Writers in the Storm

I have been writing since 2010 and have penned six book-length manuscripts and several short stories. Among all those, one always stood out to me as the breakout book. I'm not saying the others aren't good — I certainly like them — but one particular novel has a high concept, a timely topic, and has been written, rewritten, and edited so much it's pretty much print-ready.

Since I landed my agent and finaled in the Golden Heart with this young adult novel in 2015, I have never wavered in my belief that it would sell to a traditional publisher.

But it didn't.

I don't fault the story. I don't fault myself. I don't fault my amazing agent. I don't fault the publishers.

Am I little annoyed? I'd be lying if I said no, because they just turned down a really good novel. But they all had good reasons for passing, and my book just wasn't one they wanted to publish.

Still, what do you do when the plan you had for your novel doesn't work out? What if your dream for your story doesn't come true?

You can let your dream die, or you can make your dream change.

• Some writers want a traditional book deal, but they don't get an offer.
• Some writers want to self-publish, but that route proves too frustrating.
• Some want to write in a particular genre, but the interest and sales aren't there.
• Some want to pen six novels a year, but can only squeeze out a single book.

When we knock on the door of our dream, and it doesn't open, we can keep beating that door ... or we can knock on another door.

How do you know if it's time to change your dream?

Getting the dream would cost more than you're willing to pay.

Let's say to write those six novels, you'd have to give up homeschooling your child or acting in your local theater or running your other side business. Some writers would say you have to prioritize the writing! But not necessarily. You have to choose your priorities and decide what's most important to you. Maybe you'd love to write more novels, but you don't want to give up being Ophelia in Hamlet. So don't.

There's a cost to pursuing a dream, because personal dream fulfillment actually requires a lot of hours, elbow grease, and compromise. You may not want to sacrifice those things, at least to the point required to carry out your original plan.

For my book, there was one publisher interested who might have offered a contract if I was willing to change the tone and theme of the book. It would have been awesome to sign with this company! But I wasn't willing to do what they required for me to sell to them. In the end, that was simply a cost I wasn't willing to pay.

You can easily imagine and feel calm about taking another path.

Most paths have obstacles and brambles, but when you're ready to change direction, a new path doesn't seem quite so daunting. You might have some challenges, but you can imagine yourself plucking your way along toward a new destination.

For some authors, that calm only happens once they've beat back as many vines as humanly — or even superhero-ly — possible, only to discover the way still blocked. Then the other path begins to look pretty darn good, and a peace settles on them to think about another way.

I admit that self-publishing previously scared the pants off me. Not only because I'm not the kind of control freak savvy entrepreneur who tends to do well with making all the decisions, but I didn't previously have the resources and connections I now have. The idea of putting out the book myself isn't as frightening as before. In fact, it's rather exciting.

While I couldn't have foreseen this path for the book a few years ago, now I'm ready. Are you ready to imagine a different way? Can you see yourself getting it done?

Trusted writer friends tell you it's time.

A friend of mine wrote in a particular genre for years and experienced success in contests and in getting an agent. But her books didn't sell. The critique group she'd been with for more than a decade finally cornered her and suggested her writing voice went well with a different genre. They suggested she give it a try.

Were her other genre books bad? No, they were great! But it was time to move on. Since my friend trusted her critique partners, she sat down to pen a novel in the new genre. Months later, she'd finaled in contests, gotten an agent, and had signed a book deal.

Sometimes your close friends and fellow writers can see a situation better than you. You're tangled up in the trees, and they've got a view of the forest. If they see a better path for you, it might be worth listening.

By the time my novel submissions had reached the end of the line, I had the support of friends and family telling me to move on. They confirmed my decision and then encouraged me set a new goal — one they knew I could accomplish and they would support.

But what about persistence? Determination? Perseverance? Those are absolutely necessary in this business, and continuing to pound the door might well get you what you want. That certainly happens for some writers!

For others, you get a bruised fist, or at least a bruised heart. And you may decide your time and effort are better spent rethinking your dream and pursuing that path instead. If that latter one is you, it's okay to change directions. In fact, it's probably time.

Have you ever changed dreams in your writing career? Are you currently considering a different path?

