Since I posted the photo prompt yesterday afternoon, I’m wondering what I’ll do with my Thursday blog post now.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had to come up with something to say with no topic to guide my thoughts. This could be just another musing day… or it could be whatever I want it to be. It’s one of those blank slate moments I used to blog about a long time ago, haha.
Tonight is crit group with the NAWW and I’m still trying to decide if I’ll bring my reworked info dump scene for feedback or my synopsis for Symbiosis. It’ll depend on whether I get the rest of the synopsis written on break today. If I bring it we’ll see if it reads as insanely out loud to those hearing it for the first time as it did to me as I was reading it for the first time to myself. I’ve read some other synopsis of novels just as far-fetched as mine since then, though, and I feel less crazy than I did when I started out. There are actually people out there with ideas as wild as or more than mine. It’s strange the things that make a writer feel good about him/herself. This is one that does it for me. I love it when I find people that can’t point a finger at me because they’re guilty of the same nuttieness.
I’ve been invited to judge the photography contest for the upcoming Ozark Writer’s League conference in Branson. I’m excited about this because it ought to be fun. As an amateur photographer myself, it’ll be interesting to see what other people like to frame up in a snapshot image.
Another thing that’s been on my mind lately is the business of writing. I started to say ‘building a platform’ and the controversy surrounding it, but really what I’ve been thinking about is the entire business side of a writing career. There’s more to it than just getting the story written. The story is the foundation, though, because without it there’s no product to market, and no business.
But the attitude toward this end of the writing career seems to draw as passionately divided responses as does the issue of Indie-vs-Traditional. One camp believes all a writer has to do is write the story and then sell it either to a publisher or to readers directly. The other camp believes there is a road to pave before the selling can begin and it involves far more than just writing the book. I fall into the latter camp.
It’s always been a curse of mine to care too much what other people think about me or what I’m doing. So it’s a challenge to ignore naysayers and just get on with what I feel like I *should* be doing. But this time I haven’t let it bother me. I actually *enjoy* the road-paving end of this business as much as I’m enjoying the producing the product end of it. We’ll find out perhaps by the end of next year if my efforts have been worthwhile or nothing more than a practice in vanity. But I still like to hear opinions because you never know when you’ll learn something you might have overlooked. Plus, I have an insatiable desire to know certain stuff. This is one kind of stuff that interests me.
I keep asking the same question in various forms because I still haven’t gotten the answers I want. Doesn’t that drive you nuts? I think it’s because I still haven’t asked the right question.
Here’s a different one for a change.
Do you think it’s necessary for writers to have a plan or do you think they should just write the book and leave the planning to the publishers to figure out?
Well, it’s two questions, this one for those of you who have publishers.
Has your publisher given you a plan or did your publisher expect one from you?
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Hmmm. Pretty long post for having had nothing to say…
