#WritersCoffeeClub October 23:
How do you make sure you deliver on your writerly promises?
I try not to make any. I have a think about authors who announce "this will be X books" and then have to write a few hundred pages of filler to make it happen.
But I do write a lot of commissioned works and I strive to finish those. I may not always make a deadline, so I don't usually give one to the commissioner, but I will get it done unless I find I'm unable to for some reason; since I don't get paid until I finish, the only thing I waste is time.
Many years ago, I decided to take some advice from Jim C. Hines and Scott Lynch that I heard at ICON (IA, which is today) which was "write more words, don't be a dick". What followed was that I wrote a chapter or story a week for three hundred consecutive weeks.
https://d.moonfire.us/blog/2021/03/17/three-hundred-weeks/
I put a lot of effort into making sure I had good buffers to avoid missing a week. I wrote programs to ensure it was published. I made sure I was going to post on Thursday every day for basically six years.
And then I burned out, which is where we are. Five years and I only published one book, write two stories, and have been working on my fifth novel ever since.
The only real promise I make is that I will not have sexual assault in my books. No matter how grim, or dangerous, it isn't there. It isn't an option, it isn't even a concern. It does not exist.
Occasionally, though, I make a mistake (fucking reality). When I do, I go back and edit the chapter/story, bump up the version, and then move on. I'll acknowledge it because I live in a world were SA does exist, but I have loved ones who never want to worry about that. So, no SA by anything written by D. Moonfire.
