March 13, 2006

1. Neatness counts. That includes typos and grammar errors. No, it's not your editor's job to fix them. If you have too many, you will remain unpublished. Besides, you can often count on some editors to add typos and grammar errors to your work. Always a treat.

2. Clarity is important. Not style. Not being hip. Not voice. I don't care if you're writing fiction or nonfiction or advertising copy. Clarity is important.

3. Value effective writing. Related to #2. Style may be effective. Or it may confuse or muddy things. Effective writing is efficient writing. It gets to the point. It carries the thoughts, whether information or painting a picture, in an efficient, effective manner. It may or may not be poetic. It gets the job done in the best way you are capable of getting it done.

4. Publishing is a business. If you intend to write to be published and hence make money, then it is a business. Treat it like one. Keep records. Communicate in a professional, businesslike manner with editors, agents and professionals.

5. If you haven't heard this before, you're out of the loop. Persistence is important. In writing and in any area of the arts. Hell, in any endeavor, whether it be developing a new drug to cure cancer, negotiating peace in the Middle East (and you thought it was hard getting published!) or finding an agent to losing 25 pounds, persistence may be your most valuable asset. Yes, I'm a stubborn son of a bitch. And some of you are calling me bad names.

6. Money is important. Don't like that one? You're one hundred percent happy writing your stories and giving them away to whatever relative wants to read them? Fine. Go away. There's nothing here for you. I'm trading my words for cash, thank you very much, and with that cash I do things like pay the mortgage, groceries and take vacations. When you give your work away, publishers devalue the work in general and don't think it's important to pay writers a living wage. This is evil. It is insidious. It may even be theft. Think about it.

7. Get a grip. There's more to life than writing.

8. Adverbs are not your friends. "Go read PJ Parrish's blog," he said encouragingly. "Do you have a speech impediment?" he asked pithily. Use a good verb, not a bad adverb. Don't run quickly. Rush or race or sprint. Get it?

9. Submit. Get your mind out of the gutter, you sniveling weasel. You don't get published by leaving your work on your hard drive or in your desk. You have to submit it. Rejection is the coin of the realm, your ticket to ride, your initiation ritual, etc, etc. Can't live with it? Find a different area of endeavour. Publishing's not for wimps.

10. Quit. Go ahead. I dare you. I've been saying I was going to quit writing fiction since about 1988. Hasn't happened yet. I'm saying it now. If my agent can't sell the next novel I'm writing on spec... if things go to hell with Midnight Ink... if...

Believe me? My wife doesn't. So go ahead. Quit. If you can. If you can, well bully for you, you're well on your way to having a sane, sensible life with a 9 to 5 job, good retirement, and health insurance.

And if you can't? Well, you've either got an obsessive-compulsive disorder requiring medication...

Or you're a writer.

Best,
Mark Terry