WE ASKED:
Did
you ever hit a turning point in your writing career where you learned something
that made you much more successful? What was it?
THE WINNER:
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Justifying myself as a writer meant getting published. I craved the idea of opening my mailbox to checks overflowing. Unfortunately, this fantasy limited my view of the heart, and my writing suffered. I wrote to make money. Nothing happened. I wrote to pump up my ego. My confidence deflated. Defeated and beaten, I walked away from writing altogether. "I'm not meant to be a writer," I thought. It shouldn't be this hard. Shortly after I put down my pen, my grandmother died. Six months later, my dad. Next? My mother-in-law. I was numb with grief. Three important people in my life whisked away. My life became a blur of funerals, meat trays, and condolence cards.
Some people, when faced with trauma, turn to anger. Others, to the bottle or pills. Still others react unexpectedly as if it doesn't phase them at all. I turned to my notebook and began pouring everything on to the page. My pen ran furiously along the paper, haphazardly mixed with teardrops. I wrote in despair. I wrote in frustration. I wrote in pain. I wrote to communicate. In my notebook, I didn't have to pretend. I wasn't writing to please a publisher or an editor. I could feel every emotion -- free to anger, hurt, loneliness, and bitter reflection. I gave the dead a voice. They spoke through me.
Eventually, the pain lessened. Death leaves a hole in the soul. Yet, the pain and raw agony do dissipate with time. My notebook holds it all. It helped me get through and I learned to write from my heart. Death has a peculiar way of making things right or, in my case, write. For me, the greatest success one can gain from writing isn't money or worldly fame. It's the permission to be yourself, to tell it all with unadulterated honesty. It's the writing tinged with raw emotion and a worthy goal. My goal has certainly changed. Writing success came for me when I discovered what my heart holds and allowed myself the luxury of thrusting my soul onto paper. I may or may not receive the checks in my mailbox. But one thing is for sure - I will ultimately leave behind pieces of myself.
Thank you for the opportunity to share!
--Patricia Barton
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More of our favorite entries:
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I've spent more time on creative writing since the beginning of this year than I've had before. Oh yes, it's tried, tested, and true: words are the hardest to come by just when you desperately need them. I've stumbled over rocks that I created myself. Bruised and repentant, I decided to learn a lesson: plan ahead, gather facts, take a break, then go on a writing hike.
First, let's draw up a schedule with enough time before your draft is due. Include time to gather information, facts, and details relevant to the main idea of the story and then just set them aside for a day or two. And, when you do start working on the rascals, group them -- pick the ones that are most likely to go well together. It's much like cooking. You don't always prepare the dish right away. Some items have to be mixed together first and set aside.
Now, just lay back. There's magic to it. Sometimes, when you happen to be doing something no distant cousin to writing, you'll find a blend of ideas pop up in your brain. I've experienced it while cooking, on waking up at night, and even while doing things more personal, I dare not mention them. And then, after the two-day layoff, when you're all armed with waiting, and you decide to write, words will flow -- you'll delight in the hike up story lane. You may not even have to peek at the tidbits you've collected. There's madness to this method but it lets the mind unroll a magnum opus.
--Stacey-Anne Bistak
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Revelation: one day I woke up and realized that roughly 99% of the corporate or organizational people I deal
with for work-for-hire writing assignments (1) do not
know how to write, (2) spell, and/or (3) research a subject. They are almost entirely administrative
assistants of some sort charged with hiring out some writing chore.
My revelation, like Jules Caesars' Gaul, was divided into three parts:- Turning point #1:- Fed up
with being dicked around by dorks, I set a $500 upfront, non-refundable minimum per assignment. Turning point #2:-
I set a policy of including in the agreed fee one, and only-one, rewrite per writing assignment, and that on
condition that the original assignment brief did not substantially change in the interim. Otherwise, it was
a 'new' assignment, and hence a new fee. Turning point
#3:- I deliver work only as a plain-text WORD file and a plain-text ASCII-text file. The client's preferred
house formatting, templates, stylesheets, 'bible' requirements (etc.) are their problems -- not mine.
In this way, I lost a lot of 'clients' with small, badly-paid, or even unpaid assignments; I no
longer went crazy doing endless rewrites for clients unable to decide what it is, exactly, they want, and
I avoid endless unpaid hours frigging with their intractable stylesheets, templates . . . (etc).
