Write a textbook to support your fiction habit

The organizer of our writing club shared a stat with me once that 80% of what publishers put out there is non-fiction. This was backed up by a comment by one of the authors at LTUE who said she is the only fantasy/sci-fi author that Covenant has published.

I've been going to college for three years now and textbooks are horrifically expensive. But why? Because they know they have a fixed audience. They know how many books they are going to sell (roughly). AND college kids EXPECT to pay a lot for textbooks! Sure we grumble about it! But when I have a textbook that costs less than $50 I'm shocked. We don't want to let those college kids down. So my philosophy is this: If you like writing fiction, that's where your love is, write a textbook to make you money (and you can say you are published) while you write fiction to feed your soul.

Or get a day job. :)

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Clubbing

I attended writing club last night for the first time in just about forever. This school thing is killing me. But it was a good meeting. We went over our notes from LTUE for those who couldn't go and shared ideas and thoughts. Our fearless leader asked for suggestions on how we could better organize. Good discussion followed. I did leave more inspired to write. Now I just need to find time.

Current projects include: The Oak Wand, Sword and the Stone, Poetry book, and Burning (the Phoenix Chronicles). Who has time for life??

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Back on the typewriter again

Did you hear the "Back in the saddle again" music playing through your head? Yeah, me too. A quiet Sunday morning seems like a good time to write. Until all of your kids crowd around you sitting on the couch and all read over your shoulder. Then you get too distracted and have to stop.

But still, I got over a page written and some more plot worked out in my head and stuff. That's always good. And I haven't written in several weeks so I liked getting something down. Now off to bathe kids and get ready for church.

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*

Code and Prose

I had this odd thought last night as I was working on code for class and I remembered something I heard somewhere, I'm not sure if it was at work or school. But the comment was made that code can be written so it's functional but not as efficient or as clean as it could be. After learning more about writing, I realized that prose is the same way. I guess poetry is too.

I can write prose that gets the point across and tells a story but two paragraphs in my reader has fallen asleep or gotten confused. Unless my reader is my daughter who loves everything I write. But good prose, like good code, cleans up the boring parts and has better description to let you know what is going on as the plot/program moves along.

So a software developer is a lot like a novelist, just with a different syntax.

This is the Novel Mage saying *POOF*