Writing Advice: Copyrights and Rough Drafts
Today on writing advice we’re going to go with two short questions, kind of fun things.
1. @ChipFaust asks, “If we make contact with an advanced alien civilization, do current copyright laws apply offworld? Or, for that matter, on the Moon or Mars? Or are they only Terra-centric?”
Copyright laws are considered territorial, meaning that U.S. copyright laws only apply within the jurisdiction of the U.S. government, so an advanced alien civilization that has been receiving all the signals we broadcast out into space could be making their own versions of “Johnny B. Goode” without having any obligation to Chuck Berry’s estate. However, in order to make things easier in a global environment, the U.S. and many other countries (including Russia and China) have agreed to a treaty, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Artistic and Literary Works, whereby copyrights from one signatory territory are considered to apply in the territories of all signatories. (More about how this is enforced at that link.)
So when we make contact with this advanced alien civilization, we would have to get them to sign this treaty (among, I’m sure, many other ones), and then they would have to stop making their alien versions of “Johnny B. Goode” until they’ve come to a licensing agreement with Chuck Berry’s estate. Of course, if the alien civilization is really advanced, they would probably have some kind of way of making sure that artists are compensated for their work without having to rely on a capitalist economy to survive, so maybe they would be making us sign some treaties too.
2. @DogDaysOfJack takes time out from truck appreciation to ask, “Do you have a daily/weekly/monthly word goal you try to hit?” and also, related, “what’s the process for you to arrive at something you’d consider a rough draft?”
I have a Patreon that I update with one scene a week, and my self-imposed minimum word count for a scene is 1500 words. I usually write that on a Friday to post a week and a half later (I also have occasional writing streams where I work on it). For higher tier patrons, I have an ongoing novel that gets updated with a chapter a month, and my word count for that one is usually around 3000 words.
For other projects, it really depends on what part of the project I’m in. For the last several months I’ve been mostly revising The Price of Thorns and Return From Divalia, so I haven’t been generating new word counts other than for the two Patreon stories. But when I am rough-drafting, I usually try to hit about 1500 words a day at a minimum. If I have momentum, I’ll go longer than that.
A project starts with an idea, and then an outline of some varying roughness. It depends on how confident I feel in the world and the characters. If it’s something new, I might outline very closely so I’m more assured of the plot. For Titles, I knew Dev and Lee and their world well enough that the outline was very loose. Once I feel comfortable and there’s an urge to write, I start rough drafting. I’ll get down those 1500 words a day until the book’s done or until I feel like I’m adrift in the story again, at which point I might revisit the outline to give myself more guidance over what remains of the book. Then at some point I reach the end of the story. That’s when the rough draft is done.