Query

James Wynn · 05 Mar 2010, 21:00 · from 2010-March.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 15:00:42 -0600
Subject: (urth) Query
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Message-ID: <e8e9702e1003051300g6bdd7deer7ef78b49cfe44e86 at mail.gmail.com>

Well, I posted some before recently but....

1. Plan to write no more than 10 minutes a day, at least at the
beginning. If you do that, you will always talk about "the novel I am
writing" rather than "the novel I once tried to write."

2. When I started writing, I would get up in the moring before
everyone else and write for an hour, sometimes two. When my wife would
bring me breakfast, I'd stop. I'd eat, get ready for the day and go to
work. I'd come home and play with the kids or whatever, and then I'd
go to bed early because I was going to do the whole thing again.

3. Start with the ending of your story and then slowly work backwards
to how you got there. That way your plot will tend to lead to a
satisfactory end. For example, a Cinderella is a poor girl who marries
a prince. How do they meet? Well, maybe he has this shoe and he is
going to marry the girl it fits? Well, why should it fit her? etc.

4. A good villain is someone who is *almost* a hero but falls just
short of it. (examples given were Bill Reis and Typhon -- I think Wat
is also a good example of what he's talking about)

5. If someone asks for advice about being a writer, I always tell them
"don't do it", because if they can be deterred by that, then they
shouldn't be a writer.

6. You should never read bad reviews if you can't help letting them
affect you. I read them, but I don't let them have an effect on me or
my emotions. But if you can't do that, you should just not read them.

J.

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 2:31 PM, Andrew Bryant <ajustinbryant at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would be interested in reading other such rules - please tick them off!
>
> Andrew
>
> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 5:22 PM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Well he was at Balticon last summer IIRC.
>>
>> Incidentally, I just found Cory Doctorow's post on "Gene Wolfe's Rules
>> for Writers"
>> http://www.boingboing.net/2004/03/03/gene-wolfes-rules-fo.html
>>
>> Cory praise them for their quality and sensibility. These aren't bad,
>> but I could tick off better one's --more practical to a refined
>> level-- that I've heard at various Wolfe panels. His suggestions
>> invariably make those of other writers sound obvious and fuzzy,
>>
>> J.
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 4:12 PM, John Watkins <john.watkins04 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Doubtful, but is Gene ever coming out to the East Coast for one of these
>> > things?
>> >
>> > On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 5:10 PM, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Anyone else going to be at Comicpalooza?
>> >>
>> >> J.
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >
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>
>
> --
>
>
> ----------------
> Andrew Bryant
> ajustinbryant at gmail.com
> ----------------
>
> _______________________________________________
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