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"...in any given year I receive somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 query letters from aspiring authors. Out of those tens of thousands I reject all but a tiny handful of them and take on perhaps three to five clients a year." Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent
(quote taken from Nathan Bransford's blog)
Nathan Bransford's article the rejection letter of the future will be silence imply that rejection by silence is an unusual thing.
Maybe it is in the publishing world. I don't know. I'm just learning.
So I appreciate Nathan Bransford's article.
As an actress, silence as rejection it's pretty normal. For some roles, casting directors see thousands of actors. To respond to every single one of them would be a whole job in itself.
This happens in dating all the time. On dating websites like Match.com you may get thousands of winks and emails. To reject every single person is a massive admin job. And if you're the one who winked, to get a 'no thanks' is not fun.
Nathan Bransford said he hates the process of rejecting authors. He's not alone. So do a lot of people. Decent people. They don't want to hurt you. Even not decent people. They just don't want to feel awkward. No one likes to reject. Or be rejected for that matter. For whatever reason, it's awkward and uncomfortable for both parties. Worse than going to the dentist.
So in dating, if you don't hear from someone again after a week, it's most likely that they're not that interested in the first place or they are but are dating others as well as you. If you don't hear from them at all, the silence tells you that they're definitely not interested. There's no need to hound them for an answer. The silence is the answer.
So, having experienced silence many times in the acting world and in the dating world, I'm happy to say that I'm happy to have silence as a sign of rejection in the publishing world. I'm happy to send out my book when the time is right and not hear from agents if they're not interested.
Because when it is a rejection, you'll feel rejected by the growing silence - the waiting is painful - and then 6 months later when you've accepted it, you get rejected again by the rejection letter. I'd prefer to be punched in the stomach just once, thanks.
But saying that, literary agents like casting agents should realize that as writers or actors we can't sit around fiddling our thumbs waiting either, if silence is to be the norm.
Like in dating there is no expectations of loyalty until you have that 'exclusive' talk.
I don't know why I'm writing about rejection. It will come but right now I should just get on with writing the book that's going to be rejected.
Happy thoughts.
[ps I won't link to the source when using pics that state the website or source on the actual image]
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"First and foremost, I'm looking for writers who are ready for publication. This means: You have NOT simply sent me the first draft of the first book you've ever written, but rather you've studied the craft of writing, read books about it, taken classes or workshops, and honestly approached writing as the serious art, craft, and business that it is. You've taken the time to get objective feedback on your book or proposal, and revised and polished accordingly. You've read about the publishing industry to find out how it works. You've researched agents and tried to find the ones who might fit the type of work you're doing." Rachelle Gardner - Literary Agent
(quote taken from Rachelle Gardner's blog)
I still have another 600 words to write. So why so slow today? I've been reading; I got excited and couldn't stop. The more I trawl the internet for writing tips and words of support from anyone who has spent time writing about writing for writers, the more I come across more links leading me to more advice, support and relevant information.
The more I read, the more I realise how hard it is.
So once you've climbed the Everest of writing - actually writing the novel - you've still got to comply with rules of the industry and learn how to get it out there because unlike the free form of the novel you have to learn how to write queries, summaries, pitches etc - the life line to agents.
More learning.
I'm not good at these things. It reminds of job application forms where they give you a little box to sell yourself. I hate those boxes.
[pic taken from Welcome to the Underground]
After seeing the article winners: the one-sentence summary contest and struggling to write a 25 word sentence to 'sell' the novel I'm writing I know I still have much to learn. It was hard. An understatement. I feel overwhelmed.
This is why I've purposely not wanted to know the next stage before I got there. This was how I worked when it came to acting. To think and do, without worrying too much when the time came to do and think about what I need to do and think. Acting was like that. You can't worry about auditions in the future that you can't control.
The writing process is like climbing a mountain. I've been persuaded to climb one - a real mountain - and I've stood under one looking up at the top feeling defeated. But if I had to climb a mountain, I'll look at it once, plot my way up and not look at the top again. If I'm climbing, I just want to know the next bit I need to get to and when I get there, the next bit and so on. That way it becomes less overwhelming. And soon enough, you find you're at the top of that mountain that seemed impossible at first sight. I'm hoping.
In Sri Lanka, I decided to walk to One Tree Hill because said tree in the distance looked so close and the walk seemed easily accomplished. But being in the Knuckle mountains, looking from one mountain to another, this turned out not to be an easy feat. I didn't see the deep valleys, the numerous hillocks, the swampy terrain, the rough rocky areas, the impossible steep drops hidden by tall grass, the prickly thorns, the vertical slopes - all were not apparent until you were there struggling with it. I got there. Finally. But if someone had told me or had I seen this before I started out, I would be lying if I said it wouldn't make me think twice about trying.
