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deborahjrossAs much as we love to complain about how hard it is to get an agent to read your material or, worse yet, an editor to consider it, the alternative may be worse for our long-term writing growth.
There is a joke that frustrated writers tell about publishers and agents. They say editors separate the wheat from the chaff and publish the chaff. They can be a frustrating barrier to entry, and they are not always right. More often than not, I am afraid to say, they are.
Getting a novel right is a long term proposition. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Someone once wrote (I say it this way not because it was someone eminent, but because I can’t remember who it was) that runners do not have Boston Marathons in them waiting to get out. A novel, like the marathon, is a peak experience that comes as the result of lots of tedious work. In the case of the novel, that means lots of tedious rethinking and revision when you thought it was all done.
To jump to yet another metaphor (really where are those editors when you need them?): As stones are polished by the friction of ocean waves, novels are polished through resistance.
Read the rest -- and it's well worth reading -- here:
Resistance is Vital or When is it Time to Self-Publish? | Author Laura Lee
Special thanks to Patricia Burrroughs for pointing to this post.
There is a joke that frustrated writers tell about publishers and agents. They say editors separate the wheat from the chaff and publish the chaff. They can be a frustrating barrier to entry, and they are not always right. More often than not, I am afraid to say, they are.
Getting a novel right is a long term proposition. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Someone once wrote (I say it this way not because it was someone eminent, but because I can’t remember who it was) that runners do not have Boston Marathons in them waiting to get out. A novel, like the marathon, is a peak experience that comes as the result of lots of tedious work. In the case of the novel, that means lots of tedious rethinking and revision when you thought it was all done.
To jump to yet another metaphor (really where are those editors when you need them?): As stones are polished by the friction of ocean waves, novels are polished through resistance.
Read the rest -- and it's well worth reading -- here:
Resistance is Vital or When is it Time to Self-Publish? | Author Laura Lee
Special thanks to Patricia Burrroughs for pointing to this post.
