How to make a career as a writer and get published
September 23rd 2008 00:56
A few weeks ago I gave a talk at UTS as part of their Verge Arts festival about how to make a career as a writer and get published. Here is an edited version of my talk.
1. THE POWER OF CLARITY
Many years, ago, when I was 28, and I met the man who is now my husband I said to him probably on our second date, ‘I want a baby next year, are you in or are you out? ‘
He blinked, I think he choked on his beer and he said ‘I don’t know if I want children.’
To which I replied ‘That’s perfectly respectable, but I definitely do and I want to do it before I turn 30 so if you don’t, please let me know sooner rather than later because I need to move on and find someone who wants to have kids.’
Well, some months later he said yes, he did want children and we went on to have two kids, we’ve been together now for 13 years.
When I recount this story, mostly it seems when I’m having my hair done in a hair salon, by young women in their early twenties, all of whom are unmarried and by their family’s standards very much on the shelf, they all giggle nervously and say, ‘Ooh, I could never do that. If I did, my boyfriend would run a millions miles. How come yours didn’t?’
I think there are two reasons: firstly, I was very clear about what I wanted.
You have to be clear about what you want in this life – whether this applies to having babies or becoming a dancer or a musician or a writer. If you are not clear, you must get clarity. We all languish in the illusion that we have ‘the rest of our lives in front of us?’ But that is very much a conceit of unmindfulness, almost an existential negligence. You can be 27 years old, fit and healthy, and you decide to run 14 km from City to Surf and like Lee Marriage, you die of a heart attack 200 metres from the finish line. You can be having a laugh with your mates and decide to take a little boat out on the harbour, and collide with another vessel – dying with a drink in your hand and a lifetime of plans ahead of you. I don’t believe in trial runs.
If you’re not clear, you make vague decisions and vague decisions lead to depression and overeating and unhappy life choices. Macdonalds is full of people who are not clear about what they want out of life. Because if they simply stopped for a minute and asked themselves what they want out of life, they’d know that they don’t want to be in Macdonalds. Find out what gives your life meaning. You are the only person who can answer that question. Not your parents, not your politicians, not your mates, not your girlfriend or boyfriend. Take the time to figure that out. Nothing is more important than knowing what you want.
Secondly, why didn’t he run? Well, if he’d run, there were many other men to choose from, right? So what would really have been the big deal? What would have been a big deal is if I’d never made my intentions clear, hung around for six years, brought up the kid question tactfully only to find out that he didn’t want kids. That would have been a big deal. But he didn’t run. Why not? Apart from the obvious charms I had to offer, I think clarity, certainty and honesty elicit equal and opposite clarity, certainty and honesty. When we are clear, and bold, an alchemy is unleashed and we can change the nature of things.
As Goethe, the famous German philosopher said, ‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has a genius, power, magic in it."
2. TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY
I did not start out as a writer. When you’re 18 and you say you want to be a writer people look at you and say ‘get a real job.’
I did a couple of law degrees, I wrote creatively throughout, although law school almost destroyed my love of reading. Though legal writing is so different from creative writing, what that training did do for me, was it taught me about the importance of structure. Even when you’re writing a novel, there is an interior logic to the narrative that is essential to keep taut throughout. My legal training also made me more robust about editing and getting rid of excess. It helped curb my tendency to overwrite.
By the end of two law degrees I knew I didn’t want to be a lawyer. But I still wasn’t clear about what I wanted.
At the end of my LLM degree at Yale I became close friends with a journalist in whom I had confided that I really wanted to write. She sent me an application form for a women’s writers colony in Seattle on Whidbey Island called Hedgebrook Women’s Writers Colony. That application form stayed pinned to my notice board for years. Every time I looked at it, I thought, ‘who am I to apply there? I’m not a writer. I want to be a writer, but I’m not a real writer.’
And one day I thought, bugger this, I have nothing to lose. So I prepared all the forms and a writing sample and I sent them off.
Friends of mine were astonished at my boldness - I think they thought it was quite a cheeky thing to do. I had this nervous idea that I’d be seen as one of those Australian Idol contestants who stand up in those early auditions only to be insulted by Kyle or Dicko and told that a cat being tortured sounds better than I do. But because I read so much, I knew that my writing was at least as good as some of the books I’d read, and sometimes, I thought, better.
Sending off those application forms was a turning point for me - it was the first time I took myself seriously as a writer. You can’t ask other people to take you seriously until you take yourself seriously. There’s no chicken and egg scenario here. It starts with you.
