A Few Thoughts About Writing

Verily brothers and sisters it is that time of year once again. The time when our thoughts turn to warm weather, the beach (when you read this I'll be in the Caribbean), and wondering if we'll fit in last year's bathing suit.

That, and what ideas to pitch to magazine editors for their late summer/early fall issues.

So, with all that in mind, I want to take a look at some ideas that don't fit a specific category but are important if you want to be a professional writer. Then I want to blend them together. Sort of like making soup.

And like good soup, hopefully it will be filling and give you something to fortify you for the days ahead

Or at least unlike bad soup, maybe it won’t give you any sort of gastric distress.

So, that being said, on with the show.

First, of all Don’t Be “Precious”

I subscribe to a number of writing-related email loops and online groups. And for reasons which will become obvious, I have a separate email address that all of the related communication goes to. The main reason is that I want to keep my business, email loops, and daily "stuff" email separate. I don’t want to have to sort through Praise Team rehearsal email, notes from my family, estimates from the contractor, jokes from my brother-in-law, and “catching up” emails from two particularly good friends when I am looking for a note from my agent or an editor.

The second (and in some ways more pressing) reason is what I call The Precious People. And I don’t mean precious in the sense of, “Oh look at that puppy. Isn’t he precious?” I mean it in the eye rolling, obnoxious relative who came to stay for a week, do we really have to listen to this, don’t make me puke sense.

These are the people addicted to the acronym WIP (for the uninitiated, that means Work in Progress). These are the people who work “my WIP” into every email, Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Goodreads post. The ones who will say, “I am currently working on my WIP” at the drop of a hat. These are also the people who get on the email loops and other online venues and ask inane questions (about my WIP) that they could just as easily answer through a quick Google/Ask/Bing search, or by opening a dictionary or Thesaurus.

The problem is, they want us to know they are working on a book. They want to seem like professionals. They want to be accepted by their peers. They want the reader to say, “Wow! He/she is a real writer.”

Now to be fair, we’ve all been there to a certain extent. Every beginning writer has those moments. But it seems to me that in the days before instant communication, we did things differently. In the days before the Internet people looked up answers. They did the real research. And they used the few (or many) writing friends/acquaintances they had for the important questions.
In short, they “grew up” a little faster.

And while we all want to be accepted, shouldn’t we want to be accepted for the right reasons? For our work and our work ethic? For the quality of our writing, and not the fact that we have a WIP?
Remember, editors and agents read these same loops, and we are all making an impression on them. One way or the other.

It’s About the Work

That leads me to the next thing. The only way to be published is to do the work. As Kathryn Ptacek (award winning editor/author and all-around nice lady) told me when I first started writing, “A writer writes.” Craig Shaw Gardner (he wrote Batman, Batman Returns, Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies, and other neat books) gave me some advice that had a familiar ring: “Tom, a writer writes.” And the late Charles L. Grant said something very similar to me on more than one occasion. “Make it quick, I’m on deadline." (Translation: A writer writes).
 Many people talk about writing. Or they talk constantly about their current project. Or the projects they have started.
But a writer writes.

That’s the key to success.

Bad writing can be fixed. And like playing an instrument or a sport, constant practice develops the appropriate muscles for the activity in which you want to excel. Including writing. As we write we develop a feel for the language. We discover an innate sense for how the words should fit together. We learn to listen for the internal cadence of a sentence.

In short, practice makes us better.

And through writing we develop the habits that will make us successful.

Good Habits are Not an Option

Should you write every day? I think so. Even if it is only fifteen minutes a day. There are some successful writers who agree with me and some who disagree. Some only write when they have a project. Some write before, during, and after projects.

But even those who take time off between projects or only write when they have a contract in hand still have good writing habits, and the discipline to sit down and do the work. When they are supposed to be writing, they write. They have put in the hours of writing time that have helped them develop into the writers they are.

So, even if you don’t write every day, write on a specific schedule. If you can only write from 3:00 p.m. - 3:18 p.m. every third Thursday of the month, then every third Thursday at promptly 3:00 p.m. you need to be about the business of writing. And yes, the example is a bit extreme, but it is nonetheless valid. Write every day. Write every other day. Write one day a week. That’s up to you. But whatever schedule works for you, find it and stick to it. Write in a coffee shop, the basement, under a tree, in Elvis’ private bathroom at Graceland. The where isn’t as important as the actual doing.

