From the ever opinionated E.C. Stacy
Hopefully, I’ve gotten your attention before it’s too late…because once you’ve been infected, there’s no turning back. You will ultimately waste a lot of time using misconceptions in your work that you wanted to get published within two years and now it will take you eight to ten. In fact, no kidding here, the average time it takes an author to get published is ten years with the big players.
So sharpen your learning curve.
When I so happen to post over the next few weeks, I’ll be sticking with this series. I’ll be crumpling up the misguided rules that can bog you down in the proverbial writer's swamp and pitching them in the trash. If you’ve been writing for a while—we’ll say for grins, over five years—chances are you’ve already found your way out of the mud, but hopefully you’ll read for a laugh, and or to add a comment to help new talent.
I should point out that all of these rules that I’m going to bust DO have underlying respectable truths. But they’ve been distorted for a variety of reasons. Look at it like the gossip game you probably played in grade school. A teacher whispers something to the first student. Then 1st student whispers the message to the next person in line. This goes on to the last kid in the group and he or she belts out the transmission…which is always completely wrong. Did some kids mishear or misunderstand it? Did the trickster change it all together for a laugh? Who knows?
Next we’ll start with DUN DUN dun….Show Don’t Tell. I groan even as I write it.
9 comments:
It is so important to learn the rules even if you self publish your work as an e-book. This will validate you as a good or even excellent writer against all the would be writers who don't bother to learn and see only $$ signs.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.
Sounds fun! I'll be looking forward to it.
EJ
Gee whiz, are there rules? If so, they're meant to be broken unless, of course, one wants writing that looks like a doctoral dissertation.
Nonetheless, it will be fun to see what posts evolve out of this one.
Love the cartoon.
Looking forward to the series of posts.
I'm looking forward to the series!
We're definitely going to have fun with it! And all authors MUST speak up.
E.C.
Great cartoon.
I can't wait for you to show us the series of articles, instead of telling us about them. 8^)
If we all followed all the so-called rules all the time, we'd all write in exactly the same style!
Had enough rules in grammar school to last a lifetime. I thought growing up meant freedom from rules? Borrowing from Outback's slogan, there should be No Rules, Just Write.
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