I did get into Hedgebrook and I spent 8 weeks there writing the first draft of my first novel.
3. GET FEEDBACK
Because we all have blindspots about our own abilities, it is probably a good idea to get feedback before you put yourself out there.
The way to do this is to find someone whose opinion you respect and are almost afraid of. Find someone who is willing to give you ROBUST feedback. This person should not be related to you, should not be a friend or someone you socialize with and certainly not someone you are sleeping with. Never show your writing to someone who has an interest in you as a person beyond your writing. Why? Because people will spare your feelings. People who care about you will not tell you the truth. What they will say is ‘it is wonderful,’ and what they will mean is ‘you are wonderful.’ And you will be no better off than if you had showed it to no-one.
Be clear that you are not looking for praise. You are asking for robust, honest feedback about your writing and constructive suggestions about how to improve it. So many of us feel like our writing is indistinguishable from who we are as people and if people say its crap, we imagine what they’re really saying is that we’re worthless. You’ve got to put some space between you and your writing. This is an important life skill – you need it when you become a parent so you don’t over-identify with your children.
Put a corset around yourself and view your writing as a separate externalized entity.
Having someone tell you that a passage or a character doesn’t work or your writing is self-indulgent, or its overwritten, is gold. This will help you to edit your work (editing is such an underrated skill but good editors are the difference between good writers and great writers). If you can learn to say what you need to say in less not more you will be a better writer for it. Don’t crowd your language or your thoughts. Try to keep your language as lean and clean as you can.
You really do want that feedback before your writing is published because critics are mercilness when they get hold of us.
Don’t think of feedback as criticism, think of it as the stuff you never wanted to see in a review of your work. It may not be easy to get feedback, but uncompromising feedback is the one thing I can honestly say has lifted my writing to new levels. There's a beautiful Chinese saying ‘fall down seven times stand up eight times.’ It’s the standing up again that you must focus on.
Australia has such a high standard of literary talent – it is a fiercely competitive market. So before you put yourself out there, you want to know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. The most important skill it to be able to work on what doesn’t work so well and the only way to do that is to find out from someone who will tell you like it is.
4. DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
Develop a thick hide – if you have a persecution complex, if you think everyone is looking at you, talking about you behind your back, if you really really care about what other people think about you, don’t become a writer. Do something else.
You have to be able to take criticism seriously but not personally.
I had really good training. I was made Hustler Asshole of the month for the work I did in South Africa on pornography when I used to work in the violence against women movement. I’ve seen my face in a donkey’s bum, been called a Feminazi, who just needs a good root, and MRS NOSE, because of my huge nose. You name it, I’ve been called it – in the media. So I’m pretty immune to feedback.
My suggestion is: put your own face in a donkey’s bum. Anything less will seem like child’s play after that.
5. SPEAK THE TRUTH:
Write something important. Write something that needs to be said. Something that really matters to you.
The worst kind of writing is pretentious, it is trying too hard.
Just say what you need to say about what moves you.
If nothing moves you, don’t write. Find something else to do.
I read a great piece by Markus Zusak author the internationally successful book The Book Thief who says, ‘I set out to write a book that meant something to me, but I ended up writing a book that means everything to me. That’s probably the first reason it has had any success at all, let alone international success… As a reader there is something about encountering a book when you have a sense that it means a great deal to the author.’
I couldn’t echo this sentiment more strongly.
Like The Book Thief means everything to Markus Zusak, my book Things Without A Name means everything to me. It is my third book and I’m well into my fourth and it is by far the book that holds my heart and everything that matters to me. I needed this clarity to fight for the book’s right to exist (my publisher needed some convincing that a love story set in the world of domestic violence and rape would be commercially viable) and to fortify my conviction that I wanted the appendix to remain in which I explain that all the characters in my book are named after real people who died in the course of domestic violence.
Finally, be tenacious. Everything worth doing in this life takes conviction. Don’t be put off by rejection. If you have the talent to be a writer, keep at it, until you convince the universe that you can do it.
www.joannefedler.com
1. THE POWER OF CLARITY
Many years, ago, when I was 28, and I met the man who is now my husband I said to him probably on our second date, ‘I want a baby next year, are you in or are you out? ‘
He blinked, I think he choked on his beer and he said ‘I don’t know if I want children.’
To which I replied ‘That’s perfectly respectable, but I definitely do and I want to do it before I turn 30 so if you don’t, please let me know sooner rather than later because I need to move on and find someone who wants to have kids.’
