Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I The Trackless Meadows of Old Time
- II The Wild Joy of Strumming
- 15 Books in The Book of the New Sun
- 16 Wolfe's Rules: What You Must Do to Be a Writer
- 17 Balding, Avuncular Gene's Quick and Dirty Guide to Creating Memorable Characters
- 18 Wolfe's Irreproducible Truths About Novels
- 19 Nor the Summers as Golden: Writing Multivolume Works
- 20 What Do They Mean, SF?
- 21 The Special Problems of Science Fiction
- 22 How to Be a Writer's Family
- 23 Libraries on the Superhighway – Rest Stop or Roadkill?
- 24 The Handbook of Permissive English
- 25 More Than Half of You Can't Read This
- 26 Wolfe's Inalienable* Truths About Reviewing
- 27 A Fantasist Reads the Bible and Its Critics
- Index
16 - Wolfe's Rules: What You Must Do to Be a Writer
from II - The Wild Joy of Strumming
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I The Trackless Meadows of Old Time
- II The Wild Joy of Strumming
- 15 Books in The Book of the New Sun
- 16 Wolfe's Rules: What You Must Do to Be a Writer
- 17 Balding, Avuncular Gene's Quick and Dirty Guide to Creating Memorable Characters
- 18 Wolfe's Irreproducible Truths About Novels
- 19 Nor the Summers as Golden: Writing Multivolume Works
- 20 What Do They Mean, SF?
- 21 The Special Problems of Science Fiction
- 22 How to Be a Writer's Family
- 23 Libraries on the Superhighway – Rest Stop or Roadkill?
- 24 The Handbook of Permissive English
- 25 More Than Half of You Can't Read This
- 26 Wolfe's Inalienable* Truths About Reviewing
- 27 A Fantasist Reads the Bible and Its Critics
- Index
Summary
Writeyour story. No quantity of graphs, outlines, and timetables will help if you do not write the piece itself.
Completeyour story. You must not only start it, you must finish it; ‘finish’ means bringing your story – on paper, not merely in your mind – to a satisfying conclusion.
Reviseyour story as needed. Read it over, and when you find something wrong, fix it. When your story is rejected, read it over again. If nothing is wrong, leave it alone.
Submitthe story in proper form to a suitable market. When it is rejected by the first such market, submit it to another. When it is rejected there as well, submit it to a third. Continue to revise and submit it as long as you have faith in it – plus two.
Begina new story as soon as the first one is on the way to its first market. Waiting for your story to sell before beginning your next is the royal road to failure.
Sellyour story when someone wants to buy it. If it is a book, you can try for better terms; but NEVER issue ultimatums. Be mindful of my father's sage advice: ‘Take the money and run for the train.
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- Information
- Shadows of the New SunWolfe on Writing/Writers on Wolfe, pp. 203Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2007