Those of you who felt your souls tingle when reading the Nora Roberts interview in the latest RWR are not alone. She laughed in the face of every pansy-ass artiste who wants to suffer for their work. We write genre fiction (The Stuff People Like To Read), and if we’re really lucky, we do it in our pajamas. Cut out the bullshit.
I know that I, for one, will be reading it every time I feel a complaint or a bout of “writer’s block” coming on.
And I’m also considering adding this blog post by Golden Heart finalist, Bombshell author, and recent RITA award winner Stephanie Feagan. I find this letter to be all the more powerful considering that it comes in the midst of swirling rumors that Stef’s line is about to be canceled. Is she complaining? No, she’s out kicking ass. (Pink would no doubt be proud.)
The whole thing is worth reading, but an excerpt to whet your appetite:
This is hard – if it was easy, everyone would do it. Write not because you think it’s cool or because you can make a lot of money, or because of any reason except that you LOVE to write. If you don’t love it – give up now, because no one can make it in this business if they don’t love writing. It’s too hard, too brutal. Lines fold, editors leave – so what you make one sale? Then you want to make the second, and so on. Without the passion and the love for the craft, it’s a hopeless battle. Dumb luck can get someone published – but it’s passion that’ll get them published again – and again.
Amen, Ms. Feagan.
When I complain (because we all have those days — rotten rejections, bad reviews, etc.) Sailor Boy says to me: “You have to realize, Diana. The thing you want to do? No one gets to do that. No one gets to be a writer for a living. You want to be a rock star.”
I’d say more, but Stephanie already said all there was to say, and as brutally as it needed to be said. Go read what she wrote, and then read the Nora Roberts interview again, and then, if you’re involved in the TARA BookChallenge, read Erica’s post. They all boil down to the same thing: Just do it.
Toughen up, suck it up, stop complaining, stop talking about “good enough”, stop saying “but such-and-such managed to get published,” and just write.
Okay. Off to write. Later!
14 Comments
August 16, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Thank you for posting that. As strictly a reader who admires the will and dedication of those who write, it’s nice to read something from someone so passionate about her craft.
August 16, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Yeah, no kidding. The only thing I can really compare writing a book to is training for a marathon. You have to slug it out, put in the hours, have those runs when you feel like absolute, complete shit, but you signed up for this, and you may not be running up there with the Kenyans but on race day, by god you’re going to run the best race you can. And it sucks, your joints will hurt, you’ll probably lose a few toenails and be sore for days, but afterwards, you’ll know you’re capable of doing something not everyone has the willpower to do.
I think you’ve said this before, Diana, that it feels good to “have written” a book, but the actual writing is really f’n hard, and most of us don’t ever get any kind of rock star treatment. So we have to take pleasure in the small victories – finishing books, selling them if we’re lucky, and keep working working working working…
And that Nora interview – AWESOME. Whenever people ask that “if you could have lunch with anyone, who would it be,” I usually say Trey Parker and Matt Stone (southpark), but Nora has moved them down to the number 2 slot.
August 16, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I couldn’t agree more. Muse? What muse? I’m the one writing the frickin’ book!
You know how books get written? People sit down, put their fingers on their keyboards and WRITE.
Which is exactly why so many people talk about writing a book but never do. It takes tremendous intestinal fortitude to fill blank pages with words and ideas you will eventually have to show someone if you ever hope to publish.
Soldier on, my sister writers, soldier on.
August 16, 2006 at 4:27 pm
Great post, Diana.
I think one of the most frustrating things for me with what we do… is that sailor boy’s right… we do want to be rock stars, but somehow the perception of many, many people out there is that it’s easier to be an author than a rock star. It isn’t.
(I’m talking about the oh, I could do that if I had time, attitude some people in my life have…).
August 16, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Diana,
Great post, and thanks for the link to Stef’s amazing post. Loved it.
August 16, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Oh Diana…you know what buttons to push with me. Oh ye of little warning when I got my deal of the e-mails I’d get asking my “secret” to getting published. “I write. A lot.” I read somewhere else today — in my blog trotting — where someone was upset about a form rejection they’d received and were picking it apart to the point where they challenged the rejecting agent. It’s not personal. It’s a business. Why do we do it? ‘Cause we frickin’ love the end result. We love our characters and our story and our world building.
I second your emotion…be quiet and just WRITE!!!!!
= )
…said the woman who has 13 days to finish her revisions.
August 16, 2006 at 5:46 pm
13 days to finish revisions…
9 days to finish packing…
You say tomato, I say “shoot me”.
Having to pack my entire household while keeping an eye on my three kids is teaching me a lot about writing and deadlines.
If I do not finish, I do not get to move. Period.
Am I stressed? You bet. Do I want to quit? Yes, but then I would be more miserable than I am now. Will I be snoopy dancing myself silly when it is all over?
Yes!
August 16, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Nora’s Q&A blew me away. I mean really blew me away. It’s still sitting open on my desk, bitch slapping me daily. *grin*
Stef’s post was brilliant and oh so true.
If we want it, we have to be willing to work for it. To take the bad days with the good days. To treat this writer’s life like a job, and to enjoy the hell out of what we do.
August 16, 2006 at 7:52 pm
We write for different genres, I write YA/fantasy but the process is the exact same. There is nothing wrong with trying to make a good living with our writing and I would never appolgize for it. So what if we are artists (doesn’t mean we have to be poor) we are also deicated to sharing our craft. We write to be read, and people that read buy books. Simple.
Nicole
August 16, 2006 at 8:04 pm
Man did I need that!!!
I’m having a tough writing day. But a tough day writing beats a stellar day at my full-time gig ANY day.
Hey, we all need a little bitch slap now and then, no?
August 16, 2006 at 8:24 pm
I’m taking a break from writing to say, “Excellent post.” And SB makes a point I wish I had realized when I started out – except it probably wouldn’t have stopped me anyway – I have to write. Now, back to writing.
August 17, 2006 at 12:02 am
Didn’t expect for swift kick to be delivered publicly on blog. But swift kick was felt and I’m getting over my pity party and as soon as I send one e-mail I am getting down to the business of revising my POS partial. Hey, even if it ends up still sounding like a POS, it’s my POS, right? And who knows maybe there is some house out there that wants love scenes that sound like, “insert tab A into slot B.” LOL!! Thanks! I’m going to channel Nora and take these pages and “wrestle them to the ground and find the way to make them work.”
August 18, 2006 at 12:49 pm
The only thing I write is in my journal and I started that the day after Hurricane Katrina struck Biloxi. I know I am not really qualified to blog on this as I am not a writer but as a reader I just wanted to add a comment. At 52 I have been reading what seems like forever. I read some many genres and no matter what the storyline may be, the first thing I notice is if the writer loves what he or she is doing. If the characters get you truly involved with their lives then you know the writer really cares, whereas if you find the characters dull and lifeless you get the feeling the writer is just putting words on paper hoping to make money. I love authors who love the world of writing and give us who read, a chance to enter different worlds we would otherwise never visit.
August 18, 2006 at 2:26 pm
I think readers are more than qualified to talk about what works. I never went to film school but I talk about movies all the time.
Most writers (commercial writers anyway) are in it for the readers, so what the readers have to say is pretty much paramount.
That’s really interesting what you say about passion. I think it’s definitely noticeable when you’ve read several works by the same author — you can tell when the heart has gone out of it for her.
Except, sometimes there are books where I think the characters fall competely flat and the story reads as rote, and other people absolutely love it. In those cases, with a new author, I don’t know if it feels like a lack of passion to me or if it feels like they just didn’t make me connect.