I went to Dragoncon in September, invited by my good friend, Nancy Knight. Wow, the hotels were so crowded and all the costumes! Eventually I made my way to the workshop room and was lucky enough to attend a workshop hosted by Nancy. I forgot the name of the workshop but it had something to do with men and muscles. Actually, there were three authors of science fiction. Two were on the New York Times Best Seller’s List. The third writer was published as well and was on his way to becoming as well known. In the area of science fiction, I am sure these writers are legends. Did I know them? No. Did it matter? No. Was I just as impressed as if they were authors I was familiar with? Yes. And did I learn a great deal? Yes. In my opinion, writing is writing. I have immense respect for all kinds of writing, whether or not it is a genre I read.
First, I was most impressed with their intelligence. I can’t even imagine being able to write a 13 or 15 book series. But these men were not only brilliant, they were also friendly, humble, and very hard working. These writers work every day, seven days a week. They write, write, and write, and then they write some more. I am not saying everyone needs to work at that level, but one of the writers said he didn’t believe in writer’s block. That was a luxury. Even if you are stuck, your write through it. If he didn’t know what he was going to write, or didn’t feel like writing, he wrote anyway. He said that’s what we do, we write. Like John Robinson said in one of his previous posts, “Just get it done, you can always edit it later.” (at least that’s the gist of what he said.)
So, I will take those words to heart. I know from experience, writing is writing, period. And writing makes you a better writer. So whether it’s research, or editing,or reading, it still comes back at the end of the day to writing. You can research all you want, but it’s still important to get something new for the day.
Good luck!
Gilded Dragonfly Books 