Well, some months later he said yes, he did want children and we went on to have two kids, we’ve been together now for 13 years.
When I recount this story, mostly it seems when I’m having my hair done in a hair salon, by young women in their early twenties, all of whom are unmarried and by their family’s standards very much on the shelf, they all giggle nervously and say, ‘Ooh, I could never do that. If I did, my boyfriend would run a millions miles. How come yours didn’t?’
I think there are two reasons: firstly, I was very clear about what I wanted.
You have to be clear about what you want in this life – whether this applies to having babies or becoming a dancer or a musician or a writer. If you are not clear, you must get clarity. We all languish in the illusion that we have ‘the rest of our lives in front of us?’ But that is very much a conceit of unmindfulness, almost an existential negligence. You can be 27 years old, fit and healthy, and you decide to run 14 km from City to Surf and like Lee Marriage, you die of a heart attack 200 metres from the finish line. You can be having a laugh with your mates and decide to take a little boat out on the harbour, and collide with another vessel – dying with a drink in your hand and a lifetime of plans ahead of you. I don’t believe in trial runs.
If you’re not clear, you make vague decisions and vague decisions lead to depression and overeating and unhappy life choices. Macdonalds is full of people who are not clear about what they want out of life. Because if they simply stopped for a minute and asked themselves what they want out of life, they’d know that they don’t want to be in Macdonalds. Find out what gives your life meaning. You are the only person who can answer that question. Not your parents, not your politicians, not your mates, not your girlfriend or boyfriend. Take the time to figure that out. Nothing is more important than knowing what you want.
Secondly, why didn’t he run? Well, if he’d run, there were many other men to choose from, right? So what would really have been the big deal? What would have been a big deal is if I’d never made my intentions clear, hung around for six years, brought up the kid question tactfully only to find out that he didn’t want kids. That would have been a big deal. But he didn’t run. Why not? Apart from the obvious charms I had to offer, I think clarity, certainty and honesty elicit equal and opposite clarity, certainty and honesty. When we are clear, and bold, an alchemy is unleashed and we can change the nature of things.
As Goethe, the famous German philosopher said, ‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has a genius, power, magic in it."
2. TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUSLY
I did not start out as a writer. When you’re 18 and you say you want to be a writer people look at you and say ‘get a real job.’
I did a couple of law degrees, I wrote creatively throughout, although law school almost destroyed my love of reading. Though legal writing is so different from creative writing, what that training did do for me, was it taught me about the importance of structure. Even when you’re writing a novel, there is an interior logic to the narrative that is essential to keep taut throughout. My legal training also made me more robust about editing and getting rid of excess. It helped curb my tendency to overwrite.
By the end of two law degrees I knew I didn’t want to be a lawyer. But I still wasn’t clear about what I wanted.
At the end of my LLM degree at Yale I became close friends with a journalist in whom I had confided that I really wanted to write. She sent me an application form for a women’s writers colony in Seattle on Whidbey Island called Hedgebrook Women’s Writers Colony. That application form stayed pinned to my notice board for years. Every time I looked at it, I thought, ‘who am I to apply there? I’m not a writer. I want to be a writer, but I’m not a real writer.’
And one day I thought, bugger this, I have nothing to lose. So I prepared all the forms and a writing sample and I sent them off.
Friends of mine were astonished at my boldness - I think they thought it was quite a cheeky thing to do. I had this nervous idea that I’d be seen as one of those Australian Idol contestants who stand up in those early auditions only to be insulted by Kyle or Dicko and told that a cat being tortured sounds better than I do. But because I read so much, I knew that my writing was at least as good as some of the books I’d read, and sometimes, I thought, better.
Sending off those application forms was a turning point for me - it was the first time I took myself seriously as a writer. You can’t ask other people to take you seriously until you take yourself seriously. There’s no chicken and egg scenario here. It starts with you.
I did get into Hedgebrook and I spent 8 weeks there writing the first draft of my first novel.
3. GET FEEDBACK
Because we all have blindspots about our own abilities, it is probably a good idea to get feedback before you put yourself out there.
The way to do this is to find someone whose opinion you respect and are almost afraid of. Find someone who is willing to give you ROBUST feedback. This person should not be related to you, should not be a friend or someone you socialize with and certainly not someone you are sleeping with. Never show your writing to someone who has an interest in you as a person beyond your writing. Why? Because people will spare your feelings. People who care about you will not tell you the truth. What they will say is ‘it is wonderful,’ and what they will mean is ‘you are wonderful.’ And you will be no better off than if you had showed it to no-one.
