Ten
Road Signs for the Beginning Writer
By Kathleen Mack
Several years ago, an elderly gentleman recovering from a heart ailment in a
Western hospital asked the volunteer worker for a pencil and some paper. "I want
to write a story for Reader's Digest," he explained.
The woman got the pencil and paper. When the story was finished, the volunteer
typed it and sent it to the magazine out of kindness. She was sure the story
would be rejected.
To her surprise, the story sold. It won the Reader's Digest First
Person Award, and brought the old fellow a nice check.
Although the above story is true, it is not typical. Writing and selling for
most of us is more than telling a little tale. It is not just a short hike up a
lovely trail to a nice fat check. It is instead, a long, lonely road of toil,
and more toil. More often than not, the road is paved with rejection slips, and
the fat check is many, many miles away.
Read and heed the ten road signs below before you start down the path, and your
journey will be a little easier, and a little faster.
1. Aim at low-paying markets. Almost all beginners have more faith in
their own ability to write than they should have. Many send their work to the
"slicks," and then wonder why it gets rejected. It gets rejected because the
beginner is stepping out of his league and playing the game with the pros. The
slicks are where the professional writers are sending their work. Any editor
worth his paycheck knows the difference between a beginner and a pro, and you
can guess which work the editor buys. Send your first attempts to the lower
paying magazines. They are more likely to be happy to help the beginner. If they
find someone with promise, they are just as happy to print his material, as he
is to have it printed. Once an editor has printed some of your work, he is more
apt to print future contributions, and you're on your way. Save those wonderful
story ideas that you want to send to the slicks for a later date. Give yourself
time to gain experience, and build your writing ability. You will have a few
less rejections paving your path.
2. Write about familiar things. A story or article about the life of an
Indian snake charmer sounds like a good idea, but unless you happen to know a
lot about snake charmers, I suggest you write about something else. There is a
world of story and article ideas in anyone's own backyard. Why go looking around
for ideas, when you can write much better about the things you know about? It is
a grievous mistake to spend hours reading through library material to write an
article about something you think will be interesting. What you'll end up with
is a summary of dry facts that no one, especially not an editor, is interested
in. Write about the things you know about. It may be something simple, like how
to paint a house or mop a floor, but if you have a method that is unusual as
well as highly effective, your article will have a pretty good chance of getting
printed.
3. Study your profession. This doesn't mean that you have to go to
college, or that you should take a home study course in writing. It means that
you should make use of your public library, and read all the books you can find
on writing. It means that you should study magazines, such as this one, for
writing techniques. It also means to read all other types of magazines that you
possibly can. Read them for ideas, reference material, and to learn what the
editor is using. Unless you know what an editor wants, you can't hope to sell to
him.
4. Learn markets and study them. This road sign may seem to be a good
deal like number three, but it is not quite the same. One of the biggest
hang-ups for the beginner is not knowing where to send his material. If you've
written a great article on "How To Be A Better Christian," for example, it's
very doubtful that an editor at Playboy would read beyond the title.
However, an editor of a religious magazine might find it to be just what he is
looking for. If at all possible, read four or five back issues of a magazine
that you hope to sell to, before you write anything for it. Your chances for a
sale will be doubled. If this isn't possible, then at least be familiar with
editorial policy, and the type of material the magazine is currently using.
Don't just submit a manuscript to a magazine because the name sounds right.
5. Learn how to prepare your manuscript. This may seem self-evident, but
many beginners fail miserably when it comes to putting a decent manuscript
together. It's not enough to have a good story to sell. The editors have to be
able to read it too. This means to use a good printer ribbon or ink cartridge,
one that makes nice clear black marks, and not just gray smudges. If you're
using a typewriter, the keys should be cleaned often, too; O's should look like
o's and not like oversized periods. A little neatness goes a long way. Grammar
should be corrected also, and an honest effort should be made to spell words
correctly. Editors have a lot of reading to do, and they appreciate it when you
make it easier for them.
6. Learn how to take notes. For some reason, this is a very hard lesson
for the beginner to learn. Yet, this is a habit which will really pay off. Keep
a notebook handy, and when an article or story idea pops into you head, write it
down. When an especially clever phrase or allegory strikes you, write it down.
Your ideas can slip away before you know it. You needn't make long complicated
notes. A word or two that will trigger your memory will be sufficient. Later,
when you sit down with your notes, you will be surprised at how much they help.
7. Spend time writing each day. This is the most important of all the
road signs. Forgive my use of a cliché, but there is a lot of truth in the old
saying: Practice makes perfect! We learn by doing, and this is just as true in
the writing profession as in any other field. If you want to be a success, you
must discipline yourself. Learn to spend more time with your typewriter or
computer each day. The amount of time you spend will, of course, depend on how
much time and energy you can spare from your day. Even if it its only ten
minutes each day, keep at it faithfully. You will be surprised at how much more
you can turn out at each new session. Don't allow yourself to be trapped into
believing that you can write only when you are in the mood. Moods can be
created. This is especially true if you write at the same time each day. Your
subconscious will be thinking ahead to that time, and when you sit down to
write, ideas will literally jump at you.
8. Learn to be your own critic. Of all the road signs, this one is the
most difficult. It can be exasperating to sweat over an article, only to tear it
apart by your own criticism. However, we must learn to judge our own work.
Friends and family members are not likely to give us a completely honest
opinion. To begin with, they are not qualified to judge, unless of course, they
are editors or successful writers. Their opinion will also be prejudiced by
their love and faith in us. Learn to depend on your own judgment. After
finishing a story or article, look it over carefully. Ask yourself the questions
that an editor will be asking himself when he reads the same material. Is this
well written? Are there too many words-- too few? Is it clear? Does it have
reader identification? Will it appeal to a large number of my readers? And so
on.
9. Keep things in the mail. Here again, a lot of beginners fail. They
write one article and send it off hopefully. Then they wait for a reply. Editors
are notoriously slow, and sometimes you will wait for months. In the meantime,
the computer has been collecting dust, and so has your talent. Finally, the
manuscript comes back-- with a rejection. The writer is so deflated that the
computer sits there a while longer before he has enough courage to try again.
Even if the manuscript is accepted, think of all the writing time that has been
wasted. So, when you send something out, just don't sit there, get busy and
write something else. Send something out every day if possible. Then, when the
first rejection comes in, you will still have hopes of selling some of your
other material. When something is rejected, review it, rewrite it if necessary
and send it back out. One rejection doesn't mean much. I have sold some of my
work on the tenth submission. So, don't give up. Those rejections mean you're
trying and that's what matters. Sooner or later, if you keep something in the
mail, the law of averages will pay off for you.
10. Be patient! Be determined! Be persevering! If you can't follow this
road sign, you may as well put this article away, and forget you ever thought
about writing. It takes all three of these virtues, and more, to make it.
Writing is a difficult profession. It takes study and hard work. But, if you
really want to write, you can, no matter who or what you are. Just keep saying
to yourself the words of a happy little children's song: "I think I can; I think
I can." Before you know it, you'll be able to say, "I know I can; I know I can."
Kathleen Mack has returned to
writing after an absence of 40 years. She has published a monthly sewing column,
short stories for children, fantasy, and a number of articles. Her writing has
appeared in magazines such as AARP Magazine, Popular Needlework, Farm Wife News,
Bread For Children, Capper’s Weekly, Penman Magazine, Faith at Work, and others.
She can be contacted at
kmack@flash.net.
