by Barry, Sam
WAITING FOR THE MAIL: RESPONSE TIME AND DEALING WITH REJECTION
Remember, agents and editors are busy people who receive a large volume of submissions. Allow at least a month or two for them to read and respond to your submission—often it takes longer.
Be professional and courteous in your approach to any agent. Agents do form an impression based on your query letter, and you want it to be a good impression. Take the time to write a focused, well-constructed, and succinct letter, and—have we said this enough times?—follow any guidelines provided. Proofread approximately 400 times, to catch and eliminate errors, before sending.
Unfortunately, publishing is a business that involves a lot of rejection, at every stage. Despite how it might appear, agents and publishers don’t delight in saying “no”—they are as eager to find great ideas and great writing as you are to be published. But agents can only represent a small fraction of the authors out there; it’s a simple reality. Agents and publishers reject manuscripts for many reasons—because of changing trends in the market; because they already have a similar book on their list or know of similar published or forthcoming titles; because something just doesn’t feel like a good fit; or even because the right person read your proposal on the wrong day and didn’t fall in love with it, even if it’s strong, well-written, and publishable.
If an agent or editor says no thanks to your query, consider that no thanks to be from the agency or publisher as a whole—in other words, don’t send your proposal to other editors or agents within the same publishing house or agency. And above all, try to keep “No” in perspective. This is a highly subjective business; all it takes is one “Yes.”
BOTTOM LINE
You need to know what you are writing. Next, you need to read and follow all submission guidelines for the agents and publishers to whom you submit—and approach these folks with courtesy. There are many stories of authors who achieved their dreams after collecting a pile of rejections. If you get a rejection, don’t give up. Our mothers called this “sticktoitiveness.” It’s a silly word for an important quality. Thomas Edison didn’t give up. Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t give up. Harriet Tubman didn’t give up. David Golia didn’t give up. Neither should you.
CHAPTER THREE
HOW TO GET
STARTED WITH
THE WRITE STUFF
If quick fame is what you’re after, you might want to try reality TV. Don’t choose writing as a vocation unless you really love it, can’t help doing it, or have an important message that is best conveyed through the written word. For one thing, writing is hard work, not least because it involves a lot of actual writing.
It’s unlikely that a publisher or agent will come along and say, “You look like a fascinating person with a great story to tell,” although some guys will try and use this as a pickup line in bars. Most of the world’s writers toil away privately, sometimes for years, before anyone tries to pick them up in a bar, or, for that matter, acknowledges their writing talents.
Reasons not to become a professional writer:
• You long for financial security.
• You crave the limelight.
• You need structure in your life.
• You want to have one secure, steady source of income.
• You like spending time with your family, friends, pets, hobbies, and other interests.
• You don’t want to offend members of your family or friends and colleagues, who often think you are writing about them whether that is true or not (and let’s be honest, you are often writing about them, and some of us may want to offend).
• You want to be of service to the world.
• You like hanging around trendy, well-dressed people.
Assuming that you do want to be a writer (because you’re still reading this book), let’s address some issues that may arise in the course of your career.
THE WELL OF LONELINESS VERSUS THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
Writing is a solitary occupation. For some people this may be great news, but most of us need the inspiration and feedback that come from human interaction. Think about it: how do we learn what happened in our favorite television show last night, or who’s going to win the big game this weekend? From our colleagues at work! And what about perfecting our skills in the competitive sport of shooting paper clips with a rubber band? How are you going to flirt with the receptionist if you work alone at home?
If you are a natural-born loner, the writing life will be very comfortable. But if, like most of us, you need the inspiration that comes from hitting someone in the back of the head with a paper clip while winking at the receptionist—not that we’ve ever behaved this way—then carving out focused time alone may be difficult and even uncomfortable.
Writers need solitude, but there is a world of difference between solitude and loneliness. From the outside they look alike, in that they involve being by yourself, but this surface resemblance doesn’t tell the full story. When we are lonely we feel isolated—something is missing. We can even feel lonely when we are with people, like when we were picked last for teams on the playground in grade school (not that we’re bitter).
Solitude, on the other hand, is being alone without being lonely. Solitude is what writers need—the time and space to be alone and still be able to provide themselves with satisfying company. Solitude doesn’t require that you be physically alone—some people write in cafés, surrounded by the ambient noise of strangers. Others write at home with music playing, or with family life going on all around them. With portable computers or old-fashioned pen and paper you can write almost anywhere, and some writers are inspired by having a lively scene around them, such as a park or cityscape. Some writers share studio space. For instance, in San Francisco there is a collective of writers called the Grotto who maintain shared office space that also serves as a forum for professional, creative, and social interaction. (We’ve heard their paper clip fights are not only legendary, but also literary.)
