Last night I came home to find the contract from Senses Five Press for my story "Jetsam" - I know this sounds stupid, but I always get a thrill when I see the actual contract for what I've sold. I never got contracts as an actor. I got a phone call or email saying "show up for rehearsal", and I did, and after the rehearsal process and the play was all over with, I was sent home. No contract, usually no payment - nothing to show that I was in any way an artist of any worth or value*. I can tell you that for all the hard work so far, I'm far more satisfied with what I've accomplished as a writer than about 99% of what I accomplished as an actor, and parti of it is because I can prove that there's some worth to what I do.
The first erotic novella is finished, but as I started the second novella, I realized I need to switch them around - so #2 is now becoming #1. Ugh. That means I can't send the finished one out yet. However, I think this is for the best. The current WIP is much easier to plot and write, I'm discovering, so I'm hoping to be done well before the end of the month.
Stories, on the other hand, are a bit problematic. I find that I start a story, then put it down somewhere in the middle and walk away. I don't think that's indicative of writer's block or needing to "rethink" the plot - it's just bad writing habits. So, I'm going to be a bit more strict on myself as far as how long it takes me to write a story. I'm going to be "Clarion strict" - no story should take me longer than two weeks to finish, no matter if it's 1000 words or 17,000 words. If that means the first draft is a bit rushed and patchy, so what? I can spend plenty of time editing and polishing, but I can't do either of those things if I never finish the damn thing to begin with.
So, my goal for this weekend is to finish the story I started in January - that's about 2-3000 words more I need to write on it, which is completely doable. Besides, I should be happy that I have something that is so obviously going to keep me from having to clean my apartment.
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*And I found out I wasn't: there are six billion people on the planet, and 5.5 billion of them think they're actors. The other .5 billion think they're writers, of course.
The first erotic novella is finished, but as I started the second novella, I realized I need to switch them around - so #2 is now becoming #1. Ugh. That means I can't send the finished one out yet. However, I think this is for the best. The current WIP is much easier to plot and write, I'm discovering, so I'm hoping to be done well before the end of the month.
Stories, on the other hand, are a bit problematic. I find that I start a story, then put it down somewhere in the middle and walk away. I don't think that's indicative of writer's block or needing to "rethink" the plot - it's just bad writing habits. So, I'm going to be a bit more strict on myself as far as how long it takes me to write a story. I'm going to be "Clarion strict" - no story should take me longer than two weeks to finish, no matter if it's 1000 words or 17,000 words. If that means the first draft is a bit rushed and patchy, so what? I can spend plenty of time editing and polishing, but I can't do either of those things if I never finish the damn thing to begin with.
So, my goal for this weekend is to finish the story I started in January - that's about 2-3000 words more I need to write on it, which is completely doable. Besides, I should be happy that I have something that is so obviously going to keep me from having to clean my apartment.
_______________________________________________________
*And I found out I wasn't: there are six billion people on the planet, and 5.5 billion of them think they're actors. The other .5 billion think they're writers, of course.
Labels: writing business
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