Writer's Report 2.0

This is an article from the December issue of Randy Ingermanson’s (creator of the Snowflake Method) Advanced Fiction Writing newsletter

[BTW: Check out the Advanced Fiction Writing Blog . It is updated frequently and filled with great information and answers to reader's questions.]

If you want to drive from Los Angeles to New York, you
need a roadmap. That isn’t necessarily an actual piece
of paper with roads drawn on it. It might be just a
series of steps to follow, like these:

• Get on I10 and drive east from LA
• Switch to I15 and drive to Salt Lake City
• Take I80 east to Chicago
• etc. (It gets complicated after that)

Now, each of those steps may take a short time or a
long time to execute. You’ll be on I10 for maybe an
hour. I15 will take you a full day. I80 might take a
couple of days. Along the way, there’ll be smaller
tasks you have to execute, such as stopping for gas,
food, motels, etc.

The important thing here is that the main steps are in
order. You’ll go nuts trying to get onto I80 straight
from I10, because they don’t connect. Try any trick you
want. You can even (groan) ask directions. It won’t
help. If you want to get from I10 to I80, you need to
take that pesky intermediate step of I15. You can’t
skip steps.

Of course, there are other ways to get there. You could
take I70 through Denver and Kansas City and Columbus
and on east. Or you could take the southern route on
I40. What won’t work so well is taking I5 up to
Seattle. That’s a little pointless, even if you drive
it really fast, because Seattle is further from New
York than LA is.

The roadmap to getting published isn’t quite like
driving across the country. It’s a lot fuzzier… (more…)

Writer’s Weekly answers a reader’s question in Ask The Expertabout using real people, places or events in their novel. There are things to watch out for to avoid pitfalls, but there may also be a hidden benefit.

In the Success Stories section is an article about how an admitted introvert makes her living as a writer.

Also check out WW’s Paying Markets for up-to-date listings on paying markets