[Stylist] questions and answers

[Tarika W]

Oh, Chris.

At the same time I was laughing, I was thinking, "Oh, my god. All I need to
do is become an alcoholic and spend three months to five years laying
around and thinking in-between writing what I'm thinking." That does sound
pretty easy. The hardest part will be convincing myself to drink alcohol.
My temple is a body.

You're cool, Chris.

Also, my name is not Erica. It's Tarika.

Thanks for the answers, those who answered! I think I understand much more.

On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 9:58 AM Chris Kuell via Stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hey Tarika,
>
>
>
> Welcome to the group. I’m Chris, and I’ve been writing with great success
> over the past 20 years or so. I’d be more than happy to share some of my
> hard-earned wisdom with you. I’ll insert my answers to your astute
> questions below.
>
>
>
> 1. How do people make book-writing look so easy?
>
> A - It is easy! If authors tell you how hard it is to be a writer, let’s
> just say they are fibbing a bit because they don’t want you to realize
> exactly how easy it is to make buckets full of cash in your spare time. The
> first step is to spend a few years studying the craft of writing so you
> know how to do it well. All you have to do after that is sit on your butt
> with a great idea and for the next 1000 to 1500 hours, outline then draft
> your novel/nonfiction book. Then spend between 100 and 500 hours revising
> it and adding polish. You might want to then run it past a few successful
> writers whose opinions you trust, wait for them to read it (I usually
> consume mucho pina coladas during this phase), get their feedback, spend
> another hundred hours making edits and revisions and voila—you’re done!
>
>
>
> 2. Does anyone know how to develop an idea from a title? Fiction and
> nonfiction.
>
> A – Another easy one. Others might have different answers, but I typically
> come up with a title, then spend between 1 day and 1 year dreaming of a
> story that will make that title fit. Then see the answer to your first
> question for the rest. Sometimes drinking 1 to 6 glasses of quality red
> wine or cheap Irish whiskey helps push this process along, although the
> results might be deemed somewhat unreliable. Another method is to do
> writing prompts for 2 to 5 years, which makes coming up with ideas that
> actually work much easier.
>
>
>
> 3. What methods, tools, and programs do you use for planning or plotting
> fiction as a blind writer?
>
> A – Although the method I use will also work for sighted writers, I
> basically get my ass into a chair in front of a laptop and I don’t check my
> email or facebook or check on the latest covid results or watch youtube
> videos about the International Frog Jumping Competition until I’ve written
> for at least two hours every day. The only tools I use are my laptop with
> JAWS and MS Word, plus the aforementioned alcoholic beverages to help feed
> the muse. In addition, read. Read and read some more. Study how great
> writers develop characters, move the story along, throw in monkey wrenches,
> shock you, and make you keep reading. Then do what they do.
>
>
>
> 4. Are there any get-togethers outside of the monthly phone conference,
> something that is more frequent?
>
> A – others can answer this. You can, of course, join other writing groups
> that are more active. I have belonged to a critique group now for about 17
> years, and their input has been invaluable. I also have collected a group
> of writing friends who I bounce ideas and writing off of, which is
> extremely valuable.
>
>
>
> 5. How do you decide what goes in your poetry books?
>
> A – this one’s easy—I don’t write poetry books. But from the ones I’ve
> read, the author generally picks a theme and creates/includes poems that
> somehow touch on that theme.
>
>
>
> 6. How do you make a blog tour?
>
> A – I’m not positive, but doesn’t a blog tour have gin and grapefruit
> juice?
>
>
>
> 7. What do you do with a mailing list of subscribers, as an author?
>
> A – have respect for all mailing lists, and don’t barrage potential
> readers with info they don’t care about.
>
>
>
> 8. Do you make your own virtual events, like poetry readings and such?
>
> A – I’m the wrong person to answer this question. Reality is hard enough
> for me to deal with, never mind a virtual world.
>
>
>
> 9. Do you self-publish or traditional publish, and do you have a team
> supporting you?
>
> A – This is an interesting, and complicated question. On the one hand,
> finding a traditional publisher who embraces your work is only slightly
> more difficult than performing nuclear fusion experiments. However, if you
> manage it, you’ll have an agent and a publishing team there to help you
> along, and take most of your money. Self-publishing is the easier route,
> although it takes capital to print and launch your book, and you are likely
> to only sell to your family and friends. I read something not too long ago
> that less than a half of a percent  of self-published books sell over 2,000
> copies. This is because there is a stigma behind self-published books. Many
> of them just aren’t very good. Sure, there are some exceptions, but they
> truly are exceptions. It’s great that self-publishing is so easy, but that
> also means the quality of the work inside the covers is questionable.
>
>
>
> My advice? Write if you love writing, and work to make each new thing you
> write better than the last thing you wrote. Write because you enjoy the
> process. If you want to make a shitload of money, you’d be better off
> spending your days inventing a time machine, then go back to 1982 and
> invest all you can in Microsoft and Apple. Then once you’ve done
> this—please buy a few thousand copies of my books!
>
>
>
> Chris
>
>
>
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