Finding your own way

You can get a lot of advice both from books and across the Internet and, frankly, a lot of it is terrific. In fact, I'm sure all of it has worked for someone.

But none of it is going to work for everyone. In the end I think to be a successful writer - note the name of the blog you are reading, however — you have to find what works for you.

Many writers have found it helps them to, uh, drink a bit as they write. Great. Wish I could do that. But I can't have so much as a glass of wine and then try to write. My brain just want allow it. Others want complete silence. I put on my headphones and crank the music up, which is actually a way of "silence" as it drowns out all the distracting noise.

Others write at exactly the same time during the day, or carry a notebook around with them so they can jot ideas down (a "smart" phone allows you to do the same thing).

Try everything that looks as if it might work for you, but don't worry if you discard half of it or most of it. Writing is an intensely personal act. Others can read what you have written and help you once you have done it, but no one but you can coax it from your brain.

I haven't written on my latest rejection project in two nights so there's no update.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Crossing 40,000

I came to two conclusions tonight in writing. the first is that this rejection project is going to go longer than 80,000 words. I don't believe I am halfway through the writing process and I have now written a few more than 40,000 words. I still think it will be under 90,000.

More importantly, I could tell I am not going to meet my self-imposed deadline of the end of the year. This project - written as a suspense - is more difficult to write, even on the first draft.

In suspense, I am finding the "pieces" have to fit together intricately. Maybe I should have paid the same attention with the last two projects and they would have been better.

Anyway, where I could write a good thousand words in a night before, the suspense project is much more likely to be held to 500-600 a night. That adds up.

It doesn't really matter, but I AM learning something new every time I write. I suppose that is what it is all about.

Current rejection project status: 40,088 words in 141 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Another contest

I just sent in my entry to the Writers' Digest short-short story contest. It is bound to be a tough competition as the top prize is $3,000 and second is $1,500.

This is the second Writers' Digest contest I have entered, the mainstream short story contest just announced the winners and I did not mark in the top 100.

I think I'm going to keep entering the contests, no matter what the result, even if I never make that top 100. True, it does cost $20 to enter, but that is the only downside. You are forced to write something different, to think of something to write out of the air.

That has to be good to help you stretch yourself.

I'm also pretty sure I will enter the poetry contest. Now that one is a real challenge for me. But I will be interested to see who the winners are.

If you have the $20 to spare, I think you ought to try, too. You can find out about all of their contests at writersdigest.com

Good luck to you and to me.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Worth the work?

The question is, if you are doomed to write nothing but rejection projects (unpublished novels) is all the work worth it?

I'm not giving up the idea of getting published by an stretch but the reality is when any of us writes a novel the only thing we are guaranteed at the end of the day is the finished piece.

And don't think it isn't work. It is simply impossible to write 85,000 words without a lot of hard - damn, damn hard - work. Even if it is a bunch of crap at the end of the day, getting there is still tough.

So would it be worth it if you knew for sure you could not be published?

Everyone must answer that for himself (herself) but for me the answer is, yes, it is still worth it.

Writing gets something out of you. It is sort of like taking a dose of the salts for your brain. Published or not, it is still quite an accomplish to finish a novel. Loot at it this ways, millions of people start novels but the number who actually produce a novel each year is tiny by comparison.

So here's to us writing rejects. May we some day find our publisher and, if not, may we never question the worth of what we are doing.

Rejection project status: 37125 words in 131 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil Latham

Bridging the "gap"

Here is what happens to me sometimes when I write: I am in a particular scene and the writing is going well. I also know what is going to happen "next." No problem, right?

Not always.

Because while one scene is nearly written and the next scene is well-thought out iun my head, sometimes there is just this little gap in getting between scene one and scene two.

This is where some of my worst writing takes place. It may happen to others too. I don't see it in the published books I read - well I rarely see it, anyway - but those manuscripts have been well-messaged.

I think the best writers learn how to deal with this much more effectively than I have. Another good reason for reading. Watch how the great authors move their stories along without this awkwardness. I think I need to pay a bit better attention.

Rejection project status: 35,952 words in 127 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Writing with ease

Some nights (I almost always write at night) I can stare at the screen all night and work my butt off to get out one mediocre sentence.

