26. Learn to be a hermit. Learn to say 'I'm sorry, but I can't
come to your party, I booked that night for revisions and I don't have
any other time to do it this week.' Learn to tell people no. Learn to
treat writing as a job -- one that may well be both unpaid and in
addition to whatever job pays the bills for a long, long time. If you
make excuses to let yourself skip writing, if you choose a social life
over that second job, you're not addicted enough. If you want to get
better, you'll learn.
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27. People are going to act like writing is easy, because that's
all they know; they're not writers. People are going to say you're
being a snob when you say 'I'm sorry, I have to work,' because they
can't understand why you'd choose reworking chapter three over going to
the roller derby. Try not to take it personally. I'm sure they do shit
that seems crazy to you, too.
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28. Kevin Smith said 'this isn't for the critics' when he was talking about Jersey Girl,
and the critics savaged it anyway. There's a lesson here. You can't
write to some imagined critical ideal, but if all eleven of the people
you trust to review your first drafts say 'wow, this makes no sense at
all, what the hell is going on here?', you should maybe consider taking
another look. Pandering is bad. Being accessible is not.
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29. Outline as much as you need to. I have books where I've
written incredibly detailed outlines, including locations and characters
involved in every scene. I have books where I pretty much just plunged
in blind and started hacking around with my machete, praying that
nothing in my new-found jungle was going to give me Ebola. Even those
books eventually got 'event chains' written on Post-It notes and stuck
to my computer, because I needed to keep track of who was where.
Neither style is superior to the other.
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30. If you're writing any sort of series, whether it be a series
of short stories or a series of novels, you need a continuity guide.
The format is up to you. The level of detail is up to you. But believe
me, even if you somehow manage to forget that your hero has green eyes and turn them hazel, your readers won't, and they will eat your soul.
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CHG ☺ Claudia H Gruy Writer's Burrow & Crea-zy World are now one! Follow me handle and become witness to my different insights into a wide variety of daily craziness and life as it comes, as well as my countless creative outbursts - be it in writing, upcycling or designing - making every day a day full of wonder and laughter thanks to my alive and thriving Inner-child and Inner-teen - they do keep me on my toes, grounded and flying all at the same time! ☺ Join the ride! ☺
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