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Greetings!

Welcome to your February newsletter. I hope this finds you well and happily productive. As always, I encourage you to contact me with topics you'd like to see covered in future newsletters.  Since my goal is to make "Write Through It" helpful and inspiring to you, your ideas are paramount. Also, writing is a lonely process. I'm hoping that this e-discussion we share each month can remind you that you are part of a community (no matter how geographically spread out we may be) and, while we might write very different things, we all face similar struggles along the way.

Feel free to write me with any questions or comments.

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For many writers (myself included), the act of writing something isn't enough--we want to share what we've written with the world. I envy the rare few who say that they write for the sake of writing; they write for themselves and don't hunger after publication. But don't beat yourself up if you can't adopt that Buddhist mindset of loving the task for the task itself (as opposed to thinking about what the task will reap for you in the future)--most writers feel their work is incomplete until it is shared with a reader.

Indeed, it is this drive to communicate through the written word that accounts for the wealth of published material we all enjoy. And in the spirit of the If a tree falls in a forest mind-bender: If a book doesn't have a reader, is it fully a book? For many authors, the relationship between writer and reader is the strongest impetus for writing.

We've all heard about the grindingly competitive publishing world, so I won't rehash the bleak details here. Despite all that, though, books are still being published and previously unknown authors break into print each year. 

Don't think of getting published as an overwhelming amalgam of mysterious formulae that only an elite few understand. Remember Thomas Edison's wisdom: "Success is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." Treat each day as an opportunity to carry out habits that will inch you toward your goal.

7 Habits of Highly Published Authors:

1)  WRITE

Duh, right? It may sound like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised at how many people who really want to be writers don't write regularly (or barely at all, for that matter). Most of us have been there, and there are varied and compelling reasons for this evasive block. Fear is a big one. (You can't fail at something you don't attempt.) Another is that despite the tendency to romanticize the writing life (tweed jacket with suede elbow patches, aromatic pipe, oak shelves lined crammed rare books), writing is hard. And lonely. And when it's just you and a blank legal pad or a humming computer screen, it's not very glamorous. So it's easier to sit around waiting for inspiration to strike than just start tapping away at the keys or admit your pens do still have ink.  

Saying you're "waiting for inspiration" before you start is implying that you're not in control of your craft. And you are in control. Don't wait for inspiration. Create it. Inspiration can be coaxed, cajoled and prodded. And, believe it or not, there's nothing better than steady, routine habit to smoke inspiration out of hiding. Whether or not you're a take-charge sort of person, you can show the muse who's boss. The sheer act of writing regularly creates ideas where there once were none.

So write. Write as much as you can, as often as you can, and don't worry about what you write (yet). Give yourself permission to produce drivel--this is practicing, and it's vital to the process and to your growth. An aspiring concert pianist doesn't sit down at the piano and assume she will play perfectly; she will strike thousands of sour notes and mangled chords before the recital.

To make writing a habit, do the counter-intuitive and let yourself value quantity over quality. Declare victory if you remain seated in your writing space for a designated amount of time. Count the words you've set down and cheer for your productivity. Even if you never use those words in your finished piece (and even if they are discordant and lead nowhere), they have helped you. They are your means of practicing, of finding your way with words.

If you carve out regular writing time, you will establish a habit that you want to stick to, that you enjoy sticking to. Commit to fifteen minutes on most days of the week. (Thirty minutes is even better, but if you can only spare fifteen, take them seriously and they'll pay off.) Eventually, once the act of regular writing becomes habitual and almost reflexive, what you write will yield fruit. You'll be writing in order to steadily improve, and you'll be writing to learn more about your own creative process and your mind's ability to surprise you. In the wise words of Flannery O'Connor: "I write to discover what I know."

2)  READ

Can you imagine a musician who goes through life wearing earplugs because she doesn't want to listen to someone else's music? Exactly--hard to conceive of. But there are people out there who want to be writers and who don't read. You can't get better if you don't read. Enough studies have been done to determine--beyond the shadow of a doubt--that a reading habit does help people grow into more fluid, effective, competent writers.

