Night Writers and Fiction Drugs "You night writers have it made.

" No one said that to me, but there again everyone who hears you're a writer is interested, whether they say it to you or not, in the kind of schedule you keep, the kind of money you make, the odds against you, ... and so on. Night writing is just an idea. For the last two years, I've kept a pretty rigid schedule of night writing. But there are other habits, and habits can be good. Going for a walk on a cold day. Spending a bit too much on a latte. Going to the book store looking for deals and steals. Kissing pretty people who like being kissed and who like kissing you back, any time of the day. Just like love, art is a a vessel on a voyage to something different. There will be dark times, dear writer, but I promise some nights the moon will outshine any street lamp, that most of your heart will be full, that you will have moments of euphoria and emotion. You will feel,become one, and that's no lie. These things aside, I was going to tell you about night writers. They can get up at 6am and write a page, go to work, come back home, take a nap, and squeeze out another page before saying goodnight. They can get up at 12pm and go right to the writing desk. They can work from 8pm to 12am every single night. They can spend 10 minutes writing one page every single day, every day of the year, turn in a book with no thought of getting it accepted, and then getting a serious inquiry from a publisher. The point is writing and dreaming. I chose night writing because my mind seemed incapable of working the regular 9-5 shift. I can't say I won't ever go back to it, but this is art, this is writing, this is not getting up for school or a regular job. This is far too complex to force yourself to write every day on some normal schedule. And guess what, it's a privilege to not only enjoy your job but to sleep in, take extended vacations, and even make some dollars. Night writers are addicted, night writers are different, and in many ways there's a night writer in all of you. This book is about fiction drugs too, but fiction drugs are quite another story. The Fiction Drug It's also a story drug. You sit up at work and hope for time to pursue your dream of writing a novel. You sit down and put page one on your screen and type your name. You start writing and can never stop. Some days you feel so bad you just don't want to write, but that empty feeling creeps in. The fiction drug is about decisions and addictions. You decide to write a novel, hopefully not to make a million dollars,but to wake and say "I will write today or the whole day will seem wasted." You start writing, you make that decision, and then you can't stop. The repetition gets in your blood. The tea or latter tastes good as you sip and call down memories from your own heavens and hell. You write because, clearly, you have to write. There is no other way to do it. You write and then someone says they like your writing. "It says life is like this," noted screenwriter

and hero Robert Mckee said in "Story," a true fiction drug enterprise. Someone says they like it, there goes the drug into your veins. While working, you'll think of how your hero can save the damsel, how he can fall, how he can get back up, how he can say something to the world and have them listen, on the page. Or maybe your heroine falls down the stairs and gets up one day and wants to change her life completely. She has the good job and the money, the house and the car, but she can't make happiness out of profit. Fiction drugs are heroic drugs, the only drug I know of that can help you in every single way. 500 words a day, a few pages a day, a novel every year, a few dozen short stories and guided dreams ... you get the point. I first got into writing thinking fiction was the answer. You got famous. Your name on the front cover, your picture behind, your name on TV, your face flooding Publishers Weekly issues. Of course, let's be real, it doesn't work like that. But I wrote fiction because I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to say something about life, and really there is no other way to do it. Of course, it's story drug too. It's the call to write a film, tell the next poetic verse, write a memoir, write an article. These are all stories. The fiction drug won't ever leave your system once you've tasted it; it will be a memory of something else. It will be a fiction dream. And the good news is, you don't ever have to give it up. Night Business and Dark Dreams Writing is an absolute. When you say something, say it,when you want something, go after it, when you have a wild dream, strive for it. I call it the night business, the reality of the world. I can't say enough to look away from money; in some ways, it was the thesis of The Writer Who Smiles; I told you to call yourself to write, to dream, but to move away from profit. Writing can be a business, but it certainly doesn't have to be one. The reality is different. I could tell you the long trial of my first book. I hated my newspaper job: quit. I hated writing for low pay websites: stopped. I wanted to write something with meaning, and maybe make a little capital along the way. I wrote The Writer Who Smiles and it failed as an eBook for about six months. A small publisher,whose mailing list I was on, sent me a call for submissions, I submitted, it was accepted. I had given up on the writing of books part of my life. Then the eBook turned into some ghost writing work. Then the idea to write another book came to me. This night business isn't all about money, but if your dream is to make money writing, to make it your career, how can you ignore the color green? The fact is, screenwriters get paid. Novelists get paid. Magazine writers get paid. Copywriters get paid. They earn enough to help those around them too, they make an impact on society,they create a kind of art which keeps on giving back to others. It's almost a dark dream to want to be rich and famous, to be able to spend money frivolously,to get a

