Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. It’s not that I’m trying to be interesting so much as I’m trying to develop a habit. Okay, truthfully, I already have a blogging habit but for some reason posting here is very strange for me.
The thing about this blog is that it’s all about writing, at least, that’s how it was conceptualized. Essentially this is my ‘writing’ website. Mostly because what I know of actually coding html and CSS you could fill a thimble with and wordpress is mostly form filling and arrange preset chunks while still looking nice and being pretty flexible in form and function and giving me a level of control.
What’s the point though? It feels very ‘toot your own horn’ if I leave this just for “hey this thing I’ve done! go read it!” which to be honest, I will totally use this blog for, if only because one day I hope that people will want to know when I’ve got new stuff going. There’s nothing wrong with that format honestly, but as I go through this writing gig I’ve reserved learning about each step as I get to it. So for example, I’m not worrying about perfecting my query letter until I need to write one. It’s a very simple way of putting off stress. This business is complicated enough without freaking yourself out prematurely.
However, my feelings are if I’m going to use blogging software as my ‘website’ I should actually use the blogging software. Anyone who knows me knows I have no shortage of words coming out of my mouth. Anyone who’s accidentally overheard me or stopped next to my car at a red light knows I really don’t have a problem talking into a vacuum. *G*
So, in the grand tradition of almost meaningless gestures (because frankly I have like 12 readers), I shall point everyone to the soon to be published book of a friend of mine. Because sometimes our best press is each other.
Lyrical Press presents:
The Arrangement by Cat Grant
When she was talking about this before anyone had bought the contract it sounded interesting to me so I’m really glad I’ll be able to snag this myself in a few weeks. It’s labeled erotica so that might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but don’t let that scare you away either.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. I managed to upgrade to Wordpress 2.5, it seems like a good idea since the last batch of updates (I haven’t updates since around 2.1 I think) really added some nice functionality, however now I have to figure out which plugins to update and which to scrap all together because WordPress 2.5 has integrated them. I’m going to have to hunker down and read some documentation. Joy.
What I’d really like to ask of the four of you left reading this blog (wow I should attempt to post more and be interesting, or at least strange enough to pass for interesting) is to just have a conversation in the comments, use the features, subscribe and threaded comments.
Let me know what you think, suggestions for tweaking always welcome!
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. So I’ve been busy. *flops*
First thing’s first, I’ve got a new weekly column at FADPOV, the first one came out today. I’m the Star Trek writer. *beams* DREAM COME TRUE. What this means is more often than not I can just sit down and type type type and do a smidgen of fact checking later. Which I’m getting better at remembering to do. This is great for me however because my abject laziness has a hard time working against something that doesn’t require heavy research. There’s no actual title for the column yet, but suggestions are more than welcome.
Next order of business, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m working on remembering to post more. Things that will help me remember: Who knows how to make semagic post to wordpress? People commenting. No, I am not demanding comments or you will never see this blog again, but I do want to make this place comfortable for commenting. Way back when I turned off the commenting on LJ because I strongly and severely disagree with their policies and practices, I still do, but until I can work this place up, I’m willing to open it back up there on a limited basis. Thoughts?
Finally, what do you guys want to see or hear about? Writing links? Writing updates? Writing process? My favorite chicken recipe? I know I’m a pro only in the sense that I can write technical articles, but I’m sure there’s something interesting out there we can all talk about. (Ack, just acidentlly added the wrong spelling of process to my firefox dictionary, *sigh*) It doesn’t even have to be writing related. *G* Do you want more more entries about life in general?
On a similar note, what do you want to see on my sidebar? I’ve got some ideas for links I just need time to sit down and make it so, ditto with the about me page.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. At this point in my career I don’t qualify for any of the Unions, Guilds and Associations that exist in their various forms for writers. I am, however, intimately aware of many of them. I scoutted them out early on, because this sort of career is the kind you have to chart a few years in advance, large writing projects can take long months to organize let alone see the light of day and there are goals that I need down on my calendar, money I need to set aside because these organizations do what they can to insure that I don’t die in a ditch somewhere. They do things like ensure minimum payments and keep collections for catastrophic events. You know writers don’t get health insurance right? If I were to break my hand tomorrow, I’d be so fucked I can’t even describe it. Not because I wouldn’t be able to write (I could, it’d take a while to work around it, but there’s plenty I could do) but because the ER visit alone would clean out my savings.
