The Road to Publication
At book signings, writers conferences, in correspondence and at my
lectures, the questions that readers and aspiring writes ask me most
often is how I got started writing novels and, since I have a
full-time job, where do I get the time. More often than not, the
questioner wants to become a published author or thinks she or he
does. For the most part, these are pipe dreams. When I question them,
their replies invariably impress me that their major hindrance is not
lack of savoir faire or of time, but of motivation and, occasionally,
also of genuine interest.
How can I say that? Ms. Jane Doe wrote me that she was dying to become
a published author, that she dreamed about it all the time. Yet she
confessed to never having written one line of fiction. Why? In her
forty-one years of existence, she hadn’t had time. One African
American woman came to my book signing and asked me, "How can I write
like Terry McMillan?" I assured her that I had no idea and advised her
to contact Ms. McMillan. Neither of these women burns to write, only
to reap the rewards that the successful writer is presumed to get. If
you think you want to write a novel or a short story, but can’t get
started, examine your true aims. Look closely at your priorities for,
as we shall see, therein may lay your problem.
Back to the question as to how I got started. To begin with, my
profession requires that I write and that the writing be of academic
quality, so the act of writing, though in a different vocabulary, is
second nature to me. After a story played around in my mind for
months, I decided to write it down. That crude effort hooked me on
novel writing, proved to me that I could write a full length novel.
Pumped up with excitement about my newly discovered "talent", I
decided to write one that would sell. I bought some books on fiction
writing, studied them and made up my mind to become a published
author. I began Sealed With A Kiss on January 2, 1994 and sold it
October 21 of that same year.
Addressing the problem
The operative phrase here is made up my mind. Having done that, I did
not equivocate. How do you manage that if you have a full-time job and
a family, I’ve been asked. I am not the exception; fifty percent of
the fiction writers I know manage this. Let us suppose that you aren’t
fooling yourself, that you have the talents, the imagination required
of a novelist, but just can’t get started. Ask yourself why. In
discussing the matter with would-be writers, I’ve been given numerous
excuses most of which boil down to lack of will.
You want to write, but you can’t find the time. Not so. People who
want to write, who burn to write and need to write do that. They
write. To claim you can’t find the time is to mislead yourself. The
problem lies in how you use the time that you have and whether you are
willing to make some sacrifices. I suggest that you keep an accurate
record of what you did each minute of your waking hours and analyze
seven days of records. You will get some surprises.
How much time did you spend watching television, looking at mail-order
catalogues, chatting with friends who telephone you, surfing the
internet or chatting with strangers on-line, critiquing someone else’s
manuscript? What did you do at the hairdresser’s, while waiting at the
doctor’s or dentist’s office, riding public transportation, waiting
for and traveling on trains or airplanes? You could have spent the
time writing. One prominent African American romance writer wrote her
first published novel entirely on the subway while riding to and from
work, because that was her only opportunity to write. Another rises at
four in the morning to write at a time when she is guaranteed privacy
and works until six-thirty when her family demands her time. Have you
stretched yourself in order to write? How many hours and how many
opportunities have you squandered?
Changing habits
Once you have analyzed your pattern of time consumption and know when,
where and how you can make time, ask yourself if you truly want to
write. If the answer is yes, decide on your goals. Do you want a
career as a published novelist, to see your name on the cover of at
least one book, to legitimate time spent on a hobby, to make money? If
you want a career, be prepared to make sacrifices and decide up front
what these will be. Self-discipline is a must. Decide the time of day
you will write, how long and how many pages and stick with it. Put on
your answering machine, don’t answer you doorbell, forget the internet
unless you’re researching your novel or sending e-mail, and request
your family’s indulgence. If they’re asleep, so much the better. Hang
on the door of my home office is a sign that reads, PLEASE DO NOT
DISTURB: Someone who loves you is at work. If the phone rings, it is
because someone wants you, and that person can wait. Call back when
you’re not writing. In other words, establish priorities and stick
with them. Answer mail once a week at an established time period to
make sure you get it all done, and have a time in which to return
phone calls.
You’ve blocked out the time, and you’re writing, but you’re standing
still. If you are unable to meet the simplest goal, such as to write
for one hour each day or to write one page each day, your problem may
be lack of motivation. Join a writers group such as a local club of
Romance Writers Of America. These clubs offer inspiration as well as
guidance to aspiring writers. Importantly, as your sister writers
announce their first sale, you will be inspired to greater diligence.
Remember that all published authors have one thing in common: we sit
down and write, working on a book until we have finished it. There is
no short cut. How do I know? Because I’ve finished twenty-nine novels
and six novella, and all are in print.
Perhaps you are at work on several novels. If you are an unpublished
author, that is not to your credit. Choose the story that interests
you most, and lock up the other manuscripts for safe keeping. Work on
that one book until you have finished it. Editors will not offer a
contract to an unpublished novelist who has not completed the
manuscript, because so many writers cannot finish a book. You must
prove that you can do it.
If you haven’t reached that far and are still wallowing in hope and
day dreams, remind yourself that if you write just one page a day, at
the end of a year, you will have a book. What could be more
galvanizing?
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Gwynne Forster is author of thirty-five published works of fiction,
including her latest, Getting Some of Her Own, a mainstream novel and
Forbidden Temptation, her most recent romance. Visit her at
www.gwynneforster.com and see Gwynne’s profile at http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1ZBHLCT1VK12U/105-2822050-6388429
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