Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: Writing


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An expensive hobby for rich chumps

Joe Lansdale, a writer I enjoy very much and one of the men that are working harder and with most success to keep high the banner of popular fiction (popular in the sense that people like it, not in the sense that it is cheap), posted the following on the first of September…

wvCpHwOA_400x400Write from the heart.
Avoid self-publishing until there is no other choice, is my suggestion. And if you think I’m telling you that you have to do as I suggest, I’m not. But like it or not, mainstream publishers generally sells more books. I’ve done a bit of it all, mainstream, small press, and even a bit of self-publishing of established books. I would love to see the rise of more small publishers that pay and do quality work, like SUBTERRANEAN for one example. But the thing is, anyone can self-publish, and there’s no vetting.
If you must, do it, but it’s always nice to have someone else validate its worth. Start with paying markets. I truly believe a large number of people who self-publish have never tried the traditional route and don’t want to deal with possible rejection. Rejection makes you stronger, or it did me. I became more determined. The mainstream publishers don’t necessarily know more than others, but they pay, and they pay because they believe the work is valid. Can it be valid and self-published? You bet. But I’ve gotten a lot more exposure to my work, which is certainly not typically mainstream, with mainstream publishers than with anyone else.

Today, an Italian translation of this text has been doing the rounds of Italian writing groups and Italian writers’ walls on Facebook.
See, you suckers? Joe Lansdale sez you shan’t self-publish! Continue reading →


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In half an hour

I have no idea what I will write, or why, but anyway, I’ll start a session of online writing in half an hour.

HERE

OK; I cancelled the link.

Here’s a quick overview of what happened.
I decided to tackle an open call for a short story themed “Temporally Deactivated”.
I started at 9.10 pm or thereabouts, and I stopped at 11.35, more or less.

I decided to do it like “a rookie’s first day on the beat”, and sort of winged it.
I knew the general direction I wanted it to go, but I found out my POV character was a woman only on the last paragraph.
It’s part of the fun of this free writing thing.
I had a few bad spells and I went down at least one dead end, but I was able to put 3000 words in the bag, with a proper beginning, middle and end.
Now I will let the first draft rest for a while, and then go through a second draft.
Then I’ll mail it to the editor, and see if they bite.

Thank you to the readers that were there to see what I was doing.
I hope my writing was not too ugly.
Remember, it’s all right to write a rubbish first draft if then you are able to edit it beautifully. That will be the real challenge.


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Writing: at night, every day, in public

The bit about using Google Docs and sharing the link for people to watch is turning into something interesting.
So interesting, in fact, that I plan to do this at least three nights a week, starting this week.
Tomorrow.

No, OK, I know, I know… I’ll start tomorrow…

pic01

But I will. Continue reading →


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Killing procrastination

One thing we learned, or a suspicion we confirmed, during our experiment last night, is that writing in public (or editing) forces us to be focused, and work fast.
It kills procrastination.

What I mean is, I have a story to write.
I fire up Scrivener. Then I go fetch a bottle of water.
I read what I wrote in the last session. The trick is always stop when you’re hot, mid-sentence, so it will be easier to pick up speed when you start again.
I make some adjustments.
I drink a gulp of water.
I get an email notification.
I check the mail.
Write some more.
Browse my mp3 collection for a suitable soundtrack.
Delete what I wrote previously and re-write.
What about some tea? And maybe a biscuit?
…
And time gets wasted.

But not when your writing file is public, and you have people looking at the page over your shoulder. You don’t want to look like a lazy slob, right?
The sort that wastes time and writes and deletes the same sentence five times over one hour.
You want to show off.
You want to be the Man with the Red-Hot Typewriter, like John D. MacDonald.
Fast and focused, like Harlan Ellison.

This morning Hell said to me (I paraphrase)

Man, 4000 words and a full edit in five hours! Were we to keep that sort of rhythm, I could edit a novel in fifteen hours, and you could write one in thirty.

And that’s true.
Who knows, maybe this is the reason why some people write in pubs and other crowded places.

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Now the question is, could I keep it going for thirty hours without crashing and burning midway through?
There’s only one way to know, of course.

But before I set myself up for thirty solid hours of writing on a public file, I think I’ll do a few other experiments.
Like…
This morning my friend Angelo posted me two open calls for two anthologies that are looking for 2000-4000-words stories.
My genres, professional rates, close deadline.
But I know I can do a short in that range in one evening.
So tonight I’ll give it a try.
I’ll post the link at the bottom of this post after dinner, and I’ll spend the evening writing the first of my submissions.
I’ll just make sure I lock out unrequited contributors.

HERE IS THE LINK, COME AND TAKE A LOOK

[started at 9.15, ended at 11.15 – 2000+ good words and a complete first draft]


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How did it go?

Do how did it go?, you ask.
And I say, my experiment of online writing, followed by an in-depth editing session by my friend Hell was quite instructive.

As I said in my previous post, to give myself some constraints, I picked up the Smith-Waite tarot I received a few weeks back as a gift, I shuffled it1 and picked three random cards: The King of Cups, Temperance and Death.
Nice start, what?

Then… Continue reading →


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Writing in public, ready to start

And here I am.
In about one hour I’ll fire Google Docs open and I’ll start writing a story.
I’ll share the link on my socials so that people will be able to follow what I do.
I’ll be doing it in Italian, because after I’m finished I’ll hand the document over to my friend Hell, and he will do an editing, live, for everybody to see.
And that’s the fun part, and the interesting part, because nobody ever did it before – go in cold, write the story, have the first rough draft edited, in front of everybody.
It will be fun.
And I have no idea what I will write about. Continue reading →


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My Muse (5-minute writing improvisation)

So here we go again.
The Muse.
That aethereal spirit that comes to you and whispers in your ear what to write, as you bleed on the paper, fighting your demons, possibly in an all-nite bar, with jazz music in the background.
You need a muse to be a writer, they tell you.
No muse, you’re just a hack. Continue reading →