Charles Bukowski

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.

Charles Bukowski







You know, I think he's right.

plus or minus

Whether you write an email, a manuscript, a query letter or a book proposal, never forget the positive or negative impact of your words.


This, I kind of agree with, but, surely before you write, you should have in mind what effect your words are going to have, shouldn't you?
Otherwise you're just writing with no plan.
Again.

By all means write just for the sake of it, for the fun of it, to try things out, to experiment, to test yourself, stretch yourself, just to see what it look like on the damn page. But. Keep that for yourself. Don't release that unpolished stuff into the world. Especially if it is a letter or an email.

Get a roadmap. Use it.

As a book author, it's your responsibility...

As a book author, it's your responsibility to cast a vision for your book about the length and the appearance before you pitch the idea to a publisher.

Why? I'm not sure I even know what this means - are you? I'd agree that forward planning in relation to the length of your book or novel is relevant, yes, but the appearance? I think most publishers are intelligent enough to have their own vision(s).

A lot of writers get obsessed with the 'concept' surrounding their work rather than with the work itself. The look of the text, the font, the font sizes, spacing, use of white space, the title, chapter titles, or the lack of etc etc etc. Just write the book. Leave the marketing to someone else. If the book is good, it shouldn't need pitching very far now should it?

Organise your writing to flow in an easy-to-digest manner

Organise your writing to flow in an easy-to-digest manner.


Right - what does this writing 'tip' actually mean?
Does any writer who knows what they are trying to achieve actually set out to make the prose difficult to read? Really? Do they? I know some academics try to make their essays/books hard to read to 'keep the riff raff out', no really, they do, but the honest to goodness fiction writer? I don't think so. Obviously class, time you were born, how you were schooled, where you were schooled, whether or not you're writing in your first language amongst many, many other things, come into this.

My tip? Cull the adverbs and keep it as honest as it needs to be. No unnecessary words!

Does everything have to be just right before you can write?

Well? Does it?

Do you have to have the coffee in place, the curtains at the correct angle, the heating on/off/at exactly nineteen degrees? Some of this applies to me, I'm really bothered by extraneous noise and light that is too bright for me. So, as I know this, I prepare in advance. I have earplugs in my pocket and blinds on my windows - simple. The main thing that bothers me is, when I go somewhere else to write, like the library or University computer labs. What irks me is the fact the computer is different. It ain't set up how I like it. It has different applications, icons etc.
To combat this, I've started using google's online storage/email/documents facilities. Which is great until they fail or malfunction as they did this week. But, it is a free service, whaddyagonndo? I Personally suggest using Netvibes as well as a kind of back up (or primary) service. Yes it is a little bit of a pain setting it all up twice and remembering to copy content over as and when you add stuff, but, just how important is it to you to have that same 'feel' at every computer you log on at? Most 'writers' are quite precious (or do I mean precocious) about this kind of thing, playing the angst-y artist card about why they can't create until they've had their cranberry porridge and peppermint tea. I'm a but like this too believe it or not. That's why I've started using both services as well as carrying around a portable office and internet suite from the nice people at Portableapps.com.

I love this, I've used a portable version of Opera for some time as it has the built in mail client so I could retrieve all my mail from whichever PC I was sat at, anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Sweet 'eh?

So now there are no excuses, you can write anywhere, on any computer.
Blimey, you could even try a pen and paper

All the best

Mark www.markchambers.org.uk