trudging through fog

In his blog today, Neil says:

The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story
catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes
sense and you know what it’s about and why you’re doing it and what
these people are saying and doing, and you get to feel like both the
creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and
surprising ("but of course that’s why he was doing that, and that means that…") and it’s magic and wonderful and strange.

I’ve felt that with the narrative non-fiction that I write, especially while I was working on Just A Geek, and it’s the reason I keep trying to (privately) write fiction, even though I get terrified and give up after a few hundred words each time I do it.

A good friend of mine recently quit his very lucrative, very safe, very reliable job to pursue his dream to be an actor. I was equally horrified and impressed when he said he had to ditch what he called his safety net so he would be hungry and devoted and dedicated to the acting journey. I’ve done that journey, and it’s one of the most difficult journeys available to the hopeful artist. My friend is outrageously talented, though, so of course he instantly booked a job in a big budget movie with an impressive cast. He may not have the safety net beneath him, but it’s looking like he’s not going to need it.

Me? I can’t afford to cut away the safety net, because if I fall to my death, I take down the three other people who rely on me to support them.

I want to be a writer with a capital W, though, and it drives me crazy that I can’t just make something up and take a reader on a journey through someone else’s life the way I do with my own. I mean, I love to read fiction, I love to improvise scenes on stage, and I had more fun writing the Star Trek manga than I thought possible . . . but I get massive stage fright when I try to completely make stuff up. The last time I tried it and foolishly published the works in progress on my blog, it was a spectacular disaster. Oh well, at least it was spectacular.

I like writing, and I like blogging. Despite what many of us who keep blogs have argued over the years, I’m starting to believe that these are two different things, requiring different disciplines and abilities. While they use the same basic skill sets, the difference between them (for me, at least) is the difference between playing third base and right field. If I were to cut away the safety net, I’d have to stop blogging, I think, and just focus full time on being a student of creative writing. Yeah, I’m about fifteen years too late for that one.

However, when I wanted to be a comedy writer and improviser, I took classes to help me take my desire and whatever raw talent I had, and shape it into something useful, so I’m doing the same thing with writing. I read a lot, and not just as an audience member, but as a student. I have a couple of books on writing technique, specifically pertaining to short stories. I’ve been working through them, and the suggestions they give for technique — structure, finding stuff that I’m passionate about and using it as inspiration for a story — all seems so obvious to me when I read it, I’m surprised and not surprised all at once that I haven’t already thought of it.

I’m getting good advice and guidance from these books and blogs I’m reading by and about capital "W" Writers, and though it’s intimidating and overwhelming just about every step of the way (The Voice of Self Doubt keeps pushing his face up against the window of my soul and making scary faces at me, knowing that I’m unable to fully draw the drapes) Neil’s affirmation has been printed out and pasted on the wall right above my computer, so I can look at it and stay on target:

You
don’t live there always when you write. Mostly it’s a long hard walk.
Sometimes it’s a trudge through fog and you’re scared you’ve lost your
way and can’t remember why you set out in the first place.

But sometimes you fly, and that pays for everything.

If Neil Fucking Gaiman can admit to feeling scared, if Neil Fucking Gaiman can admit that, even for him, it’s a long hard walk, then I can also admit that it feels like that to me every single time I sit down and try to write fiction, and remember something John Scalzi said to me during dinner last week: "Don’t be afraid to suck."

It seems so simple, doesn’t it? It’s the advice I give to actors who are going in on auditions: "Don’t be afraid to suck, and don’t be afraid to do your own thing. The important thing is to entertain yourself and forget about the result."

Why can’t I take my own advice when it comes to writing? Probably because I have less experience as a writer than I do as an actor, and because I care about writing a hell of a lot more than I care about acting.

Maybe if I spend enough time trudging through the fog, I’ll run into Neil, and he can help me find my way out.

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96 thoughts on “trudging through fog”

  1. Okay, this doesn’t really have anything at all to do with this post, but…I’ve noticed Robert Duncan McNeill’s name as a director and producer of the new series “Chuck.” Could he get you a spot on that show? I think you’d be a natural for a show about geeks, science, and action-adventure. Or could you, y’know, write an episode?

