Recently I was asked by a friend to write down some ideas and inspirations for how I manage get so much writing done. Now that's a subject that is near and dear to my heart, because writing is both my vocation and my passion at this stage in my life. So what started out to be a simple 'how I do it' page or so turned into 11+ pages of tips and advice. I decided to share it here as well, where hopefully it will inspire others to either keep at it, or at least avoid the mistakes I made along the way to getting published. Not that I'm so doggoned famous or anything, but I do write a lot, and I have quite a few books in print right now. So here's how things go for me...
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First of all, here’s the background stuff…
When I was a young wife and mother in the 80s, I wound up quitting
the workforce to concentrate on family. I’ve always been the
creative type, so while I was busy with home,
loved ones, gardening, pets, etc, I needed an outlet for something
that was just about me. I dabbled in music, art, crafts, and I read a
lot, but nothing seemed to bring me the sort of satisfaction I
craved, or worked in concert with my home life. To be part of a band,
you have to be willing and able to travel regularly. I could sketch
and paint reasonably well, but I had very little artistic training,
and the good quality supplies that make artwork salable were
expensive. You have to be uber
talented
to warrant a gallery show. I tried a small business selling finished
crafts as well as craft supplies, but I found out fast that I am just
not the entrepreneurial type. I’d happily craft all day, and I love
talking to people, but I really stink at selling and dealing with
money, taxes, permits, and all sorts
of tedious
stuff. I loved gardening and grew a lot of food
and started my own plants, but that’s seasonal up here. With
my oldest son on the autistic spectrum, he
was struggling in school with social skills as
well as certain
academics. I
often needed to work closely with him and the staff, which meant
being available on the spur of the moment. I kept looking for
something quieter that I could do at
odd hours at home, and writing seemed to fit the bill. So writing it
became.
I have no more education than a high school diploma, but I’ve
always been an avid reader. There was no money in our budget then
for me going back to school, and spare time
to drive somewhere and work at getting a degree was scarce.
Plus I would have to do a lot of remedial academics. The adult
education courses were far less expensive and more geared toward one
subject, but they were narrow
in scope and always met in
the evenings, and I didn’t have that
time available.
This was well before personal computers and the internet became
popular and affordable, so my options for learning the writing
business were limited. I wound
up taking a couple of writing correspondence
courses by well vetted schools that sent you course materials and
assigned you to a published instructor. We bought a used electric
typewriter relatively cheap, and I worked on the assignments in my
‘spare’ time. It was the best solution to a vexing situation, and
I learned the
rudimentary tenets of how to write well.
Now about the struggle to get published...
Back then there was a growing dearth of small, independent
publishers, so I started sending stuff to the big houses and
magazines. I got my share of rejection slips, most of them
photocopied
form letters with no other explanation than, “This does not
currently meet our needs.” Which says nothing useful, but it’s
faster for those busy, jaded editors who see hundreds of manuscripts
a month and can tell within two paragraphs whether it’s worth
reading any further. I always included postage to get my
manuscripts back. Most
of them looked pristine after the 3-9
months or more it took to reply, so I knew they hadn’t been read
beyond page 1. Now and then, someone would mark up a short story
manuscript and send it back, and those I tucked away in shame after
reading them over.
Meanwhile I pored through the Writer’s Market every year,
subscribed to writing
magazines and newsletters, and read every article I could find.
Still, nothing. I got a couple of how-to articles into publications
that didn’t pay anything other
than maybe a back copy or a thank you note. Two
places that I had hoped on getting published by went out of business
shortly after the owner died, and before I could get something
submitted. I just couldn’t win!
After
a while, the continual
rejection becomes
soul-crushing. I’d give up writing for long stretches, and immerse
myself in something else creative, but it continued to needle me.
Judging
by what I was reading, I felt I was doing reasonably good work; so
what the devil would it take to claw my way out
of that slush pile and get something into the hands of potential
readers? I was savvy enough by then to realize that the vanity press
people who charged you X-amount to print your book weren’t going to
sell it for me, so I never went that route. What I didn’t realize
at the time is that the large
publishing houses had
been gradually buying up all the smaller,
independent publishers and turning them into imprints, so that there
were only a half dozen big houses left in the US. Those kind of
investments really affect the bottom line, so they primarily
dealt with authors who were well known in some way. Magazines that
printed fiction were going the way of the dinosaurs.
So
the deck was really stacked against me.
Plus along the way I began seeing where most big publishers were only
taking submissions from unknown authors via
agents, and I found out quickly that to get an agent, you needed at
least a contract in hand or some chops in the industry. Catch-22 and
yet another dead end.
