Write Good or Die Read Online Free Page B

market, to fad, to trend, and you
might as well find another job.
    So, putting all three together, you come up
with a very clear statement that I repeat over and over and
over.
    Write what you love, what you are passionate
about, (or as King says, what scares you), then figure out how to
sell it when you finish.
    Let me repeat: SELL IT WHEN YOU FINISH!!!
    So along comes the agent myth about helping a
writer plan a career.
    Now understand, I have said over and over and
over again that I have no problem with a writer hiring an agent.
But for heaven’s sake, do it with solid business practice in mind
and a clear head. Clear out the myths. You might just very well end
up with an agent you can work with for a very long time.
    So back to this myth about agents. Writer
believes that some agent can help them plan their career and what
to write next. They take advice blindly from an agent who doesn’t
really know them or their work or what they love and hate, some
agent who they have not even bothered to check out (see previous
chapters and comments), a stranger who is more concerned with their
own business than what is best for an artist.
    Here is the problem. Some young writer gets
excited, does all the work, learns the craft, and writes a book he
is passionate about. And then starts following the myths.
    Myth: Rewriting is good, so agent tells young
writer how to “fix” the book, so young writer dumbs his passion in
his work down to what some stranger (agent) thinks might sell.
(Yes, rewriting is career advice because the agent always says
something along the lines of “I think this will sell better if you
do this and this.”)
    Myth: Agent takes the book out to a bunch of
editor friends and actually gets a small advance. Author is happy
about the sale and ignores the fact that it’s not his book much
anymore. It sold, that’s all that is important. Any thought of art
is long gone at this point. His name is on the cover and he has
made it. That’s where all the thinking is for the writer.
    Myth: Agent now thinks they know what the
young author needs to do, so tells them what to write next. Young
writer hates it, thinks he has already written that book the first
time, doesn’t want to write the same thing again, but does as agent
says. Doesn’t like the final product because it has no passion,
agent doesn’t like it, and off into rewrite myth they go.
    What I have seen hundreds of times is that
young writers stop their careers right there. Second book was no
fun, third book was pure torture, why bother, sales were not that
good anyway, and writer stops writing. I would, too.
    This myth kills artists.
    This myth, combined with all the aspects of
the other agent and sales myths, force young artist after young
artist to compromise, think about selling before they write a word,
move away from passion into safe sales, and thus into losing the
very reason and passion the writer was writing in the first place.
And when you lose the reason to write, the love of writing, the
passion to write, you soon just stop writing.
    It takes a very, very powerful self-belief to
stand up to these myths and just write what you want, at the speed
you want, and mail to whom you want after you are finished. Yet to
be a true artist, a true long-term professional writer, you have to
learn to stand up for your writing and your art.
    Is all this easy to learn? No. Darned hard,
actually.
    But to be a true artist, write what you want.
Never write to market.
    PERSONAL BELIEFS vs. AGENT CAREER PLANNING
MYTH
    Now, this is a fun area because when you look
at it, this myth becomes just flat silly on the surface.
    You live in Outback small town. You were
raised by some combination of humans, have friends that make up
some combination of humans, believe in some combination of
religious beliefs, have some combination of writing talents, and
have a very certain combination of fears, passions, and likes and
dislikes.
    In other words, you are an individual,