When you first start telling people “I want to be a writer” they all sort of squint at you in pity and mentally start finding the nearest foodbank and gathering old clothes they can donate to you. Writers can lead poor and nutritionally deficient lives. (Side note: This is true for many aspects of the entertainment industry, for the purposes of this post, we’ll focus on writing.)
It’s a cliche, but with many things, it’s rooted in some cold, hard and poor truths.
Writers are often imagined as people who could not imagine doing anything else, a special breed, different and odd, and why not, what other types of people would voluntarily walk into a world of nearly guaranteed lack of success. Even if you do win, you rarely win big. You take jobs that pay and they’re seldom the jobs that you want.
I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how selfish the writer’s are, how greedy. How dare they ask for more money. And to those people I say, how dare you ask people to work for nothing. More on that later.
First some statistics.
I read one place (and I haven’t confirmed it, frankly I think the number is too high) that on average writer make $62,000 a year. This leads me to the following statements:
1. Average includes the top tier writers whose yearly salaries skew the curve so hard upward that number should make many of you gasp in shock.
2. 48% of the members of the WGA are unemployed at any one time. In other words, they’re living off residuals. One famous academy award winning writer didn’t work for two years after he won the award.
3. $62,000 a year isn’t bad. If you don’t live in New York or California, where the industry lives and thus making it more likely you’ll have a job. It’s not bad if your salary included such benefits as Health Insurance and 401k type future holdings.
3.b. I’d wager a good 30% of working writers make so much less than that it’s not funny. (Please if someone can find me the statistics I’d be grateful, my google-fu failed me this time.)
4. Writing is not a steady job. At any given point you can go from completely covered, yay my car payment hasn’t been late in six months to “dear god, Ramen again” in the blink of an eye. Insurance and other such niceties can flutter away that quickly.
5. Putting aside the idea of someone making money off my hard work, residuals are what keep writers alive. Literally.
6. It is not nearly so simple as “Firing all of those lazy bastards and hiring from the thousands of writers who need a job!” Because I’d wager that most of them have more integrity than that. I know I do. But without an ounce of ego, not everyone can write what needs to be written.
So what’s this strike all about??
It comes down to other people making money off work that the original creators aren’t getting a dime for.
So many other people have said it better than I ever could have, I’ll let them speak:
1. United Hollywood gives a good summation of the specific issues involved:
1. Residuals for reuse of content (like replaying tv shows) on the internet.
We’re asking for residuals of 2.5% of revenue — that means for every dollar they get paid, we’d get 2 and a half cents. It’s a flat percentage, so if they’re right and they’re never ever going to make a penny, well then, we won’t either. No harm, no foul.
Since 2.5% is our starting point, in any normal negotiation we’d end up somewhere between what they want to pay (.3%) and what we’re asking for (2.5%). I’d guess 1 to 1.5 %.
2. Coverage and protections for original content (new stuff we create for the internet.)
We’re asking for basic protections so that when we write original stuff for the internet, we have rights — health and pension, minimum amounts, credits and separated rights (so if we make some amazing character or show, we get the right to share in its success.)
We’re just asking for the same protections we already have for writing in tv or film. Nothing new or weird. Just the basics.
2. JMS speaks:
First, to the non- or anti-union folks, a question: when you go into a
book store to buy a copy of a novel by your favorite author, do you
mind that roughly twelve percent of the price of that book goes to the
author? Or do you feel that he’s entitled to that royalty?
Most folks, I would suggest, are totally okay with that idea. They
wrote the book, the publisher published the book, they’re both
entitled to get something back from the publishing of it. That seems
only fair.