  3. Hi Wil,
    Another long-time reader, first-time commenter here.
    In addition to THE ARTIST’S WAY, I highly recommend BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott and THE CREATIVE HABIT by Twyla Tharp. *Especially* BIRD BY BIRD.
    Plus, don’t buy the romantic myth that in order to write, you have to give up everything to devote yourself full-time to it. Most writers I know have day jobs. Writing fiction will teach you how to write fiction.

  4. I’ll jump on the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) bandwagon.
    Hop over to nanowrimo.org and sign up. It’s free. It’s fun, in a torturous sort of way. I’ve been playing the writing game over there since 2002.
    I didn’t get to 50k every year, but I had a blast trying. I’ve made great friends through my local NaNo group (the Austin Penguins), friendships that last all year round with people who know the trials and tribulations of just trying to write anything!
    No plot? No problem!
    The point is to simply force yourself to write fiction every day, no matter how iggy it turns out. There’s always time to edit later.

  5. I had to come back and comment again, sorry!
    Okay, no, I’m not, lol.
    You know, I’ve been writing for a tad over 2/3rds of my life. I started out at 13, wrote two extremely horrible original Star Trek stories, which were fortunately *whew* lost in a move shortly after completion. I would have to lay down and die if anyone were to read those, now, they were that bad.
    I know I’m way mo’ bettah a writer now, though still not as a good of a writer as I could be.
    It’s been almost seven years since I very first posted a piece of fiction online, and the courage it took to do that was unbelievable…but I did it, and I’m glad I did.
    I’ve never been *for reals* published, but then again, I’ve never made the effort to submit anything that might give me the chance to.
    I self-publish…I’ve got a couple of ebooks, I’m working on a couple of more, I post my short fiction on my blog(s) and a site I’ve recently joined (RedBubble, in case anyone’s interested).
    I have to write. I don’t have a choice. It’s write or go insane, because my head’s crowded up with all of these characters who are constantly shouting at me to tell their stories. Drives my husband nuts, lol.
    Me as a writer…good? Bad? I’m the one with the pen, everyone else can decide. =)
    That little piece of advice you wrote there at the end, totally true, for anything creative. solid platinum!

  6. I think it’s time to change wilwheaton.net into a plain old redirect.
    May 31, 2006: “WWdN will be re-launched very, very soon.”
    Time to bury the corpse.

  8. I almost cried reading this post because it’s *exactly* how I feel about writing fiction. I also want to be a writer with a capital W but fear stops me every time.
    So I blog about my every day life because I think if I didn’t have SOME kind of outlet for writing I may just go insane.
    There’s a lot of brilliant advice in these comments. Thank you for being brave enough to post your fears and letting us have access to all this advice. It helps.

  10. I took a creative writing class a few years ago. One point really stuck out and stayed with me:
    Accept the fact that your first draft WILL be shit. Then you can fix it. But don’t try to make the first draft an end product.

  11. Hey Wil,
    Signed up to make my first post to tell you that I just got my first two rejection letters (both for short fiction pieces). It stinks, but y’know… I never got rejection letters before and I’m pretty sure most writers get those before they get the acceptance letters. It’s part of the journey. I’m not thrilled with the rejections (stupid rejections!), but I’m kind of pleased with myself.
    Your writing is great and you have a good mind and a fine imagination. I want to read your stories. Get to it!

  12. Just stopped by to second…third…tenth the calls for NaNoWriMo. The point of NaNo is not a completed novel in a month. What you end up with is at best a rough first draft, and at worst utter crap.
    What NaNo gives you is the ability to completely destroy that inner critic, and to blast on through and finish. I know you have a lot of inner critics. Hell, you’ve even named most of them. Inner critics slow you down with constant criticism and abuse until you get nothing done.
    NaNo introduces you to your inner critics, and then helps you hold their heads underwater until they stop bothering you.
    I did NaNo last year, and finished. My inner critics shut the hell up for a good six months, and I had unparalleled creativity in that time. I’m doing it again this year, and I hope it will last even longer.

