The Writer Behind the Words
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The Writer Behind the Words:
Steps to Success in the Writing Life
Dara Girard
Copyright © 2005, 2007 Sadé Odubiyi
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
DISCLAIMER
This book is not intended to provide professional advice and is sold with the understanding that the publisher and the author are not liable for the misconception or misuse of the information provided. The author and ILORI Press shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss, damage, or injury caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information provided in this book or the use of any products mentioned.
ILORI Press
PO Box 10332
Silver Spring, MD 20914
First Ebook Edition: July 2010
Previously published as How to Bounce When You Want to Shatter: Steps to Resilience in the Writing Life
We will be judged by what we finish, not by what we start.
ANONYMOUS
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Resilience — noun
The ability to recover quickly from illness, change or misfortune; buoyancy
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Dedication
To writers everywhere who dare to live their dreams
Table of Contents
Preface to Revised Edition
Introduction
PART ONE: Assessing Yourself
Search For The Blueprint Of Success
Defining Success
Hard Truths
The Paradox
Traits Of Successful Writers
Necessary Keys for Resilience
Abundance
PART TWO: Surviving the Battlefield
Disappointment
Discouragement
Doubt
Depression
The Ultimate Dream Killer
Getting Started
Creative Block
Write Anyway
Comparison
Envy
Creative Flood
Success
PART THREE: Four Steps To Resilience
Get Support
Relax
Know Your Limitations
Get a Strategy
Success is Your Birthright
Recommended Resources
Organizations
About the Author
Preface to the Revised Edition
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This book started out as a series of articles I planned to put on my website for new authors. I wanted to share with them the pitfalls I had faced as a writer and author. I saw how quickly the joy of creation was crushed by the need for money, the lack of support and obstacles that the writing life throws in the pathway of many. There were many times when I thought I was crazy; that I had no business being a writer.
I had recently parted with an agent, I’d been forced to hire a literary attorney to get me out of a legal position with a publisher and I had been orphaned by two editors leaving in less than two years. I wasn’t sure how long my writing career would last. Even my lawyer told me that for someone so newly published I had faced a lot of obstacles. But despite what others may have called misfortune or the plight of the creative person, I never lost my joy of writing.
I refused to let the business of publishing destroy my joy of writing. I saw other authors crumble because of a few rejections (it took me thirteen years to get a book published. I started sending out manuscripts when I was twelve) and freelance writers turn in assignments and not get paid (that happened to me and I had to get the law involved). I knew why I was still in the game while others had faded away.
I thought that it was unfair because I wasn’t anyone special. I just had one skill they did not: I knew the art of bouncing back.
I wrote this book as a gift to other writers who are discouraged, feel hopeless or useless in a world that can make us — the artist — feel insignificant and invisible. I hope that this revised edition will be a companion to those of you who feel that another day is too painful or that you are alone in your misery.
Isolation is deadly to the spirit, yet, as a writer, a necessary requirement at times. So let this little book be a friend that whispers to you: “You are important and your words are needed.”
I dedicate this book to the author of six romances who hasn’t sold a story in the past seven years, the mystery writer whose series fails after three books, the mainstream author whose book is remaindered within months of release, the freelancer who has yet to see a check above four hundred dollars, to the beginner who faces another rejection slip in the mail or is struggling through a book and is afraid it will never get published.
I don’t profess to be an expert, but I’ve survived through resilience and I want to show you how. Envy, Doubt, Discouragement — I’ve faced them all and more. I continue to face them. But they pale in comparison to the beauty and joy of creation and the wonderful gifts it brings.
Introduction
The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL
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Do you think it’s impossible to make a living as a writer because: It’s difficult to get published?; the mid-list is shrinking?; fewer people are reading, yet more people are writing?; the market is overcrowded and on a downward spiral?
In spite of these and other dire considerations, there are authors who have bounced back from low sales, sold to publishers without agents, made a handsome income as mid-list writers and reinvented themselves and their careers.
