Saturday, September 15, 2007

A Blog Entry To Explain The Next Blog Entry

A couple of years ago, I vowed to stop giving advice. I've had about an 80% success rate and the world has been a better place.

The problem is I still love to pontificate, and now there are fewer opportunities to do so. The other problem is it's always best to pontificate about something you really know about, and I don't know much about anything. Which is what happens when you're six years old and decide on a career and don't spend a lot of time veering away from the original plan.

But one thing I do know about is how to create a story, and it occurred to me that some of my slowly gained readership might be interested in doing so themselves. So I've decided to pontificate, in my own adorable fashion. I figure it'll take four blog entries, one on coming up with an idea, then one on characters, one on plotting, and one on how to get the writing actually done.

Here are the ground rules: Feel free to ask questions in the comments section, or to answer other people's questions if there are any. But I'm not going to discuss the business end, how to get an agent, how to submit a manuscript, how to negotiate, all the things people really want to know about. Sorry (well, I'm not really). And I'm not volunteering to read anyone's manuscript, because I stink at that sort of thing.

But figuring out a story is my favorite part of writing, and pontificating is such a glorious thing to do. So if you're interested, read the next (about to be written) entry. And if you're not, trust me, I've pontificated to an empty room on more than one occasion.

1 comment:

Marci said...

Giving people the information about the business side, would be too much like giving advice. Pontificating aside, encouraging them to come up with ideas is creative encouragement.

Pontificating is encouraged when one has something meaningful to pontificate about. The listener, or slowly gained readership, can accept or reject as they choose. Advice has a more aggressive quailty to it. I know, because I give it all the time!