Tagged: writing

How (Really) to Work Like a Writer

Hi, it’s Margaret here, over from Steam Trains and Ghosts. I’m doing a guest post today on the writerly life.

So there was this amusing blog post the other day about writers’ poor working habits. Okay, so the post’s just a joke about some clichés of the writerly life, but it contains some pretty good advice on how to be a professional writer. Just make sure to do the exact opposite of what it says.

Here’s how you should really work like a writer:

1. You ain’t no tortured genius. No, really, you’re not. If you think you are and the rest of the world just doesn’t understand, you’re just pitching a hissy fit. No.

My point is not to insult every single person who reads this blog. The corollary to #1 is:

2. You are not a tortured genius. What you are is you’re the proprietor of a small business. And all the responsibility that that entails. You’ve got to find the work, maintain relationships with clients, and if your work starts to sell, you’ll have to pay estimated quarterly taxes. Sit down and write something or else you will have nothing to sell.

3. Small businesses are massively unprofitable to start out with. Being a professional writer takes patience. Lots of it. I’m not exactly a big-name writer, but I’ve got data on my own experience, so I’ll share it here. I’ve been writing seriously for about 13 years, and in that time, I’ve earned about $300 for it. The vast majority of that was from the past year. You’ll spend most of your first years writing getting good at it, then you’ll start to earn money.

4. Be professional. Because it’s a business. This is the age of the Internet. If you submit a short story to an e-zine and then badmouth the editor behind his back, he will find out. And will that e-zine ever want to buy from you again?

5. There’s still no guarantee of success. Though being persistent and being good at writing sure help.

Guest Posting at 20four12

Well, today I’m guest posting over at 20four12.  This time I picked up a book that is more Middle Years than YA and was impressed with some things, but not with others.  The book is Tunnels and it’s received a lot of hype from both book bloggers and professional critics.

Guest Post Tomorrow

Yes, I know it’s sort of sudden, but I finally got around to organizing my life.  Tomorrow author Lynne Thompson is posting a guest review.  It’s not a series I would ever pick up, so it’s great that Lynne is reviewing the series.

Speaking of organizing my life, I finally updated the ‘My Reviews’ and ‘Guests’ page.  Now I know I have had 12 guest posts and 219 book reviews.  And if you haven’t already seen, I updated my commenting policy as well as my biography on my about page.  Yes, I finally thought of some interesting things I’ve done in my life.  It only took 9 months!

Guest Posting Today

Well, it’s Friday and that means I’m guest posting over at 20four12, seeing as Caleb posted for me last Friday.  Today I actually did a review because I’m trying to get back in the swing of things after publishing a week of articles.  Prisoner of Dieppe by Hugh Brewster is part of the I Am Canada ‘diary’ series aimed at teenage boys.  It is one of the few historical fiction books that has actually be looked over by an historian for accuracy as well, so you know it’s good!  Go on and check it out.

Farewell to We Heart Reading

As you probably don’t know, last Wednesday was my last day posting over at We Heart Reading.  I know my ‘resignation’ is pretty sudden and you’re probably all asking yourselves why did I quit, but I’m going to keep things brief:

1.  I want to focus on my own blog more.

2.  In September I’ve taken on a lot of projects, most notably my collaboration with Mark of The Masquerade Crew on his first anthology.  My role as developmental (content) editor will take up a lot of my time and the fact is that guest posting regularly takes a lot more time than just posting on my blog.  Both Mark and I are hoping that there will be more anthologies in the future, so to put it bluntly: editing pays and guest posting doesn’t.  I am human and would like to make a little extra money, so I feel that my energy is better spent on paying work than on We Heart Reading.

3.  It wasn’t meeting my expectations.  I’m a perfectionist and when things don’t turn out, I often lose interest in them.  This is no one’s fault but my own.  We Heart Reading hasn’t turned out nearly as well as I thought it would; it was just not a good fit for a control freak like myself.  However, for non-control freak book reviewers I would highly recommend joining it.  It’s a great place to build a community of book reviewers and fellow book lovers.

Even though I’m saying ‘addio’ to We Heart Reading, that doesn’t mean I’m saying farewell to guest posting in general.  It’s just that I will be guest posting less frequently, as in once every two weeks.  But more on that later.

For now, just know that I will no longer be posting at We Heart Reading, but I will still do everything I can to help the site out.  It was a great place to meet fellow book reviewers and book lovers and I’m going to miss it.