RITA ® Award-Winning Author of Fantasy Romance
//More foreign rights news, this time Russian! Also a fun panel on Romantasy tomorrow at Beastly Books and Instagram Live. And thoughts on influencing social media algorithms being the new superstition.
//Fun news on covers and Italian rights – along with some info on how selling foreign rights works. Also, my recent experience with a published book contest and how negative comments can be devastating.
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Join me next Saturday, Feb 10th, 4:00 – 5:30 PM ET/2:00 – 3:30 PM MT for a super fun panel: “In Our Romantasy Era” – how and why romantasy stories are resonating with readers and authors today. The event will take place in person at Beastly Books in Santa Fe, NM and online on Instagram live @farofeb and @beastlybooks418. Should be a great conversation!
//A deep(ish) dive into my process today, to give an idea of how far down the intuitive writer spectrum I am. Also more on nuking the idea that slower = higher quality, and quieting the conscious mind to liberate the subconscious.
//The TWISTED MAGIC audiobook is live! Also sharing a call for authors influenced by Tanith Lee. And why I think classes teaching “plotting for pantsers” are damaging to intuitive writers, and other thoughts on process.
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This week at the SFF Seven, we’re asking about book-related income that is specifically not from book sales.
There was an asterisk to that, specifying that the question was in relation to the Authors Guild 2023 Income Survey, which I didn’t read. (I have Opinions about that survey, which I won’t go into.) But I assume the question comes from the survey dividing author income into book-related and not, and the person asking is wondering what the “not” might be. It’s a good question because I’m a firm believer that long-term success in this fickle business relies on diversifying income streams.
I actually have a line on my income spreadsheets that says “Other Writing Income,” as opposed to the “Book Sales” line. What kind of income is that?
//Defining success, tips on how not to go crazy as a creator, why I think competition is bad for us, navigating toxic positivity, why being told “no,” AKA rejection, is so very good for us, and thinking about career paths long term.
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I know you all have been waiting, so here it is! TWISTED MAGIC in audio is available on iTunes and Audible!
//A few thoughts today on marketing, newsletters, why you can be like Enya and not HAVE to do anything, why empty, supposedly “Inspirational” sayings annoy me, and some thoughts on Brotopia by Emily Chang.
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This week at the SFF Seven, we’re asking each other if our writing changed – and, if so, how?
It might seem disingenuous to say this, but yes my writing has changed: I’ve gotten better.
I mean, one would hope so!
And I realize that “better” is a nebulous descriptor, so I’ll attempt to define it. One thing about writing skill that it seems I end up telling newbies over and over is that I absolutely have gotten faster at every stage of the process. It’s like when you learn to drive a car. (And I learned on a stick shift, so there was an extra layer of learning curve there.) At first you consciously think about a hundred different aspects of the task: the brake, the accelerator, (maybe the balance between the clutch, the brake, and the accelerator, which was a real treat), steering, watching the front, the side, the rear view, reading street signs and traffic signals, and thinking several cars ahead, and remembering where you’re going… It’s a LOT to think about and overwhelming at first. But later, after you’ve been driving for years, you don’t think about all of that anymore, right? Mostly I think about where I’m going and how to best get there – and sometimes I zone out and forget even that, defaulting to familiar routes – but otherwise the rest is subconscious.
Writing is the same way! (I include revising in this.) After time and practice, you don’t have to think about the zillion details of craft, liberating your mind to focus on storytelling.
I think this is something that more experienced writers forget – how much we’ve internalized the mechanics of the process, allowing us to allocate more resources to our creative selves. This freedom allows us to try new things, write more difficult and complex stories, to test our writing chops. Maybe it’s like, to extend the analogy, learning to drive a race car or fly a plane. Going for the fancier skills is predated by learning the basics.
The thing is, I think a lot of us who grow up reading the works that inspire us (which should be all of us, really) have this idea that we can leap directly to doing THAT. Everybody loves the concept of the wunderkind, the prodigy, the creative who makes a list like “30 under 30,” as if that’s meaningful in any way. Spoiler: it’s not meaningful; it’s just unusual, which is why we’re fascinated.
So, do what I advise the writers in my mentoring Discord: take your time, learn the basics. It *will* get easier. And THEN you can deliberately choose to make it harder!