Making Money Writing and Secret Windows

Photo: Hardcover art, from the book's Wikipedia site.  (Go there to see the Contents page; one chapter is called "Great Hookers I Have Known," but if you remember your remedial writing days, you'll see right through that.)  I read the paperback with the building on the cover.  This cover is terrible and just a little creepy.  But it's what Wikipedia had.  The building cover is better.

Described as "a companion book to On Writing," this volume reads more as a long interview with King, done over maybe 10 to 12 years, with a couple of never-before-seen stories thrown in. 

It is worth your time.

I put off reading this for awhile because I thought it was, frankly, a cheap attempt to cash-in on his On Writing success.  But that didn't turn out to be the case.  This book is actually much different.  On Writing is, as its title says, at least mostly memoir.  Part writing tutorial, part memoir, is how I speak of it.  But Secret Windows is a book of questions King doesn't answer in On Writing, and as such is, as I said, more of a long interview, over 10-12 years, on a variety of topics--much of them, surprisingly, not about writing, per se.

This book is more for writers, in some ways, than On Writing is.  While that book is mostly memoir and sometimes a writing primer, this one is about the more minute parts of the business.  Did you know that King got an agent to hawk his novels and short stories?  I didn't, because agents don't sell short stories anymore--well, unless you're a Stephen King level writer, that is.  Then they'll be more than happy to sell your underwear or shopping list, just to keep you happy--and their client.  But for you and me, they won't sell our short stories today.  We'd have to do that for ourselves. (I know, because I do.)

Did you know that King sent out a query to agents before he'd finished his manuscript for Carrie?  I didn't, because that's a huge no-no today--and must've been then, too.  Because writers, like everyone else, won't finish something when they say they will, and agents know this.  So they all say--today and, I'm sure, then--that you have to finish the manuscript, perfect it, and then solicit them.  King was more ballsy than that.  He pitched them when he was almost done with his manuscript--for Carrie, I think--and his selling point was the huge list--I'm talking 20 or more here--of short stories he'd sold and been paid well for in just two years.  At $200 per story, times 20 stories--that's $400.  10% of that is $40, so 15% of that is $60.  Many agents in 1974 would take $60 to send out a couple of quick letters to publishers about a client's work.  It would take them about an hour, maybe.  If that.  Probably half an hour.  $60 p/h, max, in 1974 would sound good.  The bottom line is: King essentially was ballsy enough to say to these prospective agents: "Even with my short story sales, I can make money for you."  And then, more importantly, he finished his novel manuscript, just as he said he would.  That's good business, and that turns on agents, too.

So what's to be learned from this?  Be ballsy.  But also be productive, so you have something to be ballsy about.  And then, be good at the business, and finish the manuscript when you say you will.  Lost in all the millions Stephen King makes is that he has always produced, even pre-Carrie, and at a very high level of both quality (ie--it'll sell) and production.  In other words, he's always been bankable, and very good at the business.

You won't learn this kind of thing from On Writing.

You will from Secret Windows.

If you dream of a writing career like I do, you should read it.  And read On Writing, too, of course.

Becoming A Writer--Dorothea Brande

Photo--The book's page on Amazon (obviously).

Like John Gardiner's book, The Art of Fiction, this one is very helpful because of its honest directness and simplicity.  An easy read, it sounds like she's in the room, talking only to you.  An important work because it dispels advice on technique and instead gives bare-bones advice about who writers are and what they must essentially do.  In essence, she advises how to get the butt in the chair, and she tells you what to do in order to keep it there and to be productive.  A large part self-help, it encourages the writer to have a positive, meditative and courageous mindset before you even sit down to type.

Published in 1934, it was unique in its day, and in this one, because of how it eschews technique in favor of mental and psychological stimulation.  Her bottom-line: If you can't sit down consistently to write, you're not a writer and you're better off finding another avenue to express yourself.  As John Gardner wrote a bit later: "Writers write."  Stephen King's book says essentially the same thing, but is even better in a way because he also gives you several memoir-anecdotes and some practical advice on what to do once your butt is consistently in the chair and once you are consistently typing.

This book was written two years before what could be considered its companion book: Wake Up and Live!, which sold even better in its day, over 2,000,000 copies.  Both are recommended, as is Stephen King's On Writing and John Gardner's book.  King's is by far the longest (of course) and they're all indispensable.  Buy those, and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, and you won't need anything else to help you to sit your butt down and write.  Re-reading any (or all) of them during blah times is highly recommended, too.

