Authoring & Playwriting

Hey, Jed. So, it's very unlikely that a publisher will look at an unagented manuscript, let alone one that's part of an existing series. Also, they won't look at it unless it's finished. I've been in the industry 26 years and it's harder than ever to break in. Also, there's no such thing as getting paid quickly. You have to negotiate a contract and it's a few weeks before you get some of the advance. They don't give you full money up front and you'll wait until the book is released for the rest (some will pay a portion when the book is accepted after edits). It can take a year or more for the book to come out. Honestly, indie will get you money faster. Sorry. If you want a traditional deal, start a new series, or take down you existing one and see if a publisher is interested in book one. I'm afraid that's a long shot as well. Wish I could give you a better answer.

You seem to think that Indie publishing will cost you money. There are services such as Draft2Digital that will, for free, publish your book online, do all the necessary formatting and make it available through many outlets. They make their money ONLY when a copy sells. I use them and am pleased. I've made very little money selling online, but have done OK selling paperbacks in person -- all printed by D2D. Other people have done EXTREMELY well selling through them. If you use them, they will let you use your Dark Jetty Publishing label.Their print on demand rates are reasonable.

One advantage to Indie publishing is not having to pay back money that was advanced to you earlier. I've two friends who were excited to get a contract and anadvance,,, and were then expected to cover buy-back costs for returned books.

If all you want is to advertise, there are podcasts that cater to authors that might be willing to interview about your writer's journey. Especially since this is book #9.

Hathryn, Fran, Thank you both so much!

Rutger Oosterhoff 2 I'll take the KitKat! Enjoy your break.

Definitely taking a break!!

Darrell Pennington Enjoy it!

I’m not at the computer but my dreams don’t take a break. Polishing ideas keep swimming in for my Operation Sea Devils sci fi script.

Nancy Wilkinson Sometimes things come better away from the keyboard I find!

Pacing pulls me out of a story sometimes, Kat Spencer. I think pacing decisions usually come from the writing, but sometimes it's out of a writer's control, like if it's a screenplay that got made and things changed during production or post-production.

Exactly Maurice Vaughan ... I have nightmares about post-production editing. - What if they leave my "darlings" out!

Thanks Maurice Vaughan - Do you have a current show or movie where that comes to mind?

Debbie Seagle Do you think we have any say at that point? I'm not sure I could hold my tongue, haha.

You're welcome, Kat Spencer. I think some of the pacing in the beginning and middle of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery could've been better, but the pacing gets better later in the film. It's a phenomenal movie!

Wow - congratulations with having your story being made into a film. That is the coolest thing and thank you for filling me in on how the journey is going... I will vicariously through you until I'm in the same boat!

Wish I had a tractor. I've got books and screenplays, but I don't have a tractor.

David Taylor I'm not a good tractor driver though. It's somewhat like having a wonderful horse you can't saddle. Books & screenplays may be the way to go!

Lauren Hackney I have no doubt you're going to be jumping the wakes in your boat beside me! (Can I ski behind yours?)

Debbie Seagle Thanks for the vote of confidence - I appreciate it!

I agree, Sara Ghadersahi. Believing in my writing talent, getting better at writing scripts, and learning more about screenwriting helped me pitch my scripts, sell short scripts, and get jobs.

Maurice Vaughan I wish you all the best and hope you make progress every day. Thank you for sharing your experience.

You're welcome, Sara Ghadersahi. Thank you. Best to you. I hope you make progress every day and have an incredible new year!

Wishing you a Happy New Year in advance!

Happy New Year, Sara Ghadersahi!

I feel like my obsession with scientific plausibility almost becomes a kind of mental illness for me—I spend too much time reinforcing it hh Banafsheh Esmailzadeh

Meriem Bouziani lol I feel that, it could be xD it can be hard to let go of but try it :)

Thank you, Meriem — beautifully put. I love the idea of mutual nurturing. When the work is honest, it really does feel like a living conversation rather than a one-way act of creation.

Yes, it’s a true, active conversation that only the creator truly knows, feels, and lives. Even when we share our work, no one can experience it the way we do the first time. Charmane Wedderburn

“Exactly — that first, private experience belongs only to the creator. Sharing the work invites others into it, but that initial conversation stays uniquely ours, and I think that’s part of what gives the work its pulse.’

Debbie Seagle Hahaha Wow indeed! Guess it's good you had some other eyeballs on it. I probably have, but very few of my family have read anything I've written, so it's moot HA!

Minh Nguyen I'm going to write characters (the ones I have witnessed) "like a soul in fiction" from now on! That's beautiful.

Debbie Seagle I've had to make a decision that I don't even bring up or offer or ask people I know to read stuff because I use familiar names and personalities ALL THE TIME.

Debbie — this is such an honest question, and I think many of us have been there. Drawing from real people is often where the emotional truth comes from, but there’s a moment where craft asks us to transform rather than transcribe. I’ve found that once a character moves beyond a single recognizable source and becomes a composite, the writing actually deepens — and the story gains more freedom. Your awareness here says a lot about your integrity as a storyteller.

Awwwh Thank you Charmane Wedderburn. I'm with you on: "Drawing from real people is often where the emotional truth comes from," I invent characters all the time & they become real to me, yet - I can't help it - some characters need an avatar... they are who they are, and personalities collide/merge.

