Writing Tips (page 3)
By Wendy Markham (who also writes as Wendy Corsi Staub)
©2005 Wendy Corsi Staub. All Rights Reserved.
What does that mean? It means that in addition to possessing a God-given flair for language and storytelling, and having mastered the craft of writing, you must also learn how to create a product people will be willing to buy. Start by finding out what’s selling in bookstores and which authors and publishers are releasing those titles. Read, read, read.
Research submission technique and manuscript preparation by subscribing to trade magazines such as Writer’s Digest and Romantic Times, and by reading as many How-to books as you can find. Trust me, there are hundreds of them. At the very least, buy the current Writer’s Market and peruse the comprehensive listing of publishers’ needs and submission policies.
Join a critique group or professional organization known for nurturing aspiring writers, such as the R.W.A. Take a writing course, work in a book store, attend writing conferences, join a book group.
Oh, and write, write, write. Every day. Write when you’re exhausted, when you should be doing other things, when you think you have nothing worthwhile to say. Write not just a few pages, or a chapter. Write the whole damned book. Four or five hundred pages worth, at least. Recognize from the start that you aren’t going to get anywhere on a partial manuscript; regardless of rumors to the contrary, publishers don’t offer first time novelists a contract based on anything less than a complete manuscript.
When your book is done, put it aside for at least a month. Then reread it, and rewrite it. Put it aside again. Reread and rewrite it again. When you feel as though it’s ready for submission, get some feedback. Not from your spouse or your mother, because they are almost certainly going to tell you they love it, and they probably really will love it. But their opinion, while it doesn’t hurt, doesn’t count. You need a critique by somebody who has done as much homework as you have. A fellow writer or writing instructor is a good start. Or you can hire a professional literary consultant.
Your goal is to make sure your finished manuscript is both polished, and marketable. Only then can you consider submitting it to an agent or an editor.
Bottom line: you have to be realistic, and you have to have a thick skin. There is no guarantee that all this hard work will ever lead to anything other than enough rejection slips to replace a northern winter’s worth of firewood. But skip the hard work, and the rejection slips are a virtual guarantee.
I’ll close with a probably familiar quote I stumbled across years ago. With every successful step in my career, I remember it.
Of those to whom much is given, much is required.
There. Now go get busy!!