Ask the Author: Terin Miller
Answered Questions (3)
Terin Miller
It may sound trite, because it is: write. Just write. But don't "expect" to be published. Write because you feel it is the best way to express what's going on in your head and heart. Not because you want to become rich and famous.
Ultimately, like with any art, how well you do as a writer depends on sales. Which depends somewhat on who publishes you and what sort of wheels they can grease to get your book or story out there in front of readers.
But that's how well you do as a writer. Not how well you do as an artist, or someone compelled to try new things and express some universal themes.
There is a reason a number of "successful" writers have been able to write, as Barry Holstun Lopez once told me in a postcard, "with impunity." Because they are either independently wealthy, or supported by someone who doesn't mind being their "patron."
In other words: don't quit your day job, if you're doing this all on your own.
Lastly: don't listen to anyone who says you're "too young" or "too old." A.E. Hotchner just published his latest book a few years ago. He's over 100. And F. Scott Fitzgerald first had "The Romantic Egoist," later a part of what he rewrote as "This Side of Paradise," rejected when he was 19. Scribner's published it when he was 24. Edgar Allen Poe published when he was even younger.
If you write well, meaning you can express an idea with words to the point where others "get it," you will likely be published. Or you can (now) always publish yourself.
I think it is important to remember that many of the famous writers of the 1920s-30s were published in small circulation by friends before their books ever made it to America.
And, just as ebooks have been decried as putting "slush" from the "slushpile" into the marketplace, the French publication of "paperback" books sparked a similar reaction from publishers in the U.S.
Think of your books, your writing, like a prizefighter. The better you do (in terms of sales), the more attention you attract, and the more money you are likely to win. Because the minute people see you can make money, they become eager to be your friend/agent/publisher.
Before you're published, as Barry said, is "the time to write with impunity." Because once you are, a whole bunch of other interests start vying for your attention.
Ultimately, like with any art, how well you do as a writer depends on sales. Which depends somewhat on who publishes you and what sort of wheels they can grease to get your book or story out there in front of readers.
But that's how well you do as a writer. Not how well you do as an artist, or someone compelled to try new things and express some universal themes.
There is a reason a number of "successful" writers have been able to write, as Barry Holstun Lopez once told me in a postcard, "with impunity." Because they are either independently wealthy, or supported by someone who doesn't mind being their "patron."
In other words: don't quit your day job, if you're doing this all on your own.
Lastly: don't listen to anyone who says you're "too young" or "too old." A.E. Hotchner just published his latest book a few years ago. He's over 100. And F. Scott Fitzgerald first had "The Romantic Egoist," later a part of what he rewrote as "This Side of Paradise," rejected when he was 19. Scribner's published it when he was 24. Edgar Allen Poe published when he was even younger.
If you write well, meaning you can express an idea with words to the point where others "get it," you will likely be published. Or you can (now) always publish yourself.
I think it is important to remember that many of the famous writers of the 1920s-30s were published in small circulation by friends before their books ever made it to America.
And, just as ebooks have been decried as putting "slush" from the "slushpile" into the marketplace, the French publication of "paperback" books sparked a similar reaction from publishers in the U.S.
Think of your books, your writing, like a prizefighter. The better you do (in terms of sales), the more attention you attract, and the more money you are likely to win. Because the minute people see you can make money, they become eager to be your friend/agent/publisher.
Before you're published, as Barry said, is "the time to write with impunity." Because once you are, a whole bunch of other interests start vying for your attention.
Terin Miller
The most honest answer I can give is: dreams.
I have written more than one book, starting with 'Sympathy for the Devil,' because the idea, or the story, or, almost like a movie, has come to me in a dream.
I am also fascinated by "coincidence." For example, in writing my current work-in-progress, I discovered a detail that continues to have significance not only for the story but for me: a play the main character (in real life) was supposed to see is a "time travel" story, based on a story never finished by Henry James. And Henry James was instrumental in formation of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Service, which ultimately was subsumed by the U.S. Army in WWI, and the main character (in real life) was a Norton-Harjes "Gentleman Driver" from Harvard.
I have written more than one book, starting with 'Sympathy for the Devil,' because the idea, or the story, or, almost like a movie, has come to me in a dream.
I am also fascinated by "coincidence." For example, in writing my current work-in-progress, I discovered a detail that continues to have significance not only for the story but for me: a play the main character (in real life) was supposed to see is a "time travel" story, based on a story never finished by Henry James. And Henry James was instrumental in formation of the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Service, which ultimately was subsumed by the U.S. Army in WWI, and the main character (in real life) was a Norton-Harjes "Gentleman Driver" from Harvard.
Terin Miller
My "work-in-progress" I began about a little over five years ago. It is a story that has been emerging, originally as a sort of parallel historic fiction/modern fiction, or 'time travel' type of theme, but has since evolved into essentially discovering a famous suicide was more likely a murder, by a famous poet, of a publisher/poet whose work was eclipsed by his murderer -- who then killed himself inexplicably roughly 3 years later.
The problems with solving a 90-year-old mystery, or setting "the record" straight, I discovered, requires a large amount of research and, then, some time to sort through all the facts to still write a novel. I may be close to there, though, and hope to have a completed manuscript ready to shop to agents by the end of this year.
The problems with solving a 90-year-old mystery, or setting "the record" straight, I discovered, requires a large amount of research and, then, some time to sort through all the facts to still write a novel. I may be close to there, though, and hope to have a completed manuscript ready to shop to agents by the end of this year.
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