But I kept writing, because I actually enjoyed doing it. Good thing
I’m stubborn!
When changes came along...
When we got our first PC, I had to learn how to operate
it so that I could help my kids. They soon bypassed my ability and
began teaching me. Once I learned to run a word processing program,
that really set my creative spirit free. I am not an organized
thinker, so being able to format a document my
way and then move text all over the place, made
story creation
so much easier. It beat the snot out of the
typewriter with the three line correction ability, and no ribbons to
buy either. Everything got saved on this new invention called a hard
drive, which
meant it wouldn’t get lost as easily, and with clickable icons on
something called a desktop, I didn’t have to type in lines of code
every time I wanted to do something. I quickly learned the necessity
of good backups though, because I once lost 100 pages of a manuscript
and had to retype it from my only copy, which was on fanfold paper
from a pale dot matrix printout. Took me over a week. I went through
all sorts of backup contortions in those days: multiple 3.5 floppy
disks, a tape drive that never worked right, and then
on burnable CDs. It wasn’t until far later when the USB flash
drives and portable hard drives came out that I was able to save
absolutely everything I did in multiple spots—but then I’m
getting ahead of myself.
Writing is by nature a lonely business,
and while the family was enthusiastic and supportive, they really
didn’t understand my passion for it. I was thoroughly
hooked on creating fiction by then, and had narrowed my focus down to
writing mostly fantasy geared toward an adult audience. That was
primarily
what I was reading at the time and I was inspired by how many other
women authors were involved. Still couldn’t get anywhere with
publishers, but I was finding
my groove, looking forward to getting back on
the computer at every opportunity possible and adding to the stories
I already had going. Now
and then I took some time off from writing, but
it nagged at me to get back to work. There’s a part of me that
wants to leave a legacy behind, and even if I never got published, I
was building a portfolio of short stories and partly-finished books.
I still have most of those original files, which have followed me in
countless saves between many different desktop and laptop machines,
and even one rather useless netbook. We gradually bought other
machines so that the boys would have something to do school work on
at home or to game on
whenever they had leisure time. Eventually I got my own.
It
was fall of 1998 before we finally gained
a dial-up internet connection in our rural area that didn’t involve
a long distance call. The internet was a whole new world for me, so I
got online regularly. Entire nights of sleep we lost to the lure of
what lurked in
cyberspace. I began
to
post on those early precursors to today’s
social media, the bulletin boards. By
the next spring I was moderating two boards for
a major software company, one on gardening and the other landscaping.
The moderator group depended on a beta live chat program called ICQ
to stay in touch, and it was thrilling that
you could type messages to someone across the country and get an
immediate answer. Later that year, I stumbled
across a bulletin
board on Prodigy Internet that
was specific to books and writing, and within a
month I was asked to be a moderator there as well. That’s when I
found my clan, and some of the friendships I made there still exist
today. Of the three or four people I still correspond with, all have
been published, and one actually lives with us now.
I learned a lot more about writing and the publishing business from
the more successful authors on that BB, and I have many
fond memories from those days. I got into poetry and managed to win
both a first prize and an honorable mention in a local contest hosted
by a small non-fiction publishing house. I had
to stand on a stage at my old high school with shaking legs and read
to the audience with all these long published poets and non-fiction
authors sitting behind me. I was a
wreck, but it was also exhilarating to finally
have something I wrote vetted by someone who knows good writing. I’ll
never forget the applause, and having several of those authors tell
me they thought my
poem was very
well done. My oldest son also took a secondary prize with one of his
poems, so we celebrated together. No certificate ever meant more to
me than those,
which helped erase a lot of the frustration I had been experiencing.
In
2004 I completed my first book, a huge 800+ page
fantasy doorstop with the unfortunate title of The Child Of The
Forest. It took four years of hard work to write
that massive tome, but only 6 months to have it rejected. This time,
I let them keep the manuscript, it was too big to keep sending back.
Some other publishers only wanted the first couple chapters, but the
result was always the same. Another form rejection slip, another sigh
of frustration. But this time, I didn’t give up. I had actually
written an entire book, and even if it wasn’t deemed worth
publishing, I had finished it.
So I continued writing, building up my portfolio. As
it turns out, it’s a really good thing that I did.
