"Nothing complicates our existence so much as that we so frequently believe in definitives, and thereby lose time being ashamed of a mistake instead of admitting it and simply starting our lives over."
--from The Road Into the Open by Arthur Schnitzler
So, this is where I ended up by November's end - and that's pretty much how it's going to stay throughout December. I decided that I need to spend this month doing more research, and just letting what I've written sit for a while, to give me distance and perspective. Deadlines are so important, it seems, for genre writers, but I can't allow myself to get all worked up over the fact that I thought I'd finish "Ruins" by the end of the year but I was wrong. Hey, I was wrong. No big deal. The words won't disappear, nor will my ideas. And if I decide that I need to scrap all of the words above, and start over again? Well, see the quote above. Besides, all good things take time. :)
I've also been giving some thought as to next year, and what I want to accomplish in terms of output. Part of this is because I have many stories that are half-written or so close to being finished, and I need to take care of them and get them out into submission. But I'm also thinking in terms of how much potential income they represent - income I'm denying myself because I've been a bit lazy, I'll admit, and haven't taken the time to finish what I started. As I was saying to someone a few days ago, I thought I'd escaped the "bad year after Clarion" curse that so many students have - but again, I was wrong. This has been a year of largely no output, with only two finished stories. However, both stories sold to pro markets. So: I need to step it up a bit next year.
And I realize that as a writer I'm supposed to talk about how much I live for the writing, and how that's all that matters, blah blah blah... Well, I don't believe that holds true for people who want to be professional writers. And I don't believe that wanting to make money off your art makes you "impure" or crass or greedy. I need the income, because it all goes back into the writing process. I need money for those Herbert Hunt books on Tacoma - so I can write my steampunk novellas. I need money for a 2009 trip down to Central and South America (and probably an additional one in 2010) - so I can start researching the first volume of the Archipelago Quartet (the quartet's world geology, geographies and various cultures are based on those that comprise the Pacific Ring of Fire, where I was born and raised). I need money to go to at least one convention next year so I can meet editors and writers who might help me find out about anthologies and markets I wouldn't hear about otherwise. All the money I make from writing goes back into writing. Circle of life - really!
I also firmly refuse to use the income from my day job to finance my writing. I did that for many years as an actor: buying costumes, taking expensive classes, handing over fistfuls of cash to any and everyone who might be able to help my career. All it did was screw up my credit and completely demoralize me - because people were obviously interested in my money, not in my talent, and they used me as a convenient cash machine. And I let them, because I wanted to act. Well, never again. Clarion was the exception - but I knew that going to Clarion would be a sound investment, one that I'd make my money back on, and I've been right. But other than Clarion, I have no intentions of destroying my 401k or my savings and credit in order to advance my writing career. It's suicide: I don't want to find myself destitute at 67, retired and without a penny to my name, unable to pay for medical bills or housing or even food. I've seen that happen to far too many writers, and it won't happen to me. I'm keeping my day job money for that day when I do retire, so that I can continue to write when I'm older, instead of holding down a bunch of miserable part-time jobs in retail so I can cover my rent and bills. If I want to spend money on writing-related things, I need to write stories that people will pay professional rates for, and do that on a fairly regular basis. So, yeah: next year will be a little different. A bit more intense, but better for me in the long run.
Sorry for the rambling post. I think I put too much sugar in my coffee this morning. :P
--from The Road Into the Open by Arthur Schnitzler
So, this is where I ended up by November's end - and that's pretty much how it's going to stay throughout December. I decided that I need to spend this month doing more research, and just letting what I've written sit for a while, to give me distance and perspective. Deadlines are so important, it seems, for genre writers, but I can't allow myself to get all worked up over the fact that I thought I'd finish "Ruins" by the end of the year but I was wrong. Hey, I was wrong. No big deal. The words won't disappear, nor will my ideas. And if I decide that I need to scrap all of the words above, and start over again? Well, see the quote above. Besides, all good things take time. :)
I've also been giving some thought as to next year, and what I want to accomplish in terms of output. Part of this is because I have many stories that are half-written or so close to being finished, and I need to take care of them and get them out into submission. But I'm also thinking in terms of how much potential income they represent - income I'm denying myself because I've been a bit lazy, I'll admit, and haven't taken the time to finish what I started. As I was saying to someone a few days ago, I thought I'd escaped the "bad year after Clarion" curse that so many students have - but again, I was wrong. This has been a year of largely no output, with only two finished stories. However, both stories sold to pro markets. So: I need to step it up a bit next year.
And I realize that as a writer I'm supposed to talk about how much I live for the writing, and how that's all that matters, blah blah blah... Well, I don't believe that holds true for people who want to be professional writers. And I don't believe that wanting to make money off your art makes you "impure" or crass or greedy. I need the income, because it all goes back into the writing process. I need money for those Herbert Hunt books on Tacoma - so I can write my steampunk novellas. I need money for a 2009 trip down to Central and South America (and probably an additional one in 2010) - so I can start researching the first volume of the Archipelago Quartet (the quartet's world geology, geographies and various cultures are based on those that comprise the Pacific Ring of Fire, where I was born and raised). I need money to go to at least one convention next year so I can meet editors and writers who might help me find out about anthologies and markets I wouldn't hear about otherwise. All the money I make from writing goes back into writing. Circle of life - really!
I also firmly refuse to use the income from my day job to finance my writing. I did that for many years as an actor: buying costumes, taking expensive classes, handing over fistfuls of cash to any and everyone who might be able to help my career. All it did was screw up my credit and completely demoralize me - because people were obviously interested in my money, not in my talent, and they used me as a convenient cash machine. And I let them, because I wanted to act. Well, never again. Clarion was the exception - but I knew that going to Clarion would be a sound investment, one that I'd make my money back on, and I've been right. But other than Clarion, I have no intentions of destroying my 401k or my savings and credit in order to advance my writing career. It's suicide: I don't want to find myself destitute at 67, retired and without a penny to my name, unable to pay for medical bills or housing or even food. I've seen that happen to far too many writers, and it won't happen to me. I'm keeping my day job money for that day when I do retire, so that I can continue to write when I'm older, instead of holding down a bunch of miserable part-time jobs in retail so I can cover my rent and bills. If I want to spend money on writing-related things, I need to write stories that people will pay professional rates for, and do that on a fairly regular basis. So, yeah: next year will be a little different. A bit more intense, but better for me in the long run.
Sorry for the rambling post. I think I put too much sugar in my coffee this morning. :P
Labels: "archipelago quartet", "the ruins of love", "writing and money"
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