we all had a pound for each person who’s come out with the immortal line of wanting to write a book one day, ‘if only I had time’, we’d be richer than … erm … JKRowling?? I used to feel like screaming when I was working full-time, bringing up kids, AND writing novels, and people said that to me! Want to write? Just DO it, then! DO – IT! x

By: Ehle

Ehle — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:57:51 +0000

Also, a true story.

I was once associated with a woman who wanted nothing more than to publish a book. Not write one, publish one. And not just any book would do. She wanted to be a New York Times bestseller.

Anyway, she joined all these writing groups (but not Romance Writers of America, because she felt that was an organization for novices) and she pitched all these agents (but not the ones that represented romance, because she didn’t “do” romance), and she studied the market (but not mass market paperback because hardcover was where it was at) and the business. She became really, really good at talking the talk.

But as time went on, and the rejections piled in, it became more and more evident that her desire to write was nowhere near as strong as her desire to become famous. (I know, I’m laughing, too.) One of the last conversations we had, she tried to convince me that “serious” authors were the ones who looked at “the business” as a business and nothing more, and that hiring ghostwriters was “the norm” and I was naive for thinking otherwise, because anyone selling their own book was thinking small.

Now, I’m all for ambition. Hell, if your’e gonna dream, dream big, right? But there was a flaw in her logic that to this day I don’t understand. If you don’t like writing, why bother?