On Writing
Hard at work on an early masterpiece. These books don't write themselves, you know!

Hard at work on an early masterpiece. These books don't write themselves, you know!

There are a plenty of books about writing and places online where you can read various thoughts on the craft of writing, the business of writing, the psychological aspects of writing, the tao of writing, and more. I don’t think I or anyone has anything new to say, but I always like to hear the various ways that different writers say it. So, here are some thoughts about what’s been important for me. I’ve also linked to places online where others have said some things better than I could.

Why?

One thing you might think about is why you write, or why you want to write. Maybe you want to entertain, maybe you want to ask questions and explore answers, maybe you just want to see how it feels, maybe someone dared you. Maybe you want to have other people pay for your hotel stays. Maybe you want to see your name in print. Maybe you want to have something to leave your children. Maybe you want to get back at someone who didn’t think you’d amount to anything. It could be a combination of some or all of those things. Personally, I think some reasons are better than others, but you shouldn’t let anyone tell you that there are wrong reasons, as long as you know the pitfalls and tradeoffs for your particular reasons. And, reasons may evolve and change and shift as you go.

I write for a few different reasons. I have a vivid imagination and like to be able to translate (or attempt to translate) the worlds in my head into a shareable story. I like spending time alone, and I have issues with authority, so writing is a good career for me on a practical level as it allows for a lot of independence the majority of the time. And, like most humans, I want to be known, and at the same time I fear being known. Writing fiction is one way to give people the chance to see the real me, while at the same time giving me the chance to deny it’s the real me they’re seeing. Tricky!

Some writers I know have “mentor texts,” books they return to again and again when they feel lost in their own writing process and lose sight of what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. I have guiding quotes—wisdom from other writers and thinkers that helps remind me why I write, and why I write what I write, and how I approach the whole enchilada. Here’s a taste:

  • “I came to see the damage that was done, and the treasures that prevail.”
    Adrienne Rich, from her poem “Diving into the Wreck”
  • “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.”
    Dostoyevsky’s Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov (I really should read that some day…)
  • “Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.”
    Eugene O’Neill, from “The Great God Brown”
  • “Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”
    Flannery O’Connor

How? When? Where?

My work environment now

My work environment now

My “writing process,” such as it is, isn’t very consistent or interesting. When I was in my first ten years of “serious writing” – as in, “I’m going to start and finish novels, and revise them until they are as good as I can get them” – I had various day jobs and I would write at night and on weekends. Inconsistently. True confession: I honestly think I liked typewriters and laptops and keyboards long before I really loved writing. I liked the physical act of putting words up onto a page or screen. The act of creation was thrilling, even if what I “created” amounted to random sentences like, “I am now typing on my new keyboard.”

Despite my lack of discipline and my distracting fascination with the tools of writing, I somehow managed to finish books. I figured once I went to writing full-time, discipline would come a lot easier because I wouldn’t have the competing demands of a day job. What I found out was that, for me, having all those additional hours in the day only created a bigger space in which I could be plagued by the kinds of things that tend to be my obstacles. Like: fear, insecurity, lack of faith. Most days I have to do a lot of self-talk in order to get myself to work. Usually, once I start, it’s easy to keep going. Like Joseph Conrad said, the only two hard things about writing are starting and not stopping.

Someone once asked me, “Do you write before you do anything else in the morning (like read email, look at the paper, eat)?” Periodically I’ll read something some other author has written about how they strictly keep themselves from distractions until their writing is done, or I’ll read a book about how you should get up in the morning and walk to your computer like a zombie while still in your dream state and I’ll think, “Oh, I must.” Then I remember that I love breakfast and coffee and easing into the day. I also like email, and I enjoy blogs and reading the paper and checking up on what the world is up to, and while doing all those things I still manage to write books, so it’s probably okay to do it my way. That said, our friend the Internet can be a big problem and we know it. Most writers I know struggle to find balance in this area because, let’s face it, when you get to a spot on the page that is giving you trouble, it’s easier to pop over to email than work through it. And working through it is kind of the whole job. So if there are particular distractions that you know are keeping you from doing good work, address those.

As for how you write when you write, do it your way. Your way might vary from day to day or year to year. If you hate to outline, don’t outline. If you like to write first thing in the morning, go for it. If you don’t, don’t. If you like to write fast and bad first draft, by all means. If you prefer to revise as you go, it’s not a sin. If you don’t know what you like, there’s no harm in trying every method at least once. Many people who want to write or who think they want to write spend all their time and energy seeking some answer about the right way to do this, the secret. Because there isn’t one, the search is endless, and they never get down to the writing. Writers write. It’s not secret or magic, it’s work.

Publishing

There is so much information out there on getting published. So much. And I know it can be hard to sort through and figure out, and it can feel like you’re staring at a fortress trying to figure out how to get in. There’s not exactly a welcome mat. But, there’s not really a secret password or a hidden key here, either. I did it the old-fashioned way: I researched Writers Market and the Literary Market Place. This was pre-Internet. I cold queried agents. I waited. I waited. I waited. And I waited some more. I parted ways with one agent. I cold queried new ones. More waiting. You get the idea? The whole process from the time I finished my first novel to the time I published my first novel (not the same novel, by the way – my first published was my fourth written) was about ten years. All during the waiting parts I was revising my work and writing new stuff.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are some ideas. Meanwhile, since there’s so much other info available, I’ll just say two things:

  1. For every hour you worry about, dream about, cry about being published, spend about twelve hours making your writing the best it can be, and reading. I think 1/13th of energy investment in the business of getting published feels about right. It’s enough to get the job done. During the other eleven hours you can sleep and eat and watch reality TV. My point is, it’s premature to work on your query or worry about how to understand a publishing contract before you’ve got a solid draft of the work itself.
  2. If you can find a small and trusted circle of people who are also working on the craft of writing and interested in the business of publishing, and you like them and trust them and click with them, treasure them and don’t let go. Sharing your work, learning to take criticism, figuring out what you do well and what you need to work on by seeing the same mistakes and accomplishments in a friend’s writing…those are some of the best and quickest ways to get better.

Here are just a few pieces of good advice from other authors:

Thinking about asking an author for help or advice on getting your work published? Read what Shannon Hale says about that. Actually, go ahead and read everything Shannon has to say about writing.

“Understand the difference between commercial and artistic success and accept that one doesn’t guarantee the other.” - Keith Dixon

“Don’t be in too much of a hurry to get published. Learning to write well is the main thing. If you try to publish before you’re ready you can wind up very discouraged. While you’re learning o write you should have fun with it. Try different styles, different genres, mess about, get your hands dirty!” -Justine Larbalestier

“…saying that you can’t write a book because you can never be published is like saying you can’t go jogging because you’ll never make the Olympic team. Writers write. Period. And the ones who write long enough, and well enough, will eventually get published if that’s what they want. But does that mean just anything can get published? Of course not. Published books have to be good just like Olympic track stars have to be fast. But no one ever got fast by lounging on the couch talking about the medals they’d like to win someday.” - Ally Carter

“If I could offer one piece of advice to fledgling writers, it would be to write every draft except the final one as if no one else will ever read it. Don’t give a thought to other people’s opinions until the very end.” - Anne Tyler

Here are some of my personal favorite books on writing or writing-related stuff: