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Permalink Reply by Lisa Rivero on March 17, 2010 at 4:38pm

Sandi, what a terrific question, and how exciting for your daughter!

The one thing that has made the biggest difference for me along the way and that I didn't understand at the beginning is to trust in the long-term journey of being a writer, and, when I am writing, to allow myself to enjoy the process as much as possible, without thoughts of edits and publishing and business getting in the way. Not that the business side isn't important! In fact, taking the business side seriously would be the second most important thing I've learned. ;)

What I mean is to allow oneself to enjoy creating and being a creator, and to try to separate the writing time from the worry time about whether our creation will find a home, and, finally, to imagine (not worry about, but just luxuriate in imagining) a time one or five or twenty years later, when we will be the authors we start out wanting to be. To trust that, if we show up and do our creative work, all will be well (borrowing a bit from Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk).

I hope that makes some sense. Best of luck to your daughter! She might enjoy Gilbert's talk about muse and genius.

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Permalink Reply by Sandi Johnson on March 22, 2010 at 3:56am

Thank you so much Lisa. Good advice. I think sometimes I forget to just enjoy the process myself. The business side of things is always creeping in on me before I realize it.

I'll point her to your link. Perhaps it's something she might be interested in. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Cousins on March 25, 2010 at 4:06pm

Whenever my head gets to reeling over all the pieces of establishing an actual career as a novelist (been working hard for years... getting close, I think), I remind myself that there is nothing that will help as much as good writing and editing of what I am trying to sell. I have seen people on forums (not here—I am too new here to have seen much at all—and not Forward Motion) agonizing over why agents aren't answering their queries and then gotten a peek at the manuscript and wondered why on earth they thought they were ready to query. A quality product is easiest to sell, so when the rest gets overwhelming my advice is to focus on the writing. Above all things, to be a writer you must write and learn to polish your writing.

In terms of writing novels, the resource I wish I'd had when I started is Holly Lisle's Create A Plot Clinic e-book (you can read more about why I like it on my Fiction page and also in my free newsletter archives and on my On Creativity and Ideas page). That e-book has helped my noveling progress more than any other resource I own (though Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne and King is still high on my list). The Plot Clinic made it easy to complete my rough draft in one month, and now the suggestions for revision are making that process much more fun, efficient, and confident than it might otherwise have been. If I'd had that e-book several years sooner, the other three novels would be finished now instead of languishing in my files in various stages of not-finished (they'll come out and be reorganized to my new method once the current one is really done, but the current one has the best first-sell qualities of the bunch).

The most important thing is the writing. Unless there is some desperation factor of which I am unaware, that is the thing to concentrate on first. One good way to improve writing while also beginning to develop a potential platform or readership is to participate on a really good writers' forum, which allows one to improve skills while also meeting other writers. I spent a few years participating on Forward Motion for Writers and gained a tremendous amount in the process while meeting many other fine writers. Don't know how old your daughter is, but FM even has a special forum that is kids-only (except for a couple of moderators—usually experienced moms—who keep an eye on things), so that even young writers can have a safe place to exchange ideas and crits with other kid writers without feeling intimidated by the presence of more experienced adult writers.

One thing you should know, if you write primarily nonfiction, is that self-publishing is almost never a good way to go for a new novelist or fiction writer who is interested in a real career. Leaving aside professional authors who already know the ropes and know what a professional standard is and who might decide to form their own publishing company for more artistic control, most self-published novels are decidedly inferior, and even online services to sell them that claim to do some editing aren't measuring up very well so far from the checking I've done. So the 'if I can't sell it I can always self-publish' attitude just does not work well for producing the kind of fiction that will have a hope of selling to a traditional publisher or establishing a real career in fiction. I think that is the primary reason FM has remained so staunchly in favor of traditional publishing and standards. There are many more situations in nonfiction in which self-publishing might make sense, but in fiction, traditional publishing is still were most of the really good writing is found and where the best fiction is honed.

I've written various things all my life (I'm 57), but the thing I most wanted to write—fiction—completely eluded me until the very late '90s, when participation on a usenet group led to some amazing breakthroughs in that department. In the early-to-mid '00s, I lucked into an adults-only market that would take all the short stories I could crank out—I eventually sold 32 stories with no rejections—but at a penny-and-a-half a word it was never going to be good for more than hobby money. It was a positive experience though, and gave me the courage and confidence to strike out for deeper waters, where there is a lot more competition but a much broader field of possibilities. I've learned a great deal along the way, and I share a lot of it, on my website, Write 'em Cowgirls! (it's about spirit, not genre) and in my free newsletter, the Write 'em Cowgirls Express. I wish I'd known the things on my website when I started, which is a lot of the motivation for the website. I would like to save other aspiring writers some of the time I spent stumbling around finding good resources and learning things that hard way, and when it became time for me to establish more online presence, I decided I'd rather do a resource and inspiration site than a blog. I've always been the pay-forward type.

If your daughter is still high school or college undergrad age, she should sign up for C. Hope Clark's free WritingKid newsletter, which has lots of market and contest (including scholarship writing contests) information as well as sage advice for young writers.

Good luck to both of you and write on!

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Permalink Reply by Julie Polk on March 25, 2010 at 4:32pm

Hi Sandi --

How great for your daughter! Very exciting. Below are links to two very different but equally wonderful books. The first, YOUR FIRST NOVEL, is co-written by a terrific agent and one of her clients; the first half is a fiction-writing practicum filled with really great exercises and writing advice, and the second half is the agent's very practical, supportive but absolutely clear-eyed look at the steps it takes to get your first book published:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9781582973883-2


Full disclosure on the second: the author, Jill Dearman, is a good friend of mine, so I'm probably biased. But I love this book! Jill has many wonderful writing exercises and a really fun style, and I can vouch for her as a teacher because I've seen her at work:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9781592579143-0


Most of all, though, I would say this to your daughter: remember that the goal is simply to say what you have to say, how you want it said. So much harder than it sounds! But to me, that is the sacred goal of writing. If she can truly accomplish that, her writing will be so specific and vivid and wonderful that people will line up around the block to read it.