Be clear that you are not looking for praise. You are asking for robust, honest feedback about your writing and constructive suggestions about how to improve it. So many of us feel like our writing is indistinguishable from who we are as people and if people say its crap, we imagine what they’re really saying is that we’re worthless. You’ve got to put some space between you and your writing. This is an important life skill – you need it when you become a parent so you don’t over-identify with your children.
Put a corset around yourself and view your writing as a separate externalized entity.
Having someone tell you that a passage or a character doesn’t work or your writing is self-indulgent, or its overwritten, is gold. This will help you to edit your work (editing is such an underrated skill but good editors are the difference between good writers and great writers). If you can learn to say what you need to say in less not more you will be a better writer for it. Don’t crowd your language or your thoughts. Try to keep your language as lean and clean as you can.
You really do want that feedback before your writing is published because critics are mercilness when they get hold of us.
Don’t think of feedback as criticism, think of it as the stuff you never wanted to see in a review of your work. It may not be easy to get feedback, but uncompromising feedback is the one thing I can honestly say has lifted my writing to new levels. There's a beautiful Chinese saying ‘fall down seven times stand up eight times.’ It’s the standing up again that you must focus on.
Australia has such a high standard of literary talent – it is a fiercely competitive market. So before you put yourself out there, you want to know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. The most important skill it to be able to work on what doesn’t work so well and the only way to do that is to find out from someone who will tell you like it is.
4. DO NOT TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
Develop a thick hide – if you have a persecution complex, if you think everyone is looking at you, talking about you behind your back, if you really really care about what other people think about you, don’t become a writer. Do something else.
You have to be able to take criticism seriously but not personally.
I had really good training. I was made Hustler Asshole of the month for the work I did in South Africa on pornography when I used to work in the violence against women movement. I’ve seen my face in a donkey’s bum, been called a Feminazi, who just needs a good root, and MRS NOSE, because of my huge nose. You name it, I’ve been called it – in the media. So I’m pretty immune to feedback.
My suggestion is: put your own face in a donkey’s bum. Anything less will seem like child’s play after that.
5. SPEAK THE TRUTH:
Write something important. Write something that needs to be said. Something that really matters to you.
The worst kind of writing is pretentious, it is trying too hard.
Just say what you need to say about what moves you.
If nothing moves you, don’t write. Find something else to do.
I read a great piece by Markus Zusak author the internationally successful book The Book Thief who says, ‘I set out to write a book that meant something to me, but I ended up writing a book that means everything to me. That’s probably the first reason it has had any success at all, let alone international success… As a reader there is something about encountering a book when you have a sense that it means a great deal to the author.’
I couldn’t echo this sentiment more strongly.
Like The Book Thief means everything to Markus Zusak, my book Things Without A Name means everything to me. It is my third book and I’m well into my fourth and it is by far the book that holds my heart and everything that matters to me. I needed this clarity to fight for the book’s right to exist (my publisher needed some convincing that a love story set in the world of domestic violence and rape would be commercially viable) and to fortify my conviction that I wanted the appendix to remain in which I explain that all the characters in my book are named after real people who died in the course of domestic violence.
Finally, be tenacious. Everything worth doing in this life takes conviction. Don’t be put off by rejection. If you have the talent to be a writer, keep at it, until you convince the universe that you can do it.
www.joannefedler.com
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Comment by Sara Dobson
Love Mate
Parents Precinct
The Travel Map
My Turn
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Great talk, Jo. Hope you see success this year!
Comment by Joanne Fedler
Secret Writers Business
Too true, Cib - the Asshole award has really been the pinnacle of my career - I have had more mileage out of that than any of my other awards. Thanks for your good wishes. My next post, I suppose should be on the patience it requires to make a decent living out of being a writer!
Jo
Comment by Mike Landfair
Market Bugle
Your first point, THE POWER OF CLARITY, cuts right to the heart of my problem. I have been vague about coming up with topics for querys. By the end of this month. I will have a list of topics and by the end of October, I will have submitted five queries to magazines.
Comment by damian
Urban Telegraph
Sports and All
The moral of the story is: know your audience!
Comment by Kleonaptra
Kalikapsychosis
I got bogged down, and just started playing with something new that is inspired by my life experiences. With that, I finally understood - 'Write what you know' because there is more power in that work than in all my other stories so far!
