Time
Now that we've snapped out of it (see yesterday), let's move on to something else. Call it a Bible lesson. It doesn't matter what your faith--the words are the key.
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. A time to give birth, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to tear down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing. A time to search, and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; A time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; A time for war, and a time for peace.
My point? There's a time to write . . . (Hey, this is NaNoWriMo), and a time to edit, a time to submit, and a time to be rejected. And sooner or later, if you stick with it, a time to publish. Then guess what? You start the process all over again. I'm just absolutly convinced, not that there's some sort of ordained divinity to the process, but that the beast that is publishing is cyclical. There is a time for vampire books and a time for historical books. Why the wheel turns in precisely such a way . . . mystery as old as Ecclesiastes. You get published? Time to write the option book . . . with no guarantees. A time to write, a time to edit. A time to submit, a time to wait.
My other point? If your pursuit of writing with a goal of being published is measured in YEARS, not months . . . or not even just one or two years (not that there is something bad about it being a new pursuit . . . but your perspective changes over time), you start to step back a SEE it differently. You realize the first book you tried to get published was really just the sowing of the seed. It wasn't publishable, should definitely have been rejected. You see the times of discouragement and the times you were fired up. You see when you discovered a new genre that was right for you and your journey took a new course. You gain this sense, I think, of time being measured by something different--a writer's clock is unique.
It's true. Just as people often say God has a different view of time, that the universe has a different view of time, so it is with writers. Writing isn't measured in quite the same way as other jobs. Your craft is ongoing and for a lifetime, and measured only by your own judgment or the judgment of trusted critiquers that you are advancing. You wait much longer than in other professions. You go through more cycles, I think. Your pursuit of your goals may literally take years, all the while, the same reaping/sowing and searching/gathering is still going on around you.
There's a time for everything under the writer's sun.
Thoughts?
22 comments:
I agree. I didn't write for 15 years or more. It wasn't my time to write. In the past 3 years my writing has taken root in my life, and really taken on a life of its own.
I now see it as something that permeates every part of my life. The timing for each aspect of my career has come at the right time...when my writing (and I) were ready for it.
I do view writing and publishing as a process, almost like many ice skaters doing figure-8s where they twirl back and overlap their own path -- starting the same shape over and over again, never stopping.
Yes, if you had told me when I first started writing I would still be unpublished and unfocused ten years later I would have quit. That was when I was getting up at 5:00 am every morning to write because the babies got up at 6:00 and the day was shot after that.
Going back to another post about people seeing themselves or you in your writing. I started imitating a favorite author and in this story male rescues female from abusive situation. I had a friend read the story and I was caught off guard as she decided that I had lived an abused childhood and my husband had rescued me. Uh no. Ever after that she looked at me like, "I know your shameful secret." So when people tell me I should write my memoir, uh no.
Thank heavens that first story was rejected!
Hi Amy:
I like the analogy to the figure-8!!! I can totally see that.
E
hi richmond:
I often think it's good we don't know the future. I think that was what Nathan Bransford blogged about a while back--if you KNEW you would never be published (a purely hyothetical look at the future) would you give up writing?
E
I need to find the song based on that! It used to be one of my faves, but I haven't heard it in years.
I believe everyone has their own publishing path/timeline that is perfect for them. I'm grateful for mine, at least!
And I'm finding I need time off writing, now and then, to fill up on reading and imagining. I have a hard time convincing hubby I'm working, though, which, while I can see how he sees it, is frustrating because he does not get that it's a productive part of my WORK at all.
The song is "Turn, turn, turn" by the Byrds, and now you've got it running through my head. I guess there's a time for humming too.
Spy:
it's the Byrds, "Turn, Turn, Turn."
E
Stephen:
A time for humming. A time for Scrabble. A time for being BEATEN in Scrabble. A time for accepting defeat. If your last name is Parrish.
E
I was thinking about this because of something you'd said earlier, that you had a project that was good, but the timing was wrong, and you and your agent were just waiting for the timing to be better.
I have two unpublished manuscripts, one is a children's manuscript and one is a mystery, and for whatever reasons, they didn't get picked up (although the kids' ms was a very close thing). In these cases, I think they should be published and I think they will be, but it may take some time. And I may need to go back and look at them and make some changes.
I remember an interview with Christopher Reeve and I think it was Barbara Walters who asked him if he thought of his life as before the accident and after, and he said he did for quite some time, but he realized that his life was a continuum, there was no before and after.
I think a lot of writers, especially unpublished, tend to think life will be different "after" they get published, but really, not so much (except maybe in terms of self-confidence). It's a continuum, and you wouldn't have the experience and confidence without all the effort to get there.
Ecclesiastes tells it like it is.
Mark:
I think there is some affirmation when you get published, for me, a deep sense of peace that yes, I did write a book that found acceptance. But beyond that, you are right . . . it's more of the same continuum, maybe substituting one set of goals for another. Still plugging away.
E
Jude:
Apparently so. :-)
E
I agree that anything with regards to a writing career has to be measured in years. There is no way to measure it otherwise. The whole damn thing moves too slow.
Zoe:
It's so much a process/journey . . . totally a LONG process.
E
Agreed. :-)
And I especially agree as Nano nears. It is my time to write (for realsies) now that I am daytime childless.
Woot!
A time for being BEATEN in Scrabble. A time for accepting defeat. If your last name is Parrish.
Them's fightin' words.
I tackled my first manuscript when my oldest was in diapers, before that childhood scribblings. My debut book came out when my first grandchild was nine. Yep, it was a long road, still is.
What I discovered is this,it didn't happen until I was ready. I needed to do it my way, and that was countless manuscripts over many years. I intuitively knew my time would be later in life, and that's okay. It was frustrating as hell, but necessary.
A great post, Erica. My journey is longer than I'd thought, but I've learned a lot during these years. A lot of what I've learned is the business of writing, which is different from the craft of writing.
heather:
Daytime childless? That's still a pipe dream for me!
E
stephen:
I've been sending you fightin' words for a while. SOMEONE is chicken.
E
ladonna:
Like fine wine, we age over time.
E
Now I'm going to have that Byrds toon in my head all day. I'm going to have to remove a chunk of my brain.
Post a Comment