Crazy
As a Writer by Warren Bull
Image from Jessica Oliveira on Upsplash
One major difference between those
who succeed in the writing world of traditional publishing and those who do not
is the ability to keep writing, even when there is no reason to do so. Logical
and reasonable people switch from something that doesn’t pay off after a reasonable
time to something else that does.
Some writers stay with their dreams
of getting an agent and finding a
traditional publisher. For example, my friend Jenny Milchman’s “first” novel was released in 2013 by
Ballantine Books. Her first novel followed seven novels that were never
released. She spent eleven years of writing novels that did not get published.
Once published, Cover
of Snow earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, as well
as praise from the New York Times, San Francisco Journal of Books, the AP, and
many other publications. It was an Indie Next and Target pick, short-listed for
the Barry and Macavity awards, and won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for best
suspense novel of the year. The first edition print run sold out quickly. When
I checked recently, there were fourteen editions of the book.
Ruin Falls, also an Indie Next
Pick, was published by Ballantine in 2014 to starred reviews from Booklist and
Library Journal, and chosen as a "10 Best of 2014" by Suspense
Magazine. Jenny's third novel, As
Night Falls was published by Ballantine in 2015. It was selected as an
Indie Next Pick, earned a starred review from Shelf Awareness, was chosen as
one of PureWow's Summer Top 30 and won the Silver Falchion award for Best Novel. The film
rights to As Night Falls recently
sold and the movie is currently being cast.
None of that would have happened if
she had come to her senses after the seventh novel, read the handwriting on the
wall and took up a sensible course of action.
Fiction writers ask their reader to
suspend disbelief. Writers have to
suspend disbelief that their work will be in vain. Carolyn Hart published a novel in 1964 but had limited
commercial success until 1987 when Death
on Demand came out. She now has published about 60 novels. I hesitate to
give an exact number since it’s hard to keep up with someone so prolific.
Naturally, Carolyn has many other publications to her credit. She received the Ridley Pearson Award at
Murder in Grove, Boise, Idaho, in 2005 for significant contributions to the
mystery field. She has received the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Amelia
Award from Malice Domestic. In 2014 she was named a Grand Master by the Mystery
Writers of America.
Even though Jenny and Carolyn are
wonderful writers, they had to remain active through hard times and believe in
themselves when the lack of positive results suggested that an easier path would have been to give up.
I think that, for most writers, "success" is the icing on the cake. People write because they want to, or even feel they have to. While having a wide audience is wonderful, it's not the most important thing.
ReplyDeleteA famous saying is that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
ReplyDeleteThe difference between your examples, and the truth in the saying, I assume is that these people did not do the same thing over and over again. They wrote different books; they wrote better books; the networked more efficiently; etc.
Nice round-up, Warren.
ReplyDeleteWarren,
ReplyDeleteExcellent observations. I also agree with KM and Jim. As Pope said: "Hope springs eternal." The truth is if you love writing and are dedicated to it as we are, you just keep at it. It's always wonderful when writers like Jenny get rewarded for their efforts.
Well said. We write because we have to. The words simply need to come out. What happens after is important, too-- but it's best not to let that be our motivation.
ReplyDeleteCrazy is as crazy does! At least I'm in good company. I love writers. Thanks for pointing out crazy, Warren. Given your life career--you'd know!
ReplyDelete