  15. You might find some encouragement and help at this site: http://fmwriters.com/community/
    It is a writing site started originally by Holly Lisle. There is all sorts of things writing there including classes, discussions and such. The site is geared toward fiction writers, but more towards those who would like to be published. Holly also has a personal site:
    http://hollylisle.com/writingdiary2/
    which she talks about writing and which has some books about writing for sale in book and download form which you might find helpful.
    Another blog site you might find helpful is http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/
    This site belongs to Shiela Viehl, who has published in many genres and many names. She posts many things to help writers and has a Friday questions day that people can ask questions about writing.
    Neither of these ladies particularly cares about being politically correct in the writing world as far as I can tell; they’re just trying to help future writers out. Lisle calls it paying forward.
    I have no association with either. I have read all these sites as an interested writer who just writes for fun, and hopes someday to do more than that, and have thought they had helpful information. Hope you take a look at them. All are free, unless of course, you purchase the books.

  16. Wil, you totally need National Novel Writing Month. (nanowrimo.org)
    The thing is, I absolutely know how you feel. I can’t count the number of stories that sounded great in my head but died at the keyboard. I lived with the absolute certainty that fiction was just not something I could do.
    But I don’t feel that way now, because a friend at work convinced me to try doing National Novel Writing Month. It’s a ludicrous and farcical suggestion on its face: produce a 50,000 word manuscript in the 30 days of November.
    And yet, somehow it works. I tried it, electing to write a novelization of a D&D campaign I DM’ed some years back. That turns out to have been a fateful choice (in the good way) because it meant that the source material for the story was already in my head. I essentially knew the arc of the story cold before even starting. I didn’t have to _write_ the story so much as just _write it down_.
    I say that only because I know you’ve got tons of RPG in your background, so I know the source material is already in your head too. The challenge is not in thinking of things to put in the story. The challenge will be in streamlining what happened in the game into something that is actually fun to read. (A friend who was one of my players in the D&D campaign had a wonderful bit of advice when I told him what I was doing: “just so long as I can’t hear the dice rolling”).
    Anyway, I learned so much from participating in NaNoWriMo, and gained an enormous amount of confidence in my ability to write fiction (it’s amazing what actual evidence of being able to do something will do for your confidence).
    Last year I did NaNoWriMo for the second time. I had just as much fun (a hell of a lot) as the first time, wrote a totally different, original story, and found it to be a far less intimidating experience.
    NaNoWriMo starts in 15 days. That’s plenty of time (it really is) to prepare. Think about the story arc of one of your D&D campaigns, decide which characters you really need and which ones you can hybridize together, decide which incidents and challenges from the game fit together into a coherent larger plot. That’s the real work of writing a novel–merely figuring out the story–not the writing.
    You’re a good writer. You have the skill to make intelligent word choices when constructing your sentences. The stories are already in your head. Just let them out!
    You’re probably sitting there saying to yourself “yeah, right, like I’m going to have time to do that in November!”. The truth it it doesn’t take that much time. If you can find a consistent (or average) 2 hours a day, you can do it. From what your blog suggests about your work schedule, I’m betting that’s doable for you.
    I’ll end with a quote from you: “If I were to cut away the safety net, I’d have to stop blogging, I think, and just focus full time on being a student of creative writing. Yeah, I’m about fifteen years too late for that one.”
    I call bullshit on that, my friend. That’s just an excuse not to try, and is in fact flatly contradictory to my experience. Both years I’ve done NaNoWriMo, I posted my daily output to my blog. It was incredibly motivational to know that I had actual readers following along with the story, commenting on each installation, and waiting impatiently for the next. Sometimes that’s what kept me going: the knowledge that if I didn’t post an update on a given day, I’d hear about it.
    Anyway. Head over to NaNoWriMo.org, and sign up! Then add me (I’m “cloister” on that site) as a writing buddy. I promise you, fiction is little more than a 0.5HD monster with limited psionic abilities that allow it to appear to be a 200HD ass-kicker. Fiction lays down at your feet and begs for mercy when you show it you’re serious.

