Ask the Author: J.A. Clement
Answered Questions (2)
J.A. Clement
Get writing, now! don't wait!
Honestly, this is the most exciting time to be a writer. You have options that have not been available before, in the form of self-publishing and e-publishing and all the variants that are developing along those fronts. But you still have to be excellent, and the way to that is practice, pure and simple. Write. Edit. Pass your stuff to someone impartial to edit. Consider their crits (this is always a bit hard at first but you get used to it quite quickly and it is so, so useful). Then polish, and improve.
Which way you want to get your stories to the market is down to you. I dearly love my indie publishing because I am a massive geek and I find the continual evolution of the technology exhilarating, but on the other hand, I am short of time so I hand on the editing, cover art and formatting to people who are specialised in it (mostly. I dabble a bit myself for the short stories too).
But honestly, if you want to write, start now and keep going. When you're tired, take a specific amount of time off and start again when you've recovered. You're going to love it, I reckon....
Honestly, this is the most exciting time to be a writer. You have options that have not been available before, in the form of self-publishing and e-publishing and all the variants that are developing along those fronts. But you still have to be excellent, and the way to that is practice, pure and simple. Write. Edit. Pass your stuff to someone impartial to edit. Consider their crits (this is always a bit hard at first but you get used to it quite quickly and it is so, so useful). Then polish, and improve.
Which way you want to get your stories to the market is down to you. I dearly love my indie publishing because I am a massive geek and I find the continual evolution of the technology exhilarating, but on the other hand, I am short of time so I hand on the editing, cover art and formatting to people who are specialised in it (mostly. I dabble a bit myself for the short stories too).
But honestly, if you want to write, start now and keep going. When you're tired, take a specific amount of time off and start again when you've recovered. You're going to love it, I reckon....
J.A. Clement
I do occasionally stall on a piece of writing. Usually this means that the plot wants to go somewhere that I don't want it to go, and I am singing a happy tune and trying to make it do what it's told. This works with books about as well as it does with teenagers. At that point I have found the best thing to do is go away and do something else unrelated but creative, like cook something intricate or do a load of gardening or just read someone else's books! Then when I come back, having put a bit of distance between me and the problem, it's much easier to see what the answer is. Generally this is that the plot was right all along, which is highly irritating but a sign that the characters have taken on a bit of life, so y'know, silver linings and all that...
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