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Finished "The Book You Need To Read to Writer The Book You Want To Write"

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - The pleasures of writing

"No matter whether good or bad, it is a delectable thing, writing! not having to be yourself, being able to circulate in amongst the whole creation that you are describing."

Gustave Flaubert

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - The pleasures of writing

If we want to write well we must take both our writing and our reading seriously, but our seriousness should go hand in hand with a keen sense of enjoyment - the enjoyment we experience ourselves and the enjoyment we offer our readers.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - The pleasures of writing

And writers write, among other reasons, because of the pleasure they have taken in reading, and the pleasure they hope to give to other readers through their own writing.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - The pleasures of writing

As writers we come to see that the pleasures of writing are often discovered through a protracted personal struggle with words and ideas, but they are pleasures noethesless; indeed, they may be all the keener for having been arrived at through hard work.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Feed the compost heap

We need to observe life and to observe how others have written about life.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Feed the compost heap

One of the pieces of advice most commonly and sensibly given by established writers to developing writers is simply to read books. Ready widely and regularly. If you think you don't have time for reading, make time. See the time spent reading books as a necessary part of your training as a writer.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Stick at it

You have to want to do the work for its own sake and not be discouraged if your writing doesn't meet with universal approval. And remember that for some the journey to publication was a long one.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Stick at it

Expect setbacks; learn to embrace them as part of the process. Expect to have to rewrite, even when you think you're done. Accept that your writing, even if published, may never get the recognition it deserves, or may not be recognised for years.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Set achievable goals

Beware, however, of interpreting a failure to meet your own deadlines as a failure in your writing: deadlines may act as useful spurs to continued action but they mustn't be allowed to govern our thinking about our work.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Set achievable goals

For example, if you want to get the job done in 9 months, you need to produce 10000 wrods a month, and can break that down to 2,500 words each weekend or 500 words a day, working Monday to Friday.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Set achievable goals

It's extremely helpful to have a deadline in mind for completion of your first full draft. Either decide how much time a week you can devote to writing and work out your estimated completion date from that, or boldy set a deadline and work backwards.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Writer's block

The writer's task is a difficult one. 'You just have to go on when it is worst and most helpless,' Hemingway advised F. Scott Fitzgerald. When you hit a bump you're simply experiencing what all serious writers at some point go through, and sometimes you need simply to concentrate on writing as well as you can and finishing what you start.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - The writing life

You'd be wise to choose times when the house is naturally quiet. And, before you start, log out of email, social media or anything else that might prove a distraction.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - The writing life

Or it could be that you get up early and write for an hour before the other demands of the day assail you. But put it in your diary, like a real appointment. If you have to postpone, then do postpone, but treat it as you'd treat a real appointment with the doctor or the dentist: don't cancel it without rescheduling it.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - The writing life

Allocate regular days and times for writing - for example, 6 pm to 8 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Or maybe you can reserve one day in the wekk exclusively for writing (many published writers who have other jobs manage theri time this way).

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Hold your nerve

The path to publication is really easy and there's no way of guaranteeing success. You will best serve yourself by working methodically (including keeping a record of approaches made and outcomes), by carefully considering all feedback and by accepting that rejection comes with the territory.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Hold your nerve

Until you have an agent or an editor on board you have to be your work's champion and just keep banging on doors. You may also have your integrity tested. When someone does finally show an interest in your work, you have to be very strong indeed to resist making changes that run counter to your strongest beliefs about it.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - It's just an opinion

The speed with which the wheel turns is unpredictable, so there may be no point in trying to write the thing that seems to be selling at the moment, especially if it's not what you want to write. Just keep on doing your best work and at some point it may cross the path of someone who believes in it as much as you do.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - It's just an opinion

No one can predict what people will want to read. Agents and editors are fallible. They may put loads of money and effort behind books that don't sell and pass up on books that turn out to be best-sellers or award-winners. Yet pretty much evey standout work has been a game-changer, significantly different from anything that preceded it.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Interpreting rejection

If you get serious feedback of this kind, you'll almost certainly find corresponding notes in the checklist of questions and suggestions provided in the previous chapter. This would be a good time to return to those notes with a shapened sense of what's needed.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Interpreting rejection

If you get two or three agents or editors saying broadly the same thing, if positive, is a strong indication that you should persist and, if negative, may provide you with the means of improving your work.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Interpreting rejection

The easiest thing in the wrorld for an agent or an editor is to write a 'thanks, but no thanks' rejection. So if they've taken the time and trouble to write anything else it is an implicit acknowledgement that it is at least worth their time. And what they have to say - however negative - is valuable to you.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Understanding Rejection

It is unlikely that we'll find securing an agent or an editor easy, however good our writing is. They are much more likely not to bite than to bite, and their response will have much more to do with what they are looking for than what you have written. You will save yourself a lot of heartache if you resolve not to take it personally.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Understanding Rejection

An editor accepting your manuscript is in a position similar to that of a man buying a new car. The car he chooses to buy doesn't represent an indictment of all the cars he didn't buy. The cars he didn't buy were not all bad cars. And there's a limit to how many cars he can have and how often he can buy one.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Understanding Rejection

You're going to have to come to an understanding with rejection as it's likely to happen a lot. Rejection - in one form or another - is a normal part of being a writer and there is no moment in even the most successful writer's career when he can be sure he has had his final rejection. You need to accept it, and also to expect it.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Targeting and pitching

So you're looking for an agent whoo will be sympathetic to your work but will not see it as problematically similar to that of any of his authors.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Targeting and pitching

The agents of those writers are similarly likely to be a good fit for you, as they will already have a network of contacts and other specialist knowledge in that field. That said, an agent is unlikely to offer to represent someone whose work is in clear and direct competition with a writer they already represent.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life -
Targeting and pitching

Identify where your novel would be in a bookshop. What section is it in?
Within that section find the writers whose work you feel is nearest to what you do. The publishers of those books are likely to be a good fit for your work.

Finished chapter 13 - Publication and the writing life - Agents and editors

So if you are represented by an agent you have the best endorsement possible as far as an editor is concerned, because an agent is essentially one of their own. And because agents and editors are looking (broadly speaking) for the same thing, your approach to either is essentially the same.