Fear of Writing

Well, in ~36 hours, I’ll be embarking on the 3 day novel writing contest. On the one hand, what was I thinking? On the other, of course, if nothing else, it’ll make a nice link to add to the rather sparse Writing page I’ve set up.  Got to get it through the contest before I can post it online, though.

Here’s a basic conflict I face- what should I put up on my website. I’m not a professional, like, say, Kelly Link or Cory Doctorow, two writers who’ve literally given away their works online. But I am a writer, and I’d like to get paid someday.

Here’s the catch, as I understand it. When I put a story up on the web, it is thereafter tainted in the eyes of publishers, and no longer considered for magazine distribution. But, especially considering the eccentric nature of my work (ask me about Dr. Strawberry, if you don’t already know) I could wait, literally, my entire life to get published. So do I sit on my stories, hoping they’ll get legit treatment, or do I just slap ‘em up on the web for all to see? I’m splitting the difference now, but that’s hardly a satisfying solution.

We should have such problems, eh?

Posted August 30th, 2007 in Writing.

2 comments:

  1. Alexis:

    You could aim for the blook approach. Lots of stories on the blog, generate a wild, loving audience, then compile them into a book one day.

    October 6th, 2007 at 1:20 am
  2. admin:

    Actually, this is a great idea. It would work much better if I wrote sci-fi, or similar, though. The guy that wrote Monster Island, David Wellington, really did it- he wrote a serial novel, built a following, and got published. It seems like he had a built-in audience.

    And I did meet one of the brains behind Before the Mortgage which has also gone book. I’m not sure if BTM isn’t also a genre work, too. I’ve got neither the diary drive nor the burning desire to write the first great zombie novel.

    An additional complication is that although I can chip away at stories for years, I’ve got a real problem with consistency. I haven’t updated this thing in about a month and a half, right?

    Which is all to say that yes, you’re right. I need to get cracking.

    October 6th, 2007 at 4:37 am