Video Gallery

"My Career as a Fiction Writer" - A job shadow of Chelsea Bieker

Go to Video Gallery Added Jan 18, 2024 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//online.centralunified.org/apps/embed/?v=367151" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

Take a special inside look at the day to day tasks of a Fiction Writer with Chelsea Bieker!

Show Transcript

also everybody let's just remember to keep your cameras on so we're not talking to just the dark screens we need to know that we're actually talking to humans here thanks everybody all right I'm still hearing the doorbell so people are still coming in it looks like yeah you can go ahead and get started if you don't mind disregard that I don't know how to turn it off well yes hi everyone I'm so honored to be here today it's really really exciting to get to talk to you and thinking about today made me reflect a lot on where I was around your age and how I was thinking about the future and how I was thinking about you know what I wanted to do in the world you're really young but you're also still you and you still have that core desire toward things that you're interested in and it really made me realize that even in high school even younger than high school I had a feeling that I wanted to be a writer I didn't know exactly what that looks like I didn't personally know anyone who wrote books for a living it seems sort of like mysterious magical thing that you know it was like who are these people writing these books that I love never been to like an author signing event I think there's a Barnes & Noble is still in Fresno and at the time we had a few local bookstores that I don't think are there anymore but there wasn't a huge culture around books at that time and so it was kind of mysterious but what I did know was that I really love to read and I was very curious about the world and a lot of feelings that I needed to put the wear so that was always there and those things are still true today so today I'm just going to talk a little bit about my background where I'm coming from and then kind of what my career looks like now as a writer I'm getting to do the things that I love the most every day so I have a little PowerPoint I will try to share my screen out it's working I'm always amazed when this analogy works we are to Okay so yes my career as a writer I think I I would like to also process this as you know play my talk is is really about raveena creative life if you might not have an interest in writing but I think some of the same principles can be applied to whatever you are interested in and so as I'm using the words writing and fiction you know feel free to kind of apply that to yourself in your own interest so I found this picture I had chickenpox at the time so I was about six and and I Remember Loving books even then so books are always a big part of my life my mom left bugs and she read to me a lot I think that that probably open the Gateway for that but we also had a really kind of I had a pretty rough childhood in terms of there was a lot of addiction in my family there was a lot of tragedy there is a my parents were there's a lot of violence it was kind of a rough entry to the world and I found so much comfort in reading stories stories I think really transported me I'm into other worlds and it allowed me to understand that my reality was not the only reality out there so books primarily fiction books provided so much inspiration for me to just really dream a lot bigger than just what I was seeing in my day-to-day world it was this ultimate safe place that I could go and I could just all right into this feeling of enchantment safety Intrigue I mean all the reasons we love stories I think humans have been attracted to story and telling stories since the cave dwelling days you know where our brains are really wired to to communicate that way and to want that so in the process our own experiences that way too so whether or not you identify as a writer you have experiences that you can write about and I remember saying to anyone who would listen I want to be a writer what day and I also remember most of the responses sort of being like well that's really hard to do or you know that only happens for a very small number of people or it just really kind of like why would why do you think you can do that type of responses but for some reason I did not let that dissuade me and I just caps that fire lit within me I knew that I wanted to do that and I didn't really care what anyone else thought of it and I look back and I feel happy that I had that wherewithal to not let go of a dream just because the people are Tommy didn't understand how that reality could come true so I just kept reading I think if you want to be a writer the most important thing is that you're a reader I still read all the time and that's how you learn to write for a reading so most of my early life was spent reading and and that was the building block for how I became a writer then thinking of high school where most of you are today again still I didn't really know that I didn't know any writers I didn't know that it could be a full career but I did spend a lot of in the library I thought well maybe I'll be a librarian I'm a really like this place which is an awesome career path if you're a writer also and then I had a special English teacher and I'm sure you've all encountered a spell teacher or I hope you have or maybe you will who really sees you say something in you and brings that out and so my English teacher Key School did that for me and I think she noticed that I was spending a lot of time reading and I think she wanted to kind of tap my shoulder and be like hey there's things that you can do here at our school that that are your interest cuz otherwise I wasn't really that interested all in general and I just really wanted to spend all day reading books but my English teacher was like Hey you could read these books and then you can write a review of them in our school paper and that was a huge turd I hate my life because then I was able to kind of apply my interest to something really practical I could I could express myself to other students and see my writing in Prince for the first time I remember getting