3. Joss Whedon Speaks:
It’s necessary, though. We’re talking about story-telling, the most basic human need. Food? That’s an animal need. Shelter? That’s a luxury item that leads to social grouping, which leads directly to fancy scarves. But human awareness is all about story-telling. The selective narrative of your memory. The story of why the Sky Bully throws lightning at you. From the first, stories, even unspoken, separated us from the other, cooler beasts. And now we’re talking about the stories that define our nation’s popular culture – a huge part of its identity. These are the people that think those up. Working writers.
4. Saundra Mitchell writes an article for FADPOV:
In 1988, the WGA called a strike that lasted five months, cost the filmmaking industry $500m, and deprived viewers of an entire season’s worth of new programming. It was the strike that home video built - writers were asking for their share of the profit of the home video market, back when VHS tapes cost $75 each, long before television series were available as anything but reruns. That strike set the foundation for reality programming, and it was the last time fans could do nothing except watch, wait and hope that things would work out in the end.
5. Doris Egan speaks:
It hasn’t always been easy. Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh wrote the first four seasons of I Love Lucy. As you read this, that show is playing somewhere in the world, but Carroll and Pugh never saw a dime of residuals from the huge amount of money their scripts made. That money still rains down today on a huge conglomerate, where no one in the executive offices has any connection whatsoever with the series, let alone contributed to its success. It’s simply free money for them, forever and ever. This is one reason I would go back in a time machine and stop Hollywood writers from giving up copyright, for with copyright went respect and fair treatment; but you can never wrestle from the hands of a corporation that which they now believe is theirs. Carroll kidded an interviewer, before he died at the age of 87: “If I had residuals, would I be here?” But this was a business where Jack Benny didn’t give his writers credits on his show, because it was believed the audience thought actors and comedians made everything up on the spot. It was a business where, one ancient director told me, when a movie stopped for the night, the crew could be locked up in a barn till daylight.
and:
Briefly, if you haven’t heard by now: back when movies were first sold on video, the AMPTP said, “It’s new! It’s wicked new! It could cost all kinds of money to make these crazy things! So you guys wouldn’t mind taking an 80 percent pay cut while we grow the business and see if there’s money to be made, right?” So we did. As one older writer explained it to me, we wanted to give the fledgling market a chance — “and of course we found it didn’t cost anything at all to make the videos.” But the 80 percent cut remained; and when DVDs came in, the AMPTP said, “Same as videos, right?” They then stomped all over us with big boots during the strike of ‘88, and here we are now: DVDs are the same as videos. You may be wondering how this famous “four cents per DVD” shakes down, so let me tell you: for a long, long time I never actually met a writer who’d gotten any money from video or DVD — that’s how ghostly-thin a slice we were served at table.
6. History and the beginnings of the WGA:
The writers at that first meeting did not feel like kings. They felt abused and betrayed and enraged. The prior month, Louis B. Mayer and the other studio heads had forced a 50 percent pay cut on the contract writers as well as on other studio employees. Writers felt this cut was a ploy to maintain studio profits. (A 1935 government study revealed that at the same time as the salary cuts, executives were awarding themselves bonuses of 20 percent to 25 percent of net earnings. While Hollywood employee salaries declined by 16.1 percent, movie box office receipts rose from 78.86 percent to 84.12 percent.) The only studio employees spared pay cuts were the carpenters, electricians, and craftsmen, who happened to be protected by the only union shop in the film industry, the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees.
7. Websites chock full of information:
fans4writers: One stop website for the fan initiatives. It has post cards and pizza deliveries and paypal donations and much much more.
strikenewsdigest: This has a comprehensive update on strike happenings and a full list of links to various organizations and information sources.
Writersstrike on twitter: Various interesting tidbits and articles.
wga_supporters: Livejournal community more fan initiative information.
WGA on Youtube: Various clips of strikers on the line and personalities expressing their support.
WGA Wiki entry: Because it’s the internet! It’s a fairly comprehensive background and shows affected list.