GIRL, yes! This is by far the practice we PREACH on Monday's Coverage Report in the Writers' Room. We forget that the "audience" for screenplays is not the "butts in seats", but the actors, directors, cinematographers, production designers, etc. So, write for production, not perfection. We'll defer to novelists for the perfection! LOL

Karen "Kay" Ross My aim is to create characters actors want to play, design want to dress etc. And if they audience falls in love then that's an added bonus!

Lauren — this is such an important reminder. In screenwriting, momentum, clarity, and emotional truth often matter more than polish at the early stages. A script can still open doors if the core works — the refining happens through collaboration. Letting go of ‘perfect’ is often what allows the work to actually move forward.

Beautiful response Charmane Wedderburn this kind of thinking makes me want to quit publishing haha it's so freeing to hear!

I’m so glad it landed, Lauren — and please don’t quit publishing. That freedom is exactly what keeps the work alive. Perfection can wait; momentum is what opens doors.

“Meriem — I love this framing. ‘What if’ opens the door, but I’ve found it’s the follow-up questions that really deepen the world — questions like what does this cost the character, what are they avoiding, or what happens if they don’t change. Asking from different angles — emotional, moral, practical — seems to turn ideas into lived-in worlds rather than just concepts.

Yes, of course. ‘What if’ is the first step; the other questions lead to the creation of the entire world. Charmane Wedderburn

Exactly — ‘what if’ opens the door, and the questions that follow are what furnish the world. It’s in that questioning that the story starts to breathe.

What's the worst thing that could happen to my protagonist, and what's the best thing that could happen? These two questions lead me to wonder not only about the characters, but also about the plot and the protagonist's possible transformation arc.

Thank you very much—those are truly important questions for developing strong characters. I’ll definitely try them with my own characters as well Tania Cárdenas Paulsen

I think Dune’s perspective is a wise lesson for this question. We don’t have to imagine the unimaginable; we have to use the full potential of our minds to discover new perspectives. Minh Nguyen

I have dreams about the past and the future. In the past, I see different people—for example, an African woman in 1940, or a Chinese girl in 1850, and so on.

When I wake up and research what I saw, I discover that yes, someone really lived there at that exact time and place.

Sometimes I also dream about extraterrestrials and metaphysical or supernatural beings that I can't research or verify.

yeah dreams also could shape your imagination Rozbeh Rad

“Meriem — I think you’re touching something very real. No matter how far we stretch, imagination still seems to move through human perception — language, memory, emotion, pattern. But I wonder if the work isn’t to escape those limits, but to brush up against them. In trying to imagine the unimaginable, we may not create something truly ‘alien,’ but we do reveal the edges of what it means to be human — and that, in itself, feels like meaningful discovery.”

Yes, I love what you’re saying—we’re not really talking about aliens for their own sake, but using them to discover humanity in new ways Charmane Wedderburn

Hi, Kat Spencer. My main goal is finish rewriting my feature script. I started a short script yesterday. My goal is finish it this weekend.

Hello, Kat Spencer it’s a few things on my end, finalizing cyberpunk FPS art and touching up three additional IP bibles before the year wraps. If I can lock those in, I’ll feel good heading into the new year.

Kat — for me, it’s finishing the final pass on a key confrontation scene where the emotional truth has to land cleanly. It’s less about adding more, and more about stripping it back until the intention is unmistakable. Closing the year by locking that feels like the right kind of momentum.

I'm hoping to start the "ten" arc of Lunar Window by the New Year, as well as a rough outline for either Niveous Reverie or Paper Sunlight (ideally both, of course). Part of me wants to be crazy and finish all of these plus the latter half of Finding Elpis in the New Year, alongside Iron Rain/returning to Seed lol... but it'll all only be possible with the blessing of the writing gods...

Thanks for sharing the blog, Pat Alexander. It’s a must-read blog!

“But again, the idea is a seed, that’s it. Ideas are certainly useful, but only so far. A good idea will not be saved by poor execution, but a bad idea can be saved by excellent execution.” Definitely.

And AI can come up with ideas, loglines, etc. fast, but the quality isn’t there and it’s not human. The quality might get better, but AI will never be human. It hasn’t experienced love or heartbreak. It doesn’t know the dilemma of having to choose between paying rent or buying food. It didn’t grow up in the south and enjoyed southern hospitality. It doesn’t know what it’s like to have a crush on someone and be terrified to tell them.

I agree strongly with the idea that execution matters far more than ideas themselves. AI can generate ideas and loglines quickly, but it doesn’t replace lived experience, judgment, or craft.

I do think AI has a place in our workflows. I use it to help organize outlines, but all story content is mine, created by me. I’m transparent about that, and I keep logs for accountability. That clarity has mattered in conversations I’ve had with producers. I've faced that question already and keeping those logs is a must.

When I’ve tested AI-generated stories on their own, what I found was flat characterization and a lack of human logic or emotional depth. That reinforced my belief that AI works best as a tool, not a creator.

To me, it’s like a hammer: in skilled hands it’s useful; without skill, it just makes a mess. We still have to do the work.

Being Dyslexic its a great tool . THAT IT . in my opinion it cant right story's at all! I do end up screaming at AI for changing my story from time to time . if I don't tell it Not to touch the story . its soul use for me , research , spell check , grammar , format ,

Pat — this still rings true. Ideas may spark curiosity, but it’s the labor of execution, revision, and learning the craft that gives them weight and meaning. The danger isn’t new tools themselves, but the temptation to skip the hard, human work that turns an idea into something earned suggests this is as much a cultural issue as a technological one.