So You Want to Write
New Second Edition
How To Master the Craft of Writing
Fiction and Memoir
Marge Piercy & Ira WoodThe “Best Book of the Year” for Writers Selection
(—The Writer Magazine)
In a Revised New Edition, Bigger and Better Than Ever
The 10 Most Destructive Things Writers Can Do
(to Destroy Their Careers or Never Get Started)Whatever You Do . . .
10. Don't Hold Out For Random House
Big Presses are often looking for Big Books and Brand Names. If an author approaches us with a fantasy of getting rich, I always encourage them to try to get an agent. We can’t satisfy anyone’s fantasies and everyone has the right to shoot for the moon. Indeed, people have hit home runs with their first books. Cold Mountain.A Girls Guide To Fishing and Hunting.Prep. Sometimes they become one-book wonders; the literary equivalent of Wang Chung or Milli Vanilli. But many times, as in the cases of John Irving or Jonathan Franzen or Annie Proulx (who all seemed to appear out of the blue) you’ll find out that your ‘overnight success’ has been laboring in the trenches, putting out mid-list or small press books for years.
If you have written something very quirky and original, a small press might be right for your book. It’ll need time to catch on, to develop a reputation, and a small press will keep it in print long enough to do that. Also, there are far more small presses than big ones so you have a greater chance of attracting an editor. There have been many writers who would not consider small presses, which is akin to guys who are holding out for a woman who looks like a movie star and won’t consider a woman who loves sex, has a great job, a terrific sense of humor but is ten pounds overweight. Where do they find themselves? Often chasing their own fantasies.
Don’t hold out for Random House. You certainly owe your work the time to take a shot at an agent and a big advance, but if it doesn’t happen, don’t be too prideful to consider an alternate route and don’t wait too long. Books do become dated and small press editors who receive submissions of novels set in 1998 with a letter that says, “I just finished a novel…” are no fools.
More in Chapter 20 - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS9. Don't Fake It
The old adage says, “Write what you know.” That works pretty well for a first book (everybody on the planet has an autobiographical book in them); or for authors who lead ‘high concept’ lives like homicide cops, criminal psychologists, ex-forensic scientists and courtroom lawyers; for weird, neurotic types like Harvey Pekar, and those rare observers, like Anne Tyler, who have a special talent for squeezing insights and humor from the mundane. But most writers lead pretty dull lives and need to do research in order to give depth to their writing. Don’t fake the research. Don’t watch cop shows on TV and imagine you know enough to reproduce a portrait of life on the streets. “Writing what you know” is misleading. Successful writers understand that writing is only a part of their work; equally important is the quest to ‘know’ more.
You cannot decide to fake a best seller. You think you can knock off a Danielle Steele or a Sidney Sheldon? Good luck. No matter your opinion of the quality of the work of writers whose books sell in drug stores and in the millions, those writers are passionate about what they write. They don’t fake it. They are not writing down to their readers, they are the voice of their readers’ inner souls.
More in Chapter 10 - WHEN YOU HAVE RESEARCH TO DO8. Don't Quit Your Day Job (Create an All-or-Nothing Schedule)
Believe it or not, you can write the first draft of a book in a year if you give it just one hour a day. The trick is to find your best hour; the one in which you are writing in that state in which you are totally engaged. Don’t wait for the perfect schedule to start, or the moment of inspiration. It rarely turns up. Thousands of writers have ‘stolen’ the time to write. But you have to find the best time for yourself, be it at five in the morning before work, or late at night when the world is asleep. No one can tell when the best time is, but if you give yourself too much time you’re likely to waste it fussing and get frustrated and quit.
More in Chapter 16 - WORK AND OTHER HABITS7. Don't Imitate Trends
Trends last for a season or two. If we think back to what was hot in the last few years, memoirs, spiritual books, anything having to do with angels, movie star bios, minimalist fiction, the short story revival, magic realism, dysfunctional family sagas, political books (left and right), chic lit, manga/anime, we invariably find that the market has become saturated and they are no longer the “in” thing. (Which does not mean that a good book concerning any of the above will not be published, only that publishers are not attempting to scoop up every book.) You can’t copy trends. While there is a type of book that is released on the heels of disaster, it is generally either written by a journalist who has simply gathered facts or is a compendium of news articles. Rarely does such a book engage the mind and the emotions or rise to the level of literature. There have always been books that seemed to have been in the right place at the right time, well written books that shot to the tops of the best seller lists and were exactly what the public seemed to want to read the moment they came out. Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying appeared when many women were discovering feminism and Robert Sabbag’s Snowblind complimented an entire generation’s discovery of cocaine. Roger Kamenetz (The Jew in the Lotus) and Mitch Albom (Tuesdays With Morrie), even Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones), all to a greater or lesser extent touched on a national interest. But none knew, years in the writing, what that interest would be. You have to write your passion, whether or not it is ‘in’ because you will have to live with the process for years. Marge’s agent and I encouraged her to write a memoir and she threw herself into the task. But by the time she submitted it (and she is one very fast writer) her editor said, “A memoir? But they’re out.” Never mind, it was very favorably reviewed and made its way. If you have a passion for a subject or genre that is not ‘in,’ or will be ‘out,’ continue with it, figure out how to communicate your passion to a reader, how to present the material in an original way. You’re a writer, not a department store buyer or a party planner whose career depends on the next new thing.