Fast forwarding to the first stuff
that got accepted…
In 2007, our friend Lee Houston Jr., who had
moved in with us the previous year, had open
heart surgery that saved his life. He was one of those Prodigy BB
members I mentioned earlier. While
Lee was recuperating, he spent a lot of time online looking for
writing gigs. Working together with someone else on a start-up comic
company that never actually got off the ground led Lee to an invite
from
a small start-up publisher of pulp style action/adventure fiction.
That publisher
was Pro Se Productions,
located in northeast Arkansas. That’s almost
halfway across the country from Connecticut,
but
through the magic of the internet we could easily correspond.
Lee got picked up as a writer and editor, and he recommended me,
because he’d been my beta reader and editor for quite some time. I
sent in two sample short stories—one of which was based on a story idea from Prodigy B&W BB alumni and COMPANION DRAGONS TALES co-author Roger Stegman—and both saw print in company
magazines. I could have done cartwheels! And that is when I started
hawking all the material I had laying around.
I wound up carving up and rewriting that ponderous fantasy novel into
three books. The first one, FORTUNES PAWN, was published in 2011. It
was the right time and the right atmosphere for what I was doing,
because print-on-demand publishing had just started taking off. All
the work was done remotely; my publisher was in Arkansas, the cover
artist in Ohio, the printing
was done in Florida, with
me
here waiting anxiously in Connecticut. Yet we
put out a book. Holding that first copy in my hands after all those
years of struggling was such an incredibly
overwhelming feeling, I had a stupid grin on my face and tears in my eyes. I still well
up to
this day, thinking about it.
So don’t ever give up. It may take a while—for me I started writing on
my own back in 1989, and didn’t get a book published until 2011.
That’s 22 years. But I look at it this
way; there
are far worse ways I could have spent that time. How
many people say they’d like to do something, but never seem to get
around to it? I kept at it, and I narrowed my sights down to finding
publishers who would work with me, and now I’ve found my niche. I
may never be rich or famous,
but I have a catalog of work that I’m proud
of, and I’ve made the jump from hobby writer to published author.
So what is this Pulp Fiction I speak of, and how does it differ
from what I set out to write?
No, it’s not the movie with John Travolta but there are
correlations. Pulp is a style of
fiction covering
many different genres that was insanely popular from around the turn
of the century into the 1950s. Some of it was sold as
small
novels, but most came as standalone short stories or ongoing serials
in magazines printed on cheap pulpwood paper
with ragged edges. All were relatively inexpensive entertainment
aimed at everyday people. Stories
covered a gamut of topics from hard-boiled crime, science fiction,
fantasy, horror, romance, westerns, etc. It’s fast paced and often
featured glossy, lurid covers. It’s fun and captivating reading,
and as I discovered
as I explored deeper into the fan base, still quite
popular today. A good number of the writers of that era went on to
have very successful careers, such as Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451
and The Martian Chronicles), Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade of The
Maltese Falcon and Nick & Nora Charles of The Thin Man), Erle
Stanley Gardner (creator of Perry Mason), Max Brand (westerns and Dr.
Kildare), Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan and John Carter), and Robert
E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, King Kull of Atlantis, and
Solomon Kane). Tarzan’s saga started in the pulps, as well as
Zorro, The Shadow, Doc Savage, detective Sam Spade, and
Conan. They
all hearken back to classic pulp. The people I deal with now publish
what they call New Pulp, meaning these are often brand new stories
with new characters and settings, but they have that very familiar
pulse pounding, page turning excitement.
It’s been speculated that pulp lead to the superhero fiction of the
comics. I also think you’ll fund a direct connection with movies.
The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart was based on Hammett’s Sam
Spade. We’ve all heard of Tarzan movies, but I think you can make a
case for things like Indiana Jones, Die Hard, Fast and Furious, and
Terminator as being pulp influenced. Most westerns are pulpy. Even
Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean fit the mold. So there’s
still a big audience for this sort of heroic
escapist story, and with so much potential in
digital reading these days, we’re poised to bring in even more
fans.
The
original pulps were quickly written, often under pen names by authors
both male and female, looking to support themselves doing something
they loved at a time when money was scarce. Today it’s more a labor
of love and homage because the majority of my writing peers have
other employment that pays the bills. In the past, women writing
speculative fiction of any style have faced an uphill battle to get
published under their own names, but that glass ceiling has somewhat
lowered over the years. Because of so many groundbreaking female
authors who blazed me a path, I can
write under my own name, and I tend to favor female lead characters
with a lot of spunk who can handle themselves in difficult and
dangerous situations. There was a pittance of those sorts of stories
in traditional pulp as well as standard genre fiction, where the
majority of women were either damsels in distress or scheming
villainesses. In New Pulp, there are far fewer barriers. Today it’s
the story that matters, not the gender of the writer or the
characters.