My final words: With contract negotiations coming up for SAG and the Directors guild opening up in a matter of weeks, this is about so much more than a bunch of greedy writers, or even a bunch of writers trying to get what’s rightfully theirs. That said, even the most well paid writer in the world would have my support if their work was being used to make money and they were seeing none of it.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. First, stuff you can read!
I’ve been doing the weekly episode reviews for Reaper (behind but should be caught up onsite by tomorrow) and Journeyman over on FADPOV. It’s and interesting experience I’ll give it that. I’m psyching myself out about them sometimes and I really need to stop that.
Also, new to the site, Top Ten Moments That Didn’t Happen in Star Trek TOS Canon. It specifically talks about the books with plot lines that can be traced directly back to the series and its movies. So no confusing it with my all time favorites (though most of them make me very happy), I’m aware of the usual favorites that didn’t make it in. You’ll see those soon too.
Happy reading and commenting!
Now stuff you probably wouldn’t want to read!
While it’s gratifying to be writing for people that want you to be there, it’s also gratifying to complete a job that pays you for those writing skills. As with most writers (and a lot of actors), I take the jobs that pay even if they’re not my dream job or even close to being in the same category as my dream job. That said, OMG I GOT PAID TO BE A WRITER HOW COOL IS THAT? It’s your basic nonfiction, my name isn’t really attached to it stuff. Who cares? I got paid! And it can totally go into my portfolio!
Now the stuff you might read one day!
I finally gave in and chose a novel idea to sit down and work through completely. I’m in the “OMG MY OUTLINE IS TOO THIN, THIS IS NEVER GOING TO WORK!!!” phase. But last night I had some interesting brainstorming ideas. So I’m feeling okay about it. Mostly. I’ll do some periodic updates here. Expect flailing if I actually make lots of progress.
Things you can see on my sidebar!
I added the del.icio.us script that shows the most recent 5 URLs added to my account. The whole thing is sparse at the moment, but as I finish up a backlog of work I’ll have time to do a bit of research and to organize the large file of bookmarks full of helpful resources and thus more links will be added.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. So, I’m actually a little nervous about this one. My review of A Dog’s Breakfast is up and my nervousness mostly stems from the fact that I know the group of people who will probably be most interesting in it and this movie. It’s not that I hated it, it’s that I didn’t think it was Super Duper Amazing and I hope that distinction comes through.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. My review of Highlander 5: The Source is up at FadPov. I think I say all I need to over there. Wow.
I’ve got another movie review coming up in about 2 weeks and starting this fall I’ll be doing weekly reviews and recaps for Journeyman and Reaper. Once they start airing, I’ll link to the first ones, but unless I start coming up with more content here, it seems a bit repetitive to remind you all of it more than once in a while.
As for here, some personal computer woes have slowed down any ideas I had for cleaning up this site and getting some more plugins up and active. I really want to get openID working.
Is there anything you guys really want? I still need to get my blogroll and about pages written, I was thinking of pulling my del.icio.us links over and you can get all the boring writing stuff I’ve bookmarked and some of the research sites and whatnot.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. So don’t blame me if I forgot things.
The Top Ten Moments in Science Fiction went live a little while ago. It was fun to write, even if the whole thing is terribly biased.
I’m sorry I haven’t responded to the few comments I’ve gotten, I wanted to get this place a little more comfortable for actual conversation, I haven’t added any new plugins since last time, but since no one has commented since the new plugins went up, I thought I’d let you know again.
Anyone interested in vague updates about other writerly pursuits?
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. I’m slowly adding some plugins one at a time, trying to make sure they do what they’re supposed to and they don’t break anything. Currently we have threaded commenting and ’subscribe to this entry’. Let me know how it goes? Or if you have a better subscribe plugin. (I figured it was time because I actually have people commenting!)
Next I’ll probably rearrange the side bar. I know! THE EXCITEMENT.
FYI: I won’t actually tell you every excruciating detail of site maintenance but I do sort of need some interaction on some of these and I appreciate any help I can get.
Oh and– does anyone know how to update their theme without losing those pesky customizations?
