Another day, another thousand words

If you could force yourself to write 1,000 words a day, every day, you could have a novel-length manuscript done in 90 days.

It might not be worth reading - it probably would not be - but I still think it is important to get what is in your brain out on paper (or computer, as the case may be). Once you have it out you can do anything you want with it, including throwing the whole mess away.

More should be thrown away than ever is.

One thing I know for sure is that no one ever spun gold directly from their brain onto paper. Most of the work still has to be done and it is the tedious kind of work. Not the fun stuff.

I would guess that is where I - and maybe most everyone else - fail. I am not rigorous enough with the words after they are on paper. You can't just write an average novel (poem or short story, either)and get it published. It has to be something special.

I'm still working on that.

Rejection project update: 42,836 words in 152 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

The boy can still write

After two weeks of not writing a word, I worked on the latest rejection project last night and then again today.

Last night's session was pretty tough, no doubt about it. I had to force myself a great deal and think I just wrote about a page, but that was still better than nothing. The longer I wrote the easier it got.

Today was completely different. I wrote like there had never been a hiatus.

Writing is a habit, pure and simple. When you don't write you get out of the habit. Because it is work (unlike some people believe) it is a lot easier just to skip it, sort of like I have skipped all those exercise lessons all my life.

It feels very good to be writing again. The next few weeks present some challenges to writing, but I am going to try to do it, even if it is only a few paragraphs. That is better than nothing

Rejection Project update: 41,690 words in 148 pages.

Yours in Rejection,

Phil

Comeback

I haven't written - anything - since Nov. 21.

Not quite true. I wrote what I had to at work and last night I fleshed out two poems. Even though you might wish it otherwise, life sometimes intervenes.

So I haven't felt like putting words together and getting back into the groove has not been all that easy, either.

I haven't tried working on the latest rejection project yet but when I close this out I am going to give it a whirl.

We'll see. I am not overly optimistic.

But eventually, it will come back because it is what I do and just about all I do.

Cheers...

Phil

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

Writing sessions

A writer friend of mine told me once that when you are writing you should never "write yourself out," that is, you should always stop for the day before you have finished all you have thought of to create.

That way, he reasoned, you would always have a starting place the next day. Voila! No writer's block and a quick start to your next session.

That sounded reasonable to me and so I tried it and found it was almost impossible to do. The more I tried it, the less I liked it. In fact, sometimes I found that by the next writing session, sometimes I had forgotten exactly where I was going. That may mean the "inspiration" wasn't so good in the first place.

Or it might mean I missed an opportunity.

This is a tactic for any writers who might stumble upon this blog and it could work for you. But it doesn't work for me.

Who knows how many such strategies are out there to help us be successful? Probably each writer has half a dozen and most of them only work for that one writer.

The point is just because one strategy does not work for you does not mean there is something wrong with you. It just means you have to find another path.

Status of current rejection project: 28,211 words; 99 pages

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Someone is out there

I wouldn't exactly say that readership of this blog has "exploded," but it is interesting that there has been a definite uptick in views over the last month.

In the first month or so, I would get probably two or three reads a day. I mostly knew who was doing the reading as they were friends of mine. Now I get about 20 views a day.

As I said, no explosion, but at least I don't know the first names of everyone who is looking in.

I know this because the blog stats record the origin nation of the viewer. Of course, almost all the views are from the United States, but a surprising number come from France (?!). About a dozen other nations are represented in the list. This week, someone from India looked in.

Thanks for reading. I hope a little of what I am writing about helps someone in their own journey to get published. At the very least you know that there are others out who are struggling in the same way you are.

The message I am trying to get across above all other things is keep plugging away. Don't stop writing. Never stop writing.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

A good friend

OK, I make light of rejection and the truth really is I don't take myself all that seriously. I take my writing seriously, but not myself. I put everything I have into my writing and you should, too. It is what matters.

But every now and then rejection does get to be a drag and I have to force myself to plow forward, get past the, "why the hell am I doing this" arguments and just write. In times like these I tell myself that at least I am leaving something behind for my kids to read.

My father left me poems he wrote and they are among my most treasured memories.

I had a few friends read "Lost in Translation," my second novel. They were people I picked who were well-read.

After the dismal failure of that manuscript to pick up any interest whatsoever, I've set it aside. I thought it was decent, the agents did not. I respect that decision.

But my friend, who is a published author and playwright came to my office, sat down and quietly said this:

"I don't think I ever told you this, but Lost in Translation is a very good novel. You have written something special and you need to know that."

A good friend and sometimes it helps your soul to listen to friends instead of the critics.

Yours in Rejection,

Phil

Tedium

Now there's a title to really make you want to read a blog, right?

In this case I'm talking about the tedium of re-reading and re-writing. It is so bad I can only do about 14 or 15 pages a night at the absolute maximum.

When your eyes start crossing it is time to stop.

But here is the thing: I always find many errors and examples of bad writing when I re-read. That makes it worthwhile no matter how many times I do it and no matter how tedious it gets.

I've never sold a book, but I still think this is one of key elements to getting one sold. Probably I'm not doing it half enough.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

We interrup this regularly scheduled writing...

I decided on a whim last night that it was time to do another re-through and edit before I went any further.

This is odd because I'm on a roll, know exactly where I am taking the characters and the all important "what happens next."

But I don't want to neglect this sense that I need to re-group, work on what I have so far then forge ahead. I almost wrote, "I've learned not to neglect these feelings...." But that would be goofy since one could easily say that the Master Rejector has not learned anything just yet.

So the next few days will be consumed with going over it word by word.

Part of the reason for this is that I've just started reading "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck. What a book! His descriptive phrasing has to be the most precise ever.

I'll keep updating, especially if I find some egregious errors.

Rejection project status: 26,302 words in 93 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Rejected!

My short story in the Writer's Digest Short Story contest was a non-winner.

Now THERE'S a surprise!

The only thing left up in the air is whether I made the top 100 list in short stories. I'm not holding my breath on that one, either, but it would be nice to see how I fell in the ranking.

If I don't rank I'm going to blame it on the fact that I used the "p-word" too many times. Yep, it was in there a bunch, but it called for it. There was no gratuitous "p" in my story.

There's an upside to not winning. To get to the 4,000-word limit, I really had to slice and dice it and cut out some parts I thought were necessary. It was a much better story - at least in my opinion - at 5,000 words than 4,000.

This is a tough contest and I did not expect to win. I've read some of the entries from past years and they are very good. Congratulations to those who did win and good luck in catching that brass ring.

Rejection project status: 24,555 words in 84 pages.

Yours in rejection,

Phil

Christmas present

I decided today that the Christmas present I will give myself is Knight in Shining Armor, Ltd, finished by the end of the year.

I'm not talking about final, ready-to-send-to-agents finished, but finished with the first write. It still won't be easy. That gives me about 70 days (roughly) to write about 60,000 words (roughly, again). As I said, not easy, but it gives me a target, even if it is one I will not hit.

I will be working in that direction and, unless the unforeseen happens I will be at least close by the end of the year.

On another note, if I am going to get notified as being the winner of the Writer's Digest short story contest, it will be by Friday. Not holding my breath.

Rejection project update: 23,167 words

Yours in rejection,

Phil