The
difference between the pulp treatment and the standard genre fiction
put out by large publishing houses is the pacing as well as the size
of the publication. To continue being published I’ve had to learn
to rein in the size of my books and ramp up the action. I write more
than fantasy now, but that was what I started with, and it’s still
my favorite genre. If you look in any book store or library at the
shelves where you’ll find fantasy tomes, those books tend to be on
the large size. That’s because fantasy fans love detailed
description. Unfortunately that takes lots of space in a book, and
most of the publishers I deal with have a set word limit between
60,000 minimum to 65,000 max. It translates to somewhere around 150
to 200 pages. That keeps the books affordable, and allows the
publisher to make a profit, without which they’d soon be out of
business. So I’ve learned how to get the details in that delight
the fans while making sure there’s plenty of action and tension to balance it.
There’s no room for side quests and big chunks of backstory, so
plots are far more linear. Every paragraph has to lead the story
forward.
In
my experience, fantasy fans—in fact readers of all ilks—want
characters they can relate to in some way. That’s my departure from
the pulp era, where most characters were either larger than life
heroic and villainous constructs, or just vehicles for the plot. I
walk a fine line here, and it takes practice and experience—both of
which you gain as you write.
Yet
it's still a labor of love. I really enjoy what I write, even on the
days when it’s frustrating. I wouldn’t go back to how I handled
stories before because I can get a book out in a matter of months, or
as with some of them that require more research, just under a year.
The feedback I get has been positive. It’s not making me wealthy by
any stretch of the imagination, but it fills the emptiness of for so many years not
having a career I can talk about. In the long run,
that’s what matters most.
Nose to the grindstone,
shoulder to the wheel—all about my writing days.
Don’t
be fooled by how much I gush about writing, because it is still a
huge endeavor. First of all, you need to understand that I don’t
work outside the home. That gives me a lot more free time than the
average person. Plus my sons are grown, the youngest one married with
children. They all live together and support each other. I have often
babysat the youngest grandkids, and cared for my mother up until her
passing in March 2019. I’m generally the go-to sitter, and I’d
have it no other way. I wrote when I could and still managed at least
a couple books a year. Now that the little ones are in school though,
I have additional free time. Mine is an all adult household, and my
husband still works. Because of mobility issues, I’ve had to
curtail a lot of activities like gardening and housework. So that
gives me even more incentive to write.
Writing
is something I can do sitting down, and you’ll find me at the
keyboard banging away most weekday afternoons. That’s my sweet
time, when the house is mostly quiet and I can concentrate. I don’t
need total silence, but my thoughts can’t compete with
conversations or TVs blaring. I currently have my own room and that’s
where my PC is. I have a decent unit that my son and daughter-in-law
put together for me, with a whopping 1 terabyte hard drive that holds
tons of files (I like music and collect pictures too). It has
accessible USB ports in the front for plugging in SAVE devices or a
headset. I have a 24 inch monitor which eases the eye strain that
goes along with this business, and a backlit keyboard so that I don’t
need an overhead room light glaring on those gloomy days or at night.
I’m just that bad a typist that I need to see the keys, but I get
by. All my materials are nearby, and I just recently added an
inexpensive printer. I keep my cell phone handy in case I get a call
or text, and there’s always something to sip on within
reach—usually ice water or iced decaf tea.
Once
I make a quick zip through a couple of email accounts, Facebook, the
news & weather, and when in season the baseball site (go Red
Sox!) I boot up Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, and at least one
Google tab for searches. One of the best takeaways I got from my
first writing course was to have a college level dictionary and
thesaurus when you write, because it improves your work when you use
words well and don't always rely on same ones. I like something I can type
into and click on for ease of use—it beats thumbing through a book.
Next I decide what I’m working on today, and out comes two squares
of Lindt 90% dark chocolate to nibble on for its brain-boosting
energy. I only have it when I’m writing. This is all a routine for
me, but routines exist for a reason; they tell your mind to settle in
because you’re at work now. This is so
very important when you work at home, because there are tons of ways
to get distracted from what you want to accomplish, and no boss
looking over your shoulder. Think about it; we have morning and
bedtime routines, work routines, mealtime routines, religious
routines, and so on, and those put us in the frame of mind for what
we know we must do. If you want to be published, you have to be
serious about getting some writing done. Those little ingrained
habits really help you focus.
