Directions Not Included
May 14, 2008
Pondering many things today, but what I was thinking about most is how our writing careers don't come with directions or a road map. Some people just seem to have it figured out and some never figure it out. Most of us, I suspect, who have any success at all, are like Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings, who are pretty much given directions--meet me at The Prancing Pony and we'll go from there--without really any real directions involved. We take that first step out the door with no real idea of the challenges awaiting us.
Go write and send it out, we'll go from there.
Never mind the hundreds, maybe thousands of rejections. The loss of self-esteem. The frustration. The broken dreams. The anger. The denial. The depression.
Hell, none of that was advertised in the brochure. Why didn't someone tell me?
In a lot of ways, the very act of writing is the same way. You can pretty much read all the writing books in the world, pretty much read all the books in the world, even have a mentor who guides you, but really, the only way to get there is to sit your ass down and write and figure out what works and what doesn't and when. It's like we're given this real cool, complicated toy, but we have no idea what it does or how it works. The only way to figure it out is to use it.
And try not to break it or get bored with it in the process.
Because that happens, doesn't it?
My kids are video gamers and one of the things I've noticed is that if the game is too easy they whip through it and are bored with it. If it's too hard (doesn't happen as often now) they'll get so frustrated with it they'll give it up. But if it's challenging, if it's fun, and if they can find themselves making progress and discovering new aspects of the game, they'll play it for days and days and it'll become a pretty standard part of their gaming repertoire.
I don't imagine I have to club you over with the head with the point here.
So to that extent, I think it's worthwhile, no matter where you are in your writing career, to occasionally look backward and see how far you've come. Got an agent? Get something--anything--published? Got a kind word from an agent or editor? Went around a corner and realized you're a better writer? Got a contract? Making money? Making a living?
Is the cool toy still cool? Or is it a constant and un-ending source of frustration, anger and depression?
Cheers,
Mark Terry
p.s.
My wife, Leanne, has had a sort-of promotion with a sort-of new job. In other words, more responsibility, a new title (General Manager), but no increase in pay to go along with it. She works in a laboratory of a very large international clinical laboratory provider that will remain nameless. Her new lab job really only sorta has a name, so I provided one.
GO-ASK-LEANNE SHE-HAS-IT-THOUGHT-OUT LAB.
In other words:
GAL SHIT-O-LAB
Leanne Terry, General Manager
posted by Mark Terry at 6:04 AM
6 Comments:
Alert the media! It's official!
Stuart Neville, my Prince of Darkness, and the writer formerly known as "Conduit," has landed an agent - and not just any agent - but literary powerhouse and legend, Nat Sobel.
His agency, Sobel Weber Associates, New York, represents a few scribes you might have heard of: James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia, American Tabloid), Joseph Wambaugh (The Choirboys, The Onion Field, Hollywood Station), Pulitzer winner Richard Russo (Nobody's Fool, Empire Falls, Bridge of Sighs), F.X. Toole (Rope Burns - adapted for the screen as the multi Oscar winning Million Dollar Baby - and Pound for Pound), Robert Jordan (the Wheel of Time series), Tim Dorsey (the Serge Storms series), and many more.
Oh, Nat also loves him some cats. My kind of guy.
And how did Stuart get on the Uber agent’s radar? I’m going to steal a bit of Stuart’s thunder and reveal to my blog peeps that Mr. Sobel scouted him on the Internet. That’s right – a big name agent was scouring the online crime magazines and plucked our man from obscurity. (of course I’ve been singing Stuart’s praises loud and clear since last fall when I first read his work in Agent Nathan’s Bransford’s writing contest). To those of you that don’t believe agents are poking around the world wide web looking for The Next Big Thing – here’s your proof. Here. Is. Your. Proof.
So do stop by and give a big shout out to the literary world’s best and brightest rising star!
http://conduitnovel.blogspot.com/
*shake my booty*
Having already read Stuarts’s manuscript (it already holds the distinction of being only one of four books I liked well enough to finish this year) GHOSTS OF BELFAST, I can tell you it’s nothing by clover ahead for this blessed son of Northern Ireland.
Well, congratulations to Stuart.
The comment about high powered agents scouring the internet for talent is certainly appropriate for your post because that sure wasn't included on my writing map.
My map was kind of like the map I got off the internet years ago, when such maps were new. It advised me to turn off the expressway onto such and such route where the two roads crossed. Which would've been fine, except I would've needed wings to glide down from the overpass to the road that went underneath, with nary an exit for miles and miles. That's what seems to happen with the writing career maps -- they make sense, up to a point, but unfortunately at some point require an impossibility to occur.
A fellow who sets orienteering courses once remarked that what participants want is a doable challenge. They want to tax themselves enough to make it interesting and feel like they've accomplished something but in the end they want to be able to finish the course.
I like the idea of the toy you fiddle with but aren't sure what it does. Maybe with each twist this way and that you are destroying a galaxy somewhere.
Eric,
Well, I decided to go the high road with Josephine's announcement about Stuart's good luck. Um, far be it from me to feel simply ONE THING about ANYTHING, but aside from a slightly mouth-agape feeling of, "How am I suppose to respond to this?" the other thing I'm inclined to think is:
One incident does not make a trend.
And on a potentially snarkier note (my cold just won't go away!), I might add, oh, well never mind...
Wow, foot in mouth. Don't take it personally, She's automatically telling everyone, and, um, must not have read your post, or at least, must not have put two and two together. I've never seen her spam comments before.
The cool toy is still cool. I think it needs an upgrade, but it's still cool. It's easy to say that at the moment, since all I've done is write recital programs and student bios.
How you feel about writing, at least the business part of it, is how I felt about piano teaching for nearly two or three years (except times a hundred). It was awful; I think I cried at least once a month, sometimes once a week (I'm not that much of a girl; I was truly that miserable with trying to please the parents for the sake of the business and constantly feeling like I was sacrificing what was in the best interest of the kids for what was convenient and easy for the parents). I have no idea how I got out. Went to a conference, actually. And once more believed it (whatever it is) is possible. Hope again, I guess.
Know where hope is for sale?
Mark:
Whether it's a shiny new toy to me varies by the day. Hour. Minute. When I've had sleep, when my advance checks come on time, when I don't have more bills than money in the month, when the writing is flowing, I love my toy. Other times . . . not so much, but it's ALWAYS better than working for The Man.
Congrats to the wife. I think. More responsibility. No more money. I like your title for her.
E
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