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. The exciting conclusion, How to Attend a Convention Without Having to Take Out a Loan, Injuring Yourself and Coming Home With the Plague… Part 2, Covering Travel, the Convention and Beyond went up earlier today, comments and feedback and all that stuff are generally encouraged.
That said, please, browse the site itself, we’re still in the early stages but readership is a premium and often unseen factor. Read, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we all may be asleep.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. Apparently I missed the premier of my own article because the RSS feed for FADPOV is currently broken. I’ve been a busy so I’m not really shocked that I missed the fact that FADPOV wasn’t lighting up with the regularity it should on my rss feeder.
Anyway, for those interested, my article titled:
How to Attend a Convention Without Having to Take Out a Loan, Injuring Yourself and Coming How to Attend a Convention Without Having to Take Out a Loan, Injuring Yourself and Coming Home With the Plague… Part 1, Otherwise Known as Planning and Packing is available to read. Please comment at the website (or here) if you feel like.
Also… YAY! ARTICLE! WOOO!
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. FADPOV is a small startup fan/media website dedicated to talking about your favorite shows– but with a slightly different point of view. FADPOV or Fandom from a Different Point of View, is about remembering that girls like this stuff too. Their site goes into more details, their press release, etc, can be found under editorials on the right column. For those wanting a shorter summary, you can read it here.
Why am I talking about this? Because I’m currently listed as a Staff Writer. Allow me a moment to glow. It’s not much, though I really like the website, its founders and the idea behind it, and it means a lot to me. Stay tuned, you’ll probably see an incoherent announcement about my first article sometime soon.
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Originally published at Rachel's Writing Machinations. You can comment here or there. I have a confession.
I don’t love words.
You critical readers might now be thinking “Then Rachel, why are you a writer?”
Because I can’t stop. Well. Okay. currently that’s not quite true. I have stopped, frozen in a fear I don’t understand, but the ideas, the ideas are still there, bubbling up towards the surface fast and furious. This is what gives me hope, that however, is another post. (Thank you Alton Brown!)
I have friends who write casually and when I say casually that isn’t meant to limit or lower their writing in any way. It simply means they write without any thougth to submission, they write for the joy of writing without intent to sell or make a living from it. Which isn’t to say that’s not what writers do, write for the joy of it and have tiny little explosions of joy every time they realize people will pay them for it. This however is not the path of some of my friends who love writing. They are the fanfic writers or the ones hitting the end and simply putting the story away to share when needed or not. I know of professional writers who also fit this criteria, whose prose is lyrical and rich and just full of the joy of simply describing a room.
I, on the other hand, do not love words. *sigh*
I don’t want to spend countless hours recalling every unique or special detail about the room my character inhabits. I don’t want to go into glorious detail about their skin or their eyes, I have trouble coming up with interesting ways to describe things at all. That’s not to say I don’t have my moments of Word Love. I do. I think about how awesomely powerful words are, I walk away from certain books in awe of the conclusion words brought me to, or I think about how the perfectly put together sentence can be a sucker punch in the right place.
I have a hard core crush on words, yes, I freely admit to that, I sort of peak out at words other people have written in shy admiration, hoping they’ll notice me and that maybe one day words and I can have a similar relationship. For now though, I look from afar, sighing pathetic little sighs and hoping that one day they notice me, and make me understand the great sprawling paragraphs and sentences of the people who love them, hope they tell me the little secrets that they’ve so obviously already whispered to their other romances.
Or *rereads lasts paragraph* I could find a nice group therapy session.
In conclusion, I do not love words, but I do sort of obsess about them and secretly scrawl our names together inside little pink hearts and pick out wedding dresses and caterers.
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As a writer, Livejournal has made it clear they don't appreciate my point of view about fiction, that is, I should have one without needing it stamped and approved.
I'll be keeping this journal open, it's a great resource for now if anything else and if I can figure out how to post to my blog and to this thing (which I know is possible) I'll continue to do so happily.
For people who want to move over to the blog structure, you can find me at Rachel Gostl.com I'm still putting things together and making sure everything cross links to each other, but suggestions and hints and favorite widgets and plugins are always welcome.
