[Writer Post] In Which I Wax Philosophical
Hello, Wednesday. How are you today? Me, I’m a bit cross-eyed from counting itty-bitty teeny tiny diamonds at my Day Job. I’ve been contemplating today’s topic. Waiting for that lightning bolt of inspiration to strike… and here we are. Nothing has happened today to equal “earth-shattering kaboom†– not that there should be earth shattering kabooms – no matter what Marvin or Ivonova say…
There are still some tremors from the SFWA sexism melee. The idiot guy who ran for SFWA president spewed all over the organization in clear violations of terms of agreement. I totally feel for the folks who have to clean up this mess – and am pretty glad it’s not me. I hear SFWA has some good qualities (and I KNOW it has good folks among the membership) when it comes to services, but if they want to continue to stay any kind of relevant, there has to be change, but for there to be change they need new blood – which is their Catch 22 – with the dwindling number of qualifying markets, new blood is getting harder and hard to come by. Have fun working that out.
I’ve also been waxing mentally philosophical about patience. I am not – and this will so shock people (SARCASM SIGN) – a patient person by nature. I’ve always heard it’s a virtue, and must’ve prayed for it a lot – because I’m in a profession that requires me to practice it…a lot. Publishing is an industry that moves at the speed of snail – and not the cute Pixar kind that can take on the Indy 500 … but garden variety kind. Typically, I can submit and forget about stuff until something reminds me to check. But when I know there can/may/should be some kind of response? Yeah, that’s when I’m stalking my email. And to paraphrase an old cliché – a watched email NEVER drops.
Oh, and a bit of advice to new writers – be flexible. As much as we all want to be brilliant out of the box, we’re not. If an editor/publisher asks for changes to a manuscript – MAKE THE CHANGES. Unless it completely changes the entire tenor of your story (like turning your main hero into a serial killer or worse), at least ATTEMPT the changes. Your editor sees what’s actually on the page. You see what SHOULD be on the page. It may hurt for a while – but you’ll have a better story for it. At least, that’s been my experience so far. But I’ve also been lucky to have good editors – and the editing process is a learning process.
So, yeah…sorry about the ramble, hopefully I’ll have something more specific to talk about next week.