You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee
Shop won't teach you anything about how to write great stories,
articles, and books other than the most important thing – you have
to write to be a writer. Over the years he's compiled blog posts and
articles into this volume and it's quintessential Scalzi, blunt and
dogmatic.
I'm taking my volume and mailing it to a friend who's decided to become a writer because better than I can ever do, Scalzi debunks the mythology and rose-colored dreams of the relaxed writer sitting at coffee shops and waxing poetic on the soul and the purity of art. Writing is a business and if you don't approach it as a business, you're going to be a hungry writer.
The most valuable lesson in the book is about selling your writing. If you want to be a paid writer, you have to write what people (editors) will buy. That lesson applies to articles and novels alike. It's great to write what's in your heart and it's great to be true to your vision of art, but if you want to receive royalty checks perhaps you should look at what's selling and also do whatever adjustments and rewrites your editor suggests. Good advice.
Another eye-opening recommendation he gives is not to quit your day job. Further he explains that rather than quitting your job look at it as freedom to write without the constraints of having to pay your bills from your writing output. This is a great way to view it. Give yourself some time to learn the trade, figure out the markets, and explore your talents.
If I have one knock it's more with the format than the content. Because it's an assemblage of posts, there's a lot of repetition. The upside to that is that you can open the book to any page and instantly get good advice and interesting insights. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to write professionally.
- CV Rick, May 2008
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