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ksmithIn his LJ, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaylake asked the burning question, "Why writing?" I replied here. Don't know if there's much more to add.
I am a living, breathing graduate of the Writers Digest SF Novel Writing School, circa the mid-90s.alfreda89 was my instructor--I hope she doesn't mind my mentioning this. I waded through the assignments, cobbling together characters that eventually morphed into Jani and Lucien and Tsecha and the rest. I don't know how this stuff rates against what I write now, but alfreda89 sometimes chuckles that she has kept my student files and considers them blackmail material. I don't think I want to know.
I envy the folks who started writing in their teens. I didn't start seriously until my early 30s. Over time, I grew to realize that it is my Perfect Job. The mistakes are mine, but so is the credit. There are no meetings, no impact goals, no self-assessments. I don't have to put on make-up, and I can stuff my hair up under a hat. I can spend 8 hours a day in a room by myself, making things up.
I don't have to work with people I don't like, and they don't have to know the joy of working with a grump like me.
If I could figure out a way to make a living wage at it, I'd be a happy girl.
jaylake asked the burning question, "Why writing?" I replied here. Don't know if there's much more to add.I am a living, breathing graduate of the Writers Digest SF Novel Writing School, circa the mid-90s.
alfreda89 was my instructor--I hope she doesn't mind my mentioning this. I waded through the assignments, cobbling together characters that eventually morphed into Jani and Lucien and Tsecha and the rest. I don't know how this stuff rates against what I write now, but alfreda89 sometimes chuckles that she has kept my student files and considers them blackmail material. I don't think I want to know.I envy the folks who started writing in their teens. I didn't start seriously until my early 30s. Over time, I grew to realize that it is my Perfect Job. The mistakes are mine, but so is the credit. There are no meetings, no impact goals, no self-assessments. I don't have to put on make-up, and I can stuff my hair up under a hat. I can spend 8 hours a day in a room by myself, making things up.
I don't have to work with people I don't like, and they don't have to know the joy of working with a grump like me.
If I could figure out a way to make a living wage at it, I'd be a happy girl.
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Date: 2005-11-11 07:40 am (UTC)It's absolutely perfect for people at a certain development of their career. I found it after I'd passed most of their advice, so I ended up writing and teaching for it. There's a five year or so cycle the themes of the articles will roll through. Your articles get reprinted once or twice in other, quarterly or special editions they put out--then they pay someone else to write another article on the same topic.
Elizabeth used to get a subscription every few years when she could get it for a dollar an issue, just to see what they were advocating at the time. I just never had much use for it--probably because I worked hard at meeting pros, and knew that a large percentage of the advice wasn't where I was going.
I still wonder where I'm going...