This blog is intended as a place of safety and support for writers on their individual writer's journey. A place where I offer up tips about plot and the Universal story form for novelists, screenwriters, memoirists, and those who dabble in creative non-fiction. Never have I expressed much about my personal writing life yet now I feel drawn to share the following excerpt from a letter of condolence and support to a fellow writer. That it helped renew her enthusiasm and passion for writing and submitting her work to agents perhaps, if you too are faltering, my words might serve as a lift:
I wish you could share your journey to getting your novel published in an article for Writers Digest or a similar writer's magazine. Yes, the trauma you have suffered in your life makes you more sensitive. Yet you speak for all writers when you voice your despair over the submission process.
The pain you feel from rejection letters is universal. Truly. Gifted writers, gifted creators of all kinds stop writing every minute because of rejection.
We writers share our innermost soul on the page and to have our writing rejected means we're being rejected -- that which is most personal and meaningful to us. Sure, we should buck up, grow a thicker skin, not take it personally, but lots of those things we "should" do and feel are never as simple as they sound.
People like you who are brave enough to write about the pain are the reason for the phenomenal success of the Indie industry. Perhaps that's what indie publishing really is -- a gift of separation from the powers-that-be in NYC. The release from having to be judged by the arbitrary board of gate-keepers to that which we long -- a readership to enjoy our words and stories.
I rarely submit... anymore. Early on I did. Too early. I cringe when I think of some of the writing I sent out before I knew better.
The novel I recently completed is my best by far. I wrote Angle of Reflection for an agent who had rejected an earlier novel and asked me to send him any future work, saying he loved my "voice" / writing style. I have not heard back from that query. The novel I completed before this one, I queried two agents: the one who rejected it. The other immediately asked for the entire manuscript. After 6 months, I have yet to hear yea or nay.
I have not given up. Quite to the contrary. I am simply writing and waiting. Today, publishing, as with almost every institution steeped in tradition, experiences upheaval. Things shift, making room for the new to emerge.
In the meantime, I continue to help writers achieve their publishing dreams (I include a list of current and former clients I am proud to announce have books being released this fall).
I've found peace through this approach and trust that when the time and I am right, my fiction will be published. In my acceptance, I make my way toward my dreams by studying the craft and continuing to write. I have given myself until I am 99 years old. If I've not had my fiction published -- yes, I could go the Indie route, but hold out for NY -- then I'll despair. In the meantime, I write...
I am proud of you for keeping to the pursuit of your dreams. For continuing to find resources to help heal you and strengthen you. For voicing your pain. For fighting back. For protecting yourself from those out to suck dry the creative and brilliant and lovingly magical soul of yours.
I believe in you. I almost hate to say that because I feel that by encouraging you I send you back out into that which can destroy you, and just as easily lift you to heights you never imagined. You're strong enough to survive this. In surviving, you triumph! In your triumph, we all triumph!!
My only advice is to keep writing. We get better every time we show up for our writing. Write through your pain. Write down your pain. Write, write, write. Ignore anyone who doubts you. Concentrate on yourself, your writing, and the divine energy of creation. You channel that power every time you show up for your writing. You perform a sacred rite through your writing. Make the writing itself enough... for now... write....
WRITERS TO WATCH (books with a Fall 2009 release date by authors who have credited my plot support as help in their success publishing):
Daily Coyote (softcover release) by Shreve Stockton (Simon Schuster)
http://www.dailycoyote.net/
Sounds Like Crazy by Shana Mahaffey (Putnam)
http://www.wendytokunaga.com/pages/
The Lodge by David Brandin (iU -- Editor's Choice Award)
(If I neglected to mention your book, please let me know and I'll add you to the list.)
2 Comments on On a Personal Note, last added: 8/19/2009
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Thanks so much for sharing this with us. We all needed to hear it.
And if you will, please mention my novel, "The House," due for release in fall 2009.
Again, I appreciate you, and your words of inspiration in both your Tweets and plotwhisperer.com
anjuelle floyd
http://anjuellefloyd.com
Martha, thanks so much for the shout-out and also for sharing your experience and feelings about the joys and frustrations of the writing life and the publishing industry. Much appreciated.