Advice for a First Time Author

Hell, no. As long as the Canadiens are in it, they've got my loyalty. Once they're (inevitably) defeated I pick whatever Canadian team is still around. After that? The furthest north team. There are traditions in hockey, and suffering through cold winters is definitely one of them. Boston doesn't quite cut it. (although I'll definitely take the Bruins over any of the weird-ass southern teams!)

 

Nah. I said what I had to say. Anyone who disagrees has my permission to do so.

 

I'm pretty far south, as Canadians go. So, no, snow is gone. I actually planted my tomatoes outside today, with their little kozy koats to keep the frost off. (it's way too early, but I planted them too early and they've overgrown any sort of practical indoor size.)

But there's a culture of snow. That's what counts!

 

Golden advice for all writers. When you think of something good, write it down. Not later, not in a minute, not on that small scrap of tissue which will inevitably get used to wipe up coffee; now.

Future self always remembers only that there was something to remember.

 

I want to hug you. That word is like nails on a chalkboard to me (as are 'crit' and 'critter', while we're on the subject of writing terminology).

But I think the whole planner/Word-I-Refuse-To-Type debate is a false dichotomy, so I refuse to come up for another word for it. Harrumph.

 

"Critter" is adorable and you are a curmudgeon for resisting its charm.

Just think of a collection of little varmints - a raccoon, a ground hog, a couple bunnies, maybe even a skunk or a possum - sitting back on their haunches, rubbing their little hands together, getting ready to tear someone's story apart - critters!

It's excellent and you are wrong.

Pantsers? Whatever. But I stand by Critters to the bitter end.

 

Only if you make it one I use it as a spectrum: I'm about 85% planner, 15% German tank

 

In seriousness, I like the architect/gardener thing GRRM (I think it was?) talked about. Idea being that architects have everything planned out when they start while gardeners start off with just the seeds.

 

Writing is a craft, not a talent. Best advice ever given

 

@Rickard Eriksson it takes talent to write. Tis much an art as any other.

@Spencer1990 hows about off the cuff?
I write as a panster off the cuff, so to speak.

 

I wish someone had told me that. I had to work it out for myself and spend years agonizing over whether I was 'talented' enough

 

Writing is an expression form created about 3000 years ago, the ancient Greeks expanded it into an art form, our natural form of expression is not writing and I believe that the pen is just a tool for anyone, time and effort.

 

So you are implying anything needs a talent to be done properly? Ever been in Japan?

 

Writing has been around before the Greeks, and story telling has been around
far beyond that. So talent is a key component. A craft requires a bit more than
being able to fabricate from the imagination. You have to create a tangible
thing, otherwise it is not much more than a talent. Otherwise epubbing would
be considered a craft, when it does not produce any tangible thing.

 

Pictographic writing comes with an oral tradition, first script language came along with the phoenicians, ( yamna ) and there wasnt stories on them, it was a grocery list. Story telling has an intention and purpose of passing morals and ethics down the generations, that was what the ancient greeks made into an art form.

All stories have the same seven themes, if it takes talent to write them over and over again, then i believe i misplaced what talent is about.

A subjective story without any morals, only fits the writers paradigm, its like sitting alone on an island and make a claim to be the best on something that really only exists on that island.

Shakespeare wrote great gospel stories to the aristocratic classes in a time when the church was outlawed in the United Kingdom, was he talented? Or was he provocative?
He understood the so called, " Language of Love " and how it is formed, his talent was that he knew what his audience wanted, populism.

Storytelling is about, knowing your audience, preaching humanity and displaying hypocrisy. Its a journey about self discovery, and making the right moral choices.

If its talent to be honest, well.. Then maybe our outlook on what writing is, might be wrong.

 

Wow, Rickard, that was actually a solid response.

 

Thank you!

 

Awesome! Ask any elderly Japanese hard work vs talent

 

In other words: "Both" is almost always better than "Either/Or"