Gaiman

In the past couple of days, I’ve stumbled across of veritable cornucopia of Neil Gaiman goodness. For those of you who don’t know the name, Gaiman is a fantasy writer most famous for his Sandman series of comic books. He dabbles in lots of things, however, including novels (American Gods won the Hugo award a couple of years ago), short stories (it’s a safe bet that any high-profile fantasy compilation will include his name, somewhere), television, and movies. He writes for both children and adults. Oh, and he’s a living god, and I worship the ground he walks on.

My recent journey down Gaiman lane started with an excellent Q&A on slashdot, which led me to his (very active) blog, which led me to his FAQ, which led me to this little gem. which answers the standard question on how to get published if you’re an aspiring unknown:

How do you do it? You do it. You write. You finish what you write. You look for publishers who publish “that kind of thing”, whatever it is. You send them what you’ve done (a letter asking if they’d like to see a whole manuscript or a few chapters and an outline will always be welcome. And stamped self-addressed envelopes help keep the wheels turning.) Sooner or later, if you don’t give up and you have some measurable amount of ability or talent or luck, you get published. But for people who don’t know where to begin, let me offer a few suggestions: Meet editors. If you’re into SF, Horror or Fantasy, go to the kinds of SF, Horror or Fantasy conventions that editors go to (mainly the big ones - look for words like WORLD or NATIONAL in the title). Same goes for Romance or Crime. Join associations - SFWA or HWA or the Romance Writers of America or The Society of Authors. Most organisations like that have an associate membership for people who wouldn’t qualify for a full membership. Even if you haven’t met any editors, send your stuff out. The “slush pile” of unsolicited manuscripts is not always a bad thing - publishers take enormous pleasure in finding authors from the slush pile (Iain Banks and Storm Constantine are both writers who simply sent out manuscripts to publishers), although it occurs rarely enough that it has to be a special thing when it happens. If you write short stories, don’t worry about agents, just find places that might print the stories and get them out there. If you write novels, I think it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other. I’d written and published 3 books before I decided it was time to get an agent. Writers groups can be good and they can be bad. Depends on the people in them, and what they’re in them for. On the whole, anything that gets you writing and keeps you writing is a good thing. Anything that stops you writing is a bad thing. If you find your writers group stopping you from writing, then drop it. The other thing I’d suggest is Use The Web. Use it for anything you can - writers groups, feedback, networking, finding out how things work, getting published. It exists: take advantage of it. Believe in yourself. Keep writing.

Simple advice, but not simplistic. It seems to me that many of the writing books I’ve read/perused/skimmed all start way too far into the process, with technique and style and theme, and don’t address the most basic prerequisites. Turn on computer. Sit down. Write. Do stuff that makes it more likely that you’ll write. Don’t do stuff that makes it less likely.

Simple as this advice may seem, I have a terrible time following it. So I think that stressing the basics makes a lot of sense; because the best and most useful lessons about writing happen for me while I’m doing it. Writing groups, classes, abstract treatises on the craft all have their place, but only as adjuncts to the act itself. Writing is a road you take, not one you make, so the only way to get anything done is to put your head down and just go.