that first newspaper I think it was called the charger and I'd written a book review in that and it said by my name and it was a really powerful moment where I was like oh this feels like something I I want to do and it really engaged me in school in a different way it made me feel purposeful in school in a way that I just hadn't quite felt before so that's when I started thinking well maybe I maybe I do want to College I think before that I didn't really think much about college but then I started learning that all I could go to college and I could keep writing for a newspaper I really like this thing and the Great Sea but journalism which is not fiction writing but is where I kind of started my career journalism really pulls you out of yourself because your job is to talk to other people and learn their stories and talk and bring them out so I was previously pretty sure I would have identified that way I didn't know that I could just walk up to anyone and ask them questions a journalism offered Avenue where I was challenging myself in a new way and I had my little bag and with that badge came to me what felt like a lot of permission to kind of come out of my shell and ask people questions and meet them and learn their stories and it really I see now the way that it fed into my interest with fiction writing because I was still curious about other people I was so curious about their stories and that was a really fast track to get to do. Up close to learn about people and write about them at the same time and then also around this time in high school I found a book that really changed my life it is the knob in this Photograph White Oleander and I showed you just because I think it expanded my understanding that that maybe one day I could write fiction that affected someone on an emotional level the way this book affected me this is the first time I felt like I had read a story that really understood the emotional experience that I was having and it really did change and gave me hope that maybe I could try that one so I just wanted to put it there and also say that I think we all have a book out in the world like that if we can just find it that really speaks to us and and that can ultimately really change us so that was High School college came along I ended up going to Fresno City Community College some of you may know of it I went there for about a year-and-a-half and I did journalist there as well and work on the paper practicing lots of different styles of writing remember that I knew I loved fiction-writing but I also knew that I needed to build skills in other areas in journalism again with a great way to do that because your honor play Fast deadline and so you can't really worry too much about writer's block when you know you have to turn something in the next day it just sort of forced me out of that beer place and really into action which is a huge theme of I think how many career works we have to really get out of our own way and really root down into action and so journalism did that for me with writing and to this day I would say do not suffer from any writer's block and I think it has something to do with this xcii I've heard of being under the fire of a deadline and knowing that I just had to produce something and around this time and then I transferred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo perhaps some of you are from the fat as well and I continued taking fiction writing classes as electives even while I was getting a degree in journalism so I'm still working for the newspaper but I knew that my real staying with still fiction writing so I was writing short stories I was reading a lot of fiction and I'm speaking classes so we're really expanding my understanding of that crashed when I graduated college I got a job in a magazine I don't think it's in print anymore but it was called Fresno magazine so I came back and I worked as an editor for this magazine for almost a year and it was another really good experience of learning about my community interviewing people and working on a quick deadline and it still allowed me to feel that I was having a career in the field that I wanted to be even though I wasn't writing fiction for money yet shortly into that I realized that you could go to graduate school and for fiction writing and that was a revelation cuz I did not know that you could do that and basically I had an English teacher. me about it and and he said you know you could go get an MFA an NFA stamp for a master in Fine Arts and they have Emma face and all different Fine Arts and one is in creative writing and really what it is is that it Journey 2 years to try out the things that I thought I wanted to do for all the time and it really gave me the time and space to to do it until learn from other riders that I we admired so I went to a program that was run by a writer that I really admired and was able to be mentored by that writer and after the two years your thesis project is turning in a book link project so in that time you get the real world practice of writing a book seeing what that's really like is that book going to be published no that's just it I may have thought yes but but it was really just the first stop on the train of learning how to write the type of thing that I wanted to write and it was a really good experience and around that time I started to publish short stories in magazines and online Journal so that was around the time I published my first fiction writing and and meanwhile I was also doing a lots of other job so I wasn't making my living off of fiction writing I was teaching I'm at the college I was teaching I also was like coaching gymnastics I had a bunch of different jobs throughout graduate school that help support this desire in me I think around then always knew though that my goal would be to one day support myself with my fiction writing but that does not happen in the beginning just a process that then after graduate school I want to show you this picture and this is what hangs above my desk and I got it from this book which is a really beautiful Buck I don't think you can probably really see it but it's called my trade is Mystery like call Phillips and Carl Phillips has a really wonderful poet