Comment by Lady Henrietta Muddling
Potter in a Harry
Long time, no write.
I've missed reading articles about the writing process by people who know what they're speaking/writing about.
I'm not going to write much. I'll pick up on this comment you made in your comments section:
My next post, I suppose should be on the patience it requires to make a decent living out of being a writer!
Um, I think I'm far more qualified than you to write about that. [Only joking, okay? I'll look forward to reading your thoughts on the matter ...
Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Thanks for sharing such wonderful inspiration. It`s a tough world out there in the writers space so encouragement and gems like this from experienced writers such as yourself is always helpful
Much luck with the latest novel
Ash
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
You are in the perfect environment to not take any negative comment seriously.
Hustlers AH of the month?
I seem to remember you mentioning it before.
Hahaha.
Comment by Anonymous
If you have half a brain and passed the third - wait - second grade, you can get published.
The trick here is writing something that sells and isn't completely retarded.
Please make your next post the following:
"How to start a career as a writer whose content isn't shit-tarded rubbish."
You can copy and paste that if you want.
Comment by Timothy Powell
subjective determinist
Bad men
meditations while in genetics lectures
Comment by Guy Cheales
Have also been to your site, which I enjoyed as well.
Loved some of your published articles.
Might try your books next - you have a new fan!
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Tracy
Comment by Norm
Consumption Malfunction
Equal and Opposite
Arses and Elbows
Footy Power
Comment by Lara M
Love Speaks
Love this...
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
Another amazing piece about the craft of writing (and beyond).
"Put a corset around yourself and view your writing as a separate externalized entity." - such wise advice.
When are you going to collate all these hints into one inspirational and educational tome so that I can add it to my bookshelf??
And, btw, I love the appenndix in Things Without a Name. It is so incredibly powerful and necessary. I'm glad it remained in.
Jayne
Comment by Postmodern Critic
Postmodern Critic
Daily Inspirations
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
I've submitted a proposal to an 'innovative' press and am waiting for word, in the meanwhile I am focusing on getting something going with singing, and traveling, my other loves.
Comment by ren
I could say so much more to you, but I'm going to just stop with this: I think this post is named incorrectly, although I think it gives steps to put you on the right track. It's that word "published" in the title that makes me think this, as there are not really any direct tips here on how to go about getting published.
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
Health Focus
Poetry Lighthouse
MS Paint Art
Comment by Dianna G
I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
I enjoyed reading this though, and I definitely agree that your writing needs to be important to you. Most of my stories are influenced by the stories Daddy used to make up; they mean everything to me because he means everything to me.
Keep writing-oh, and nice thing to say to your boyfriend on the second date. I would've waited until the third.
~Dianna
Comment by mohen naorem
Celebrity Styles
Comment by Mister Smith
FILMENATOR
CRIME in BOOKS
I just read this post and thought: How right you are. And straight to the point yet entertaining. Timothy Powell needs to do some serious self-examination to discover where his barely concealed fury is coming from because your self assurance has obviously goaded him. Maybe he has had his writing rejected one too any times. And as for giving your own books a plug? That comment is just too ridiculous to even comment on.
Comment by Timothy Powell
subjective determinist
Bad men
meditations while in genetics lectures
Comment by Mister Smith
FILMENATOR
CRIME in BOOKS
Comment by Timothy Powell
subjective determinist
Bad men
meditations while in genetics lectures
Comment by Mister Smith
FILMENATOR
CRIME in BOOKS
I hope I am right in assuming you are young so I don't feel insulted by your calling me an idiot or a Jewish feminist - not that there's anything wrong with that. I sympathize with your extreme negative view - the world is full of idiots. Be kind to them. As for writing... it's communication communication communication. Sometimes we just want a chat not a deep philosophical discussion. We want the comfort of hearing/reading what we already know so well. It doesn't always have to be earth-shattering.
Comment by Mrs M
Mum's Word
I don't usually like to give my stuff to anyone I know...Mr M being the exception. I can take criticism from him and he's happy to dish it out.
I usually feel weird that I would put someone I know in a difficult position of having to critique my stuff.
I don't think that you could ever become so thick skinned that criticism or a bad review will just be water off a duck's back but I understand what you are saying.
As for Glengarry Glen Ross...one of Mr M's favourites. Can't escape it at my house.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Comment by Wilson Pon
Techno Stuffs
mindyourhealth
I loved your post and keep it up the good work
Will.