I Wish I Knew . . .
No matter where you are in your career as a writer, there are things you have learned that gosh . . . you wish you knew way back when you started. Now . . . I am not talking in some existential "joy is in the journey" sense. In other words, sure, we all learn these lessons as we're meant to learn them. And I am sure most of us don't want a crystal ball to see what we're supposed to learn next. Better to let it unfold.
But surely there are a couple of things you wish you knew way back when. Practical or esoteric.
Here are mine:
- Much as it's really fun to see my real name on a book cover (Erica Orloff is my real name), I wish I had always had a pen name throughout my career. Then when I get the occasionally bitchy email from a reader disgruntled with the ending to one of my books or whatever, I wouldn't feel the same sense of obligation to respond.
- I wish I knew more about the Internet from the get-go---stat counters and driving traffic to my site. I still don't know "jack" about that . . . and it drives me nuts that I don't, but you know . . . I'm a work in progress as far as that goes.
- I wish I knew that it was possible for your books to be orphaned. By that, it means your editor leaves or retires to switches houses or decides to become an agent or whatever. And you have to fight harder for your books when that occurs.
- I really wish I had gotten that whole passive voice thing down pat when I was 20.
- I also wish I understood that the only way to get better is to write and write and write. College helps--but it's not the be-all, end-all to a writing career. If I had known that, I might have written more during college instead of just for assignments.
What might you have liked to know way back when, no matter where you are on the path?
24 comments:
Telling vs. showing and especially story structure and plotting. Oh, and all the no-nos to starting books: waking up, characters en route somewhere, or phone calls. I also wasted a lot of time hanging onto old work. Now I'm not so emotional about it.
Stepping into the "Way-Back Machine" I find myself asking more questions about genre rather than settling for the first opinion. That said, I would have entered fewer writing contests and saved some dough. C'est la vie.
Sex Scenes:
That holding on to old stuff . . . I did that for a while and when I let go and wrote something totally knew . . . it was sold in under 90 days!
kath:
Interesting . . . I think a couple of contests are great (Golden Heart being one) . . . bvut you are right. I don't know that they help a lot of writers. Except if they build confidence, I suppose. (On the flip side, I know a lot of writers really "destroyed" by comments from judges, so . . . .)
E
I wish I'd known I'd wanted to be a writer, and I wouldn't have chosen such a stupid, ridiculous, generic pseudonym name. Irritates me DAILY. Now I'm STUCK.
I wish I'd known there's a line between being honest about an experience with a pub to a fellow writer, and there's a time to just "mums the word." Sometimes you share honesty to be helpful, and they can (try, at least) to use it to (try, at least) get ahead. (Although, in the end, the writing trumps all. Mostly.)
I'm having a good time, a good journey. I can't think of anything else I'd change.
If you want info on stat counters and SEO (driving traffic to your site via search engines) and changing your blog layout, I'm your gal. I'd be happy to help! Seriously!
I wish I'd known writers who actually made a living as a writer.
I wish I'd known what the ACTUAL advances are for most books. It would have moderated my total focus on fiction writing.
I wish I had known more about nonfiction writing and that you could make a living doing it.
I wish I had known there were more types of nonfiction writing than just magazines and newspapers.
I wish I had known how much some freelancers made.
I wish I had been quicker to learn that one of the things editors and agents want are spotless manuscripts free of typos. (That's the easy part, but looking back at some of my earlier manuscripts, I'm uneasily shocked by how many mechanical problems there actually were).
Although I did learn this fairly quickly, I wish I had learned even earlier than just finishing a manuscript is not enough.
I wish I had learned earlier what a good hook is.
I wish I had learned that the real key to success in writing may very well be to stop marketing your queries when you get it published, not when you get tired of marketing it.
Spy:
I actually had thought of asking you. (Hangs head.) PLEASE?
Maybve we can talk this week. Even though we are, combined, two horribvle phone people. LOL!
E
Mark:
As we talked about on the phone, I had the "misfortune" of losing a job way back when and getting an astoundingly well-paying freelance job--it opened my eyes at 24. What I thought was a terrible thing . . . turned out to be an important step.
E
Know you audience and write with them in mind.
I wish I had known that "mere entertainment" can be just as fulfilling as "literature." Not to mention a lot more fun.
Trabvis:
I never thought about audience until about 10 years ago, when a friend suggested I actually write something I could SELL. LOL!
E
Hi Jude:
I love "film"--snobby foreign flicks. And I LOVE my popcorn flicks. Both serve their audiences.
:-)
E
I wish I'd known GMC. I went to a Deb Dixon workshop a few years back and had a series of aha! moments.
I wish I had known I could actually do this... not a wanting to pipe dream but an actuality.
I wish I had known that it wouldn't matter to me if I needed a day job... and therefore the writing classes weren't an unemployable waste of time.
I paused in college, knowing that I really only wanted to study fiction but also thinking it was an impossibility for someone like me... whatever the hell I thought someone like me was supposed to do, I couldn't tell you. I went to work as a secretary until I sorted it out. I thought of getting a degree in Theology, because I love the subject and thought, okay, I can teach at a Catholic high school and have summers and holidays for writing... except, I really didn't want to teach. I found out after volunteering to teach art courses at my kids' school that I probably missed a calling there - I actually love it. Even the one kid who gets it makes everything worth it.
It took my aunt getting Alzheimer's to give me the opening. I quit my secretarial job (which was actually quite good, I made executive secretary by 22) and took two days a week to take care of my aunt - I fit a full time fiction writing courseload in the other three days... and then I got married and pregnant and never finished the degree.
The coursework taught me a ton - an early lesson that getting published doesn't mean it'll pay your bills... all of my teachers were professional writers... who taught to help pay their bills... if I'd have given it a chance a little earlier, though, I might have finished my degree.
I wish I'd known there was a writer inside me. I feel like I wasted ten years screwing around!
I also wish I'd found blogs like yours much sooner. :)
edie:
Neat. I've never taken a workshop like that.
E
Hi Merry:
I think being open to possibilities is such a gift. I am glad whenever anyone discovers that yes, they can write. :-)
E
melanie:
Like much of life, better late than never. :-) AND, you have the added bvonus of having bveen a graphic artist, which adds the visual element to what you create!
E
I'm the better late than never gal. I always considered myself a writer but didn't write anything besides a grocery list for almost 14 years.
I wish I knew how strong I was before I had to find out.
Amy:
Being privy to just small pieces of your life through your incredibly beautiful and poignant essays . . . you are strong bveyond measure. I admire you as bvoth a person AND a writer.
Peace,
E
I wish I knew that e-publishing is not the way to go unless you write erotica, and then it can be a great home.
I wish I knew not to put all my eggs in one basket as I did with Silhouette Bombshell for two years.
Driving people to my website? Oh dear, can one actually do that?
I wish I'd known that my natural voice was my best. It would have saved me a few years.
Suzanne:
As someone who was mid-book in a trilogy when Bombshell folded, that sucked. And there is no place for those bvooks to go--no one will buy a half-finished series. So I hear you on that one. Another one of those "who knew these things could happen" scenarios,
E
Stephen:
I told my old journalism professor that I didn't even know what voice WAS . . . It took me a while to identify mine. And then I think I only identified it after I had something to say.
E
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