But don't just read for the sake of reading; read like a writer. Read everything in your genre (especially things that are currently being published). Read things outside your genre. Reread the works you love in order to learn from them--dissect the author's approach so that you can put it in your toolbox. Make careful note of your reactions when you dislike something you read. Press yourself to articulate why you don't like it so that you'll become a better judge of what doesn't work and will be aware of avoiding those trends in your own work.

3)  REVISE

Revision means re-vision, to see again. So when you revise you must be prepared to look at your work in a new way, as a coherent whole instead of sewn-together pieces. This means you must be willing to cut huge chunks of your writing if they don't contribute to the piece as a whole (that might include scenes, chapters, even characters, beloved though they may be). And you may have to acknowledge huge gaps--places where too much is missing and that might force you back to the desk to write new scenes.

Too many writers equate revision with editing/proofreading. Comma placement, spelling and consistent verb tenses are all necessary examples of the mechanics of polishing, but polishing is nothing like revision.  Editing your work for surface errors can be done calmly and coolly, with a detached, dispassionate eye, but revision is messy and often emotionally trying because of how extensive the changes may be. Just like you can't cook a great meal if your kitchen stays clean, you can't write a satisfying book if your first draft doesn't undergo cutting and pasting and reworking and rethinking.

Laurie Halse Anderson, the stunningly talented author of the novel Speak (among many others) had this to say in her blog recently: "I threw out the last third of my book yesterday. Yeah, the one that is due very, very soon.  (I didn't actually throw it out. I put it in the file marked "Extremely Good Writing In Search of the Right Story." It has many friends there.)"

4)  Hand off your work: the value of another perspective.

Islands can't write effectively for publication. No matter how hard you may try to be an island while you write (solitude is necessary then), you have to let the drawbridge down (or send a ferry over to the mainland) when you're ready to publish.

I have met many writers who want to keep the writing close to their chests, as if they're playing poker instead of creating work that will be read by many. They don't want anyone to see it, claiming that the perspectives of other readers (siblings, friends, the paper boy) are worthless in the long run. "They won't understand my work; they just won't get it," I've heard on several occasions. "The editor's [or agent's] opinion is the only one that matters anyway." Hogwash! True, the editor you have in mind may have read far more romance novels than your book club chum, but they are both readers and in that sense may have overlapping opinions. Never let an editor or agent be the first person to see your work. Ever. Search for a thoughtful reader who is willing to give you an honest critique, and you'll increase your chances of publication enormously.

Remember, you can only get so far alone.  Even with keen intuition and a solid awareness of your goal, you're too close to your work to view it objectively. Let others help you there. Publication--the very act of disseminating a piece of writing for many to experience--requires several different perspectives as its prerequisite.

5) Submit your work (and its cousin: Persist after rejection)

Another no-brainer, right? I can't help but repeat the lottery's motto: "You can't win if you don't play." Still, you'd be surprised at how many writers -- real writers who want to be published more than almost anything -- write and write and never send their pieces in for consideration.  Who can blame them? You pour your whole creative self into this artistic endeavor; you know the odds are stacked in favor of rejection, so why would you send your pride and joy off just to get the ax?

Perhaps nothing makes us feel more vulnerable than putting words on a page and sending them off for expert approval. (Or even just handing them over to someone. It's as if you can't hide once you're on the page.) Yet if publication is what you seek, you truly can never find it if you don't submit. And to some extent it's a numbers game: every time you get rejected and re-submit, your odds of getting a "Yes" in return increase. Think of the law of large numbers.

Start small. Try for short pieces in local publications or small, independent journals. Work your way up to bigger publications. The key is always keeping something out there, something making the rounds in the mail. 

Persist (write through rejection). Rejection stinks, it really does. And it stings. But since there's no way around it on the road to publication, the sooner you accept it as a necessary evil, the better. It's time to practice that thick skin your third-grade teacher told you to grow after the kids made fun of your new (largish) glasses that they insisted would set your face on fire if you went out into the sun. (True story.) 

I'm not here to tell you that if you light the right aromatherapy candle, sip a magic blend of herbal teas and open your mail while you soak your feet in Epsom salts, then getting turned down will be transcendental--but getting rejections means you're in the game. It means your writing life has progressed from a solitary activity at your desk to an exchange with the world at large. 

