June 6, 2006
I don't know if they're true, but...

1. I think promoting your work is important, but there's a balance to be made. How you promote yourself will have a lot to do with whether people compare you to used-car salesmen, whores, or artists and writers.

2. The work itself is important. The act of writing, the words on paper. When you strip away money, business, publishing, the audience, the readers, the contracts, the promotion, you're still left with the work itself, which is what writers need to focus on the most.

3. Time is money. Energy is finite. You can't do everything, so focus on what is most important to you and what works best for you. That may require that you write for money some of the time.

4. Goals are good, but the journey is still important.

5. It's too easy to get caught up trying to impress other writers, especially writers you feel are more significant or successful than yourself. Work on being happy with yourself and pleasing readers. Your colleagues are fine, but most of them won't even be buying your books.

6. Don't worry about offending your mother or your brother or your siblings. They'll get over it. And if they won't, well, hey, they're probably still pissed that mom loved you best.

7. Keep it in perspective. It's just a book. Just a short story. Just a screenplay. Just a magazine article. If you die with it incomplete, well, that's sad, but you weren't curing cancer, feeding the poor or trying to bring about world peace. You're pretty much in the entertainment business, which traditionally was held by jesters, clowns and blind storytellers.

8. If it drives you crazy, makes you depressed and stresses you out, find something else to do with your life.

9. No. No one will understand your obsession with your own writing.

Best,
Mark Terry