And read. Read a lot. As Stephen King says, “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

The Final Word

At first glance, there are a lot of words but only a few ideas here. But the few ideas are important. If you want to be a writer, write. Ultimately it is all about doing the work. It’s about sitting down at the keyboard with a plan, with the desire to write, and with no illusions about what it takes to be a writer. Because writing is not about waiting for some flash of insight or waiting to hear the whisper of your muse. That’s reserved for amateurs, hobbyists, and folks who write literary fiction.

Writing, if you want to be a professional writer, is about doing the work in a professional manner. Doing the market research, the marketing, and the work. It’s ultimately not about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media outlet. It’s not about chat rooms, blogs, and impressing online communities. Those are only a part of the equation (when utilized properly).

No, writing is about writing. Period.

Let's say that together class: Writing is about writing. Period.

So, don’t talk about doing it. Just do it. On a regular basis. Keep at it until you are successful.
Rinse.
Read.
Repeat.

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The Greatest Writer I've Ever Known

I know some pretty prolific writers. Some write books, some write articles, some write a little bit of everything.  In fact, I can count four New York Times bestselling authors as friends. But the most dedicated writer I ever met never had a word published. 

He attended only one writers’ conference in his life, and he was lost and way over his head most of the weekend. 

Even so, he was a  force to be reckoned with.

His name was Bob and he wanted to be a writer. In fact, that was the first thing he told me when we met at the conference he attended. “Hi, I’m Bob and I want to be a writer. What’s your name?”

We chatted for a while then I made my way to the registration table. The next time I saw Bob he was working the room. Doing what everyone is taught to do at their first conference: Mingle. Introduce yourself.

“Hi, I’m Bob and I want to be a writer. What’s your name?”

The next time I saw him was an hour or so later in the first session and he was sitting by himself. When the next session started, he was still by himself. So, I walked over and joined him.  I noticed him struggling to keep up as he wrote in a spiral bound notebook with a brand new Bic Click pen (he told me later, with no little sense of pride, that his wife had given him the pen and notebook as a gift before he came to the conference) and he said he never finished school, so he didn’t write very fast. So, I offered to make a copy of my notes for him. He accepted (and later copied them in his notebook so he would remember better), and we pretty much spent the rest of the conference together. 

As I got to know him I found out that Bob was the janitor at a community college and he had always wanted to be a writer. But having never finished school he didn’t know if it was possible. But his wife encouraged him to find out, so, the conference was his chance to see if his dream was even feasible.

At one point that weekend we were challenged to find a critique partner at the conference and continue to work together through the mail (Remember the mail? We used it in publishing before the days of email).
Guess who my partner was.

Yep.

The first thing Bob sent me was a novel. A science fiction novel. A six page science fiction

novel. It had aliens, spaceships, government cover-ups, government helicopters, a time machine, advanced alien weaponry, and a crooked general.

Did I mention it was only six pages long.

I called Bob and we talked about his novel. He was surprised to find out that he would need to write the whole book because he had heard of people sending in part of a book and the publisher bought that. I explained that he was thinking about a proposal and the author still had to write the whole book. With that, Bob began to tell me about his other book ideas.

And you know something? A lot of them were pretty good. And a few were really good.

Unfortunately, Bob was getting discouraged because he was discovering just how poor his English skills were. I suggested he go to someone at the college and see if he could take a remedial English course. I wondered out loud if he might even be able to take the class free. And instead of becoming more discouraged, he was thrilled to think he might be able to move even closer to his dream.

We swapped a few short shorts* then I didn’t hear anything from Bob for a few months. Early the following January I called to see how Bob was doing. His wife answered and told me the bad news.

Bob died on Christmas day.

I told her how sorry I was to hear about his death, and she stopped me. She told me how happy Bob had been before he died. He was taking the remedial English class, doing his homework, and writing a little every night. He died, she said, making his dream come true. She went on to tell me how proud she was of him, and more important to her, how proud he was of himself.

After I hung up the phone I thought a long time about what I had just heard and how compared to Bob, my own writing efforts were little more than surface efforts. I (nor most of the writers I knew) hadn't yet tapped into the furnace that fueled an all-out no holds barred desire to write.

His example and subsequent death was the thing that tipped me over the edge and lit the flame.

A few months later I was commissioned to write a play as a fundraiser for a theater in Louisiana and after much thought, I used one of Bob’s ideas and wrote the play as a tribute to him. The director was delighted with both the play and the story behind it. During the contract negotiations, my only stipulation was that on opening night a seat be left vacant on the front row in Bob's memory.

It was the least I could do for someone who continues to inspire me all these years later.


[* For those who don't know, short shorts are stories less than 750 words long.]

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