  17. Something tells me that the fog Neil Gaiman lurks in is that scary-ass fog. The kind of fog where someone named captain stubing lurks behind a wall, in active camo, waiting to sneak up and assassinate your face with a gravity hammer.
    🙂

  18. I am a huge Terry Brooks fanatic. The word Shannara evokes images of the amazing elements that he uses to create a world filled with magic but strangely reminiscent of our own. When he published Armaggedon’s Children I went to the book signing. Luckily for me the store was selling his book a day early which meant I was able to read a bit before his presentation. When I finally got up to see him and have him sign my book, he noticed the bookmark in it and looked up at me. What I saw in his eyes while he asked me his question was hope, fear, and excitement all wrapped into expectancy. My answer meant something to him in a way I didn’t imagine it ever could. He asked me whether I liked it so far or not. In that incredible moment I realized that all my hopes and dreams about one of my favorite authors were all realized, he cares how we like his stuff. Genuinely.
    My advice is simple. Try. Just that. When you hit the wall and fear comes, just shudder a bit and write on. I, and I imagine many others, believe that you have what it takes to come up with something original and well written, but I don’t need you to hurry. I need you to write, and maybe your blog is the medium to scratch that itch in all of us, or maybe you have other works in you. As long as I get to read I’m happy, and so far I’ve enjoyed the glimpses into your life that you allow. I’m not disappointed that you haven’t written the fiction you’d like to write, I’m excited that one day you will. I’ll be in line, I’m the one with the bookmark in the pages already.

  19. Wil,
    I met you at Golden Apple. I was the Buddhist monk to be, but sir you ARE the Writer now. When I read this I’m hearing other things behind your words. You are a writer but you say you want to be a Writer. What’s the difference in your mind? Content? Purpose? Quality? You have all of those. As I told you when I met you, your words have touched lives, what more could you want? I understand the need for the safety net. I’m at that crossroads myself. I have 5 to support. I am making the choice to stay in a business/technical career with decent (but soul-killing) pay or to pursue the path where my heart wishes to go. I think you have to do the same. You have the talent. You have a support structure. And I’m sure if you’ve been even slightly accurate in portraying your family in these years you’ve been blogging then they will support you as you make the leap with or without the safety net. Take the leap, you might find out you can fly.
    I’m not selling religion, but you quoted the Tao to me. So, get in touch with what’s inside of you. Sit with yourself for a few minutes some morning and have a conversation. Find out what’s really scaring you. If you need help I can show you some resources to make it easier, but without sounding too hokey, your True Self knows what to do.
    Don’t go through the motions in life. If you want to be a Writer (big W) then so be it! You have it in you to do so, but no advice, book, or platitude will get you there. Only what’s inside of you will, Wil. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

  20. I really enjoyed the “Poker Noir” story you were writing a while back.
    The others have posted some really great excersize ideas. I plan to put a couple of those ideas to work (getting my “Art” going again)
    For those doing NaNoWriMo…the daily “Betty” comic has been doing that. Hilarious!
    A couple of Housewives tackle it together (starting with the prep: Shopping for the right outfit)
    http://comics.com/comics/betty/archive/betty-20070924.html
    This is the start…it is still going.
    If they can do it, *you* can Wil! ;o)
    We’ll be here for you.

  22. A writerly day

    Today is the day, hooray! The day I’m actually sitting down with a completed story and a bushel of crits and attempting to edit it into something with a semblance of publishableness. From Wil Wheaton’s blog yesterday, in reference to

  23. Wil, you’re already doing more to follow your dream than most people. The rest of us just sit in our cubes and wonder what might be. It’s cool to see huge geeks “make it.” Not that it matters, but you remind me a lot of Joe Straczynski.

  24. I probably won’t be saying anything original here…but I think that the fact that you are aware of your fears is the first step to overcoming them.
    Go for it! Take the leap! *waves pompoms*
    And, dude. if you’re not a capital W Writer, who is?!

