throw another bear in the canoe

I liked doing Nano, though...

Not sure I am up to doing it this year though

Actually, I just tend to find that kind of passive-aggressive format really irritating, not funny.

I swear, the only one of these tips my ex-wife didn't use was the one not listed: the need to find any excuse to explain why her butt wasn't in the writing chair. Instead, she blamed "depression" on her inability to write (which was true, because the depression her ass left in the couch in front of the TV was starting to capture light itself) and took out her frustrations on me. There's a reason why she got the nickname "The Nancy Spungen of fandom", you know.

*reads*

Ow.

Ow! Ow! Ow!!

I haven't been booted that hard upside the head for quite a while.

*staggers away, sore but appreciative*

I like this, with the exception of the advice about short stories. If you intend to earn a living exclusively from your art, you can't spend much time writing short stories, it's true.

But how many fiction writers, even 'professionals', earn the largest part of their income from their writing? The sad truth is that except for a few at the very top, and the few who are extremely prolific, not many. If you're going to support yourself with a teaching position, say, or a technical writing job, why not write what you love? If you love short stories, write short stories.

There's another thing about short stories that I heard at Clarion: because they're a less forgiving form than the novel, they may better hone the writing talents. IIRC, it may have been Kelly Link who mentioned that sometimes a new writer will plunge directly into novel writing, sell a novel or two, but be unable to sell more because of poor sales, because the roominess of the novel form has let them get away with poor writing habits. You may be a better novelist if you train yourself to write short stories first.

because they're a less forgiving form than the novel, they may better hone the writing talents

Personally, I think comparing short stories and novels is like comparing apples and hedgehogs. I write both, as you know, and it's my considered optinion that writing short stories doesn't help me write better novels, and writing novels doesn't help me write better short stories.

It's like riding a bicycle vs. riding a motorcycle. They look superficially similar, but that's all it is....

Heh. Excellent anti-advice.

(I'm doing nano - as a way to an outline, not writing nearly enough, and not reading nearly enough either. Must kill internets.)

Since I'm a short-story writer and a screenwriter exclusively (okay, so I wrote a couple of novellas once, shoot me), I'm grateful for this advice.

I mean, really, is it my fault I got ADD? And besides, I'm honest with myself, I know I'm no David Foster Wallace (And I'm damn happy about it, too).

Not to mention writing a novel in an already bloated market world filled with lousy novels, is just way too much work. I'll leave that land to you geniuses.

*g*

Yeah, it is tailored advice, very specifically aimed at people who want to make a living writing, foolish mortals.