So why am I reading on how rough it will be?
80% of me don't want to know, don't want to be discouraged. The other 20% is the sensible side of me trying to persuade me that I need to know so I'd be prepared for all possibilities.
So I'm taking this initial reading up on the publishing industry as my first glance - checking the possible weather scenarios so I can be prepared and the desired route I'm climbing with some alternatives just in case. I must read as if I'm the writer's assistant - if writers ever had an assistant and I doubt it - and helping me bookmark websites that the writer in me would find useful one day. A bit like collecting useful items and putting it in your rucksack in case you might need to use it later.
I'm learning, preparing and plotting as I'm writing. And I'm not talking about the book. I'm talking about the journey up the mountain. Learning, preparing and plotting my way up the publishing mountain.
Here's hoping I don't fall to my death.
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"Respect the reader. Treat writing as craft; become an apprentice." Clare Sambrook - Author
(quote taken from source)
Found this article by author Bill Henderson: 5 tips for instantly improving your novel:
1. Replace words that tell with words that show.
2. Remove interpretation. Let action speak for itself.
3. Replace passive verb contructions with active.
4. Identify, then remove or 'translate' cliches.
5. Get specific. Replace general 'informational' language with rich narrative summary full of specific (and meaningful) images.
The tips make sense. They're good to know, be reminded of and something I need to keep checking when writing.
[pic taken from here]
I've decided to do away with the dot dot dots. It's lazy writing I know and I still want to do it. Why? It allows me to jump from one word to another without connecting them, well, not too much. It's rush-writing. But as the quote says 'respect the reader' so I'm trying. This is me trying.
What can I say on the personal front? Didn't sleep until 4am last night. No antihistamine today. I feel alive. But I know this aliveness will last for a couple of days until sleep deprivation seeps in and I become zombified again. I'll worry about that when I get to it.
Oh my. I keep adding the dots at the end. It just goes to show how habits become unconscious actions. It's a good thing for me to stop now. Really. I've forgotten how to write full sentences!
Nothing more to say other than I feel good today. The nose and the throat are fine for now.
Got to go and write...oops...damn dot dot dots...stop and be no more!
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"Writing is very hard work – at least good writing is, and so it should be. Every word needs to be sweated over, so if a writer is prepared to leave a glaring cliché in his or her work, especially in the opening pages, it’s clear that there hasn’t been enough sweating." David Smith - Literary Agent
...can't sleep...even with the pills...they make me sleep during the day but not the night...the last two nights I've not been to sleep til late...or should I say early...
[pic taken from here]
...the pills make me drowsy...and when I need to write, I feel I have to push extra hard to stay awake...I think the pills make me feel low because I feel tired all the time...
...so no more pills...until I need to sleep...just going to have to avoid going out and be pollen-stricken or something...
...can't sleep and brain is not feeling creative...but I managed to give a painful birth to exactly 2000 words...I wasn't totally pleased with the result but I'm putting it down to feeling low lately...
...tried to make myself feel better by watching some comedies at the cinema...walked to the cinema - my bit of exercise for the day - and watched 'Sex and the City 2', 'She's out of my league' and 'Death at a funeral'...maybe it was the mood I was in but I wasn't impressed...and I'm convinced I've seen the latter before but how is that possible?!...
[pic taken from here]
...read a lot about anonymity and blogging today...how people get fired for blogging ( game over)...and how to go to great lengths to keep yourself anonymous ( a technical guide to anonymous blogging)...it made me wonder about what I was writing...
...it's true...as an anonymous blogger, you could say what you want without consequences such as losing your job or upsetting readers out there...so how honest would you be if you're writing anonymously?...
...as a writer or author - established or not - you are technically your own boss and if you're your own boss, you're not likely to fire yourself...but still what you reveal can backfire on your personal life...but after 36 years of being alive, I've finally accepted me for me and if anyone can't, then I'd rather not have them in my life...this is me in all my glory or not as the case may be...like it, stay...don't like it, go away...easy...
[pic taken from here]
...so how honest should I be or have I been?...
...I would say pretty much without infringing on anyone I care about...
...to write a blog that doesn't infringe on the privacy of close ones or people in your life, it just leaves blogging about your thoughts on your life and your well-being...making someone who does that seem pretty self-centred and self-obsessed...
...I admit I'm self-obsessed...my mind doesn't allow me to rest much...and when I focus on external people and situations out of my control, it gets me too anxious because to not infringe on people means I can't do anything about it and sometimes with the external, the more you want to work at something, the more it stops working...so I concentrate on the internal - novel ideas and an imaginary world with characters that I can work with...