So then it’s time to get to
work. If I’m starting a new piece, I have a blank page before me,
all set up to the potential publisher's specifications. I can crank
up the reading size on the word processor for my comfort without
affecting the overall quality of the manuscript, which is a boon to
me, because I’d otherwise need reading glasses. I am not an outline
person, though I know that works for some folks. Most times I will
have some idea of what I want to accomplish in a story and who is
going to be in it. The rest just comes as I go along. In a pinch at
times I’ve just started with some random sentence that sounds
interesting. You have to capture a reader’s attention within the
first couple paragraphs or there’s a good chance the book won’t
sell, and your first sale is always to the publisher. So make it
something dynamic!
At
other times, I’ll go back to something I’ve been working on
already. I am not one of those people who writes a rough draft from
beginning to end and only afterward goes back over it, I tend to
tweak things as I go along. To each her or his own, because there’s
no wrong way to write as long as you’re getting something
accomplished. Find your personal groove and stick with it, ignoring
the naysayers. Most word processors have bookmark capabilities, and I
use mine to mark off areas I want to revisit, and start the next
session by rereading them. When I’m satisfied with a section, I
move on. Sometimes I’ll have more than one bookmark in there if I
wrote a new scene somewhere between previous text, or cut and pasted
something into a different spot. I catch a lot of typos and
redundancies this way too, and I’ll sometimes reword an awkward
phrase, sentence or paragraph. It sure helps cut down on the amount
of work I’ll have to do in my second pass, and I feel the flow of
the piece really improves. You do whatever works for you, and you’ll
be fine. This is just what works for me.
One
thing you really need
to get into the habit of doing is hitting SAVE every couple of
paragraphs or so. I can’t stress that enough because I’ve lost my
share of material to sudden power failures or accidentally hitting
the wrong key. Auto-save features exist on most word processing
programs but don’t rely on it, because if the blip hits during the
save, it almost always gets corrupted. Do it manually on a regular
basis while you’re writing. Believe me when I say that your memory
will not recall exactly how you worded something. There is nothing more
frustrating than seeing several hours worth of hard work go POOF in
an unguarded moment.
BTW,
there are some keyboard commands that are helpful, and the greatest
one of all is the Ctrl-Z combo. This will bring back anything you
just accidentally deleted, as long as the manuscript is still up and
the power is on. Can’t tell you how many times that has saved my
bacon! Just keep holding Ctrl and hitting Z until you’ve regained
what you lost.
I
generally work for 4-6 hours on a good writing day, though it can
vary. I will write any time I have some free moments, whether it’s
a half hour or a half day. I do take short 5-20 minute breaks to give
my brain or my eyes a rest, but I try not to do that more than once
every hour or two. None of that involves gaming or trolling social
networks because invariably time gets away from you. Sometimes I look
at interesting pictures or pet the dog.
At
the end of the day’s session, I get ready to do my off-the-PC
saves. First I take a wood count. Between my monitor and my keyboard
on my tiny desk is a little 6x9 clipboard with a bunch of scratch
paper, the foremost pieces having the title of the project and
various word counts on it. I write down today’s total, and then
subtract it from the last one on another piece of scratch paper. That
will get posted on Twitter and Facebook later, which gives me
something to brag or groan about. I like doing it this old school way
because those long double or sometimes triple columns of figures show
me the progress I’ve made over the course of a project, which is
incredibly encouraging. Sometimes I will post the overall size of the
project-in-progress as well, generally at key stages like ¼, 1/3, ½
or ¾ completed. It keeps me honest too. I shoot for 1000 words a
day, which is comfortable for me, and do get more done at times,
though I have days when I write far fewer. I don’t beat myself up
over the less successful sessions because any writing done is better
than none. Some days I was interrupted a lot, or maybe I wasn’t
feeling well. Other times I had more research to do than writing—and
yes, research is part of writing when it’s necessary, like for the
pirate series I have going, which has a historical backdrop.
Occasionally an opportunity comes to chat with a friend or relative,
and people are important too. I have my wool gathering days as well,
and I freely admit them. Whatever the reason, if the day before and
the day after show significantly more writing, then I just chalk it
up to circumstances and move on.
Once
I’ve tallied word count, I get out the USB flash drives (AKA thumb
drives, flash cards, or memory sticks). Those handy little boogers
are relatively inexpensive insurance that you’re not going to lose
all your hard work. Plus they will hold a ton of text, which is not
particularly space intensive. I keep three of modest size for
writing, one which gets each daily result dated and titled in a
folder for that project. On that flash card, each session’s save is
a separate file, so that if I find yesterday’s was corrupt, I can
go back to a previous file and not lose the entire manuscript. It’s
never happened on these little drives, but I’m paranoid like that.