The Writer Behind the Words isn’t a “how to write” book. There are plenty of books about how to write a bestseller, improve your grammar, find paying markets, develop your career and so on. This is a book to help you when:
You’re a hundred fifty pages into your book and it stalls: Look at Creative Blocks.
You’ve received a rejection and can’t move forward: Check out Rejection.
A good friend just got a publishing contract and you can see your skin turning green: Go to Envy.
You’ll also learn what to do with a bad review, how to get your career back on track when it seems to have derailed, foods to help boost your energy, and many other topics important to writers. Someone once said that “our problems aren’t our problems; it’s our solutions that are the problem.” You will learn how to identify solutions that will lead you to success.
I know the traps ahead. When I was an unpublished writer, I dealt with years of rejections, projects that almost got a yes, discouragement, and doubt. As a published author, I have faced poor reviews, being orphaned (by the departure of my editor), breaking up with my agent and a host of other obstacles, but I’m still in the game. I’ll reveal how I’ve kept going in times of adversity, using examples from exercises I’ve discovered from different sources.
Resilience will help to keep you from becoming an industry statistic. The difference between longevity in publishing and being a “one book wonder” or a “struggling freelancer” is the ability to move forward in spite of setbacks. It’s a skill that can be learned. Your dreams are at hand. Forward, march!
Part One
Assessing Yourself
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Search for the Blueprint of Success
Advice to young writers? Always the same advi
ce: learn to trust your own judgment, learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort the good from the bad — including your own bad.
DORIS LESSING
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Beginning writers are eager for answers. They gobble up articles like: “Ten Secrets to Publication,” “Avoid the Slush Pile,” and “Don’t Get Rejected.” Sometimes these articles are as helpful and informative as the staple “Lose Ten Pounds in Ten Days,” “Find Your Soul mate in Three Weeks,” or “Raise the Perfect Child in A Month.” Beginners are full of questions, in search of the elusive key to success. They are full of questions with the hope that the “right” answers will solve everything. They wonder:
Is it best to write during the day or at night? Should I outline or not?
Should I first send to an editor or agent?
Do I need a critique group or should I enter contests?
Should I write a short story or a novel?
The answer is yes to all of the above. Confusing, I know. Some authors will give definite answers to these questions: You must outline. You must have a critique group. You must have a character profile. Thou shalt have no other gods before me…you get the picture. Truthfully, the answers to those questions do not matter because there is no definitive formula.
What does that mean? It means you’re in publishing. It means that you’ll spend time writing a synopsis and meet a writer who gets a contract without one. It means you’ll contact agents and meet a writer who sold directly to a publisher. It means you’ll meet writers picked up out of the slush pile and those discovered at conferences. It means you’ll meet someone whose first book is a success while yours sinks like an anvil.
There are many different stories on the path to publication and writing success. You will need to create your own. Stop being hungry for a guide or map. Joseph Chilton Pierce said, To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
Experiment. If outlines make you lose interest, stop outlining. If you fall asleep at 10:00 PM, don’t write at night. This is a business about individuals. Don’t try to “do what’s right;” do what works for you.
Defining Success
Publication is not necessarily a sign of success.
WILLIAM SLOANE
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Setbacks are a part of any creative endeavor, and you’ll find plenty of setbacks in the writing life. You’ll lose contests, get nasty reviews, see others succeed before you…and it will hurt.
If you are discouraged to the point that you can’t write anymore, I suggest that you stop writing for publication. Write for the joy of it, for personal satisfaction, and not for anyone else. Why? Because publication isn’t a cure for anything that ails you and writing doesn’t get easier. Stephen King had a cocaine habit after he was published, Grace Metalious, the author of Peyton Place, drank herself into the ground, and authors still commit suicide.
So if you’re hoping that being published will:
Validate you
Make you worthy
Make you happy
Make you successful
Make you attractive
I’m here to tell you it won’t. Writing to get “love” (attention, adoration, etc.) is dangerous because not everyone will like your work. They’re not supposed to. Even if you sell a million copies, one nasty review will stick in your mind like gum in your hair. You will need to make the act of writing (the creative process) a joy, a cushion for the pain of the business. Someone else will sell more, make more, and have more. It doesn’t matter. Your life has nothing to do with them. Enjoy being a creative person, and write.