Let us know how it goes for her!

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Permalink Reply by Sandi Johnson on March 25, 2010 at 8:01pm

You guys are wonderful! I'll definitely point her to the resources you mention.

I guess I should have explained a little more about her though. (She recently joined - in fact, I think she's the one who sent me the link to SheWrites) She's in her early twenties, married, and living the life of an Army wife. (My granddaughter will be a year old next month!)

She was published in an anthology before she even graduated high school & was offered a partial scholarship to pursue a journalism degree. I think she has tremendous talent - but I realize I'm a little biased. Bias aside, I still think she has real talent. Actually, truth be told, there's a part of me that's really proud of her for opting to pursue her dream full force, rather than go to school for journalism. (That wasn't exactly the plan in the beginning. The Army and my granddaughter kind of put the crimp in the original plan. I'm proud of the way she was able to adapt & decide to go after what she really wanted instead.)

My biggest fear is that in trying to show her what I know of the business side of writing for a living, I'm going to somehow curtail her creativity. That's one of the drawbacks to my career choices - I've spent so many years honing a much more restricted "business voice" for my writing that now I'm struggling to find my creative voice again. When you've spent years stuffed in a business suit, it's hard to feel comfortable in jeans and tshirts again. It's very frustrating for me & I don't want to in any way create that kind of mental restriction in her writing.

I see her getting intimidated by all the things she doesn't know yet. I see her stressing, trying to cram all this knowledge in her head all at once. I can't help but think to myself, am I even the right person to show her this stuff? Is this going to affect her writing? I hope not. I really, really hope not.

So ladies, thank you soooo much for the excellent resources. I will definitely make sure she sees this post. And by all means - keep the suggestions coming!

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Cousins on March 27, 2010 at 3:09pm

Sandi, I have a great idea for you and your daughter (now that many, many hours of work my husband I have done have finally resulted in the launch!). The newest feature on my website is a free weekly writing prompt sample from my line of Sharon's Deluxe Take-a-Write Prompts. Each week I will feature a new prompt and once people have written the prompt, they will be able to take a peek at the freewrite I did from the same prompt—the link to my write is in the last paragraph on the weekly prompt page, under the prompt itself. (Always, always do your own write before looking at someone else's, because you will get much more out of the process if you give your own creativity free rein before exposing it to outside influence.)

So one way to keep some fun focus on the expansion of your creativity and the development of hers would be for you each to freewrite the prompt each week, then share what you have written—always in a non-critical way, because a freewrite is too raw to critique—with each other (and if you also read my write, it's almost as good as being in a freewriting group as far as expansion goes, because you will see where three people went from the same jumping-off place). The first prompt went up in the wee small hours of this morning and will be up until early am (just past midnight) on Sunday, April 4. at which point the prompts (and my writes) will change each Sunday.

If you are not already familiar with the concept of freewriting (aka "timed writing"), you can learn more about it on my Freewriting Basics page. I think freewriting practice can do more than any other type of writing practice to help one develop a strong, authentic voice, and it is very expanding to creativity. Please feel free to let me know if you and your daughter decide to try writing my prompts together and if it helps. Write on!

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Permalink Reply by Alison Strobel Morrow on April 11, 2010 at 6:43am

Well, in terms of actually building a writing career, I say get an agent. The big houses don't accept manuscripts cold anymore, so unless you're getting to every writing conference out there and meeting editors, chances are you're not going to get into those big houses. Plus, once you've got a contract, you want someone who knows how to read it and how to advocate for you so you get the best possible deal.

But in terms of just general writing, then working on craft, and not just her particular story, is essential. If you're an excellent writer, you're going to get published. If you're a pretty good writer, you may still get published, but it's going to take a lot more work. Books like Writing The Breakout Novel are fantastic. (My agent, Chip MacGregor, has a list of books on his website that he recommends.

And actually, now that I think about it, she's a lot more likely to snag an agent if she's an excellent writer. So I suppose the absolute MOST important thing is to study craft and become an excellent writer.

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Permalink Reply by Alison Strobel Morrow on April 11, 2010 at 6:43am

Well, in terms of actually building a writing career, I say get an agent. The big houses don't accept manuscripts cold anymore, so unless you're getting to every writing conference out there and meeting editors, chances are you're not going to get into those big houses. Plus, once you've got a contract, you want someone who knows how to read it and how to advocate for you so you get the best possible deal.

But in terms of just general writing, then working on craft, and not just her particular story, is essential. If you're an excellent writer, you're going to get published. If you're a pretty good writer, you may still get published, but it's going to take a lot more work. Books like Writing The Breakout Novel are fantastic. (My agent, Chip MacGregor, has a list of books on his website that he recommends.

And actually, now that I think about it, she's a lot more likely to snag an agent if she's an excellent writer. So I suppose the absolute MOST important thing is to study craft and become an excellent writer.

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Permalink Reply by Cindy Vine on April 11, 2010 at 12:52pm

For me I'd like to have known more about the marketing side and building an author's platform. Now I'm on my fourth book it's there, but for my first one I just didn't have a clue.

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Permalink Reply by J. Lang Wood on April 14, 2010 at 5:05pm

I wish I'd known that it's not about making the words beautiful, or making the experience exquisitely vivid, it's about the market--what the public wants and what publishing houses accept.

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