The other two are flash drives made by different companies and they
just get a quick save over the last session. When I had an unexpected
hard drive crash on my PC earlier this year, I lost everything on it,
and those flash drives saved my butt. I have a tablet with an
auxiliary keyboard that I can work on as well, it’s set up like my
PC with the same programs and synced with the same bookmarks. I was
back to writing within 15 minutes after I got done swearing at the
Demons Of Electronic Destruction. I had to squint a little and wear
reading glasses, but I managed to keep working that way for several
weeks until my younger son and DIL teamed up to install the new
hard drive in my PC. They made sure it worked and the most necessary
downloads were done. I added back all my programs and files. The
bookmarks were synced, so I was back in business that evening.
A
word or two about flash drives, because I have quite a collection of
them. The old ones are small and of slower speeds, but they still
work fine for me. Most had the separate little cap that covers the
plug end, and those caps get lost easily. So you seldom see that
design any more. Right now they are generally either the type where
the plug end pushes out from the body by some means, or they have a
swinging cover that you move aside to plug them in. I favor the
second type, because I’ve had problems with those push-out drives
not seating properly, which can cause lost files or corrupted ones.
Also that business end is never covered properly, so dust and gook
can get in there. Flash drives also come in various sizes measured in
GBs (gigabytes). Buy a size you can afford, but 8-16 GB is plenty for
most text saves, even with multiple manuscripts, and they are often
on sale. Make sure you get one with a solid feel to it, because
you’re going to be using it daily. Stay away from the cute designs
that have special shapes (I’ve seen chocolate bars and
strawberries) as they’re usually poorly made and the plastic comes
apart. Get a little zip around case to carry them (they usually hold
up to 6) so that they stay protected. Don’t put them on a keychain,
they get too beat up! Your writing and peace of mind is worth this
minimal investment.
You
can cloud save if you wish, because that’s storage that is not
physically on your PC, and it’s good to have something offsite if
you live in a place prone to nasty weather. We recently had a tornado
warning, something that is rare here in Connecticut. Besides my cell
phone and a flashlight, the first thing that went into my pocket was
my flash card case with the writing files. Forgot all about my
wallet. (We all have our priorities!) So I am now considering
something like Google Documents for cloud save protection, though I’m
uneasy about storing my work somewhere in cyberspace. Many word
processors do have that potential now too, and there are other sites
online. Ask any published writers you come across if they use cloud
save utilities and what they recommend. Most writers are genial folks
who will talk to a newbie about something like that.
At
the end of a project, whether a short story or a novel, I try and
give it a rest before I make a second pass. That might be several
days to a week for a short story, or a couple weeks to a month for a
novel. In the meantime, I work on something else. Once I boot up the
manuscript again, I’m seeing it with fresh eyes, which makes
potential problems stand out more. I read through the manuscript from
stem to stern to get a sense of the flow of the story, tweaking as I
go. Some things I will turn over to a trusted friend as a beta reader
for comments and editing. I do that especially with books, which are
long term projects, and I return the favor in kind. Another set of
eyes can spot things I might have missed. A beta reader doesn’t
necessarily have to be another writer, but the input has to be
useful. When I’m satisfied it’s as good as I can make it, I clean
up all bookmarks and highlighting, making sure the format is proper
for where it’s going. Then off it goes along with a cover email
(all my publishers accept email submissions) and any additional info
the publisher wants or needs, like an updated author bio, cover art
suggestions, or back cover copy. Having everything together just
makes it easier on the recipient. I do have to stress though, these
are all publishers who know me and that I have worked with. If you’re
submitting for the first time, find your publisher’s submission
guide and follow that.
When
I finish a project and it’s been sent off to the publisher, that
little scratch sheet I mentioned earlier either gets turned over to
use the back side, or if both sides are scribbled on, it gets
discarded (in the paper recycling or wood stove depending on the
season). Ditto with the math sheets. It’s another ritual that
bolsters my confidence that I can and will get writing accomplished.
Over
the last several years, I have been keeping a page on my PC’s
desktop with a list of writing projects I hope to finish this year. I
never get them all
done, and some have been carried over several years. But every time I
finish a story or book, and it goes off to the respective publisher,
I highlight it in some bold color. At the end of the year it sure is
satisfying to see all those highlighted projects! Plus if I need
another project, I can pick one from the list.