and he's writing about what it takes to have a writing life and one chapter in it is called stamina and it's a really inspiring chapter and there's a line that he quotes from a Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot in the line is I can't go on. I'll go on. And then what happens in between those two lines Carl Philip says is stamina and stamina is probably the most Central saying that as a writer I've had to learn to grow and hone in myself to kind of see this through I'm 36 now and I graduated from graduate school and I was 25 so it's been 11 years and so I didn't right away publish a book right after that I didn't try to awaken an agent there was a lot of years I just had to keep going and keep writing and trusting that I was heading in the right direction with no outside affirmation really you know and I think that's stamina and that's a skill that all of us can build toward any goal is it matter if you're writing or or whatever you're doing and and so I just put that there because I think on the harder days if I feel like I've gotten a lot of rejections or it just feels like I'm not really my work is it like licking I just remembered that's all part of it the bad days are part of the building no matter what so I like that I try to remember it on the more difficult the den you know as I was continuing to teach I was teaching writing classes at different community colleges I have taught at Fresno City Community College on their online program for schools in Portland and also on the East Coast on and all that time I knew that I was in the background still writing my first novel and I knew that I wanted to publish this book that was my big dream and and so I wanted to talk a little bit about publishing a book in general so there's lots of avenues to publishing especially nowadays I took a traditional Avenue which I will tell you about but there's lots of non-traditional Avenues to and I think with the internet there's plenty ways to share your writing and have Community around your writing that don't involve a traditional publisher their self publishing companies you can go through there's lots of different ways I went through a traditional Avenue which means I got an agent that agent sold my book to an editor at a publishing house and and then I'll kind of run through what happens after that but getting an agent is usually a first step for a writer and it be a really challenging step because it's super competitive and there's lots of Agents but there's a lot more there's a lot more writers in the world that want to be writers than there are agents and so finding an agent can take some time for me I would say I got pretty lucky in the sense that I had published a short story and my agent Reddit unbeknownst to me and sent me an email asking if I had representation and I thought actually was a spam email I didn't believe that it was real I was like what this crazy this can't be real I would like one of what an odd targeted spam email just exactly what I would always want to receive and it was actually a really amazing agent that I ended up signing with and we still are working together today so that was about seven years ago and reason we find together is because she liked my writing style and she liked what I was doing and she believed in me and that was a huge vote of confidence and it really gave me the stamina to finish that first book and believe that somebody would read it one day so then when it came time to sell it your agent will send it to a handful of editors that they feel it will be a good fit for you so I'm sure you've all seen published book usually there's like a little low go down there on the sign that says like Harper or little brown Orkin off or one of those publishing houses and there's many many Publishers in world and until your agent's job is to kind of figure out which will be the best one for you and so then once you sell it to an editor yay that's so great then begins more work then you start editing that book that you've edited for many years again with your editor and their vision and it's a really exciting process I would say that's around the time that things start really getting fun not writing is the fun part but this is kind of dumb or external fun part where you start to get to see what the cover will look like you start to get to understand how they're going to talk about your book and put it out into the world every time you see a book on a Shelf bookstore or online there's a big team of people behind it making that happen and they're all really smart and cool and have a great vision and the author is at the center of it but there's so many people for helping the author along the way and then you get Advance copies and those are the copies that come out that gets sent to reviewers to write book reviews about the book to help promote the book and those will be out for a couple of months and then you have your publication day and that's when the hardcover comes out and sometimes there's cake and you get to do a reading very fun it's like a birthday party but for a book that's only one trajectory again there's many ways to publish your work and get your work out there that don't involve the traditional road but that's the road I went down to these are my books so I adult literary fiction and so if you were to find my book in a Barnes & Noble you would go into the general fiction section and they would be there and actually the one in the middle is my newest book it's called mad woman it's a novel and that one is a little bit of a crossover and it could also probably I think it'll be shelved in the suspense and Thriller area as well as general fiction so the other two got shot and heart broke both of those take place in California Central Valley sort of my imagine version of it and those are adult literary fiction so the one on your left godshot is a novel and I probably don't need to tell you what a novel is but a novel is one long continuous Story the one on the right is a collection of short stories which is just what it sounds like a collection about I think there's 11 stories in there that involve it's like each one has its own little world or or different story with different characters and what's fun about those