GETTING INTO THE ZONE
Whatever works for you—and your preferences may evolve over time—the trick is getting your consciousness into a space that we call the Zone. The Zone is a creative state of mind in which the writing flows, much as it is flowing for us right now. You feel connected to your own imagination (is that Yanni we hear, softly playing in the background?), ideas flow, synapses connect, and before you know it you have filled the page—with drawings of airplanes and battleships! No, seriously, you’ve done some writing.
Many new writers make the mistake of thinking they have to feel the Zone before they begin to work, when more often it is the other way around: getting in the Zone comes from the act of writing. Yes, you should arrange for the right atmosphere (e.g., your study, the café, the Nordstrom shoe department, the bowling alley, the strip club). Just don’t wait for some imagined, perfect moment. This is not a Hollywood movie where inspiration hits, the pages of the calendar start falling away, and you are suddenly a bestselling author. Start writing, and the muse will come. Not every time, but keep at it, and the muse will come enough for you to get the initial writing done.
In this sense writing is similar to exercise. For instance, many of us don’t enjoy doing crunches. If we wait until we feel inspired to do that extra abdominal work, let’s be honest, we’ll do it about once a year, if that. But if we do it every day, we will look like a swimsuit model in a year. Or maybe a swimsuits model’s dumpier big brother or sister. But the point is that we will be in better shape, and that never would have happened if we hadn’t made ourselves get down on the floor to exercise every day, whether we felt like it or not. It is the same with writing—do it every day for a year, and you will look like a swimsuit model’s sister or brother, plus you will have 300 pages of written material, some of it really good, that you can hone into a book. Writing is a discipline, and you have to stay at it. Inspiration will come.
One of the bonuses you’ll get from the time you spend writing is that you’ll feel like you’re spe
nding time with friends as you develop a relationship with the characters in your book, whether fictional or nonfictional. Kathi often worries about the characters in her novels, and what trouble they might be getting into when she’s not with them. She even window shops for them, and has been known to ask for their advice in tough personal situations. That’s what’s called a creative mind. Oh, sure, there are other terms . . .
TIME MANAGEMENT
You wake up in the morning knowing that today’s the day! You’ve planned carefully by taking time off work and arranging sleepovers for the kids. You shower and dress, make a pot of coffee, and boot up your computer. Nothing—absolutely nothing in the world—is going to keep you from finishing ten pages of your epic gourmet thriller, Sous Chef in Hell’s Kitchen— In the Soup.
As your desktop loads, you remember last night's phone message from your sister. You make what you think will be a quick call, but end up hearing forty-five minutes of whining about your brother-in-law, who has—what can he be thinking?—decided to write a novel! Not only that, he says he needs to do a lot of his research in strip clubs. You say all the right supportive things, hang up as soon as you can, pour yourself another cup of coffee, and click on your document.
Tough Love from the Author Enablers
You will never be a writer if you don’t write. ‹«
Only thing is, the file won’t open. You try rebooting but that doesn’t work, so you end up calling the friend-of-a-friend who knows about computers. His phone line is disconnected so you open your Outlook program in order to send him an e-mail.
As your inbox fills, you find a couple of e-mails that really can’t wait. You answer them efficiently, but by the time you realize that your message to Mr. Computer Guy has bounced back, you’ve cruised through the land of irresistible-jokes-that-you-have-to-send-to everyone and on to hilarious YouTube videos.
Okay, the computer guy has apparently skipped town with no forwarding address, but that doesn’t mean you can’t call tech support. After fifty-six minutes on hold, a $49 charge to your Visa, an hour on the phone with someone who knows less about computers than you do, and finally a reluctant transfer to “level 2 support,” a nice young woman in Mumbai coaxes you through a system restore procedure that allows you to retrieve your manuscript. Sweating and jangled, nevertheless you make another pot of coffee and sit down to work.
The doorbell rings. It’s your elderly neighbor, Eunice, complaining about your dog peeing on her rose bushes. You don’t have a dog and she doesn’t have any rose bushes, but you take the time to calm her down, and while you’re outside you pick up the mail. There are a couple of bills, so you sign on to do some online banking, promising yourself you are going to do that writing any minute now.
The day goes on, delivering one interruption after another, until you look at the clock and see that it’s time to pick up the kids and figure out what to do about dinner. Another promising writing day has gone down the tubes.
STUFF HAPPENS
Here’s the thing: whatever your schedule, stuff is going to happen. People will make demands on your time, your equipment is going to fail, and your family and friends need you. The world is not going to roll over and make it easy for you to get your writing done. In fact, many people might try (either consciously or unconsciously) to sabotage your efforts. You may sabotage your efforts. That’s the way it is for everyone—you’re not alone.