When
you start feeling a reluctance to write, it will show in your word
count over time. That snowballs to become a mental issue known as the
dreaded ‘writers block’. I’ve found my own way around that by
rotating between projects. Often times if I boot up something else
after a couple of dismal sessions, I’ll have no trouble with that
one, it was just what I had been previously working on that was faltering. So I
give it a rest. That happens regularly in the middle parts of writing
a novel, where it seems like you’re slogging uphill through ankle-deep molasses to get to the end. I call that the doldrums and it’s a
warning that you’re becoming frustrated. If you simply must go on,
then find something writing related to bring what you’re working on
back into focus. Maybe you need some mood music—Youtube has a lot
of streaming content and you can type in what you’re looking for to
find something that works. Or boot up Google images and try and find
something that resembles your character or setting. Write a character
dossier or scene description. The idea here is to focus your thoughts
back onto what you’re supposed to be doing without abandoning
writing altogether. Like getting back on the horse after you got
thrown; just choose a different horse.
And folks, it’s not how many
times you fell off the wagon, but how often you got back aboard and
kept going that matters over the long run.
Writer Ethics
First
of all, be professional. Know your target publisher and that house’s
audience, and give them what they want and need in as finished a
format as you can. Don’t send in rough drafts unless you’re told
to. The less work you cause their editorial staff, the better you
will be thought of, and the more likely they’ll accept something
else from you down the road. Be courteous and civil, even when others
aren’t, because unfortunately that will happen. These are busy and
sometimes overwhelmed people, and some of them can be downright
blunt. Expect to be critiqued and/or asked for corrections, and while
it’s not easy to hear that your piece was imperfect, at least give
a listen or reread whatever is in question and see if what was
pointed out makes sense. If you really don’t feel the change is
needed, say so, in a polite but firm manner. Even negative feedback
is better than none at all, and you might learn something from it. If
you find someone is just too hard to work with, move on to another
publisher. Just don’t become ‘that problem author’ because word
gets around fast.
I
write more novels than short stories these days, but I will work on
anything that appeals to me, and now and then I am invited to join in
on a multi-author anthology. That I consider an honor, but before I
agree to it, I will look at how much time there is involved, consider
if this is my sort of writing, and whether I can honestly get it done
by the deadline. If I accept then I do my best to turn the work out
in a timely manner. But do be careful not to agree to take on every
project you’re offered. Too many deadlines and before you know it, you’re swamped. Suddenly it’s more of a chore than a joy to
write, and you’re bound to fall behind. Your publisher doesn’t
have a crystal ball, so he or she won’t know what else you have
due, nor should that person care. You made the promise to finish by a
certain date, so don’t hold up the book because you can’t
possibly get this done in time. Prioritize your projects. And if
something unforeseen comes up like a family matter or health issue,
give your publisher a heads-up immediately. You don’t have to spill
your guts, but that person will at least need to know you’re going
to be late or maybe will need to bow out. The farther ahead of time
you speak up, the more likely that some other arrangement can be put
in place before the deadline. It happens, and as much as we all love
writing, life does get in the way. You will be respected for being
upfront about it and that will bolster your reputation.
If
you use a beta reader, please be courteous and return the favor if
possible. This is a real trust situation, because someone else is
holding your baby. Give that person enough time to read and give you
feedback, and never hand over your only copy. If it’s too close to
deadline, forgo the beta reader and focus on just getting the work
edited and turned in on time. Learn to trust yourself as well.
Take
time to chat with a fan (you’ll have them) or rub elbows with your
peers. Be aware that fans will see you as some kind of miracle
worker, because you can turn words into stories. Treat them with
gratitude, but just be yourself. I tell people all the time that
writing is a profession and trade, like being a lawyer or a
carpenter, and I still have to clean my own toilet! They may ask some
quirky questions, like where do you get your ideas, and you can
answer them honestly and still have some fun. My usual answer is that ideas come out of the ether, that every spring the ‘ether bunny’
brings me another basket of them. When they stop laughing I fess up
that ideas come from various places—a dream, a song, a movie I saw,
an article on the news, or something I overheard. You can’t explain
writer brain to the uninitiated, but you can satisfy their curiosity.
If you’re offered advice, listen politely and say thanks. Even if
it’s awful advice, someone cared enough to share. You’re not
obligated to take it.