  25. The great American writer Sinclair Lewis was once asked to address a symposium of aspiring writers. He stood up and asked, “So, you all consider yourselves writers?” The audience asserted that was true. “Well,” he responded, “why the Hell aren’t you at home writing?” And then he left.
    That’s all you need, Wil. No writing classes, no degrees. Your mentors are between the covers of the books you devour. Read and write. That’s the formula. That’s the only formula.

  26. Oscar Wilde was a wise man and a fantastic writer. He sacrificed many things for his authorship, including his life.
    He did however also say:
    “The aim of life is self-realization. To realize one’s nature perfectly, that is what each one of us is here for.”
    Your dream of becoming a Writer with a capital “W” is not unreachable. You have great potential which will take you far. One step at a time, the Future Writer Wil Wheaton will appear.

  27. You know, this has just reminded me that if it weren’t for you, I never would have read the Sandman comics or any of the other wonderful Neil Gaiman works. So seriously, thank you for that. And of course, thank you for simply having this blog. I do love your writing.

  29. Okay, I created an account just to respond to this. I’ve been lurking for a while–suffice to say, I’m a big fan, and many of your stories have been moving/inspiring.
    You already have the essential ingredients of good fiction writing in your arsenal–a strong voice, observational power and attention to detail, and the ability to spin a yarn. I’ve seen that over and over in your anecdotes here, and it’s why I keep reading.
    Credentials, professional advice, meta-writing, (that unfortunate genre, the how-to book), etc. aren’t nearly as useful as primary source material. Read everything. Watch people. Create backstories for them. There’s no need to start with something completely fictional–start with your own life and world, and explore variations on that theme.
    Most of all, just keep writing. There will be plenty of stuff–maybe most of it–that you want to burn or hide in the dungeon. That’s okay, keep going. Start small. Set aside some time every day to write, and make a pact with yourself to stick with it. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount of time–ten minute freewrites can do wonders for generating ideas, or fragments of them.
    About the NaNo suggestion–might it not be a bit much? NaNo is a HUGE time commitment, and it forces you to stay (broadly) within one subject/story. At this point, trying a wide variety of things might be more profitable, and perhaps less intimidating.
    Then again, what do I know, I’m still stuck in high school.

  30. I also got a TypeKey log on so I could respond. And, well, I’ll just join the NaNoWriMo chorus. I’ve done it for the last two years and plan to this year (as long as my bad back allows me to sit at the computer and type).
    The cool thing with NaNo is that you just write, write, write. If you get stuck, you just write your way through it and edit it AFTER November 30th. Yeah, it’s a concentrated commitment but it means you are *focused* for those 30 days. Last year, about 1/2 way through NaNo, I had this awesome character suddenly turn up but she didn’t fit anywhere into the novel I was writing. As tempting as it was to abandon my novel and start this new one, I stuck with the novel I was working and kept a Moleskine handy to jot down ideas about the new character/book (which I’ll be writing this year).
    Anyway, I hope you’ll consider NaNoWriMo and if you do decide to sign up, you can make me a writing buddy (I’m Vicster on NaNoWriMo). Even if you really can’t do NaNoWriMo next month, pick up a copy of Chris Baty’s “No Plot? No Problem!” and pick a month that works for you And.Just.Write!

  31. Wow
    Will, above my post are lots and lots of comments and advice more then usual I would say and in more depth than usual, I could repeat most of it, but I doubt I could add to it. One thing it does indicate to me is taht we all think you could be a great fiction writer given the right confidence level and we all want to read that unwritten book.

  32. I suppose this far down there’s not much I could add to the wonderful advice that you’ve already been given but I will say this: It’s hard to listen to your own advice because it comes you. I have never once been able to listen to my own advice. I think it’s just part of human nature. Well then, take it from Neil or the rest of us, “Don’t be afraid to suck.”
    You’ve posted your fiction on the site before and it’s been good. Don’t be afraid to try it out on WWdN:IX readers. You’ll get comments that say, “That was sooooo great!”, comments that say, “That sucked.”, and comments that give you constructive criticism on how to make it better. I’ve always thought writing was a process that you need to share with people to make it better. And if you don’t feel comfortable sharing it with us at least I hope you actively share your work with your writing colleagues.
    I have no idea what NaNoWriMo is but it seems popular. 🙂 And I personally have to agree with reading Bird by Bird. That was assigned reading in one of my playwriting courses and it helped the class very much.
    You are extremely creative and have a solid voice and a great eye for everyday observation. I’d say that if you don’t over-try to be “A Fiction Writer” you will be as good at writing fiction as you are at narrative non-fiction.
    Cheers!

