Committing words to the page is a courageous act. Finishing a manuscript can take a monumental amount of self-discipline and blind faith. More often than not, your efforts will be rewarded with pointed rejection, or worse, not responded to at all. That your dream needs to pass through the hands of less-than-compassionate gatekeepers is the nature of the beast, if you want to write professionally. If you are at all sensitive, you are bound to get a bit brutalized by the process. There is no way to inoculate yourself against this, but there are ways to soften the blow.
I recommend every unpublished writer keep a scrapbook of praise. It does not matter who this praise comes from: be it from a totally biased source as a family member, or as remote as a snippet from an agent’s rejection letter. Every time you receive encouragement, clip and paste it. Over time, your praise book will grow. Review it when the rejections get overwhelming. It will boost your spirits, and serve as an antidote to discouragement. Ninety-nine percent of writers will never get their books professionally published, but that is no reason not to value your words and work.
Publish anywhere and everywhere. Even more than a book of praise, a book of published clips will remind you of your worth as a writer. If nobody will publish you, publish yourself. Blogs are wonderful for reaching an audience.
Take criticism. The sad truth is that you are probably better read than the publishing assistant whose hands your manuscript has landed in. This does not mean, however, that the opinion of the crass publishing world is not valid. If they are blunt, they will tell you their problem with your writing. It is worth taking note of what turns people off. Even if your book gets signed by an agency and subsequently bought by a publishing house, you will be expected to take editorial notes.
A final bit of advice: nobody, anywhere, will value your manuscript as much as you. Before you show it to anybody, put as much work and polish into it as you can bear.
The most important piece of free advice I can give you is this: If you write on a word processor, back up your files regularly. Seriously.
On Becoming a Novelist and The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner: John Gardner, in addition to being a widely acclaimed writer, was a renowned teacher of the craft. His books are concise, no-nonsense approaches to fiction writing, and the practicalities of the writing life. Moreover, success came to him relatively late, and he has a huge amount of empathy for beginners and late-bloomers. If you want to save what it would cost you to attend a writers’ workshop, buy these books.
Poetics, Aristotle: Every storyteller owes a debt to Aristotle, whether they know it or now. Perhaps the first writer to deconstruct what it means to tell a story, there is a reason Poetics is a time-honored classic, and will remain so for as long as books are in print.
On Writing, Stephen King: It is a little-known fact that King’s first efforts were widely rejected. On Writing chronicles the vacillations of his career in literary and genre fiction. Despite what you may think of the kind of writing he does, this is an excellent memoir of a writer who has dedicated his life to the craft.
Writing Life, Ann Dillard: Where the male writers on this list hone in on craft, Dillard is an expert at communicating the poetics of writing and the abstract, unexplainable thing people refer to as inspiration.
Dramatic Writing, Lajos Egri: Written for playwrights, this book lays down an easily understood theory of dramatic structure.
Story, Robert McKee: Primarily for screenwriters, but useful for commercial fiction, this is a structure bible. McKee helps you really explore what the word ‘character’ means, a well as how to craft a dynamic and fast-moving narrative.
Strunk and White: the Elements of Style, William Strunk and EB White: You can’t read this book too many times. Strunk and White is the simplest, most widely used style guide in America. After all, you need good tools to craft a fine piece of work.
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