Voici les conseils de John C. Wright, (postés par sa femme)
1. In order to be a writer, you must write.
2. In order to write, you must use proper spelling, punctuation, grammar; or, if you violate these rules, the violation must be deliberate, to create an artistic effect. Avoid politically correct jargon at all costs. Do not use ugly constructions like "he or she"; it will date your work, and the cool people will laugh at you.
3. In order to be a writer, you must sell what you write. No manuscript should spend a single night on your desk; the same day you get a rejection, put the manuscript in the mail to the next editor. Let the manuscripts spend their nights on the editor's desk.
4. In order to sell what you write, read the editor's guidelines for his magazine or publishing house and follow them. These guidelines are available in a reference book called Writer's Market. Get the reference book for the current year. If the guidelines say double-spaced white paper single sided, and no samurai vampire stories, do not send him "Lightning Swords of the Nosferatu of Kyoto" printed on blood-red paper, single-spaced, double sided. Failure to follow the guidelines shows you are a dude, a tenderfoot, a punk, a novice, not someone meant to be treated with professional courtesy. Your story is your child: no mother would send her child out to look for a job without fixing his tie and shining his shoes.
5. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope with proper postage affixed, if you want the manuscript back.
6. You will receive on average ONE HUNDRED rejection slips before you make your first sale. This is an average. This means that if someone, say, Lester del Rey, makes his first sale on his first attempt without getting a rejection, that someone else, say, Ray Bradbury, will get two hundred rejection slips.
7. If your manuscript is good or bad, send out your manuscript again. Genius does not count. Only persistence counts. The world will not recognize your genius until after you are dead. But the world can recognize your persistence now.
8. If the manuscript is good, send out your manuscript again. The editor who rejected it last month or last year may have different needs or a different budget this month or this year.
9. If the manuscript is bad, send out your manuscript again. The worst thing you ever wrote will someday, somehow, be some schoolboy's favorite story ever. Your readers are your employers. Respect and fear them. Do not approach this work with pride or selfishness or any of the other emotions to which men of fragile artistic spirits are inclined. It is a profession. Act professionally.
10. Selling writing means your manuscripts go out, and money comes back in. Money always goes toward the writer. Money never goes away from the writer. This means you do not hire a manuscript doctor, you do not pay a reading fee, you do not enter a contest which charges an entry fee. Those are scams. Agents are paid on commission, paid when and only when they sell your wares, whereupon the money comes from the publisher and goes toward you; You do not pay the agent a retainer.
To sum up: To be a writer, you write. You write by writing grammatically correct English, not Politically Correct Newspeak. You sell what you write. You sell what you write by following the editor's submission guidelines. You include a self-addressed stamped envelope. You continue to submit stories whether they are good, bad or mediocre. You treat it like a job.
Do not wait to be inspired. So-called inspiration consists of sitting down at scheduled times for scheduled amounts of time and actually doing the work of writing. It is the same inspiration used by a cobbler to make a shoe, or a carpenter to make a chair.
Writing is not accomplished by inspiration. It is accomplished by not making excuses to not accomplish it.
Let me add one more rule to my list of ten rules. This is the Eleventh Commandment, the unwritten rule:
11. When you get a rejection slip, be thankful.
Les conseils de John C. Wright,
Modérateurs : Estelle Hamelin, Eric, jerome, Jean, Travis, Charlotte, tom, marie.m, Nathalie
Retourner vers « Vos questions sur l'écriture et l'édition en général »
Aller à
- Actusf, le forum, petit mot de bienvenue et petites règles
- ↳ message d'accueil
- Les éditions Actusf
- ↳ Les éditions Actusf
- ↳ Les éditions Actusf numérique
- SF/Fantasy/fantastique
- ↳ BlueCon 48e Convention Nationale de Science-Fiction
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2018
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2018
- ↳ Vos dernières lectures
- ↳ Les événements salons/festivals/dédicaces
- ↳ Les infos sur la Science Fiction, la Fantasy et le fantastique en général
- ↳ Quels sont vos incontournables ?
- ↳ Les infos sur vos auteurs
- ↳ Les infos du livre numérique
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2019
- Bande Dessinée
- ↳ La BD
- ↳ Vos lectures BD
- SF jeunesse
- ↳ La SF jeunesse
- Ecriture et édition. Conseil, questions, appels à textes etc.
- ↳ Vos questions sur l'écriture et l'édition en général
- ↳ Les appels à textes du monde de la SF
- ↳ les appels à textes hors SF
- Autres
- ↳ Actusf les news du site (Et nos réponses à vos questions)
- ↳ Du fond de la salle (pour parler d'autre chose)
- ↳ Prospective (et pour vous le futur c'est quoi ?)
- ↳ Cinéma et séries
- ↳ À vous de jouer !
- ↳ Le prix Actusf de l'Uchronie
- Des nouvelles des sciences
- ↳ Message d'accueil
- ↳ Section 1 : Des nouvelles des sciences
- ↳ Section 2 : Discussions
- Archives
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2010
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2011
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2012
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2013
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2014
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2015
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2016
- ↳ Le journal des Utopiales 2017
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2011
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2012
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2013
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2014
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2015
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2016
- ↳ Le journal des Imaginales 2017
- ↳ Ayerdhal sur le forum d'Actusf
- ↳ Mathieu Gaborit sur le forum d'Actusf
- ↳ Stéphane Beauverger
- ↳ Francis Berthelot online !
- ↳ La Volte
- ↳ Alain Damasio en ligne
- ↳ Pierre Bordage répond à vos questions (2, 3 et 4 juillet)
- ↳ Dialogue en ligne avec David Calvo
- ↳ Philippe Caza répond à vos questions
- ↳ Thibaud Eliroff
- ↳ Fabrice Colin sur Actusf
- ↳ Philippe Curval online
- ↳ Catherine Dufour et vous
- ↳ Gilles Dumay répond à vos questions
- ↳ Mélanie Fazi online
- ↳ Laurent Genefort online
- ↳ Dialogue en ligne avec Johan Heliot
- ↳ Robin Hobb Online
- ↳ Jean-Philippe Jaworski
- ↳ Gérard Klein sur le forum d'Actusf
- ↳ Laurent Kloetzer répond à vos questions (27-28-29 septembre)
- ↳ Serge Lehman répond à vos questions
- ↳ Jean-Marc Ligny
- ↳ Bénédicte Lombardo répond à vos questions (19, 20 et 21 juin)
- ↳ Xavier Mauméjean sur le forum d'Actusf
- ↳ Jérôme Noirez
- ↳ Audrey Petit online
- ↳ Téhy sur Actusf
- ↳ Roland C.Wagner rien que pour vous (19-21 avril)