I've got a novel finished, but by the time I finished it, the opening was completely out of whack with where the plot ended. I get so distracted by the cool stories I could write, that I don't dig into it an make both ends match. I want to try to publish it, but I've got this weird phobia about sending a good piece of work to languish with some small publisher who will only print a few hundred that won't get placed anywhere anyone can buy them.

Yeah, I've got more than "I want to be published" dreams, I've got "I want people to buy this" dreams.

I use the money I get from writing (mostly book reviews, a few articles) as Fun Money when I have other sources of income. Like, the kill fee will take me to the outlet store for my favorite designer, see if I can buy some nice Mediums rather than Larges now that I've lost 15 pounds. I am slightly too nervous as a writer to make it my primary source of income, and I tell myself that associating a pleasurable activity with another pleasurable activity (writing and leisure spending) is enough to get me to do more of the former -- though I find it mostly leads to the desire to do more of the latter.

Michele, a friend of mine (named, as it happens, Fredlet, and she's also from Texas, and she's been Fredlet from Texas for the nine or so years I've known her, and how weird is that? and she designed my website) sold a piece (review, I think) to a magazine and got $800. She now introduces the sofa she bought with the money. "Hey, this is my Writing Money Sofa!"

Heh, Deborah -- had I gotten the job I was up for in September, the money I made from this essay would've bought me a sofa as well.

Michele:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING in /users/web/mtepper/web/portfolio/software.html on line 1

I am banging my skull against the desk. I just edited about thirty pages of stuff, split screen, reading on one screen, editing into an email on the other. The machine just flickered and reset. Edits gone.

(thump thump thump)

Argh! Nothing in AutoSave? Check the trash/recycle bin.

Fixed the link above, which is to an essay about why software stinks, as it happens.

Fixed the link above, which is to an essay about why software stinks, as it happens.

SNERK!

Am going to wait for Nic to get home and let him see if it's still in there. I'm a technodweeb and will only break something.

I've written stuff for publication, sold very few, made a few dollars. I admit, I did kind of go into fandom thinking "How hard could it be?" and found out the answer is "Harder than it looks, stupid," at least if you want a good fic, not just posting for the hell of it. You people make it look easy. I have only written one of those that I liked.

erika, I'm personally finding fanfic to be much trickier than original writing. Having to fit the parameters of someone else's reality? Tricky. Very tricky.

I'm personally finding fanfic to be much trickier than original writing. Having to fit the parameters of someone else's reality? Tricky. Very tricky.

Ohhhh, yes. Keeping characters in character? V. hard. What's fun, however, is finding those areas of canon or character that invite expansion and exploration of the pre-existing fictional universe.