Procrastination
You procrastinate when you put off things that you should be focusing on right now, usually in favor of doing something that is more enjoyable or that you’re more comfortable doing. Here is a list of all the reasons not to sit down and write. You need to:
• Earn a living
• Do your homework
• Cook dinner
• Do some more research, including field trips, for that book you’ve been planning on writing for thirty years now
• Post on all your regular blogs
• Find a writing partner
• Play Scrabble to maintain the sharpness of your mind
• Floss
• Call Aunt Trudy
• Watch The Price is Right
Are you getting the idea? There are always a lot of other things to do besides write. The only problem is, none of them will make you a writer. We procrastinators (most of us) work just as long and hard as everyone else, but on the wrong goals. We may be failing to prioritize or we may be overwhelmed. Other causes of procrastination include waiting for the right mood or time to start, fear of failure or success, being disorganized or distracted, and perfectionism. Regardless of the cause, if we want to be writers, we need to focus. And be brave. And we probably also need to floss.
Some Time Management Strategies We Got Straight from the Pentagon:
• Concentrate on results, not on being busy. At the heart of good time management is this important shift in focus. Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little, or achieve lots of little things but not the one big goal. They’re not concentrating their effort on what they claim matters most to them. If you keep putting off your writing, it is time to decide whether or not you really want to be a writer. You don’t have to write, you know; there are many other satisfying and worthy vocations.
• Make a to-do list. If we’ve inspired you to start writing, great—but of course that means you probably aren’t reading this paragraph. For the rest of us, maybe a few old-fashioned tricks will help achieve the goal. If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do or keep being distracted from writing by other matters, perhaps a to-do list will help. But here’s the thing—make sure you put the most important tasks at the top of the list and the least important at the bottom. And guess what the Author Enablers are going to say is the most important task? That’s right—write.
• Write down goals. Set some clearly defined, reasonable goals, so you can measure your progress and take pride in the achievement of those goals. For instance, you might plan on writing two double-spaced pages every day. Stay with it and you’ll be amazed at how quickly your manuscript will grow. This will raise your self-confidence. You should also set some bigger-picture goals: complete the first draft of your manuscript in a year, compile a list of agents two months later, write a query letter two weeks after that, world domination by your next birthday, get a dog and plant a rose bush for Eunice by the time you’re fifty, and so on.
• Establish a schedule. It will also help to plan your time. You don’t need a complicated schedule, but you need to set aside the time to write, if possible early in the day, so that you can then move on and deal with the rest of your list. If it helps you, make a schedule and follow it every day. Respect the to-do list and the schedule, take them seriously, and when you do screw up, get back on the horse immediately and write. We mean it. Not about the horse, but about not letting self-pity or fatigue or negative thinking keep you from sticking to a clear, simple regimen. If you fail to write Tuesday, write Wednesday and forget about Tuesday. If you only write half a page on Thursday, good, at least you tried—now write two pages on Friday. Keep at this discipline and eventually you will finish your manuscript. We promise.
AUTHOR CARE 101
There are various strategies when it comes to living the life of a writer. One is to drink yourself silly, ruin your body, and destroy all your most important relationships, as many great writers have done. Or you can take care of yourself. We suggest the latter course. Whatever is holding you back, it’s time to get over it. This calls for full-tilt honesty on your part, without putting yourself down (another way we avoid writing—“I’m no good”).
Start making those goals, keeping that list, and setting aside the time to write. When you fail, take a good look at why and refocus on your primary goal. If you find the writing to be disagreeable, try these tricks:
• Give yourself a reward. Have a latte or a nice healthy meal or a piece of dark chocolate after you complete your writing for the day. If
you’re counting calories, indulge in some other guilty pleasure.
• Have someone you trust regularly check on your progress. Writers’ groups are particularly effective in this regard.
• Ask for help. Maybe the kids can make dinner; maybe your partner can do the laundry.
• For inspiration, go to a literary event at a bookstore, library, or online. Immerse yourself in the literary community any way you can.
• Read Dorothy Parker. She was a famous writer who hated writing.
If you are overwhelmed by writing, try these tricks:
• Break the writing into smaller, more manageable sections. Maybe you can only handle a page a day for now—maybe half a page early morning, half a page later.
• Write a chapter outline, and then commit yourself to completing each small section.
• Write the book out of order. Write the middle first, then the end, then the beginning. Scott Turow writes this way, and he does all right.
• Ask for help. Maybe you need a mentor or writing class to help you get—and keep—going.
FINDING YOUR WRITING RHYTHM
Conventional wisdom suggests that setting aside time early in the day every day is the best way to go, but this isn’t always possible, and it may not suit your physiology or schedule. You’re not off the hook, though; this just means you have to find the writing schedule and rhythm that works best for you.