big check in the mail. You can also equate this business to talent and ego: if you're worth something, you should get paid for it. If you are a miserable writer--doubtful--then you can still earn a living writing something or other. But the best part about money is its proof you can put in the bank. Night business. Dark dreams. If you only want money, you're missing out. But who wants to live in a car and travel the road with 10 dollars in their pocket? Make it a business, but never forget your heart, your soul, the people who read you, the people who spend money on you. The Fiction Business Writing for profit should be the last thing you think of, but let's be honest: it's how we want to think. You get up and write, you want to by things, you want to live a semi-normal life behind the typewriter or laptop. The point is, writing for profit is a bitter reality, and not much of a copout. I hope some day my stories make me money, but I've never sold a single fiction story. I've had literary shorts rejected, science fiction stories rejected, horror novels rejected, fantasy stories rejected by a leading short story competition and publisher, and I've even gotten no response on comic book scripts I've subbed. That's just the start. In business, failing isn't falling, but lieing there. You don't get up. You give up. There is something better to do. You want to make lots of money, you want to put your kids though school. While I failed at fiction, my first true writing pursuit and a constant love affair like a drug, during that time I've sold a non-fiction book, sold over 700 articles (some for very low pay, mind you), gotten feedback on fiction saying, "This is quite a story, but ...", and met more people who love the art than I ever would have had I just given up on fiction and writing in general. My web copywriting business took off. My blog got me experience. My book led to ghost writing work. And all because of that damned fiction business. I haven't been paid one penny for a single story I wrote. The best I can give you is winning a high school short story competition and laughing because the story was a joke. You've wanted to write fiction, but money ... there is money involved. Typical first novels maybe get 5 to 10 big ones. Or they go to small press and pay back pennies on the dollar. Short stories, once the American dream boat for writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, have gone from paying writers a few grand for 2,000 words to paying 5 cents a word and lowering. But fiction is a business, in the end, and a very good one to get into. You learn how to write. You learn rejection more than any single lover ever wanted. You get feedback, the form query saying good job. But if you've ever read a literary biography, if you've ever read about any author, you'll know it's part of the job. Rejection improves you as a writer every time. How so? For every 500 queries I send out to companies I want to work with, and for every 100 resumes I submit to writing jobs, the majority of those companies never respond. However, I do get responses from just enough companies to actually make a living as a writer. Whether it's blogging or copywriting, putting that work in gives me work to pay the bills. I was rejected more times in my business writiing career than ever in my fictiion career. but I learned how sometimes it's justn ot in the cards. But sometimes, it is.

