Let me take a step back and explain that when I first woke up yesterday, I logged on to check all my sites as usual and saw that funny little "So You Want To Write A Novel" video that's gone viral over Twitter and Facebook. Here it is if you haven't seen it:
The video was cute and I lol'd through it, but some of the 'facts' that were thrown out there, as well as how other authors were presenting the video, made me REALLY glad that I hadn't seen the video before getting an agent.
To Ellaborate-
1) I did NOT spend years "honing my craft." I dreamed of being a writer but never even dared to entertain the fantasy. I have been an avid reader from a very young age, true, but I seriously credit *all* of my writing ability to that because the novel I wrote and queried with was my first piece of anything that was not a school assignment, ever. Oh wait, I take that back. When I was little I wrote a short story about a girl who dreamed that the unicorn from her painting came to life and took her on a ride and in the morning she wakes up and the painting is different and OMFG IT WASN'T A DREAM AFTER ALL! But, you get the picture. That story was like, five pages long double spaced and I only wrote it because my great grandma was babysitting me that day and "insisted" *coughCOMMANDEDcough* that I write her a story.
My junior year of high school, I was ecstatic when we did a week of creative writing. Our assignment was to write a short story of any genre, and I chose horror. It was about a girl who had to move in with her estranged aunt, who lived in a forest in Ireland, and the forest turns out to be haunted and by the end the girl is in an insane asylum with a typewriter, typing the short story. I thought it was bad ass as hell. My teacher gave me a D.
2) I did NOT spend months revising the novel before I queried. In fact, this is horrifying to admit now, but I hadn't even read through it from beginning to end, and no I am not kidding. As soon as I typed 'The End,' I saved it and immediately began querying and posting snippets on Absolute Write to be critiqued. I never even completely reread it, I mean slowly from beginning to end, until quite a few rounds of revisions in.
*head/desk*
So then I started wondering, "How did I get an agent then? How did I make it this far?" And I started to feel like I'd been totally mistaken for someone with that ridiculous "it" writer talent. For anyone out there with an agent, have you ever felt like you weren't nearly as good as they think you are? Like you're a fake somehow?
Anyway, this was all brewing in my brain just because of a silly YouTube, and then The Empire Strikes Back was on and I heard Han's words of wisdom like angels singing:
"Never tell me the odds."
Rereading this now, I can see how this makes me look really lazy and unambitious, but I promise that's not the case. I was very, very serious about becoming an author from the moment I decided that I wanted to write a novel. I was just very naive, and that's okay. It should have hurt me, but it didn't. The experience of book one taught me a brain full and writing book two was even easier and now book three is going even easier than that.
I am not trying to advocate jumping the gun when writing, querying, or revising your novel. I'm not trying to say that the mistaken little dude in the video was right and that having insanely unrealistic expectations should be encouraged. Don't assume that you're a special snowflake that doesn't need to go through the process like everyone else.
But so many writers reposted that video were saying things like, "THIS IS SO TRUE!" or "I wish my friend who thinks she's a writer would watch this!" And these were agented writers! The video was a joke, which I thought was quite obvious, that playfully addressed some of the myths out there about what being a writer entails.
I really, REALLY hope that unagented people out there don't see that video and immediately think that it's impossible to get an agent, or that you have to be some super human that already knows everything about publishing to even have a chance.
Because, against the odds, sometimes that's simply not the case.
Thanks, Han Solo. Shit.
8 comments:
Brilliant post!
"For anyone out there with an agent, have you ever felt like you weren't nearly as good as they think you are? Like you're a fake somehow?"
Um...yeah? I think everyone feels like this at some point, even published writers.
This is such a great post, Amy. I saw that video too, and laughed at it, but I think that kind of naivete actually helps some people jump into this crazy industry! Han Solo gives great advice.
The term "honing your craft" can be misleading. Yes, most people have to log many, many hours in front of their computers to create anything remotely publishable. However, I think there are all kinds of ways writers develop. I spent many years not writing because of fear--I wouldn't be good enough, I'd be taking time away from my kids, etc. During those years, though, I wrote in my head. All the time. I'd make up stories about the check-out girl at the supermarket or the elderly man who delivered our mail. I'd stare at a shop window, then try to recreate it in my head hours later, detail by detail. Was that honing my craft? You betcha. And I never set pen to paper.
I'm guessing you did a lot of that without even realizing. It's part of the writer personality, you know?
Yes, Loretta, I guess I never thought of it that way.
For me it was most definitely reading that did it- I was always trying to figure out the end before I got to it, and I literally was never right lmao. I'd always think that there would be these ellaborate twists, but they never came.
Great post! You definitely can get bogged down in the quandary of what agents want and forget your focus. I've done it. It's tragic. Back to basics, that's what saves writing, IMHO. Editing is necessary for many (me included), but putting out the stories you want rather than focusing on what will sell--that's golden.
Congrats to you! What an inspiration!
Hi Amy
I wrote the video, and so I read your post with great interest.
I then drank a fifth of scotch and watched Empire again. Stupid Han Solo.
David
Alright David, pretty much you made my day.
Also, tequila > scotch.
HORRIBLE COMMENT MY BRAIN REFUSES TO FUNCTION LIKE A NORMAL BRAIN. WARNING.
Okay, so I watched that video, and then read your post and I have to say... as someone who has been seriously writing/querying/researching the industry for years and still doesn't have an agent, much less a book deal, I loved the video. Yeah, sometimes it happens earlier than later for people; some are more naturally talented or just hit it at the right time or whatever, but as someone who none of those "exceptions" apply to, it's nice to see the reality of it in a jokey, hilarious video. If I expected it to be easy, I would have given up looong ago.
Jordyn,
Don't get me wrong, I also loved the video itself. I was more so talking about how other people presented it as less of a 'funny video' and more of a 'holy-shiz-all-you-newbs-out-there-better-second-guess-yourselves-because-this-industry-is-impossible' video. If that makes sense, lol. That was quite the fabricated adjective.
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