Now Boarding for Good Intentions

Writer's Wednesday!!!

How do you plan a vacation?  Drive to an airport, scan the board, pick a flight that sounds nice, see where it takes you, deal with changing money and finding lodging after you arrive, and then try to find out what you're even going to do while you're there?

I'll concede that some people can and do work that way, but they are in the minority.  Most of us first plan a vacation by what we want to do when we're there.  That's the reason to go.  If it's a generic want (beach, ski, someplace new...), then it comes down to how far you're willing/able to travel.  Is there a particular location where you want to be generic?

First knowing your intention before you write is paramount in writing.  If you wander aimlessly through the lexicon of the English language, seeing where it might take you, and then hope to find your intention once you get into it, then pretty please, with a cherry on top, destroy everything you wrote before you found your intention.

Your intention can be generic:

• I want to write a story where a boy meets a girl, they fall in love, they separate, and then get back together never to be separated again.
• I want to write a story about a group of powerful men that conspire to withhold true control of the world from everyone but themselves and only one person armed with plucky charm and a disbelieving sidekick can bring them down.
• I want to write a story about the heartwarming drama of simple small lives that make us realize what being human really is and teaches us to want what we have, not have what we want.

But, if you're going to be generic, you better have some interesting destination or a platypus will repeatedly smack the back of your leg with a garden spade until you think of one.  Give us (your readers/audience) some indication that we haven't read this story, like, a bajillion times (even though we have).

It's important to note that the intention is not the pitch.  The pitch tells the whole story in one sentence (okay, maybe sometimes two).  The intention is the raison d'etre for what ever you are writing.  Having a clear intention, especially having a specific, unique, and clear intention, will bring you one step closer to realizing there's no such thing as writer's block.

Does everyone have their intention written out?  Good, now you're ready to go on vacation!

It's a Free Country, Isn't it?

Writers' Wednesday!

Never write for free.

In case you missed that:

Never.  Write.  For.  Free.

That's my new mantra.  I have been willing to do all kinds of things for free in hopes that someone will see my genius and make it up in spades.  Have you ever seen a music video directed for free when the group didn't take it seriously and the manager and producer wasted the better part of two days changing the plans, only to call the whole thing done when less than half of the shots were in the can?  Let's just say no one would be knocking on my door (they were too busy locking theirs).

I've also acted for free (well, for a copy of the finished product to add to my reel), giving my best work and doing very physical stunts.  I never received a copy.  The work never snowballed into easy street.

I can't even count the times I've written free copy to help someone out (and hopefully get samples to use to seduce paying clients).  What happened was I made myself into a creative whore.  That's probably not the best term to use...  whores get paid.

Regardless, (as I will undoubtedly be telling the bug when she's older) no one will respect you if you don't first respect yourself.  Why would anyone pay good money in an economy such as this when they can get your best efforts for the cost of the air they breathe?

Novels, screenplays, articles, short stories, and (to a much, much lesser extent) poetry should be considered deferred pay.  No one's paying me now, but just wait fifteen years...  or more.  I'm not even writing this blog for free.  You think it's free because you haven't paid any money to read this.  Still, my blog is upping my potential earnings from hopeful to possible.  (hey, I've got the bug and wifey to consider)

If you've ever asked a writer to work for free, or questioned why writers should be paid at all, shame on you! Would you expect that of any other profession?  Have any of you writers turned free work into financial independence?  (didn't think so)