...I'm probably more honest on this blog because this is where I feel I can express myself...though saying that...there is always a control mechanism that stops you from letting go totally...to allow your dark thoughts to roam and be free...to dig so deep that it would scare you and anyone who is reading...there is always a black hole that you and only you have the key to...to trust someone else with the key is to invite misunderstanding and judgement...that's why I want to write fiction...and I don't believe I am the only person who has this hole...everyone has...it doesn't matter if you're creative or not, you have it...and how deeply you've buried it, only you know...
...so after all that...yes, even though I sometimes cringe at revealing something that seems very personal to me the next day, everyone naturally self-censors and me included...like in life, a little self-illusion is sometimes what makes you want to get up and live...and I don't advocate illusion in life but it just happens...life is one big illusion so we can be forgiven for a little unconscious oversight on our part...and the highest reason on the list is to be perceived as normal and non-threatening...well, it is for me...really I am...normal that is...very normal...
[pic taken from here]
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"I just thought I want to write so I wrote the book. What was the worst that could happen? It could get turned down by every publisher in Britain. Big deal." J K Rowling - Author
(quote taken from source)
...I want to write...decided...great...that was easy...
"In fact, if you wanted to make a cheery person with no predisposition to depression depressed, you could stick him in front of a typewriter or computer for hours a day--feed him a typical writer's diet--forbid him to exercise, isolate him from friends, and convince him that his personal worth depended on his "numbers." Make him live the writer's life, in other words, and watch him sag." Elizabeth Moon - Author
(quote taken from source)
...to write effectively I must ward off that tiny blue feeling...yeah, that thing called depression...unlike what Elizabeth Moon say that writers think that "a writer who tampers with endogenous depression is going to damage her creativity. "I don't want to be drugged into a numb state where I can't feel anything," says the suffering writer."...
...I disagree...I don't relish feeling blue...it takes a lot of energy that I can be using elsewhere and hard enough to conjure on some days...got none spare for useless blue thing...I don't need to feel blue to write deep and dark...but I don't want to jump on the medication wagon just yet thanks...
[pic taken from here]
"I had never been so prolific in all my life. I was bombarded with ideas, stories, characters. All great stuff. My mind was racing at 1000 miles per hour. It was amazing and something I should be really be thankful for.
The problem was that I couldn't shut it off. I tried. I tried all sorts of methods. Even hypnotherapy. But I couldn't sleep. My head just kept on going at a steady 1000mph. And I couldn't sleep. Eventually, it became too much. I had to risk the loss of productivity for some calm in my life. Having been through this several times before, I knew it was related to the condition. I knew getting on pills for six months or more would just slow down my brain."
...I couldn't get a name for this bitter animator - quoted above - but I've clicked through his site where I found the pic and I find his characters and writing funny...he may not see himself as an author but he can write...
...and how he described how he couldn't sleep is the same for me...except when you don't ward off the mouse-on-the-wheel dramas that spring from the external, the ideas are instead replaced by too much thinking about useless crap...and it's not so much 1000mph thoughts...more like being trapped on a small rock perched high up in nothingness and being pushed about by these many thoughts and sometimes just one goddamn stubborn one...and they won't leave you alone...ideas are better than useless crap to do with people and situations you have no control over...
[pic taken from here]
...okay...to write means to sleep, to not be irritable from hayfever, to ward off depression...
...first, insomnia...has been solved by taking antihistamines...even with the non-drowsy pills I want to sleep all the time...it makes me feel dopey...I tried to stop but the sneezing is unbearable...so I'm going to keep on taking them and just need to push through the clouds of dosiness and make sure I write...decided...
...second, hayfever...taking the pills...sorted...
...third, that blue feeling...and yes, I want to cry all the time...for the last 2 days...to dwell on the reasons would be like opening the crying vein and I know it's mostly irrational self-pitying...so to ward off depression...I'm going to eat better and exercise every day...just joined dailyburn which keeps track of my progress...and going to try watch comedy more...excercise produce endorphins etc...let's hope it works...
[pic taken from here]
Daily Writing Updates ~
Word count - night walker - 106,000 total
Thurs 4 June - wrote 2000 words
Writing Plan Updates ~
Night Walker -
- Finish (June)
- Leave to marinate (July)
- Edit down to 65,000 words (Aug)
- Get feedback (Oct)
Sleep -
- Finish off (July)
- Leave to marinate (Aug)
- Edit down to approx 65,000 words (Sept)
- Get feedback (Oct)
Novel 3 -
- Start (Oct, Nov, Dec)
- Leave to marinate (tbc)
- Edit (tbc)
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