Did she originally paln it to be a trillogy? Because in my oppinion, a novel is what it is and it's out of even the writer's power to change that. I've probed a few publishers who request that all submitted material is to be only written to the first few chapters, so that they had the option to "Manipulate the story to fit the needs of the public and maximise profit." To be honest I'd rather hit the delete button than change a single word.
No, I don't think she planned it. It is a girl who wrote the novel called "Legend" I've known her from before she was published, and initially she planned one book but hoped for more. But she's been trying to get published for a few years now, so I know she was really proactive in finding an agent who will stick by her and work hard for her. I know what you mean regarding various demands of publishers. A few years ago I wrote a blog which was entirely conceptualised as a practice novel in progress. After about a year, I got offered a publishing deal, but before they even discussed royalties, they spoke of a spin they wanted to put on it. As I felt the spin will cheapen the work (which in my opinion wasn't worthy of publishing in that state anyway) I refused the deal. It wasn't a hard thing to do because I didn't have an interest in being published in that country, but the offer worked wonders for my self esteem. I am not at all opposed to having a good editor, or even re-writing parts of it, but only if it makes sense and seems as good advice.
I got into writing because I developed an interest in film during my early 20s and decided I wanted to be a movie director. Then I spent years learning to write my own short films. I eventually decided that movie making wasn't for me for a variety of reasons, but the process of telling stories is still a passion. I had always been a big reader, and freelance writing (non-fiction) on the Internet had become a significant part of my income, so the idea of creating a novel seemed like a logical progression.
That is quite good. It is encouraging to know that someone, without heavy advertisement, gets pulled into that world. That would be the dream come true for me. Speaking of doing what you love the most, for life...
This is her http://mree.deviantart.com/. If you click the button "Journal" and then back track to sometime last year, you can read a lot of entries where she talked about how it all happened. It was all very exciting This is a good one http://mree.deviantart.com/journal/?offset=30#/d3nwe6k
That's so cool! I wanted to be a film director too But in my case, I left my country when the war started and moved to another place, and you know how damn hard it is to get into film school especially if you don't know anyone. So I gave it up for a more "sensible" career.
For me the dream died when I figured out that I'm really more creative when working on my own, and movie making is a very social process, especially when all the people helping you are volunteers. So far, writing a book seems to be a lot like making a movie from an artistic perspective. Your still creating scenes, building atmosphere, and all that, but in some ways its actually harder since you have to rely more on a solid story foundation. A director can kind of play games with visuals and work with actors to dress something up if its weak, but in a book everything is right there on the page.
throughout grade school and high school i was always naturally better than most at all kinds of writing, but i didn't decide 'i had to be a writer' till i was in my early 40s... at that point i jumped in with both feet and have been one ever since...
Thank you so much for sharing this! That was simply great. I wish her the best of luck with her second book. I might look for the first one, now you mentioned it.
I fall into the 'everyone else' category. Frankly, though I liked writing as a way to organize my thoughts and express them, the idea of writing for anything other than self-therapy didn't really occur to me until I was 40 years old. My then fourteen year old daughter wrote and shared with me a list of 100 things she wanted to do before she died. Number 52 on her list was to be mentioned in a book. I began writing that evening. Eighteen months later, she was. Since then, writing has transitioned from a 'like' to a 'need'. Much of the process I don't like actually. I have a background in the hard sciences and I really enjoy the objectiveness of 2+2=4. Writing is so subjective that it hurts my head. There is no hard and fast 'right' and that's tough for me. The most I've made so far about $8000/year though I've only met that number on three occasions. Certainly not enough to live on. This foray into creative writing is new and frightening but this idea and the characters have been relentless in their demands that they be brought to life.
um...interesting question, i was rather introvert at school and terribly shy, but i'd been writing since i was six and has finished my first Epci Fantasy when i was 14 that conistsed of like 20 books. i know. and i still have them they're a bit childish. We only did one piece of Creative Writing for a G.C.S.E course and i got an A* and was surprised as my target grade was E/D. I haven't been to a writing class or taken English futher because i have my owm method that i can't break. So i'm 21 now and writing is the only thing i'm really good at. I did AS English but quit because we did not Writing and i was just loaded with empty phrases from my teachers. I don't like being told what to write or what to read. So i'm not sure an English Degree is for me. If you live in the UK you can do an OPEN UNIVERSITY course in english that mixes in Creative Writing or you can just do the three Writing courses, that might help you. Good Luck xxxx
I'm not in either of your categories. I never formally studied creative writing, but still jumped with both feet into the career early on (my early twenties). But then again I feel that labels are for packages and pigeonholes are for pigeons.
I guess I would fall in that "everyone else" category. And yes, I do feel disadvantaged as a writer, although I'm glad that I have experience/qualifications/interests in other areas to fall back on in case writing doesn't work out. I trained as a scientist, quit pursuing that career at the age of 24 (although I still work in science publishing, so I'm not completely out of the field), and am trying to remember how to engage with the arts and be creative. I'm considering taking a creative writing course as I find formal training very helpful when learning new skills. At the moment I'm teaching myself how to write through a combination of trial and error and self-teaching using the creative writing resources at the local library. I feel like I've been in training as a writer for years though, as I've been obsessively devouring fiction since the age of 4. I know what the result I'm aiming for looks like; I just need to learn about the process.
