OT: My wife wants to start a writing career....

gtvlusso
gtvlusso Posts: 5,112
edited October 2011 in Commuting chat
Advice please.

She is currently a Lawyer. Degree in English Lit; very good at writing and poetry, but is somewhat nervous to start.

Tips, thoughts, hints and experience welcome!

Comments

  • SimonAH
    SimonAH Posts: 3,730
    I would suggest a series of novels based around a boy wizard and the traditional struggle of good vs evil, with a little of Tom Brown's Schooldays stirred in. This can be easily written whilst drinking coffee in cafes


    .....oh, wait,
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  • clarkey cat
    clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
    a thrilling expose on life as a lawyer - uncovering breathtaking workplace practices such as drinking excessively, taking clients to lappies, affairs with traineees and casual sexism in the workplace.
    Dolan Mythos
  • gtvlusso
    gtvlusso Posts: 5,112
    SimonAH wrote:
    I would suggest a series of novels based around a boy wizard and the traditional struggle of good vs evil, with a little of Tom Brown's Schooldays stirred in. This can be easily written whilst drinking coffee in cafes


    .....oh, wait,

    Not enough 'Yate' in the girl for that kinda crap.....

    oh, wait.....
  • gtvlusso
    gtvlusso Posts: 5,112
    clarkey cat wrote:
    a thrilling expose on life as a lawyer - uncovering breathtaking workplace practices such as drinking excessively, taking clients to lappies, affairs with traineees and casual sexism in the workplace.

    My wife is a girl and is blissfully unaware of such activities, should they have ever existed.....
  • clarkey cat
    clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
    "working late tonight, love... big deal on. Don't wait up."
    Dolan Mythos
  • walkingbootweather
    walkingbootweather Posts: 2,443
    A series about 2 girls, 2 boys and a dog that get on famously and drink lashings of ginger beer?
    Nobody told me we had a communication problem
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    gtvlusso wrote:
    clarkey cat wrote:
    a thrilling expose on life as a lawyer - uncovering breathtaking workplace practices such as drinking excessively, taking clients to lappies, affairs with traineees and casual sexism in the workplace.

    My wife is a girl and is blissfully unaware of such activities, should they have ever existed.....
    Thats where you come in... you could be her muse. Her filthy depraved muse...
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  • Kieran_Burns
    Kieran_Burns Posts: 9,757
    gtvlusso wrote:
    clarkey cat wrote:
    a thrilling expose on life as a lawyer - uncovering breathtaking workplace practices such as drinking excessively, taking clients to lappies, affairs with traineees and casual sexism in the workplace.

    My wife is a girl and is blissfully unaware of such activities, should they have ever existed.....

    You know that paradox that starts with "All Lawyers are liars" ?

    Just saying...
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  • gtvlusso
    gtvlusso Posts: 5,112
    :-)

    I did not mean a story line!!! Ideas on how to get started? Career advice!

    Although, I am busy making notes on some of the ideas...!
  • fidbod
    fidbod Posts: 317
    Let her have a look at this, http://queryshark.blogspot.com/ Always some interesting stuff on how to approach agents and publishers

    I would also recommend reading Charlie Stross's blog posts about the practicality of writing for a living.

    http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/index.html

    http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-st ... -pu-1.html
  • dancook
    dancook Posts: 279
    After reading the above comments, I'm not sure whether this is relevant.. it's not my area of expertise :)

    My partner writes reviews for remote goat, she gets free tickets for the Guildford Shakespeare company or sent free books to reviews.

    My partner isn't looking to make a career from it, but it might be a good way to get something quickly published to build up a portfolio.
  • jonny_trousers
    jonny_trousers Posts: 3,588
    SimonAH wrote:
    I would suggest a series of novels based around a boy wizard and the traditional struggle of good vs evil, with a little of Tom Brown's Schooldays stirred in. This can be easily written whilst drinking coffee in cafes


    .....oh, wait,

    :lol::lol::lol:
  • jonny_trousers
    jonny_trousers Posts: 3,588
    What exactly does she want to write?
  • clarkey cat
    clarkey cat Posts: 3,641
    He spoke knowledgeably, almost sensually - as she leaned forward and bit her lip; she didnt want Greg, the handsome new Corporate Finance lawyer, seeing her flush, her palpitations were almost visible beneath her thin, white blouse: she could feel her small platinum and diamond necklace, a gift from her loyal, if slightly stodgy (despite all the cycling) husband, bouncing on the soft skin of her chest, her breath was shortening, her body seemed to contract and release automatically as she listened to his liquid voice, his tongue wrapping itself around his seminar on Basel III.
    Dolan Mythos
  • walkingbootweather
    walkingbootweather Posts: 2,443
    I'm trying to put an end to my wife's writing career.....


