{"id":4835,"date":"2011-04-21T00:58:28","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T06:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=4835"},"modified":"2011-04-21T02:54:25","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T08:54:25","slug":"killing-the-sacred-cows-while-doing-data-entry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/killing-the-sacred-cows-while-doing-data-entry\/","title":{"rendered":"Killing the sacred cows while doing data entry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sorry for the lack of blog posts; I’ve been working 40 hours a week at this temp job, which doesn’t leave a lot of time for other things outside of writing.\u00a0 I’m still plugging along at about 1k to 2k words per day, but a lot of other stuff is falling behind.\u00a0 Fortunately, the job only lasts another two weeks, and that should earn me enough to take the next month off and focus on writing.\u00a0 I’m really<\/em> looking forward to that.<\/p>\n

This job isn’t too bad; it’s tedious, but I can read blogs and listen to podcasts and music while I do it, so I’ve been catching up on a lot of business research.\u00a0 Last week, I read all of Kris Rusch’s The Business Rusch Publishing<\/a> blog series, and right now I’m working my way through Dean Wesley Smith’s Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let me just say, this stuff is pure gold.\u00a0 Every post (and a surprising number of the comments, especially those by Laura Resnick) have been extremely<\/em> eye opening.\u00a0 At the outset, almost everything Dean or Laura say about the industry seems absolutely blasphemous…but it all makes so much sense.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like the post about how agents shouldn’t be giving authors any career advice… because they’ll usually advise you to write to the market, not to what you’re passionate about (and can therefore write well). Or how if you’re a midlister, it’s usually in the agent’s best interest to side with the editor, since they may have ten or more clients at stake in this house and you only represent a $3k annual revenue stream to them (or less).<\/p>\n

The best piece of advice across the whole series so far comes from Dean:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t listen to rules (myths) and do what works for you and if it doesn\u2019t work, try something else, and when that stops working, try something else. Don\u2019t do it my way or Larry Brooks way or Laura\u2019s way or Harlan\u2019s way. Steal parts from all of us and do it your way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thing I find most gratifying, however, is the fact that I figured out on my own that submitting to agents first probably isn’t the best way to break in. But man, there is so much awesome, paradigm-shifting stuff in these posts, it is amazing<\/em>.\u00a0 Pure gold.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Into the Nebulous Deep<\/em> is going surprisingly well.\u00a0 I should have it finished by mid-May, and though it will probably need some serious revision (unlike Dean, my creative mind gets more fired up in the revision process than the drafting process), the major story arc is coming along very nicely.<\/p>\n

I wonder if that has to do with the fact that ITND will be my fifth completed novel.\u00a0 My first one, Ashes of the Starry Sea<\/em>, was mostly smooth to write, but it was also a practice novel and as such royally sucks.\u00a0 Genesis Earth<\/em> went through an EXTREMELY convoluted writing process, but it was good enough to get to the quarter-finalist stage of the 2011 ABNA contest (and in two days, I’ll find out if it made the semi finals…<fingers crossed><\/strong>).\u00a0 Bringing Stella Home<\/em> was also pretty tough to write, as was Worlds Away from Home, <\/em>though the revisions have been more straightforward so far.<\/p>\n

So does this mean I’m starting to come into my stride as a novelist?\u00a0 I hope so, because I want to start pushing myself.\u00a0 After ITND, I want to revise WAFH in six weeks or less–and I’ll probably throw out 1\/3 to 1\/2 of the material and completely rewrite it.\u00a0 After that, I want to do Sholpan<\/em> in two or three weeks–but that shouldn’t be hard, because the material is mostly there already.\u00a0 Whether Genesis Earth<\/em> wins or loses the ABNA contest, I’ll want to write Edenfall<\/em>–before August, if I can manage it.\u00a0 And then, there’s always that post-apocalyptic blight project…<\/p>\n

Anyhow, sorry for the rambling.\u00a0 The point is, I want to take my writing to a new level this summer, and after this temp job is finished, I’ll be in a great position to do it.\u00a0 In the meantime, I’ll merrily watch Dean kill the sacred cows while I fill out UPS shipping data for the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

And now, here’s some candy for your ears:<\/p>\n