For many people, external goals never satisfy the inner spirit. Many people get married, have kids, buy a new car, hoping those things will make them happy. They may not. People win the lottery and still end up miserable. If there’s something lacking inside you it will still be lacking after publication. You will need to start defining what success means to you. Don’t use someone else’s definition. Be truthful to your inner desire and need. Don’t judge it. Just listen. It’s your desire and it’s meant to be heard. Get a journal and write about your ideal life. Getting published is great, but go beyond that. Why?
Consider this:
You could get a couple of articles published and earn a grand total of two hundred dollars for the next five years. Would you consider yourself successful?
You could get published and get no byline. Is that success?
You could be published in mass-market paperback instead of hardcover.
You could have an article published in a magazine no one has ever heard of.
You could get a six-figure book deal and never publish again and have your book go out of print within a year.
Define success for yourself. Try to make it something that does not depend on others. For example, success could be:
Completing a marketable short story
Developing a synopsis
Writing articles that inform
Editing an anthology
People put a lot of weight on what a “writer” truly is or is supposed to be and in the process they lose themselves trying to achieve a perceived ideal. A writer writes. That’s all. Base your success on that foundation. I’m certain it will go beyond just “Getting published.”
Goal Versus Mission
Many people confuse goal and mission. Why do you think Mother Teresa said “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones”? Because many people set and achieve goals only to discover that they are still unhappy. The reason is that goals are fleeting and changeable. They are future events that a person can long for and work towards, but once achieved will become something else. A mission is a lasting motto that carries one through life.
For example, getting published is a goal, being a writer is a mission. Becoming a lead author is a goal, being a diligent, reliable, prolific author is a mission; getting an award is a goal, being an award-winning author is a mission. It’s the present moments that give joy. You need to have both goals and a mission as your foundation to carry you through.
Examples of Goals:
Make $100,000 a year
Get my English degree
Become a lead author
Sell 50,000 copies of my book
Example of Missions:
Have a long lasting career
Educate others
Be a good writer
Be healthy
Take the time to create your list of goals and your mission. Remember that a goal has an ending; a mission does not.
The One Secret Every Writer Knows
Most writers are in a state of gloom a good deal of the time; they need perpetual reassurance.
JOHN HALL WHEELOCK
Action is eloquence.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
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The secret every full-time writer knows is that action is the key to getting what you want. It is the writer’s greatest weapon against failure. To achieve this mindset first you have to redefine failure. Failure is not a rejection, a low royalty statement, a book that hits the market and dies or an idea that doesn’t work. Failure is stopping your dreams due to circumstance. Failure is receiving one rejection and never writing again.
You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.
MARY PICKFORD
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Many new writers tell me how discouraged they are. I understand. I also get discouraged. I tell them to keep going, don’t stop, you’re great etc. They thank me and go back into the writing world safe in their armor of praise. A few weeks or months later, they write again. They receive a rejection or fail to become a finalist in a contest and they are upset. They bemoan their fate and wail about how unfair the world is and then wait for the expected words of en
couragement. But this time I don’t provide the same “rah, rah” cheer.
Why? Because in the writing world you have to become your own cheerleader. Most writers fall by the wayside, not due to lack of talent, but due to lack of persistence. Writing is an art and Art (with a capital “A”) is bigger than criticism, acceptance, acknowledgement or dismissal.
Art must be created in spite of, not because of. Writing because of something (a trend, a contest, an editor etc.) can be a prison to a writer. Your words have only one master — your spirit, which has an unquenchable curiosity and desire to communicate. Well-meaning people will tell you how to write, what to write, when to write or why you should write, but in the end your spirit is your master.
Notice I didn’t say you, because your conscious self will be too cautious and too clever to write with complete truth. But your spirit is a wild child who sees what you don’t and knows what you may not readily admit. It is your free spirit that the world needs. We have enough cautious mask-wearers, we don’t need one more in print sounding like everyone else. You must take action.