    ... she mostly writes cheques. :evil:
    Nobody told me we had a communication problem
  • lastant
    lastant Posts: 526
    Self-publishing, perhaps? I used lulu.com to get my book sorted, although royalties via that route are nowhere near as good as they would be if you went through Lightning Source (which is a bit more hassle). If I did another I'd go the second option.

    Getting into the Kindle market is easy with Kindle Direct Publishing. Free and ridiculously simple to upload and 70% royalties on any book sale if it's priced below £9.99 (and 35% if it's above).

    Biggest thing is marketing. I haven't really done any, but would have thought you'd need to if you were peddling a novel or were serious about making money out of it.
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  • jonny_trousers
    jonny_trousers Posts: 3,588
    walkingbootweather wrote:
    I'm trying to put an end to my wife's writing career.....


    ... she mostly writes cheques. :evil:

    Ba_dum__CHING_by_Draygone.gif
  • cjcp
    cjcp Posts: 13,345
    gtvlusso wrote:
    Advice please.

    She is currently a Lawyer. Degree in English Lit; very good at writing and poetry, but is somewhat nervous to start.

    Tips, thoughts, hints and experience welcome!

    My wife knows someone who binned her legal career to write novels. From what I understand, she's never looked back. Judging by where they live, a tremendous decision.

    @CC - :lol:
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  • shouldbeinbed
    shouldbeinbed Posts: 2,660
    my wife has just embarked on a new career too as an Internet porn star.












    She'll go ballistic when she finds out.
  • shouldbeinbed
    shouldbeinbed Posts: 2,660
    gtvlusso wrote:
    Advice please.

    She is currently a Lawyer. Degree in English Lit; very good at writing and poetry, but is somewhat nervous to start.

    Tips, thoughts, hints and experience welcome!

    more serious answer: start off with competitions, submit short stories to magazines, knowledge based articles to her 'trade' mags (get the craft & prose & writing to a theme/deadline /number of words practiced without needing to be too creative too), speak to the local papers offer to do 'colour' pieces, join a local writers group, give stuff to a local book group and sit there whilst they discuss it, research the agents & publishers that tend to focus on her preferred genre and get in touch- see what they're interested in & what will go straight in the bin.

    Remember the Edison adage, the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

    don't forget to save it regularly and back it all up to discs or external drives.
  • oscarbudgie
    oscarbudgie Posts: 850
    Does she need to make money from her writing? Its incredibly hard and time consuming first of all to write something publishable, then to get it published and then to make any money. I've had five (non fiction) books published by a mainstream publisher, all good sellers etc but the combined advances and royalties probably add up to not much more than a single months' salary for a qualified lawyer.
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  • ketsbaia
    ketsbaia Posts: 1,718
    I'd say reconsider. I've been making a fairly meagre living writing various bits and pieces for the best part of 20 years. Not planning retirement any time soon.
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  • jonny_trousers
    jonny_trousers Posts: 3,588
    I think the above advice is good (unless she no longer needs to earn). We still don't know what kind of writing she is into, but it will almost certainly pay rather poorly whatever. Could she maybe not reduce her hours at work and then write alongside that until she has an idea of how successful she might be?
  • estampida
    estampida Posts: 1,008
    blag blag balg

    get your folio up to speed and then blag your way onto a minor position within a ghost writing team

    2 - 3 books time your folio will look pro, and you can tender services or sell your ideas.........

    contribution writing and maybe researching a few subjects (rent-a-quote) or rent a speech.....

    not just books get written, david cameron does not write his own speeches, too busy with his head in a trough.....
  • NGale
    NGale Posts: 1,866
    Get on the internet and google about November being 'write a novel month' the idea is to write 50,000 words in the month of november in an attempt to write a novel. Of course it would take a few more months to get it to a level where an agent would even consider it, but it's a start for many people.
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  • cee
    cee Posts: 4,553
    my good lady is a freelance translater...although not quite a writer....its writing for publishing companies.....

    there are lots of people who write out there and not many who are successful.

    Portfolio....short stories....see how they are received, then moving into longer stuff later would be my advice.
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  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660
    Tell her to stay away from internet forums.
    _

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