Courage of the Writer By Gail Symmonds
Writing takes courage…well maybe not the actual writing, that’s the fun part, that’s where you get to immerse yourself into another world, time, or life. When you write you can become any person you want within the private world of your ink and pen. It’s all the other bits that go towards the goal of becoming a paid author that can be scary, intimidating or, at times, down right heartbreaking.
To become a successful writer involves a journey of constant learning. It entails the need to be imaginative but, open minded to criticism and suggestions from others.
Without this criticism it may be very hard to move forward and attain your goals.
So you’ve finished your first manuscript. You’ve slaved over it for months, maybe years. What do you do with it now? You need a critiquing partner, or preferably, partners. These are often the first people you ‘expose’ yourself to, the first ones to lay eyes on your masterpiece and offer feedback. Theses are the writing pals you acquire during the ‘trip’. And I don’t use the term ‘expose’ lightly. Trust me, many would find it easier running down the street naked than letting other eyes read a first draft. You are allowing someone to take a peek inside yourself, giving them permission to judge you, though good critiquing partners would never do this. Their job is to offer kind, constructive feedback, and if you allow this process to happen you have past your first big test.
You are now on your way to becoming an author.
The next stop in this trip of a life time is to listen and evaluate the feedback given, which many writers have difficulty doing at first. You absolutely love your story, so did your mum, and your sister, and your friends. Why would you need to change it? What’s wrong with all the really important information in the first two chapters? I need all that or the reader won’t be able to understand the plot and history!
You may resist, you may disagree, but eventually you will remove the information dump at the start of your first masterpiece. You will discover that your critiquing partners knew what they were talking about.
So now we arrive at the next stage of the journey—the synopsis. This is where you need to learn to write from the other side of your imaginative brain. You have to condense your entire book into a few pages and still make it interesting without giving a blow-by-blow description of each scene. Good luck. You won’t be alone in finding it extremely difficult. Many experienced, published authors remain challenged by the synopsis, but it is a necessary stage before the next trial.
The dreaded query letter.
If you want any chance of becoming published you need to approach an editor or agent and present a portion or your masterpiece for consideration. Publishing houses or agencies have different submission requirements that you need to familiarise yourself with before sending. Some may want a short synopsis, some a long, some may ask for the first three chapters…and so on and so on. Know what they want before you send. Do the research.
Now comes the tough stuff. The rejection letter. Trust me you will get plenty. It’s all part of the journey and part of the publishing ‘game’. Nobody likes to be rejected, nobody wants to be told ‘no thanks’. It takes a brave person to publicly flog themselves, but the only other option is to stick your manuscript in a draw and never let it see daylight again. What’s the point in that after all the hard work you’ve put into it? Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get a ‘good rejection letter’, one providing feedback with a few suggestions on how to improve your story. Maybe you’ll get a blunt ‘form letter’ rejection, or perhaps your won’t even receive that. It doesn’t matter.
You are well on your way to becoming an author - you are now in the game.
Learn, learn, learn, and then be prepared to learn even more as you hone your craft. You just never know when an editor or agent will write back asking for a partial or full manuscript for consideration.
Here’s a few stats off the internet - Carrie, Steven King, 22 rejections before being picked up. Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, 38 rejections. John Grisham, A Time to Kill, rejected by 16 agents and 12 editors. William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, 20 rejections. J K Rowling, The Philosopher’s Stone, 12 rejections.
Never give up!
To become a successful writer involves a journey of constant learning. It entails the need to be imaginative but, open minded to criticism and suggestions from others.
Without this criticism it may be very hard to move forward and attain your goals.
So you’ve finished your first manuscript. You’ve slaved over it for months, maybe years. What do you do with it now? You need a critiquing partner, or preferably, partners. These are often the first people you ‘expose’ yourself to, the first ones to lay eyes on your masterpiece and offer feedback. Theses are the writing pals you acquire during the ‘trip’. And I don’t use the term ‘expose’ lightly. Trust me, many would find it easier running down the street naked than letting other eyes read a first draft. You are allowing someone to take a peek inside yourself, giving them permission to judge you, though good critiquing partners would never do this. Their job is to offer kind, constructive feedback, and if you allow this process to happen you have past your first big test.
You are now on your way to becoming an author.
The next stop in this trip of a life time is to listen and evaluate the feedback given, which many writers have difficulty doing at first. You absolutely love your story, so did your mum, and your sister, and your friends. Why would you need to change it? What’s wrong with all the really important information in the first two chapters? I need all that or the reader won’t be able to understand the plot and history!
You may resist, you may disagree, but eventually you will remove the information dump at the start of your first masterpiece. You will discover that your critiquing partners knew what they were talking about.
So now we arrive at the next stage of the journey—the synopsis. This is where you need to learn to write from the other side of your imaginative brain. You have to condense your entire book into a few pages and still make it interesting without giving a blow-by-blow description of each scene. Good luck. You won’t be alone in finding it extremely difficult. Many experienced, published authors remain challenged by the synopsis, but it is a necessary stage before the next trial.
The dreaded query letter.
If you want any chance of becoming published you need to approach an editor or agent and present a portion or your masterpiece for consideration. Publishing houses or agencies have different submission requirements that you need to familiarise yourself with before sending. Some may want a short synopsis, some a long, some may ask for the first three chapters…and so on and so on. Know what they want before you send. Do the research.
Now comes the tough stuff. The rejection letter. Trust me you will get plenty. It’s all part of the journey and part of the publishing ‘game’. Nobody likes to be rejected, nobody wants to be told ‘no thanks’. It takes a brave person to publicly flog themselves, but the only other option is to stick your manuscript in a draw and never let it see daylight again. What’s the point in that after all the hard work you’ve put into it? Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get a ‘good rejection letter’, one providing feedback with a few suggestions on how to improve your story. Maybe you’ll get a blunt ‘form letter’ rejection, or perhaps your won’t even receive that. It doesn’t matter.
You are well on your way to becoming an author - you are now in the game.
Learn, learn, learn, and then be prepared to learn even more as you hone your craft. You just never know when an editor or agent will write back asking for a partial or full manuscript for consideration.
Here’s a few stats off the internet - Carrie, Steven King, 22 rejections before being picked up. Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, 38 rejections. John Grisham, A Time to Kill, rejected by 16 agents and 12 editors. William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, 20 rejections. J K Rowling, The Philosopher’s Stone, 12 rejections.
Never give up!