  33. Heck, I can’t feel “hungry and devoted and dedicated” unless I *have* a safety net. I couldn’t really explore my art until I knew that I could somehow take care of my family. It probably comes from too many years of living hand-to-mouth — that kind of existence doesn’t make you dedicated, it makes you paralyzed with fear.

  34. Hi Wil,
    I think I’m the fifth first time poster to respond to this. Seems like you struck a nerve with all us wanna-be writers here 😉
    So to contribute my $0.02:
    I read a book recently that convinced me to get back to writing again. I had been procrastinating for far too long. Allowing writers block to completely stop me instead of just hinder me. Thankfully I got the shot in the arm I needed and have now finished a project I’d been working on for the last 5 years.
    Doing this I discovered what Niel Gaiman was taking about when he said: “….you get to feel like both the creator and the audience. Everything is suddenly both obvious and surprising (“but of course that’s why he was doing that, and that means that…”) and it’s magic and wonderful and strange.”
    My real problem wasn’t a lack of ideas, or writers block, it was in fact too many ideas. I was over thinking the problem. Trying to force the story into being instead of letting the story tell itself. It’s this that I think Niel Gaiman was describing. The stories come to life by themselves, not because of the writer.
    So step into the fog. Trudge through it with your story for as long as you need to. Don’t hope (or look) for Niel Gaiman to guide you out. When the story is ready to be told, it will lead you where you need to go.
    The only other piece of advice I can give you is to have fun. Love what you do and you will always end up doing what you love.
    By the way… That inspirational book I read was called “Just a Geek”.

  36. I give you a lot of credit for feeling that way about writing fiction. I am just the opposite. I can think of ideas for a short fiction on the spot, and start typing away. I am terrified of writing non-fiction. I can be myself in my blog, but if I tried to sit down and write an entire book(s), like you did, I wouldn’t know where to start, or what people would want to know about my life as a writer.
    I know what you are talking about when it comes to freezing up every time you sit down to write some fiction. To be honest, I’m not a published writer (yet – and newspaper articles do NOT count – I’m getting to a point here). I’m not exactly E.E. Cummings, or Robert Frost, or anyone like that. I am reminded of that every time I sit down with my notebook and pen and try to push an idea from my brain onto the paper, and make it sound brilliant.
    If there’s anything I learned (the hard way), it’s to not let something overpower you so easily. I write every day. Even if it sucks, I still do it. I can always go back to what I wrote and improve upon it.
    There’s some advice somewhere in there…good luck!

  37. Interesting: I copied out part of the very same quote from Neil Gaiman’s blog and added it to the “quotes mural” on my wall. For me, the quote applies to teaching just as well as writing. You spend most of your time lost in a similar fog, struggling with ridiculous student/parent/administration issues, no idea whether you’re wasting your time or why you ever thought this was a good idea.
    But there are always those incredible moments when you finally make a connection, see a student light up, realize that you’ve made an impact that acutally matters to that one student. Those moments are so rare, but they make all the other crap worth suffering through.
    I’d say most of the best experiences in life are like that. Instant gratification is all very well, but those great moments have a deeper value if you feel you’ve earned them by sticking with it through all the crap that came before.
    So stick with it, Wil. The “fog” part is what makes the “flying” part worthwhile.