About Julie

Julie Glover writes mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart® and is now up for preorder! When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit her website here and also follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

by Tasha Seegmiller

Have you ever had the chance to sneak away for a writing retreat? Have you had the chance to experience the synergistic feeling of creating while in close proximity of other creators? One of the best perks is that when temptation shows up, to jump on the socials or play a game on the phone “while you figure out what’s going on in the story”, a quick glance around the place silently peer pressures you back to doing what you went there to do – write.

One of the greatest perks of NaNoWriMo is that it creates a sort of collective, online recreation of a writing retreat. Logging on the website provides the opportunity to see how well other people have been doing, provides a little graph to show where you should be.

That said, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and the word counts and the competition of the whole thing. And it’s easy to get caught up in the guilt and shame should you have a bad day (or two or ten) and get on to see how “far behind” you are. So while I am planning to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, while I have participated for many years, I always do it with a caveat: Only maintain that speed of writing a story if it is working for the story AND if it is working for the writer.

One of the keys to succeeding at this NaNo event is to consider where you are in your writing. Do you need to do a deep dive revision? Do you need to sort out the muddy middle? Do you have a beginning but then have no idea what to do next? While it is fun to make sure you are playing the game with your writing friends, just because 50k isn’t in your wheelhouse right now doesn’t mean that you can’t use the benefit of this international, month-long writing retreat to your advantage.

Take a break

It can be tempting to keep rehashing a story over and over again. Our mind tells us just one more edit, just one more revision, and it’ll be just right. But if you haven’t put the story in a proverbial drawer and left it alone for at least a month during your creative process, believe me when I say stepping back is the best thing you can do. Play with a different story, keep the writing muscles strong, celebrate the actual act of creating. Then put your NaNo project in a drawer, pull the other one out, and see what your fresh eyes reveal.

Revise, revise, revise.

AKA NaNoReviMo. I didn’t make that up – go ahead and google it or check out the hashtag. A lot of people use the energy of this month to revise, edit, fix, clean up. While the official counter of NaNo won’t really work for this, the same concept is there. Have a daily goal, or consider your month-long goal and break it down. Five pages a day? Ten? TWENTY?!? Whatever it is, you can make a little graph or bullet journal it or create a paper chain. And get after it. Remember the caveat: Only maintain that speed of revising a story if it is working for the story AND if it is working for the writer.

Cheat (kind of)

While the purpose of NaNoWriMo is to start a new novel and get after it, 50k is 50k. If you have a start of a project, use that. If you have almost half a project, use that. Keep a note somewhere that indicates what your word count was when you started (and don’t cheat on this part) and shoot for the 50k from there. The NaNo police aren’t going to come after you just because you didn’t start a new project. Use this as the opportunity to advance your writing.

Set a Goal of your Own

This is a great way to start in on a habit or to have something less on your plate during winter holiday celebrations. You can NaNo all kinds of things in your writing. The key is to trust yourself as a writer (I know, imposter syndrome is a bully, but you can beat it). Want to make the goal to write 500 words every day? NaNoHabiMo (National Novel Habit Month – I think I made that one up). Make an official NaNo profile or don’t.

You get to be in charge here, you get to sort out what you need from this energy, and you know what you need. Do that.

What kind of work are you hoping to accomplish in November? Do you participate in NaNoWriMo? If not, what is your personal goal for November?

About Tasha

Tasha Seegmiller believes in the magic of love and hope, which she weaves into every story she creates. She is the president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and studying in the MFA in Writing Program at Pacific University, and teaches composition courses at Southern Utah University. Tasha married a guy she’s known since she was seven, is the mom of three teens, and co-owner of a cotton candy company. She is represented by Annelise Robey of Jane Rotrosen Agency.

by Kathryn Craft
Turning Whine Into Gold

Pursuing a career in writing is like moving into a house which is ruled by all things imagined. That can be super fun! But at this time of year, especially, we are reminded that this house—let’s call it a “publishing house”—comes complete with ghosts. And ghosts know when we creative types are most vulnerable to the fears they incite: when we are tired, stressed, and left in the dark.

Let’s just say there’s a lot of that in publishing.

A quirk of this house we’ve moved into is that there is no power company we can contact to hook us up securely—which means, as writers shift from writing for joy to relying upon it for income, they never know when the lights might go out.

It is up to us, and us alone, to hold the darkness at bay.