Maybe that's the wrong way of putting it. But Lawrence Block, crime writer and general practioner of helping others with the craft, had a good way of putting it: that's how the business works. Rejection is part of the job. If you can handle the heat, please stay in the kitchen because it gets better. Now, fiction for 5 pennies a word may seem tough. But you don't just jump into any writing career with some essays in college under your belt. That is not how you learn to write. YOu learn to write by pushing it yourself, not with teachers,but with your own discipline and drive. I won't say the 99 percent perspiration cliche, but it's so very true when it comes to fiction. There is another writer who sends out letters to the aspiring, and she asked an easy question you may never have heard. Would you expect to get an job designing a building because you watched a TV show on it? Would you expect to get the 100k job the day after you got out of school? It takes time. And time is something we all have. The fiction business is a good one. Just today,I scrambled out 500 words for a science fiction novel. The day before that I did the same. And every so often, I go the extra mile and put in 1,000-2,000 words, just because I've written more words in my time than I like to admit, and most of them could use some improvement. I guess I have to get the words right the next time. For now, I'll just write it. AKA Madness Madness is becoming of the novelist, but nothing to look up to or down to. It's obvious us artists have it tough when it comes to storytelling about our life. We've wanted to hurt ourselves, actually did hurt ourselves, maybe hurt others in some way, and done so again in again. This is life though, and no time for generalizing pain. My point is that writing and madness all too often go hand in hand. Painters go mad too, but writers are the subject here. Alcoholism is another one,where invincible Hemingways, O'Hara's, and Fitzgeralds practically drank their livors down to scraps. It's not a always a fun business to be a writer; you get pegged with being lazy, somewhat crazy, isolated, mad, and you have to deal wit that. In other words, problems are part of the job. Just as no stoory is begun without some central problem invilved, just as no non-fiction book doesn't offer some form of problem and try to answer it, probelsm are awpart of being a writer. I can't say I went completely mad. It may sound interesting to thin about. What is madness, and what does it feel like? It feels like hell. But when I picked up a biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who may or may not have had some problems, his name wasn't labeled mad, but Zelda. And when Hemingway couldn't escape his pain enough, he did the unthinkable, the man with such vision and with a loaded gun. These are sad stories, but bitter realities too. Writing isn't a mad pursuit, but many of us see no other way to live in the world than to comment on it. It excites us, but there is bitter frusstration and darkness involved too. You have to give into the pain some days. YOu wake up and realize you have to write aother damn page in the novel. You get home from work and you just want to sit in front fo the TV and zone out for an hour. You deserve it. Writers don't think in the box. Writers aren't always mad. However, artists are some of the most maddenign people you will ever meet, and if you spot a depressed writer, you'll note he can fake smiles,he can say he's great,and you'll see a bit of the darkness in his eyes.

My madness came about clearly because of many things. I chose drugs. I chose booze. Then I chose to beleive the madness. I went to the insane place to put us crazies, I took the pills and did odd things, and for some reason I walked out and said I wasn't crazy anymore. Oh, I still was, maybe still am, but I had to get out of hell. And then writing, the dream, came along and I saw a piece of heaven in the sky. I took to praying by my bedside, and not just when I was about to sleep.I bought empty notebooks and filled them with stories. I read so very much I needed glasses most days to put the words back into the brain. And I came out of it a writer. I went mad, and I put on the hat of a madman, and then I took it off and picked up a pen. Madness is something which will effect everyone; you willl know someone, or you'll be that someone. Whatever you do, the dream of putting pages together will seem grand. In other words, you'll want to be something better. You may or may not choose alcoholism or drug addiction. YOu may want to give up on your writing. but there again, you'll be sane and mad at the same point. Your dreams are a piece of you, just as a butterfly needs its wings, and therefore you must folllow them. And I have a feeling writing is a big part of them if you're this far into an essay about writing. Your First Page and Your Message Into Thy Night I just had a client say, "I don't like this," and when that happens you go back a step and think,or I thought and always think, "am I good enough?" The first page, as I see it, is part of this process. You fail to sell the book. The first page is brilliant, but you can't get past it and move to the second. Your first script gets rejected by every agent you send it to. You decide to quit. You can't write hooks and pitches worth a damn. The rent is due, and when will this writing career actually make that not so much of a problem? I won't go on, but it makes me think these things. I have never been a brilliant writer (as you can tell), but I guess writing isn't about brilliance. Writing is about work. I can't forget that first page stunk. I can't forget the short story was terrible. But, as Stephen King said, if you write every day for 5 years, guess what, you get better! And each terrible page does indeed lead to a brilliant page. My hero, the beautiful word seductress Julia Cameron, who has blond hair and must drink lots of dream coffee, said, In Order to write well, you must first be willing to write poorly. So what is poorly? Can you write brillianty instead? YOur first page will define you. It might have boldness and direction, or laziness an lack of detail, but either way it defines you and sends a message to thy writer self and thy writer spirit that you intend to do something. IT can be thought of as an abtract thing to do: you sit in front of a computer and punch keys and people pay you for it. And oh how they end up loving it! Writing is also exciting. That first page is damn exciting. It can be the horror novel you've always wanted to write or the short story you want to publish in The Sun, maybe the film script you've been outlining in your mind for a decade. Writing isn't all story writing, but all forms converge into making you a storyteller. Fiction or non-fiction, journalism or online writing, business direct mail or web copy, it really doesn't matter. How do you begin to say hello the writer self within you? Is there a point where you can say, I am a writer? The rule is, you must write every day. It must take you some difficulty. You must do it for the completion of your project. You must get something done. But let's not kid ourselves; you can be a writer in college. Its' a broad term, this writing business, and it can be for pennies or for millions. It