Thereafter, dealing with mega-dorks, doing endless rewrites, and frigging with client stylesheets
and templates became pleasures these 'clients' can bestow upon my competitors, and my competitors are
welcome to them. And I became healthier, wealthier, and happier.
--Paul Zahn
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For months, caught up in the frenzy of chaos that dictates my life, I muttered, gotta write, gotta WRITE. Writing is no longer a hobby as emotions are released, my anger is tempered and I remain calm. Without writing, I'm a bundle of nerves about to explode. You can ask anyone for verification and
clarification.
One summer night, as I sat on the balcony watching stars turn into airplanes on that night's flight path, it dawned upon me that I couldn't write anything if I didn't pick up a pen, place my fingers on the keyboard or adhere to a schedule. It was definitely a brilliant observation, one of those ah-ha moments that we all encounter. How many nights had been lost in reverie instead of constructive nuance? I shuddered to think.
While I may not be hugely successful in terms of quantifying my writing, my journal is up-to-date. Indeed, my anger journal has stagnated. Now if I could just manage to catch up on two months of e-mails. Sigh.
--Cheryl Tessler-Ryshpan
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I was elected editor of our Toastmasters Chapter newsletter. Of course I wrote the editorial, but needed articles to pique the readers’ interest. I decided to introduce each of our members’ profile written by a fellow toastmaster. So, I assigned a name and a deadline to every member of our club and congratulated myself on my ingenuity to secure articles for several issues. A week before the first deadline I contacted my assignee:
“Hi John (Doe)! I hope you have written your draft. Just reminding you of the deadline.”
“Umm! I don’t know what to write about!”
After a few similar experiences, I prepared a guideline jotting down the general questions one asks during an interview and sent them to each of my contributors. I ran the risk of all profiles looking the same, but it was worth a try. It worked. The profiles were different because the writers, their styles and subjects were different. Each put in his/her own personality and his/her own perspective.
I learned that when I do a better job, the rewards exceed expectations. May I add that the newsletter received a Toastmaster 'Honorable Mention' award during the first quarter I was elected to my first editing
job!
--Mary Terzian
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I was consistently selling my writing since I was a teenager, mostly focusing
on movie reviews and features for magazines, but a real turning point came when
I decided to go to college and take creative writing courses. Somehow I thought
I could learn to be a better and more productive writer by studying from a
professor, and that having a college degree would impress editors and publishers
to no end.
Once I began classes, I realized that there was nothing I could gain from
sitting for two hours at a time listening to frustrated writers-turned-teachers
expound on the dangers of commercialism. I wanted to write and I wanted to make
money at it. Hemingway I was not into. Stephen King I could cozy up to. I did
not want to emulate some poor, but highly literate author. I wanted to be
marketable, and see my name in print and, more importantly, on some sizable
checks.
Although I would never tell someone not to go to college, I would encourage
writers to avoid trying to be "taught" the proper way to pursue their
dreams. Writers must never be made to feel guilty for not wanting to be the next
Hemingway. I just wanted to write, and sell as much of it as I could. It was
simply a matter of bringing that desire forth and letting it be what it was,
whether some uppity college professor thought it was worthy or not.
--Marie Jones, author of LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES and three
dozen inspirational books, five dozen magazine articles, two children's videos
and countless other published stuff (most that I got paid for!)
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Why I Will Now Only Self-Publish
by John JO'Callaghan
When I lived on The Isle of Man, British Isles, I self-published 1000 copies
of my first book, "How to Sell Your House Without an Estate Agent."
When I went along to the local newspaper and gave my ad copy to the clerk
she immediately called the Advertising Manager. "Sorry" he said, "but we
cannot accept your ad. Next to car dealers, estate agents are our biggest
advertisers. Your ad would only upset and antagonize them."
My only option was to send out a one-page press releases to the UK national
media. That was my lucky break. The national press literally raved about my
book and as a result I sold 5,000 direct in just three months.
I then sold the publishing rights to Wm.Collins and Sons (now part of Rupert
Murdock's Fox Empire.) They printed 15,000 copies and paid me $2,000 in
advance and 15% royalties. They spent less than $500 promoting it! "Standard
practice" they said. It took them 5 years to sell out. Now I will only self-publish.
