Pterry's policy of writing
Gacked from the APF interview of yore. And here because I think it's a)interesting and b)full of god advice (which, knowing me, I'll probably ignore).
- How do you write?
"How do I write? God, this is embarrassing. Look, I just do it. It's pictures in the head and memories and thinking about things and it all comes together. It's something I do."
"1) Watch everything, read everything, and especially read outside your subject -- you should be importing, not recycling.
2) Use a wordprocessor... why do I feel this is not unnecessary advice here? It makes everything mutable. It's better for the ego. And you can play games when all else fails.
3) Write. For more than three years I wrote more than 400 words every day. I mean, every calendar day. If for some reason, in those pre-portable days, I couldn't get to a keyboard, I wrote hard the previous night and caught up the following day, and if it ever seemed that it was easy to do the average I upped the average. I also did a hell of a lot of editing afterwards but the point was there was something there to edit. I had a more than full-time job as well. I hate to say this, but most of the successful (well, okay... rich) authors I know seem to put 'application' around the top of the list of How-to-do-its. Tough but true."
"Application? Well, it means... application. The single-minded ability to knuckle down and get on with it, as they say in Unseen University library."
- How do you write?
"How do I write? God, this is embarrassing. Look, I just do it. It's pictures in the head and memories and thinking about things and it all comes together. It's something I do."
"1) Watch everything, read everything, and especially read outside your subject -- you should be importing, not recycling.
2) Use a wordprocessor... why do I feel this is not unnecessary advice here? It makes everything mutable. It's better for the ego. And you can play games when all else fails.
3) Write. For more than three years I wrote more than 400 words every day. I mean, every calendar day. If for some reason, in those pre-portable days, I couldn't get to a keyboard, I wrote hard the previous night and caught up the following day, and if it ever seemed that it was easy to do the average I upped the average. I also did a hell of a lot of editing afterwards but the point was there was something there to edit. I had a more than full-time job as well. I hate to say this, but most of the successful (well, okay... rich) authors I know seem to put 'application' around the top of the list of How-to-do-its. Tough but true."
"Application? Well, it means... application. The single-minded ability to knuckle down and get on with it, as they say in Unseen University library."