by
Steve Lazarowitz
June 2001
FICTION WRITING 101: THE MASOCHIST'S HANDBOOK
When you tell someone you're a writer, the first image that floats into their head is of Stephen King. The question that most often follows is "What books have you written?"
You don't have to write books. You can write poetry, articles, essays, short stories and never have a book published. You can write ad copy, tech manuals and newspaper columns.
Even if you've sold a book, odds are it didn't make you enough money to brag about. There are times when I'm talking to someone about my writing "career" that I just want to reach out and throttle them for not having a clue. It's not fair, but it's how I feel.
"So, what do you do?"
"Well, I manage a computer store during the day and at night, I write."
"What do you write?"
"Short stories, mostly. Science fiction and fantasy."
"Do you have any books out?"
"Only electronic books."
"Oh. So you're not a real author."
"Right. I'm a figment of your demented imagination."
What is a "real" author? If I sell a story for twenty dollars and someone else sells one for two hundred, does that necessarily make his story better? If a thousand people have read my work, but not a million, am I less of a writer? Why is it you can be a chef in your own house and only serve dinner to the occasional guest, but in order to be an author, you have to be a household name?
Writing is the act of putting words on paper. You can write a shopping list. I'm a fiction writer, so I'm telling a story on paper. After I finish writing a story, I go back and rewrite it, two, three or forty-two times (with all due respect to Douglas Adams). Then I proof it.
Sometimes I send it to my critique group and rewrite it again. Then proof it again. Then I send it to a friend and have him read it through, just to make sure. Eventually, I place it in an envelope (or send it via e-mail) to someone who might buy it. Ninety percent of the time, the piece is rejected.
Every e-mail I send, every envelope that goes in the mail, contains a dream about to be shattered, but still I go through the motions. Sometimes I get a rejection that reads like an acceptance letter. Those hurt more than the bad ones.
"Dear Steve... loved your story, but it's just not right for our readership. Great job. Good luck with this one."
Then there are the times you get a contract and the publication goes belly up before the issue you're scheduled to appear in is printed. It's happened twice to me and is not nearly as uncommon as you might think.
On top of this, most fiction writers still need to hold down a day job (or have a very understanding, gainfully employed spouse), all the while spending what little free time they have, writing and editing and proofing and submitting. And promoting. Did I mention promotion?
Once you sell something, you still have to promote it, which can seriously cut into your writing time. Do you want a normal life? Do you want to watch movies, follow baseball or have a social life? Then forget about a career in fiction writing. It's just not going to happen.
Fiction writers, the best ones, live to write. It's all they do. Even the ones with day jobs. And the payoff? A small occasional check and snide remarks from people who have no clue.
Fiction, especially short fiction, is a dwindling market. There are less and less slots for established authors. So how likely are new authors to make it? How many of the would-be greats gave up, just before their first sale? How many people write and don't submit because it's too much of a bother? I'm almost there myself.
I think everyone should have to be a writer for at least a year or two. It teaches patience, dedication and the ability to take criticism. It teaches workmanship, in days when everything is fast and shoddy.
I have never seriously given up writing, but submitting... that's another story. If it weren't for the Internet, I might have given up ages ago.
The moral of this story? Send a letter or an e-mail to a new writer. Encourage someone. Be the exception to the rule. Be the only reason she puts her next manuscript in the mail. Be the one high point of his day. Hell, be the high point of my day.
Because the words a new author never writes, just might touch your heart forever.
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