started for me with a $10 gift certificate to the local coffee shop just downt he street from where I'm writing. I'd taken to journalism, sold a few articles to the college paper. Then they decided to hire me, to filll a position, and I hadn't had a job in aboutt 2 years. I took it. I quit a year later. But I learned more about my dreams and goals in that year than I ever thought. Your first page doessn't have to be poor. It need not be the worst piece. But, as you'll see, sometimes you just need to be patient. Not every page in your novel has to be full of conflict, and arguably not every career has to change. You also don't need to make 50,000 big ones by your second year. You could put conflict into every page and have the suspense story of the decade. Many writers start earning far beyond the big ones number. But if you do this for perfection or profit you are in the wrong business. You can't sit on that novel till you die. And you can't expect all your goals to just fall in your lap. It takes pain, rejection, and sorrow for a true writer to be born. I migth say this and regret it, but if you get a rejection, get depresssed, stop writing, then start again, you're definitely in the right business. If you get a rejection and the next day write a similar piece, I adore you. Good job! My first story was stolen from a horror short story by R.L. Stine. There was this whole Come Back From the Dead type of thing about it. Instead of having some odd ghost or monster story in his short story, Stine took a unique stance, one of the best ideas for a horror story outside of Frankenstein I'd ever read. He had someone die, a young girl. I beleive it was a car accident. She died, and her friend was in sorrow. Then, the friend gets an odd phone call, and another, and another, from her dead friend. It spooked me, and I took it and ran. I've been wriiting fiction on and off ever since. And that's a good example of what good art in any form makes you do: you want to be that guy who did the painting, you want to be the short story writer who did this or that, you want to prove you can do it too. And I love that feeling, the warm feeling of wanting to create something. Into thy night, a play on the words of Dylan Thomas,"Do not go quiety into thy night," seems appropriate best for your wordsmiths and artist types. You want some form of legacy, maybe some fame while you live,a nd the time to actually create somethng, and the ability to effect people. The best writers rarely ever go quietly, and that's what I love about this writing business. Intro -Basics Fiction Business, my first book, my first page Call Your business Page No Pennies Never call a chapter. Call your demon out. Sometimes I wish my demons were lyions and tigers. You should call hope with a book. Yiou might cheat and want money. Is paper your god, or is your writing god? Are checks your demons, or do food stamps and some poor years equal perfection. I hate calling myself a writer. They always ask questions. Every writer can win on conversations. You might play a game with words. You are not a dictionary. You might go to hell on the beer. You could call out unknown, if not extinct, phrases. Do you watch TV? Do you plsy games? Do you earn money by selling your words, or cooling Cooling could call out your demons. You might call 10 pages on a screenplay, book it, finish it, and send it away. Should you flly to New York or California, or should you follow a dream. You might rebel: sit in your home and write a novel while you wash floors. Jobs can be heaven, jobs can be hell. Sjme of us simply cannot be baggers, moppers, and stock brokers. Some of us have to call art. Some call the novel the key. We real writers are different. It is not finishing. You do not finish your novel. You should finish your screenplay. You must finish your short essays and fiction. God is good and orderly, so you might call a cheat on journaling --- draw a pictur

You might call business and stay put. I am a Midwest writer. I play with business for money. I mastered fiction, I mastered cheap articles, I mastered free essays. These are my early codes. Poets, as T.S. Elliot always said, should, must, and will steal. But you have to call your original art. You must call freedom. I hate calling money, but you need to pay bills. You might call a short direct letter,; this could be worth What is a Fiction Drug? What is Money? /======= Write Write At All? What Are You Worth? Fiction Words and Splendid Writing Careers The Hero Who Smiles Salesman 101 - Many Hats of the Freelance Writer Fiction Drugs on Easy Street AKA Darkness Drug Pursuits and My Time Running Creative Minds and Nightmare Confessions How Many Cards Can You Hold? (Wanting to Write Everything) Salesman Nightmares and Fiction Isolation Sharing Writing Crying at Night Lonely Drugs Rejection and the Night Writer Who Smiles A Businesss Confessional A Book Nightmare Coffee and Heroes Heavy Notebooks and Red Ink