Saturday 5 March 2011

Yo-yo

Today was the second week of the "Writing for Profit" course and I got there feeling buoyant after a good week. The class was smaller today, having lost our green living aficianado and the well groomed lady. Ms Brazilian was looking glamourous, the beautiful Indian lady was still beautiful and Mr Crumpet wasn't quite a grey haired as I remembered. We started with an exercise where we had to pair up and after being told that he couldn't stay with his (life) partner he chose me. The exercise involved interviewing each other about our hopes, goals, challenges and achievements and I made use of the opportunity to try finding out whether the biography I had imagined for him came anywhere near the mark. I was right and the joy I derive from winning guessing games with myself put a smile on my face. Not only that but Mr Crumpet complimented me on my insightful comments. Next up was an exercise in putting a new twist to a well known story. Not knowing anything about The Lord of the Rings or Twilight and next to nothing about Harry Potter left me feeling like not only the least read person in the western world but unable to contribute to the group. In a surprising twist, my co-writers seemed unable to settle on a plotline so impatient to get something, anything, on paper I eventually railroaded proceedings and the person with the least to contribute became the powerhouse. I got a very silly paragraph onto paper just in the nick of time! We spent some time talking about contracts and tax requirements, record keeping and submission guidelines. The teacher showed us the manuscript she had written for a children's reference book and as it became clear that the writing process was a minor part of the work involved in that book I started to imagine the tedious task of finding then collating and referencing all sorts of dry facts. I never had a romantic view of writing but it was becoming less attractive by the minute. The teacher chose that moment to tell us that royalties are usually ten per cent of recommended retail and as I tallied the financial insecurity, the isolation, the boredom factor and potential for ego shattering rejection I wondered why anybody would willingly take on such a life. It's not really a choice, though, is it?

18 comments:

  1. Stick with it kylie. Who knows where it will lead you.

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  2. thanks jo!
    that particular class has finished , now i just have to get some confidence about submitting work to possible publishers.
    i feel like an imposter just saying it!

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  3. Terrific piece Kylie. All of us who write have romantic visions of banging out the perfect novel, sitting back and watching the money flow.

    Don't let the technical work side track you. From my perspective - just WRITE and then WRITE some more. When you are finished with your story, whatever that may be - then start the dry stuff.

    Anyone can learn about royalties and taxes etc..., but not everyone can write. Everyone who has ever been published had to wade through a lot of "no's" before they got a "yes". Can't wait!!

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  4. thanks mike,
    i have a childrens story i might try first. i think it's brilliant so they'll probably pay me gazillions!

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  5. That's pretty absurd asking you to add a new twist to a story you've never read. Apart from the embarrassment, isn't the point of writing to imagine something brand-new? And I agree, if you consider the negatives of writing, I think you'd only take it up as a career if it was an inner compulsion you just had to exercise.

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  6. nick,
    the point of the exercise was really about writing a synopsis but in order to do that we had to have some idea of the story the synopsis was about and using a known story should have allowed us to spend more time on the synopsis. it was suggested we use a fairy tale but my group didnt want to. i hate group tasks!

    as it turned out i railroaded them into a bizarre version of red riding hood

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  7. I find the encouraging comments an of your blog readers kylie very pertinent and buoyant. I have learnt a yhing or two ie dry facts v writing talent.

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  8. will you do MY TAXES/////////?????????????????????????

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  9. Not sure. It seems like a small amount of money but if you put in the same hours as you do a normal job, it can be pretty lucrative. Or so I hear. Then the bids on freelancer and Ozmailer are so low . .like 10cents a page sometimes, I wonder if it's worth it. At least you're having fun learning about it. Don't feel like an imposter. Get an Australian Writer's Market, they have all the publishers contacts and more importantly HOW to present your work and it's only about $45 a year for a subscription.

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  10. movies i have seen this year<><><><>unknown<><><><><>tron<><><><>afterlife<><><><>prince of arabia>><>>>>alice in wonderland{again}<><><>duke in the OLD true grit>><<><>127 HOURS{WISH I HADN'T}<><<><>bigadoon{at my son's place in mayfield}<><<>

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  11. putzy,
    every woman has her price!

    baino,
    was looking at AWM today, i wonder if i'm ready for that?

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  12. What an enjoyable read about the class - sorry I haven't been here for a while, seems like I have a lot to catch up on. It strikes me that you could write a book about 'Writing for Profit' class and it would become a bestseller.
    As Jo says, keep at it - who knows, get it published and I might buy it!
    Love ya Spesh xx

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  13. thank you peej, my dear!
    i can publish a one page book and sell it to one person. it will break records, without doubt!

    and for all my talk, you are ACTUALLY published!!!!!!

    so so well done babe!!!!

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  14. One-page book darling, bring it on!

    and thanks for your encouragement :-)

    Love ya Spesh xx

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  15. Those books you don't know nothing about--I don't know nothing about them neither, so if you don't know nothing, and I don't know nothing, then how good could they be anyway?

    Guess Mr. Crumpet freshened up his dye job; either that or you cleaned the smudges off your glasses--or are they contacts?

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  16. mr crumpet never had a dye job, i looked carefully, natural as the day he was born,i had a faulty memory.
    i have great eyes, snow!

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  17. "i have great eyes, snow!"

    There you go, bragging about your great beauty again.

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