I've created an rss feed for LJ as well if you would prefer to follow me like in that manner.
*insert panic about using my last name here*
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I have a confession.
I don't love words.
You critical readers might now be thinking "Then Rachel, why are you a writer?"
Because I can't stop. Well. Okay. currently that's not quite true. I have stopped, frozen in a fear I don't understand, but the ideas, the ideas are still there, bubbling up towards the surface fast and furious. This is what gives me hope, that however, is another post. (Thank you Alton Brown!)
I have friends who write casually and when I say casually that isn't meant to limit or lower their writing in any way. It simply means they write without any thougth to submission, they write for the joy of writing without intent to sell or make a living from it. Which isn't to say that's not what writers do, write for the joy of it and have tiny little explosions of joy every time they realize people will pay them for it. This however is not the path of some of my friends who love writing. They are the fanfic writers or the ones hitting then end and simply putting the story away to share when needed or not. I know of professional writers who also fit this criteria, whose prose is lyrical and rich and just full of the joy of simply describing a room.
I, on the other hand, do not love words. *sigh*
I don't want to spend countless hours recalling every unique or special detail about the room my character inhabits. I don't want to go into glorious detail about their skin or their eyes, I have trouble coming up with interesting ways to describe things at all. That's not to say I don't have my moments of Word Love. I do. I think about how awesomely powerful words are, I walk away from certain books in awe of the conclusion words brought me to, or I think about how the perfectly put together sentence can be a sucker punch in the right place.
I have a hard core crush on words, yes, I freely admit to that, I sort of peak out at words other people have written in shy admiration, hoping they'll notice me and that maybe one day words and I can have a similar relationship. For now though, I look from afar, sighing pathetic little sighs and hoping that one day they notice me, and make me understand the great sprawling paragraphs and sentences of the people who love them, hope they tell me the little secrets that they've so obviously already whispered to their other romances.
Or *rereads lasts paragraph* I could find a nice group therapy session.
In conclusion, I do not love words, but I do sort of obsess about them and secretly scrawl our names together inside little pink hearts and pick out wedding dresses and caterers.
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In my 'drawer file' I have a single completed story, it even comes with editorial notes from a kind person who has spent years taming the comma, years I spent sleeping through classes apparently. The editorial notes include some interesting suggestions about content as well. I sort of dread getting down to those, I worry it will be me, my story and a box of used tissues while I cling to a mug of hot cocoa and wail about the unfairness of the universe and how the entire ending needs to be reworked! Or worse, I need to work in tiny elements to finish supporting the ending through the entire story.
God I hate that. I never know where to start. *CLINGS TO LIVEJOURNAL* Thank god I have plenty of distractions! *Ponders* Hmm. This carpet is looking dirty, I could totally vacuum it today!
So. I've got the file open and I've even made CHANGES! OMG *FEELS FAINT*.
( Cut to save you from my neurosis. Though suggestions up to and including hog tying my own ego, always welcome! )
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I've been hemming and hawing a lot at this whole writing and submitting process and I think I need to start actively journaling about it or at least, move into this space. It's a bit like taking your office. By opening this up, I'm saying "See, this is me, I'm a writer and I plan on being a part of the world and this is my spot and I plan on making it comfy if you want to join me." There's something about opening up this virtual office that makes me feel official.
I am a writer.
See. That was easy. *wipes sweaty palms*
This space may or may not be temporary, this nickname may or may not stay as my formal blogging name, it all depends on how I come to feel about releasing my last name into the world. More on that later for anyone interested. I'm playing around with various blogging software and website designs, but they all have one thing in common, I'm really bad at making them neat and simple and readable and pretty. So for now I thought I'd stick with one of LJ's most basic layouts and hope that it looks somewhat professional while I sort out the rest.
I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use this for yet, but I will use it. I promise. *frowns* I heard that snicker!
So, in summation: Welcome!
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TEST TEST TEST TEST
TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST
TEST TEST TEST TEST
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curious