Writing
Eric San Juan
May 29, 2015
When you daydream of being a Writer, sitting at home doing Important Work and actually getting paid for it, you most certainly DON’T daydream of filing tax documents, managing bank accounts, chasing people for money, and other such nonsense. Yet you’re sure as hell going to end up doing it, and plenty of it, too. They never tell you this. (Never mind who “they” is.) No one explains that if you plan to make a go of supporting yourself as a freelance writer, your days will be just as filled with “business” stuff as they will with writing. They never tell you that you’ll sometimes have to rattle cages just to get paid for work you did, or that dealing with the tax man will…
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Eric San Juan
May 24, 2015
I like deadlines. No, scratch that. I need deadlines. I thrive on them. I require them. Without them, I’m left to rely on discipline and good habits to keep myself focused on doing what I should be doing. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a shortage of both. That’s why, whenever possible, I prefer for my writing projects to have a deadline attached. When it comes to professional work, that’s usually a given. Your client is going to want their content by a certain time, after all. As I write this post, for instance, I’m also tossing around ideas for my Sunday evening appointment with writing. See, for the last two years I have written a weekly beer column for the Philadelphia Weekly….
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Eric San Juan
May 21, 2015
I started this blog however many years ago* for admittedly cynical reasons. I wanted to be more established as a Writer rather than a writer, and by all accounts having a blog through which you connect with people was an absolutely integral part of the equation. Supposedly, blogging is just what writers do. Since that time, I’ve had some books published, five of them by traditional publishers and three via my own sweat and blood. I s’pose that’s not bad. Can’t say this blog has had much to do with any of that or that it has helped in any way, though. I fully acknowledge that I haven’t handled it well or the way you’re supposed to or whatever, but that’s neither here nor there….
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Eric San Juan
April 24, 2015
After my Mad Men book is out, I plan to switch focus to fiction for a little while. Have two things in mind. Two novels that are DONE but that require my attention for the next few steps in the process. Help me decide which to focus on: 1) A children’s / middle grade fantasy novel that keeps with classic fantasy tropes/clichés (think Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books), i.e. young boy on an adventure, mouthy princess, dragons, etc. I think it’s fun and love the characters, but I don’t think I can sell it to a publisher – it’s too “standard,” and these days they want something unique – so I aim to start on the sequels and self-publish it as a series. 2) A dystopian science fiction novel about a cynical teenager who…
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Eric San Juan
April 22, 2015
I’m a writer. I have books and stuff. My latest, about how to be a good groom, came out yesterday. But despite being a writer and having to do all that comes with the job description, I do a poor job of blogging on a regular basis. All the modern wisdom about what it takes to make it as a writer in today’s world says I’m going about this all wrong. You’ve got to build an audience, they say. You have to keep your name out there. You have to connect with people. You have to utilize the web — blogs, social media, discussion forums, etc. — to establish a readership and contacts and all the rest. It’s a vital part of enjoying long-term success….
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