Three Essential Books for Writers

As a public service to all writers out there, I recommend these three books.  Lamott's and King's are popular and no-brainers, but the Heinlein book may surprise you.  It's dated, yet oddly useful and occasionally fascinating.

Bird by Bird--Annie Lamott

Brilliant writer. Can't get enough of her, from her days at Salon.com to anything recent. A must for anyone who even thinks about becoming a writer. I re-read it every now and then if I am stuck, or just for a kick in the butt.  Also a great exercise in Voice, for those who struggle with that, and for those who don't know what it is.  Her voice is unmistakable.  You'd know it was hers just from the writing alone.  Indispensable.  Take a look at her archived pieces on Salon.com, too.  A writer's writer, severely underappreciated by everyone else.

Grumbles from the Grave--Robert Heinlein

Some dated (and kinda sexist) stuff, but a great little book for aspiring writers in terms of dealing with editors, agents, contracts--and, most importantly, writing. Not a How-To, like On Writing or Bird by Bird, nor a memoir, but a collection of letters between Heinlen and others, published by his widow. Best piece of advice: produce copy, produce copy, produce copy.  Also an interesting look at the writer himself.  His widow lets it be what it is.  He doesn't come across as an aesthete, and he makes no bones at all about how he wrote mostly for the money, but you don't have to be fascinated by the guy to learn something from him.

On Writing--Stephen King

Indispensable, on par with Bird by Bird and John Gardner's book (which I also recommend). Brilliant. I've seen this used high schools and in colleges.  This book started the recent appreciation of King outside of his actual fanbase.  Other writers and writing organizations started taking him seriously as a writer after the publication of this book.

Per Diem

I need to write like other professionally published writers do: every day, for X number of hours every day, and/or for X number of words every day.  I can't just write when I'm passionately driven, or when I'm feelin' it, or in the mood, and not like clockwork every day.  I wonder if it's true, if it matters.  I've heard that established painters haven't painted every day; I read somewhere that da Vinci didn't.  I doubt if sculptors sculpt every day; rumor has it that Michelangelo didn't.  Of course, I'm not for writers as these two were for painters and sculptors, so, yeah, I need to write every day, like I do, and not just when I have the time, or when I'm in the mood.  It isn't all greatness when I write every day, but usually there's something good in it; sometimes there's nothing good in it, but something good springs from it.  And I have too much to do not to write every day.

Goodreads and Bird by Bird

You have to read a lot to write a lot.  All the agents say it; all the writers say it; all the writing teachers say it.  Stephen King says it in his On Writing.  English teachers say it--or should say it.  Reading a lot shows you what you do--and don't--want to write like.  It gives you ideas.  It starts the creative motor.  It gets you and keeps you in the mood.  It's all part of the creative flow.

With that in mind, I thought I would write an occasional post about what specific books have meant to me.  Click on the link coming soon to go to my Goodreads page.  You'll see my entire "shelf" of books that I've put on the site so far.  The real number of read books is easily 10 times what I've had time to put on the shelf so far, so don't think I've read just 100 or so books.  Ain't the case.  It's a cool site because it actually helps you organize the books you do have--especially if you're like me, with such a large library that you sometimes buy a book you already have because you 'd forgotten you already had it--and because it helps you realize how many books you have that you still haven't read--so you don't waste money or space buying even more books.  I'm guilty of all of these things.

For now, here's what I wrote about Annie Lamott's Bird by Bird: "Brilliant writer. Can't get enough of her, from her days at Salon.com to anything recent. A must for anyone who even thinks about becoming a writer. I re-read it every now and then if I am stuck, or just for a kick in the butt."  That little blurb doesn't do the book, or her writing, justice.  If you want to spend some length of time reading beautiful writing on relationships, raising children, religion or politics, go to Salon.com and read her stuff.  And if you're a writer, you absolutely must get a copy of Bird by Bird.  (SPOILER!  SPOILER!)  The title comes from a segment where the author, as a child, has to do a report on maybe 50 birds for a class, and there's only a day or two left before it's due.  She asks her father how she could possibly write the report about that many birds in such a short amount of time.  Where do you start?  How do you do it?  "Bird by bird," he tells her.  And he's right.  That's how novels and short stories are made, too.  One word at a time, baby.  Bird by bird.