Early in their careers, writers sometimes sign away valuable rights under less than favorable terms. This article discusses the important right of termination under US copyright law, which allows writers to reclaim such rights in their works and to try to make a better deal.
There’s a difference between being a writer and wanting to be a writer. There are plenty of conversations about it, about whether payment, time spent, or day jobs land you on either one side or the other. But the consensus seems to be one major thing: writers write.
Research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky and others suggests that when you are in a positive state your brain performs significantly better than when you’re in a negative or neutral state. Your intelligence, creativity and energy levels all rise when you’re feeling “The Happy.”
How can taking an improv acting/comedy lesson improve your writing? Well, for one thing, it forces you to think differently about story.
When I get professionally jealous it’s often an exciting thing. “Wow! I never thought of doing that. That’s amazing!” But excitement can turn into sad feelings…
Too often the burden of “genius” is placed on the fragile shoulders of individuals trying desperately to create, to live up to expectations, to outdo their own previous creations, and to essentially justify daring to call themselves artists (or writers, or musicians, etc.) to begin with.
It’s 2130 on a Saturday night, and I’m alone in my apartment, in front of my laptop.
I can’t shake the feeling that there’s some amazing party, filled with fascinating people, somewhere nearby. Artists and intellectuals and adventurers, all mixing and charging the air with stories. I wasn’t invited.
et’s say you are sitting at your desk, with something to write, and you notice some anxiety, and an urge to go instead to one of your favorite distractions.
And let’s also say you decided to adopt my approach, the Obstacle is the Path.
SFWA interviews award-winning game designer and author James Sutter–a co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Fiction Editor/Senior Editor of Paizo Publishing.
Since I can’t tell why, for sure, a story was rejected, I keep submitting to places that meet my minimum requirements. When I run out of places, I put the story in a folder that’s labeled ‘stories I still believe in’ and I review it once in a while.
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? And what happens to the people you leave behind?
Roxana Arama is an award-winning Romanian American author and a former software developer. Her novels include The Regolith Temple: A Sci-Fi Thriller and The Exiled Queen: A Roman Era Historical Fantasy. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
