CarolRose

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On my birthday I like to reflect on what I've learned in the past year. You're never too old to do that.

This time last year my WIP was still sitting in a drawer. It hadn't been touched in roughly nine years. It wasn't long after New Years that I had a sudden urge to start working on it again. In June I found Litopia, and for the first time since high school I finally feel I'm learning the craft of writing. I'm also learning about the business of publishing.

Writing is work. It's hard work. It's not for the faint of heart, and it's not for the whiners. The realities of the publishing world are that you are not entitled to have your manuscript read and praised simply because you wrote it. Agents and editors are in the business of selling books. That means you ... the book-buying public.

If you want to write a novel that will get noticed, do your market research. What is selling? Who is buying it? It's a business. If you want to be part of it, learn how it works. That's reality, folks. There is more to publishing than some writer slamming down 100,000 plus words and sending that tome to every agent in town. Agents and editors don't make a dime if the work doesn't sell. And who are they to say what will sell? The people who do it every day and don't get paid otherwise, that's who. The sooner you accept that reality, the faster you'll stop your whining and get down to the task of writing.

So what have I learned? I can write, but I have polishing to do. Every day I learn something new about the craft of writing. Reading books on this helps. Posting on writing sites where there are members in the business (like Litopia) helps. Writing helps. Every day. Even if it's for ten minutes. Writers write.

I've also learned that unless I write a book that will sell, no one will ask to read the entire manuscript and will offer me representation or a publishing contract. You would think that would be obvious. So what does that mean ... write a book that will sell? It means reading what's already out there in my genre and taking the time to craft something that's unique, while still telling a cohesive story. It means writing believable and sympathetic characters who act and behave in realistic ways, and who change by the experience of their journey. It means tightening up the prose so that every line moves the story forward. Anyone can bang out 200,000 words of drivel and filler, and it'll get chucked in the trash for your efforts. The words on the page must have a purpose. They must serve to move the plot forward, and it's nice if they make sense while doing so. No one wants to be pulled from the pages of your novel by your clever writing.

We read fiction to escape. We suspend our disbelief and are pulled into another world. Don't let your writing tug your reader back out of that character's head or his world. You may be in love with your words, but if they don't fit the character or the scene, cut them.

So, have a piece of birthday cake with me and celebrate this grand and mysterious journey we call writing a novel! I'm having a blast, and I hope this time next year I can tell you all that I have an agent for my WIP.

Carol