Skip to main content

Top Ten Ideas - What to do with your unpublished body of work

1.    Fill up the floor and shelves of all of the closets in your house.

2.    Store them on an external device for so long that the technology is obsoite and you have to hire a data recovery company in order to view it again.

3.    Copyright all of your thousands of poems, dozens of books, endless shortstories, one novel and handfull of screenplays under ”body of work“  so that for $35 you can copyright the whole kit and kaboodle.

4.    When deeply depressed over not being published, use some pages of your rejected work to start a fire in the fireplace.  Then open bottle of wine and don’t share it.

5.    Pull out any of your work you want to critique and edit, edit, edit – this should take up about a third of your life.

6.    Print all of your works out and put them in three ring binders to give yourself the sense of being a published author without the accolades or income.

7.    On a really bad days, tear your discarded pages into strips and use them as tolet paper.

8.    For inspiration for those time when you have writers block, wallpaper your writing room with pages from your favorite manuscript.

9.    Here is a novel idea, finish something and send it out to as many literary agents as you can find every week.  Preferably via email so you can afford to send it thousands of times.

10. Cuddle up with your favorite work and read it allowed to someone, even if it is just yourself.

JL Cooper

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Magic of Spring

(In the short story series "Stories of a Lifetime") The memories of her childhood meld together.  One year indiscernible from the next.  She recalls the enjoyment of breathing deeply the warming damp air of a sunny spring day.  Wondering through the yard discovering the new life that comes with the change of season.  The tips of tender green shoots poking their heads through the dark ground.  She witnesses the stalks grow and buds emerge.  Then one day the flowers are in full bloom and the air is sweetened by their fragrance.  The warm strong breezes kiss the petals and rustle her hair. The bees awaken and busy themselves to their task.  The joy of finding the secret spaces where the tiniest of flowers hide themselves away.  Blue bells, violets and bleeding hearts quietly surprise their visitor.  The baby bunnies venture from their nursery nests.  As the robins hop around on the early morning gra...

The Second Beginning

Today I am beginning the rewrites on my book.   It is a bit like visiting an old friend.   I am a little apprehensive but overall thrilled.   Tonight I will work on the story board.   The time off of writing has allowed me to stop being in love with the book as it is.   It is easier to chop it up and move things around now that the story is not fresh in my mind.   I can look at it through new eyes.   Adding and subtracting the bits that will make it a stronger read.     So here I go on day one of a three month schedule for rewrites.   JL Cooper

Forrest

It is difficult to say anything at all through the fresh tears of new loss.   Words cannot express the love he inspired in all of us.   What can I say about such a strong man who is one of the most influential people in my life?   He has seen me though the many stages of my life with love and compassion.   He is a man of solid character, Christian values and a strong family leader.   Through grace he is welcomed with a great celebration into heaven by God and by all who have come before him.   It must be an unbelievably joyous sight.   He is seeing his beloved mother, sister, brother and father again after all of these years.    I know he would rather have stayed here with Grandma until they could have gone on together.   I too would rather keep him here with us.   However I am comforted by the knowledge that he is home with God and the rest of his friends and family who have gone on before him.   I try and picture w...