The money or the acclaim?
This was the question I was asked, by a very knowledgeable lady, when I first went looking to get a foot in the door of publishing. And it’s the question YOU need to answer on that actual day when you first take up your pen.
It's the good old Head? or Heart? thing. Do I
want to be a famous author of bestsellers, or do I want to be writer of novels
that attract plaudits from the literati?
If it's the money/fame (and movie contracts)
you want, you need to be Market Driven. That is, you need to get into a
commercial “genre” that the reading market gobbles up by the cubic metre and do
little else but that - Danielle Steel, Dan Brown, Stephen King, JK Rowling.
If
it's the literary applause you want, you need to be Production Driven.
That is, you write what you damn-well FEEL like writing, make it absolutely the
best you can, and then try in on the world - Russell Hoban, William Golding,
James Joyce, Spike Milligan.
Yes,
some rare talented souls achieve both. But, the other 99.5% of us need to chase
one or the other. So, at the outset, you should acknowledge which one YOU will
be sweating blood for. God willing you'll eventually climb into the pantheon of
that blessed 0.5%, but in the meantime, be honest with yourself. Choose. Out
loud.
>>>>>>>>>
WRITING IS solitary and time-consuming
This is one of your most important considerations, especially if you're young and just starting out.
Unless your partner is likewise consumed
with the need to write write write, it's challenging to fit it into a
relationship. And especially into family life, because writing by nature is a
solitary and selfish activity. Dreadfully selfish. It demands heaps of quiet
time on your own with no distractions.
So, best you spell this out fairly early in
conjugal proceedings otherwise it just becomes something that will eventually pull
you in two different directions and you'll feel bad about which ever one you
choose.
>>>>>>>>>>>
Find YOUR place/time to write/think
This is sometimes the hardest call of all. You need to know where and when you write/think the best. It’s hard to do with two yowling kids in tow or when you’re supposed to be concentrating on the morning traffic or if the spare bedroom has to be painted by tonight. But the essential ingredients are QUIET and ALONE.
I wrote “Melrose Street” at 4 o’clock in
the morning over 18 months. Me and the cat. Rest of the house asleep. It was
either that or kill myself. I wrote half of “Gondwanaland” at my office work
desk by starting at 7am every workday, the other half at my home desk after I
retired four years later. I wrote “Jemma Raglan” at my favourite table at my
favourite café down the street, any time my partner was off doing her own
thing.
You
need to find your equivalent.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Acquire self discipline
This should really be at No.1 because without it you’re stuffed before you begin.
Question - How do you eat an elephant?
Answer - One bite at a time.
Writing a novel is roughly the same. You
write it one sentence at a time. Takes a while but if you stick to it
eventually you’ll get through. “Writing a novel is 10% inspiration and 90%
perspiration” was never a truer thing said, because you need staying power to
get 75k-150k words of high quality creative FINISHED writing on the page. A
novel can easily take two years of drafting, writing, and editing before it's
ready, unless you're independently wealthy and can write full time. Hold your
dream close to you but be realistic.
DO NOT believe any of that old tosh you
see in the movies about writers selling a manuscript just because they’re
naturally brilliant. Producing and selling a novel is a hard, long,
soul-shrivelling, head-banging, hand-wringing exercise. At times the process
totally SUCKS but you’re stuck with it, so study it, confront it, make it work
for you. It's absolutely do-able if you have the grit.
>>>>>>>>>>
DON’T put it off
You will NOT believe how fast a lifetime whooshes by. The lesson to be learnt is...
IF, down in the deepest part of your well
of youthful aspirations, you want to be a successful novelist, DON’T PUT IT
OFF.
If you’re afflicted with CWS (Compulsive
Writer Syndrome) and have five great stories with five brilliant titles waiting
for the right moment, DON’T PUT IT OFF. One week you’re 17 and the next week
you’re 35 and the week after that you’re 60 and the week... trust me, it FLIES
BY. Yes, you do have more time to write when you retire, but by then the
creative fires are burning lower. It’s how God designed the writer’s life. It
bloody-well sucks but that’s how it is. GET STARTED. You have a long journey
ahead.
>>>>>>>>>>>
Learn how to touch type
Every so often you'll want to crawl into your solitary space with a real pen and a real pad of real paper and write, write the way true scribes write. So, learn to touch type. And when I say “touch type” I mean as in using all ten of your God-given digits to crank out at least 50 words a minute that look like the King's English, all without taking your eyes off the page. I can't, evolving with only the Mug Method, but each time I want to load up a heap of hand-written notes I always wish I could. And find a transcribing stand to sit those notes on, it makes the chore so much easier.
BUT, now there's also the all new all
dancing all singing Voice-To-Text by dear old Microsoft. Good chance it will in
time make the above totally irrelevant. Maybe. But I've been using it lately
and it sure beats my two-finger dithering.
IF like me you have Windows 11 (I have no
idea if it's anywhere else) and a microphone plugged in the right port, then
any time you have something on screen waiting for keyboard input, press the
Windows key and 'H' and it pops up at top of screen and tells you it's “Listening”!
Speak clearly (to avoid the dreaded typos) and it happily types away. Types what
it thinks you're saying!
AND, click on its [?]Help logo and it'll
tell you all about how to do New Paragraph and comma commands and the rest.
Very nifty.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>