{"id":4226,"date":"2011-11-22T18:56:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/?p=4226"},"modified":"2011-11-22T18:56:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T23:56:14","slug":"advice-for-aspiring-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/22\/advice-for-aspiring-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice for Aspiring Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I came across this today via Twitter, and I thought it was so good, that I needed to keep it on my blog, so that I would always have a copy.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the advice:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>First \u2014 keep reading. Writers are readers. Writers are also people who can\u2019t not write.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Second, follow Heinlein\u2019s rules for getting published:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>1. Write it.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong> 2. Finish it.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong> 3. Send it out.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong> 4. Keep sending it out until someone sends you a check.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>There are variations on that, but that\u2019s basically what works.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Ciao,<\/strong><\/em><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong> Annie<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s from <a href=\"http:\/\/pernhome.com\/aim\/?p=156\" target=\"_blank\">novelist Anne McCaffery<\/a> who died today at 85. I wasn&#8217;t aware of here, but when I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/galleycat\/anne-mccaffrey-has-died_b42826\" target=\"_blank\">the blog post about her death<\/a> and it noted this piece of advice, it made such an impression on me that I posted it on all my Social networks, but also felt the need to keep it on my blog.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;re blog on you&#8217;re own domain, I think is important, because things like Twitter, Facebook, are great for &#8220;Real-Time&#8221; but they are ephemeral, and you tend to forget what you posted after a few days, much less can you find things that you need.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things that resonates with me on her list is &#8220;Finish it.&#8221; I&#8217;ve noticed that with songs: Even if you don&#8217;t necessarily like your lyrics, it&#8217;s always so much better to finish the song, rather than leave it lingering, waiting for the &#8220;perfect&#8221; lyrics to &#8220;someday&#8221; come. Someday never will come, but if you finish the song as best you can, then it takes on a life of it&#8217;s own and has the opportunity to get better.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Done is Better than Perfect.&#8221; is a sign that they have around Facebook&#8217;s Headquarters. Very\u00a0\u00e0 propos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across this today via Twitter, and I thought it was so good, that I needed to keep it on my blog, so that I would always have a copy. Here&#8217;s the advice: First \u2014 keep reading. Writers are &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/22\/advice-for-aspiring-writers\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,77,89],"tags":[438,124,371,281],"class_list":["post-4226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-minute-tips","category-literature","category-philosophy","tag-literature","tag-tips","tag-writers","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}