More in Chapter 17 - FAME, FORTUNE AND OTHER TAWDRY ILLUSIONS6. Don't Fail to Write About People You Know Because You’re Afraid it Might Hurt Them
If you have a great story to tell but you’re afraid of hurting people, don’t fail to write. Rather, learn to deal with that material. First novels are often autobiographical novels. There’s nothing wrong with writing the intimate story of your life; the difficulty is in overcoming the fear of doing so. The trick is to learn the techniques of distancing. Do you need to write in third person? Do you need to interject yourself into a genre? Fictionalize the material? Or, dare we say it, get permission from those involved? Too many people stop themselves from writing because they can’t bear to hurt people in their family. But, you can learn to disguise the material so that the story matters, not the identities of the those concerned. You’ll be using your innermost feelings but the characters won’t resemble your loved ones. Moreover, in dealing with the material you’ll be healing yourself. Is writing therapy? No, but it helps.
More in Chapter 15 - A SCANDAL IN THE FAMILY5. Don't Hide (Fail to Publicize Yourself)
The frustrating contradiction of writing is that writers, who need to be the most aggressive artists to get noticed, are probably among the most reclusive of artists, more comfortable behind a computer screen than on the telephone or in front of an audience. But you have to develop a new attitude; you have to become an entrepreneur.
This does not mean that you have to put boxes of books in your car and visit bookstores around the country (the way Wayne Dyer turned himself into a best seller LONG before New Age books became the rage). You can be a reviewer, a great performer, a book chat commentator; you can be a cable talk show host; you can run a reading series or interview famous writers for the newspaper (thereby increasing your chances of making contacts and getting blurbs). The idea is to be out there. To distinguish yourself from the pack. To get your name in the papers. To do favors for others so they in turn will owe you favors when your book is published. The day of the solitary poet in the garret is long gone. Garrets rent for a lot of money. You can write, but you if you want to be read, you can’t hide.
More in Chapter 19 - PRACTICAL INFORMATION4. Don't Fail to Read
People are always asking us the best books to read to teach them how to become writers and we tell them to read what they’re going to write. You wouldn’t want to be operated on by a heart specialist who only read The Way of the Surgeon and you don’t want to read a writer who’s only studied How To books. Writers learn their craft by reading what’s come before them, not by seeing the movie version of a book they think they like. If you want to write mysteries, read a hundred of them. If you want to write your life story, read people who have already done it. Your best advice may come from your librarian or your bookseller. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or the novel.
More in Chapter One - SHARPENING YOUR INNATE SKILLS
Still More in Appendix Two - RECOMMENDED BOOKS3. Don't Burn Bridges
The world of publishing is surprisingly small and underpaid. An editor or publicist at one company may very well turn up at another. Moreover, when you’re in the process of submitting a book you want as many editors and publishing houses open to you as possible. Venting one’s frustrations on someone in the industry may feel good at the time, it may even be warranted, but it is a poor strategy for survival. Wallace Sayre’s Third Law of Politics states: “Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics because the stakes are so low.” The same might be said about publishing. The vast majority of us—writers, publishers, editors, publicists, sales reps, reviewers, booksellers—are in this business because we love books, not for the remuneration. Because the number of readers is declining, and the number of books published is rising in inverse proportion to the newspaper column inches dedicated to books, we all have to say NO to each other a lot. NO I can’t publish you, review you, blurb you, etc. Unfortunately, disappointment is all too frequent in the book business, and it’s well to realize that if you write a nasty letter to your publisher (as I once did), you may not remember it in three years time when you are hawking your next book...but he bloody well will. Every word.
More in Chapter 20 - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS2. Don't Get Jealous
It’s easy to get jealous of other writers who have had some success while you are still struggling but it’s far better to take a wider view: The more people who read a book, the more they are likely to read other books. If they have a good experience with a novel, if it got them through a long, uncomfortable airport layover, or a bout with the flu, or a sleepless night; if they learned something that will change their lives or were genuinely entertained by a book, they will go out and buy another. Successful writers are not siblings getting the attention you deserve, they are business people out there building their customer base.
It is much better to flatter than seethe. The irony is that few successful writers feel successful. The majority of them have been working long and hard in obscurity and know that one well received book does not guarantee another. They are one and all receptive to flattery, and may even be able to help you with contacts, blurbs, readings, etc. Far better not to boycott the reading of the writer you’re envious of if they’re doing an event in your neighborhood. Better to get a seat in the front row and applaud like mad. Even buy a book! Have them autograph it! It’s not sucking up, it’s networking!
More in Chapter 19 - PRACTICAL INFORMATION1. Don't Give Up
It takes many years to succeed as a writer. Some quite famous but mediocre talents have succeeded simply because they have hung in and gotten better over time, or long enough to be taken seriously, or outlived their contemporaries. There are many ways to succeed, from big presses with large advances, to small advances and big awards, to small presses and great reviews to bad reviews and fans who adore you. If you love to write…hang in. Nobody is going to beat the bushes to find you. The world has too many writers. You have to hang in and make yourself visible. It only takes one good match, one publisher who understands your vision, one important review, to begin a career. We published a genuinely brilliant young writer who took his own life exactly three weeks before we called to say we were publishing his first book. Were there other frustrations in his life? I’m sure. Would publishing his book have ended all his problems? I doubt it. The only thing I do know is this: The one sure way to fail to become a writer is to give up trying.
More in Chapter 19 - PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Still More in Chapter 20 - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
And See - AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION© Copyright 2005 Middlemarsh Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
CATEGORY: Writing / Reference / Memoir / The Novel
PAGES: 300
TRIM: 6 x 9
ISBN: 0-9728984-5-X
PRICE: $16.95 / Paperback Original
Back to Titles
Home | About Us | Contact Us | Ordering | News | Events | Available Titles | Upcoming Titles | Submission Guidelines