jessiemac.com

“First and foremost, I’m looking for writers who are ready for publication. This means: You have NOT simply sent me the first draft of the first book you’ve ever written, but rather you’ve studied the craft of writing, read books about it, taken classes or workshops, and honestly approached writing as the serious art, craft, and business that it is. You’ve taken the time to get objective feedback on your book or proposal, and revised and polished accordingly. You’ve read about the publishing industry to find out how it works. You’ve researched agents and tried to find the ones who might fit the type of work you’re doing.” Rachelle Gardner – Literary Agent (quote taken from Rachelle Gardner’s blog)

I was on the computer all day and didn’t get down to writing my novel Night Walker until after midnight. I’m an insomniac so I’m still awake and writing this post having just written my daily quota of 1,000 words on my novel. Sometimes I can push without much sleep. Sometimes I can’t.

So why so slow today? I’ve been reading on the internet. I get consumed and can’t stop. The more I trawl the internet gobbling up every post on writing, the more I come across more links leading me to more advice, support and relevant information. The Internet is great.

The more I read, the more I learn and the more I realize how hard it really is.

As a writer, you’re trying your best to climb the Everest of writing a novel – yeah, we know how hard that is – yet you still have to understand what is going on in the publishing industry and learn how to get your book out there. You have to learn how to write queries, summaries, pitches etc – the life line to agents.

More learning.

I love learning. I’m a writer. I just wish I had more time to fit it all in.

After reading winners: the one-sentence summary contest and struggling to write a 25 word sentence to ‘sell’ the novel I’m writing I know I still have much to learn. It was hard – which is an understatement. I’m not good at summaries, queries, pitches etc. Are you? It reminds of job application forms where they give you a little box to sell yourself. I hate those boxes.

Learning about the industry means getting to know how it all works. Even if it means knowing the publishing idiosyncrasies of each individual agent that you’re querying.

The writing-to-publishing process is like climbing a mountain. Your hands represent your novel writing. Your feet – learning and navigating within the publishing industry. You need both to climb that mountain.

Have you ever climbed a mountain?

Have you ever stood under a real one looking up at the top feeling defeated?

Do you know why you feel defeated? I felt defeated. Why?

I never climbed one before. I wasn’t trained or skilled and I knew nothing about climbing.

The best solution for that?

Learn. Train. Practice. Climb.

Before mountain climbers tackle a mountain, they practice in scaling an indoor artificial climbing wall. When they climb outside, they always plan their route by reading about it, discussing the alternatives and finding out how difficult it is before they start.

In Sri Lanka, I decided to walk to One Tree Hill (see photo – the broccoli-looking tree on the hill in the distance near the center of the photograph, at the edge of green hill and blue sky) because said tree in the distance looked close, and looking from one mountain to another, the walk seemed easily accomplished.

But being in the Knuckle mountains, the task turned out not an easy feat. I didn’t see the deep valleys, the numerous hillocks, the swampy terrain, the rough rocky areas, the impossible steep drops hidden by tall grass, the prickly thorns, the vertical slopes – all were not apparent until you were there struggling with it.

I got there. Finally.

If someone had told me or had I seen this before I started out, I would be lying if I said it wouldn’t make me think twice about trying.

So why should you be learning?

To know. To Understand.

80% of me doesn’t want to know, doesn’t want to be discouraged. The other sensible 20% is trying to persuade the fearful 80% that I need to know so I’d be prepared for all possibilities.

What about writing? Does the learning make you feel more prepared?

Yes. Definitely.

The great thing about learning about the publishing industry is that other writers have been there before and they have learned valuable lessons and they’re generous enough to share them with you so you can avoid the mudslides and the sinking swamps on your way up.

What does this mean?

It means reading, learning and implementing. It means bookmarking useful websites for the day when you’re at that point in the path. A bit like collecting useful items and putting them in your rucksack in case you might need to use later.

To excel in any job, you need to understand the industry you’re in, the marketplace, the expectations and of course, the possibilities.

What do you think?

Are you learning?

How are you finding it?

Leave a comment. It would be good to know.

[climbing pic taken from CartoonStock.com]

How Writing is Like Film-making

Why Writing is a Career

I’m a Writer. Should I Get a Book-Deal, Self-Publish or Self-Distribute?

Is Writing Like Football?

“Time is limited, so I better wake up every morning fresh and know that I have just one chance to live this particular day right, and to string my days together into a life of action, and purpose.”

