31. Measuring your output against someone else's output is a game
with no winners at all. Maybe you write fast. Maybe you write slow.
Maybe you're somewhere in the middle. I can write an obscene number of
pages on a good day, and finish it off with a song and maybe a sonnet or
two. Another friend of mine considers herself to be doing amazingly
well if she finishes three pages in eight hours. Neither of us is doing
anything wrong. Some of the best books ever written took years to
finish; so did some of the worst. Write at your own pace, and know what
that pace is.
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32. Deadlines are your friends. Learn how to work to them. If
you ever start publishing, you're going to be getting a lot of
deadlines, and you won't necessarily have any real say in the matter.
It's best if it's not a shock to the system.
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33. Learn to be gracious to everyone who helps you. Thank your
proofers. Thank your editors. Thank your agent. Thank your readers.
They're doing you a favor. You're also doing them a favor -- you're
letting them play with your kids -- so don't be servile, but do be
gracious.
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34. The only people you owe your work to are your agent, your editor, and your publishing house. Don't let anyone pressure you.
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35. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a break from
time to time. I pretty much write every day of my life -- I'm a junkie,
and I admit it -- but there are days where the writing takes an hour in
the morning, and is then set aside completely, in favor of seeing
Flogging Molly perform. Sometimes, my 'writing' for the day consists of
jotting notes in my planner (also known as 'Seanan's second brain'). I
need those pauses to reset myself, and sometimes, to find new books in
the world around me. Don't hate yourself for needing to breathe.
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