I'm confident at the moment with my choice, but I might change my mind later, when I'm in a different place in my life. And ambition is always good thing to have. That is so true! I eventually dropped out of the AP courses because of this, and went to Honours for my last two years of high school. I'd been in Advanced Placement classes up until 11th grade, and eventually I decided I was tired of writing the way other people wanted me to write. It eventually went from grading to forcing their own personal preferences onto me. And all of my teachers always forced us to write essays the "right" way. Well, since they focused on the format so much, no one ever focused on what they were putting INTO the work, and only the structure. So the essays looked right, but no one was ever actually saying anything.
It seems to me that sometimes poeple who study writing get turned off it, like it loses some of it's savor for them. I also think that life experience can make you a better writer. I suppose if you studied writing and aren't turned off by it by the time you finish your degree and you get a few tough life experiences under your belt you could be a pretty darn good writer. But thankfully there are lots of other ways to get to be a good writer.
I gave links to her devArt page in one of my comments above. But her name is Marie Lu and the novel is called "Legend" it's a YA dystopian novel inspired by Les Miserables.
Somewhere in-between. I've been publishing work for almost seven years (spent a month on a creative writing course a few years ago before realising that it isn't possible to teach creativity) yet I've no desire to try and make a real career out of it.
That's great that you've been publishing for so long, out of interest, what is the reason writing doesn't app[eal to you as a career?
I can really identify with all of what you said. Especially with finding formal training helpful. I have qualified from medical school and even though learning about people's characters i that milieu is incredibly useful for a writer, I am used to having a system with everything, so I find books on story structure really helpful. But still, just the knowledge that I haven't been formally trained in this, feels like I am missing something, but that is just because I come from a very structured intellectual environment and this is out of my comfort zone in so many ways, whilst being a compulsion at the same time
I guess I'm kind of both. Been writing since I was a wee little thing . I've never sent anything in for publishing, but would love to eventually. My only hesitation is that, once I do, I'm worried I won't be writing for ME anymore. I found early on that if you're not writing for yourself, you're writing for the wrong reason. I don't want to ever forget that, mainly because as soon as I fall away from that opinion, my writing begins to stink like a big pile of... well... you get the point. I'm 21 (yeah, yeah... young...whatever) and have been aimlessly bouncing back and forth between majors in college. I would find something that I thought I liked, take a couple of classes in it, and decide later on that it didn't fulfill me the way I wanted it to. After much frustration, I talked it out with my dad, and he gave me the best piece of advice I've ever received: "Choose something that makes you happy." He is a lawyer, and after a long career he's found that he can't stand his job anymore. It wasn't his first choice in the first place, and now he wishes that he'd listened to his heart instead of his pocketbook (and his father) when he was picking a career. I'm greedy and want the best of both worlds. As of right now, I'm double majoring in EMS and English, emphasis on creative writing. I don't know what I'm gonna do with an English degree, but by-golly I'm gonna try to do SOMETHING with it. Anyway, the long and short of it is I don't necessarily want to make writing my career, but I know that I always want to have it in my life, published or not!
I suppose I fall into the category of those who study creative writing simply because of the degree path I'm heading towards. I'll be graduating in 2013 with a bachelors in Creative Writing, minoring in Literature. I don't know that I believe studying writing gives you a huge advantage. In fact, I've wanted to drop from college since my freshman year because I don't believe you need a degree to write. I've only stayed due to pressure from my parents, and in the long run, I'd probably regret not finishing my education. There are only a couple true benefits that I feel I receive from my course studies and becoming a better writer is not one of them. I love my field because it allows for exposure to many forms of literature and has allowed my to carve my niche in the area that I excel. I've done intensive work with various genres including prose poetry, teleplay writing, science fiction, and performance writing. If I didn't read on my own time, my major forces me to do so and become acquainted with authors I would have never picked up previously. In the same way, the courses force me to write extensively when otherwise I might not. This is a huge benefit for me because I tend to write in cycles, with long periods of procrastination in between. But I've found from my experience over the last three years that creative writing courses do not teach writing. They are often a history of the particular genre of study, combined with reading modern works in that genre and extensive workshopping of your own work within that genre.
It's not that it doesn't appeal; it's more that there are other potential careers that appeal more. I'd rather do something more social. Right now I'm working on a documentary -- as an editor -- and enjoying it immensely.
I've just started writing now, I've done a few poems, a short story (which I uploaded here) and I've just finished the first chapter of a novel I'm writing. I started off wanting to write as a career, but I didn't think I'd be good enough to make enough money to support myself, so now it's just a hobby. What kind of genre do you guys write? Be it poetry or prose, or whatever.
I'm only thirteen, so i can't really take a career as a writer jsut yet. To be honest, i do not think i will take it up as a career, just a hobby. I just want to focus on finishing school first