two books and stares a lot of crossover characters because I really curious about this world I'd created and the people that inhabited it and so sometimes they would appear like some will appear in the novel and sun appear in the shorts praising there's a bit of crossover with and then my newest novel Madwoman is kind of different than these other two books where it takes place in mostly in Hawaii and in Portland and there's a little moment in in Chowchilla and the Madera in and out so but mostly it's we've departed and I am doing something new at this one but the one in the middle is actually in the process of being published so it's not in book as yet but I just got word that the advance copies have landed in the office so that process is starting where we're starting to promote the book and so that's an exciting time all right so sorry go ahead Helen no I thought you wanted me to read into something else go for it I'm wrapping up soon thank you all for listening this is fun I hope that any of this is interesting and we'll have lots of time for qna so I wanted to talk just a little bit about a day in the life of what my life looks like now so now I still teach but I teach a bit differently I teach workshops that I create online and they're run independently through me and another writer so I'm no longer teaching for a community college anymore I'm my main job now is fiction writing which is really amazing so I kind of make my own schedule I adhere to the deadlines of my publisher and I'm in communication with my agent I think of my age that's sort of my boss but really I'm My Own Boss and I have to keep up my own discipline every single day to continue writing books and that's pretty easy honestly because I love writing books and it's the most fun I could ever have so it's pretty great but it does involve sort of a daily check-in I think when you are making art it's about so much more than just start making it's about the way you're showing up in the world I think about everyday how am I showing up with curiosity how am I looking at the world with a critical eye and paying attention to detail the way people talk what they do the subtle nuances of something all of that really interests me and I know that it feels it feels my work whether I realized it in the moment or not so it's sort of this exercise in keeping Channel clear for inspiration and I know that something's cloud my channel for inspiration and some things clear it one thing that clouds it is this thing right here scroll scroll scroll it's really hard to feel super inspired to write if I'm looking at my phone so I know that I have to have a lot of discipline around times where that at just goes away I think that's something we all probably OS and our modern world but little things like that you know things that inspire me are reading books taking walks anytime I can get my brain into a more meditative state I'm accessing the subconscious mind. when that Fu was that creative part of my brain and honing a daily system of discipline I know that during a certain span of time that is the time that I'm writing unless I'm else comes up that's really important I treat that like an appointment like a doctor's appointment I'm not going to cancel it and I'm going to show up and that's my appointment with myself to write and an over the where's I've been able to really hold not kind of daily system where I just know that that's what I'm going to do and it's so it's not so difficult but but in the beginning when you're holding a daily system it can difficult and I'm really having that stamina to kind of sit through discomfort I think a lot of writing is sitting through discomfort so you're at the keyboard and you're writing and you get that moment where you're like I don't know what to say next I don't want to get up I want to do something else I want to look at my phone I want to go on the internet I want to call a friend or whatever it's sitting through that moment and just accepting the other still down comfortable and then see what comes after that I think often we don't wait to see what comes after that moment of discomfort and so I try to remember that and do my best when I'm riding and I feel that moment like I want to stop and then I'm a big part of being a writer is doing events doing events about your book doing events with other writers Community is really important so if I want people to support my writing then I need to see the writing that I love so I'm not only promoting my own work I'm promoting the work of other writers I admire and I'm in conversation with them and I'm trying to support them as well it's a real Community feel residencies are really cool it's an opportunity to go somewhere and work for an extended. Of time maybe a couple of weeks in a place that is not your house I have two young children what is 9 and my son is 5 and all throughout their lives they know that that I write it's kind of part of our life but there are times that I just need a little bit more space and I've been able to do a couple of residencies where I can go see for an extended time in and really get a lot of work done on my book so there's opportunities as a writer like that and then teaching like I said I've continued to teach in different ways and I love teaching and sharing the car there's a million different ways to write fiction and no one way is correct so it's just endless exciting world where you can figure out who are the teachers and writers that are doing things that you love and then follow them there's again there's no wrong way to be a writer or live a creative life so these are just a few pictures that I slapped they're sorry it's not that aesthetically pleasing but this dear some examples of book events so like the one on the left is a pant what's called a panel discussion so I'm up there at the Los Angeles Times level of books with a handful of other writers and there's a moderator asking us questions and we're having a conversation and that panel in the picture was actually about writing about California my last book won the California book award so I just put that there and that was like one of those really exciting moments where you feel like oh somebody read this book and really understood it