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Sunday, January 18, 2009

Books The Secret to Writing Success

Posted by Paul Constant on Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 4:31 PM

On this post about writing and touring, there is a comment that goes a little something like this:

Thanks! I'm working on a book myself and that is helpful info. Actually, it's just helpful to hear from normal people who are in the same boat as me.

Also, I can't imagine just being a writer - I like my (non-writing) career trajectory as much as writing - and so it is nice to hear about dual careers not just as a necessity but a boon.

Any more thoughts on writing and publishing would be a great addition to Slog. Ideas on how to actually get the damn thing written, for example? :)
Posted by Jude Fawley on January 15, 2009 at 4:46 PM

Well, Jude Fawley, I wish I knew enough about it to make it a Slog series, but as far as I can tell, from all my interviews with authors, the secrets to publishing are, as Don Pollock says in my interview with him:

I was 45 when I started writing, or trying to write. I wasn't really writing; I was trying to figure out what the fuck you'd do when you write. Hemingway was a big influence mainly because when I started I would take a story I really liked, someone else's, and at that time I was using a typewriter and I would type the story out. I'd usually try and choose a fairly short story. You get so much closer to writing, you can read the story, but you get so much closer to the writing of it when you type out someone else's words. Plus it trains you to be able to stay in the chair and type, which is the main thing. I mean, you got to stay in the chair. So it was kinda good training for that, typing out Hemingway, John Cheever, Richard Yates.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, but every author I've talked to has told me that the secret to writing is: You've got to write. A lot and regularly. I've met quite a few authors who, like Pollock, just type out their favorite stories to feel what it's like to type a story like that. That's good advice, but that's not necessary. What's necessary is writing a whole lot.

And the secret of getting published is: Get an agent. There are books that can help you with this, but that's all you need.

I wish I had enough to fill a book and make a buttload of money from royalties on said book, but there's not really a secret beyond that. That's all there is.

Comments (11) RSS

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But what do you write about when you don't know what to write about? Seriously. I want to hear your opinion.

Posted by monkeytrouble on January 18, 2009 at 4:40 PM

All I need now is someone to hold a gun to my head to force me to write for as little as 20 minutes a day...

Posted by i'm never gonna actually write anything on January 18, 2009 at 4:41 PM

It also helps to write nonfiction. Novels don't sell.

Posted by keshmeshi on January 18, 2009 at 4:55 PM

In addition to writing a lot, you have to revise. After revising, revise more. That's the real pain and the step most people want to skip. I say that as a person who writes but doesn't revise. The published writers I know spend more time on revision than on generating material.

Posted by In MN on January 18, 2009 at 5:17 PM

Good point, @4. I have yet to read a good rewriting guide, which is actually more important than a writing guide.

@1: Just write about nothing and eventually it'll be about something. Even if you're just sitting there typing nonsense for twenty minutes a day, you're still putting something to paper. The action is important and the ideas will come. Ideas aren't precious little things that come once in a lifetime; they're everywhere and they happen all the time. But they're never going to come out unless you're actually writing.

Posted by Paul Constant on January 18, 2009 at 5:26 PM

"[Jonathan Raban] once said that a defining moment in his intellectual life came with a phrase in a Robert Lowell poem, 'One life, one writing.' I had asked him about it at his home, before lunch, and there was a long silence and much fidgeting with the stub of a cigar. 'It's a complicated question. It's one of those phrases where you go 'Right. That's it.'' Then, haltingly, 'writing is life, and life is writing. Except for the difference that Julia has made.' His daughter Julia, now 13, was nearly four when her parents separated and now lives with him half the week. 'I think reading as well. One life, one reading and writing.'"

--Aida Edemariam, interview with Jonathan Raban, The Guardian, Sept. 23, 2006

Posted by Jeff Stevens on January 18, 2009 at 5:42 PM

In almost all cases, it only helps to get an agent if you write stuff an agent can sell.

If you write fiction that doesn't fit the very narrow needs of the commercial publishing market, which can include even respectable houses like Coffee House or Soft Skull, an agent won't help.

That goes double for poetry.

To get published by a small press or micropress (these offer more realistic opportunities for writers who are starting out), it does help to have somebody act as an agent for you.

That is, find somebody the publisher knows and likes, like a famous writer, to vouch for you.

Posted by Doug Nufer on January 18, 2009 at 5:43 PM

Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured, but I appreciate the slogging of it. One other thing I wrestle with is the old "is this good" question - I know I'm probably the only writer in history who has asked that question.

Also the question of "to what extent do I consider the reader?". Am I trying to be a pure artist (whatever that is) or trying to sell something? I don't ask that philosophically but practically. You can write and write and perhaps get lost in the world, but is it readable? If not, is it at least readworthy? And so on. I think I should just go and write.

On a final note (I am featured in this posting so I feel I can indulge) I think a great writing tip is to move somewhere with no internet or get your partner to disable it with a password. I am beginning to hate internet like I used to hate TV, no offense, Slog.

Posted by Jude Fawley on January 18, 2009 at 6:48 PM

So.... any tips on a good rewriting guide? Paul wrote to me: "From the interviews I've done with authors, it seems that the trick is to enjoy the rewriting as much as you enjoy the huge rush that is writing the first draft. It's a different kind of joy, but in many ways a more lasting one. It's why writing is a craft as well as an art." I'm up to the rewriting now... I want to love it, and I want to do it well, but I feel myopic and caught up in what I wrote in the first draft. I know it can be crafted better, but.......

Posted by Sarah on January 18, 2009 at 8:56 PM

This reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson, who started writing by retyping The Great Gatsby over, and over, and over again. All of it. Repeatedly.

Posted by Mike on January 19, 2009 at 11:07 AM

. . . on the agent front, can i just add that you need to find THE RIGHT AGENT . . . i had three agents, including a a couple luminaries, before i sold All About Lulu to Soft Skull on an offer I engineered on my own . . . then i interviewed a half dozen agents of my choice, and picked the one who connected with my book the most . . . sometimes it pays to work counter-intuitively . . .

Posted by jonathan evison on January 19, 2009 at 7:56 PM