Writing tips from a pro: Fiction author Lackey says she once revised a book 17 times

Source: Toledo Blade

Either Mercedes Lackey is a good teacher or she had a keen audience last night. Not long into her talk about how one becomes a published writer, the audience of about 175 was finishing her sentences with her mantra: “Glue your derriere to the chair and write.”

Lackey, who has published 70 books, offered several tidbits, such as send a completed book (not the commonly recommended three chapters and an outline), to an editor; do not hire an agent to promote your work (because you can do it better yourself), and be nice to your editor and publisher.

“Don’t make your editor’s life miserable. It’s already miserable: they live in New York.”

Lackey spoke in the Great Hall of the Stranahan Theater as part of the Authors! Authors! series, sponsored by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and The Blade.

Lackey, 56, with auburn hair and short bangs, wore a black dress with metal stays in it — which resulted in a bit of a fuss as she went through airport security yesterday en route from her home near Tulsa.

Most of her books are in the fantasy genre and often feature smart, powerful protagonists who are women.

Much of her work is clustered in series of at least three or more books and incorporates magic and wise animals.

Her mentor was fellow Oklahoman C. J. Cherryh, a fantasy and science fiction writer who once encouraged Lackey to rewrite a book 17 times. “I got lots of bad words out rewriting that book,” she said, referring to a saying about every writer having a million bad words within.

She gleans story ideas by examining ordinary situations and asking what if. “And keep asking what if,” she said. “It’s not so much where you get your ideas as how you figure out which ideas are going to work for you.”

Reading is another idea stream. “You can’t know too much. Read whatever interests you, and sooner or later you’ll get an idea.”

The three to four hours a day she spends reading is mostly research for books she’s planning or writing.

How, asked one fan last night, did she create a language for the Valdemar series?

She simply made it up, she replied. “I speak English and German, so I have a little idea about how language is structured.”