those moments as a writer are not are often so we take the wins when we can get on and then these are some pictures with other writers and meeting writers at book signings the one in the middle is with two other riders that were at a Fest on the other one is another panel discussion so I really love doing these events and let me tell you when I was in high school I could have never imagined sitting on a stage and talking to a group of people I just could not have imagined it at all for myself I felt so shy I wanted to write but I couldn't imagine talking about writing and now I don't really feel nervous I just feel excited and that's a lot of personal growth and putting my self out there and making myself uncomfortable even when I didn't want to and eventually I just I changed now I don't identify as a shy person or a person that's afraid to Publix and I think that's Christine to remember that the things that you might feel our limitations now in your life those things can change if you continue taking those opposite actions so I'm always excited now to do Event Center my work and learn from other writers so these are just a couple of resources that I put together for you there's so many we're really lucky in this day and age there's like so many book great what about writing but here are just a few so I love the artist way it's been around forever people really love it it's kind of a cult classic and I offer it here because it's not just about it's about it's about tapping into your own creativity whatever that is and it's kind of like a workbook and it takes you through the weeks and it's really it's really amazing and I remember doing it in my early twenties and I learned a lot about my and an about kind of what I wanted to do so I'd highly recommend that then there's the Gotham Writers Workshop so they offer really amazing team writing classes that you can take online give me in Fresno and you can be taking classes that are run by writers all over the world they are based in New York City but with our technology you can take their classes now too and it's really cool and they have a nice selection of teen Focus Clay the book on the right is called Bird by bird there's a lot of books similar that are about fiction writing and the writing life this is just one of those I bet if you pulled that up it would pull up like 10 below it that are in the same vein that are just really inspiring and really I think helpful when you're going to starting out to Redan how another Rider did it again this would be great resources for any any art form any direction you want to go not just writing and I was wondering if we could do a little writing exercise what do you think yeah okay so how will do it is I want you today to try your hand at a little bit of fiction writing I will take care of the time so it's just five minutes I'm sure you've done free writing before the holy. that is that we're just keeping the pain moving and we're not in a place of judging what we're writing at all or letting something more subconscious blow out so I want you to think briefly before you get going about a character does worrying about something specific so right away You're imagining a person and then imagining a really specific kind of situation they might be in or a word something specific that they're internally dealing with and then the second part is I want you to put them in a situation that will force them to confront the worry head-on remember good fiction and does not shy away from difficult situations oceans our experiences often were reading because we're seeing the characters in some hot water that's what makes it interesting we want to see them in their moment of vulnerability and figure out who are they what are they going to do so I want you to kiss better describing things like how the characters feeling where they are who else is there what they might be saying you could try some dialogue if you want and we're just it's really low pressure and get 45 minutes and see what what happens and I will try I'm back in when we're at the five-minute Mark okay you can go ahead and get started alright let's come back stop wherever you are and remember that if nothing really came this time it's worth trying it again some days more my and then others but I think in general I'm always reminded whenever I do a short exercise is how much I can get done in 5 minutes like 5 minutes only can really bring about some new ideas sand and so never underestimate practicing your creative flow even if it's just for 5 or 10 minutes a day all of that really adds up so that's my feel for you I would love to hear from you all and answer any questions that you might have thank you so much so great if you have any question go ahead and raise your hand on the zoom icon I'm going to go in order of whoever raises it that way so I can get question. If I do see your hand raised in the screen also try to call for you to Serena you had a question go ahead Serena Rico you're so she ask I want to ask her on what the progress of writing a book was like that's such a good question Yeah so basically for me I think it's different for everyone but for me an idea will just kind of start with maybe an image or a conversation or a place I kind of at the start of writing a novel I don't usually know exactly what it's going to be about the really exciting part of writing for me is that I write to find out what I'm thinking so I may start someplace but I end in a really different unexpected and surprising place and I I didn't think that if I'm surprised when I'm riding it then the reader will be surprised to so any time I'm like oh I didn't know we were going there I think oh that's good that's a good that means I'm not totally in charge means like something better is is working but really it's kind of that I call it being open for business I try to think about myself even if I'm not able to sit at the computer writing I am walking to the open for business so I'm taking notes I'm paying attention to things I'm not zoning out I'm listening when people talk I'm checking in with how things make me feel and all of that comes in later when I do sit down at the keyboard and actually right so it's kind of this two-part but generally the