Lance Armstrong – 7-Time Winner of the Tour de France

CURRENT STATUS: Reminder, Motivator and Review Meeting (Read on if you want to join me in my Corporation of One meeting)

What l have learnt:

• 5 Ways to Get Rave Reviews (via Michael Larsen’s blog).
• Why I call Writing Editing (And You Should Too) by editor Jim Warner (via Query Tracker blog). Wow, I didn’t realize how many drafts I would have to edit before it’s polished. I knew it would take some time to edit, probably longer. Must remember not to rush it.
• From hang-up to story, novel, or screenplay by Jurgen Wolff gives us ideas for stories.
• The Public Role of the Private Writer (via The Guardian) shows not all writers are comfortable with reading in public.
• Writer Wednesdays: Do You Suffer From One of These Writing Viruses? (via Huffington Post) Very good, a funny must-read.

What I have done:

• Started jogging again. Slowly but surely, hopefully.
• Reading ‘The Game’ by Neil Strauss.

WORD COUNT: Night Walker 146,000 words in total. Wednesday 11 August wrote 1,000 words.

Therapy for Writers in 140 Characters or Less Written by Patty Blount ~

I’m a writer.

There.

I said it.

No, I’m not yet published, nor do I have an agent. But I write. Every day, I sew words into sentences, sentences into scenes, and breathe life into my stories, doing all the same things ‘real writers’ do with their stories. Yet I argue with myself that I’m still not a real writer. I thought that when I completed a novel, I’d be a real writer. I’ve since written four and still frequently feel like a fraud for daring to call myself a writer.

For a long time, I believed I was alone with such defeatist thoughts.

And then I found Twitter. My involvement with social networks was born from my day job as a software technical writer. A new executive who’d taken over my team encouraged us to “think outside the book” and find ways to engage and converse with our customers. I went from a puzzled frown, “What’s a twitter?” to having two Twitter IDs, two blogs, a Facebook page and a LinkedIn account in the span of a year. What began as mere research has since evolved into an always-available writers’ conference. I first began by searching popular celebrity hashtags. (Okay. Yes! I admit I avidly searched for news on Robert Pattinson’s whereabouts. But I’ve since stopped that. No, really, I have.) When I learned more about hashtags, I started following those related to my interests, such as #techcomm or #stc (Society for Technical Communication). Later, I branched out to #fiction, #amwriting and #writechat.

But it was by searching on #query that I found literary agent Janet Reid, also known as the Query Shark. Janet’s Query Shark website is devoted entirely to queries, using real submissions from people willing to brave the waters and subject their ideas to her professional and frequently brutal feedback. By following Janet, I soon learned of her clients and began following them. Jeff Somers and Bill Cameron each have multiple titles published, Sean Ferrell was eagerly awaiting the release of his debut novel and Dan Krokos was just beginning the process. Following these folks on Twitter led me to still more authors, each in a different point along the road to publication. I now follow over a hundred writers and agents who have taught me that the very last thing I am in this odyssey is alone.

Writing is such a solitary endeavor, isolating and lonely. We sit at the keyboard or the notepad and talk to ourselves. If that doesn’t end a party early, surely asking people their opinions about the drawbacks of first person versus third person point of view does. (Take my word on this. I cleared a room by asking this question once.) No, you are far better off posing such questions to other writers, of course. Whenever I have questions, someone typically tweets a link to a blog post that helps answer it. How to query, understanding the distinction between a synopsis and a summary, characterization, dialogue, plotting versus writing by the seat of your pants, I’ve read blogs on just about everything fiction-related.

Twitter preserved my sanity last month. After a particularly bad day, I settled in for an evening of writing and was struck senseless by how BAD my writing was. That single thought spiraled, out of control, until my twitchy finger hovered above the Delete key, ready to erase 60,000 words out of existence, thus saving the world from my drivel. Luckily, I tweeted about my despair and one of my Twitter pals rescued me with an offer to beta read. Kelly, you didn’t just save a manuscript that night. You saved me, because I was ready to quit completely. I’m so glad I didn’t delete anything because last week, I won a contest run by the generous Candace Ganger, who tweets as @candylandgang. The prize was thirty minutes of phone time with agent Michelle Wolfson. Without Twitter, when would I, a full time technical writer, have been able to speak with a professional agent?

I’ve read tweets and blog posts from a number of the folks I follow and realized that no matter where in the process they are – agented or not, published or not, book deals signed or not, we all feel like frauds at some point, all believe our writing sucks, all believe we’ll never be as good a writer as INSERT BEST-SELLING AUTHOR HERE. In other words, every writer has doubts.

Am I alone with my doubts? Not anymore, thanks to Twitter.

~ Thanks Patty ~

Patty Blount is a technical writer by day and a novelist by night. Her first novel, Penalty Killer – a whodunit about a star hockey player whose father is arrested for the murder of a dad on the opposing team. Her second Postpartum Deception is about a grieving mother whose emerging psychic ability helps her locate the baby presumed dead in a fire. Border Lines and Send are her most recent.  Border Lines is about a doctor whose free clinic teeters on the brink of bankruptcy unless she can convince a hot reporter to give it some positive press coverage. Send is a story about a boy whose failure to respect these technologies ends a life and ruins another. (taken from Patty’s website)