Comments on: the ten commandments of becoming a published author

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:56:39 +0000

Kath, EVERYTHING is better liberally sprinkled with chocolate. That should probably be added to Commandment 9.

By: Kath

Kath — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:59:24 +0000

That’s my kind of ten commandments! – although I would have to liberally sprinkle with chocolate.

I think the support network is so important and, thanks to Twitter, something that I’m happy to now have.

Great post!

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:17:44 +0000

Thank you Tom! It’s nice to get a new visitor and thank you for tweeting this post.

By: Tom M Franklin

Tom M Franklin — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:14:18 +0000

a brilliant post. absolutely brilliant!

– Tom

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.