Comments on: I am not an expert

By: Caryn

Caryn — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:27:56 +0000

I think it’s helpful to disregard what doesn’t work for us with our own particular writing techniques, but to sometimes keep a variety of techniques in mind for when our tried-and-true methods fail. And they will sometimes.

By: carrie

carrie — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:33:33 +0000

Yay!! I have zombies in mine! w00t!!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:05:26 +0000

Diana?

By: Justine

Justine — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:38:05 +0000

Patrick, who has been telling you such outrageous lies?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:36:40 +0000

Well, the rule is, zombie quokkas means there has to be unicorns…

At least that’s what I heard…which is why I was wondering which would be better, zombies or quokkas.

By: Justine

Justine — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:34:36 +0000

Zombie quokkas!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:30:51 +0000

If a story could only have zombies or quokkas, which should it be?

By: Hillary!

Hillary! — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:05:26 +0000

I have a VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION ABOUT BOOK WRITING!!!!!!!!! My Friend Weslie is writing a book and I’ve been helping her, but she won’t exactly tell me what the plot is, but i feel that since I am helping her with it anyway, she SHOULD tell me. What’s your take on it? PLEASE ANSWER PROMPTLY!!!!!

By: Steve Buchheit

Steve Buchheit — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:30:21 +0000

Zombies! ::smacks forehead::

I forgot the zombies. thanks, Justine.

By: hereandnow

hereandnow — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:50:24 +0000

The publishing industry is arcane and weird.

YES. A thousand times yes. I am shocked if a day goes by without a new vista of the industry opening up to me. The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know! Simultaneously one of the best and worst things about publishing.

I agree that writing is one of the least one-size-fits-all activities around, but your advice is always sensible. Particularly about zombies.

By: Jonathan Shaw

Jonathan Shaw — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:13:22 +0000

It’s not widely known that a certain novel, before the publisher’s editor got at it, began, ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in search of a husband is likely to find a zombie.’

By: Mary Elizabeth S.

Mary Elizabeth S. — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:56:21 +0000

And this is precisely why the internet can be such a help with the whole how-to-write thing. Zillions of ways to write, zillions of writers, zillions of said writers willing to share how they do what they do—you are bound to find stuff that works for you, just as you are basically assured of finding stuff that doesn’t.

I especially want to echo the bit about staying open to stuff to try later. That one I learned from experience.

And, of course, ZOMBIES. Must-haves. Tis the only rule of writing that applies under all circumstances.

~Mary