Sometimes, we can make peace with the ghosts. Other times we’ve got to kick them out on their butts. On the most basic level, ghostbusting requires good nutrition, hydration, exercise, and sleep. Low energy invites a haunting.

You can’t shut the door on a ghost any more than you can shut a door between your brain and your body. It won’t help that you have an agent (who might drop you if you don’t produce) or a publisher (who will drop you if you don’t sell) or a publicist who believes in you (hey, you paid them to say that). Ugly spirits hover near, ready to swoop in whenever your force field drops, eager to make off with what confidence you have left.

Naming your enemy has power. Let’s call them out before they send you running in fear from the career you thought you wanted, and then create a vision of what exorcism looks like.

Nay-sayers. These vile spirits reach up from the grave and try to pull you down into the blackness from whence they came. Favorite sayings: “Everyone loves a debut author, but…”; “Beware the sophomore slump”; “That bestseller was a fluke.”

How to bust a nay-sayer: “Thank you but I need to get back to work.”

Statisticians. These ghosts want to flay open your optimism with pointed statistics: “No one under the age of 40 reads anymore”; “Bookstores are dying”; “The mid-list is dead.”

How to bust a statistician: “One-hundred percent of unfinished books fail in the market.”

Remembered voices. Damning opinions from your past are insidious because they’ve lived in your attic for so long. “You never could go the distance”; “Your problem is you’re just too introspective”; “Aren’t you a little young/old to be doing this?”

How to bust a remembered voice: “Hello, old friend. No time to talk.”

Social media dementors. These are the scariest and hardest to recognize as evil because Facebook tells us they are your “friends”—only they seem faster, prettier, sexier, and oh-so-much-more powerful than you. And if your envy causes your self-destruction? Oh well. “We both debuted three years ago, right? I have five more books out and three in the pipeline, how about you?”; “My publisher is paying for a twelve-city book tour—oh wait, you’re with ABC Books too, aren’t you?”; “My publicist cost $20K but was totally worth it—Oprah, Ellen, Kelly…”

How to bust a social media dementor: “Congratulations!” *add emojis* #postapicofyourcat #unplugphone #backtowork

Cheat facilitators. By tempting you to play unfairly, these poltergeists thumb their noses at your years of preparation in hopes that you’ll affirm their notion that no one should have to work all that hard in life. “Editing is just rearranging all the same words”; “I can get this in front of a film director if you make it worth my while”; “Just tell me what you want me to say in your blurb.”

How to bust a cheat facilitator: “Thanks for sharing!” #swingwide #keepeyesonownpaper

Passive-aggressive “Caspers”: These are ghouls that throw a friendly flowered sheet over their ugly heads. “I am your biggest advocate but trust me, you need to write a completely different kind of story”; “Bless your heart, aren’t you so cute to write another novel” *wink*; “I’d write one too but I have to support a family.”

How to bust a passive-aggressive Casper: #smile #eyeroll #nowwherewasi

True friends will reflect back your love and excitement for your work in ways that will make you feel stronger. But these ghosts—who sound a lot like humans you may have encountered—are driven by pure fear, and only by draining your positivity will they feel at home in your presence.

But here’s the challenge: these ghosts come with the “publishing house.” When you moved in, you brought with you both a positive, creative force driven by love and a negative, destructive fear that will threaten to tear you down, and their fight for dominion will be ongoing.

This is my last post for Turning Whine into Gold, a column intended to last six months but has had a good six-year run here at WITS. Thank you all so much for reading! I’ll still be popping in now and then. But if I could leave you with only one bit of wisdom, it would be this:

Love the writing.

If no power company exists to provide a secure connection, you must stoke your creative force from within to create your own light. When fear can gain no lasting purchase, the rest will fall into place.

Let’s get real. What other ghosts can you name that seem determined to steal your joy? When your energy gets low, how do you stoke your creative force so that you remember the love that started you down this road?

About Kathryn

Kathryn Craft is the award-winning author of two novels from Sourcebooks, The Art of Falling and The Far End of Happy, and a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, specializing in storytelling structure and writing craft. Her chapter “A Drop of Imitation: Learn from the Masters” was included in the writing guide Author in Progress, from Writers Digest Books. Janice Gable Bashman’s interview with her, “How Structure Supports Meaning,” originally published in the 2017 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market, has been reprinted in The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing, both from Writer’s Digest Books.