On Writers

[Haunted]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/over-transom

[GNTLGNT]

.....what do you mean I can't write as well as that turkey King??????????????????....

[mjs9153]

yeah I have a relative,working on a book series..on reading a suspect move he was making,I tried to suggest he read SK's On Writing,so he understands the inner workings, including the fact that book publishing is a business..think I only managed to upset or offend him,like many he is so close to his material that he probably thinks it is just going to be automatically adored by the people in the biz..ended up feeling sad about it.. so just said well good luck and send me a signed copy..

[Walter Oobleck]

I felt even sorrier when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal reporting that Random House had last accepted an unsolicited, un-agented manuscript from the slush pile in 1991.

I wonder how many of them watch American Idol? What gets me are the Acknowledgements in a new writer's work, that page that lists people worth thanking, those somehow involved with him/her getting in the door, getting past the security guard by the elevators, and being given the blue & yellow pass by the man behind the curtain. Where does someone go to meet these people? I don't think I'll run into any of them over at the counter at Lindell's Chocolate Shop.

[mjs9153]

[Sepia and Dust]

An awful lot of crap goes over the transom, sure, and I'd hate to be the guy who has to read it all, but I'm glad that the people who are submitting this stuff are writing. Visit the NaNoWriMo boards sometime, and you'll see everything listed in that article--and loads of it--but at least the people who have a dream are pursuing it.