Years ago I literally agonized over every fa-
cet of writing you can imagine. I seemed terribly
impatient and knew not the cure, knew not where
the balm lay. Who could help me? I wondered.
Then I wondered not only who could, but who would!
Life seemed so unfair and even cruel when I con-
sidered writers who had made it "big" while they
were still young; writers like Capote, RL
Stevenson, McCullers, the playwright Williams et
al. Not only did I want and need to see some
thing of mine(Me, myself, and I--Ego, I love you!)
in print, but I wanted and needed compensation
for it. Eventually "The Writer" only increased
this appetite. In other words, reading THE maga-
zine was like looking at Playboy or Playgirl and
not being able to do anything about the urge.
Finally(I DID keep busy, though.) I was able to
take refuge in the "There is a season, a time..."
philosophy. Some things simply cannot be hurried,
and all the logic in the world is there. Many
times we just don't want to see that it is there.
It's like planting. We can't rush a fruit tree
or a tomato plant, can we? No, we must nurture
it repeatedly and wait until it grows and can bear
fruit. Did not Chaucer mention the craft as being
so long and life so short? So, patience can be
only beneficial for us. From the lack of it stems
our frustration.
Now the reader is thinking or saying, "Okay,
I get you. So what's the advice--the gist?" The
advice isn't one sentence. We have to look at
several factors, to say the least. The first fac-
tor, for me, is a commitment to quality. Medio-
crity should be the BIG ENEMY, therefore, com-
pletely unacceptable. To illustrate: Young wri-
ters can show one a piece of work and, while the
"pro" can and should allow for weaknesses here and
there in plot and clarity of meaning, there can be
no allowance for sheer carelessness. In other
words, I, personally, am turned off quickly by
writers who don't know the difference between to
and too, or who mispell receive(They write
recieve.). Don't misunderstand me. I'm not say-
ing one cannot make mistakes or that I never make
any. What I am saying is that the young writer
must be curious, not too lazy to look up the words
or grammatical mysteries that are before her or
him, and must desire to develop quality writing.
All of us are going to err and we should learn
from it when we do, but our mistakes should be
logical and not SILLY. It is silliness to send
off a piece of work with tree spelled treee or
three several times. Doesn't it mean we didn't
take the time to proofread our own creation?
Another factor to look at is overcoming our
insecurities. Gradually, of course, we must over-
come them. We have no choice. As youthful wri-
ters we seem to be quasi-masochists--running here
and there for an alleged "pro" to tell us that
this or that isn't acceptable or that our work is
done carelessly, to go back to the drawing board,
both of which crush our tender egos mercilessly.
Of course, at times feedback can be instructive
e.g. constructive criticism. But we need to be
careful. The "pro" cannot decide for us whether
or not we are going to be a writer. WE
OURSELVES DO THE DECIDING! This is because a wri-
ter is a
person who likes writing and, more importantly,
actually writes. So, many of us already are wri-
ters. Maybe our last name isn't recognizable as
is the name Joyce, Wouk or Tolstoy, but we ARE
writers.
A third factor that is important for me is
reading. I'd be willing to bet that most major
writers have been heavy readers. You see, that
which we haven't absorbed cannot exit. Where we
haven't learned elegant words and phrasing, we
cannot employ. So, part of the young writers com-
mitment to quality is unrelenting improvement in
her or his level of reading and level of general
knowledge.
Lastly, I'd like to mention the details. I
could go on farther but at this stage in my life
I'm trying to concentrate on things brief. All
kinds of books and articles exist telling us how
to do the paper, the envelope, which company,
which editor, do this, do that. Granted, some of
these pieces of advice cannot be totally ignored.
Additionally, any publisher has the right and
power to choose and use only that writing which
suits her or his needs. But these details will
never be as important as the piece of writing with
a real essence to it--meaty, juicy, high-calibre
and, of course, completely captivating to its rea-
ders in the style of In Cold Blood or A Rose for
Her Grave. So, if your writing desire is truly
authentic,
never give up in your quest. Try, try and
try. And so what if you never make millions upon
millions like Maupassant did in his time(He died
young and exhausted, didn't he?)? So what if your
name never becomes as famous as the name Balzac
became? Is a monetary amount the only way we can
measure a person's worth or success? No sir and
no ma'am.
