The One True and Only Way -- To Become Published (Part 2)
Continued from Part 1:
[Note: Something I should have mentioned in my previous post was that the belief you should not start a story until you know how to finish it is by no means universal, despite the claims of the HWA. See, for example, this article.]
Continuing where I left off, my major concern regarding the idea of a One True Method to Get Published is that the one promoted by the HWA didn't work for me. Normally that would be taken as evidence that the One True Method was anything but; that it might work for many people but it wouldn't work for everyone.
Unfortunately, the members of the HWA discussion board took the attitude that the problem wasn't with the Method, but the people who tried it and failed to make it work. To make matters worse, they didn't sound like they were affirming the obvious fact that some people simply don't have a talent for writing. Instead, their words strongly suggested they were making a predestination argument: more than one stated quite clearly that anyone who couldn't make the Method work was not meant to be a professional writer.
One individual stated this opinion succinctly in a slightly different context. He was editing an anthology and had posted the guidelines to the board. When an Affiliate asked for clarification on one point, he replied that anyone who couldn't understand the guidelines as written wasn't meant to be published in the anthology and shouldn't submit. When I admitted at one point that I had spent three decades using the Method and hadn't published anything, he responded by saying, "Enough said." His implication was that I wasn't meant to be writer, probably because I was bad at it.
Naturally, his response is ludicrous, because there are any number of reasons why I didn't get published other than the one he supposed. In point of fact, I couldn't get published because I couldn't finish anything, but not because I never knew how to finish my stories. It was because of the Method rule that I had to knuckle down, discipline myself, and write like a professional. Unfortunately, whenever I inevitably became bored or frustrated with one story, I got an idea for a new one, so I abandoned the old story and started on another.
[I should note that I was able to finish a few stories during this time period, but I did so, not thanks to the Method, but because of a different tactic I will describe in Part 3.]
The cycle repeated itself endlessly, with me becoming more frustrated and depressed every time it happened. By the year 2000, I had almost concluded that maybe I wasn't meant to be a writer, even though I felt compelled to write. I simply didn't know what to do.
To be continued
[Note: Something I should have mentioned in my previous post was that the belief you should not start a story until you know how to finish it is by no means universal, despite the claims of the HWA. See, for example, this article.]
Continuing where I left off, my major concern regarding the idea of a One True Method to Get Published is that the one promoted by the HWA didn't work for me. Normally that would be taken as evidence that the One True Method was anything but; that it might work for many people but it wouldn't work for everyone.
Unfortunately, the members of the HWA discussion board took the attitude that the problem wasn't with the Method, but the people who tried it and failed to make it work. To make matters worse, they didn't sound like they were affirming the obvious fact that some people simply don't have a talent for writing. Instead, their words strongly suggested they were making a predestination argument: more than one stated quite clearly that anyone who couldn't make the Method work was not meant to be a professional writer.
One individual stated this opinion succinctly in a slightly different context. He was editing an anthology and had posted the guidelines to the board. When an Affiliate asked for clarification on one point, he replied that anyone who couldn't understand the guidelines as written wasn't meant to be published in the anthology and shouldn't submit. When I admitted at one point that I had spent three decades using the Method and hadn't published anything, he responded by saying, "Enough said." His implication was that I wasn't meant to be writer, probably because I was bad at it.
Naturally, his response is ludicrous, because there are any number of reasons why I didn't get published other than the one he supposed. In point of fact, I couldn't get published because I couldn't finish anything, but not because I never knew how to finish my stories. It was because of the Method rule that I had to knuckle down, discipline myself, and write like a professional. Unfortunately, whenever I inevitably became bored or frustrated with one story, I got an idea for a new one, so I abandoned the old story and started on another.
[I should note that I was able to finish a few stories during this time period, but I did so, not thanks to the Method, but because of a different tactic I will describe in Part 3.]
The cycle repeated itself endlessly, with me becoming more frustrated and depressed every time it happened. By the year 2000, I had almost concluded that maybe I wasn't meant to be a writer, even though I felt compelled to write. I simply didn't know what to do.
To be continued
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Songs of the Seanchaí
Musings on my stories, the background of my stories, writing, and the world in general.
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