writers don't lead exciting
lives--
they create them with words
GETTING YOUR FEET WET
Including a detailed discussion of
workshops
and other ways to get serious feedback.
PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION
Including advice on pulling together your
manuscript,
and essential information
about agents, slush piles,
and marketing realities.
Special guest feature:
EROTIC FICTION:
A WRITER'S PERSPECTIVE
by Ray Girvan
Links to Writers and Writing Sites On-Line
I regularly receive letters from emerging or starting writers. Some have finished manuscripts, others are thinking of taking up a career in writing. Some want recommendations or leads to editors, publishers and agents; even more ask for feedback on their books or other creative projects.
Unfortunately, I seldom have the time to respond in real depth to letters and never have time to read all the manuscripts and writing samples people send me. So this page is my way of trying to answer some of the most frequent questions that pop up in my email and to give you ideas on where to seek feedback.
By the way, writers refer to a book that hasn't been published as a "manuscript," which they shorten in writing to "ms." (the plural, manuscripts, is written as "mss.")
Also, although one would hope that if you're reading this page you already know the difference, I hear frequently from people who don't seem to know that a NOVEL refers to a book-length work of fiction; and fiction, of course, is an invented story. NON-FICTION is factual writing--this includes everything from journalism (at least on its good days), how-to books, text books, biographies, histories, books on the sciences, or anything else which discusses real people or real events.
Okay, then, onto some typical questions.
When I was new to the publishing business, it was a mystery to me how people got published. The constant rejections were as frustrating as they were bewildering (not to mention depressing and ego-shattering). Like many beginning writers, I thought that successful writers must possess some vital piece of inside information which guaranteed success. But what was it? A well-guarded trick of the trade? A brother in the business? An introduction to an influential editor? A secret handshake? A decoder ring?
I don't mean to discourage starting writers. Or perhaps I do. The plain truth is that, for most of us, writing success is not about who you know; it is not even necessarily about what you know or even how well you know it.
Artistic success, for people who are not born to wealthy or famous families who can pave the way for you, is about how hard you work, how persistent you are, and how much you are willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals. Talent, obviously, plays some role. But while discipline and persistence have made more than one untalented writer successful, talent without discipline and persistence has left many geniuses overlooked.
If you've seen those movies in which unrecognized geniuses labor in obscurity until that happy day when someone finds them in a gutter, cleans them up, and lines their coffers with riches--well, as most artists know, these are the deliriously giddy fantasies of screenwriters living on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
Yes, there are prodigies and people who are "suddenly" discovered. Like 19th century poet Arthur Rimbaud. Judging a profession by its greats will only lead you to disappointment when you find yourself among the other 98% of us who will never be able to afford villas on the Riviera (or even trailers in the Ozarks).
Ah. Better now.
Friend, it is the rare individual who will be able to make even a subsistence living from writing alone. If you've ever wondered why so many writers apply for grants, hit the lecture circuit, teach workshops, and claw for the opportunity to appear on tacky talkshows, well...it isn't because we're swimming in smackers.
The conventional wisdom is that only 5 to 10% of writers make enough from writing to pay their bills. Almost everyone else must have a day job to support the writing habit. They teach, program computers, drive cabs, wait tables, answer phonesex lines and even more sordid things--like working as an editor. If you're in this business for the bucks, you're in the wrong business. The chances of becoming as successful as Tom Clancy or Anne Rice are both slim and fat.
Before you read any further, ask yourself this one crucial question: are you really crazy enough to put up with the bullshit that every writer must regularly endure? This will include critics who, in five minutes, make a mockery of work you labored over for years--if you were lucky enough to get reviewed in the first place; publishers whose accounting departments have made it both an art and a sport to screw authors in new, creative ways; overworked editors who see you as a profitable investment or don't see you at all; and agents who take a cut of your profits (the industry standard right now is 15%) yet act, at times, as if you work for them--refusing to represent work they don't believe to be adequately commercial and urging you to write only what they think they can sell, regardless of whether you want to write it or not.
As a writer, you can expect that, sooner or later, you'll find yourself staring at the peeling paint on the ceiling of your cramped apartment, your loyal yet weary life-partner at your side (if you can find a saint who will not only share your bed with you but with that enormous cross you carry around), wondering whether you might not have done better going into your uncle's shoe business after all.
Put another way: there is a good reason why so many writers are alcoholics and drug addicts.
But there are, my dear, there are!
Back-pain, eye-strain, and hemmorhoids.
Need I say more?
You also get to exercise your imagination in ways you never previously dreamed possible. This can be heaven (for example, when you find the most beautiful image in the world to express your deepest thoughts) or it can be hell (like when you become convinced that your editor, agent, publisher and indeed the entire industry is on a personal vendetta to thwart your genius--see above note about substance abuse).
I know one writer who develops hives when deadlines approach. I know another who battles an unsavory assortment of gastrointestinal disorders during lulls between assignments. And we haven't even begun to talk about those of us who mainline caffeine.
Yes, if you're serious about this, you may as well begin to stock up now on a full array of over-the-counter pain relievers, antihistamines, and antacids. You'll thank me for this advice one day.
Still, if you're serious about it, the grim realities of the business of writing won't stop you because you know that writing is the only thing that really makes you happy. Indeed, the writing itself SHOULD make you happy. This is Nature's way of compensating for the feelings that will come when you start dealing with the people who actually RUN the writing business and, in effect, control your destiny.
In other words: you better LIKE what you're doing, or it just isn't worth doing at all.
So ask yourself: are you willing to put up with what may turn out to be a very emotionally frustrating and financially difficult career? Are you prepared for the possibility that all your hard work may still leave you broke? Is your ego tough enough to withstand constant rejection? Do you want it bad enough to face the disappointments and to struggle to overcome the odds? Only you know the answers to these questions.
But, if you're crazy enough to say "yes," then you are probably crazy enough to be a writer. Welcome to the club and read on.