process can take it again different for everybody my books have taken about my last one I think took about four years to write and before that I was It was kind of about 7 years I kind of hope it gets shorter each time because each time I'm learning more and become better so it's but yeah it's really different I know writers that could spend 10 years on one book and then maybe they only send one year on a book and the idea we just follow the idea follow the inspiration thank you DJ thank you for raising your hand and then catching G I'll get you next who is your inspiration and who do you take reference from as a writer yeah that great question when I was really young I was just reading whatever was around so I was reading a lot of Stephen King books because that's what my parents had laying around and so I probably I mean I'm always a fan of him in some way because that's when I started reading now I really there so many writers I mean I love the work of Alice Walker of Toni Morrison some of I was introduced to in college I think a really great way that I found to find new writers is to get anthologies or look at literary magazines because they include a bunch of different writers second one volume I love love love the work of Dennis Johnson who she's dead now but that was really formative for me because Dennis Johnson was he wrote the book Jesus sun it's fiction it don't worry it's not a really just text and the novel angels and it was the first time I had seen addiction poverty mother child relation kind of explored in the way that I wanted to explore them and so it would it's it's funny because it's like you find one writer that's kind of doing what you like and then you follow the trail of the writers that they like and you just kind of Follow that but yeah I would say Toni Morrison and Dennis Johnson when I started writing fiction were really huge Inspirations to me and now it's like there's so many all over the map but but yeah okay that's like my fictional like Foundation perfect thank you Captain G I'm like what was the first book you have ever wrote and what was it first book well technically I was trying to write a novel in high school and it did not see the light of day thank God who wrote a lot of books before I ever published a book so again going back to that stamina piece the first book I wrote did not get published I mean the first book I wrote just kind of like seep back into the ether because because I was practicing and I was learning how to write a book in graduate school I wrote what felt like the closest to our first official book which was a collection of stories that took place in the Central Valley that is not so different from the one I ultimately ended up publishing except I mean except all of it is different I've basically rewrote everything and and they're totally different stories but I can look back and see that that was really the first attempt at that book so yeah but I tried is my first published book that came out in 2020 thank you catching girls Sandra and yeah I was wondering is it ever like scary to share your writings before me it's like all about I really like scary to like share you know so just curious about that yes it can be it's very vulnerable right to share our innermost thoughts and I often think the the work that I do is basically like exposing my soul to all these people and so I have to really I think focus on the people who it resonates with it's not going to ever beef everyone I think that if it was for everyone that I did something wrong I want to write something that really speaks to the people who didn't end so well yes it is vulnerable I don't like to hang out on places like Goodreads and stuff reading just random people's reviews of my work cuz it's such a mixed bag and and there's really no that's not my her best in the exchange so yeah it can be nerve-wracking but the people who read it resonates with will find you and I just try to focus on that part of it because there's plenty of a feedback that you get the is really good and then there's always the people there like a this isn't for me and that's okay but yeah I definitely had lots of like my old breakdowns about it don't worry but I know that I'm right my truth that's the most important thing is that I can't do anything else than what I can do and that's all I can really offer so as long as I'm in my truth then everyone else will kind of respond I'm at they need to and it's none of my business really any other questions from anybody I was wondering if you could share a little bit about just how writers make money so I know some how to get Ghost Rider's publisher one big paycheck or is it the stand so when you're start now like publishing stories in journals and magazines sometimes you don't get paid at all sometimes you get like a small fee for it I think my first my first like big check I got first short story was $400 and that felt like a big deal at the time but as you go you know when you sell a book it's pretty different time if you go a traditional publishing route what happens is the publisher will offer called an advance so in advance is basically then staying we like you this much that were going to offer you this big check well it could be a bit it could be a small check it's a check we're going to offer you ask them out up front to buy your work and publish it and then what happens from there is your sale you have to are sales start going toward that amount so you have to kind of recoup that Advance before you see what's called royalties royalties are your percentage of each book sale so if you get a few did bands like I'll just say something a million-dollar Advance then it's going to take you awhile to recoup those sales before you would see a check for royalties if you get a small Advance like $10,000 it's not going to take as long as recoup your advance so that you would see a royalty check a lot sooner so it's sort of you know and the range of what writers make is all over the place it's really like the craziest thing how big of a range it could be one writer if you went through Barnes and Noble and you were just like I wonder what these writers made one might have gotten in advance for $5,000 and one might have gotten into a half a