English 318 has begun!

Yesterday was the first day of English 318 with Brandon Sanderson! I’m really excited for it! I can tell already that this is going to be a very interesting class–especially because it’s taught by someone who actually writes good fantasy, not just someone who can criticize it. Brandon is a real cool guy and I feel that there’s a lot that I can learn from him writing and publishing wise. Even just the first day has given me a lot to think about…

Brandon started out by breaking down, very quickly, how professional fiction writers make a living. Basically, they do it through writing novels, not short stories (though short stories are good for recognition and breaking in), and they have to write and sell about two novels a year. When you’re starting, it’s best to have about a dozen novels that you can submit, so you can constantly have stuff on different publishers’ desks. Most published writers write 2,000 words a day at minimum.

So, that means that tenacity and consistency are very important. We got into a discussion comparing talent with tenacity, and he said that one isn’t necessarily more important than the other, but that if you are tenacious, your talents are going to improve. Definitely, the big thing is writing.

He very quickly broke down how something goes from the slushpile to publication, how that some ridiculous number like 50% of submissions get thrown out just because people didn’t follow the submission guidelines, from there it goes from queries to the publisher/agent asking for the full manuscript, and from there about 1 in 25 get published, but that once you get to that point, it’s not a question of whether or not the story is good, but matching the right agent to the write editor.
Besides all that, he gave us a bit of a pep talk saying that we can do it, that at least a few of us will end up going pro (at which Andy from Quark started nodding and everyone laughed), that it’s hard but possible. And that the class is more about the practical aspects of the craft, as well as the business end. That’s good, because it’s exactly what I need to figure out how I’m going to fit creative writing into my life after college.

I really don’t know if I’m going to try to go pro with writing. Definitely not at this stage. But I am going to try and get a novel published in the not so distant future, which means I’ll eventually be writing a lot more than my current novel project, The Lost Colony. That means that a goal adjustment is probably in order–especially as far as long term goals are concerned.

I think that a good starting goal would be to write about a novel every year. It’s been about half a year since I really started The Lost Colony, and writing more or less 500 to 1,500 words per day for five months, I’ve already reached 70,000 words, the size of a small novel. So sheer volume shouldn’t be an issue, if I write every day.

I’m doing about 1,000 words a night right now, even with my addiction to Alpha Centauri (and don’t worry, I’m going to get rid of the game today! I’ll give the flash drive with the game data to my friend Steve and ask him to hold onto it until the school year is over), so 1,000 words per day is definitely doable. If I can do that consistently without being swamped with homework, I’ll raise it to 1,500 or even 2,000. But for now, 1,000 per day seems reasonable.

The read-a-novel-a-week goal is really key, I think. It’ll help me understand the genre and internalize good writing, and since I don’t really spend much time watching TV or playing computer games (at least, once I get rid of Alpha Centauri I won’t), this becomes a very doable goal. I’m a little bit worried about the study abroad, since I probably won’t be lugging fifteen or twenty novels across the Atlantic, and even if I do I’ll be focusing on other things. Perhaps I can make an adjustment and read short stories online instead. Or Arab literature. We’ll see. More on that as it comes up.

So, here’s the plan for the next few months before I leave on the study abroad in Jordan. I think I’ve got about 70,000 words left in this novel The Lost Colony, and although they say that your first novel sucks so you should get it over with so you can move on to the next one, I plan on submitting it so I’ll definitely at least try to make it good. If I write between 1,000 to 1,500 words a day, I can finish the rough draft by the end of February / beginning of March. That gives me about a month to work on the first revision before going on the study abroad. The more time I have for the revision, the better–and I think that that part will go faster than writing the first draft anyways, just because I know that I enjoy revising more than pounding out new material.

In the meantime, I’ll be starting a new story for English 318, more on the order of a 25,000 word novella. Not hard, especially since we’re only required to do 2,000 words a week. I was afraid that I’d have to write a whole novel for the class, but a novella shouldn’t be bad. I’m going to take this one seriously, too, and hopefully end up with something I can submit (or at least do a major revision and then submit).

I think I’ll be able to do all of this on top of my regular school load. I’m only taking 15 credits (only?), and even though they’re all going to require a lot of work, I’ve got the time. I’ve also got an opening in my schedule for a morning job (all of my classes are in the afternoon or evening), so if after a week or so I don’t feel too swamped, I’ll probably pick up a job again. I’ll need the money to get ready for Jordan.

So, if you’re still reading this post up to this point, wow, I congradulate you (thanks mom!). It’s probably pretty boring, but these are the things that I’m thinking about at this point, and how I see things working out in the not-so-distant future. In case any of you are interested.

And, even if I don’t end up becoming a professional or semi-professional writer, just the act of going through these goals and being consistent about the ones I do set is going to be very valuable. So it’s not like this is going to be all for nothing if I don’t get published in the next ten or twenty years. And if I do get published, it will all pay off in a MAJOR way!

So, no matter what happens, I know that I’m not wasting my time doing all of this!