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I know the thesaurus abhors seeing me draw nigh

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“This is what Shakespeare would have wanted.”

“Shakespeare wouldn’t have wanted this.”

No! You’re both wrong! Shakespeare wanted one thing and one thing only. To sell tickets.

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i sit down to write and suddenly i am the most distracted human alive. the chair is uncomfortable. my coffee is too hot. my playlist isn't quite the vibe. i need to research what victorian houses smelled like in 1872 for exactly 45 minutes even though my story takes place in space. and yet the moment i'm trying to fall asleep? every single sentence i've ever needed just lines up perfectly in my brain like some kind of creative parade i'll never get back.

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me as a writer

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*struggles while writing* i suck and writing is hard

*remembers some ppl use ai* i am a creative force. i am uncorrupted by theft and indolence. i am on a journey to excellence. it is my duty to keep taking joy in creating.

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writing a book is basically just trying to find 80,000 different ways to say “they looked at each other”

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What are the downsides to selling world rights to your publisher versus keeping them and selling translations through a foreign rights agent?

If you don't know what the OP is talking about, go see the FAQ about translation rights. That post really does explain it all, but basically:

The upside of selling translation to your publisher (ie, giving them "world rights") is that sometimes they will give you more $$ for those rights. Additionally, each time they sell a territory, your "split" of that money (which is specified in your contract) will be added to your $$ earned, so you can hopefully earn out more quickly. IT IS theoretically possible that you could even earn out before the book comes out, ie, start earning royalties immediately. (Rare -- but it has happened!)

The downside of selling translation to your publisher is, you DO have to split the $ with them in some fashion (probably they will take 30% or so) -- and you don't see the money at all if you don't earn out.

The upside of keeping translation and selling it through your agent/their foreign rights person is, each territory that sells, you get the $$ in your pocket directly with just the agent's commish taken out, rather than "at some nebulous point in the future that may never come".

The downside of keeping translation is -- well, there's no DOWNSIDE per se, it's good to keep it if you can keep it -- but there's certainly no guarantee that any given book WILL sell in translation. So it might well be a moot point either way.

I'd say whether you fight to keep it or not depends on the book. If your agency feels strongly that it has huge foreign potential, they might really push to keep it -- and a foreign rights agent MAY have a smaller / more focused list -- whereas a publisher MAY have a huge list that you'd get lost on, so keeping it would be the right call in that case.

BUT, for a trickier category (like picture book text only, say), your agent might be like "ehhhh" -- and some publishers are extremely good at selling foreign for the trickier books, and they probably ALSO held the illustration rights, so it would be better for them to keep it in that case.

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When you have to cut a scene you love because it no longer fits the story

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what they don’t tell you about writing is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHH!!!

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I've had this little idea in my head for a while now, so I decided to sit down and plot it out.

Disclaimer: This isn't meant to be some sort of One-Worksheet-Fits-All situation. This is meant to be a visual representation of some type of story planning you could be doing in order to develop a plot!

Lay down groundwork! (Backstory integral to the beginning of your story.) Build hinges. (Events that hinge on other events and fall down like dominoes) Suspend structures. (Withhold just enough information to make the reader curious, and keep them guessing.)

And hey, is this helps... maybe sit down and write a story! :)

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Third Day of Gift-Giving

Three Words

... to use in your next story

Ghosts - safety - blanket

Candy - balloon - dress

Streetlamp - music - flattering

Tunnel - bike - hill

Chills - reunion - banner

Dry - sun - radio

Slow-dancing - skirts - barefoot

Wedding - piano - cake

Concert - kiss - solo

Grass - socks - dew

Bell - ring - firework

Home - window - lights

Park - bench - dogs

Window sill - sunlight - plants

Fancy - coat - photo

24 Days of Gift-Giving

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i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that's a poem already what's the point

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I just discovered foodtimeline.org, which is exactly what it sounds like: centuries worth of information about FOOD.  If you are writing something historical and you want a starting point for figuring out what people should be eating, this might be a good place?

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