million dollars and like the publisher is trying to place a bet kind of on how they think you're going to perform in the marketplace and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong it's a really like Odd Squad system but you can make a living writing say that to expand every one's Consciousness I was told a lot like oh good luck with that you'll never make a living writing and I do make a living writing actually and I can come from lots of different places not just your book advance your your agent takes like a 15% cut of. But there's that but then you can also sell foreign rights to your book so then you're getting money through this all these different foreign publishers film film rights so if a film like in Hollywood if they're like we really liked that story idea we might want to make it into a movie or a miniseries they will option your book so they will give you a an upfront amount of money just to hold the rights of the book so you can be making money that way and there's lots of there's lots of like little avenues that kind of time together that you can keep us together but yeah there is a Thursday agent cut and then whatever your kind of recouping toward heard bands when you're selling books I hope any of that made sense it's kind of one of those like it could really be different across the board for a lot of different writers but generally that's kind of how it works you I had somebody asked how do you deal with negative reviews so what I love to do I would say that I'm lucky in the sense that I've never gotten like a huge slam review like the New York Times has never come for me thank God I hope never happens cuz I'll be devastated but what I generally with any sort of negative feedback or just like a review that doesn't feel great which is bound to happen I like to just really let the emotion move through me so if I feel like I want to like cry I'll cry or I'll just let myself feel it and not really judge the feeling until it moved out and then I move on because I know at the end of the day that a bad review would never stop me from riding I'm always going to keep writing so you know sometimes a bad review can also be informative so there's like the emotion that you feel in the beginning LOL I misunderstood I feel really bad but then sometimes you can scan it and be like well is there anything that I can learn from here maybe there is maybe not but you're kind of taking what you can learn from and leaving the rest and a big proponent and not letting emotions getting stuck in my body so I will even like physically like Shake around and do crazy stuff and make crazy sounds just to kind of like Get It Out get it out maybe that sounds wild but I I asked all of you to try it really works but yeah it's just part of it I think rejection especially in the early days of writing like you're sending your work out and people are just writing you back and being like we didn't like it thanks you know there's a lot rejection in the beginning to I still get rejected today it's like there's never going to be a point in a writer's life where you're getting told yes all the time so you have to form a 6-10 and just really stay home then on to but your primary purpose is the stories that you want to tell and kind of just put blinders up toward everything else thank you and I'm catching GE you have one more question like this one books are made into movies because I've seen some books that are made into movies well I hope one day one of my will be made into a movie it's always so incredible when that happens for a rider it's kind of like the it's kind of a dream situation and there's always a chance that it could happen they said what usually happens when a book comes out as you have you have your literary agent and then you also have a film agent so your film agent is pitching your book to directors and screenwriters is add people to make it into to adapt it for the screen so if a director sees it and loves it and they're like yeah I want to make that then you win the lottery you get lucky but you can still sell the option like I sold the option for both of my books to different production companies and so then what happens is like they're trying to put together a director and screenwriter and an actor and their uniform a package to pitch to like a production company or a streaming company like HBO or Netflix so they're always kind of working in the background to make that happen but it's it's not if we look at the amount of novels that are out a very small percentage of them are being adopted but probably most of the movies and miniseries that you loved may have been adapted from a book it's a pretty common sourcing of material for screenwriters thank you could question all right anybody else have any last questions before we wrap up awesome Chelsea thank you so much for taking time to meet with our online homeschool student if you guys have any further questions feel free to email me and I will forward this question said Chelsea and again thank you so much for your time I was truly inspired Myra I don't think I've written like that in a very long time so that was really fun for that I want to hear what you wrote no thank you you so so much for for joining us and being a guest speaker it's it was inspiring for me and I have writers in my life that I want to forward what you shared to them so I made cited to do that so I'll be paying forward your your advice for sure. Thank you thank you for sharing what you did and I actually got a little upset because I had a parent, and what an during the writing session right but it's okay I'm okay with that but I do my job but I see how you can get into a mode so thank you I appreciate that opportunity thank you all for having me and it was so it's such an honor to talk to all of you and I just have the highest hopes for all of you to to tap into your creativity and and see what can come out so thank you for having me thank you Chelsea don't have to stay on any longer and you're you're good but I appreciate you 3 exit out here it is okay love you Helen I love you bye all right guys if you have check-ins and they ran into this time just make sure to contact your app advisor or if you have any questions for me I'll stay on for a