This weekend was a good example of what life is like for a professional writer:
- I wrote an article about writing DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE WAKING NIGHTMARE for MJ Rose’s excellent Backstory blog.
- I traveled to San Francisco to speak at a writers conference.
- I proofed the copyedited manuscript for my fifth DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel, which has to arrive in NY no later than Feb. 23.
- I proofed the galleys for my novel THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE, which have to arrive on my editor’s desk no later than Feb. 23.
- I revised the manuscript for my sixth DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel, which is due March 1, but that I need to finish by Feb 22, so I can stick it in the FedEx packet with the copyedited manuscript for DM #5… because I am leaving on Wednesday to attend & speak at Left Coast Crime in El Paso.
- I drove back to L.A. from S.F…and thought about the plot for my seventh DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel. I made some notes when I stopped for lunch.
- I posted some articles on my blog.
- I wrote some notes for a network pitch meeting that’s set for Tuesday.
And this was a light weekend… I didn’t have to write a script or write a chapter in a book.
Unbelievable.
And there you wonder why most fanficcers want to stay just that: fanficcers, hobbywriters. A schedule like yours would take all the fun out of writing for me. I’m glad I don’t have to do it for a living.
kete
It’s not a question of “having” to write for a living. (There are much easier ways to make money. Armed robbery comes to mind.) It’s more a matter of *getting* to write for a living. That is something many people would like to do, but only a small number can manage it.
Writing can be fun, but if you’re serious about it, it’s also hard work.
Of course, anyone who would call themselves a “hobbywriter” clearly isn’t very serious about it. 😉
Maybe that’s why I don’t try to write while having a full time job. Of course, the Tv shows I’m addicted to probably have something to do with that, too.
I guess if you’re employed and don’t write them it’s doubtful you’d write if you become unemployed. Once I have a book completed I’m in the same group as all the others who have. Now go sell it, which is a job itself. Twp years and counting on the last effort. In the hands of a big NY agency as we speak on a request for a full. That’s the gig.
The thing is, aside from the drive from SF to LA, that’s a pretty good day of work from a dream fullfillment standpoint. I love my job because it requires me to do what I love. “Hobbywriting” sounds miserable to me because I believe writing takes a lot of hard work and dedication. It also takes knowing when your work is amounting to nothing, which makes me wonder why Mark York (so many Marks visit here, you gotta make sure who you’re speaking to)you’ve stayed with your novel submissions for two years. My general statement to people who ask me why no agent wants to rep their work is that, likely, there is something fundamentally wrong with the work itself. It’s not always about the machine, or the Man, or the Industry, but about the work itself. So, Mark, have you been tweaking all along or is the same manuscript?
Tod brings up a good point: there’s a good reason most people can’t get an agent, can’t get published, can’t sell their script.
Can you imagine how bad most of them are? So many of the published books I see are awful. Think of what they turn away!
Tod,
I don’t write novels. My book is a narrative in American History so there’s a lot more to it than a forumla. It’s about finding a market in a crowded field of history professors with agents. I stand by the work but these books typically don’t sell many copies even from the best professors.
I’ve never written a novel. All of my work is nonfiction journalism type work in the vein of John McPhee.
I did a tweaking to make it more national in scope by adding a couple of chapters and changing the title. The proposal has been tweaked accordingly. Mostly they reject the concept for financial reasons.
Thomas A. Desjardin’s new book, THROUGH A HOWLING WILDERNESS: Benedict Arnold and the Deadly March on Quebec, 1775 sold this past summer of 2004 to St. Martin’s Press. It took from August 2002 for John Hawkins to do it so that’s fairly typical.
The alarming part is this guy had access to my manuscript, a Ph.D and tossed out a quick proposal at the same time my work was submitted to his office for a historic site nomination. It’s tough business.
There’s a joke here, and I can’t resist:
And after lunch. . . he donned his superhero outfit, headed to Pink’s legendary Hot Dog Stand, and saved the world from the consumption of tofu that smelled and tasted like feet.
Seriously, it is, admittedly, a full day’s work, and you should be applauded for the dedication, desire, and determination to fulfill it.
I like tofu, but it will take on the smell and taste of anything you put in it. I never step on mine. I take your compliment though, as rare as it is. Publishing a book is equally rare.
To David J. Montgomery:
Depends on what you mean as ‘serious’ about writing. Most fanficcers who write because writing is their hobby are serious about writing to the best of their abilities and want to become better with every effort. But that doesn’t mean one wants to live through all the unpleasantness and disappointments that go along with trying to publish.
As a voracious reader who has in the past spent about $200-300 a month for books and doesn’t do it anymore because I find lots of reading material for free on the web, I can say that the percentage of rubbish published equals the percentage of rubbish posted on the net, and the percentage of good lit published equals the percentage of good lit posted for free – so I’m better off now. And I’ve read fics online that would drive tears of envy to many a published writer’s eyes. You don’t have to be paid for it to be able to write something good. And not everything that’s been pressed between a hardcover is good lit – even it costs $25.
kete
If you can find stuff to read for free on the internet that you enjoy, more power to you.
I would refer you to Montgomery’s Third Law:
“It’s better to read crap than to read nothing.”
Personally, I’d rather get a high colonic from a sweaty German man, but that’s just me.
Fanfic is for those who can’t write their own characters. It’s jusy plain lazy in my view, but then my views tend to draw ire from many. It’s bad enough for a vanity press book where the majority are drek. Online only means not good enough for primetime in any capacity. All one need do is read excerpts of published books and decide from there.
To David J. Montgomery:
I don’t think that I favour crap. Neither published nor posted. Among my favourite published authors are Umberto Eco, Patrick Sueskind and Proust – and if you know where to look you can find that level of quality on the net, produced by hobbywriters. But I wish you joy with your colonic. By the way, why is it that you guys have to get vulgar as soon as you don’t know how to counter anymore? Rather pathetic.
kete
Montgomery insulted me too but he took it back. He didn’t NEED to though. Methinks you take the joke the wrong way beause your personal position is weak. Fanficers can’t compete at any level.
Heh heh… I wasn’t joking. Anything written by someone who calls themselves a “hobbywriter,” along with all fanfic, is crap.
I was joking about the high colonic, though. But only slightly. And if you think that was vulgar, what do you think of slash and mpreg?
I certainly agree with that. But I’ve never heard of the last two. As to the assertion that my work is crap because no agent will offer a contract, I think I dispelled that. It could be that but isn’t in this case.
I don’t mean to be a jerk, but every time you open your mouth on this blog mark a york, you sound like an incredibly angry and daft man. Is there an opinion you have that is not directly related to self publishing, your own ego, or perceived injustices done to you? You didn’t quite dispell the assertion that your work is crap, and i don’t care if it is or isn’t, but an agent will take a work if they feel they can sell it and other books thereafter, nonfiction or fiction.
Well who asked you Trevor nospam King? The statement is true and what I said has nothing to do with self-publishing which I have nothing to do with. My views are firm, and anger has nothing to do with it. The rest is your problem.
A fanfiction analysis from a lawyer: Fanfic