Saturday, June 13, 2015

Writers Rules

Rules writers live by:

Patricia Wrede says, "Editors don't make house calls. You've gotta send your manuscripts out.
Wash, rinse, and repeat."

 Phillis Whitney said, "A manuscript in a drawer can't sell." 

I can't remember who coined the phrase, "BIC"  
That's a basic writer's rule - Butt in Chair.  
You sit and write.  
Every day.

Jane Yolen puts it another way: "I show up. Not only every day at my computer to work.I show up by sending a mss. out again and again. If someone asks for a revision, I show up. If I meet a new editor at a convention and they seem interested, I send her something. If I figure out a new way to rewrite the book--I do that ASAP and send it out again."

This has always impressed me about many writers.  
I roomed with Josepha Sherman at many an ALA conference and watched her work the exhibit area. Talking to editors, checking out the displays. 
And every evening? (after we had hit publisher's parties that she always seemed to be able to get invited to) She would sit down at her computer and write and send book proposals to every editor she had talked to that day who seemed interested in her ideas.  
Sometimes she even made appointments with editors ahead of time to meet and discuss proposals. Which she would then type and email to them so they would have it when they got back to their office.
Since she wrote fantasy as well as many other things, she did the same at Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions, both local and WorldCons.

Do you have a rule you stick with to keep you writing every day?

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