minute feel free to just get on the mic let me see I'm Emily we are good do you have any questions for me Emily okay you're good to go sweetie all right a couple of you I'm going to keep on just so I can have a quick check in with you who do we have today if you are not in the Aiden and Haley Quan Jeremiah Brianna yes okay so today was a different type of meeting we don't always do this we once a month we're having like a guest speaker come and join us and talk to us about things that I'm going to put you in the waiting room Ariana real quick so I can just go over a couple things with you just give me a minute okay all right real quick alright who do I have Isaiah Jimenez let's go ahead and talk real quick Christian you can log off sorry I wasn't listening you said my name did you want to meet with me or could I go do you have your check in today so I'm going to see if you want to meet with you go ahead and get Christian you can go though we had our check-in yesterday Chris I'm going to keep you on Trace Adkins okay Isaiah what's going on with Edgenuity when we last spoke what did we say your game plan was going to be my bad about that my bad yeah sorry it's just a long week and I do get much done but being able to remember what order you're going to be working it's on things and I got a picture of somewhere I hadn't checked it though what did you enjoy your break yeah you are casting PE you are very close to passing Spanish so that's because you need to work on right now you only need two more percent to get that back to a passing score okay I want that done by noon you can totally do that okay and then after that you need to work on math okay the W check in at noon okay cuz there's only 11 days left of to get your class is done so if you're not getting your stuff done like you're going to be Sol respectfully so just make sure you get your work done are all right okay you can go okay bye Ariana hello hello hello how are you I don't know if my camera won't cuz it shows black my screen so do you know where your camera lens is there's like a little screen cover on it you have to slide it to open it now it shows read but once you slide it open it opened up like it it's kind of hard to slide but you'll feel like a little rivet at the top right above the camera oh shoot oh when where are you coming from what school are you joining us from Garza are you freshmen okay you are can I ask why you're here I got pregnant okay you can speak really okay so that's why you're you're being homeschooled your goal is to still finish your classes on time it on time you want to make sure everything is good right because I need to know like how to motivate you and how to talk to you during our session I do but like I want to know what you want you know what I mean so graduating you plan on one day going to college I do want to because I do want to be an ultrasound tech at some point that's a good field if you don't mind me asking how far along are you I'm 7 months right now are you having a boy or a girl well I haven't really found out yet because it's been like I really liked old people so I have my appointment on Thursday to find out also go ahead I know we have a meeting at 9 are the things on Thursday and my appointment is at 10:15 so try and stay like it on the zoom like through you have a meeting every Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 9 to 9 30 and then your check-in is on Thursdays at 9:30 but we're doing okay but if you can't that's fine I'm good with that or if you want print from your phone that's okay to run for a little bit I can give you the credit for it so Ariana as I'm looking at your Abby Hughes Edgenuity before know she was my first time okay Edgenuity is your classes basically like if you were in school with your class you classes to go to each day you are responsible for working for a minimum of 4 hours a day on edge you are also encouraged to complete a minimum of thirty activities and activities are assignments there like videos quiz and everything so like it's easy to get 2:30 so it's not like you to do 30 actual assignments to get but it's like you logging on watching video that counts as one activity I'm cuz it's an online teacher basically it's a video then there's usually a chemistry could you came in with some credit stop dimming so what you want to do is ensure that all of your classes are either blue or green at all times so what I need you to do today's work on Ela and also work on chemistry to make sure you get those blue or green beans okay on top of the lineup PE log a fitness blog if you can share your screen let me give me the so I can show you where that is go ahead and share your screen and then log into your PE class okay Rihanna do you have any no not yet do you have any siblings younger or older one older and two younger hey how are you feeling overall scared first-time first-time Jitters okay click on your PE class not next activity or anything just click on the class but open to get right there is fine and then on the left hand side you see a little heart with a rhythm sign through it that's where you're going to put your Fitness activities you see where it says hello plus sign right about the date I'm lost out on a date how to log in 100 minutes of activity could be going on a walk watching the YouTube video and stretching you know what I mean whatever it is for you it just has to be logged as 100 minutes for the entire week you could do Monday 15 minutes Tuesday 50 minutes or I can do Monday 100 minutes I don't care what didn't you do it just has to be equal to 100 minutes because early every week for the whole week every week I go in and I'll give you 100 points if you have 100 points or I'll give you 50 points if you have a hold on I just realized one second anyways so that's the gist of it if you have any questions as things come up please make sure you are emailing me email check your email in the mornings and afternoons and like one time before you go to bed to just please please please make sure that you are working the four hours today okay and so when you say blue and green you mean by these right like the marks yep okay

Video Gallery

"My Career as a Fiction Writer" - A job shadow of Chelsea Bieker

Popular Videos