  38. hungry for your art

    Welcome! If you’re a new visitor to my blog, please consider subscribing to it. Thanks.What makes you hungry to make art? What conditions do you need to to be in to find enough fuel to fire your creativity? In his blog today, Wil Wheaton describes a fr…

  39. Wil, I wish I could offer you advice, but I come bearing only commiseration…
    The whole blogging thing is new to me, but writing is an old friend. Thanks to some coaxing from my husband, I was convinced that a blog would be a great reason to get back on the writing horse, and bring my “narrative non-fiction” to an audience. (Thanks for providing me such a legitimate term to refer to what I write…hitherto known as “my internal drivel.”)
    I find myself in a very similar situation where writing is concerned. My “day job” (literally) is licensed home-based child care provider. My days are hectic – as is to be expected when working with children – leaving me little time or energy to pursue my creative urges. I really do feel like a writer trapped in the body of a daycare provider.
    The big questions I ponder are, How do I turn the dream of being a writer into reality? Does it have to be my career? If I’m writing nearly every day, aren’t I a writer? What’s the difference between amateur writer and professional…except $, I mean? What kind of job requires the kind of writing I do…who would be my market/audience?
    Although I have recently had a fantastic idea for a children’s book, there’s been a concept for a novel rattling around in my mind for five years, and a great title lodged in my head since I was 13 (unfortunately the concept and the title are completely unrelated…) I don’t believe fiction is my forte.
    I am well acquainted with the whole safety net concept! Two years ago my dear husband quit his (ostensibly) good job in corporate America in order to retain his health and sanity. He pursued his dream of starting his own business and my business has provided the only safety net we’ve had. His business is picking up and is successful, but we are still in no position for me to quit my job, especially with such a vague concept of what I want to do/be.
    So I forge ahead, hoping the answer will become evident to me if I just keep putting myself out there. This creative person is not particularly good at self-promotion…I just want to do what I love and am good at. Is that really so much to ask?
    From one writer-at-heart to another, I wish you luck in your writing endeavors!

  40. A couple of random ideas:
    – a NYT best-selling sf writer once told me that doing a Trek/D&D/CSI/whatever media tie in novel is good way to get your feet wet – you can concentrate on plot and use the pre-made characters. (Sort of like buying a commercial D&D adventure, but in reverse.) He strongly suggested using a pen name and not doing it too many times or you’ll end up pigeonholed and the sf&f community will sneer at your original work. He said that some fairly well known names had done it for the experience. It can lead to doing novelizations of films, which pays well for about 2-3 weeks of intense work.
    – Heck, take a good RPG adventure you participated in, drop in a blender, add a touch of your past acting gigs, top off with a media tie in (or not), add a spoon full of bad beat stories, a dash of the jokes you told at the BARGE roast this year, hit blend. Pour onto the page.
    – writers’s groups seem to work well for many good sf&f authors.
    – you’ll probably need an agent

  42. Actually watching Toy Soldiers at the moment.
    You just got shot :'(
    You realize how many people you make cry?
    First tiem I ever watched it, I cried like a baby.

  43. Don’t give up on writing fiction, it will happen. In the meantime, I got some great tips from Stephen King’s “On Writing” there is also a quickie list of ideas from him called “Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully-in Ten Minutes”

  44. I, too, am an aspiring author. I’ve done a grand total of ONE piece of published writing (an article for a regional magazine). While putting out little tidbits of non-fiction writing, just to see if anyone will read me, I’m trying like heck to produce fiction that actually reflects the movie that rolls in my head every time I come up with a story. And every damned time, it falls flat. I signed up to do NaNoWriMo, mainly just to see if I can come up with 50,000 words of anything. The worst that can happen is that they say “no”, right? Just keep going. A friend of mine told me that people tend to give up when they are closest to success. Stay with it, and may the muses bless you with guidance and success.

  45. Keep writing the fiction. Just keep doing it. You’ve already found your voice, which is half the work right there. Now just apply all that cool ubergeek knowledge you have and tell a story.
    The natural impulse for us scifi geeks is to try and write our own Dune or Foundation and as cool as those are, they’ve already been done. What hasn’t been done, however, is the intimate sort of science fiction that is personal, small scale and intimate.
    That you could do.
    I’ve been working over this fear myself (can ya tell?) and what I’ve found is that you’ve just got to jump in and do it. I wrote a novella and posted it online and if no one read sit at least I know I’ve done it.

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