Today’s post comes from Kurtis Scaletta, author of Mudville, published in 2009 by Knopf Books for Young Readers. His second novel, Mamba Point, will be published in 2010, and his third novel, Wake, ME, will be published in 2011. Find out more about Kurtis and his books at http://www.kurtisscaletta.com.
The Long View
If I had to distill my advice for emerging writers to a single sentence, it would be: take the long view.
Take the long view of your career
In my 20s and early 30s I went running sometimes. I was never a runner, though. I know a lot of runners, and they just do the whole running thing on a different level. They run every day, no matter what the weather or their mood. They know all the science about running — the proper way to stretch and warm up, what their heart rate should be at any point in a run, when and what they should eat, and a bunch of other stuff I find boring.
I thought I might like to run a marathon, some day, but the plain truth of it is that I liked the idea of boasting about having run a marathon, but didn’t really want to become a runner, and that’s what you have to do first. You have to take a long view of yourself as a runner. It’s a lifestyle decision, and I wasn’t up to it. I know now I’ll never run a marathon. That’s fine. I’m not a bucket list guy with a bunch of stuff I want to do just to have done it. I have also realized at various times in my life that I am not a musician, an artist, a golfer, a poet, or a practitioner of yoga.
I am a writer, though. I have always had a long view of myself as a writer, and went through many years of writing classes and workshops, critique groups, reading books about writing and publishing, and writing every day, completing four unpublishable manuscripts before the first made its way into print. So when people ask me how I got a book published, I find myself explaining that I was a writer first. I didn’t just knock off a book over a long weekend and win the slush pile lottery. I’ve been doing this stuff since I was six years old.
And I still have a lot to learn. I may have sold a book or three, but I still read other books and realize I have a long way to go. It’s not about just straggling along the finish line once and saying, “There, I did it. I ran a marathon.” I want to keep doing this, and keep achieving a new personal best.
Take the long view of your role in the industry
Most agents and editors aren’t looking for a one-off. They’re looking for a LTR, as they say in the personal ads. I think it’s easy for new writers to jump at any opportunity to get a bit closer to publication, but since I’ve now known my agent for three years and my editor for two and a half years, I can really appreciate how important it is to have smart, thoughtful people who are also taking the long view of my career as a writer. It’s a serious commitment for everyone, and you all need to be ready for the long haul. Think of the relationship beginning with your query letter, not with an offer.
Take the long view of your current project
If you’re lucky, you might see your first novel in print three years after you start writing it. For me, it was five years. Book publishing is a slow business. We live in the age of NaNoWriMo and instant web publishing, and blogs that turn into book deals within months, but most books take a year or more to write and up to two years to publish after the manuscript is done. So even though it’s exciting to have books out on submission, knowing that any minute now the phone might ring with exciting (even life-changing news), there’s really no hurry. There’s always time for another round of revisions, or for a little research to tighten up some stuff you faked your way through on the first draft. I’m really glad I gave Mudville that second summer of revisions, that I stopped to research things that felt unimportant when I was storming through that first draft (like how to rebuild a baseball field) and that my agent then put me through another winter of edits before she started shopping the book around. Now that it’s out, it doesn’t feel like the waiting was that hard, and it was definitely worth it.
On a similar note, take a long view of your book. It might be in print for fifty years or more. A few months, even another year, will not make a difference. And don’t worry about what the current trends are, either. Did E.B. White worry about whether pig fiction was big in 1952? Was Dr. Seuss convinced that rhymed stories about meddlesome cats were all the rage with six year olds five years later? Write as if your book will be around for generations, outlasting the trends. Maybe it will, and maybe it won’t, but it’s more likely to if you take the long view.
1 comment for “Night 4 Writing Tip”