WORDS FROM THE WISE/PART 9 – Lavie Tidhar

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WORDS FROM THE WISE
PART 9

(mental spreadsheets)
Lavie Tidhar

I was tracking the edits of my next novella, ‘The Folger Variation’ (and starting to get very frustrated and drained by the process!), when I decided to shut the document down and come back to it when I was feeling less demoralised by my own grammatical incompetance – Microsoft Review kept crashing too. Fuck it, I thought, time to scroll through Facepuke.

I was extra pleased to see a message pop up in my inbox from Lavie Tidhar. Lavie is a highly decorated author who writes across multiple genres. I asked him to offer a few of his ‘words from the wise’ and he replied almost instantly with the following bitesize nugget of insight. Keep a spreadsheet, apparently. You heard the man…

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The question posed to each author is – “A young author comes to you seeking advice. They’re riddled with insecurities and completely overwhelmed by the publishing industry. What are your Words from the Wise?”

LT – A friend is just an enemy you haven’t made yet. You can write for posterity or you can write for money – it doesn’t matter, you’d get short-changed either way.

I’ll keep it short. The definition of a writer is someone who looks with seething envy and resentment at anyone more successful than them, and with unmitigated contempt at anyone less fortunate.

Keep a mental spreadsheet up to date at all times to know where you are. Review it endlessly. Conjure it up at three a.m.

It’s harder to sell a second (or third, or tenth) book than a first one. … always use ‘said’.

Never pay for drinks if you can help it. You can’t afford them anyway.

Never abuse a semi-colon.