If
you’re
asked for advice or a critique by another writer, be honest but kind
and supportive. Don’t feel compelled to read someone’s
handwritten manuscript or even listen to them read it. If you don’t
want to be involved, you need to politely but firmly refuse, though
you can still at least ask the person a couple questions about their
writing. If you do read something by another, no matter how bad it
might be, give thoughtful input and try and find something in there
that is positive. We all have egos, and they bruise easily. The idea
is to be helpful, not scathing and cause someone to give up. We all
had to start somewhere.
And
fair warning, there are writing parasites out there that will attach
to you and try and get you to do their work for them. I’ve met a
few, and they weren’t horrible people, just unambitious. They’ll
bring you ideas and roughly written manuscripts and try to get you to
book doctor it into something salable—which you will never get any
credit for. I’ve worked with plenty of writers on joint projects,
and had no major problems with most of them, but we’re not here to simply make someone else's star shine. You have your own work to do, so be wary of
who you hook up with. If it doesn’t feel right, and you’re doing
most of the work, get out of that situation. Life is too short to
become someone’s overworked flunky.
Learn & Grow Confident
I think I’ve made my point
already about the only way to write is to sit down and actually do
it. But what if you desperately want to write, but can’t find the
time? What do you do?
First
of all, take a realistic look at your own life and what’s going on
around you. Is there anything you can cut back on that doesn’t hurt
your work schedule, or encroach on time spent with loved ones? I
understand that not everybody has the amount of free time I do. But
maybe you can skip some TV or online browsing and devote that to
writing. I used to sit with my kids when they did homework so that I
was available, but while they worked I would scribble down ideas and
draw sketches of scenes to use later. I’ve learned to always have
pen and a pad nearby to jot down random thoughts or snatches of
dreams. I have two different book series that each started from a
dream I woke up from and scribbled a note about, and there are a
couple more in my files. Once I had time, I wrote up something a
little more formal about the idea. Don’t trust your memory, even a
paper napkin in a restaurant makes a good notepad in a pinch. (Can
you tell I don’t eat out anywhere fancy?)
Read
a lot! Good writers are avid readers. Read stuff that is similar to
what you want to write, and things that are well outside your normal
taste. Even poorly written schlock is going to teach you something.
Find
a writing routine of your own. You can read all the ‘how to write’
books in the world, but make sure you don’t catch expert-itis
from them. Those books are written to make money, and while the
advice may still be sound, there’s no such thing as
one-size-fits-all. I’ll be the first to tell you that you don’t
need to take all or even much of my advice to be successful (other
than the stuff about backup saves) but you can experiment with
whatever appeals to you and see if it’s helpful. This is how I
manage my time. You do what works best for you.
Write
something besides fiction or whatever it is that you do. I do a
volunteer column on country living for my town’s newsletter, and
some occasional blogging. I also belong to a pulp writers group
through email and will occasionally answer a question or make a
comment. My long distance friends are used to getting chatty emails.
Find
your tribe and embrace them. Joining a writer’s group is a good
idea if people are supportive and can understand the type of writing
you do. It’s not just about critiques, but also sharing the ups and
downs that come with the business. Work with people you can get along
with. I have a children’s adventure series that I share with two
fellow writers and the ideas just fly between us. I correspond with
other authors through email, oline social sites, instant messaging, or audio chat. So
it is very much a career, in that we network, offer support, and bounce topics
around. Sometimes just an encouraging word is enough to bolster
someone’s spirits and get them back to the keyboard.
Never
lose your sense of wonder. Watch the magic happen over and over
again, and be glad you’re part of it. From time immemorial
humankind has told stories; orally, in pictures, and with written
words. I’ve spoken at my oldest grandson’s elementary school
classes about writing, emphasizing why it’s so important to know
how to do, and was very gratified to have several of the kids eagerly
asking me questions or commenting on how much they enjoyed hearing
what I shared. In this time of electronic gadgets that we always have
our noses stuck in, which eventually dominate our lives and isolate
us from one another, it’s good to be able to set some kind of
example of how to use that stuff for creative endeavors. My kids keep
a cabinet in their home filled with books I have in print because the
amount of writing I do simply awes them. I have several young
relatives who are now also exploring writing. In time you will find
that people around you will be amazed when they see what you’ve
accomplished, and you should be proud of that. Writing is hard work,
but it’s also magic in that you’re making something out of
nothing. So do talk about it, even when their eyes glaze over. You’ve
earned that right every time you sit down and put words on a page to
create a whole new world. You have accomplished something most people
only dream of doing. It’s part of the legacy you will leave to
future generations. I take that seriously, and I hope you will too.
Good luck, and write on,
~Nancy Hansen
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