Other nights, like last night, I feel as if I could finish the entire book and I cannot type quickly enough to get the words out.

Of course, the sentences are still mediocre, but at least they come quickly.

This is not surprising but if you were to have asked me before I started to write I could not have told you what kind of night it was going to be. I don't start out feeling particularly juiced one night and dry as a bone the next.

It either happens or it doesn't. Most of the time I can get it going, but I definitely know the quality of the writing is better on some nights than others.

So what do I do? I write through it. Even though I know the writing is lacking, I put it down and move on. I know I am coming back through many times to rewrite. I don't want to stop just because I cannot think of one right word.

Is this the right way to do it? Beats me. I've never published a word of fiction. My guess is the right way is whatever works for you. Sort of like batting stances, everybody has their own.

Rejection project status: 34,506 words in 122 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

"Keep at it"

I spoke with my major mentor the other day. He has not mentored my fiction writing but just about everything else, being especially helpful in my non-fiction writing.

He's the winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Yes, I'm dropping names, sort of, because not many people can claim to have a Pulitzer-prize winner as a mentor. He was especially helpful, though, in guiding the kinds of books I should read. As I've noted several times, reading is hugely important to writing.

Check out Pat Conroy's new book, "My Reading Life," as an example. I hear it is quite good.

He asked, as he always does, about my efforts to get published. I gave him, as I always do, the same answer.

"Keep at it," he said. "That is what I would tell you. Just keep doing it."

Though I can get discouraged just like everyone else, I think that is sound advice and I intend to follow it.

I should note that he absolutely hated my first novel, Vivie's Rock. He couldn't even finish it. He's the only one who had that sort of reaction. Others may not have loved it, but at least they could finish it!

Not only is he a mentor, but a painfully honest one, at that. Priceless.

Rejection project status: 32,272 words in 114 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Licking my wounds

As it turns out, my entry in the Writer's Digest short story contest was not only not among the top winners, it was not among the top 100 mainstream short stories submitted.

Ouch!

Don't I get rejection enough?

Honestly, this just might be the toughest contest to make a mark in. Thousands of people enter, but I was hoping to make that top 100. It was not to be.

I'll get over it quickly enough. The only danger in rejection is dwelling on it and I don't do that. I am still entering the short-short story contest and my story is already written. I'm just holding onto it for any polishing it might take.

Besides, I'm absolutely sure that my story was No. 101. It just barely didn't make the cut, that's all.

OK, maybe it was No. 102.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

One-third through the process

I crossed the 30,000-word mark last night in writing, which means I am almost certainly more than a third through my latest rejection project.

I say "one-third" because I don't start out with a particular word-count in mind. I cannot imagine that this would go to 90,000 words. In fact, this might be closer to 70,000, so I could be almost half-through.

I know - sorta - what has to happen between now and the end but there are always changes as you write. What's in my head might look goofy on paper, so I back it up and go to another path. In this way, writing is a maze you are trying to work out in your mind. What is the proper way out?

You go down a lot of dead-ends in preparing a rejection project.

This one is much different than the first two, which had to be classified as "mainstream" fiction, the most difficult area crack. This is genre fiction, which is to say mystery and suspense, heavy on the suspense side.

It is supposed to be a bit easier to get into, but I am not counting on that. I did want to do something different, just to see if I could get a different result.

We'll see.

Rejection project status: 30,248 words in 105 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

East of Eden

I spent a great deal more time reading over the weekend than writing.

Being a reader does not automatically make you a writer, but I cannot imagine being even a mediocre writer without being a voracious reader.

I am reading East of Eden, which is about the only John Steinbeck novel I had not read to this point. I think I was daunted by its size, but then I gave and and dove into it.

What a wonderful book. If I could write like that....

But how silly, only a handful of people who have ever lived can write like that and I am not wonderful.

If you have not read it, I encourage you to do so. Oddly, I picked it up after having to set aside the only Toni Morrison book I have not been able to get into, A Mercy. I haven't given up on Morrison's book, but I'm glad I picked up this one!

Rejection project status: 29,200 words, 104 pages

Yours in rejection,

Phil