Last MM: Hollywood/LA

This weekend I went to the Los Angeles Festival of Books and was lucky enough to attend a conversation with Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi.  It was informative and very entertaining.  Wil Wheaton is great to listen to no matter what he’s doing.  And John Scalzi is becoming on of my favorite writers.

It turns out that Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi have been friends since John Scalzi was first starting out.  Their interaction was natural and made the audience feel like we all knew them well.

While there was a lot of information about the life of a writer, it’s difficult to sum it up.  But if I were to take away lesson, it’d be this:  Treat writing like a job.  John Scalzi said that he writes from 8am-12pm or 2000 words (whichever comes first), every day, no excuses.  It’s easy to just say that you’ll write during your downtime, and sure, you should fit it in when you can if that’s what you have to do, which is better than not writing at all. But if you want to be a full time writer, you must treat it like a job because it is a job, especially if you want it to pay you like one.  I know that there are times when I need to follow this rule better.

Wil Wheaton isn’t just a narrator.  Although, I will say that he is a wonderful narrator, and perhaps my favorite.  He writes and is passionate about books and the industry.

At the end of the session, they also touched on the Hugo controversy.  And I think that they made a good point.  Some people are worried that the Hugo’s will die now.  That the situation will cause lasting damage.  But Wil Wheaton and Scalzi pointed out that, with so many of the nominees pulling out, this can’t happen again.  Yes, they messed it up this year.  But it’s not something that can, or likely will be repeated.  I hope that they’re right.  It made a lot of sense the way they said it, and made me feel a bit better.  I can still hope to win a Hugo someday, and not have to worry too much that it’ll be tainted.