Persist (write through distraction). Years ago I found a quote in a how-to book on writing that resonated enough for me that I copied it on an index card and taped it on the wall above my desk:

"THE WRITER IS THE ONE WHO STAYS AT THE DESK." 

(I didn't record the sage's name, so if anyone knows it, please clue me in.) 

Remember this quote. The writer isn't the one with the best natural ear for the language or the one who knew his/her letters first in nursery school or even the one with the tweed jacket and the quietly smoldering pipe on stand-by. The writer is the one who sits there, day after day, even when it feels hopeless, and piles on sentences and paragraphs and pages and through sheer effort of will and dogged persistence completes a book somebody other than immediate family deems worth reading.

That quote (and trying to consciously internalize it) has helped me, especially since I'm antsy to begin with, and when I have time blocked off for writing and the house is quiet and nobody expects anything of me (so you'd think I'd have no trouble keeping my own date with my writing desk), I suddenly want to leap up and give the ferret a bath. Consider the fact that I don't own a ferret and therefore undertaking this task would involve me purchasing one first, and you'll get the sense of how badly I want a task (even an unpleasant one) to pull me away from the blank page.    

6) Ask "What if?" 

You may think a writer's most important questions are: Windows or Mac? Has the mail arrived? Who should I dedicate my book to? But the most important question, for any writer working in any genre, is actually: WHAT IF?  Look at the world and question everything. Peer past the obvious. Peel back the veneer of appearances and ask yourself, What if....? It's a valuable way of imagining and questioning and visualizing, and asking it often will enhance and enrich your creative life.

The late author Robert Cormier said that his novel The Chocolate War was born one ordinary day while he watched his son walk out of school and toward the car carrying a large box of fundraiser chocolates. Cormier asked himself, "What if my son decided not to sell the chocolate this year?" and the idea was hatched for a vibrant, compelling, enduring novel.

Use these two little words to turn unremarkable situations upside down and inside out and you'll never, ever run out of rich ideas.
 
7) Start something new.

Okay, so you finished that project and feel spent (in a good way). You persisted and stretched yourself and are a stronger writer for it. You took the next step and put your work in the mail. Then you weathered your first rejection and put the piece in the mail again. And you wait. And you wait. (There may be copious amounts of red wine and chocolate involved in the process, but then again, maybe not.) Warning: if you're solely focused on the fate of that first project, if you're waiting for the Yea or Nay to define your identity as a writer, you'll stall the potential on future work. Break out of the over-attachment to any single piece of your writing by beginning something new.

The business end of writing (sending out and tracking submissions, writing cover letters and queries) requires a different part of your brain than the creative act of writing, which is making something out of the raw elements of ideas and words. So while you're submitting your work, start something new. Throw yourself into a new project, show up at your desk for those regular sessions, and move toward that next finished product. There's nothing more effective for distracting you from the agonizing wait at the mailbox than excitement and immersion in a fresh endeavor. 

Remember, you demystify the writing process when you make the above suggestions habits.  Unlike my old habit (that's dying hard) of eating donut holes in the carport at 3:00 A.M., these writerly habits can only do you good.

READ THROUGH IT (Book of the month) 

The Resilient Writer: Tales of Rejection and Triumph by 23 Top Authors, by Catherine Wald. It's easy to forget that even the biggest-selling authors started out as unpublished writers. This book will help you keep that in perspective. Wald interviews successful, highly published writers and gets the scoop about how they handled the inevitable bane of rejection. This is the kind of book you can pick up as needed, when it helps your ego to learn that Chris Bohjalian (he sells a ton of books and has been on Oprah's coveted list) not only suffered scores of rejections for many years into his serious attempts, but was even told by a college professor to put down his pen and choose a career he might be good at.
 
QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

"I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs."   H.L. Mencken

Till next time:

Don't forget about my f*r*e*e critique.  If you've got a manuscript you're grappling with, send me an e-mail describing it, and I'll give you instructions for sending me a 10-page sample. I'll critique it, send you my detailed notes, and we'll have a 30-minute phone consultation about your work. And it's completely gratis!

All best,
Lucia Zimmitti
Manuscript Rx
www.ManuscriptRx.com
lucia@manuscriptrx.com