Writers--Try The Back Roads First

Several years ago, after a two-day meeting in St. Louis, Ken and I left the hotel on a quiet Sunday morning to drive to Macomb, IL to visit his brother in Macomb, IL. We started out on an interstate and after crossing the Mississippi River, found ourselves on some back roads. Not four or six-lane highways, but two lanes that wound through the Illinois flatlands, cornfields on both sides of the road. Cornstalks stood at attention like sentries on guard, leaves brown and dry encasing corn cobs waiting to be harvested. Recent rains had kept farmers out of the fields.

We wended our way through one small town after another, admiring the old homes and downtown areas. We pointed out interesting buildings to one another and commented that the trees here had lost more leaves than in our home state of Kansas. The peace and quiet of these back roads and the communities that dotted them were soothing to the soul. No fighting big city traffic here.

Writing can be like that, too. Writers start out hoping to hit the big-time. They want those Broadway lights in their writing world. Oh, to be published in The Atlantic or New York Times. Or maybe Good Housekeeping magazine or The New Yorker. It’s a nice dream, but to reach those major highways, we have to traverse the back roads first.

We need to start at the beginning. It might be a no-pay place where we are first published. And from there, we go on to low-pay. No-pay to low-pay! It’s the way we begin. We might get 1 cent a word, move on to 5 cents a word and more. The back roads of publishing move more slowly than we’d like, but they do keep us from stagnating in one spot. As we traverse farther and farther along in our writing careers, we see the interstate highways--the Autobahns of our field. How far we can go is an unknown, but as long as that big six-lane highway is our goal, we’ll keep moving toward it.

Meanwhile, enjoy the back roads of publication. They’re alright, and they’re a means to those expressways of publishing we all aspire to. Our poster today mentions running to get to your dream. Start on those back roads and see where they take you.

The Writer's Journey--Potholes and Smooth Road

Pamela Morsi, author of The Cotton Queen, created a character by the name of Babs Hoffman. It's a mother-daughter story and Babs is the mother. One of her quotes in the book is our poster for today. 

It's good advice for writers. You all have hit the potholes in your writing journey. Some years, there are more than others. Instead of hitting them head on and jarring your brain into insensibility, look for them and then swerve right around each one. 

Stop if you must and deal with whatever the pothole holds but don't dwell on it. Take care of it as best you can and then move along on your journey and enjoy it. 

Once you have addressed the problem in the pothole, don't let it take over your thoughts. Instead, think about the smooth parts of your writing path. There are plenty of those. Think about the acceptances and publications you've had. How about the praise from your writing group? Or perhaps you've won a contest or two while on your writing journey.

You've made friends with other writers and maybe even some of your readers. You've enjoyed a great many of the writing projects you've tackled. Even derived a lot of satisfaction from some. 

Worrying about what is in those potholes behind you doesn't change a thing. Whatever happened will always be a part of your past writing journey. But it's done. Keep pedaling along on the smooth sections of the road. 

Most of us continue to write because we do find pleasure in the craft. We develop a passion for the written word. Sometimes, we write because we absolutely must; something inside us lets us know that writing is a major part of who we are. 

Writers Learn On Their Journey

Easy enough to say but maybe not a piece of cake to find a lesson when life dishes out seeds of sadness. I do think we can learn from harsh moments in our lives. Also in our writing journey.

As writers, it sometimes feel like we set ourselves up for facing unpleasantness. We are well aware that by submitting our work, we may face rejections more than acceptances. Why in the world would be subject ourselves to the nasty feelings that accompany being told our writing is not worthy of being published? Even if the editor who rejected you did not say so in exact words, that's the message we pull from it.

We've all been there. Our reactions range from disappointment to anger to shedding tears to throwing something across the room. Sounds like a little kid who's been told NO, doesn't it? When we're upset, or hurt, we do seem to revert to childish reactions. If it serves to get the disappointment out of your system, fine. Go ahead and rant to a friend or let a few expletives fly.

Once you've calmed down, it's time to consider if there is a lesson to be learned. If you're lucky, the editor will give a reason that your work was not accepted. That gives you a head start in fixing the piece and submitting it again.

When you work on revising before submitting again, try to use objective eyes. Being too close to what we write is a major sticking point for many of us. Those are our precious words that the stranger didn't want. We toiled over the story, or article, a long time so why was it rejected? Oh, oh, there we go again--reacting like a kid. Step away from your submission for awhile before you start reworking it. You'll do much better if you let it alone for a few days.

There are also lessons to be learned when we're writing a story that doesn't feel right or appears flat when we read it over again. Ask yourself why? What is missing? Try a checklist to see what is or is not there. Use things like sensory detail, active vs passive verbs, too many adjectives etc in your list. Plot, theme, lesson learned--are all these positives or lacking? On occasion, I've written 1500 words and when I read it over, my reaction has been This is boring, drivel, or worthless. Then, I'm disgusted. Not over the story but with myself. Time to go back to square one after going through my mental checklist.

What if we submit a fine piece but don't follow the submission guidelines?  The story might bounce back immediately. One question to ask yourself is Did I follow the guidelines? Your rejection could be because of a simple thing like that.

There are myriad lessons to be learned from those harsh moment in our writing journey. It's up to us to sift and sort and find the lesson, then move on with newly acquired knowledge. The more lesssons we learn, the fewer rejections we'll have.

About the first part of today's quote, where it says When life is good, be grateful, pay close attention to those fine words.